Life Changing News (Romans 1:1-7) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: Alright, we are in the book of Romans.

Romans chapter one is where we're gonna be.

So turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter one.

Romans chapter one.

We're gonna be looking at the first seven verses.

Raise your hand if, if you, if you know someone who says they're a bad

texter, a bad, a bad texter, you know anyone who says they're a bad texter.

Heard that.

Or maybe someone, maybe some of you say, you know what?

I'm just a bad texter.

Sorry I haven't responded to you for five days.

That's because they're a bad texter.

Now, someone in my family, there's a 50% chance, you know who this is.

Someone in my family.

Is a, is a, what they would call a bad texture.

And they've got like, you know, 25 unread messages that are just sitting

there and they'll get back to you later.

I won't tell you who it is.

Um, but someone in, in my family is a, a bad texter.

And, um, but really when you think about it, when someone, when

someone's a bad texter, it comes down to, to who's texting them.

'cause there's some people that actually are bad texts and they're not good at

responding to things, but there's some people that are selectively bad texts.

You know these people out there.

If someone texts them, maybe it takes them like four days to respond.

But if someone else texts them, they're responding in like two minutes.

Right.

And, and then they're like, wait, should I have responded that fast?

'cause now they think I like them, right?

There's those people out there, right?

There's selectively bad textures.

So some people, you know, they're, it just depends on who texts them, right?

If you, if you get a text from, you know, someone that you don't

really wanna talk to, someone that you don't really know that well or

whatever, maybe you, you just wait.

You're like, oh, I'll get to that later.

You read it and then you, you forget to, to, to swipe back the blue bubble on it.

And so then you forget that you read it and you never respond.

Right?

That happens.

But maybe if someone else texts you, you would be like, oh.

Sorry, person I'm actually talking to, I need to respond to this text, right?

Because who's texting you matters, the who's sending that message to you maybe

is really important to you, right?

So sometimes we're selectively bad texters because it depends on who's texting us.

Now see, in our passage today, we're gonna be be hearing about a message who

from the most important person ever.

And when, when God, when the King of Kings sends you a message, you have to listen.

You can't be a selectively bad texter when the God of the universe

says, I've got something for you.

You can't just, just leave him on red.

You can't just reply later.

You can't just forget about it.

There's an, there's an authority behind the person sending the message that

demands a response, and that's our main point today is about the gospel.

The gospel is God's message.

And our points tonight is that the gospel is an authoritative announcement.

The gospel is an authoritative announcement.

It's a message, it's an announcement, but there's weight behind it.

It's important.

In fact, it's coming from a king, and so there's authority there.

It's not just something you can respond to later or Mark read and forget about.

So we're gonna be in Romans chapter one.

We're gonna see Paul introducing himself and this gospel to the Romans because

he, he's, he doesn't know these people.

So the church in Rome, Paul had never been to Rome, most of Paul's letters.

So in case you didn't know us about the Bible.

The New Testament.

A big chunk of the New Testament is letters that the Apostle Paul wrote

to different churches, and most of the churches he'd been to like the

church in Colossae or the church in Thessalonika, or the church in Philippi.

He had been to these churches, and so he's writing them like a follow

up letter, say, Hey, here's some things I want you to remember.

Here's some, maybe some problems that I've noticed or heard about, and I'm gonna

write this letter to you to help you.

That's most of, most of what Paul's letters are, but Romans is a letter

to a place he's never been to.

He doesn't know these people.

He hasn't been to Rome yet when he, when he writes this letter.

And so he's introducing himself and he's introducing the gospel to them because

he wants them to know that he preaches the same gospel, the right gospel.

So that's what we're looking at here in chapter one.

So read along with me, Romans chapter one.

We're gonna start in verse one.

So Paul, a servant of Christ, Jesus called to be an apostle

set apart for the gospel of God.

Which now he's gonna tell us about the gospel, which he promised beforehand

through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his son who was

descended from David according to the flesh, and who is declared to be the

son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection

from the dead Jesus Christ are Lord we'll stop right there for now.

So the first thing Paul is telling the Romans about the gospel, he

introduces himself, he says, I'm Paul, and these are some things about me.

