The worst thing that ever happened to the church occurred in 313 AD. It wasn’t increased persecution, it wasn’t systematic annihilation of Christians. It was the legalization of Christianity by the emperor Constantine. Everything changed – persecution was replaced by a freedom for Christianity, a distrust of Christianity by the embracing of Christianity, instead of hidden secret meetings they started building church buildings.

All that sounds good (how many times have you heard someone in a prayer thank God that we can meet without fear of being molested) – except that – as Christianity became accepted and embraced, it became diluted and socialized. While there was no longer a fear of physical danger from the outside world, there was also no longer a distinction between Christianity and the outside world. As the church became more popular in the world, the world became more popular in the church. And that was the beginning of the end.

The apostle John’s words were more confrontational in the 4th century than they had ever been in the 1st – 1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

It is an inevitable consequence – as we have less to fear in the world, as the world becomes, not only more palatable, but more desirable – we look for ways to make the distinction less, for ways of making the world look not so worldly, for ways of indulging in the pleasures of the world without being consumed by the world. But therein is the rub – the world by its very nature and definition is opposed to God. Remember James 4:4 “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

Let’s not kid ourselves – this world is a pretty nice place most of the time. If you live in middle class America – with a regular paycheck, a house over your head, two cars in the garage and enough spending money to buy what you want, not just what you need. The world caters to us. It sends us platinum credit card applications and says, “You can buy happiness.” It tells us we can own a Lexus or a Mercedes or an Escalade, or even a new Ford pickup truck, for only a few dollars a month. We buy into the notion that the world will think highly of us if we wear the right names on our clothes and that “Tommy” or “Abercrombie” or “Izod” is a sign that we know how to fit in. And if we can’t have it now, we know our turn is just around the corner.

Materialism is the idea that we can buy our way to happiness and that more things, and the more expensive things are sure signs of success… in the eyes of the world. Wasn’t it Jesus who said, “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” ? Wasn’t it Jesus who said, “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things shall be yours as well” ?

We’re chasing after lies if we keep trying to gauge our success by the world’s standards. And if we are trying to fit into the world by looking like the world and sounding like the world and acting like the world and then coming to worship on the Lord’s day and singing “O to be like thee blessed Redeemer,” just who are we kidding?

Paul says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world.” Notice he says “any longer.” They had the same problem we have. And Paul says even if you have been conforming, even if you have the world stamped all over you, you can change – you can choose not to be molded by the world. How?

Here’s the counterculture. Here’s the antidote to the poison: “But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Transformed – I love this word in scripture – in the original language of the NT it is the Gk word “metamorphoo” – it is the word that is used to describe the change that takes place when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, when carbon becomes diamond.
• This is really what is at the heart of it all. Lots of other religions talk about becoming a better person, refining your character, becoming all you can be, rising to higher levels of consciousness. But only Jesus says, “you must be born again.” Only Paul tells us “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with every-increasing glory…” Only God could promise, “if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.”
• Transformation is the process by which God through his HS remakes us from the inside out.

Renewing of your mind – this transformation begins with a change of thinking and attitudes.
• We can change a lot of behavior, but if we don’t change our thinking we will always be engaged in a battle we cannot win. If our heart is in love with the world, our motives will always be tainted, our real desires will be somewhere else.
• When our mind is renewed by God, he works deep down inside, not just where our “ought to” is, but where our “want to” is.
• What does the renewed mind look like?
Phil. 2:3-8 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!
• Phil. 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
• Selfishness is replaced by service, materialism by sacrifice, pride by humility, malice and bitterness by compassion and forgiveness.
• Paul said it best back in Rom. 8:6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.

The result of the transformation and renewal? Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is...
• Testing and approving God’s will? He’s not putting us in the position of evaluating and giving approval – what he is saying is that when God is renewing our minds we will be able to recognize and understand God’s will in a way that is not possible when our lives are wrapped up in and conformed to this world.
• In fact, Paul had challenged them back in Rom. 2:17-18 “Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior...” They claimed to know God’s will – to be teachers of it – but the fact is they were ignorant of God’s will – because their minds had not been transformed – they still thought the same old way.

What is God’s will for your life? It would be nice to be able to go to the Bible, look in the concordance and find a category, “God’s Will for John.” It’s not quite that cut and dried. There are some general admonitions where the NT says, “God’s will is…” for your sexual purity and holiness, for you to persevere under suffering, for you to give yourself first and fully to the Lord. But when you start asking questions like “what is God’s will for my job, or where I should live, or whom I should marry…” the answers aren’t very specific.
• But I thought it was fascinating that, as I did a study of the specific phrase, that in the vast majority of cases, when Paul or Peter or John used that phrase, it was always in contrast to what would be consistent with the world. If it is in and of the world, if the world would accept it and embrace it, you can be sure that it is not God’s will. God’s will is always for us to be separate and distinct from the world.

And when Paul writes to the Corinthian church, he does tell us that we are not without divine help: The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:10-16).

If you are a Christian and you have the Spirit of God living in you – I’m not saying God is going to reveal his will on specifics – but the decisions you make will be molded by a godly and super-natural perspective. As you are being transformed more and more into the image of Christ, you’re going to naturally think from the perspective of the mind of Christ – what would Christ do?; how can I best glorify God?; will this make me more or less effective as I serve the Lord?

Paul helps us a little bit by adding three descriptive words – “…his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
• “Good” – not a nodding brush with mediocrity – i.e. “good, better, best.” The word is the word that is often used to describe excellence, high moral character – it is the word Jesus uses when he says, “only God is good.” (which implicitly means the very best)
• “Pleasing” – pleasing, not to us, but pleasing and acceptable to God. It meets his standards, his expectations - he is the architect and he is the one who says, “it is good.”
• “Perfect” – no word is more descriptive of God’s will that the word “perfect.” His will is complete, all inclusive, it will encompass and accomplish all that God desires to be done. There is nothing that will happen that God will slap his head and say, “I hadn’t thought about that!” If he knows the number of hairs on your head, he knows every one of your needs perfectly.
• His will is good, pleasing and perfect.

Do those words describe your pursuit of God’s will for your life? Our lives need, not just an end which bring them to a conclusion, but a goal towards which we live. God’s will is that goal – to be perfectly, completely in his will is our highest calling.

If the gospel really is good news, then whatever God calls us to out of this world and away from conformity is better and more fulfilling than anything his world can offer. Does the world have a grip on you, has it squeezed you into its mold? Break out, step away, let God be life for you.

God doesn’t want simply to do a home makeover on you, he wants to begin with your heart and make you a new creation.

There’s a lot to be said for a packet of seeds. It’s a miracle waiting to happen, really. You see, these seeds weren’t manufactured in a seed plant somewhere in New Jersey – what’s mind boggling is that they came from a flower that grew last year and produced them – and that flower grew from a seed that came from a flower the year before – and that flower from the year before that. And if you can imagine – those flowers that produced generation after generation of seed and flower, seed and flower go all the way back to the beginning of creation on Day 3 (Gen. 1:12). Wrap your mind around that for a moment.

They say if you have a week, plant a dandelion – if you have a decade plant a shrub - if you have a century plant a redwood.

Well, that’s the question this morning – what is your timeframe?

We’re giving all the mothers in the congregation this morning a packet of seeds – I would have liked to give you a packet of seeds from a redwood tree, but as you can imagine, you don’t buy those at the local nursery. So, a packet of seeds from flowers will have to do, and I want to encourage you to plant them sometime this week and enjoy the beauty of the flowers that will spring up – and so that you will be reminded of what we will be talking about this morning.

I thought, this morning, we would talk about planting seeds – actually seeds in the form of children. You mothers are in a very real, tangible way the gardeners in God’s vineyard.

1 Peter 1:22- 2:3 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Isn’t it interesting that when Peter talks about purifying yourself by obeying the truth it comes out looking like loving the people around you? Most of the time when you observe people who claim to be “obeying the truth” they end up narrowing their circle of fellowship tighter and tighter as they find fault with more and more people until they don’t have much to do with anybody but those who share their very narrow and rigid view of scripture, and then they sit around launching criticisms at others who aren’t as pure as they are. You might use a lot of words to describe that, but “loving one another deeply from the heart” wouldn’t be among them. And I hope we don’t miss that in this passage, that the outcome of doctrinal purity is brotherly love, not a critical spirit – unity, not division.

But where does this purity and love flow from? Peter writes, “for you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” We’re all born a first time, when mom and dad decide bringing a child into the world would be a neat idea. And mom and dad do what moms and dads do when they want a baby. A seed is planted, a life is conceived and a baby comes into this world – 10 fingers, 10 toes, a bushy head of hair and a wail that would raise the dead. And we make over that precious little baby and raise her the best we can – we educate her, provide for her needs, provide her with all of the comforts of life – and then turn her loose to live her life as an adult. But as Peter reminds us, that seed that was planted is perishable seed – as much as we hate to think about it – one day that precious child of ours will die – most likely of old age after a long and full life, but maybe young and in the prime of life. But one thing you can count on – a life that springs from that perishable seed will die.

But, Peter says, we plant another seed, an imperishable seed – and he says that another birth takes place – a new birth – we are born again, when the living and enduring word of God is planted in our life. And because this seed is imperishable, it will never die. The body that sprang from the perishable seed will die and decay, but the life that springs from the new birth will never die.

But, just like a seedling plant, it’s not a static, inanimate object but a living, growing organism. And you don’t just stick a seed in the ground and walk away and ignore it (although you have to wonder about weeds – how do they grow in cracks in the sidewalk?) But for plants you want to grow you have to prepare the soil, and water it and fertilize it and weed around it and keep the insects away.

Doesn’t Peter use that same kind of imagery? “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” Preparation, prevention, protection, provision. Some things will choke out or poison a seedling. You have to clear the soil and get it ready for growth and then keep caring for it and keep nurturing it.

And then the baby comes – the new birth arrives: Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

He switches images from the seed planted, to the baby born – but it’s still the same process. That spiritual newborn needs certain things to grow healthy and strong – pure spiritual milk. You have to feed the baby – and the thing I remember about babies (correct me if my memory is wrong here) is that they don’t eat three meals a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner. They eat every couple of hours – and right at first, they don’t know that you aren’t supposed to wake up in the middle of the night to eat – 2 in the morning is the same as 2 in the afternoon to a baby. How much more nourishment and nutrition does a spiritual baby need as he is growing in his faith – Peter says, “grow up in your salvation.” We need to be feeding our spiritual newborns, our children growing up their faith – stocking them up with spiritual nutrition – a buffet line at the Word of God.

Let me get back to mothers for a moment. I can’t read that passage without thinking about moms. I’d like to think I’m the one planting seeds and nurturing spiritual growth, but the fact is every single one of you mothers has more influence in your little finger than I have in my whole body. You are the gardeners planting spiritual seed in your children, you are the spiritual mothers nurturing faith in your kids.

You do it when you sit your babies on your laps and read about Noah and the ark before they have a clue what an ark is. You plant the seed when you talk about how wonderful God is to your toddler. You are sowing a crop of faith when you make your child carry the dish up to the doorstep when you’re taking a meal to a sister in Christ who just got home from the hospital. You’re watering and feeding when you make sure your child is in Bible class on Sunday morning. You are securing an eternal harvest when you have a heart to heart talk about salvation with your pre-teen who is curious about baptism.

All those things you do that don’t seem all that big and significant are all a part of planting that seed in your child’s life, and nurturing its growth, and preparing for the fruit of God’s vineyard in their life. And that little baby you gave birth to in a delivery room – you’re preparing them for another birth – a new birth into Jesus Christ. And you’re giving them that pure spiritual milk of God’s Word and making sure they are growing up healthy and strong in their faith.

We’ve planted tomatoes in pots on our porch for the last few years now, and every year we’ve done pretty well and enjoyed tomatoes all through the summer and into the fall. Over the years we’ve had bigger gardens and grown zucchini and yellow squash and okra and radishes. Now from a practical standpoint, you’d think, don’t waste your time – if you want squash and radishes buy them at the grocery store. But you see, half the fun of eating fresh vegetables is growing them yourself. So, every year we spend more money and time than they’re worth, but we get the biggest kick out of going out each evening and seeing what new is coming up!

And that’s the way it is with our kids – you don’t just throw some seed out once and hope for the best. The world is out there doing its best to wash the seed away, choke out what takes hold and poison the rest. But when the world washes that batch away, plant some more seed, keep pouring on the water and fertilizer, keep the weeds out and giving the seed a chance. That batch washes out, drop some more seed in the soil. And when you see the faith catch hold and start to grow – there’s nothing like it!

You remember Jesus’ parable about the farmer planting the seed – he just went along casting it everywhere – some of it didn’t take, some of it didn’t have a chance. He just kept planting it anyway.

And the truth is – and I’ll have to tell you, this truth is both exciting and frustrating – God is the one who gives the growth and brings the harvest. Listen to Paul:

“What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field” (1 Cor. 3:5-9).

Maybe you’re a bit like me – I want to be in control. I want to plant the seed, water it, and then will it to grow. I’m the little kid in 2nd grade who planted his lima bean in the Dixie cup and then had to dig it up every day to see how it was doing. If the package says germination is 10 days, by golly, on the 10th day I had better see green – and I mean morning, not evening.

I want to be in charge of spiritual growth, too. Read your Bible, say your prayers, attend Bible class, serve in a ministry – hop to it! Plan the work, work the plan. But isn’t it interesting how God often has other plans. He doesn’t seem to work on our timetable, he takes us down strange and often unfamiliar back roads to get us to where he wants us. And sometimes the roads are full of potholes and bumps, and sometimes they take us down detours. And we find ourselves going slower than we had hoped and encountering more obstacles than we ever imagined.

But God is faithful – he knows where he wants us and he knows how to get us there – and we are forced to trust him. And when we do…. then we experience the kind of spiritual growth and fruit that God created us for.

Plant for eternity. Let the seed of the word of God find its home in your life and pass that seed on to your children and your grandchildren, and for generations beyond.

I want to begin this morning with one of the most significant, life-defining verses in the Bible:

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Perhaps the most important word in these two vss. is “Therefore.” Remember, “therefore” is always Paul’s tip-off word to let you know “so what.” It connects all of what Paul has said in chs. 1-11 with what he is about to say.
• Since we all, Jew and Gentile alike fall short of the glory of God…
• Since the gospel is the power of God to save, Jew and Gentile alike…
• Since God has provided the one means of righteousness and salvation through the death of his own Son…
• Since God is sovereign and his holy purpose will be accomplished in our lives and the life of his church…
These are “God’s mercy” – these are the foundation upon which all of this is predicated.

Therefore…
To this point in Romans, Paul has been very theological in what he has written (some of it very lofty and difficult), but without it we cannot really understand what he is about to say in the following chapters and verses. The foundation is laid, now the application is ready to be made.
Most of us would rather skip the theology and get right to the application – “Don’t bore me with doctrine, just tell me what to do, tell me how to live.”
It’s important to know why you do what you do. We’ve made that mistake before – we give somebody a list of rules and tell them follow these to be a good Christian. And they read that list and think one of two things – “Why?” or “There have to be some loopholes.”

We tell our young people, “don’t have sex before marriage.” They ask why, and we tell them, you’ll get pregnant, or you’ll get a disease, or your reputation will be ruined. And they figure out that you can avoid pregnancy and disease, and in the world we live it enhances your reputation, not ruins it. And they decide, “you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Paul doesn’t use any of those reasons – he brings it back to our relationship with God – when Paul says “Flee from sexual immorality” he tells them, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). The way we live isn’t based on pragmatic, worldly rationale, it is based on God’s nature. We live holy lives because we belong to a holy God.

You cannot have “right living” without “right doctrine.”
And that’s exactly how Paul writes in all of his letters. He lays out a theological foundation. He talks about God, about holiness, about righteousness and justification – and then he says, “this is what it looks like in real life” as he begins to apply to it to their lives.

And that’s what we find here in Romans. Think back over the weeks as we have followed Paul through a discussion of righteousness – needed, provided, experienced, empowered – and then most recently in chs. 9-11, righteousness rejected.
Having laid that theological foundation, he now turns to us and says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”

I want you to notice two specific phrases in this verse:
“Offer your bodies as living sacrifices”
Does one thing strike you as odd about that statement? It did those who heard it the first time they read Paul’s letter.
“Living sacrifices” – in their experience with sacrifices, you never took one away from the altar alive. You took it to the priest who killed it and it was offered.
But Paul says, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices” – Paul is painting a picture for us that he wants us to see in bold, powerful colors.

You are entering the temple of God. The priests are gathered around, you approach the altar, but there is no sacrifice in your hands (no bull, no goat, not even a pigeon). Instead, you lay yourself upon the altar. No human priest steps forward to make the sacrifice. Jesus himself comes to the altar. Instead of raising the knife to take your life, he holds out his hand to lift you off of the altar, and he says, “from this moment on you are mine.” In that one incredible moment you are relinquishing ownership – you are signing over the title to your life.
Your body becomes God’s tool for working in this world – your body becomes his holy temple in which he lives.
Your body – every breath, every bone, every movement, every word, every thought – becomes his. Nothing is left out or excluded. Jesus is your Lord, and he rules your life.
And when the aroma of that sacrifice rises off the altar to the nostrils of God – a big smile comes over his face and he says, “perfect.” Paul says, that’s the kind of sacrifice that is “holy and pleasing to God.”

Then in a remarkable description of this living sacrifice and its significance in our lives, he says, “this is your spiritual act of worship.”
These are familiar words, but they are used in unfamiliar ways.
First, the word “spiritual” (Gk. logikos – reasonable, logical). What does Paul mean? Since God has done all this for you – in his mercy – how else in the world would you respond to that except to be moved to worship him? And the most logical, reasonable kind of worship in the world would be to offer yourself as a personal possession or servant to the Lord.

Remember the Gerasene demoniac… that’s exactly what he did. After Jesus healed him and gave him his life back, he begged Jesus to let him go with him – he wanted to follow him and serve him. What else would you do, if you had been given your life back?
What it tells me:
• If your “worship” to God is comprised wholly of what you do on Sunday morning, sitting in a pew in a sanctuary, and never affects what you do or how you live the other six days of the week – then what you do on Sunday morning is NOT holy, NOT acceptable to the Lord, because you haven’t offered yourself as a living sacrifice.
• It is a repetition of routine, it may include all the right elements, but it is not worship if it is not a continuation of the outpouring of your service to God throughout the week – affecting every facet of your life.
What it does not say:
• Some read this verse and conclude that worship, then, is individual and personal – that our worship assemblies are irrelevant and have nothing to do with worshiping God. I’ve heard some express the opinion that God just wants us to worship him in the kind of lives that we live.

Isn’t that strange?
• Some deceive themselves by thinking all God wants is for us to show up at the right time and perform a few religious rituals and then we’re off for the rest of the week.
• Others exclude the corporate worship assembly and say worship is what you do on your own throughout the week.
• Both are unbalanced and dangerous.

Our assemblies bring us together to focus our minds and our attention on the Lord – not on man. And if we cheapen our worship assemblies to “feel good” sessions where we are focused on us and not on the Lord, telling ourselves how good we are and how lucky God is to have us – we have missed the point of scripture.

But scripture does affirm that our assemblies are a time of encouragement and mutual building up and strengthening of each others’ faith. The Hebrews writer tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but to spur one another on to love and good deeds and encourage one another as we see the day approaching.

Worship is the combination of both that personal, life-sacrificing, God-serving devotion that characterizes the days of our week, culminating in the outpouring of praise and adoration in our worship assemblies as we corporately join with other Christians to bow before our great God and sing his praises and honor him as Lord and King.

One without the other is incomplete. When we gather on Sunday mornings we are, as individuals bringing our weeks that have been filled with worship, together as a body, and out of that corporate assembly offering our worship to God. And in the process we receive that encouragement and strength from each other that we need to be in this world but not of this world.

Turning to the second verse, Paul says there is something that will essentially kill that ability to worship God in living sacrifice – it is compromise. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Phillips – “Do not let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remake you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed.”
• Compromise isn’t a bad word in and of itself. It depends on what you are compromising. Compromise is a relationship saver. The person who never compromises with anyone over anything is a miserable, lonely person.
• But there is a compromise that destroys one most important relationship. James describes it in James 4:4 “Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
• Satan’s most powerful weapon is compromise.
• He doesn’t launch a frontal assault, he comes in through the back door, through an open window. He makes things that are evil and abominable seem not too bad. He desensitizes us to ungodliness by slowly enculturating us and making it palatable by setting it in humor and protecting it behind a wall of toleration.
• Poem by Alexander Pope:
Sin is a monster of such frightful mien,
To be hated, needs only to be seen.
But seen too oft, as face to face,
We first pity, then endure, then embrace.

Compromise occurs when we try to make our lives with God compatible with the ways of the world. When we let worldly priorities and values impose upon and infect what is really most important.

John describes it this way: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 Jn 2:15-17).

