Sermon Notes 1-25-2015

The Road to Romans!

So were made right! Now what???

Romans 5:1–5 (ESV)

¹Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

²Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

³Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

⁵and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

So now we make a transition from understanding Justification (salvation) the day your were saved. We now know there is nothing we can do, no works, no rules we can follow that its by faith alone, faith in Jesus. To starting to get e glimpse into the Joy of that faith and what it means to start the sanctification process (changing, transformation) in to the image of God.

Finally some peace!

^{VS 1} Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

·      The first thing that happens when we have faith is we come under peace with God

·      Its like reconciling with a good friend

Ephesians 2:13–15 (ESV)

¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

¹⁵by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

·      You used to be Gods enemy now you’re his child

·      You used to have wrath waiting on you now your made spotless in his sight

Colossians 1:21–22 (ESV)

²¹And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

²²he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

·      There is this whole new you

·      You were bound by the world and have been released

·      Your know longer your old self

·      How many of us wouldn’t like to just get a whole new identity

·      A whole new start!!!  

VS 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

·      By faith we stand in his good graces

·      We have a hope

o   A hope of eternity

o   A hope to live forever because of Jesus

o   A hope that one day we will stand before him face to face

·      Glory (glorification) is the hope of knowing this is not our home

·      Have you ever just longed for home????

Why me??? Where are you??? Why do I suffer??

In this fallen world everyone suffers the universal effects of sin, sickness, and death; but we as Christians often suffer even more in the form of persecution from Satan and from the unbelieving world. When this happens we are strongly tempted to

·      Doubt our salvation and to question the very love of God.

·      Does God really loves me,

·      Why does he let these things happen to me?

·      I think God has abandoned me;

·      He has to be punishing me for my sin

·      Maybe there is no God, and heaven is a myth.”

This is the kind of potential situation Paul is addressing in these verses. He has stressed the reality of our peace and hope that are based on the knowledge that we are justified by faith in Christ’s blood. But he knows that the dark clouds of present suffering sometimes hide the hope of future glory of heaven. So he reminds us that within the broad scope of God’s sovereignty and love, not even suffering can nullify our guarantee of salvation. In fact, they actually strengthen it.

The process of Sanctification!! (The long road of learning to walk the walk that we talk)

·      I have said it before and I will say it again we are all hypocrites

·      All of us do what we don’t want to do

Romans 7:18–19 (NLT)

¹⁸And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t.

¹⁹I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

·      There is a battle raging in everyone of us

·      The battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of self

·      So God puts us through a process to refine us

·      To change us

·      He wants you right where you are but he doesn’t want you to stay that way!

So in the next two verses Paul gives us a pattern, a way that believers grow to hold on to that hope, that one-day we will be in glory! And it’s kinda not the way we would have picked!!!!!!

VS 3&4 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

We rejoice in WHAT!!!! SUFERING?????

Jesus suffered!

Luke 17:25 (NLT)

²⁵But first the Son of Man must suffer terribly and be rejected by this generation.

They Apostles Suffered

 Acts 5:41 (NLT)

⁴¹The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.

And we will suffer!

Luke 9:23 (NLT)

²³Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.

·      We have to stop looking at suffering, going through trials the wrong way

·      God is not punishing you

·      He is refining you

·      Your like gold being purified

·      Like a horse thinks that the round pen is suffering, but your actually making him better, faster, smarter

·      When we seeing suffering in the right light, why we are going through it, then we can truly rejoice in it

·      But we have to see Gods hand in it

When we start to understand suffering it then brings endurance!

Endurance = Patience, Fortitude, Resolution, Strength

Psalm 40:1 (NLT)

¹I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.

·      We live in a now society

·      We are the most impatient generation ever

·      And you know we all need more patients

·      When we learn how to suffer we learn patients

·      My dad had the patients of Job

o   We never got in a hurry

o   He saved, researched, and thought everything through

·      If we could learn to think things through

·      WOW what kind of trouble could we avoid

·      Its when we rush in to things half cocked that ew get in to problems

·      This life your living for Jesus is not a sprint, it’s a marathon and for you to grow and change we are going to have to learn to loose, to suffer and to be patient!

When were patient we build character!

·      When we learn to suffer, and we learn to endure through our suffering it prduces character

·      Look at each trial as a test

·      Every time you pass the test you prove your character

·      And with the passing of every test your character builds

·      You get stronger

·      Satan cant sway you as easy

·      You become confident in Gods ability to bring you through it

·      You start to understand that with God all is possible and without you fail

·      You start to root your identify not in your ability but in His ability

·      You lean on Him more and you less

·      His character becomes yours Character

Philippians 3:8–10 (ESV)

⁸Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

¹⁰that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

To have a character like Jesus we must suffer like Jesus, have patients like Jesus. to grow in the Character of Jesus!

Hope for what?? What lies ahead!

Proverbs 10:28 (ESV)

²⁸The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 71:14 (ESV)

¹⁴But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.

Job 11:18 (ESV)

¹⁸And you will feel secure, because there is hope; you will look around and take your rest in security.

·      David in all his trials never lost hope!

·      Job in his darkest days never lost hope!

·      And when you walk through your trials, and you learn to endure, your character will grow and you will always have hope that this is as close to Hell as you will ever get!

·      You will never loose hope because God ahs refined you

·      And when your laying there, ready to take you last breath and you will be thinking about is meeting Jesus face to face

·      All this is done to grow the relationship between you and God

Think about the old Couple who can finish every word the other says how did they get that close?

o   The Good times

o   The Bad times

o   The boring times

o   The scary times

o   They cried together

o   They laughed together

o   And after all those years they knew each other so well, had such a trust in one another that there was no doubt that they would be there for each other!

·      God wants to walk with you

o   Through the good times

o   And the bad times

o   He wants to help you in your suffering

o   To help you gain patients

o   To help you grow in your walk and build character

o   And to learn to have hope in Him, to trust Him when everyone else fails you!

·      And through all this He gets the Glory and you get the JOY!