And then in verse two, he starts talking about the gospel and he's telling the

Romans, here's where the gospel's from.

It's from the Old Testament, it's from the prophets in the Bible.

And then what's the gospel about concerning his son Jesus.

And then he, he talks about who Jesus is.

So he's telling where the gospel's from and what the gospel's about Now.

Why does Paul want us to know these specific things about Jesus?

What he wants us to know about Jesus is that Jesus is the

Messiah, the Christ, and the Lord.

But I think the, the main thing he's focusing on is the content.

Like see all this about the what?

What's in the gospel.

That's verse three concerning his son.

So Paul really wants the Romans to know and really wants us to

know that the gospel is a message about Jesus, and that might seem.

Super obvious, but that's our first point.

Point number one, remember the gospel is about Jesus.

Remember that the gospel is about Jesus.

Sometimes we can make the gospel about us, right?

Sometimes we can make the the focus of the gospel us God.

Has a message for you and he loves you and he wants to save

you, and it's all about you.

The gospel is a message about Jesus.

It's remember what we, we learned last week, that the gospel

reveals the righteousness of God.

The point of the gospel primarily is to show us about God.

It's to show us who God is, what God's like, and to, to

show us how amazing God is.

Remember the gospel is about Jesus.

Well, what does Paul want us to know specifically about Jesus?

Well, so when I read letters like this in the Bible, what's helpful for

me is to break them into one of your favorite grammar words, clauses, right?

I'm not talking about like Mrs.

Clause and Mr.

Clause.

I'm talking about clauses, like your favorite prepositional clauses

and all that stuff right now before you tune me out and fall asleep.

This is why it's helpful, because this is a lot easier to read.

Then this, right?

This is just a big block.

This helps me see what's happening.

Ready?

So Paul, and then some stuff about Paul set apart for the gospel, right?

And then Paul's gonna talk about the gospel.

He's gonna say two things about the gospel, where it's from, what it's about.

See that?

See how it's easier to see when you break it up like this.

So this is just to help you read the Bible better.

So where it's from.

He promised God promised the gospel beforehand through his prophets.

What it's about, it's about Jesus who, and then two things here about Jesus.

Paul wants to know these two things about Jesus.

He's descended from David and he's declared to be the

son of God in power now.

Why those two things?

Well, it has to do with this last statement.

Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And maybe this is a phrase that you've heard a lot at church and

you don't think twice about it, but really this statement is loaded.

This statement is like, you know what, like a loaded quesadilla is?

It's got like all sorts of stuff in there.

That's what this sentence is, because this, this little phrase

is actually describing all of this in just three words.

Descended from David.

That's what the Christ means.

Jesus is the Messiah.

Then declare to be the son of God in power.

That's what Lord means.

Now, what's the big deal about David?

Right?

We talk about this in Matthew.

People come up to Jesus and say, son of David.

It's like, what?

What's the big deal about that?

Why do I care about David?

David's dead.

David's a sinner.

Why do I care about David?

Well, this is why you should care about David.

Second Samuel, seven is God's promise to David.

God makes this massively important promise to David, and here's what

he says to David, when your days are fulfilled, so when you die.

You lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring

or one of your descendants after you who will come from your body.

He's gonna be physically one of your descendants.

And I will establish his kingdom.

And it's like, okay, that's cool, but check this out.

Verse 13, he shoveled a house for my name and I will establish the

throne of his kingdom forever.

So David, God is promising that David is gonna have an A, a, a

descendant who lives forever.

Who's the king forever.

Which is pretty crazy, right?

Because this can't be about Solomon.

Solomon builds, builds a house, he builds a temple for God.

But does Solomon live forever?

No.

Right.

And then he says, I will be to him.

I'll be like his father, and he shall be to me a son.

So

Paul really wants the Romans to know that Jesus is this guy, that descendant.

That's Jesus.

And the reason Paul does that is because the Old Testament.

Kinda like what we saw in this verse right here.

Promises the gospel before Jesus comes.

The Old Testament is a gospel book.

I don't know if you've ever thought about that before.

The gospel is in the Old Testament.