There is a story that comes out of the island of Haiti: A man needed money, but all he owned was a small hut. He offered it for sale and found a buyer who was willing to pay what he asked. He made one stipulation – “I will retain ownership of one small nail that is driven above the door frame.” It seemed an insignificant request and was granted. Time went by, and one day the man decided he wanted his house back, but the new owner refused to sell. Well, the man went out and found a dead dog and brought it to the house. “I am ready to make use of my nail,” he announced, and hung the dead dog on the nail. What was sickening soon became unbearable, the house became unlivable, and the owner was forced to sell.

I think of how many people I know whom God redeems and purchases from Satan by the blood of his Son, but who let Satan retain a nail in their lives. And lives that begin with newness and holiness soon begin to reek of sin when Satan hangs a dead carcass on that nail.

God didn’t purchase us from sin to let Satan keep a hold on our lives. When God let his Son die on the cross for us it was for every part, every right, every moment of every day. Don’t let Satan keep a nail in your life.

Intro – Book of Failures

When does God quit and give up? How far away do you have to go before God says, “No more!” and closes the door? Is there a line across which you can travel that God will no longer pursue you?

Those are the questions that are at the heart of Paul’s agonized words in Romans 9-11. He has walked us through this contrast between grace and works, God’s righteousness and self-righteousness. God’s people Israel have walked the path of self righteousness and works and found themselves far away from God and cut off from their relationship with him.
• Paul asks, “Did God quit on Israel? Is God unfair, did he renege on his promises?”
• His emphatic answer comes through again and again – NO, God is faithful to his promises. God is not the one who abandoned his people.
• Paul’s message in Romans 11 is that God is not finished with his people.

Paul begins by reminding us of the story of Elijah – vss. 2b-4 Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me” ? And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
In the midst of despair and depression, Elijah was convinced he had been abandoned, and his usefulness was over. God had to remind Elijah that he was not alone and he was not finished with him.

Think back to Moses. He underestimates the resolve of the Hebrews and when he defends a slave and kills an Egyptian and becomes a fugitive and flees into the wilderness of the Sinai. He becomes a shepherd and assumes his usefulness is over. Years go by and one day Moses looks up and sees a burning bush. He walks over to see what’s going on and the Lord calls him back into service.

On the eve of the crucifixion, Peter swears that even if everyone else abandons Jesus, he will stand by him to the death. A few hours later he denies he ever knew Jesus… 3 times – the cock crows, Peter’s heart is broken and he assumes his usefulness is over. A few days later, Jesus appears to them on the shore of Lake Galilee and restores Peter to himself and to his place of usefulness.

It’s their first missionary journey. Paul and Barnabas have brought along Barnabas’ young cousin, John-Mark. Only a few weeks into the trip, John-Mark bails on them and returns home to Jerusalem. The next trip, Barnabas wants to give him another chance, Paul says no, they part ways, and it looks like John-Mark and Paul are irreparably alienated. Years later, as Paul writes to Timothy from prison – his last letter, near his death – he tells Timothy to bring John-Mark to be with him because he is very useful to him.

Paul brings us back to the condition of Israel – vs. 11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.
• Don’t ever forget that God’s plans reach deeper than we can ever comprehend. His plans will make turns that we could never anticipate. It’s that powerful principle we talked about a few weeks ago – the sovereignty of God – let God be God.
• God’s plan of salvation encompasses everyone – it’s not limited by race or national boundaries or ethnicity.
• And Israel, who always thought they were God’s one and only find themselves in the embarrassing position of being used by God in spite of their disobedience instead of because of their faithfulness – vs. 12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

Paul describes God’s kingdom as an olive tree – and God is the gardener who prunes and grafts – cutting off branches that have died and shriveled, grafting in branches that have promise of life and vitality. He has cut off the dead branches of the Jews and grafted in the branches of the Gentiles and they have sprung to life, budding with greenery and producing fruit.

The Gentiles have been patting themselves on the back thinking they are pretty special because God has welcomed them into the kingdom because of their faith And they are especially proud of themselves because their faith is in contrast to the unbelief and rejection of the Jews.
• But now Paul has a word for his Gentile listeners, who for the last three chapters have been overhearing the conversation – vss. 20-22 Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.
• Salvation is not a cause for pride, but humility.
• The disobedience of the Jews created a place and an opportunity for the Gentiles. And so, Paul takes great consolation that what looks like a real tragedy was used by God to bring about an incredible blessing.
• And with a bit of wishful optimism, Paul says, wouldn’t it be great if, now that the Gentiles have been brought into the kingdom, that the Jews finally took their cue, prodded by their jealousy of the Gentiles and turned back to the Lord? In vs. 24 he says if God can graft wild olive branches into a cultivated olive tree, how much easier it would be for him to take the natural olive branches and graft them back into their own tree!

And then Paul goes beyond wishful optimism – vs. 25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved.

He calls it a mystery. The truth is this is one of the most difficult verses in all the Bible to explain.
• Is there some magic number of Gentiles? Is God going to re-embrace national, ethnic Israel at some future time? (That is after all a part of what is the root of our national foreign policy toward modern day Israel.)
• Let’s not forget the point that Paul has worked so hard to make throughout Romans:
• 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
• 3:23-24 There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
• 4:16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham.

• Paul’s point is that Jew and Gentile alike are lost in sin, and Jew and Gentile alike will be saved by the grace of God. It is God’s power that saves – not our national heritage or personal pedigree. In fact, it’s not being a physical descendant of Abraham that gives you any special privilege – it’s having the heart and the faith of Abraham – being a spiritual child of Abraham by faith.
• And so when Paul says that “all Israel will be saved” I believe he is looking at the larger picture - the whole of God’s people. “All Israel” is the whole of people of faith.

But having said that, there is something else going on with his meaning. Literal, physical, national Israel was always God’s object lesson to the nations. God’s plan was always for Israel to be his means of salvation to all people (in Gen. 12, God’s blessing upon Abraham was that his descendants would be a blessing to the nations). God’s will WILL be accomplished – whether through their obedience or their disobedience.

And once again, the Jews are God’s object lesson – vss. 30-32 Just as you (that is, Gentiles) who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they (that is, Jews) too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

And the bottom line here is this – Gentiles, you think it’s impossible that the Jews could ever be saved by God? They used to think the same thing about you – but God saved you by his grace and mercy. And now, you think the Jews’ disobedience has put them beyond the reach of God. No way. That’s the only kind of people God has ever saved – those who were disobedient and lost.

One thing Paul promises is that God is never finished. He will never cross your name off the book and give up on you – as long as there is one ounce of possibility that he can bring you back again.

Some of us here this morning have experienced the pain and frustration of abandonment – of waking up to the realization that the one you have trusted isn’t there any longer. We know how difficult it is to hold on to hope, to hold out the hand of reconciliation. And we wonder, how could God do that – not just once, but time and time again.

Others of us have experienced the equally painful results of failure and disobedience in our own lives. We have been the ones to walk away and leave God behind. We have spent time in the far country, as far away from God as we could get. And we wonder, have we gone too far, has God given up on us? How could he possibly take us back again?

The answer is found in Romans.
• Though you are faithless, God remains faithful. God will never abandon you or forsake you.
• He will never cross through your name and close the book on you.
• More than anything in all the world, God wants you home.
• He has already paid the price, he is already running down the road to greet you and welcome you home.
• He is looking for you on the horizon, he is waiting for you to take the first step towards home – he’ll meet you before you take the second.

Illust. – Love Never Gives Up – Natalee Holloway’s mother

It’s easy to get locked into one way of thinking.
• When you do things the same way for so long…
• When you’ve been taught all your life that this is the way things are and no other…
• When logic tells you that if you change your mind you will be indicting, not just the way you have always thought, but the way your mother and father and their mothers and fathers and their mothers and fathers have thought and lived for generations - you will be saying they were wrong and are condemned.
It’s not easy to change.

That’s why Paul writes with such empathy and compassion about the Jews who had missed the Savior and forfeited their salvation. Rom. 9:2-5 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

It’s not because they weren’t sincere. Look at Paul’s own life – his persecution of the church, his imprisoning and putting to death of Christians – he did it believing he was serving God.

It’s not because they didn’t work hard enough - Rom 10:2 “I can testify about them that they are zealous for God…”
Yet, Paul writes that, though they are zealous for God, “…their zeal is not based on knowledge”. As the apostle John writes, He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. (Jn 1:11).

All the zeal, all the hard work, all the sincerity in the world amounts to nothing if you are wrong.
• They rejected the Savior, they had stubbornly chosen their own path. That path was paved with self-righteousness and it led in the opposite direction from God. Listen to vs. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
• For centuries, they had trudged down this path of self-righteousness – blinders of pride and an attitude of “we’re God’s people” keeping them from seeing how far away from God they were traveling.
• In fact, the path God had set for them was one, not of self-righteousness but of his righteousness – and it’s end (or goal, fulfillment, ultimate destination) was Christ (“Christ is the end of the law” Rom. 10:4)
• That was the purpose of the law, Paul writes in Galatians – “to bring us to Christ.”
• Christ himself said, “I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law.”
• At the end of the road of God’s righteousness, of his law, of all the prophets and miracles and exiles – was Christ.
• Everything God did was to bring them to Christ.
• But they continued on their own path of self-righteousness – what they assumed and insisted God wanted. And one day they looked up and God was nowhere to be found!

That’s a scary thought. That we could – in all sincerity, with all zeal, with the best of intentions – find ourselves walking away from God – and be too proud, too headstrong to admit that we are wrong. That what we thought God wanted, wasn’t what God wanted at all. You think it couldn’t happen? Paul writes in 1 Cor. 10:1-5,11-12 – For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert…. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

Now, in 10:5, Paul begins a contrast of these two paths – first the path of righteousness by keeping the law. He quotes Moses, “The man who does these things will live by them.” It’s a lot like what James says – if you are going to live by the law, you had better keep all of it, and keep it perfectly, because if you break the law, even one commandment, you have broken the whole law and are condemned by it, not justified by it.

Here’s the contrast – vs. 6-8 But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming.

Let me tell you what Paul is saying: Righteousness by law keeping is not attainable by humans. But righteousness by faith is a path that is clearly marked and doesn’t require that we climb to the heights of heaven or plumb the depths of the abyss to find it. In fact, it is not a path that we can or should travel alone – we have a guide who leads us and encourages us and assures us along the way. It is not a path newly forged – real righteousness has always been by faith. In fact Paul takes us back to the OT -- Deut. 30:11-14 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Jeremiah echoes that promise – Jer. 31:33-34 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

God’s call to salvation is not exclusive to one people. It is not shrouded in mystery and complicated rituals. It is accessible and universal – it is delightfully simple. Romans 10:9-13 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Don’t misunderstand – when Paul says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” – far from being minimal in its requirements or a ritual formula to be incanted, it is a call to the most radical, absolute commitment of one’s life that can be demanded. It is an absolute surrender to the will of God.

In vs. 14, Paul takes us back to his concern for the Jews. Did no one tell them? Perhaps the news of the Messiah was obscure and hidden? Were they cheated out of their spiritual birthright because someone forgot to let them in on God’s plan?
• And so, in vss. 14-17, Paul walks us through this lyrical progression of the planting and the maturing of faith – How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” … Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
• Was the message preached? Yes. Was the gospel clear? Yes. Did God leave anything about his call uncertain? No.

So where does the problem lie? Look at vs. 16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”

Read vss. 18-21 But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.” And Isaiah boldly says, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.” But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
• Hardened hearts, disobedience, obstinacy.
• Ignorance is not always a lack of information. Ignorance is often a choice we make, an attitude of the heart. There is no one harder to teach than the person who believes he knows it all.

What lies at the end of the path you are traveling? Is Christ your goal? Do you walk by faith? Or – be honest with yourself – is it a path of self-righteousness – self-confident of your own goodness and piety – certain that you are saved because you have performed the right rituals and you go to the right church and you’ve fulfilled God’s demands to the letter of the law.

It is a dangerous path to walk – and unnecessary. God’s path to righteousness is paved with grace, not law – it leads to Christ, and he calls you to come and follow him.
Hebrews 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”

Let’s spend just a few moments in chapter 11 as we close, because in this chapter, we find hope and redemption for those who seem beyond hope and redemption.

Years ago, Diana’s dad had some native pecan trees growing in their yard. The shells were small and hard, the meat wasn’t very tasty – they just weren’t worth much. Then her dad took some branches from some papershell pecan trees and grafted them into the native trees. Those branches grew and budded and began to produce those wonderful large, tasty pecans that are so delicious – and you could crack them with your fingers.

Paul uses that kind of imagery to describe what God did with the Gentiles. Those Jews had grown hard and fruitless and rebellious toward God. And so God cut off the native branches and grafted in the Gentiles and soon they were growing and producing fruit and thriving in the grace of God’s love.

It was sad for the Jews, but it created an opportunity for God’s love to be extended to everyone because the Jews had rejected God. But does that mean that God was finished with the Jews? Well, listen to Paul in 11:11-12 - Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

What is Paul saying? He’s saying that if the inclusion of the Gentiles because of the Jews’ rebellion was such an occasion for joy and celebration, wouldn’t it be even more wonderful if God’s people Israel turned their hearts back to God and were re-grafted into God’s kingdom? He says in vs. 15 – For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

He is saying, don’t count Israel out. God is never finished – no one is ever beyond redemption. In fact, God has always kept a remnant faithful to him – look back in vs 5: So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is not longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

God’s redemption and salvation are always by grace and always by God’s mercy. God celebrates that you and I, Gentiles, have been added into his kingdom, but he has always had a heart for his people Israel, and nothing would thrill him more than for them to experience the same grace that he has extended to us through the blood of his Son, Jesus.

And just about the time we think we have God figured out, that his reasoning begins to make sense, then we are blown away by the amazing, incomprehensible love of God who loves us in spite of it all –
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?�� Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)

I hope you’ve had a wonderful week full of victories and celebrations. But I know that some of you have had an awful week with struggles and defeats. And it is to you that Paul writes Romans 8 – to give you hope and courage while you struggle with life and try to make sense of it all.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:18-23)

Paul wrote this passage for those of us who try to keep our world together and under control – the seams from bursting – the wheels from coming off – by the strength of our own will and efforts. Now, we know that God is in charge and he’s almighty and all that, but deep down, if you want to know the real truth – he’s counting on me to keep it together.

The struggle comes because all too often, the wheels feel awfully loose and the seams are seeping, and we are sure that it’s all going to come flying apart just any day now. And it scares us to death, because we’ll have to clean up the mess and try to put it all back together– and we’re not sure we’re up to it.

And then our world does come apart – a husband or a wife or a child dies, we lose our job, the doctor tells us we have cancer, we lose our health, our child gets in trouble, a friend betrays us, our spouse abandons us – what then? Who do you blame? How do you cope?

That’s where Paul steps in – his pronouncement is clear and simple: You were never in charge to begin with. God is and has always been.
• God knows every hair on your head, he is aware of every step that you take and every thought that you think. And he loves you without limit and with no strings attached.
• And God is able to work in every situation, every event, every victory and every tragedy – and bring about good in your life. There are going to be some terrible, life-shattering events in your life, God is there also – God is there.
• And God is working – he is weaving them all together and he knows what that final tapestry is going to look like. All you and I see are a bunch of loose threads hanging in the back, some mismatched colors and you wonder – “What in the world is happening?!”

But God just keeps weaving – taking everything, literally everything – the bright, colorful threads of joy and celebration, and the dark, somber threads of sorrow and pain – and weaving them all into the beautiful tapestry of your life. Listen to the language Paul uses in 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Sometimes it’s scary, sometimes it feels like we’re out of control. there are times when we feel like God has abandoned us and we don’t know what to do.
And so Paul writes Romans 8 for people a whole lot like you and me. For all our best intentions, and in spite of our very best efforts, things go wrong – and we need a word of assurance that God has not abandoned us. In fact, the news is better than we could ever have dreamed or hoped for. Not only is God there for us – he is in control.

Understand the context in which God does all this – he is molding us into the likeness of his Son – vs. 29 – “that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
“Brothers” – look back in vss. 15-17 “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” – Sonship, we cry Abba Father, we are God’s children, heirs–look in vs 23 “adoption as sons.”

This isn’t a disinterested, impersonal, platonic action from a benevolent higher power. This is a father seeking the very best for his children. We are involved in a relationship with a Father who will stop at nothing to give us the very best.

Isn’t that what vs. 32 is saying? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? That’s the heart of a Father.

Paul asks a series of questions in these verses – “If God is for us…
vs. 31 Who can be against us?
vs. 33 Who will bring a charge against those whom God has chosen?
vs. 34 Who is he that condemns?
vs. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of God?
And the answer to all four questions is “NO ONE.”
Let’s hear the power of that answer – “If God is for us…
who can be against us? [NO ONE]
who will bring a charge against us? [NO ONE]
who will condemn us? [NO ONE]
who will separate us from the love of God? [NO ONE]
No one – not your enemies who hate you, not your friends who know you best, not Satan himself who would kill for your soul.

And all the bad things that happen in our lives? Paul’s been there – vs. 35 “Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” And in answer he quotes Ps. 44 “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” He covers a lot of bases. Paul has experienced a lot of bad things.
What can separate you from God? Paul says nothing can separate you. In another place, Paul writes, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

Nothing can separate you – no tragedy or temptation can destroy you. God always provides a path through it – but – you can choose to walk away, to give up.
I have known so many people, who, when they faced problems in their lives, decided to take a break away from God until they got their problems solved. They hole up, they isolate themselves, they go into crisis mode. But they shut out God, they shut out his church, they cut themselves off from the very things that can make sense and bring healing to their lives. Instead of running to the arms of God, they flee from his presence. And God weeps.

He weeps because of the pain and suffering his children will suffer – but more than that, he weeps because they have lost hope and faith.

But God is still there – he is faithful. And Paul looks at our problems and he looks at God, and he asks – who is bigger, who is stronger, who is more powerful? God is. And when God is for us, who can be against us? And then he throws off the wraps and unveils a peek (just a peek) at the finished tapestry – “we are more than conquerors” (he coins a word just for this -- hupernikao – “super-victorious”) – “through him who loved us” – (past tense – points back to the cross). That’s where the victory was won, that’s where his love was most powerfully and definitively displayed.

And let’s not miss the path to victory – “In all these things…” All these things includes the suffering, the persecution, the pain – “IN all these things” – not around them, or delivered from them – but through the middle of them. Christ’s victory was not around the cross but through the cross – his glory was not in spite of the cross, but because of the very fact of the cross.
And there will be times when God’s path to our victory is not around but through our suffering.

But this chapter does not end in a minor key. This is not a morbid call to resign ourselves to fate. Listen to Paul’s beautiful song of victory when he sings – vss. 38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Now I saved four verses back in the middle of the chapter to end with. And for me, these four verse really answer the question we began with – When things are falling apart around you, how do you turn it all over to God?
Look at vss. 24-27 For in this hope we were saved. [That’s the hope of our adoption and redemption from the frustration and decay and groaning while everything is falling apart.] But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Two things that Paul says will help us trust that God is in control:
“In this hope we are saved” – Hope and faith are huge with God. He doesn’t want us to trust him because all our questions have been answered and all our doubts dispelled. He wants us to trust him because he has promised to take care of us – and because he has shown himself trustworthy.
Hope is not a blind stab in the dark, not a flippant “I hope so, but probably isn’t going to happen,” but a confident trust in one who has proved trustworthy so many times you can’t begin to count them. But it is a hope in what we can’t see. After all, Paul says, if you’ve seen it, it isn’t hope. (Isn’t it interesting that that’s exactly what the Hebrews writer says about faith – the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.) Hope puts you into the frame of mind of waiting – waiting patiently. So, if you’re in the middle of a storm, put your hope in the one who has brought many of his children before you through the storm. (Chorus to a song: Sometimes he calms the storm, other times he calms his child.)

Hope is the first key to trusting God. And then Paul reveals the second:

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness” Remember two weeks ago, how we saw the power of God’s Holy Spirit who lives in us helping us to say no to sin and living the life God calls us to live. The Spirit also helps us through those painful, difficult times of uncertainty. And specifically he helps us as we pray. Paul says, “we don’t even know what to pray for [I’ve been there – I’m not against God’s will, I’d just like to know what it is]… but the Spirit himself intercedes for us.” We are not alone in this struggle – the Spirit is at the very throne of God petitioning the Father on our behalf. Even when we don’t know what to ask for, he knows the longing of our hearts, and he pours out that longing to the heart of God.

So when the world is falling apart around you – put your hope in God who has always done and will always do everything that he has ever promised.

Know that nothing can diminish his love for you and there is nothing that is out of his control – and that at this very moment – whatever you are going through – he will use it to bring about something good in your life.

And pray – even when you don’t know what to pray for – pray. The Holy Spirit, who is God’s gift to you – a promise of his unconditional love – is working in your life and interceding in your prayers and helping in your weakness.

I don’t know what kind of crisis you are going to face and I don’t know when it will come – but it will. How are you going to respond? Will you hold the hand of God, surrounded by his people as you walk through it to victory?

Intro: That’s why God made families

And that's why God made the church - so that we might see the face of the risen Jesus in the faces of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  The risen Lord lives in us, his face shines in ours.  We are the risen church.

Everyone wanted to see Jesus, to know what he looked like, to experience the excitement that had surrounded him everywhere he went. As the week of Passover dawned in Jerusalem everyone expected something was about to happen.

