Romans Series: Everybody Needs Grace

You welcome up, Pastor John.

Let's do it.

Awesome.

Thank you.

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Our Zion Online family.

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And uh, for those in the room, we just really um pray that this would be a space where you really encounter the presence of the living God and you meet some of the warmest people in Orange County.

And so thank you so much for being here.

My name's John, and it's a privilege to jump into God's Word.

This is the second week in our Roman series.

And the Apostle Paul, who wrote this letter, he says really throughout the letter, the case that he's making and what we're unpacking over the next few weeks is that the gospel changes everything.

And so we're gonna look at uh Romans chapters one through three and look at some um key movements in those chapters and really apply this to our lives, how the gospel changes everything.

When I think about the power of the gospel, I think about a moment that I had a few weeks ago at Doheny Beach with my kids and some friends and some family.

And there was a moment that we were sitting on the beach, and I looked out and I saw that one of my kiddos, and then my nephew, and then a friend, uh, all three of them were on their boogie boards and they were out in the waves, and then I noticed that they were getting taken taken out.

I wasn't too concerned because it didn't seem like that big of a deal.

Uh, it's Doheny, right?

Like, not that big of a deal.

And so um I got my longboard.

I said, hey, Kellen, come out.

You know, it's my way to coax Kellen to come out and try to surf with dad.

Let's go out and hang out, you know, with your brother and your buddies.

And so we went out just thinking I'd be able to kind of coax these uh three little guys on their boogie boards kind of back into the lineup where they needed to be.

And once I got out there, I realized that all of us were caught in the rip current.

And it was at that moment I thought, you know what, I'm strong enough, I'm a decent enough surfer and paddler.

I guess I can figure this out.

And so I had one of the kids like grab onto my my ankle, another kid grab onto the front of my longboard.

I have Kellen on it, and and the third, I don't know where the third was, but I said, just paddle, just go, let's go this way.

And and it wasn't after long that I realized that we were going nowhere besides further out to sea.

And it was at that moment that I recognized the insufficiency of my surfing ability at Doheny Beach.

And the panic meter, the panic face set in.

And I look to the shore and thank God, I mean, I was equal parts embarrassed, equal parts excited.

This like buff 16-year-old kid, lifeguard, red shorts, this strapping young man is running out to me with a long board, and he gets out there and he's like, You guys good?

I'm like, absolutely, we're good.

He's like, I'm like, no, we're not.

He's like, I got you, no worries.

And so he actually took Zeke on his board, and then we were able to make it all the way.

And it was it was really cool because that was the day a couple weeks ago where the waves were really good, and all of Orange County was at Doheny Beach.

And so they saw me along with like four kids get rescued, humbling.

And I recognized in that moment that I went out there as the rescuer, and I was in the same boat with those that needed rescued.

I did not have the power to save either them or myself on my own.

Which brings me to the title of the message and really the framework for today, and it's simply this: Paul is gonna share with us how everybody needs grace.

In fact, say that to someone next to you.

Say, you need grace.

Say that to say that to someone that you neglected too.

You need grace.

We all need grace.

Paul says everybody needs grace because the reality is that there's a universal problem that we cannot solve on our own.

And it's not just outside of us, it's within us.

And it's a word that we don't like talking about in church too much in our culture anymore.

It's a word that we've even replaced with the word mistake, and it's the word sin.

That's that's the greatest problem in our soul.

In fact, it's the it's this word that we try to do everything we can to sort of deviate around, right?

Because it's a word we don't like to use much.

It's a word that we don't hear too much at work.

Your boss doesn't pull you in the office and go, hey, we need to sit down and talk about some of your sins.

Here's your performance review.

You know, or hey, hey, you know, babe, I just gotta talk.

I just want, I gotta be honest.

You know, if you're married, let's just talk about your sin issue.

I like, isn't it interesting?

Sin is very uncomfortable, and so we've replaced it with a softer word.

I've made some mistakes.

I I'm I'm not perfect, I'm I'm only human.

And so humans make mistakes.

But the issue is that Paul is going to bring us into is that there are some mistakes that you make on purpose.

There are premeditated mistakes.

There are mistakes that you hate in your life that you say, I'll never do it again.

But then there's something you've been good for 14 days, but then there's something inside of you that wants to go back to that mistake that you've already felt the consequence and the sting for, but you still want to experience the high of it again.

So it's got to be a bigger issue than a mistake issue.

Paul says there's this universal issue.