The gospel didn't show up with Matthew, mark, Luke, and John the

gospel's in the Old Testament.

In fact, the gospels in the Book of Genesis because in the book

of Genesis, Moses is writing.

The book of Genesis, and he's describing what happened in the garden, right?

The Garden of Eden, Adam Eve sin, and then God curses the serpent and he

says there's gonna be an offspring, same word, offspring, from the woman

who's gonna crush the serpent's head.

And so the rest of the Old Testament is trying to figure out who's that guy?

Who's the guy who's going to.

Figure everything out.

Who's gonna get us back to Eden?

Who's gonna put us back in the garden with God?

Who's gonna fix death?

Who's gonna fix sin?

Who's gonna fix our separation from God?

Who's gonna fix God's wrath?

Who's that guy?

That's the whole Old Testament.

And then boom, Matthew, chapter one, right?

Jesus.

The Son of David, the son of Abraham.

So the whole Old Testament, including this promise to David.

Is about Jesus.

Jesus is gonna be the guy, the Savior.

He's gonna be the one who's gonna fix everything.

And so Paul, when he says that Jesus is descended from David according to

the flesh, that just means humanly speaking, he's one of David's descendants.

He's saying that Jesus is that guy.

He's the Messiah, he's the Lord.

He's the king who's gonna fix everything.

But then there's this, this part about.

Serpent or this part about the son of God in power.

Now, if you slow down and read this, there's a huge problem that

might come to your mind, right?

Let me ask you if this, this popped into your head.

Jesus was declared the Son of God.

Now the word here, some translations would say, appointed,

did Jesus become the son of God?

Yes or no?

No.

Jesus was already the son of God, right?

So Paul can't be saying that Jesus already became the Son of God,

like, or sorry, wasn't the son of God, and then became the son of God.

That's not what Jesus, that's not what Paul is saying.

Paul is not saying that Jesus became the son of God.

So, so what is he saying?

He's saying that something happens at the resurrection.

Something happened at the resurrection.

That, that to Jesus.

Now, Jesus didn't change, but Jesus stepped into this rule

right here, son of God in power.

That's the important part.

Now, look what Peter says in Acts two.

Okay?

Acts two, Peter is preaching right after the resurrection.

He's preaching to all these Jews in Jerusalem, and here's what he says.

So Jesus, God raised him from the dead and we all saw it.

Then he's exalted at the right hand of God.

Jesus the man was not there, and then he's raised in the dead and he's

exalted at the right hand of God.

And then he talks a bit about David, and then look at this last part right here.

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him

Jesus, both Lord and Christ, and see that has made Jesus both Lord and Christ.

So there's a sense.

In which, yes, the son of God was already the king, but Jesus the Messiah wasn't

at God's right hand reigning Jesus the Messiah was on earth suffering.

Right?

And so then when Jesus was raised from the dead, Jesus stepped into his rightful

place as the reigning son of God.

He disarmed Satan at death.

Right?

That's why we, we sing about death being defeated.

That's why we celebrate Easter, because Jesus is now.

He's defeated death.

He's the conquering king.

He's not just the king because he's God, he's the king because he defeated death.

He's the king because he defeated Satan.

'cause the only thing Satan can do to you is get you to believe

that God won't forgive your sin.

The only power Satan has over you is unforgiven sin, because that's

the only way anyone goes to hell is if your sins don't get forgiven.

And now guess what?

Your sins can be forgiven.

So Satan really can't do anything to you.

The only thing Satan can really harm you with is unforgiven sin.

That's the only thing that will actually harm you because God

will use everything else for good.

So Jesus at the resurrection was appointed the Son of God in power.

He's put at God's right hand, and he's reigning.

He's defeated sin and death.

He's taken away everything Satan can do to you, and he's stepped

into this rule as the Messiah.

Jesus.

The, the human was not the Messiah until he was born, right?

Because Jesus was born, right?

So at the resurrection, Jesus didn't become the son of God, but he

became exalted at God's right hand.

And that's what Peter is talking about, and that's what Paul's talking about.

They're saying that.

Jesus is, is the king.