The week began with crowds gathering, palm branches waving, adrenalin flowing, the city resounding with shouts that the Messiah was entering the holy city, the rocks ready to shout out themselves in celebration that the King had arrived!

As the week progressed, a growing controversy arose as Jesus drove out the money changers from the Temple area, who had defiled religion and made it a source of their own gain. As he taught in the Temple, as he was confronted by Pharisees trying to put a check on the enthusiasm of the crowds.

As the week progressed, Jesus’ opponents quietly went about spreading their poison, wielding their influence through threats and intimidation. They looked for the opportunity to arrest Jesus and enforce their justice – a justice that would pervert decency and order, and would bring about the verdict and the sentence that had been determined months earlier when the high priest Caiaphas had prophesied, “It is expedient that one man should die for the people than that the whole nation perish” (John 11:50).

Thursday evening as Jesus and his disciples met in the Upper Room, as Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, as he washed the disciples’ feet, as Satan entered the heart of Judas – the plan came together.

Later that night in the Garden . . . prayers to the Father . . . sleeping disciples . . . soldiers’ footsteps . . . a kiss . . . the arrest . . . a trial begins -- Annas – Caiaphas – Sanhedrin – Pilate – Herod – Pilate … cries of “Crucify him, crucify him” . . . washed hands. . . justice perverted.

Friday morning, as the words of Pilate, “I find no basis for a charge against him” were muffled by the inflamed shouts of the crowds, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Jesus was flogged and scourged and beaten, and began the walk, carrying his cross through the streets of Jerusalem that would end in the climb to the summit of the rock outside the gate that was named, Golgotha, the place of the skull.

The nails were pounded in and the cross was hoisted into place and Jesus began the six most important hours in all the course of human history. To most who looked on, they were a sign of dismal defeat – a cruel end to what looked like the most glorious star to rise on heaven’s horizon. And now look at him – stripped naked, blood and spit dripping down his face, crucified between two thieves like a common criminal. He cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and then, “It is finished.” The earth quakes and the sky turns dark and people flee in terror. And for his disciples, surely the end of the world has come.

And if the story had ended on Friday with the sky dark, the body laid in a borrowed tomb, and the disciples huddling in fear behind the locked doors of that rented upper room.
If Sunday morning had come and the soldiers had to remove the stone for those three women who had come to anoint and prepare the body . . . .

Well, as Paul said, “there would be no resurrection, and we who have hope in Christ, are to be pitied more than all men.”
Christianity crumbles without the foundation of the resurrection. Paul says:
• Our preaching is useless
• Your faith is worthless
• We are false witnesses about God –
for he would be a liar.
• If Christ was not raised from the dead – we are still in our sins, lost and without hope in the world. Defeated.

Not at all to mean that the cross was defeat. The cross was the very climax of God’s perfect plan to rescue man from sin. It was on the cross that Jesus, the perfect high priest – the perfect sacrificial lamb of God – paid the price of redemption. If not for the cross, you and I would be hopelessly, helplessly enslaved to sin. So the cross was the glory of God’s gift to man.

But if it had ended on the cross, if Christ had not been raised…

But that’s not the end of the story, God is not finished.

And Luke begins the last chapter of his Gospel by telling us the rest of the story:
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! (Luke 24:1-6)

He was raised, Christ triumphed over death, God raised him from the grave. It is because of the resurrection that the blood of Christ was not shed in vain on the cross. The resurrection vindicated the claims of the one who said, “Tear down this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The cross and the resurrection in tandem are the power of God to save a world lost in sin.

It is the resurrection that is the ultimate demonstration of the power and the wisdom of God. The resurrection changes everything.

It changes how we live here and now. It changes our attitudes, our thinking, our behavior, our very lives:

Colossians 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

2 Cor. 5:14-17 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

And if the resurrection changes what we are now, it certainly changes what we shall be:

1 Cor. 15:42-44, 50-57 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body….
And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Did you hear what Paul said? When you die, this mortal, weak, sinful body will be transformed into a new, eternal, spiritual body – just like Jesus. No more pain, no more illness, no more sin, no more death. Your body as it was intended to be – incorruptible, imperishable, immortal.

It is our baptism that anticipates the resurrection and this new life in heaven.

Romans 6:3-5 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

In Mark’s Gospel, there is a strange note there on that first Easter morning. The women had gone to the tomb, had found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty and an angel who announced, “He has risen! He is not here!” And then Mark writes, Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

In the face of the best news that could ever be announced, they had responded with despair and defeat. To be sure, they were overwhelmed with the moment, and later they couldn’t keep the good news to themselves, but their initial response was disbelief and doubt. And I’m not sure we’re a lot different in how we respond to the wonderful news that Jesus has risen and is alive.

What should thrill us beyond belief, and fill our hearts with excitement and celebration often brings an apathetic yawn of boredom. Risen? Living? I don’t see it, I don’t get it. Wake me when you’ve got some real news.

It reminds me of the life of W.E. Sangster, a minister in Great Britain during the middle decades of last century. He began to notice some uneasiness in his throat and a dragging in his leg. When he went to the doctor, he was diagnosed with an incurable disease that caused progressive muscular atrophy. His muscles would gradually waste away, his voice would fail, his throat would soon become unable to swallow. Sangster threw himself into the work of writing and encouraging. He prayed: Let me stay in the struggle, Lord. I don’t mind if I can no longer be a general, but give me a regiment to lead.” He wrote articles and books and helped organize prayer cells throughout England. “I’m only in the kindergarten of suffering” he told people who pitied him. Gradually Sangster’s legs became useless. His voice went completely. But he could still hold a pen, shakily. On Easter morning, just a few weeks before he died, he wrote a letter to his daughter. In it, he said, “It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice to shout, ‘He is risen!’ – but it would be still more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout.”

It’s time to wake up and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it is time to wake up and live in the power of our own resurrected lives.

We have walked with Paul through his Roman letter as he has taken us on a spiritual journey. It began with a declaration of the purpose of his letter – “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith” (Rom. 1:16-17).

He introduces righteousness as the theme – and then proceeds to walk us through three steps in our relationship with righteousness:
• 1:18-3:20 – Righteousness needed
• 3:21-5:21 – Righteousness provided
• 6-7 – Righteousness experienced

Yet, as we discovered last week, even when we die to sin and our relationship with sin is severed in that death we experience in baptism, Satan does not give up the fight. Paul shared with us his personal struggle with sin – “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing” (7:18-19). And so with Paul we cry out, “O wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And the answer – “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

If we have seen righteousness needed, provided and experienced – in ch. 8, we see “righteousness empowered.” In ch. 8, Paul introduces us to a new force in this spiritual battle – the Holy Spirit of God. Apart from Christ, depending on our own resources, we are helpless. We can will to be good, we may have the very best intentions – but we will never have more than a fleeting, temporary victory. Satan is too strong, he has too many resources in his battle for our soul.

At the cross, Jesus won that victory over sin and death. He redeemed us from slavery and set us free from prison.
In baptism, we were united with him in his death, burial and resurrection. His blood washed over us in cleansing forgiveness – we were raised from the water a new creature.

Something else happened at our baptism. It is at that moment that God sent his Holy Spirit to dwell within us. As we came up out of that water, we did not come up alone.

Paul describes this indwelling:
• 1 Cor. 3:16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
• 1 Cor. 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
• Eph. 1:13-14 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
• Rom. 5:4 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
God’s Spirit dwelling within us!

His presence has a very powerful purpose – 2 Cor. 3:17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

In Romans 8, Paul addresses the work of God’s Spirit in our lives more fully, more completely than anywhere else in the Bible. It is one of those mountain peak chapters in the Bible – 1 Cor. 13 is the ch. on love / Heb. 11 – faith / Rom. 8 is the Holy Spirit chapter – let’s read the first 14 vss –
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. //

The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. //

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:1-14)

19 times in the chapter Paul names the Holy Spirit – the nature, the purpose, the power of the Spirit.
As he has done in previous chapters, he sets up a series of contrasts:
• vs. 2 – Law of the Spirit of life / law of sin and death
• vs. 6 – Mind of sinful man is death / mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.
• vs. 13 – If you live according to sinful nature, you will die; if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live.

It’s not just that people’s lives apart from God are ruled by different values – that we make some different choices as followers of Christ. It’s not just that we don’t participate in worldly activities, or spend Sunday mornings in a different place than worldly people.

The contrast that Paul draws between the person with the Spirit and the person without the Spirit is the difference between life and death.

Paul paints a very dramatic picture: Christ entered a world under the power of sin – vs 3a “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature…” – the law was powerless to keep sin in check. Sin brought guilt, guilt demanded justice, justice brought condemnation, condemnation brought death.

Did you hear how relentlessly the sinful nature pursues us – how ruthlessly it controls us?
Listen again to the helpless of man under the control of sin apart from the Spirit of God:
• vs 6 the mind of sinful man is death
• vs 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
• vs 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
• vs 13 if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die

Christ entered this sin-filled, Satan-dominated world, not as a helpless participant, but as the very one who would break sin’s hold – vs 3-4a For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us.

His work is not finished. Christ continues to work in the lives of his followers. He broke the hold of sin, that through the work of his Holy Spirit, God continually renews and enlivens and empowers his people to resist sin as they grow more and more into the likeness of his son – vs. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

The HS lives and works in you today. That is the promise of God. Though Satan remains a powerful force, and sin remains a present reality, we are no longer helpless and powerless against them – vs. 9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.
• In the power of the HS, God gives us the strength to say no to the temptations of Satan.
• And more important – when we do sin – he gives us healing and renewal through the HS.

Life in the Spirit means that --
• Though Satan roams about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour – we’re not on his menu.
• Though the world might be dominated by Satan – enslaved by sin, terrified of death – we walk around free and unafraid.
• Though Satan holds the threat of hell over every human being, Paul confidently proclaims, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2).
• Satan no longer has a claim on you – sin no longer has a hold on you.

Wouldn’t that be a great feeling?
• To have your slate wiped clean – not just once, but every day – erased to start fresh.
• Everything you had ever done which brought pain and shame and guilt and fear – gone. And to know that everything you will ever do – gone – with the same loving grace and forgiveness.
• To have confidence in your salvation?
• To boldly say “no” when sin calls?

Dr. S.D. Gordon, a Boston preacher, one day placed a beat-up rusted bird cage beside his pulpit, and proceeded to tell how he happened to have it. He had encountered a grubby, dirty little boy, about 10, coming out of the alley swinging this old bird cage. Several tiny birds were shivering on the floor of the cage. Dr. Gordon asked the boy where he got the birds, and he said he trapped them.. When Dr. Gordon asked the boy what he was going to do with them, he replied, "I'm going to play with them, have fun with them." Dr. Gordon said, "Sooner or later you're going to get tired of that; then what are you going to do with them?" The boy responded, "I have cats at home. They like birds. I'll feed 'em to my cats." The compassionate Dr. Gordon asked, "Son, how much do you want for these birds?" Surprised, the boy said, "Mister, you don't want these birds. They're just plain old field birds. They can't sing. They're ugly." "Just tell me how much you want," said Gordon. The boy thought... squinted... hesitated...calculated and finally said, "two dollars?" To his surprise, Dr. Gordon reached into his pocket and handed him two crisp dollar bills. The preacher took the cage, in a flash the boy had disappeared down the alley. In a sheltered crevice between the buildings Dr. Gordon opened the door of the cage and, tapping on the rusty exterior, encouraged the birds to find their way to the door and fly away. Having accounted for the empty cage beside the pulpit, the preacher went on to tell what seemed like an unconnected story - about how one day long ago Jesus and the devil were involved in negotiations. Satan boasted about how he had baited the trap in the garden of Eden and caught a world full of people. Jesus asked, "What are you going to do with all those people?" "I'm going to play with them, tease them, make them marry and divorce and fight and kill one another. I'm going to teach then to throw bombs at each other. I'm going to have fun with them." Jesus said, "You can't have fun with them forever. When you get tired of playing with them, then what will you do with them?" Satan said, "Damn them. They're no good anyway. I'll damn them. Kill them." Christ asked, "How much do you want for them?" Satan said, "You can't be serious. If I sell them to you they'll hate you. They'll hit you and hammer nails into you. They're no good!" "How much?" demanded Jesus. "All your tears and your blood; that's the price," Satan growled. And Jesus paid the price and opened the door. (from Paul Harvey)

Let’s just clear something up right now. It has sounded through the first 6 chapters of Romans like Paul is against the Law – has no use for the Law – that the Law is the enemy of grace and righteousness.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Paul has the highest regard for the Law:
Rom. 7:12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Gal. 3:21 Is the law opposed to the purposes of God? Absolutely not!
1 Tim. 1:8 We know that the law is good, if one uses it properly.
And there is the rub…
God had given the law for one purpose, but they had attempted to use it for another. They had taken the law and made it an instrument of attaining righteousness. But it could never do that. It could do only one thing – show them how utterly sinful they were.

Paul makes that very clear there in 1 Timothy 1. He had just said in vs 8 that the law is good if one uses it properly. But then he explains – vs 9 We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine.

Did you hear him? The law is not made for the righteous but for the ungodly and sinful. God didn’t give the law to help you feel good about yourself, but to point out how sinful you are.

There are two ways of looking at yourself – in a picture or in a mirror. When you go to have your picture made – you dress up nice and look pretty good (they’ll even touch it up for you and get rid of all the blemishes and pimples and gray hair!) But when you come into the bathroom after working in the garden, you look in the mirror – there you are with all that dirt and grime.

The Law is like the mirror. It holds up a reflection in which you see yourself exactly like you are. It’s not like you intend to be, but there you are – covered with sin. (Now, realize you were already dirty before you looked in the mirror – and you were already a sinner before you saw yourself in the Law). Here you are stained with sin.

Can the Law do anything about that? Can the Law scrub you up and make you look better? No – it wasn’t intended to make you righteous or make you look righteous. In fact, if you follow Paul’s discussion in Galatians, the Law is like a school bus driver – it is put in charge to deliver us to the one who can do something about our condition. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith (Gal. 3:24).

Paul never denigrates the law or blames the law for our condition – the law did exactly what God intended for it to do. It’s not the mirror’s fault you are dirty, nor the mirror’s job to clean you up. It shows you how you look. Nor is it the Law’s fault you are a sinner, nor its job to clean you up. God gave the Law to show you who you are – and to lead you to the one who can cleanse you.

In chapter 7, Paul lets us into his personal life. I’m glad he did. It’s one thing to hear someone say, “hypothetically, theoretically, if you weren’t as good as I am, this is what sin would look like.” But Paul doesn’t do that – he transparently lets us see inside his own struggle with sin.
Here, Paul – and you and I – (his struggle is our struggle) are going about our lives – ignorant of the significance or the implications of our actions. We are just acting in a natural, human way. Suddenly, we learn that the Law says “Do not covet.”

Now, it had never occurred to us that coveting was a sin – it just seemed like a natural thing to do – to be envious and desire what someone else has. Everyone does it – it’s human nature.

But now, I learn a whole new side of human nature – if someone tells me not to do something – that some action or attitude is forbidden – I can’t get my mind off of it. It grips me, it takes over – twice Paul says, Sin, seizing the opportunity… – first, in vs 8 he says, it produced in me every kind of covetous desire – and second, in vs 11, sin deceived me and put me to death.

For a while, we’ll go around feeling guilty because we are sinning. We know it’s wrong, we shouldn’t be doing it – but with all our very best intentions never to do it again, we still do.

But after awhile, sin starts to work on us – it’s not that bad, it’s not a very big sin – it rationalizes for us, it excuses us, it convinces us – that sin isn’t… sin!

Don’t ever think of sin as some impassive, inert thing out there which we can just quietly avoid and stay out of trouble by minding our own business. Sin is the tool of the devil – and the devil is actively looking for a way to ensnare you (remember Peter’s description – “a roaring lion…”) – and he uses sin as skillfully and wisely as any craftsman. The moment we think we are above sin, or that the devil has given up on us, then you had better watch out.

We don’t intend to sin – we really want to do what is right – our intentions are the very best – but – listen to Paul himself – vss. 15-19 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

Have you ever felt that way? I have. So, what do we do? Are we condemned to a life of weak-willed, hopeless addiction to sin? Are the answers found in some kind of rehab program, maybe a 12-step approach, maybe psychotherapy? I don’t want to disparage those, and those may indeed be a part of the solution. But our basic problem is not that we don’t have enough information (like a TV drama where suddenly the light comes on and the person realizes their problem started when mom took me off the bottle too early – and they’re cured) – more education will not make us more able to avoid sin. Ours is not a problem of the head, but with the heart – it is not a problem of the intellect, but of the will. And more information will not solve that.

Paul isn’t just disinterestedly shouting out instructions to us – he is walking with us through this mess. He says, when my best human efforts fall short, … I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (vss. 21-24).

There is a war being waged for our soul. His soul – our souls. We are in the trenches and the battle is going against us – our ammunition is ineffective, and we are quickly running out – it seems like only a matter of time – “the wages of sin is death” and payday is coming.
Have you ever felt like that? You try harder, you resolve, you promise. But you are exhausted, frustrated and helpless to do what you want to do. I have. Paul did.

When was the last time you admitted you just couldn’t do it on your own? When was the last time you just threw off the brave face, the strong façade and said, “I can’t do it” ? It’s easier to say, “all have sinned” than to admit “I have sinned.”The point is that, until we do, God’s resources remain unused and gathering dust. As long as we keep hitching up our boots, trying a little harder, being a little better, we’re on our own. Making more rules and being harsher on ourselves won’t cut it either – because sin loves looking for loopholes in our self-imposed rules.
Paul came to the end of his rope and cried out, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
Until Paul’s cry is our cry, we will only experience more of the same.

Paul doesn’t leave us hopeless. Bad news is always followed by good news:
3:23 “We have all sinned … and are justified freely by his grace”
5:8 “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
6:23 “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life.”
Eph. 2 “You were dead in transgressions and sins… but God in his rich mercy saved us.”

And here in Romans 7:25, Paul has laid out his struggle and frustration and then his cry of desperation – “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And his cry of relief – “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Sin does not have to be our master – Satan does not have to be victorious. In our powerlessness over sin, God begins his work. In your struggle with sin, God has weapons and resources against which Satan himself is powerless.

And though Paul doesn’t reveal God’s source of this power until chapter 8, I want to lay the flap open just a bit for us to begin to sense the incredible strength which Paul will offer to the Christian in his battle against Satan – Romans 8:1-4 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

“No condemnation - the law of the Spirit of life – set free – live according to the Spirit.” Phrases that tell us there is so much more than a daily struggle with sin. God makes our lives victorious through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Back in chapter 5, Paul told us that God “poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

Now, in ch. 8, we will find out that this Spirit who lives within us plays a huge role in our lives as he empowers us and enables us to live the life God has called us to live. We are not powerless to sin, Satan has no hold over us, we are victorious in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Paul asks a crucial question in Romans 6:1 “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”
He’s anticipating a question he has heard before – it’s a little philosophical game some were playing with grace. It went something like this – God is in the forgiving business, and I’m helping God out by making business good.
• It began back in 3:5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us?
• 3:7 Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?”
• Continued in 5:20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.
• And now in 6:1 Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
• And he answers them in 6:2 – By no means!

If we come away from Paul’s discussion of grace and assume it doesn’t matter how you live because grace will simply take care of it and sweep sin under the rug, we have tragically misunderstood grace.

Grace is the freedom from sin, not a license to sin.
Grace calls us, not to a licentious abuse of this freedom, but to the most absolute kind of holiness.

We can’t begin to understand what Paul is trying to tell us – this very graphic drama that is played out – if we do not first understand his picture of sin.
• Sin is a prison. (Do you doubt it? Try breaking a bad habit.) And we have been given a sentence of death and are living out our days on death row.
• Sin is an inoperable malignant cancer whose tentacles have wrapped themselves around our vital organs and are squeezing the life out of us.

We are locked in this prison, decimated by this disease. We cannot free ourselves or cure ourselves. Only one thing will release us – death. The warden must come out and announce – “the prisoner died at 6:05 this evening.” The funeral home must release the obituary – “John Roberts passed away Saturday morning after a lengthy illness.” There is no other way.

And so Paul’s response – We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer? It’s a theme he repeats 7 times:
vs 3 “we were baptized into his death.”
vs 4 “we were buried with him through baptism into death”
vs 5 “we have been united with him in his death”
vs 6 “our old self was crucified with him”
vs 7 “anyone who has died”
vs 8 “we died with Christ”
vs 11 “count yourselves dead to sin”

And this death has a very specific purpose - listen again:
vs 6 our old self was crucified with him SO THAT the body of sin might be done away with”
vs 6 SO THAT we should no longer be slaves to sin
vs 7 anyone who has died has been freed from sin
vs 8 if we died with Christ, we will also live with him
vs 11 count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God
vs 12 do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires
vs 13 do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness
vs 13 you have been brought from death to life
vs 14 sin shall not be your master

The question really asks
• “You have been freed from prison – why would you want to go back and live again behind bars on death row?”
• “You have been freed from your cancer, why would you want cancerous cells re-injected back into your body?”