Whether you've grown up in church, whether you're a pastor's kid, or whether you're someone who has no context and you don't even believe in God, there's a deep problem that we all are in the same boat with, and it's called sin.

And we need a savior.

Paul begins in Romans chapter 1 by building this case.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

He says in Romans chapter 1, he says, God has really given humanity to kind of set the context, no excuse for not knowing him.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

He he says, even the earth and the sky and the ocean and creation itself, if you're honest with yourself, proclaims that there is a God who exists and he's good.

Every sunrise that you marvel at, every beautiful wave that you catch, every uh breath that comes out of your lungs reminds you that your oxygen is dependent upon a manufacturer who made you, who's good, who's beautiful, who's powerful.

And so Paul begins to build this case that although God has made it clear to us that He is good and perfect and powerful, humanity has traded the truth about who God is for a lie.

And instead of worshiping the one true God, we exchanged that worship with worshiping the things that God created.

And in doing so, it has caused a chain reaction generationally that we cannot get out of, a cycle that we cannot break called the sin cycle.

In fact, look at this.

Paul says in Romans 1.25, when he talks about humanity and the scope of where we're at, they true to they traded the truth about God for a lie.

So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the creator himself.

Isn't that our culture?

I mean, I I I work out in a gym once once a year, and um literally I was there this past week, and I look at the wall, and on the wall there are these big like like cliche, like mantra statements.

One says, believe in yourself, conquer your goals, be the best version of you.

It's very easy to begin to worship the created things and forget to worship or misplace our worship in the one who created us.

The first thing that Paul points our attention to is that we humans, this is our our human story, we have traded God for something smaller.

Sin is an exchange.

We trade the creator for created things, we we trade his authority for our control, we trade his glory for temporary things that are so much smaller and have a shelf life.

Sin, hear me, is deeper than just doing a few bad things.

Sin is removing God from the center and putting something else there.

Here's what sin says my desires will define what's good, my feelings will decide what's true.

My success will tell me what I'm worth.

My life belongs to me.

I'm going to do me.

Paul calls this idolatry.

A lot of times we think idolatry is just simply like bowing down to a statue, but it's it's deeper than that.

Idolatry is putting a created thing at the center of your life without ever perhaps bowing down to it.

It can be something so subtle like success, image, money, fame, control, comfort, romance, even family can become an idol if we're not careful.

Even ministry itself can become an idol if we are not careful.

And the difficult things, the difficult thing about these things is that a lot of things in our life that we begin to subtly worship are good, but they are not God.

Family, romance, comfort, these things are are good, but a good gift makes a terrible God.

Because it cannot provide for you what only God has designed for you to find fulfillment in Him.

This is real stuff.

What happens to me when the relationship falls apart?

What happens to me when I don't get the job that I was hoping for?

When I don't get the amount of approval or likes or views?

What what happens to me when I'm not able to move into that house in that neighborhood or get my kids into that school?

What happens to me when I don't receive the breakthrough?

What happens to me when that dream or that plan that I had doesn't work out?

Because it reveals to us that we perhaps have traded true worship for God and God alone with other things that we think will fulfill us.

The reality is, is those things matter and they impact us deeply.

But even Paul says, and the scripture says, even if I lose my life, if I die, I gain.

If I live, it's for your benefit.

But for me, Christ is everything.

For me, he's the one who I worship more than anything.

He is at the center of my life.

And if I have him in my life, everything else can crumble and fade away.

And I'm still gonna be confident and secure because I have what cannot be taken from me.

And this is the mark of a genuine believer.

It's not that the things in our life that don't work out or are stripped away don't matter, it's just they can never matter more than God.

Paul, he begins to describe these um these ways that we have depended upon ourselves, these ways that that we have allowed sin to distance us from God.

And he begins to get specific on some things.

And as he gets specific on these things, um the listeners of that day have to be listening closely and going, yeah, get them.

A lot of people, by the way, like to use Romans 1 to try to like get back at the world.

Like Romans 1, it's like, man, Paul says uh their lives have become full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling.

This is the result of a life where you worship the created things and not the creator.

He says, Deception and malicious behavior, gossip, backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, boastful.

He says they invent new ways of sinning and they disobey their parents.

That's in the same sentence.

And if you're a parent, you know that's true.

It's like, how did you invent that way of being rebellious?

That's impressive.

But but I want you to catch this because the original audience, especially the Jewish audience that's reading this, is going, yeah, get the Gentiles.

Get those heathens, get the world.