He's saying that Jesus is the Old Testament king who's gonna fix everything,

and he's saying that Jesus is the reigning son of God in power at God's right

hand, who's defeated the worst things that the world can throw at you, right?

He's defeated death.

He's defeated sin, and he's defeated Satan.

Now, why does all that matter?

Why do I care about Old Testament stuff?

Why do I care about the Davidic Covenant?

Why do I care about Jesus being at the right hand of God?

Well, the good news.

Exactly that it's built on, on this, that Jesus is the Messiah and

Lord, he's the right guy because the whole history of the world is

people who aren't good enough, right?

If you ever read the Old Testament and you think about, oh, Abraham well

had a lot of faith, but also a sinner.

You think about Jacob, well, he.

Kind of, you know, he got like, he got like a, a country named after him,

but also not totally a great dude.

Sin a lot, right?

You've got someone like maybe David, you think maybe he's the guy and then

that thing happens with Ishiba and then it's kinda all downhill from there.

Then maybe it's gonna be Solomon, right?

David's son and then he marries a bunch of people and walks

away from the faith, right?

And then you've got all these kings of Israel and they're all terrible, or these

kings of Judah and they're all terrible.

And over and over we're seeing that no one's good enough.

No one can can save the human race.

No one can undo what Adam did.

You and I can't do that.

We're hopeless.

We need a king who's gonna do that?

We need a savior.

We need a leader.

We need the guy that, that the whole Bible has been waiting for, and Jesus

is that guy, and that's the gospel.

Jesus does that through his death on the cross because he

can take away all of the sin.

Anyone's ever committed.

But remember that the, the good news is about Jesus.

It's not primarily about us.

Now, I think one other way that Christians do this, we make the good

news about us, is that we make the gospel about getting us out of hell

instead of getting us to be with Jesus.

Right?

It's kinda like, imagine if you started dating someone and then

you found out they only dated you 'cause they hated being single.

Right.

That would stink.

That would be, that would be terrible if, if you start dating someone and

then you know, a few months or a year in, you're like, oh, actually I only

started dating you 'cause I didn't wanna be single and I found someone better and

I broke up with you being one of them.

Right.

That would suck.

That would be horrible.

That's a little bit like how you treating God.

If you're just saying, God, the only reason I wanna be a Christian

is 'cause I don't wanna go to hell.

You're saying, God, I just want your stuff.

I don't want you.

I just want the benefits of being a Christian.

I don't actually wanna be with Jesus.

That's you making the gospel about you.

You're being a consumer of the gospel.

You're saying, I just want the benefits of the gospel.

I don't want, God.

I remember a couple years ago, actually, pastor PJ was preaching this sermon

and he said, if you got to heaven and Jesus wasn't there, would you even care?

Would it bother you?

Would you be disappointed?

You all, maybe all your, all your saved family is there.

You have no more sin, no more death, no more decay, no more anger, no more hurt.

No more pain.

But Jesus isn't there.

Would you be okay with that?

Maybe if you are okay with that, it's because you don't really love Jesus.

You just want his stuff.

That's one way that we make the gospel about us and not about God.

The point of the gospel, the point of the good news, the point of

salvation, the point of forgiveness, the point of justification is

because it gets you, Jesus.

You get Jesus.

That's the whole, that's the good news.

The good news is that you get Jesus, and that's the point of forgiveness.

The point of forgiveness is not great.

Now I'm forgiven.

Yes, that's, that's great.

But the main point is you're forgiven so that now you can

have a relationship with God.

You can be with Jesus, you can be with the most awesome, the most

satisfying, the most loving, the most amazing person, God himself.

That's why forgiveness is so good, because of who you get.

That's why justification being made righteous is so

good because of who you get.

You get to be with Jesus, so don't make the gospel about what you get from God.

Remember that the gospel is about Jesus, the king, the Messiah, the

one who's gonna fix everything.

But also the one that you get to be with if you trust him.

So we talked about the, the gospel is not a suggestion, right?

It's not a message you leave on red.

It's an authoritative announcement from a king, and that authoritative

announcement demands a response.

So look with me, Romans chapter one.

We're gonna be in verse five.