Let’s step back a moment to vss. 3-4 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Paul does not make an argument for baptism – he assumes baptism. This is not written to the unbeliever convincing him to be baptized, but to the Christian who has been baptized to live like it. Baptism is no lifeless ritual, no ceremony for babies, no rite of passage into adulthood. Baptism is no less than our union with Christ. F. LaGard Smith calls baptism the wedding ceremony of the believer.

As we read what Paul says, we come to understand a great deal about the necessity of baptism, the significance of baptism, he even presents a dramatic enactment of baptism – listen to one writer’s interpretation of Paul’s words – “That plunge beneath the running waters was like a death; the moment’s pause while they swept overhead was like a burial; the standing erect once more in air and sunlight was a type of resurrection.”

We could say much about the particulars and details of baptism. But for Paul, in this discussion, its relevance is in what happens to our relationship to sin. It is written to the man or woman who, having been baptized, find themselves again and again flirting with sin, enticed by sin, companions with sin.

Imagine a young couple at the altar – they vow to love, honor and cherish each other as long as they both shall live. The preacher says “you may kiss the bride” – down the aisle they go, arm in arm. Minutes later at the reception he’s flirting with the bridesmaids. Days later, home from the honeymoon, she comes home one afternoon to find him in bed with another woman. “It’s unbelievable! How could you! Have you forgotten what you promised? Doesn’t our marriage mean anything to you?”

We just can’t imagine how anyone could be so faithless, so absolutely untrustworthy, who could so blatantly disregard the covenant they had just made.

But let’s come back to Paul’s concern. To return to sin after sealing your soul in baptism is like committing adultery on your honeymoon. We have been united with Christ in a covenant relationship – how can we even consider going back to our old lover, sin?

That’s the language Paul uses in vs. 3 – “Don’t you know?” “Have you forgotten?”
When we were baptized we willingly committed our life to Christ. We were inseparably united with him in his death, his burial, his resurrection.

Death to sin is always followed by life in Christ. Burial is always followed by resurrection. Vs. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

Baptism is our funeral in which we die to the old self - we severe our relationship with sin. But at that very instant, baptism also becomes the delivery room in which we are lifted out of the waters, born anew in the Spirit of God. Paul’s words in 2 Cor. 5:17 become real for us – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come!

Travel back to the prison for a moment. Walk through the corridors to the old cell that held you captive. Peer through the bars and what do you see? There he is – it is Christ – he took our place, he bore our guilt, he suffered our punishment.

Look through the window into the hospital room and there he is – it is Christ – he took our disease, he suffered our pain, he died our death. In one incredible moment in baptism, Christ takes our place on the cross and experiences our sin, and bears our punishment. We experience his death, his burial and his resurrection. When we come out of that water, we will not, we cannot ever be the same.

Some time ago, I had a woman call and hatefully accuse us of teaching salvation by works because we believe in the importance and necessity of baptism.

I take exception. The only work in baptism is God’s work. God’s grace absolutely excludes any possibility of me doing anything to deserve salvation. My baptism doesn’t earn me one second in heaven.

But baptism isn’t a work of merit, it is a response of faith. I don’t see how in the world getting soaked in water can make a difference with God – but the Bible tells me that it is God’s will – part of God’s plan. And so by faith, I submitted myself to this humbling, audacious response of faith.

Is baptism necessary? You tell me.
• If baptism is that event in which God tells us we die to self and are raised to life;
• If baptism is that moment in which the blood of Christ washes over our sins and cleanses us with God’s forgiveness;
• If baptism is that profound moment in which God’s Holy Spirit takes up residence and begins to dwell within us;
• If baptism is God’s welcome into his family, the church
• You tell me – is baptism necessary?

I hope that if you have been baptized, that it was not some ritual you did years ago to please your parents, or to be like your friends, or to appease your conscience. I hope that it was, and is, a living, daily reminder of a relationship that began that day – that you experience every day the freedom from sin, the joy of forgiveness, and the gift of life that is only in Christ and begins with baptism.

Archaeology has taught us something remarkable about how the early Christians viewed baptism. Our modern day baptistries resemble something like a hot tub or a miniature swimming pool. The earliest baptistries bore a remarkable resemblance to tombs and mausoleums. It was like being baptized in a coffin. They were a place of death and burial. Those who went into the waters of baptism were reminded in a very stark way that in baptism they were dying to self.

This morning, Jesus’ invitation is to come and die to sin and to self, so that you may live forever in him.

Paul begins Romans 5 with the word “Therefore” – and in that word summarizes everything he has said in the first four chapters – “since we have been justified through faith.” Justified, not because we are Jews, or because of our moral goodness, or because we look better compared with others, but justified through faith. Because this is true, Paul says, there are several things that take place:

We have peace with God
• Most of us aren’t even at peace with ourselves. Whether we are in conflict with our family members or our co-workers or in our own hearts, we have never experienced real peace. Peace is such an elusive quality, because we never can really find it as an end in itself. The more we pursue peace, the more turmoil we experience. The only place we can find real peace is in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
• But when we experience peace with God, and really, only then, can we experience peace in any other area of our life. The problem we experience in our marriages, isn’t that we are at odds with each other, it’s first and foremost that we’re at odds with God. But when we are at peace with God, then we can start to find healing and harmony in our relationships with others.
• And Paul says that when we enter into this relationship of grace through faith, then and only then will we experience peace with God.

We have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand
• What a fascinating term – “gained access.” It is that welcome into the family – free entry, no restrictions – you’re given the key to the front door and told to make yourself at home.
• And it has a permanence and a sturdiness that many of us have never experienced – Paul writes, “this grace in which we stand.”
• Wouldn’t you like to have a confidence in your relationship with God? No more wondering, have I been good enough? Have I sinned too much? Will God let me into heaven? Paul says when we enter into this relationship of grace, we stand boldly and confidently in the presence of God.
• We don’t have to worry about sneaking in under the radar, hoping God doesn’t notice and toss us out. No, he welcomes us in with open arms – through the front door – with the enthusiasm and joy we would express when our son or daughter comes home after being gone too long.

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God
• Ever notice how reality never lives up to expectations? First car, graduation, promotion, new baby? At first they seem exciting and full of promise – but that car gets its first ding, graduation means you have to get a job, a promotions comes with extra responsibility, and babies? They’re a lot of work – 3 am feedings and dirty diapers.
• In this new relationship where grace embraces us, hope brings a joy to our lives. Hope isn’t a pipe dream of “wouldn’t it be nice, but it probably won’t happen.” Hope built on God’s grace brings rejoicing to our hearts because we know it is based on what God has promised, not on what we have accomplished. Hope doesn’t wear out and tarnish. Hope gives us strength for each day, keeps our faith fresh, fills us with anticipation as we look forward to what God is going to do in our life today.

Not only do we rejoice in hope, but we rejoice in our sufferings
• When we are in God’s grace we are able to reframe – put into perspective – all of the events and experiences in our lives. We are no longer victims of fate, never again battered and shamed. God takes all of our suffering and uses it to mold and shape us - to strengthen and forge us into men and women of God.
• It is a process of growth and maturity in which we see God build block upon block, strength upon strength – suffering produces perseverance – perseverance, character – and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us.

And finally, Paul writes, God forges us in the furnace and on the anvil of suffering into vessels into which God pours out his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.

What does that look like? Paul doesn’t throw some abstract concept out and leave it at that. In vs. 6 Paul begins to paint the most powerful portrait of love we could ever imagine. It is the story of love that is uniquely God –

Romans 5:6-8 “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
• We can imagine someone who reciprocates love to someone they care about and who loves them back.
• We can even imagine sacrificing our self for a friend or a loved one.
• But when we have loved out of the deepest depths of our human capacity to love – we have not even begun to scratch the surface of God’s love.
• God doesn’t just talk about love, he demonstrates it. And here is the most powerful demonstration one can imagine. Jesus died for us. Not in the prime of our goodness, not just for those who are godly, not for those who try their hardest – but while we were still sinners.

Here’s what God’s love looks like:
• God loved us while we were powerless, helpless, ungodly, sinners.
• Vs. 10 – he adds that God loved us while we were his enemies.
• He didn’t wait for us to successfully complete a 12-step, clean-up-your-act program.
• He didn’t refuse his love until we came begging.
• He didn’t hold up reconciliation until we signed a contract.
• He didn’t wait for anything or anyone.
• He took the first step – he sent his son to die for us – in spite of the fact that we didn’t even begin to deserve it.

What did all this accomplish?
5:9-10 “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”

Did you hear what God did for us? We were:
• “Justified by his blood”
• “Saved from God’s wrath”
• “Reconciled to God”
• “Saved through his life”

What we needed most, God did for us. Remember, we were helpless, powerless, hopeless, undeserving. We could not save ourselves – God was the only one who could.

I want to take you, for a moment, to another story in the book of Acts, ch. 4. It was a very normal day for this man whose name we do not know. He was crippled and depended on the goodness and generosity of others to survive. Each day, his friends would carry him to the gate of the Temple to beg (most days he would get just enough to buy a leftover stale loaf from the baker for his evening meal – some nights he went hungry.)
But every day, rain or shine, in heat or frost, he was there – a fixture. For most of the Temple-goers, he blended into the wall – they no longer saw him.

Today, he had no way of knowing what was about to happen. It was about 3 in the afternoon, it was hot, he hadn’t received much in his cup that day. The 3:00 prayer crowd was starting to make their way in through the gate. He began to plead loudly – “Alms for the poor!”

Peter and John were going up to the Temple to pray. They begin to walk by this beggar like everyone else shuffling through the gate. Suddenly Peter stops and looks at him –
“Look at us! Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
Suddenly, he feels his ankles grow strong, Peter takes him by the hand and lifts him to his feet. He jumps up and begins walking and jumping and praising God. When all the people saw him they were filled with wonder and amazement.

As you know, no good deed goes unpunished – you can’t just have people going around healing cripples – so Peter finds himself in shackles before the Sanhedrin being interrogated – “By what power or what name did you do this?” And I love Peter’s response – his directness and boldness –
Acts 4:8-12 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

It’s not just that there is an exclusiveness (and it is exclusive – Jesus himself said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life” – he’s not one way among many) – it’s that the power to save – the authority to save – is found in Christ alone. What is at the heart of this contention – what is at stake in all of the Bible – is that God’s grace alone is sufficient to save.

We are all beggars at the gate, powerless to help ourselves, enslaved to sin, separated from God, hopes dashed, and promises crushed. Then Christ comes – he lifts us up, makes us whole, fills us with hope. Listen once again to the way Paul describes it – Romans 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

The beggar rejoiced – Paul says, so do we – 5:11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Let me close with the story of Maximillian Kolbe, a man who, though not a Jew, helped a great many Jews escape the Nazis during WWII. He was arrested and imprisoned at Auschwitz in February 1941. At Auschwitz there was a camp rule, that anytime there was an escape from that camp, ten people would randomly be selected from the cell block where that escape occurred to die by exposure and starvation as an object lesson to the other prisoners not to attempt, aid or conceal an escape. In late July of 1941 there was an escape from the section of the camp where Kolbe was kept. And so the prisoners from that section were called out into a cinder covered courtyard and ten names were called at random from a roster to be marched off to be stripped of their clothes and left to die without food or water. The name Francis Gajowniczek was called, and when he heard his name he screamed, “Have mercy, I have a wife and children!” At that point, Maximillian Kolbe, whose name had not been called raised his hand, stepped out of line and said, “Commandant, I will take his place, I have no family.” And for some reason, the exchange was allowed, and Gajowniczek stepped back into line and Kolbe marched off with nine others to his death. Two weeks later, on August 14, Kolbe died. Gajowniczek survived Auschwitz, and live the rest of his life living in Warsaw, Poland, where he died in 1995 at the age of 95. But his life was never the same. He lived his life with a purpose, as he explained it “to tell the story of the man who died in my place.” He never forgot what had been done for him.

And that, really is our purpose in life – to tell the story of the man who died in my place.

In Romans ch. 4 we encounter a bucketful of high dollar theological words that, at first glance seem very intimidating – words like righteousness, justification, sanctification, redemption and atonement. They are words Paul uses to describe how God does what can’t be done – to make you and me, sinners, fit to be in his presence and live with him forever in heaven.

When I was a student I used to love contract systems for grades – so much work for a C, this much more for a B, and if you want an A, here’s the amount of work you will have to do. Cut and dried. Plan the work, work the plan.

By nature we like to know
• how much money for so much merchandise,
• how much work for so much pay,
• how much effort for so much reward.

Now, you may like to go haggle on the price of a car, or negotiate for extra privileges or compensation – but most of us like to know what to expect when we walk in the door. We want it all nailed down before we start. Paul says, that’s how it works in the world – Rom. 4:4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.

We would like God to work that way.
• This much penance for this many sins.
• This many works for entrance into heaven.
• We’d really like to know – is there a minimum entrance requirement?
• Just how many sins, how few works, how imperfect my obedience can I get by with and still make it in?
Now, we would never come out and say that, but our minds work that way – and deep down, a lot of us are afraid that there are some minimum requirements and we’re terrified we won’t meet them. On the other side of that coin, there are some of us who hope that God IS keeping score, because we feel like we’re doing pretty good and we fully expect to get a high-five from Peter as we strut through the gates!

These are the kinds of issues Paul deals with in Romans 4.

For the first three chapters, Paul has been leveling the field – For all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.
• Every Gentile pagan who worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator;
• Every hedonist who rejects God’s holiness for immorality and sin;
• Every critic who compares himself with others around him;
• Every Jew who prides himself on being God’s people because of his pedigree and law-keeping and circumcision.
• All have sinned. All stand under the judgment and wrath of God.

But he quickly follows that by proclaiming that God himself has justified us freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. He offered him as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
• So, after he drains us of every drop of hope that we have in our ability to make it to heaven – he then fills us, not only with hope, but with confidence in God’s ability to make us righteous and bring us into heaven.
• What Paul wrote about works and wages in vs. 4, he throws out in vs. 5, and says, God has never worked the way the world works – However, to the man who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited to him as righteousness.

In ch. 4, Paul introduces Abraham. No need to introduce him – Abraham is the most central figure of their faith.
• Abraham is the one whom God called out of Ur
• … God promised the land
• … God promised to make him a great nation
• … Isaac was miraculously born
• … God gave circumcision, the sign of the covenant

You see, if Paul is going to challenge their cherished assumptions about their relationship with God, he’s going to have to begin with Abraham.

And Paul does not merely use Abraham as an illustration or an example, but in Abraham he defines the very nature of their relationship with God. He is the not changing anything – he is calling them back to God’s original intentions.

Listen to Romans 4:1-3 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

He quotes another pillar of their faith, David – 4:6-8 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
God counts us righteous through his own grace. Where there is no forgiveness, there can be no righteousness.

Last week, we talked about how we are overdrawn and spiritually bankrupt. There is a word that Paul uses over and over in ch. 4 – “credited” (11 times). We have no righteousness of our own – but God credits us with his own righteousness. It is a picture of a ledger, bleeding with red ink, with the words PAID IN FULL stamped across our debit page.

Now – here is the point that Paul is driving toward: When did God credit Abraham with righteousness? Was it when he started obeying? Was it after he was circumcised? Was it because he kept the Law?
• What about obedience? – 4:2 “If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God.”
• What about circumcision? – 4:9-11 “Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before!”
• What about the Law? – 4:13 “It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.”

God credited Abraham with righteousness before obedience, before circumcision, before Law. Righteousness was not on the basis of anything that Abraham had done or could do.

Righteousness was credited to him. Why? Because he believed, because he had faith, because he trusted God.
• Then Paul tells the story of Isaac – 4:18-19 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.
• Faith is never in what we have the ability to do. It is never on the basis of our human potential – it was impossible for Abraham and Sarah to have a son. God didn’t give them a son in the prime of their youth because he didn’t want them saying, “Look what we did!”
• He wanted to drive them to their knees in despair, and out of their absolute realization that it could not happen by their own doing, out of that impossibility to create a possibility. To make a way where there is no way. Rom. 4:20-21 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
• Faith is not in what we can do, but in what God is capable of doing. The promise was fulfilled because of their faith in God’s grace.

Now that wasn’t just Abraham. Paul turns from ancient history to present, personal reality, because this isn’t just about Abraham but also about us.
• Rom. 4:16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
• Rom. 4:23-24 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
• God credited Abraham, he also credits us.

I love my children – not because they obeyed me perfectly when they were young, or because they do everything the way I think they should do it now that they are grown. I loved them often in spite of their disobedience. I loved them before they were ever capable of doing anything that would cause me to love them. I loved them before they were ever born – while they were still in the womb I loved them.
• I did want them to obey me when they were young. In fact, I insisted on their obedience. But my love for them did not diminish when they didn’t – nor could I love them anymore because of their obedience.
• I love them now, not because they do everything the way I think they should, but because they are mine and nothing can change that.
• The point is, my love for my children is based on a relationship, not a contract. They are not living up to some list of demands in order to remain my children or earn my love. And the deeper our relationship grows, the more willing their desire to please me, to seek out my counsel – not out of fear of punishment, but out of respect and trust.

God desires your obedience–in fact, he insists on it. Why?
• Because he knows that that is what is the very best for you. His commands are to guide you into the happiest, fullest, most meaningful life you can live.
• Will he love you less should your obedience be less than perfect? Disappointed, yes. Quit loving you, never. He cannot love you more, he will not love you less.
He called you to a relationship, not a contract. He poured out his love long before you deserved it, long before you ever knew you needed it. And the deeper your relationship grows, the more you know just how much you do.

From Romans 1 through 3, Paul has moved us step by step into the realization that no human being – not Jew, not Gentile, not you, not me – is exempt from the absolutely devastating effects of sin.
• The worldly man, in his rejection of God – worshiping the creation rather than the Creator, casting aside God’s holiness for every kind of immorality and perversion – stands under the wrath of God.
• The man who judges others – thinking himself superior and above them, while guilty of the same sins – hearing the law, but not obeying the law – stands under the same wrath of God.
• The Jew – who prides himself on being the possessor of the Law and the symbol of the covenant – who thinks himself exempt from condemnation because of his pedigree – stands under even more severe condemnation because he has been faithless to his heritage.

Listen to Paul’s continuing refrain:
• The wrath of God is being revealed (1:18)
• God gave them over (1:24,26,28)
• Those who do such things deserve death (1:32)
• For at whatever point you judge the other you are condemning yourself (2:1)
• Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath (2:5)
• All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one (3:12)
• There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (3:23)
• The wages of sin is death (6:23)

Illustration – Preserving the body of Mao Tse-tung

Sin does to life what shears do to a flower, it separates it from the source of its life. Once the flower is cut you can stick it back in the ground immersed in fertilizer, put it in a vase surrounded with water, tape it back on to the stem. But the flower is dead. It may stay colorful and attractive for a few days, but the leaves will wilt and the petals will drop, it’s life is gone.

The soul separated from God is dead and no amount of religious ritual, good works, law keeping, comparative morality, symbolism or pedigree will bring it to life. It is so much formaldehyde trying to keep the body from decaying and rotting.

What we need is not to disguise death, but to be raised from death.

Remember the theme of Paul’s letter to the Romans – 1:16-17 “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
It is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation. That gospel reveals a righteousness from God – not a self-righteousness – but a righteousness that is by faith from beginning to end, first to last. It has no room for our self-justifying rationalization. It makes us wholly and absolutely dependant on God to save us.

What he began in 1:17, he locks on to in 3:21 – But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law has been made known...

Remember! This is nothing that Paul invented – nothing that was of recent origin. This is God’s original intention – …to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
• Righteousness from God – our accounts are overdrawn, our personal assets in righteousness are bankrupt. Sin has captured, enslaved and slain us. What hope would we have?
• Righteousness from God – his grace, our faith. Is this righteousness real or is it some kind of illusion with smoke and mirrors? A word, but no substance?
• We are called holy, not because we are holy, but because we belong to a holy God. We are righteous, not because we are personally righteous, but because the God who calls us is righteous.
• Simply more good works, more law-keeping, more religious ritual, even a better family tree isn’t going to accomplish what we need most. We need something more – that is, someone more.

When the gospel was first taken to China, a new word symbol was created to communicate this righteousness – the symbol for “lamb” was super-imposed over the symbol for “me.” It was no longer two distinct symbols but one, that communicated a new identity – no longer me, but me as covered by the Lamb of God.

Listen once again to how Paul communicates this very powerful concept of atonement – Romans 3:22-25 “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”

“… the redemption that came by Christ Jesus,” “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement.” His blood is imposed over our sin. It is no longer us, but something new.

Did God just give up? His plan for the law, a miserable failure? Did sin short circuit God’s original intention?
• The Bible tells us that God had planned long before the creation of the world for a redeemer, a savior. He knew that sin would strip us of our freedom, our happiness, our very lives.
• The Law – it was never intended to make us righteous – it could not. But it did do what God intended for it to do – it made us painfully, acutely aware of our own sin and mortality. Instead of declaring us “righteous” it brands us as “unrighteous.”
• If sin and law drives us to our knees in despair, then you can be sure that God has accomplished what he intended – Rom. 3:5 “our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly.”
• He wants us to know, without question that he is the one who rescues us from sin. The one and only one who can save us.