Yeah, tell us how bad they are, tell us how morally corrupt they are.

Yeah, they're the problem.

They're the issue.

The atheists are the issue.

Those with the woke agenda are the issue.

Those that are going down that moral uh just that that that moral corruption and the slippery slope and all they are the problem.

Yeah, keep talking about them, keep preaching at them, Paul.

But then Paul says in Romans 2:1, at the end of this, he's speaking now to the religious people, he's speaking to the Jewish people, he's speaking in our terms to the church people.

Romans 2:1

You may think that you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad and you have no excuse.

He says, You who judge others do the very same things.

The second thing that Paul gets at, and this is really the point in Romans chapter 2, is that especially if we've grown up in the church or if we uh are a religious person, or that's where we kind of bank our security on and our identity and worth on, we love to compare ourselves to someone else who is worse than us.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

And this is the trap for the other kind of person.

See, as we read Romans 1, we might be ready to kind of like throw stones.

Instead, Paul turns towards us and he says, I'm talking to you too.

He's in saying that every single person has done the exact same thing in Romans 1, but he's confronting the way that we condemn in somebody else what we excuse in ourselves.

And here it is the easiest sin to see is somebody else's, right?

With my boys, I walk into the living room and it's like a bomb went off.

And I'm like, boys, what happened here?

And immediately their first response is he did it.

They started it.

We just got back from a birthday party a few nights ago, and and we had this uh this, I don't know, it was it was a really good idea.

It was just like my kids had this like bucket of candy that they were able to bring home, and so we hid it in this nice secret place that they're never gonna find.

And then I walk into the room and in like the crevice of a like the dark crevice of one of our guest rooms is one of my boys with like that that sugar dust all over his face.

I said, What are you doing?

How did you find that?

He found it first and he gave it to me.

We become experts at looking to other people who are worse than us so that we can somehow feel better and we we can feel like we're okay.

As adults, we get a little bit more sophisticated.

We're like, sure, I've made mistakes, but I'm a good person.

I work hard, I go to church from time to time, I take care of my family.

Have you seen what they do?

And comparison feels reassuring.

Hear me, guys, because I get to pick both the other person and the scoreboard.

Comparison, in other words, is comforting because I get to choose the category and I get to choose the scorecard.

So if I want to feel better about generosity, all I gotta do is think about someone in my life who's less generous than me, and then I feel good.

If I want to feel more selfless, then I'm gonna think about someone more selfish, right?

If I if I want to puff myself up, all I have to do is find someone in my life.

Hopefully, they're not not they're not sitting next to you, but find someone in my life that I feel like I'm better than, and then it can bring some level of solace or comfort to my soul that God is gonna look at me a little bit better than them.

Ooh, this is religion, this is pride.

And what I have found, because Paul even talks about the Jewish audience that that was judging and condemning everyone else, oftentimes the things that we judge the loudest in others is the stuff that we're secretly struggling with the most.

The stuff that the stuff that we condemn in others is oftentimes the stuff that we hate in ourselves.

So Paul brings both the irreligious and the religious into the same conversation.

And he says, yeah, completely believing that there's no God, worshiping pleasure, worshiping yourself, worshiping your body, worshiping sex, worshiping money, inventing new waves of ways of sinning, that causes human depravity, toxicity in your relationships, but also being someone who feels like because I have a church background, or because my spouse is a Christian, or because my my parent is a Christian and I've just done a few good things, like I'm good.

No, no, you're also in the same boat.

And this is where he brings us in Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

Here it is, here's the verdict.

We all fall short of God's glorious standard.

Paul says that Jews and Gentiles alike are under the power of sin.

He reaches into the Old Testament and he says, and here's the good news for us this morning in Romans 3:10 no one is righteous.

Romans 3:10

Not even one.

No one laughed, but that's the point.

All of us in the sanctuary, this is really a boat this morning.

And you might be sitting in different seats, but we are all in the same boat.

Not one of us, including the guy with the microphone in his hand, who has the title lead pastor of Zion Church.

Not one of us is righteous.

Not one of us, what that means, it's it doesn't mean that we haven't done righteous acts, good deeds.

It doesn't mean that we don't have a good heart or good intention.

Righteousness is the standard of God, a holy, perfect God.

Not one of us reaches the standard of being made right with God through our own human effort.

Not even one.

Paul gives this verdict then in Romans 3 23.

You likely know this verse, for why everyone has sinned.

We all, ever say all, all fall short of God's glorious standard.

