01/08/16 - Romans 1:1-17 - We are starting Romans! Romans lays out the ins and outs of salvation so well that it has sparked revivals and reformations for two thousand years. We always associate Romans with salvation by grace alone but this introduction to the epistle emphasizes the contribution of the body of Christ, the Church. Not only does Jesus save us, but He brings us into a community of believers who have also been saved. We can then rely on each other in almost everything we need.
01/22/2017 - Romans 1:18-32 - We were iced out on the 15th, so this is the second installment of our series on Romans. Sin is an awful thing that infects us all. Can we be righteous before God? We often ask, "How can a loving God send people to Hell?" while Romans seeks to answer the question: "How can a righteous God let sinful people into Heaven?"
01/29/2017 - Romans 2:1-11 - After listing many awful sins and sinful attitudes in the previous passage, he goes on to point out that everyone is sinful. We must have judges and make judgment calls in order to function down here on earth, but from God's perspective, all sin is sin. He totally blasts hypocrisy.
02-05-17 - Romans 2:12-29 - Paul builds a compelling argument to convince the reader that both Jews and non-Jews are sinful by God's standard. The Jews had the benefit of the Law of God and rebelled against it. Everyone else had some idea about morality and still couldn't even live up to their own standards. The point is to establish the problem of sin so we can then deal with it.
02-12-17 - Romans 3:1-31 - This chapter contains the familiar passages about how all have sinned. We can think that we are all good and want God's will but the truth is we wouldn't be that way without the Lord influencing our lives. Sin is evil and is destroying our lives but God has a plan and will save us from sin once and for all.
02-19-17 - Romans 4:1-12 - How does Paul explain the New Testament concept of "by faith alone through grace alone?" He does it by going back to the earliest of patriarchs from the Old Testament: Abraham. Both Abraham and David did not earn their favor with God, God extended grace, and they believed God could and would save them.
02-26-17 - Romans 4:13-25 - What is it like to have faith like Abraham? To have faith when God tells you at 75 that you'll have children with your 65 year old wife? To have faith when God doesn't fulfill that promise for 25 years? But Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
03-05-17 Romans 5:1-11 - We have received reconciliation with God by faith through grace. Because of this, we have right standing with God and as we spread the message, sometimes we suffer persecution. But persecution builds character, and we know we have a hope that won't disappoint us.
03-12-17 Romans 5:12-21 - One man was able to get the whole human race into sin by disobeying God. In the same way, Jesus was one man who was able get us freedom by being obedient to God, coming to earth in human form, and dying for our sins. Key verse: "Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more."
03-19-17 Romans 6:1-14 - 1,500 years ago, a man who had escaped slavery heard the call of God to go back to the people who had enslaved him and tell them about Jesus. Because he was dead to his own desires and only lived for Jesus, he lived the rest of his life in service of the Irish people. Happy St. Patrick's Day! When we got saved we died with Jesus on the cross and were resurrected as a whole new creature with different desires and appetites. Leave your old life behind and return to Jesus today.
03-26-17 Romans 6:15-23 - None of us could ever imagine being someone's slave, and yet our nation perpetrated this crime on an entire segment of the population simply because of the color of their skin. Ancient slavery was different. It was often something people chose for themselves when they were facing starvation or worse. Spiritually we cannot take care of ourselves. Our only options are to be slaves of sin or slaves of Jesus Christ.
04-02-17 Romans 7:1-25 - Paul uses the metaphor of marriage to drive home the point that we are "married" to sin until one of us dies. Once a spouse dies they are free of the attachment their spouse had on them. That needs to be our relationship to sin. We need to be as responsive to it as a corpse, it must hold no power over us.
04-09-17 Romans 8:1-8 - Now that we are dead to sin and alive in Christ, we are no longer condemned. God no longer condemns us, and we should no longer condemn ourselves. It's salvation full and free! We are not only free from the penalty of sin, but we are free from giving in to sin.
04-16-17 Happy Easter! The first sermon is from our Easter Sunrise Service. It is based on Revelation chapters 3-4 and focuses on how we worship Jesus not only for being the great God who made all, but because he redeemed us from death and sin on the cross. The second sermon is from our regular service. It comes from Romans 8:9-11 where Paul tells us that even though our sinful bodies wish to pull us towards sin, our spirit has been made alive in Christ and the Spirit can help us to live in the Spirit and resist sin.