That is the very point Paul turns to in 3:25: … he did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.
God’s holiness demands justice and justice demands payment for sin. But we cannot pay – remember? – we are bankrupt. Not in a million lifetimes could we pay off the debt of sin we have accumulated.
God’s justice demands that it be paid.
God’s own relentless love for us causes him to make that payment himself.
God dealt with sin in the past with forbearance – not ignoring them, not dismissing them – but dealing with them by looking forward to the time when they would be perfectly atoned.
3:26 …he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. God deals with sin in the present, in the past and in the future by washing it in the blood of Jesus who is the perfect atonement.
Justice is served – sin is dealt with. God’s love paid the price at the cross.

Paul brings us once again to the mirror – looking at ourselves. Have we any reason to boast or claim superiority because God paid our debt? None at all. We claim nothing at the throne of God’s mercy. We are saved because God extended his hand of grace to us.

You see, Paul’s indictment that we are all sinners and all lost is quickly followed by the victorious declaration “… and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (3:24). Sin is dealt with at the cross forever – nor more sacrifice, no more law.

It may be free, but it is not without cost. This righteousness that God bestows on us is real, not imaginary, not just switching terms – it is real. It is real because it is the very righteousness of Jesus himself, whose own righteousness was bestowed on us when he took our place on the cross and suffered the punishment we deserved. It is as real as the cross which purchased it, as real as the empty tomb that declared it.

The bad news is swallowed up by the good news – and that good news is that the only righteous one who ever lived was made sin for me, the most undeserving one who ever lived. And I, the sinner, am made righteous and pure, my sins washed away in the cleansing blood of Jesus.

Illustration – “Neither would I”

I’m not sure where it began, but at some point, in some generation, the word of God ceased to be a living revelation. It changed from being the powerful, life-giving Word of God to being a book of rules to be obeyed – a contract to be executed.

Romans 2:17-27 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.

They made a fatal error in judgment. The Jews assumed that they were uniquely and permanently God’s chosen people because they were descended from Abraham. They further assumed that God’s favor was on the basis of their being possessors of the Law and of the symbol of the covenant, circumcision.
It brought up a couple of very disturbing questions:
1) What was one’s relationship with God if one believed the law and taught the law and defended the law – but did not live the law?
2) Second, what if one had the mark of the covenant, but was not faithful to the covenant?

I hate to step on any toes, but it sounds a whole lot like some folks I know who assume that if you go to the right church, believe the right doctrine, and have been baptized with the right formula, that you are a shoe-in with God. Living the Christian life, being an active part of the body, growing in spiritual qualities are optional extras.
It was, and is, a subtle form of legalism. God gives us a list, we follow the list, God is obligated to reward us.

God has never been pleased – and has never rewarded his people for wearing the name without living the life. His desire has never been for ritual obedience without absolute commitment. Simply to be a Jew, or to have your name on the membership roll of a church has never brought God’s pleasure.

What God wants is not someone who can trace his lineage back to Abraham, or proudly point to his law keeping and his circumcision. That’s not what makes a Jew. A true Jew is not one who merely wears the physical mark or participates in some routine ritual of his faith, but one whose faith reaches all the way down to his heart. Listen once again – Rom. 2:28-29 “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.”

I told you last week that Paul had read the OT. Don’t think Paul has invented something new. God has always wanted his people’s obedience to be deep down and not just for show. And listen to the way God expressed it:
Lev. 26:40-42 “But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers … when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.”
Deut. 10:16 “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.”
Deut. 30:6 “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.”
Jer. 4:4 “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem.”
Jer. 9:25-26 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh - Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”
Are you a true Jew? The key is not from whom you came, but to whom your heart belongs.

Now, all this is very unsettling. Paul has attacked the very foundations of their religion – their keeping of the law and circumcision – the symbol of their covenant relationship with God. It sounds like he has no respect – total contempt for their heritage – that there is no value at all in claiming to be one of God’s chosen people.

Paul asks the question in 3:1 that is on all of their minds – “What advantage is there in being a Jew?” Is it all for nothing? Does being God’s chosen count for nothing?
Not at all! He continues by saying, “Much in every way! // First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.” Paul will come back to this issue in ch. 9-11. He’ll come back to this same question and say, they are “the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!” (9:4-5).

We might ask the similar question: Is there any advantage to being raised in a Christian family? There is tremendous advantage. Your life is immersed in things of God. You get to grow up worshiping God, you grow up in Bible class, you learn from an early age what God’s will is and all of the influences in your life are pulling you in the right direction. But with great privilege comes great responsibility.

Some people don’t have those advantages – they aren’t raised in church learning about God – they don’t have those habits ingrained in their lives. Does God expect any less obedience from them? No, but if you have all those advantages and then choose not to live for the Lord – I think of the words of the Hebrews writer. He speaks of those “who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age -- if they fall away… they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace” (Heb. 6:4-6).

How many people I’ve talked to who think that salvation is genetic. “I was raised in the church – baptized when I was 12 – I haven’t been to church in 30 years, but it’s not like I don’t believe in God – of course I’m saved!” / “My mother was a wonderful Christian.” / “My grandmother went to church enough for all of us.”

But Paul writes: For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. (Rom. 9:6)

What if I told you I was a farmer? You’d look at me funny. And so I explain – my dad and grand-dad were farmers – I’ve got 400 acres – I’ve got a pair of overalls in the closet and a tractor in the barn – I get a government check every month for not growing wheat, cotton, potatoes – I’m seriously considering getting into not raising cattle. How convinced would you be about my claim to being a farmer?

Being a Jew (or a Christian) – in name only – is never God’s will.

To be fair, though, some Jews worked very hard at living according to the Law. They were shining examples. Everything God said, they did – literally – to the letter of the law.

Now, certainly God was pleased with them, and they had earned God’s favor – hadn’t they? Their righteousness wasn’t imputed to them, it was real righteousness – earned through hard work and a straight life. Like the rock-stacking brother in the parable, they believed that when they finally make it back up the river through their own hard work and determination, that they will have earned the Father’s mercy and forgiveness. (And just between us, we don’t think there’s a whole lot he’ll need to forgive at that!) We’ll be in heaven because we deserve to be in heaven.

Let’s listen to some other NT writers for a moment:
James 2:10-11 “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”

Acts 15:1,7-11 “Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”... After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

Romans 3:20 “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”

Paul levels the playing field – Rom. 3:9-12 “What shall we conclude then? Are we any better ? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Paul’s point? None of us – on the basis of our ancestry, our pedigree, our morality, our law-keeping, our church-going – have any claim on salvation because of our merits.

And none of us – by our family background, our disobedience, our sinfulness – is beyond the reach of God. We all come to God’s throne of mercy with empty hands – nothing of deservedness – all in need of God’s grace. When God chooses people – it is their heart he wants.
Are you a true Jew – chosen by God, circumcised in the heart?

Let me leave you with a story that illustrates what I’m talking about:
Jonas and Elisabeth were a simple, illiterate couple who lived in London. Jonas wanted to do something meaningful – something to help others – so he began volunteering at the Salvation Army mission. He loved the work, providing food and clothing to homeless people. But one day he came home dejected and downcast. His wife Elisabeth asked, “What’s the matter?”
He said, “All of the people down at the SA wear red sweaters, and I don’t have a red sweater.” She said, “I’ll knit one.” So she knitted him a red sweater. He was thrilled.
The next day, when he came home, he looked sadder than before. “What’s wrong this time?” she asked. “Everyone else’s sweater has yellow writing on it.” “Don’t worry, I’ll embroider some writing on it for you.”
Now, she had no idea what the yellow writing on the red SA sweaters said. (Anybody know? It’s a yellow circle with the words, “BLOOD AND FIRE.” That’s their motto. Unbutton the jacket of one of those bell ringers some time and tell him you’re just checking!)
Since Elisabeth didn’t know and couldn’t read, she chose the most convenient writing she could find – the words on a sign in a store window across the street from their apartment.
When Jonas came home the next day, she asked him, “Did they like your sweater?” “They loved my sweater. Some of them said they like my sweater better than theirs.”
What neither of them knew, was the sign on the storefront read, “UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT.”

That’s what it means to be circumcised in heart and a true child of God.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret this morning – Paul had read the OT. No – really. He knew Jews - he was a Jew!  But he knew from centuries of God’s dealing with his people that they were much more aware of the sins of others than they were of their own.
• Think of Nathan’s confrontation of David after his sin with Bathsheba. Nathan tells this story of a rich man, a poor farmer and his one little pet lamb – and we’re all getting it – but David is getting mad and condemning the rich man – until Nathan sets him back on his heels by pointing his finger at David and declaring, “You are the man!”
• Remember how Amos began his preaching in Samaria, the capital of northern Israel – and he condemns everybody around them – Syria, Philistia, Phoenicia, Edom, Ammon, Moab, even Judah, their rival sister nation to the south. And they are listening attentively, shouting “Amen, let’em have it!” Until he turns and says, “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath…” And they are ready to tar and feather him.
• Jesus condemned the Pharisee who self-righteously prayed about himself, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.”

So, you can imagine what Paul’s Jewish readers are thinking as they listen to what he wrote in Romans 1:18,21-25.
They were feeling pretty smug – “That’s just about the way we see it too, Paul. You might have gone a little too easy on them, but they deserve to be condemned.”

Then Paul turns the focus from the worldly, immoral Gentiles, to the critical, self-righteous Jews – “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else…” (2:1).

You’ve seen them on TV – the movie critics – Ebert, Roeper, Siskel, Shalit – they get paid to watch movies and then tell you what they think – thumbs up - thumbs down / five stars – zero stars / must see – don’t waste your money. What a great job! Professional critic. Save me a seat on the aisle. We like to practice the craft as well – we’re amateurs of course.

We make ourselves spiritual judges – this person in – that person out / this person liberal – that person conservative / sinner – saved / benefit of the doubt – flatly condemn.
Paul takes us to task for our arrogant assumption that we can stand as anybody’s judge. He places us side by side with the only true judge. Listen to his comparison: 2:1-2 “…for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.”
• When we judge others, we do it on the basis of incomplete information, on assumed motive, often times with personal animosity, against a backdrop of our own personal sinfulness.
• When God judges, it is based on truth. His judgment is with full knowledge of the facts, full comprehension of the motives, against a backdrop of his own absolute personal holiness, and out of the context of his perfect, unconditional love.
When God judges, it is thorough and fair – listen to another analysis from the Hebrews writer – Heb. 4:12-13 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. //
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Here’s Paul’s assessment of their attempt to usurp God’s place as judge: Romans 2:3-4 “So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”

“You a mere man” – who is this person who is judging and condemning others? Who is this who filters God’s grace through his own opinion – who dilutes God’s mercy with his own prejudice?
• The prodigal son’s older brother who was so upset he refused to attend the party.
• The worker who labored 10 hours and resented the one hour worker who received the same wage.
• It is you and I when we set ourselves up as judge, jury and executioner when we look at others and condemn their sins, knowing that ours are hiding just beneath the surface.

Paul’s assessment is harsh – judging others shows contempt for God’s kindness.

What is the purpose of God’s kindness toward us – his mercy – tolerance – patience? Not to puff us up, not to inflate our egos – but to lead us to repentance. It is our heart that God wants. When God has mercy on us, it is so that we might be merciful to others. But instead, it has made us arrogant and judgmental, and has brought God’s anger upon us – vs. 5 “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath , when his righteous judgment will be revealed.”

Jesus told a parable with that theme in Matthew 18. A man owed the king a huge amount of money – so much he could never repay it. But the king, in his compassion forgave the man’s debt – just wiped it off the books and sent him home a free man. As this man was going out the door, he spotted another man who owed him fifty bucks. He grabbed the man by the collar and demanded he pay him back right now, but the man didn’t have the money to pay him. So the first man drags him off to debtors prison until he can pay him back. Well, word gets back to the king, and you can imagine how angry the king became. He had the man arrested and not only thrown into prison, but tortured until he could pay him back. (Matthew 18:23-35) God takes judgment seriously and when we fail to show the same kind of generosity and patience toward others that he has shown to us, you can be sure he will not take that lightly.

To illustrate and drive home his point, Paul begins a series of contrasts in vs. 6“God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”

Notice what he does not contrast is Jew and Gentile – they are both alike – vs. 11 “For God does not show favoritism.”

It’s when we start thinking that we are essentially different from everybody else – that we’re special, we’re privileged – God looks differently on us – and the rules don’t apply.
But in vss. 12-15, Paul makes it clear just how much alike we all are – “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)”

The point Paul is making is not that pagans without the law will be saved. His point is that even though the Jews have the law, it will not save them – look again at vs. 12 – “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.”

His point about those without the law is that the Jews should not pride themselves on being the possessors of the law – there are Gentiles out there who live better than you do. They don’t have the law, but they naturally do what it says because God wrote it on their hearts. Paul says, sometimes they live well, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes their conscience accuses them, sometimes it defends them. But neither having, or not having the law will justify or condemn. It is not simply hearing that justifies, but obeying.

I’ve thought about some people I’ve known over the years. Great big Bibles, Sunday morning pew sitters. They loudly and frequently condemn how sinful the world has become, as well as the vast majority of their erring brethren who don’t think like they think. They pride themselves on their piety. They, and only a few others they deemed sound enough, were going to heaven. But their private lives were a shambles. Miserable marriages, children who had bitterly left the Lord. Their personalities were arrogant and critical. The only joy they had was in congratulating themselves over how much better they were than everyone else.

There’s a huge difference between learning the Bible and living the Bible – 2:13 “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.”

Why are we so ready to judge others? What benefit do we gain by knocking others down a rung or two on the ladder? Or worse, condemning them to hell, with a twinge of gladness in our voice?
• There is something smug and self-satisfying about donning the robe, stepping behind the bench, and slamming down the gavel – “Guilty!”
• Judging others makes us feel better about ourselves. When we knock others down, we look a little taller. We compare ourselves with others and look pretty good – and then we boast to God, “compared with them, you’re lucky to have me.”
• But that’s the problem. God doesn’t compare us to them. Others aren’t the standard. God is. And compared to him, our righteousness is but tattered rags.

Suppose God judged us on the basis of being able to jump across the Colorado River? Some of us might take a running leap and make it 3 feet before plunging into the water – others 6 feet, a couple 15 feet, and if we were to bring in an Olympic champion long jumper he might clear 29 feet (Mike Powell has held the world record of 29.4 feet since 1991) – but plunge he would – far short of the other shore. How ludicrous to brag about jumping farther than others when we all fall short of the goal.

And that is the danger of comparing ourselves with others. The Jew over the Gentile, the Christian over the non-Christian, me over you, you over me. All of us fall short of God’s glory – without his grace, none of us are deserving of the glory of heaven.

God doesn’t grade on a curve. He doesn’t play favorites. And our only hope – the only hope anybody has, is in his grace purchased at the cross with the blood of Jesus Christ.

I think it all began with that famous six million dollar cup of coffee from McDonalds. Warning labels began appearing on everything, to the point of absurdity.

Intro: Catfish Bait / Warning labels

We live in a world where we want and demand warnings on everything we buy – hot coffee, cell phones, sweetener, grocery sacks – even catfish stink bait! We demand them, and we’ll sue if we haven’t been warned about potential dangers – regardless of how remote they might seem.

How strange then that religious warnings seem so offensive. If someone warns us about the potential spiritual dangers of some activity, or declares that the consequences of an ungodly lifestyle are an eternity in hell – we tell them to mind their own business – they’re just being judgmental, narrow-minded and legalistic.

It would be an unhealthy imbalance if we spent all of our time preaching, warning, frightening and coercing people into believing in God lest they burn in hell. But when the prophets of old were called by God, he called them “the watchmen on the wall.”  They were the first line of defense. If the watchman failed his task an entire city might be destroyed. When God calls men to preach – at least part of their task is to faithfully look on the horizon and warn of the dangers that threaten our spiritual lives.

Paul has stated in Rom. 1:16-17 the theme of the letter – I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” His theme? The righteousness of God.

He then immediately turns our attention to the tragic and eternal consequences of unrighteousness – 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

We’re not quite sure how to respond to the idea of God’s wrath. It seems so out of character with this God whom John tells us is love.
• God’s wrath? We have him pictured as a kindly old grandfather with flowing beard and an endless supply of goodies in his pocket – who would never condemn anyone and is the very definition of tolerance.
• God’s wrath? That belongs to a bygone era, when people weren’t quite so sophisticated and modern and needed to be frightened and coerced into being good with pictures of hellfire and brimstone.
• God’s wrath? Well, there it is, in black and white, as bold as day.

So, what makes God angry? What could possibly evoke that kind of a response from one who loved the world so much he sent his one and only son to die for it?

Let’s start by making sure we understand what we’re talking about. Don’t ever confuse God’s anger with man’s anger. When we get angry it is almost always because we didn’t get our way, or someone did something that pushed us too far – it is almost always selfish. It is accompanied with fits of temper and harsh words and violence.

God doesn’t get angry because he doesn’t get his way – he gets angry because he knows that our sin and disobedience always result in our hurt and self-destruction. How many fathers laugh when their children get hurt? God doesn’t either. He doesn’t wink and sin and laugh it off as just the way people are. He knows the consequences – he’s been there in the ER when a child is brought in after getting hit by a drunk driver – he has listened in on the phone conversations at the Rape Crisis Center hotlines. He has agonized in the divorce court when the cast off wife watches her husband walk out the back door with a new and younger model. God is angry when evil destroys his children. We shouldn’t be surprised that God gets angry at sin – how could we expect a father not to?

Have you ever met someone who has an excuse for everything?
• It’s not my fault – it’s my parents – teachers - government!
• I was the oldest – youngest - middle child!
• I’m just too busy, nobody ever told me, everybody does it!
• My alarm didn’t go off.
• And of course – my dog ate it!
We give excuses to absolve ourselves of responsibility – if it’s not my fault then surely I can’t be held accountable.

Can you imagine how many excuses God must hear?
My parents never too me to church – my parents took me to church too much. Somebody hurt my feelings. I didn’t like the preaching. Too many hypocrites. Sunday’s my only day to sleep in.

Paul nails our excuse-making for what it is – rationalizing sin. Wickedness and ungodliness – because we didn’t know any better? Paul says, … since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Rom. 1:19-20).

Even if you have never read the Bible, you cannot miss the unmistakable fact that there is a creator – a loving, personally involved God. We are without excuse because God has revealed himself in every intricate detail of creation – listen to the Psalmist, The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. (Ps. 19:1-4).

Let me tell you three things that happen when we refuse to see God and acknowledge him as Lord:

#1 We exchange the Creator for the creation

Romans 1:21-23, 25 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles... They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.
• I’m fascinated by children who play with the boxes instead of the gifts. It’s cute in children, incomprehensible in adults.
• Isaiah talked about the fools who cut down a tree, use half of it to build a fire and cook their food over, and the other half to carve into a god so they can bow down and worship it.
• When we start thinking that the world around is it – all there is – not that God created nature – but that nature itself is God – what fools we are.
• When we make God subservient to our personal pursuits and lifestyles – we keep him in a little box that doesn’t interfere, doesn’t inconvenience what we want – what fools we have become.
And let me tell you – it’s a poor trade.

#2 We start making our own rules.

• Paul is pretty explicit, speaking about sexual immorality and homosexuality – but then again, do you find yourself having to explain certain concepts to your children just because they listen to the evening news? Some things we don’t think are proper to talk about in the presence of children – but let me assure you, the media will explain it all if you don’t – sexual immorality, homosexuality, perversion. And they will make Christians out to be villains for being so intolerant.
• The thing that has amazed me over the last several years is not the number and enormity of scandals involving priests and politicians and coaches and corporate executives (those are getting to be common place), but how inconsequential they are made to seem. Regardless of guilt or innocence, our society is quickly moving toward a position of “who cares – he’s not doing anything everybody else isn’t doing.”
• God’s position on sexual immorality and homosexuality are unambiguous – they are absolutely, unequivocally sin – not an alternative lifestyle, not a human foible – sin – abomination.
• In vss. 29-31, Paul lists sin after sin – some enormous, some we snicker at and think they’re no big deal – They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
• But listen to what Paul then writes – vs. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
• When we disconnect from God, when we refuse to acknowledge his right to rule in our lives – we lose our standard, we start making our own rules.

#3 God’s response: God gave them over

There are no more tragic words in all the Bible –
vs. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
vs. 28 Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
• “He gave them over” – God is relentless – nothing can separate us from God’s love. But when we consciously and intentionally separate ourselves from God and his will – Paul literally says, “God gives up.”
• He cannot, he will not force his will upon us. And if we reject his will, he can do only one thing – to let us have our way. Actually, what he is letting have it’s own way is sin – he is giving us over to Sin’s rule. If God cannot be our lord, sin will.
• We think we’re getting freedom, but instead we’re getting slavery. We think we’re getting pleasure, but instead we are immersing ourselves in pain and heartache. We think we’re experiencing life in all of its fullness, when all we are really getting is a fatal dose of spiritual death.
• Three things Paul says God gave them over to:
sinful desires / shameful lusts / depraved minds.
• It made me think of something else Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:12 Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. That’s not just scary rhetoric. Paul is deadly serious. Imagine what life would be like with God and without hope.