So verse four ends talking about Jesus Christ our Lord.

Verse five, through whom?

Through Jesus, we have received grace and apostleship.

To bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations.

So what Paul's saying here is that the gospel demands a response that

Jesus has sent out these, these apostles and given grace for a

purpose to bring about something, and that's the obedience of faith.

So point number two is respond to the gospel with faith.

And obedience respond to the gospel with faith and obedience.

Something really interesting in the Bible, there's three places in the Bible

where the gospel is a command, and you might have never thought about that.

The gospel is a command.

It's Romans 10 16, 2 Thessalonians one eight, and one Peter four 17.

I think.

It says that people need to obey the gospel.

So the gospel's not just a message, it's a command.

And that's because, like we said at the beginning, it's

an authoritative announcement.

It's, it's an announcement that's coming downhill at you.

There's, there's an expectation that you're gonna do something about it, right?

Like when they on the plane, when they say the captain has turned on the

seatbelt sign, that's an announcement, but it's also a command, right?

Buckle up.

So the gospel is an authoritative announcement.

It demands a response, and that response is faith and obedience.

You see that Jesus Christ has given grace and apostleship.

So apostles, those are people who were witnesses of the risen Christ.

We think like Matthew, we think Peter, we think Paul, right?

People who saw the risen Christ physically and were sent personally by him to

go tell people about what happened.

To go tell people the good news.

That's what apostles are.

That's why there's not apostles anymore, because no one gets to meet the risen

Jesus and get personally commissioned by him to go preach the gospel.

So apostles are sent to preach the gospel, and the point of that is to

bring about the obedience of faith.

Now, what does that mean?

Well, you can take it a couple ways.

You can say that it means obedience, that like that faith is

obedience, which is true because.

To obey the gospel.

How do you obey the gospel?

You believe it, right?

You trust it.

You say that's, I believe that I'm putting my confidence in Jesus.

That's how you obey the gospel.

So faith is obedience.

But also I think what Paul is saying is that all obedience requires faith.

Everything you do that obeys God requires faith.

Every time you do what God says, it's an act of trust in him.

And also I think what Paul is saying is that faith expresses

itself in obedience, right?

You heard James chapter two.

Faith without works is what?

Dead right.

Faith without works is dead.

If your faith doesn't have obedience coming out of it, it's dead.

It's like a body it without a pulse, it's dead.

Your faith is is not real.

It's it's stone cold.

So.

What Paul is saying is that all obedience requires faith and that faith

and obedience and are inseparable.

They, they're a package deal.

And if you think about it, this is actually such a, a really insightful

concept that obeying God and trust in him are linked because when you, if you

think deeply about obeying God, every time you decide whether to obey God or not.

It's a decision about whose promises you are going to believe.

God's promises or sins promises.

'cause sin always makes you a promise.

Sin says it'll be great, right?

Sin says, I am what's best for you.

Sin says, this will make you happy.

Sin says, I will satisfy you.

It's making you a promise.

And then God makes you a promise.

He makes you this the same promise.

I'm what's best for you.

I will take care of you.

I will protect you, and you have to decide who you're gonna believe.

Who are you gonna trust?

Are you gonna trust God's promise?

Or are you gonna trust the promise of sin?

Right?

Think about, uh, the silly example would be when you wake up in the morning, this

isn't a sin, but this is just an example of putting your trust in something.

When you, if you snooze your alarm, you're saying.

I believe that snoozing my alarm is better for me than waking up.

Right?

That's what you're saying.

And so the, your bed is promising you something.

It's promising you sleep, right?

It's promising you rest.

It's promising you comfort.

And then, but waking up is also promising you something.

Right?

It's promising you maybe more time, maybe more energy 'cause you're more productive

'cause you got up or maybe you feel better about yourself later or you're not

stressed 'cause you're not in a hurry.

There's two promises at war, and you have to decide which one's better.

Do I wanna sleep more or do I want to have the benefit of not being

stressed and not being in a hurry?

Now, if you make this, if, if you take this ground level Christian

lifestyle, right, what, what does it actually look like to, to fight

sin and believe God's promises?