Imagine for a moment I invited everyone into a little exercise, and we all lined up and we stood on the floor of this sanctuary, and I said, Um, man, your mission, uh, your goal is to jump, do a box jump from this floor and touch the ceiling.

It's 14 feet up there.

So I don't know, there might be some super athletic people here, and you've been practicing your box jumps and you've been entering competitions.

Good for you.

I'm jealous.

But my guess is maybe no one in this room would be able to do it, but probably a few humans on planet Earth would be able to do it.

Some some NBA players, some some high jumpers, some box, I don't some box jumpers.

I don't know if that's a thing.

It sounds like it's probably there there are competitions for everything nowadays.

So it's like, yeah, probably a box jumper would be able to be good enough, strong enough, have enough fortitude to be able to touch the ceiling.

Now, picture this for a moment, though.

I took not just all of us outside of the building, but all eight billion people on planet Earth outside of this building, and I said, now the mission is I need you to pass the test, to jump from the ground and touch the roof of the building that's 30 feet tall outside.

Would one person on planet Earth be able to pass that test?

The answer is no.

At least not right now, without AI technology doing it for us.

The point is, in our humanity, we all fall short of God's glorious standard.

The point is, some of us can live more disciplined lives.

Some of us have treated other people better, some of us have done less damage.

Um those differences, like they they matter and they mean something, but if the mark is God's glorious standard, then then congratulating myself because I've jumped a few inches higher than you misses the point.

Nobody reaches us, nobody reaches it.

Our stories may differ, but our need does not.

No one is good enough to stand above anybody else, but here's the good news: nobody is too far from God to reach.

Jesus has come to bridge that gap.

Jesus came to do for you and me what we can never do for ourselves.

And we stand on level ground at the foot of the cross.

We all need rescue.

We all need help.

We all need a savior.

This is the point that we're never gonna understand the greatness of grace unless we understand the gap of sin.

Paul doesn't stop in verse 23.

Listen to verses 23 and 24 together.

He says, For everyone has sinned and we all fall short of God's glorious standard.

Yet God, somebody say yet God with some umtion or unction.

Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight.

Anybody glad that in their story they have a yet God?

Anyone glad?

Anyone experience the free gift of grace?

Yeah, God.

All of us have fallen short.

There was that moment perhaps in your life where you were at rock bottom, hopeless.

Yet God came in and he lifted you up and said, I got a plan and a purpose for your life.

Moment in your life where you thought, I'm just gonna go from one unhealthy relationship to another.

I'm so lonely.

Yet God said, I got more for you.

I got best for you.

Maybe you just were so filled with guilt and shame and trapped in that web of sin.

Yet there was that that moment, and maybe it was that that moment when you should have died in that car accident, but yet God came in and provided an angel of protection around you and saved you.

And in that crisis moment, it became a turning point where you go, that could have been my story.

Yet, God, not because of my work, not because of my earning.

I was actually caught up in foolishness and debauchery, and I was living a life totally opposed to the will and the way of God.

Yet he's still loving in his grace.

He saved me and he healed me and he delivered me, and now I am living as a born-again, Bible-believing, spirit-filled Christian that has a plan and a purpose because God did not forget me.

Yet, I think yet God would be a great tattoo for like put it on both cheeks.

Yet, God, so you look at it every day.

Or if you want to put it behind you so you can look at it every day.

That's more but God.

But God, but the point.

That was corny, but pretty good.

The point is, as he comes up to really settle us into a spiritual moment, the point is we all need the grace of God.

And the only way to be made right with God is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross.

No one else will love you like he does.

He might be here today because he simply wanted to sit you down and tell you how much he loves you.

That he came from the perfection of heaven.

Think about it.

Like the Burke Williams experience of heaven into a messy barn, a manger, an animal smell, and all that.

And he lived a humble life.

A carpenter.

What looked like an ordinary life, but it was a spotless, sinless life.

And that that hill that you were trying to climb, that ladder you were trying to climb to be good enough for God, that that jump that you have been trying to make to be good enough, to know that you're saved, to know that you're eternally forgiven, to know that you're gonna go to heaven when you die, and that you can live with eternity, with heaven in you as you are here on planet earth, you can't do that.

He did it for you.

And he died on that cross to save you of your sins, past, present, and future.

Why?

Because he wants to know that he loves you too much to do eternity without you.

One thing I want my boys to know more than anything is that if they gotta if they've had a good day or a bad day, if it was a day full of fun or frustration, their dad loves them no matter what.