Righteousness for sin, the Creator for creation, life for death – poor trades. Like the son in the story who traded a castle and a loving father for a mud hut with the savages. God created us for so much more than that, and his promise is that you can experience everything he has prepared for you in his son, Jesus Christ.

In Kathleen Norris‘s Amazing Grace she tells of a Saturday evening when she and her husband were eating at a local steakhouse and struck up a conversation with an old-timer, a tough, self-made man who had little use or respect for religion. They had known him casually – he knew them as Christians writers. This evening, probably because he was about to enter chemotherapy, he was more talkative:

Out of the blue, Arlo began talking about his grandfather, who had been a deeply religious man, or as Arlo put it, “a [darn] good Presbyterian.” His wedding present to Arlo and his bride had been a Bible, which he admitted he had admired mostly because it was an expensive gift, bound in white leather with their names and the date of their wedding set in gold lettering on the cover. “I left it in its box and it ended up in our bedroom closet,” Arlo told us. “But,” he said, “for months afterward, every time we saw grandpa he would ask me how I liked that Bible. The wife had written a thank-you note, and we’d thanked him in person, but somehow he couldn’t let it lie, he’d always ask about it.” Finally, Arlo grew curious as to why the old man kept after him. “Well,” he said, “the joke was on me. I finally took that Bible out of the closet and I found that granddad had placed a twenty-dollar bill at the beginning of the Book of Genesis, and at the beginning of every book . . . over thirteen hundred dollars in all. And he knew I’d never find it.”

As we study this letter to the Romans, we must continually remind ourselves that Paul’s primary purpose in writing was not to create an impersonal theological treatise dealing with matters of basically an intellectual nature, but an intensely personal letter to real people, struggling with real problems of sin and forgiveness, of salvation and redemption, acceptance and conflict, of living for God in a godless world. And in many ways, in the book of Romans, Paul was holding up a mirror for them to see themselves – and perhaps for the first time – to see themselves in the true light of God’s Word.

I want to share a story that will serve as a visual reference as we look at ourselves in the light of God’s Word. This is a parable written by Max Lucado in his book, In the Grip of Grace.

Parable of the River

Once there were five sons who lived in a mountain castle with their father. The eldest was an obedient son, but his four younger brothers were rebellious. Their father had warned them of the river, but they had not listened. He had begged them to stay clear of the bank lest they be swept downstream, but the river’s lure was too strong.
Each day the four rebellious brothers ventured closer and closer until one son dared to reach in and feel the waters. “Hold my hand so I won’t fall in,” he said, and his brothers did. But when he touched the water, the current yanked him and the other three into the rapids and rolled them down the river.
Over rocks they bounced, through the channels they roared, on the swells they rode. Their cries for help were lost in the rage of the river. Though they fought to gain their balance, they were powerless against the strength of the current. After hours of struggle, they surrendered to the pull of the river. The waters finally dumped them on the bank in a strange land, in a distant country, in a barren place.
Though they did not know where they were, of one fact they were sure: They were not intended for this place. For a long time the four young sons lay on the bank, stunned at their fall and not knowing where to turn. After some time they gathered their courage and reentered the waters, hoping to walk upstream. But the current was too strong. They attempted to walk along the river’s edge, but the terrain was too steep. They considered climbing the mountains, but the peaks were too high. Besides, they didn’t know the way.
Finally, they built a fire and sat down. “We shouldn’t have disobeyed our father,” they admitted. “We are a long way from home.”
With the passage of time the sons learned to survive in the strange land. They determined not to forget their homeland nor abandon hopes of returning. Each day they set about the task of finding food and building shelter. Each evening they built a fire and told stories of their father and older brother. All four sons longed to see them again.

Then, one night, one brother failed to come to the fire. The others found him the next morning in the valley with the savages. He was building a hut of grass and mud. “I’ve grown tired of our talks,” he told them. “What good does it do to remember? Besides, this land isn’t so bad. I will build a great house and settle here.”
“But it isn’t home,” they objected.
“No, but it is if you don’t think of the real one.”
“But what of Father?”
“What of him? He isn’t here. Am I to spend forever awaiting his arrival? I’m making new friends; I’m learning new ways. If he comes, he comes, but I’m not holding my breath.”
And so the other three left their hut-building brother and walked away. They continued to meet around the fire, speaking of home and dreaming of their return.

Some days later a second brother failed to appear at the campfire. The next morning his siblings found him on a hillside staring at the hut of his brother.
“How disgusting,” he told them as they approached. “Our brother is an utter failure. An insult to our family name. Can you imagine a more despicable deed? Building a hut and forgetting our father?”
“What he’s doing is wrong,” agreed the youngest, “but what we did was wrong as well. We disobeyed. We touched the river. We ignored our father’s warnings.”
“Well, we may have made a mistake or two, but compared to him, we are saints. Father will dismiss our sin and punish him.”
“Come,” urged his two brothers, “return to the fire with us.”
“No, I think I’ll keep an eye on our brother. Someone needs to keep a record of his wrongs to show Father.”
And so the two returned, leaving one brother building and the other judging.

The remaining two sons stayed near the fire, encouraging each other and speaking of home. Then one morning the youngest son awoke to find he was alone. He searched for his brother and found him near the river, stacking rocks.
“It’s no use,” the rock-stacking brother explained as he worked. “Father won’t come for me. I must go to him. I failed him. There is only one option. I will build a path back up the river and walk into our father’s presence. Rock upon rock I will stack until I have enough rocks to travel upstream to the castle. When he sees how hard I have worked and how diligent I have been, he will have no choice but to open the door and let me into his house.”

The youngest brother did not know what to say. He returned to sit by the fire, alone. One morning he heard a familiar voice behind him. “Father has sent me to bring you home.”
The youngest lifted his eyes to see the face of his oldest brother. “You have come for us!” he shouted. For a long time the two embraced.
“And your brothers?” the eldest finally asked.
“One has made a home here. Another is watching him. The third is building a path up the river.”
And so Firstborn set out to find his siblings. He went first to the thatched hut in the valley.
“Go away, stranger!” screamed the brother through the window. “You are not welcome here!”
“I have come to take you home.”
“You have not. You have come to take my mansion.”
“This is no mansion,” Firstborn countered. “This is a hut.”
“It is a mansion! The finest in the lowlands. I built it with my own hands. Now, go away. You cannot have my mansion.”
“Don’t you remember the house of your father?”
“I have no father.”
“You were born in a castle in a distant land. You disobeyed your father and ended up in this strange land. I have come to take you home.” Suddenly the savages in the house filled the window as well. “Go away, intruder!” they demanded. “This is not your home.”
“You are right,” responded the firstborn son, “but neither is it his.”
The eyes of the two brothers met again. The hut-building brother felt a tug at his heart, but the savages had won his trust. “He just wants your mansion,” they cried. “Send him away!”
And so he did.

Firstborn sought the next brother. He didn’t have to walk far. On the hillside near the hut, within eyesight of the savages, sat the fault-finding son. When he saw Firstborn approaching, he shouted, “How good that you are here to behold the sin of our brother! I have kept careful account of his deeds. Punish him! He deserves it! Deal with the sins of our brother.”
Firstborn spoke softly, “We need to deal with your sins first.”
“My sins?”
“Yes, you disobeyed Father.”
The son smirked and slapped at the air. “My sins are nothing. There is the sinner,” he claimed, pointing to the hut. “Let me tell you of the savages who stay there . . .”
“I’d rather you tell me about yourself.”
“Don’t worry about me. Let me show you who needs help,” he said, running toward the hut. “Come, we’ll peek in the windows. He never sees me. Let’s go together.” The son was at the hut before he noticed that Firstborn hadn’t followed him.

Next, the eldest son walked to the river. There he found the last brother, knee-deep in the water, stacking rocks.
“Father has sent me to take you home.”
The brother never looked up. “I can’t talk now. I must work.”
“Father knows you have fallen. But he will forgive you...”
“He may, but I have to get to the castle first. I must build a pathway up the river. First I will show him that I am worthy. Then I will ask for his mercy.”
“He has already given his mercy. I will carry you up the river. You will never be able to build a pathway. The river is too long. The task is too great. Father sent me to carry you home. I am stronger.”
For the first time the rock-stacking brother looked up. “How dare you speak with such irreverence! My father will not simply forgive. I have sinned greatly! He told us to avoid the river, and we disobeyed. I am a great sinner. I need much work.”
“No, my brother, you don’t need much work. You need much grace. The distance between you and our father’s house is too great. You haven’t enough strength nor the rocks to build the road. That is why our father sent me. He wants me to carry you home.”
“Are you saying I can’t do it? Are you saying I’m not strong enough? Look at my work. Look at my rocks. Already I can walk five steps!” “But you have five million to go!”
The younger brother looked at Firstborn with anger. “I know who you are. You are the voice of evil. You are trying to keep me from my holy work. Get behind me, you serpent!” He hurled at Firstborn the rock he was about to place in the river. “Leave this land. You can’t stop me! I will build this walkway and stand before my father, and he will have to forgive me. I will win his favor. I will earn his mercy.”
Firstborn shook his head. “Mercy earned is no mercy. I beg you, let me carry you up the river.” The response was another rock. So Firstborn turned and left.

The youngest brother was waiting near the fire when Firstborn returned.
“The others didn’t come?”
“No. One chose to indulge, the other to judge, and the third to work. None of them chose our father.”
“So they will remain here?”
“For now.”
“And we will return to Father?” asked the brother.
“Yes.”
“Will he forgive me?”
“Would he have sent me if he wouldn’t?”
And so the younger brother climbed on the back of the Firstborn and began the journey home.

The book of Romans (and all the Bible, for that matter) is not ultimately a story about the nature of man, but about the nature of God.

Paul will, in the first three chapters of Romans, help us to see how many different ways that man has rejected and rebelled against God – from the worldly hedonist, to the piously self-righteous. And Paul summarizes by quoting David in Psalm 14:
Romans 3:10-12 “There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
All have turned away, they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good, not even one.”

But there at the end of our sin, we find God waiting for us –

Romans 3:22-24 There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

His message, that we will explore through these chapters is two-fold: 1) That we are all in need of God’s grace, and 2) That God has freely and sacrificially given that grace to all who come to him in faith.

If we are helplessly, hopelessly lost in sin, God is diligently, relentlessly pursuing us in love. He loves regardless of our genealogy or heritage – he loves us regardless of how bad we have been or how far we have fallen. There is no one who has traveled so far away from home that God will not go there to bring him back.

Intro: Imagine an announcement that someone would be handing out $100 bills on 10th and Grand tomorrow morning. No strings attached, just show up and you get one. Would you show up? Would you call your friends and tell them about it? That’s pretty good news – free $100 dollar bills to anyone who wants one.

What is the good news in your life? New baby, restored health following surgery, a much wanted promotion, a new contract for your company, a much needed raise, the news of a child’s success, the salvation of your soul? We hunger for good news. We’ll drop everything to celebrate when it comes our way.

When you open the book of Romans, you immediately sense that Paul was a man consumed by the gospel – not a technical, theological, systematic scheme of doctrine – but an outrageously, joyful outpouring of good news. That’s what gospel means – good news. Paul uses the word “gospel” six times in the first 17 verses of Romans, 80 times throughout his letters.
Romans 1:1-4 “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”

This gospel – “the gospel of God” – is rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ.

Paul lets us know that this gospel had its beginnings long before the birth of Jesus – it was preached and promised through the prophets centuries before.
Galatians 3:8 “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

The truth is that the gospel is as old as Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

The gospel did not begin with the birth of Jesus (God has always been about good news), but the gospel had its final and ultimate consummation – its ultimate definition in Jesus. All of gospel history is focused on the cross.
Who would have expected good news to come out of something like the cross? An instrument of death – surrounded by suffering and pain and humiliation – it was anything but good news. Yet, as Paul writes to the church in Corinth – The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor. 1:18).

For Paul, “good news” doesn’t mean an exemption from human suffering. Good news is not contingent upon our comfort and success. Good news for Paul is this – God is in control and God loves us absolutely and unconditionally. The gospel of God is expressed most perfectly and precisely in the fact that God would send his one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins – 1 Cor. 15:1-4 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

For Paul, the gospel of Jesus Christ was the defining and motivating force in his life.
From the Damascus road where his life was transformed – 1 Cor. 15:9-10 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
What he preached was not theoretical – it was intensely personal and absolutely practical.

In Romans 1:1, Paul lays the foundation and sets the parameters for his ministry – Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.

Paul’s life was so empowered, so precisely defined by the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the only word I can think of to describe Paul’s relationship with the gospel is “consumed.”
Rom. 1:9 God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son…

He willingly suffered for the sake of the gospel – So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God (2 Tim. 1:8).
He rejoiced that his suffering had a purpose: Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel (Phil. 1:12).

Was Paul a fanatic? Absolutely! He proudly referred to himself as a “fool for Christ.” Nothing else mattered – not health, not personal success, not life itself – only that the gospel of Jesus Christ – his death, burial and resurrection – be preached.

It is out of that all-consuming relationship that Paul writes this letter to the church in the city of Rome. And that he so powerfully states the theme of this letter in Romans 1:16-17 – I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

It is not only the theme of the letter to the Romans, it is the theme of Paul’s life – “it is the power of God for salvation.”

Salvation is rooted in the gospel. This will be a theme that Paul will pursue through each page of this letter to the Romans. Salvation is never a human accomplishment – never a result of personal righteousness, never attained through keeping the law. Salvation is God’s gift, and God alone is able to give it – and he does – freely – “to everyone who believes” – regardless of nationality or background.

The good news tells us that God extends his own righteousness to us – not righteousness based on our own moral goodness and perfection – but righteousness that is bestowed on us through the blood of his own Son, shed on the cross.

And one vital component of this salvation – this righteousness through the gospel: it is by faith. Paul writes, literally, “from faith to faith” – (NIV) “by faith from first to last.” And then he quotes the prophet Habakkuk – “the righteous will live by faith.”

The gospel is dependent on our absolute trust in God. If for a moment we think we bring some merit, some deservedness to this relationship – that somehow God is obligated to us – that we have attained some level of spiritual maturity that qualifies us – then we have tragically missed the point.

The gospel is good news only as we acknowledge our own spiritual bankruptcy – our absolute dependence on God’s grace to save us.

That doesn’t make much sense does it? We take a lot of pride in self-dependence – on having resources in the bank so that we aren’t dependent on anyone else. Bankruptcy? We would hang our head in shame. We would lose our self respect. We don’t ask others for help because (like a 2 year old) we say, “I can do it myself.” We think asking for help, admitting we can’t do it our self is a sign of weakness.

And for many of Paul’s Jewish readers, to admit they needed grace was a sign of weakness. They assumed they had earned their salvation – they were Jews, God’s chosen people, they kept the Law, they were children of Abraham. None of this grace for them. They didn’t need it.

But Paul turns that kind of thinking upside down. “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation.” When we enter the water of baptism, we are renouncing our claim of self-dependence, we no longer claim any resources other than our absolute dependence on God. And Paul calls that good news and says, “I am not ashamed.”
Good news changes everything. In your darkest moment, at your weakest point, when everything seems stacked against you, God rescues you and saves you.

The point of the gospel is not to knock you on your back and remind you of how sinful you are, but to drive you to your knees so that you can see what a great God you have.

And the result? It is that you and I need to become “gospel people” – “good news people” – our lives so completely infected with the startling message of grace that we contagiously spread it to everybody we meet.

How do you spread good news? How do you tell the world about a new baby, an engagement, a graduation? How do you celebrate a victory over cancer? How do you let people know that your God is an amazing God?

The question this morning is, “what consumes you?” What are you so passionate about that you cannot help but tell others about it? What keeps you from committing everything you have to living for God?

I am convinced that if we truly grasped the significance and the power of the gospel it would change our lives as it did for the Christians in Colossae to whom Paul wrote: All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. (Col. 1:6)

You think that someone passing out $100 bills is good news? God is passing out grace and salvation – the gift of eternal life to everyone who wants it. That’s his offer to you.

Intro: Alice and the Cheshire Cat
Every now and then, it’s good to ask the question, why am I here? Paul had a pretty good sense of why he was here and what his purpose was in life, and I would like us to take some time this morning and listen and learn from him about why we’re here.
Col. 1:25-29 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness - the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

Paul mentions three purposes that drove his life and ministry:
1. To present the Word of God in its fullness – Paul had a foundation upon which he built. It was that anchor which kept him securely planted in God’s will. It was his awesome respect for the Word of God – his unshakeable conviction that the God of all creation had spoken and revealed himself that gave Paul the confidence to speak so boldly and work so effectively. Here was Paul’s conviction about the Word:
• It is the power of God to change the world.
God was – and is – a God of promises. He is acting even now in the lives of men and women. And the Bible is the story of how God has involved himself in our lives and how, when we live in harmony and obedience to his will, he will continue to do amazing things among us. He can literally change the world with a word – his Word. When you read the Word, it is not filled with ancient stories and outdated morality – it is about how God is actively working in YOUR life.

• It is the source of life for the lost.
Not any amount of social agencies and 12-step programs are going to provide what this world needs most. The only hope for the people around us, lost in sin and struggling with life, is the good news of Jesus Christ. Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

• It is the mystery of God’s will revealed.
Here is what Paul said to the Colossians: In his word, God has taken off the wraps and revealed his plan, his purpose, his vision for what he wants us, his church, to be.
Here is the mystery revealed – “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Please – hear what he said – he didn’t just say Christ is the mystery, but “Christ IN YOU” is the mystery revealed.
And if Christ is in us, what are we supposed to be? Carriers of faith – spreaders of the epidemic.

2. To make known among the Gentiles…
It’s one thing to have this incredible revelation securely in our possession, planted in our hearts. But that’s not God’s purpose for us, he wants us to give it away – to begin spreading it like a sower spreads seed. We are called to proclaim the gospel – that’s not the same as “preaching” – everyone can proclaim the good news.
Illust. – Archie Hines

Last week, as we were talking about the purpose of ministry – I said that the purpose of ministry is not just to meet needs (as important as that is) – it is ultimately to meet the ONE need – to bring people to God. All the good deeds in the world will only make us philanthropists – do-gooders. Ministry makes us instruments of service in the hand of God himself, spreading his kingdom wherever we go.

In the midst of ministry, your most important ministry is the ministry of reconciliation. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

The thing is that, to do that, we can’t huddle in here and congratulate ourselves that we’re saved and lament that they’re not. We have to get out of our comfortable pews and into the world and into people’s lives where they are hurting. And if the Glenwood church isn’t filled with hurting and searching people who are here because we’re bringing them, then we aren’t where we should be during the week.

Jesus defined our reason for existing by defining his own – “the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Lk. 19:10). And there are a lot of lost people in this world who desperately need to be introduced to the Savior.

3. To present everyone perfect in Christ
Here in Colossians 1 is Paul’s version of that – “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ” (vs. 28).

Paul doesn’t use that word “perfect” lightly or flippantly. Just as Jesus said we must “be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect,” Paul is calling us to something bigger and deeper than we ever imagined.

That word “perfect” has several dimensions of meaning – the same Gk word can be translated “mature, complete, whole, finished” as well as “perfect.”

Paul’s primary meaning is the “perfection” one experiences when they are baptized into Christ and become a child of God. Only in the water of baptism are your sins washed away and your relationship with God reconciled. At that moment, you become perfect in Christ. And it’s not a momentary perfection like getting a two year old out of the bath tub and turning him loose in the backyard, only to retrieve him 10 minutes later covered with mud.

John speaks to that in 1 John 1:7-9 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. It is an ongoing cleansing. Will we sin? Yes. Do we cease to be perfect in Christ? No – the blood of Jesus continually cleanses us from all sin.

Our perfection is not based upon our personal righteousness, but upon Christ’s absolute righteousness.
So, job #1 is to bring people to Christ, letting him perfect them in his blood that was shed on the cross – and in baptism where that blood washes them whiter than snow.

But for Paul, when he writes about “admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ” he also has in mind a message for the church.

Paul’s desire isn’t just to present individual Christians perfect in Christ, but the church perfect in Christ.

For Paul, maturity was inseparable from unity. If the church wasn’t united, it wasn’t mature. That’s why he so often used the imagery of the body. All of the parts of our body are interdependent – the body can only function when every part functions. And when parts of the body don’t function, the body is unhealthy and growth is stunted. And when parts of our body here don’t function, the church is unhealthy and immature.

Paul wasn’t a numbers guy. He didn’t count success with bodies baptized. Church growth wasn’t nearly as important as church health. If the church was healthy, it would be growing – it was inevitable. But he didn’t count heads and call it a success.

And so, here in Col. 1, he writes about “admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom.” He wants Christians to be growing up in Christ – maturing spiritually. If a church’s numbers are getting bigger, but people are still jealous and materialistic and selfish and unforgiving, then they aren’t maturing.