Think about maybe when you're, when you're coveting, you see someone and you're

like, oh, man, I wish I had what they had.

Wish I had that.

I wish I was talented like that.

I wish I looked like them.

I wish I was in their family.

I wish I could do what they do.

I wish I had as much money as they do.

When you're coveting, there's a, you're faced with two promises.

One promise is stuff will satisfy you.

What that person has will make you happy.

The other promise is God says, I know what's best for you.

I love you.

I've only given you what's best for you.

You've got two promises at war there.

Who are you gonna believe?

Obeying God to be content and not covet takes faith.

You have to trust him and say, you know what?

I trust that my father loves me.

I trust that my father only gives me things that are best for me, and

I trust that my father knows what's best for me, even when I disagree.

And then you obey him and you be content.

So you're, you're choosing whose promises to believe and what.

You can take this any sin, go down the line.

And that's exactly how obeying God works now.

When

you're thinking about this, and you're gonna talk about this

in small groups, obeying God requires you to know his promises.

If you don't know God's promises, you have nothing to grab onto.

There's nothing for you to put your faith in because you

don't have anything specific.

So if, if you don't know God's promises, you don't know God's word.

When you're tempted, you don't have any way of escape.

God said, I'll give you a way of escape.

And you said, no, I'm not gonna read the Bible.

I'm not gonna think about the Bible.

I'm gonna forget about it.

So God's promises are your way out of temptation, and that's why

we care so much about the Bible.

That's why we care so much about you reading the Bible and knowing God's

word and memorizing it and thinking about it because that's how you fight.

God, that's how you fight.

Temptation is with God's promises because sin is making you a

promise and you need a better deal.

If you're gonna not sin.

If you're gonna obey God, you need a, you need a better promise on

the table because otherwise you're gonna give in every single time.

Now, we could talk more about for the sake of His name, but that kind of

goes back with our first point, right?

That the gospel is for God's glory.

Your obedience is not for you.

Your obedience is for God.

It's for God's glory.

So just like we don't wanna make the gospel about ourselves, we also don't

wanna make our faith about ourselves.

We don't wanna make following God about us, right?

We don't wanna make following God about, well, you know, now that I've be, now that

I've started doing more things for God and obeying him, now I feel good about myself.

I feel like I'm good enough and I, I feel I don't feel guilty all the time.

Can someone open the door?

Weston's locked out?

Um.

We don't wanna make our obedience about ourselves, right?

Don't make your obedience to God about you.

And it's easy to do that.

Oh, I serve at church and now I, I feel I feel better about myself, right?

I feel good enough.

I feel like I'm doing the right thing that's making it

about us and not about God.

So anyway, we need to respond to the gospel with faith and abuse.

Now, this last part of our passage.

We think, if you think about this, it's kind of weird.

We're gonna get into this in our, in our next sermon too, but Paul is

talking about the gospel to Christians.

Paul is talking about the gospel to Christians.

A lot of times we can think that maybe the gospel is for unbelievers, right?

When you think about who do I preach the gospel to?

Later on next week, Paul is gonna say, I'm here to preach

the gospel to you guys in Rome.

They're Christians, and that's 'cause what we talked about last week.

Remember that the gospel isn't just a one-time thing

for Christians to get saved.

The gospel is, we talked about the battery for your whole Christian life.

The gospel empowers your whole Christian life, not just your conversion.

Look with me at the, the beginning and the end of our passage.

We're gonna look at verses one and then six and seven.

So we talked about Paul and who he is, right?

Paul's a servant.

He's called to be an apostle.

He's set apart for the gospel, and then he's talking about the Romans later on.

He says, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

And then he has his like letter greeting to all those who are in Rome.

Who are loved by God and called to be saints grace to you in peace from God,

our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

These people, the Paul and the Romans have been changed by the gospel, but Paul keeps

telling them the same thing about them.

They're already saved, but he keeps telling them who they are.

They're loved by God.

They're called to be saints.

He's telling them I'm a servant.

I'm called.

I'm set apart.

Expect the gospel to change your life.

That's our third point.

Expect the gospel to change your life

because these people, right?

Paul, he wasn't always that way.