04-23-17 Romans 8:12-25 - In this life we often find that there is something in our lives that comes between us and God. Sometimes it's something sinful and we needed to give it up anyways. Sometimes, it's something that isn't necessarily sinful but it's a distraction or something else that comes between us and God. Sometimes it's a person who is not thrilled about our new found love for Jesus. Whatever it is that we have to give up, it cannot compare to the glory that awaits us not only in the next life, but in this life as well.
04-30-17 Romans 8:26-39 - God holds you, if you are one of His children, in the palm of His hand. There is nothing that can remove you from His hand. This is the encouragement Romans gives us. Our salvation is sure, and when God promises something, He always comes through. Be encouraged! If God is for you, who can be against you?
05-07-17 Romans 9:1-33 - Paul's theology was leading him to an uncomfortable place. How could God raise up a people for Himself like Israel only to allow them to reject His Son. So many Jews had believed on Jesus but so many had not. Could God really allow them to be disobedient to Him? When we don't understand why God is doing something or allowing something to happen we need to remember to trust Him no matter what. He knows what He's doing.
05-21-17 Romans 10:1-21 - Paul contrasts the righteousness that the Pharisees thought they had achieved with the righteousness that is the free gift of God. Grace not only means our sins are covered and our record is clean, but that we are a new creature capable of being righteous by the power of God. We won't be sinless on this earth, but we really do have power over sin.
05-28-17 Romans 11:1-24 - From ancient times God had a chosen people. He chose their father, Abraham, and promised to make him and his descendants into a mighty nation. Because of Jesus, we Gentiles get to be a part of God's people even when some Hebrews do not because of their lack of faith. This does not mean we get to be prideful. If some Jews weren't spared the wrath of God because of their faithlessness, it only goes to show how important it is for us to remain faithful.
06-04-17 Romans 11:25-36 - Sometimes God has a plan that we don't understand. Here, Paul declares that though God seems to have rejected His own people for now, it is all part of a greater plan. Do you trust God? Can you trust Him even when He's allowing awful things to happen in your life? We trust God because we know He knows what He's doing.
06-11-17 Romans 12:1-21 - This week Paul moves into the application part of his letter. Jesus made Himself a sacrifice by dying, and we make ourselves into sacrifices by living for Him. Belonging to Jesus changes us. Romans tells us a lot about what that means.
06-18-17 Romans 13:1-14 - One of the ways we obey God is by obeying earthly authorities. Someday the authorities may try to force us against our Christian moralities but until then we respect them and do our best to live by the laws of the land. God is a God of law . Jesus is our great example and He fully fulfilled the law of God.
06-25-17 Romans 14:1-23 - There are many, many different varieties of Christianity. Some have hierarchies, traditions, liturgies, entire classes of clergymen, and their own calendars. We, as Baptists, have virtually none of these. Christians could fight over all of these minor details but Jesus would have us love and respect each other.
07-02-17 Romans 15:1-13 - We must bear with the ones who are weak. In this, we are like Christ, our example, who came to earth and died for His enemies. To share the love of Christ with those we don't like is something we will be learning how to do our whole lives.
07-30-17 Romans 15:22-33 - This Sunday we get a peek at what it was like to be a Christian and encounter the apostle Paul in his day. In any age most Christians are like any other people, they prefer to take the path of least resistance. In contrast to that, here is Paul: a man who wishes to visit your church in Rome because he feels that he now has time because he has planted so many churches in the east; a man who not only wants to spend time "fellowship-ing" with the Roman Christians but then wants to launch a missionary trip westward to Spain. This man never quits and we should be the same way.
08-06-17 Romans 16:1-27 - This is part 2 of our peek at what it was like to be a Christian in Paul's day. We often tell the story as if Paul is superhuman and working on his own but he obviously had help. This chapter preserves the names of some of the unsung heroes of Paul's ministry and points to even more people that remain unnamed. Also, this marks the end of the series on Romans.