The Road to Romans!
How far
are you willing to go to save the ones you love?
|
|
|
|
|
Romans 9:1–5(NLT)
|
1With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter
truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.
2My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending
grief
3for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would
be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.
4They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s
adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them
and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and
receiving his wonderful promises.
5Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and
Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he
is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise!
Amen.
What a great sermon for baptism Sunday!
So the big question is
how far would you go to save just one soul, just one? How about 10 or 20 or
thousands?? How far would you go? Paul in the first 8 chapters laid the
foundation that all men were meant to be saved through Christ, adopted in to
the covenant that God made with the people of Israel.
Now he turns his
attention the the Jews, the people of God. The ones God spoke to first, gave
the law to, the prophets, and the people Jesus descended from.
Gods own people failed
to see it was never about the law, it was about faith. They were given all the
tools to see what God wanted, but failed to see it. In these few verses Paul
mourns for his people the people he called bothers and sisters. The very people
who tried to kill him and eventually did.
So as we talk today just
how far would you go, and are you using all the tools all the knowledge that
God is given you to truly walk as he has called you to do?
I don’t want us to just
look at the book of Romans as book to understand the relationship between God
and his people but how we can learn from it to
Are we speaking
the truth, no matter the cost?
VS1 With Christ as my
witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit
confirm it.
·
Paul who
thought he would be the messenger for Christ to the Jews, was sent to the
gentiles
·
He is writing
this letter to a church with both
·
And he is
begging them to believe him
·
He carries this
through in his other letters as well
Ephesians
4:15 (ESV)
15Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow
up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
Ephesians
4:25 (ESV)
25Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one
of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
So are we? Are we
speaking the truth?
·
No matter the
consequences
·
No matter who
hears
·
Are we putting
away false ideals?
o Like money is everything
o Things make us happy
·
Are we speaking
in love?
o Not with malice
o Not because we are getting want we want
·
Are we turning
people to Christ?
o With what we say
o And what we do
o The way we treat them
·
Are we bathing
everything in prayer
o To make sure it is coming form the Holy Sprirt
o So our conscience is clear
·
You might be
the only Jesus some has ever seen
o Always remember God brought the church to be his
ambassadors
o We are to be his image
And Paul is setting the
example to follow, he is speaking to a group that he knows if he speaks the
truth will surly hate him for it. Are you?
Due you hurt for the people in your world who don’t know
Jesus?
VS2 My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending
grief
·
Paul truly hurt
for his people
·
Read the words
bitter sorrow, unending grief!
·
Do we, do we
hurt for the people God has put in our lives?
·
The one Jesus
has placed for us to be a witness to?
IF we are truly followers
of Jesus, then we should mourn over the souls that don’t know Jesus!
·
Why??
o
Because we know
what awaits them
o
We know what
lies ahead
Matthew
25:45–46 (ESV)
45Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly,
I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do
it to me.’
46And these will go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew
13:37–43 (ESV)
37He answered, “The one who
sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
38The field is the world, and the good seed
is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
40Just as the weeds are gathered and burned
with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
41The Son of Man will send his angels, and
they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,
42and throw them into the fiery furnace. In
that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43Then the righteous will shine like the sun
in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
·
Paul knew what
was a head for those with out faith, know matter how good they thought they
were
·
He knew and
mourned their fate
·
Do you, do you
look at the people closest to you, and mourn for them
·
Do you see what
Jesus sees, a lost soul, and have compassion and feel an urgent need to remind
them of who and what Jesus is?
How far would you go to save the ones you love?
VS3 for my people, my Jewish brothers and
sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that
would save them.
·
Just like
Jesus, Paul was read to lay down his life, his eternal salvation for his people
John 15:11–13
(ESV)
11These things I have spoken to you, that my
joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12“This is my commandment, that you love one
another as I have loved you.
13Greater love has no one than this, that
someone lay down his life for his friends.
·
What about you,
how far are you willing to go
o Risk a friendship, a job?
o Lose some material things?
·
We are way to
comfortable
·
We are way to worried
about the here and now
·
Its time to
step out and worry more about folks and less about things
·
Paul like Jesus
was ready to lay it all on the lines for the ones they loved, are you?
What I worry about
and so should you!
VS4 They are the people of Israel, chosen to
be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with
them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and
receiving his wonderful promises.
·
Paul is talking
about folks that had all the tools
·
That God chose
to send his laws and image through
· They knew what they were supposed to do but didn’t
· He gave the adoption, and they never fully received it
· They knew what they were supposed to do but didn’t
· He gave the adoption, and they never fully received it
How many people in this
world today are no different then the people of Israel in Paul’s day?
·
They think that
they have it all figured out
·
All the tools
are at the disposal
·
And they refuse
to see it
·
They carry the
right bible
·
Have all the
holy hardware
·
Speak the right
lingo
·
Have the right
friends
·
But miss the
true meaning of what it is to be a child of God
o
To have true
faith
o
True repentance
o
True life
changing experiences
o
To know what
its like to give the reins over to Jesus and let him lead
How many people are seating
in a church today thinking I got this all figured out, show up, throw some
money in the bucket, and I’m in!
Jesus said this:
Matthew
7:22–23 (ESV)
22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and
do many mighty works in your name?’
23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never
knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
·
That’s what I
worry about
·
I know that we
have folks sitting in here right now that think that Jesus know them
·
The numbers don’t
lie!
o
15% of the
congregation carry the church in every way
o
if Jesus grabs
you you want to see the church succeed
o
because we know
its not about us, its about Him
o
and we want to
glorify and honor him!
it don’t matter
who you are, you need Jesus!
VS5 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their
ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is
concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of
eternal praise! Amen.
·
Paul reminds
them that Jesus came in their linage
·
Through the
promised line
·
And also who he
really was!
·
That he
deserves all the praise, to stop looking back and start looking to the promised
Savior, KING JESUS!
Amen
ReplyDelete