Paul wasn't always a servant of God.

Paul wasn't always an apostle.

The Romans weren't always

Christians, right?

The, the Romans weren't always saints.

Before the gospel.

They weren't right before the gospel.

They were unrighteous.

They were guilty, they were under God's wrath.

So expect the gospel to change your life.

And usually when we talk about change your life, we're thinking

about like little things, right?

Like, oh, well the gospel changed my friends, because now I don't

hang out with the same people.

Or the gospel changed the way I spend my time because now I don't

do the same things I used to do.

Or the gospel changed my thoughts.

'cause now I think about different things.

Those are all true.

But those all come from the gospel changes who you are, and that's what

we're really talking about here.

So let's start in verse seven at the very end, to all those in Rome who are

loved by God and called to be saints, Paul thinks that these are the two

most important things about the Romans.

They're loved by God and they're called to be saints.

Now, a saint in the Bible is a Christian because saint

just means someone who's holy.

If you're in Christ, you're holy.

God made you holy, your holiness comes from God.

So a saint is not someone who did a bunch of cool things for the church and then

the church decided to call them a saint.

That's a manmade thing.

The Bible says that every Christian is a saint.

'cause you see this in all of Paul's letters, especially you see it

in the letter of the Corinthians.

And the Corinthians are like one of the worst churches

ever, and he calls them saints.

So a saint is anyone who's made holy by God.

Anyone who's a Christian.

So he's reminding them who they are.

The gospel changes your identity.

You're loved by God, and you're called to be a saint.

See, so much of being a Christian is remembering who you really are.

It's remembering who God has already declared you to be.

Which might sound weird, but when you think about it, it

makes total sense, right?

Because what do so many of our struggles come from?

It's come from, from forgetting who we are.

You feel like you're stuck in sin?

Oh, I just can't stop doing this.

I can't stop watching this.

I can't stop saying that.

I can't stop thinking that.

Well, God says you're not a slave to sin anymore.

So Romans six says, consider yourself dead to sin.

You don't have to do that.

You can tell yourself, I don't have to do that anymore.

You need to believe the right thing about yourself before you can fight your sin.

Or maybe you feel like, oh, well I just, I, I, I don't know if

God's gonna take care of me.

I don't know if, if God's really gonna work this out this time, the

situation at my family is really tough, or I don't know how we're

gonna make it through this thing.

Or I don't know if I, this my school's gonna way going to

go the way I want it to go.

Or if I share the gospel with my friends, I dunno what's gonna happen.

Paul wants you to know you're loved by God.

And if you're loved by God, is God gonna let anything

that's actually harmful to you?

Destroy you.

No, God loves you.

He's gonna take care of you.

Right?

So remembering who you are actually will help you as a Christian.

So much of your Christian life is gonna be remembering who you really are, if

you are in fact a Christian, right?

This is useless if you're not a Christian, because then you're

just lying to yourself, right?

But imagine, right?

Imagine you adopted a dog from the street, right?

Like let's say you adopted this dog.

Right.

This dog is on the street, wasn't taken care of very well.

Imagine you adopted this dog and you like cleaned it up.

You made it look super cute and awesome, and it's all clean, and you

give it a bed and you start feeding it.

And then you come home from school and the dog is gone.

You're like, where'd dog go?

And you find out later the dog is like back on the street.

It's like trying to eat roadkill and it's sleeping under the bridge in a puddle.

And you're like, what are you doing?

I adopted you right?

I I made you my dog.

Dog.

Right?

I, I made you mine.

I gave you a home, I gave you a bed.

I gave you food.

You would say, this dog isn't, isn't living the way it's supposed to anymore.

Right?

This dog doesn't have to go out there and do those things.

It anymore.

It has a new home.

It a new owner, it's a new, it's, it's adopted, right?

It's, it's changed.

That's what it's like when Christians go back to our old sins.

You're like this dog that someone's adopted and then goes out and lives

on the street and eats roadkill and, and God is like, I, I have

something so much better for you.

Why are you going back to what I saved you from?

When you're a Christian and, and you commit those same sins that you used to

use those same words, you think those same thoughts, you have those same desires.