I want to see the Glenwood church grow – I would love to see us burst the seams of this building – but more than that I want to see Christians developing the fruit of the Spirit in their lives and growing in their service to God. That’s what it means to “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” that Paul talks about over in Ephesians 4.

IV. Why are we here?

We need to know why we’re here and who we are. The Glenwood church isn’t defined by real estate. We meet in this building, but if this building were to burn to the ground tomorrow this church would still exist. If we only exist to have a weekly meeting where self-satisfied people get together to have their ticket punched and socialize a little bit, then we need to lock the doors and quit playing church, because we aren’t serving God.

Why are we here?

1) To glorify God in everything we do. From the moment you wake up in the morning until you go to sleep at night, is that a factor in everything you do? Are you constantly aware of God’s presence in and purpose for your life? Is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”?

2) To proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to the city of Glenwood Springs and beyond. Proclaiming the gospel, through our lives and through our words, should permeate everything we do. It must be foundational to every program in the church, woven into every aspect of this congregation. It has to be the first question we ask when we decide what we are going to invest ourselves in – “how is this going to help us reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ?” Educational programs, outreach programs, small groups, women’s ministry, men’s ministry, children’s ministry, missions, benevolence, even building and grounds. Mission is not something we do just in foreign countries. Everyone of us has been commissioned to take the gospel to the people around us who are lost in sin and in need of a Savior. We are to use every available resource and pursue every possible opportunity.

3) To bring the body of Christ to maturity by using our gifts and talents to serve God and build up the church as we use whatever we have wherever we are. When you are doing your part, and you doing yours, and me doing mine – when we all do our part – then, Paul says, “the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, will grow and build itself up in love”(Eph. 4:16).

For the past several weeks I’ve been defining ministry as using whatever gifts and talents God has given you to serve him and tell the good news of Jesus Christ.
But sometimes a picture is so firmly implanted in our minds that we have a difficult time thinking any other way.
• For many of us, the word “ministry” brings to mind a picture of a man in a suit preaching from the pulpit on Sunday, or visiting the sick in the hospital, or teaching a Bible study and baptizing a new believer.
• “Ministry” for others involves a church program, where work is done at the church building that has been organized and delegated by elders or deacons – things like teaching a Bible class, or going as a sponsor on a youth retreat, or planting flowers in a church cleanup day.
We expect structure and supervision and tasks assigned. And it’s hard for us to think of ministry beyond those parameters.

But I used a phrase a couple of weeks ago, that I hope will take root in your thinking and transform the way you think about ministry – “Whatever you have, wherever you are.” Let’s personalize that this morning – “Whatever I have, wherever I am.” That’s the essence of ministry – using whatever tools are in your bucket to get the job done.

The word for ministry in the original language of the NT simply means “to serve”. It isn’t confined by the walls of this church building, or the property on which it sets. It’s not necessarily a part of an organized church program or under the supervision of church leaders. It is serving.

Now, some of our opportunities for ministry will be in that setting, in those circumstances – and I don’t want to minimize the wonderful opportunities we have to serve here at church in organized ministries. Those are incredibly important, and needed for the church to work effectively. But ministry is so much bigger than that. And this morning, I want you to broaden your horizons and understand the whole of your life in the context of your relationship with God.

That’s what is so easy to do – compartmentalize our life. This part is work, this part is family, this part is school, this part is recreation, this part is God’s. And we separate and isolate them from each other. Not intentionally, not for the purpose of keeping something from him – it’s just how we manage our lives. But the result is that in boxing God in, we shut him out of certain areas – it just doesn’t occur to us that he might have a vested interest in how we live those parts of our lives.

Let’s break down those compartments and tear down those walls and begin to think wholly – to think holistically. God is the sovereign ruler of all of my life.
• He is interested, not just in what goes on when I’m here on Sunday, but what goes on at my desk on Monday.
• He is concerned, not just with how I treat brothers and sisters in Christ whom I sit next to in church, but how I treat my co-workers at the next desk, and how I treat the customers who come in the front door.
• I am his fellow worker when I help teach a children’s Bible class, but I am also his fellow worker when I take some food over to a co-worker who just got out of the hospital.

Have you ever come across a situation where you thought to yourself, “the church ought to help that person,” or “I wish God would do something about that need”? He just did. He sent you. He has authorized you to act on his behalf. He has given you a tender heart and a willing spirit. When you find a need, you have been commissioned to meet it. You are a minister of God – a servant of his kingdom.

Ministry, of course, isn’t just the sweet lady on the corner who is a good neighbor – ministry is always done in the name of Jesus and for the glory of God. Ministry is always powered by the motive of serving God and bringing glory to him. So let’s make that distinction rather that saying that anytime anybody does a good deed it is ministry. Ministry finds its roots in our relationship with God.

But having said that, the bounds of ministry are limitless. Let me share some examples from the Word of God:
Phil. 2:25,29-30 “But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs…. Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me.”
Epaphroditus wasn’t there to preach the gospel or even serve the church. He was there to take care of Paul while he was in prison – to serve him and take care of his needs. Ministry? Absolutely.

Acts 9:36,39 “In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas ), who was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. (They called on Peter to come.) Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.”
Doing good, helping the poor, making clothing for others. Ministry? No doubt about it.

1 Timothy 5:9-10 “No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.”
What list is Paul talking about? A list for receiving financial assistance? No – a list of widows who were considered servants in the church. And what things did you find on their resumes? “…bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble… all kinds of good deeds.” Ministry? That’s how Paul defined it.

Whatever they had, wherever they were. That was the measure of ministry.

People are coming to me all the time and talking about the ways they are involved in ministry – most of the time they don’t think of it as ministry, but it is.
• One couple I know has been blessed financially. And they have asked me on several occasions if I know of anybody in the congregation who is struggling financially. And they go and buy City Market gift cards or stick some cash in an envelope and send it to them anonymously.
• One woman makes it her ministry to take folks to doctor visits and pick up prescriptions and make sure they are getting the care they need. And she calls on them every few days just to keep up with them.
• I know of one woman who takes care of her aged mother whose health is failing. And it occupies a great deal of her time. She worries about it keeping her from being involved in ministry at the church – but that is her ministry right now.
• I knew one man who was the church handy-man. And several widowed ladies at church knew that when they had a sink back up, or their car needed an oil change, or their water heater went out, they could call him. He didn’t do it just because he was a nice guy – he made it his ministry to take care of the widows’ needs.
• I knew a nurse who, every October, brought a supply of flu vaccines to church on a Sunday night and gave flu shots to anyone who needed them.

Whatever you have, wherever you are.

When I look at Jesus, I see the perfect model of ministry. But when you read the Gospels, not much of what he did would fit into our normal picture of “ministry.” Yet, there were certain qualities about the way Jesus did ministry that I think will help us get a grasp on doing ministry like he did.

First of all, he was available. That’s the number one rule of ministry – show up. Some folks never do ministry because they don’t have time for people. But Jesus always had time. It’s funny – the creator and sustainer of the universe had time for an unimportant Samaritan woman and a blind beggar on the side of the road, but our schedules are so busy, we couldn’t possibly make time to take food to someone who has been sick.

Not only was Jesus available, he was sensitive to the needs of people. He didn’t always wait for people to come to him, he often went to the people who had needs. He went to the crippled man at the pool of Bethsaida and asked what he wanted. He stopped an urgent mission to heal a woman in a crowd who was out of options. He didn’t bulldoze through life, conveniently unaware of people. He was sensitive to their needs, and responded to those needs.

Jesus was genuinely helpful. His purpose wasn’t simply to speak about God’s love for people, it was to demonstrate it. And he did that in tangible ways that affected the lives of people. When he interacted with people, they always went away changed by the experience.

And his help was creative in the way it dealt with people’s needs. There was no cookie cutter approach to Jesus’ response to people. He responded to needs in ways that were amazing in their flexibility and insight. When Nicodemus showed up at night, he didn’t turn him away and tell him to come back during office hours. When the thief on the cross appealed to his mercy, he didn’t turn him away by saying “I’ve got my own problems to deal with.” There were times that all it took was a word from afar to heal a person, but at other times it required his personal touch. One blind man was healed by simply a word, while another required a mud salve to restore his sight. Jesus touched lepers and ate with sinners and guided fishermen and stopped funerals and turned water into wine at a wedding. Every need was an opportunity to bring the power and grace of God to bear on the life of someone who desperately needed a Savior.

And when we minister, we are still trying to bring that same Savior into the lives of the people we minister to. That is the purpose of ministry. Yes, it is to meet needs, but ultimately it is to meet the ONE need – to connect people to God.

On that night before his crucifixion, the meal was finished, and Jesus wrapped himself in a towel and took a basin of water and stooped to wash the feet of his disciples.
John 13:12-17 “When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

I hope your goal is to be like your master, a servant who finds his greatest joy in serving people and bringing glory to the Father.

Illustration -- Diet & Donuts (New Year’s Resolutions)
Illustration – Jens Olson World Clock

I. Time is the stuff of which life is made
Every person is allotted the same amount every year:
24 hours/day – 168 hours/week -- 8784 hours/year – (leap year)
Some seem to accomplish so much -- like the athlete in training, working toward a goal. Others are lethargic, jogging in place -- going nowhere – they have the same amount of time, but so little to show.

366 days deposited -- how will you use them? -- as Dec. 31 of this year rolls around, what will you have to show? A few more paycheck stubs, gray hairs, hours logged on the TV or video game?

What about things of real substance -- investments of time and energy and dreams?
• Where will your spiritual life be in one year? -- deeper in the Word, stronger in prayer, closer to your Lord?
• Family? -- know your children better, marriage stronger, drawn your family closer to God?
• Service? -- Compare the hours spent - TV/Worship -- Do you have ministry, a vital role in the church – not only a place where you fit, but a place where you make a difference -- or a year from now will you still be a spectator?

As we stand on this side of the threshold of 2012, let me invite you to spend some time with me this morning examining our lives, and catching a vision of where we should be /can be/ where God wants us to be.
II. “Tomorrow” -- Joshua 3:1-5
Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. After three days the officers went throughout the camp, giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it.” Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”

What an exciting day -- but also filled with fear and uncertainty. There were some incredible phrases in this passage. I want to think through three of those as we think about what God was wanting them to do and what kind of people he needed them to be.

Vs. 3 - “When you see the ark… follow it” – Joshua told them to follow the ark, but what he was really telling them was to stay close to the Lord. That’s what they really needed – to keep their eyes firmly fixed on God. And just as important – to let the Lord go before them.

They had tried it their own way too many times – too many times they had relied on their own experience, wisdom, resources, power – and every time they found themselves in trouble. This time, Joshua said, follow the Lord.

Vs.4 - “Then you will know which way to go… For you have never been this way before” – He’s right you know, though I’m sure that on everyone’s mind was what happened 40 years earlier, when God had brought them a first time to the threshold of the promised land, but the faithlessness and rebellion of their parents had sent them wandering in the desert for 40 years. But this was a new day, a lesson learned, a fresh resolve to follow the Lord.

Vs. 5 - “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

“Consecrate yourselves” Part of their problem was that they had wanted the 2nd without doing the 1st – they wanted the promise without the imperative. “Consecrate” means to commit yourself 100% to the Lord – to set yourself apart for him completely. The Potter has to have clay that is malleable in his hands in order to create a work of art. But if we will consecrate ourselves and yield ourselves…

“The Lord will do amazing things” – Life in the Lord is an incredible adventure as we see God do amazing things in us and with us and through us that we could never imagine possible. We have the advantage of being able to turn the pages and see the amazing things he would do with them – bringing down the walls of Jericho, the strategic defeat of Ai, the victory at Gibeon when the Lord hurled hailstones and made the sun stand still. God does amazing things with people who are consecrated to him.

As we stand on the threshold of a new year, a little anxious, a little excited about the year ahead, we are also stepping out into territory where we have never been before. We will experience things in the coming 12 months that will take us completely by surprise.
• Some will change jobs, some lose jobs, some will retire.
• Some will bring new babies into the world, some will have loved ones who pass away, some will experience illness themselves and undergo surgery.
• Some will move – some to bigger houses, some to other cities, some will marry and begin new homes of their own.
• Some will start school, others will finish school, some will move the last one out and have an empty nest for the first time.

This year will bring some great blessings and some terrible tragedies. And the key to it all is to “follow him” – keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, let him go before you and direct your steps. Let’s try and get a little clearer picture of what it means to follow him:

1) Root yourself firmly in God’s will
• Eph 5:10 -- “Find out what pleases the Lord”
• Eph 5:17 -- “Understand what the will of the Lord is”
• Whatever else you do/decide, place yourself humbly, totally in God’s hands. When you step out of the boat, don’t take your eyes off of him. When you set your foot in the water, don’t look down/back.

2) Establish God centered priorities
• When God gave commandments – they were not arbitrary prohibitions, but specifically focused on creating a people who would honor him –this is how to be God’s people – this is what my people look like.
• The same thing is true of the priorities we set in our lives.
• When you decide what is most important, what you really want most in life -- you have a perspective from which to judge demands on your time, energy, finances, resources – you cannot say yes to one thing without saying no to something else. When you have no priorities – you will be tyrannized by the urgent, while the important lies neglected.
o Can’t stay up late Sat pm and expect to wake up early, ready and refreshed to go to church.
o Can’t wait until Sun am to decide whether you'll go to church that morning
o Can’t open your wallet during communion to see what’s left over to give to God.

o Can’t spend every weekend out of town traveling and vacationing and camping and expect to be vitally involved in the work here.
• Life is a series of choices where we display our priorities and values. A person who doesn’t have time to come to Bible study and worship, who always seems to have conflicts that interfere with church – it’s not a problem of time or scheduling – won’t be solved by an appt. calendar or an extra day in the week – it is a problem of the heart. When God told his people “love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength” – they were sitting on the eastern shore of the Jordan looking across the river into the promised land. God knew what they needed most. This is it.

3) Set goals for your spiritual growth -- a road map for getting to where you want to end up.
• It’s funny - we set financial/ diet/career/ academic/ athletic goals – but not spiritual? If you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it.
• Not enough to say “I want to grow spiritually, be a better Christian,” you have to be specific -- set goals for:
o Bible reading – Life Journal
o Prayer
o Serving
o Giving – In Malachi 3, God challenges his people to be faithful in their tithes and offerings, and then makes a promise to them – “Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Mal. 3:10
o Relationships
o Evangelism
• Set goals that are demanding, realistic, attainable

4) Look ahead – not a month or year, but a lifetime
• The Jordan river blocked their path – Jericho was insurmountable
• Some start out with enthusiasm and energy, but meet obstacles, find it hard to follow through, get discouraged, and finally abandon their goals. (We are basically impatient – we want it now!)
• Can’t be a short burn/quick sprint – we need to find the motivation to follow through for a lifetime – run hard, finish strong.

Status Quo (Marshall Keeble – Latin for the mess we’s in)-- 40 years in wilderness -- a rut we’ve been traveling so long, it’s begun to feel comfortable, normal -- filled with apathy and discontent, with complacency and critical spirit.

• I am excited about what the Lord is doing among us! There are so many of you who are dedicated servants, hungry for the word, prayer warriors, gifted in so many ways. I see God working in you. I think of what God can do through each of you and all of us in this coming year.

• The evening before, Joshua stood on shore of Jordan -- thought back 40 years earlier -- 12 spies /frightening report /lost faith in what God was able to do. Tonight, he looked across the Jordan to a land where God was going to lead them and bless them – “Tomorrow, the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

• That was God’s message to Israelites -- to the Glenwood church it is the same -- “The Lord will do amazing things among you.”

In Galatians 4, Paul tells us that everything that has happened through history has been carefully orchestrated by God to bring his Son, the Messiah and Redeemer into the world to save us from our sins: But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. (Gal. 4:4-5).

Jesus was not a random and arbitrary thought in the back of God’s mind. Every moment of history was focused through him, as God prepared for that perfect moment to send him into the world.

Genealogies
I’m going to ask you to listen carefully as I read one of the most exciting passages in all of Scripture: Matthew 1:1-17

Let’s admit it, genealogies are boring – they’re as much fun as reading a telephone book. We classify them as second rate scripture. If we were trying to encourage someone to read the Bible we wouldn’t send them to the lists in the book of Numbers, the generations of the kings in 1&2 Kings, or the genealogy in Matthew. Genealogies generally have a quality about them that promote drowsiness, not faith.

But what if you happened to be looking through an old High School yearbook in a yard sale and there was a picture of your mother – or a history of Glenwood Springs and there were your great-grandparents – or if your mother wrote a history of your family and researched all your ancestors, and you found out you were related to Albert Einstein – or you came across your grandmother’s Bible and there in the family history are all of the marriages and births and deaths for generations, and there stuck in between the pages is a picture taken at a family reunion and you start trying to name all of the people who have been a part of your life.

You see, it’s not that we don’t like history, but we like history that involves us. There is a delightful excitement if you find within a genealogy your name, your family, your heritage.

Real history
Matthew begins his Gospel with purpose as he lists the generations of descendants who preceded the birth of the Messiah. Some faithful, others faithless. Some names famous and well known, other’s whose significance has been lost over time. Each one playing a crucial part in linking father to son to grandson, generations spanning over 1500 years, each participating unsuspecting of his part in God’s ultimate purpose.

God at work
• As much as anything, this genealogy reminds us that God works in history, in the lives of real people, real events.
• Our Savior, God’s Messiah was not the stuff of legends and myths and fables. His life, ministry, teachings were firmly rooted in history.

The Family of Jesus
Matthew divides his genealogy into three equal sections of 14 generations each.

• The first grouping encompasses the span of Israel’s history from the beginning of their identity in Abraham through the golden years of David’s reign as king.
• The second grouping sees the decline and division and finally the devastation of God’s people as Jerusalem is leveled and they are brutally carried away into Babylonian exile.
• The final grouping shows God’s relentless love for his people – even though they have rejected him and broken his covenant. He preserves a remnant and out of that faithful remnant he selects a young maiden named Mary to bear the eternal, incarnate Son of God.
• Such symmetry reminds us through and through that God remains in control. There is order and purpose and God’s providence working in every life.
• No sin of God’s people, no military power of a foreign nation, not Satan’s assault on heaven’s purpose could derail God’s plan to redeem mankind through his son.

Pedigree
To you and me, a genealogy might seem a rather daunting way to begin a book. Wading through these lists might bog us down from the very beginning. But to a Jew who read this Gospel, it would be the most natural thing in the world.
• When Josephus, the great Jewish historian wrote his autobiography, he started with his personal pedigree.
• King Herod the Great, despised because he was a half-blooded Edomite, destroyed the official registers and replaced them with a more royal pedigree that none could contest.
• For the Jews, they wanted, not only to know who you are, but where you came from, and what’s in your family. It was more than a matter of pride, it was a matter of credibility. It was important to know who you are and your station in life.

The Family Picture Album
Genealogies evoke memories – you look through a history of the Glenwood church and start thinking back on this person and that family. And it’s not just names, but memories of events and people that have affected your life, or made a difference in the way the history of this congregation has turned out.

As we read this genealogy, our memories are prompted by different names – names like Abraham, Boaz, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah, Zerubbabel. Stories that come alive with faith and courage and divine pleasure. You would expect those kind of folks to line the path of the Messiah.

There are some surprises, also. The wickedness of Ahaz and Manasseh and Amon. There they are in the lineage of the Messiah.

Matthew pauses along the way to point out various facts:
Although many in the list wore the royal crown, David alone was called “the king.” Jesus will be called the “son of David.”

Matthew tells us that “David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife.” No white washing sin – no hiding the dirty laundry.

He points out that Jechoniah had brothers and lived at “the time of the exile to Babylon.” Matthew doesn’t skip over their darkest moment of defeat and shame.

The surprises also include the names of five women – unheard of in a Jewish genealogy – unthinkable in the ancestry of the Messiah – and the kind of women they were! Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Four of them suspected of adultery or prostitution, four of them foreigners, aliens to Israel.

And so this genealogy reminds us of four things as we read its names and notes and sideline comments:
1. That our faith is rooted in history, not some mythical, mystical storybook legend.
2. That God’s grace is continually at work among his people. God’s people may sin, his nation be faithless, his covenant be broken, but God never gives up on his people.
3. God’s providence is always in evidence. Nothing is left to chance. These generations aren’t an arbitrary wandering through a wilderness of human uncertainty. God is working through people and events toward the fulfillment of his plan for his people.
4. This genealogy is always focused on the Messiah that was to come. God’s people are a waiting people. They anticipated with fervency the coming of the promised one who would redeem them and restore them to God. We wait with anticipation to the day when he will come again.

The Fullness of Time
The verses that follow recreate the drama of the coming of the Christ – Matthew 1:18-25. This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

• The emphasis isn’t on the child, the manger, the nativity scene. It focuses, as did the genealogy, on the Christ as the one sent in the fullness of time, to fulfill God’s purpose – to bring redemption to a people in need of a Savior.
• Fullness of time – full, not on account of man’s accomplishments. God’s wasn’t waiting for us to reach some level of moral superiority. Man brings only sin to the equation. He sent his son when we were morally bankrupt – You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:6-8) It is God’s fullness that brings salvation to mankind, and hope for history.
• And it is God’s love for you, yes you, that prompts him to reach out to you with the heart of a Father who wants his son or daughter to be with him. He continues to orchestrate our lives, and in the fullness of time he works his purpose and his will if we allow him.