I want you to know that's how he feels for you.

Whether you're someone who's been resistant to God your whole life, maybe you've never even thought of even believing that God is real and that he sees you and that he actually like wants to be in relationship with you right now.

Maybe that's your story, or this is the very first time in church, or this is something that's so normal to you.

And but but but maybe you've gotten caught up in this web of performance and religion, and maybe it's even built up this kind of spiritual pride that sort of uh put you against the world where there's been some love loss, and you're not experiencing the eyes of Jesus and the heart of Jesus towards the world.

I want you to know God loves you too just as much.

And God doesn't want anyone to have to do another moment in this life without Him.

Would you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, it's like words can't adequately express how grateful we are for your infinite grace.

You said that it is freely given to us today.

We don't need to earn it, we do not deserve it, we can't work for it, we'll never be good enough.

You are the one who makes us righteous, you are the one who accepts us.

And you say, Come as you are today, come as you are with your brokenness, come as you are with your failures, come as you are with your regret and your shame.

Come as you are, you don't need to clean yourself up.

Come as you are, because as you come as you are, allow me to wrap my warm, loving arms around you and say, My son and my daughter have been waiting for you to come home, and you don't have to leave as you are, you don't have to stay as you are.

I will make you righteous.

I have come to rescue you.

You have been drifting out in that rip current, and today is the day of your salvation.

Don't wait another minute or a moment.

I want to do life with you.

I actually want to give you that invitation.

I want to throw that lifeline out to you this morning.

Heads are bowed and eyes are closed.

I want to ask you a question: are you 100% confident that you are right with God, that you're in right relationship with Jesus Christ?

Everybody needs grace.

And that includes you, and it's available for you today.

It's a free gift.

All you got to do is receive it.

Believe that Jesus came for you, that he died on a cross for you to forgive you of your sins, past, present, and future, so that you can be born again because he was raised to life again.

And you can walk with him.

A real relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

You don't have to walk out these doors insecure about your salvation, wondering what might happen if something bad were to happen in your life, because you don't have idolatry in your life.

You're not serving created things, you're gonna worship the Creator and be founded in Him.

Secure in Him.

I'm gonna count to three, and when I say three, I just want you to shoot up your hand.

If you want to give your life to Jesus today, this is a marking day, it's a special day.

It is your day of salvation, and we just want to celebrate with you.

I just want to pray over you.

If that's you, I just believe that the Lord is saying, Come home, my son.

Come home, my daughter.

Yes, my grace is sufficient for you.

There is enough grace for you, and I want to make you brand new.

One, Jesus loves you.

Two.

Today is the day.

So one, two, three, if that's you, would you just shoot up your hand?

If there's anyone in this room that wants to receive the grace of Jesus Christ, step into a new life.

Thank you, Lord.

Well, Lord, I want to offer this moment then as an opportunity.

We praise you, we thank you for the security that we have in you, and I want to offer this moment as an opportunity of self-reflection as we prepare to leave today.

And I think one of the big things that God wants us to walk away with is to see where in our lives, perhaps even unknowingly, we have set up idols and we've worshipped created things.

And without even knowing it, we have put it in the place of priority.

And if we're really honest, it's caused us a lot of anxiety, worry, stress, fear, a lack of peace.

I believe, I believe that today is a day where there's fresh grace for fresh surrender.

And so would you just surrender that thing to God?

Just an honest, real moment with Him.

God, I give you that thing.

I want to worship you wholeheartedly.

And then secondly, if there's if there's that moment in the message that really struck with you, I think there's kind of a takeaway where perhaps you've lost a little bit of humility in your walk with God.

Because you've become more aware of other people's sin than your own.

And it has unknowingly created a little sense of pride, maybe a little bit of spiritual arrogance, maybe a little bit of like I'm right and everyone else is wrong, and it's distanced you from like actual real relationships with sinners.

And it's hardened your heart, it's calloused your heart.

I think today is a day of fresh surrender, honesty, and humility, where you just go, God forgive me.

Forgive me for judging people that I'm um not in relationship with.

Forgive me for just being the one to throw the first stone.

God forgive me, make my heart soft, make my heart tender.

I'm gonna hold on to truth, but I'm gonna be relentless with my love.

So, Jesus, make us more like you.

Form us into the church that looks more and more like you, Jesus, both in character and compassion.

We pray all these things and we bless Zion Church this week in Jesus' mighty name.

Amen.

Amen.