It's you going back to the street and you're saying, I'd rather have

this than what my father has for me.

So remember who you are.

Remember that you're loved by God.

If you're a Christian and you are, you're clean, right?

And maybe you're, you're like, oh, I'm not sure if I could really be.

Be a Christian 'cause I, I sinned and, and all this stuff.

Remember that God says, right, he's faithful and just forgive sins and

cleanse you from all in righteousness.

Remember who you are.

You're, you're clean, you're washed by the blood.

And then also when you become a Christian, the gospel changes your purpose.

So it changes your identity who you are, and it also changes your purpose.

Or whose you are, because if you read this verse, the very la first verse is

gonna be where we, where we end tonight.

There's someone else here.

Paul's identity and Paul's role is dependent on another person.

You see that all of these things require someone else.

A servant needs a master.

An apostle who's sent, who's called needs someone to do that, needs someone to

call them, needs someone to send them.

Then he set apart for the gospel by who?

Right?

These are all things that happened to Paul and they define Paul.

The gospel has changed who Paul is.

You remember who Paul was before this, he was killing Christians.

He had a different life purpose and God changed his life purpose.

He's bought by God.

So this word servant here means slave.

If you're a Christian, like that song we sung on Sunday, you're not your own.

God bought you.

And so God determines your purpose.

Now, so big picture that flows into the small things, right?

That flows into why.

Why are you, why are you in the class that you're in?

Why did you pick the electives that you picked?

Why do you hang out with the people you hang out with?

Why do you watch the things you watch?

Why do you say the things you say, you have a new purpose now

because you're not yours anymore.

God bought you and then you're called, right?

Paul was called to be an apostle.

You as a Christian are called to be wherever God has you right now.

You're called to be a student.

Right now you're called to be a son or a daughter.

Right now you're called to be maybe a sibling.

You're called wherever God has you right now.

That's that's where God has put you.

Maybe you're discontent with that, but if God wanted you somewhere else,

guess where you'd be somewhere else.

If God wanted you to be in a different family, you'd be in that family.

If God wanted you at a different school, you'd be at that school.

If God wanted you in a different class, you'd be in that class.

But God has you where you are for a reason.

He's called you there.

He's put you there, and that's where you are.

And then set apart, right?

He's set apart for the gospel to share the gospel.

That's Paul's specific calling to share the gospel.

If you think about these, all of these are are undeserved gifts from God.

Paul didn't earn these, Paul didn't earn the privilege of serving God.

Paul didn't earn the privilege of preaching the gospel.

These were all given to him by God.

So the gospel isn't the kind of news that you just forget about.

It's not the kind of news that you respond to.

Three days later, the gospel's an authoritative announcement.

It comes with.

Purpose.

And if, if, if you respond to it, it'll change who you are.

It'll change what you do.

It'll change the way you think.

It'll change your values.

And that's because the gospel is about Jesus.

The gospel is about the king who's come to fix everything, to get

rid of sin, to change the world.

And we need to respond to that with trust.

And to put our trust in Jesus means we're also gonna follow Him and obey him.

So let's pray and we'll go to small groups.

God, thank you for these reminders that we are who you say we are.

We know that's so hard for us to believe that at times we tell ourself things that

aren't true and so God, I pray for anyone in this room right now who is struggling

to believe that you say who they are, that you define who we are, that you

would give us the faith to trust you.

That we remember that if we are in Christ.

We are loved by you, that we are clean, we're forgiven, we are adopted,

we are welcomed, um, all because of Jesus and not because of us.

I also pray for people in this room who may not have responded to the

gospel, who have maybe kept suppressing the truth, pushing it down, and,

and trying to forget about it.

I pray that you would convict them and you would not let them forget about it,

that they would be bothered until they.

Trust in you, and I pray for maybe any Christians in the room who are being

passive and, um, pushing against the, the calling that you've given them or the,

um, identity that, or the purpose that you've placed on them, that you would

guide them and help 'em to see that your plan for them is, is best, that you love

them and you care about them, and that the, the work that you have them to do is

good and fulfilling and satisfying praise.

In Jesus name.

Amen.