A Useful Tool for a Noble Purpose
Acts 13:36 “For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep and he was buried with his fathers.”
Wouldn’t it be tremendous to have it said of you when you died, “he served God’s purpose”?
Of course, that makes a couple of assumptions:
1) That God is at work in the world around you,
2) That you are interested in being a part of that work.

I believe he is and I believe you are. Your very presence here this morning indicates that there is a hunger for God in your life, a desire to be what he wants you to be, a willingness to do things he commands you to do.

But sometimes we’re not sure what more is required than to show up once a week for church. We’ve never imagined that there is more to serving God’s purpose than to participate in a weekly worship service. How do you make that step from being a member to being a minister? (And remember what we’ve been saying about ministry for several weeks now – you were made for ministry – and ministry is simply using whatever gifts and talents God has given us to serve him and tell the good news of Jesus.)

Preparation
2 Timothy 2:20-21 “In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.”

Paul describes most of our homes – we have different kinds of dishes. We have our everyday tableware – the plates and silverware we set the table with for most meals. (On really informal occasions we pull out the paper plates and plastic knives and forks.) But then there is the special stuff – the china and the real silver – we keep it in the china cabinet and bring it out for special occasions – when company comes over or Thanksgiving, or something that requires we treat it with special honor.

And I would guess that if we went to your house right now, we’d find some dirty dishes in the sink, and the beds might not be made and some dust bunnies floating around in the corners, and let’s not even think about your garage. And it’s really no big deal – nobody expects your house to be ready for a photo shoot for Better Homes and Gardens. It’s fine for every day.

I want to make sure you get the right point here, because it would be easy to go off on tangents and mistaken applications. The point Paul is trying to make is that if God came to your house, you wouldn’t serve him on the common ordinary tableware (and certainly not paper plates) – you would serve him from your best. And you wouldn’t leave laundry on the couch and dirty dishes in the sink – you would scrub the house from top to bottom. God would deserve nothing less. Forget the photo shoot, the creator of the universe is coming to your house!

The fact is, God comes into your life, and deserves nothing but your best. You need to do some house cleaning – get rid of the sins and the attitudes and way of life that might have served you well enough in your old life, but are offensive to God and make your life unusable in his service. And you bring out your best for his use – your prime time, most productive energy, your best efforts.

You are made for ministry – and ministry in God’s service demands a preparation of heart and life that will make you useful in his service.

Presentation
So you’ve done the preparation. You’re dealing with sin in your life (that doesn’t mean you’re perfect, but that repentance and prayer are ongoing in your pursuit of a holy life). You’ve cleansed your motives and your heart so that God holds a place of honor.

But then…. you can’t keep this new life locked up in the china cabinet, out of God’s reach where it is really of no more use to God than when it was filled with the world.
Having prepared your life, you need to present your life to God – (in other words – make it available to him.)

Let me tell you – this is where most of us struggle. We are so busy – we have filled our lives so full (of good things) – that we don’t have time for God. (“Sorry God – I’m looking at my day-timer here and the next available appt. I’ve got is in July 2012 – shall I pencil you in?”)

There are others who excuse themselves from serving God, not because they don’t have the time, but because they don’t think they have anything to offer. (“I can’t preach, I’m not good in front of people, there are so many others around that I’m just not needed.”) So they sit back – rusting out and gathering cobwebs.

Let me tell you about another kind of person. This is the person Paul says has cleansed himself from the ignoble (cleansed sin from his life, made God’s work a top priority). He is made holy, useful to the Master, and prepared to do any good work – he will be an instrument for noble purposes.

That doesn’t mean he spends a 40 hour week in ministry besides his job and family – it means that everything he does is done with an eye towards ministry. He doesn’t shift gears in and out – this for God / this for me. It is literally – everything he has, everywhere he is – God is able to use him effectively. He is both ready and available. Whatever you have, wherever you’re needed.

I love the attitude communicated by Helen Keller: “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble . . . For the world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

I am always challenged by the way Paul looked at life. There is such a power and intentionality to his life.
2 Cor. 12:15 “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.”
2 Tim. 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Paul’s intention was to be used up in God’s service. There is a huge difference between being worn out and used up. I’ve seen a whole lot of worn out people. They sprint into service with a burst of energy… and then just as suddenly they fizzle out and never do anything again. Or the person who has been a great servant all of their life, and then one day decides they are too old, or they’ve done their time and they literally retire from serving God. If I understand what God is calling us to, it is a lifelong commitment to him. To be a useful tool to him until the day of our funeral.

How do you keep from becoming worn out or burned out? Let me suggest a theology of serving -- a way of looking at life that brings it all together and makes it available to God – ready for serving.

Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Three points out of this very rich passage:
First, your life is a living sacrifice. There’s nothing part-time about that picture. It is the complete and permanent commitment of your life to God. You don’t start marriage by thinking “I’ll try this for a little while, if I don’t like it I’ll move on.” And you don’t get 40 years into your marriage and decide, “I’ve given as much as I want to give, I think I’ll just become a husband emeritus.” Entering into a marriage is a lifelong commitment. Entering into a covenant with God is not just a lifetime, but an eternal commitment.

Secondly, he says, “this is your spiritual act of worship.” Now, the word he uses for “worship,” isn’t the normal word that describes what we do when we assemble – singing, praying, preaching, etc. This is the word that describes the work of the priest, who serves in worship, offering the sacrifices. In effect, you are both priest and sacrifice, offering yourself in service to God. The difference is, instead of a burnt offering, you are a living sacrifice. And what you do in serving – in ministry – is a very real part of your worship to God. Worship isn’t just in here – it is also out there, daily offering yourself in service to God.

And three – “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” Part of what that conforming to the world involves is the “self-ishness” that pervades the world – this is all about me – the bottom line is what meets my needs. That’s not God’s good, pleasing and perfect will at all. Our relationship with God is personal, but it is not individualistic. He puts us in a family – and I hate to break the news to you, but you’re not an only child! Your place is in the family with responsibilities and duties. Imagine being a part of a large family with lots of brothers and sisters, but you act like an only child. The family gathers for the evening meal, but you come, get your plate and eat by yourself in your room. The family is sitting in the living room watching television and you walk in grab the remote and say, we’re going to watch what I want to watch. That just wouldn’t work very well would it? And yet that’s how a lot of Christians act in the family of God – like they are only children. But God puts us in the body of Christ to function as an effective member of the body, bringing health and strength to the body.

And then he speaks about the practical application of that – Romans 12:3-6a “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.”

He begins by saying don’t think too highly of yourself – and by the same token, don’t think too little of yourself. Instead, “think with sober judgment” – know what you have available to God.

You may be one of those people who can do many things and functions at many different levels. Or you may be someone who is only capable of doing a few things. Don’t think more highly / lowly of yourself. Don’t get pumped up with pride because you are a multi-talented person, and don’t excuse yourself from serving because you think your talents aren’t as important as someone else’s. Whatever you have has been given to you by God for serving the body.

And then he lists a few – Romans 12:6b-8 “If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”

It’s not a comprehensive list – but an illustrative list. And please don’t disconnect this from vs. 1 that describes your living sacrifice and your spiritual act of worship.

The uniqueness of ministry and the power of the body of Christ is that no one can do everything, but everyone can (and must) do something in order for the body to function properly.

There was a recurring refrain in those verses – did you hear it? 7 times in 3 verses. There is no such thing as a servant emeritus, an encourager who doesn’t encourage, a teacher who doesn’t teach, or a giver who doesn’t give. Your gift is defined by what you do. And the point he is making is that whatever your gift – USE IT. Whatever you do – do it wholeheartedly. Don’t let your gift lie in disuse, gathering dust and cobwebs. Don’t dig a hole and bury it. Don’t lock the china cabinet.

The point of having a gift is that it is useful to God, not convenient to us. They serve his purpose not ours.

There is nothing more exciting than the moment you discover what your purpose in life is – unless it is at that same moment to discover that your purpose is God’s purpose – and to know that you are fulfilling his will for your life.

Most of us live from day to day. All we hope for is to survive through one more quitting time, make it to one more paycheck, get through one more crisis without the wheels coming off.

Your life may not be that haphazard. Believe me, there are more than a few who live exactly like that. But more to the point – do you live on purpose? Do you approach each day with a sense that your life counts for something? Many of us don’t. We just live life from day to day, taking everything as it comes, but never giving any thought to actually making a difference. If we make any changes, if we accomplish anything significant, it’s accidental. It happened – most of the time we’re glad it happened – but we didn’t plan for it, we don’t know why it happened, and we couldn’t repeat it. Our lives are moved by forces beyond our control, and we just go with the flow.

Paul challenges us with a different way of living – a sharper focus to our lives. He challenges us to live intentionally – Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Eph. 5:15-17)

That word that is translated in the NIV “opportunity” is actually the word for “time.” But it’s not the word that would describe the passing of hours on the clock. You see, the Greeks had two words for time – “chronos” was that kind of time (chronometer and chronograph). The other word was “kairos,” and that was the word for significant time, time that was filled with potential and opportunity – that’s the word Paul uses here.

And so, when Paul tells us to “make the most of every opportunity” he is challenging us not to be a cork on a river, not to be a victim of circumstances, but to grasp the importance of every moment and use it for God. Why? “Because the days are evil.”

In the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus said, “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it,” he’s not describing a world full of people who go around wantonly doing evil and living wicked lives – he’s talking about a world full of people who are unwittingly and unintentionally living without God and apart from God. It’s what he said afterward that was most instructive – “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” It’s not just a lucky few who happen to be at the right place at the right time – it’s those who intentionally seek for it who find it.
When Paul says, “the days are evil,” he is describing what happens in the world around us every day – not some cataclysmic event, not some wicked lifestyle that we choose. It is what happens to us when we don’t choose – when we don’t live intentionally.

I love the parable Jesus tells in Matt. 13:44-46 – “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

We are introduced to two men – a farmer and a merchant. Both are going about their normal activities, but both come across a rare opportunity. The farmer finds a buried treasure and the merchant, a rare pearl. Both decide to risk everything to possess the one thing of great value.

And of course, we understand that these parables aren’t about treasure and pearls – they are about the kingdom of God. And we are the farmer and the merchant. We are living our lives, working our jobs, everything is normal – until the day we come across the kingdom of God. Will we recognize its great value? Will we be willing to risk it all to invest our lives in the one thing of ultimate worth?

From cover to cover, the Bible tells us that faith will not be easy. God warns us that it comes with a cost. The very nature of discipleship is that it costs us everything we have. And if it doesn’t cost us very much, it isn’t worth very much. And for many of us, it’s not worth much and it doesn’t mean that much, because it hasn’t cost us anything at all.

I remember how I felt when a missionary from Kenya came to give his report on the work he was doing and he described a brother who had come to attend the Great Commission School of Preaching in Nairobi. He was a common man, a rural villager who had little of value in the world – only a cow. But he sold his only cow – everything he had to be able to afford to come to learn to preach so he could go back to his village to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And here we are concerned about having a bigger house and a newer car and fancier vacations. And he sold everything he had. That’s living intentionally.

You’ve seen the scenario in countless movies and TV shows – an infectious disease gets loose and the epidemic begins – as person touches person touches person, the disease spreads quickly, contagiously. The progress escalates with each touch because it isn’t just one person infected, but a planeload or an office building who come in contact. The very thought of a plague that infects and kills with such rapid and devastating force is terrifying.

In the opening chapters of Acts, Christianity seemed to travel with the same kind of virulence as a contagious epidemic. The Pharisees were nearly in a panic over the success of the apostles in spreading the good news of Jesus What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.” Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:16-20

It was, in fact, spreading not only because the gospel was being preached, but because people saw the gospel being lived –
• Acts 2:41 “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
• 4:4 “But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.”
• 4:32-33 “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.”
• 5:12-14 “The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”
• 6:7 “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.”
• 8:4 “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”

It is said that faith is more easily caught than taught. We can teach and teach and our words never have an impact. It’s not until people see the gospel lived powerfully and intentionally that lives are affected. There are times when what we teach seems to get lost in that enormous gulf between the head and the heart. But when it bridges that gap – when our words connects with our lives – Wow! – what power!

Woman at the well – Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ ?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him…. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” John 4:28-30; 39-42
Gerasene demoniac – The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. Luke 8:38-39

It is a message that spreads like wildfire in dry grass –it spreads like a dandelion in the wind. It cannot be contained in one life – it must be shared.

We hear more and more about hereditary or genetic traits and diseases that are passed on from generation to generation. Your genetic code makes a tremendous difference in the lives of generations yet unborn. But of all those traits you will pass on, none have more significance than your faith.

A hundred years from now you will be an entry in your great-great-grandchildren’s genealogies – a name on a family tree. They won’t know much about you (what you did for a living or how much you made). They might have a picture of you standing beside that beautiful car you are driving today – and laughing with each other – “Can you believe they drove those old jalopies!?!”

Will the generations of your family that will come after you look back and say, “Back in the 21st century my great-great-great grandfather became a Christian, and every generation of our family since then has been faithful to the Lord because of the example they started so many years ago.”

What will be of lasting significance will be whether you were a man or woman of faith – whether you taught your children who passed their faith on to their children and grandchildren.

Paul wrote to his son in the faith, Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:2)

You know what that means in a practical way? You teach your children – and then you teach your children to teach their children. It starts at home. It begins with you.

It is a legacy of lasting significance. It is the most important inheritance you can bequeath to your family and to generations yet to come. It will have the most eternal consequences of anything else you might leave.

Max Lucado tells the story of a Brazilian missionary who worked among a tribe of Indians in a remote rain forest deep in the Amazon. A contagious disease began to spread through the tribe – their only hope was to seek medical attention in a clinic in another part of the jungle. But to get there, they must cross the river – none of them had ever done that – they believed that evil spirits lived in the water and that no one could enter the water and live. No matter how much the missionary argued and explained and begged, no one would dare cross the river. One day they stood on the bank as he tried again to persuade them to cross the river, when suddenly he turned and dove into the water and swam the breadth of the river and came out on the other side, fists clenched in the air in victory! And the tribe dove in to join him.

Intro– If you crawl under a pew of one of the magnificent European Cathedrals, you will find carved there four letters: "AMDG." You may find the same four letters etched onto the cathedral's stained glass, stitched on its vestment and altar cloths, and hewn into cathedral stone. You will not find the name of the artist there; only those four letters: "AMDG." The letters stand for "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam": To the Honor and Glory of God. Despite the difficulty of their creative tasks--since they were all done by hand, a man could spend an entire lifetime carving the decorations for one tower, or carving and joining the woodwork of a chapel--the artist asked no recognition. Their grand creations stand, but their names are unknown. Every chisel stroke, every pass of the plane, every stitch of the cloth, was a prayer, offered wholly to the honor and glory of God. How would our attitude change if everything we did was done, consciously, every moment, "to the honor and glory of God?"

We began a discussion two weeks ago – how we are all ministers – not professional, just surrendered. You may never have thought of yourself as a minister before – it can be kind of intimidating, because I’m sure when you think of a minister you have a picture in your head of someone who stands up and preaches, or spends a lot of time in Bible study or counseling or visiting in the hospital. But that’s not the picture of a minister in the Bible.

In its simplest definition, ministry is using whatever gifts and talents God has given us to serve him and tell the good news of Jesus.
We all have a stake in that – it is built in to every Christian’s job description – no Christian is exempt. While we have many gifts, we have one mission.
• Centuries ago, the monastic movement began – and it sounded like a good idea – separate yourself from the world so you can’t be tempted and can focus solely on God. But after several months, one hermit came back to society and rejoined the church – in spite of the distractions, in spite of the frustrations. Why? He found that while he might be able to focus on God, what he could not do was fulfill Jesus’ commands to love and serve his neighbor – he could not wash a brother’s feet – he could not tell others of Jesus.
• In the Gospel of John, Jesus prayed “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17:15-19).
• God did not take us out of the world when we became Christians, but instead sent us back into the world – and he sent us back with a purpose.
• That purpose is as ancient as the purpose God gave Abraham – “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen. 12:2-3).
• That purpose is as focused as Christ’s own purpose – “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Lk. 19:10).
• We are not isolated, protected away from the world – we are sent back into the world – we are made for ministry.

Every day when you walk out your front door, God is sending you out into the world as his ambassador, his representative. And the world is watching you – and listening. They want to know – do you live what you believe? Do your words and your life match up, or do you say one thing and do another? They are looking to see if your God really is in control of your life, or are you just like everyone else – controlled by the same fears and driven by the same priorities?

We can say all the words we want to say about proclaiming Christ to the unbelieving world around us, but they will have little effect unless there is something behind the words. We can never win back with our words what we lose with our lives. Credibility is destroyed when our words are betrayed by our lives. When our lives are ineffective and powerless, we can’t talk a good enough game to reclaim it. It is simply unthinkable that Christ lives in our lives and nothing be different or distinctive about them.

But when we live genuine, authentic lives – lives that are themselves a testimony to the power of God to transform – lives that are consumed in imitating the servant life of Christ – then not so many words are needed. But if there is no life behind those words, then all the words in the world will have little effect , and may do irreparable harm to the cause of Christ.

Peter addressed this relationship between life and words in his first epistle – 1 Peter 2:9-12 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
• What he reminds them of over and over again, is that when you are in the world, lead with your life – let your life be the testimony to the truth of your words.
• St. Francis of Assisi said this about our role in the world – “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.”
• It is a theme that permeates the words of the NT. We are never called to be mere spectators. Our baptism is not a retirement, but a call to put our beliefs into practice – to live the life, not just talk about it.

Phil. 2:14-16 “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.”
2 Cor. 3:2-3 “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
1 Thess. 4:11-12 Paul tells Christians to live their life in such a way “that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders.”

In the 2nd century, Christians would gather on the outskirts of Rome at dusk. They would watch shadowy figures from the town deposit small bundles at the edge of the forest – unwanted children (often female or deformed) who would be left to the elements or wild beasts. The Christians would rescue these infants and raise them as their own sons and daughters. The church had an important role to play in shaming popular culture into abandoning such practices.

In the 3rd century, Tertullian, a church leader in Africa wrote about the world’s view of Christians: These contributions to the church treasury are the trust fund of piety. For they are not spent on banquets, drinking parties, or dining clubs; but for feeding and burying the poor, for boys and girls destitute of property and parents; and further for old people confined to the house, and victims of shipwreck; and any who are in the mines, who are exiled to an island, or who are in prison merely on account of God’s church – these become the wards of their confession. So great a work of love burns a brand upon us in regard to some. “See,” they say, “how they love one another.” (Apology xxxix.5-9)

The gospel has always been a “social gospel” – aimed at changing society around us. When Jesus called us “salt” and “light” he was telling us that our presence in the world changes it for the good. Jesus had a heart for the poor and the outcast. James said pure religion is caring for orphans and widows. We should be on the forefront of confronting the ills in the world and working toward solutions. We should be defenders of the unborn and the orphan, the helpless and the oppressed. We should be the ones who challenge injustice and unrighteousness.

We can’t retreat into isolation and pretend the world doesn’t exist. We are sent out as ambassadors into this world representing the kingdom of God. We live in this world, but not of this world – but we do live in the world. God does not save us and then remove us from its contamination. Instead he sends us into the world to begin to change it from the inside out.

Assignment: Ministry

You remember the story of Esther. Esther faced a momentous decision that could save her people or cost her her life. Her uncle Mordecai had these powerful words for her – “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Ministry begins with the realization that our lives belong to God to use to accomplish his purposes in the world around us. He puts us within a circle of people – a group unique to us – that only we can impact.
• Your ministry begins with these people – your family, your friends, your co-workers, your casual acquaintances. How is your life touching their lives? How is your faith impacting their eternity?
• If God were to give you a specific assignment: “John, you have five years to make a significant / an eternal difference in the lives of these ten people” – how would you go about it? Where would you start? That folks, is the essence of ministry. That is exactly what God is calling you to do. God takes you where you are, who you are, with what you have and calls you to ministry.

We must view differently our place and our purpose in this world. We are not here for personal satisfaction and self-gratification. We are called to be ministers to others – to be invested in the priorities which Jesus counted most important.

Do you believe that your life has real power and purpose? If everything else were stripped away except your life, what would your Christianity look like? Are you an open letter, known and read by all men?

Available to God

Jesus spoke 13 parables of judgment. He never condemned someone for any sin like adultery or stealing or murder. He didn’t condone those sins – but the ones he condemned were those who did absolutely nothing – he condemned the sin of uselessness.

God doesn’t need more church members – marking time, warming pews. He needs ministers – he needs men and women who have committed themselves to being available servants of God.

If you’re guilty of being lukewarm and indifferent – if you have felt satisfied because you never do anything bad – but when you’re honest with yourself – you really never do anything for God.

You’re like a bucket of gasoline – you have the potential for a spectacular explosion! – but you’ve never been on fire so instead of doing anything risky, you’re just slowly evaporating away.

There is an incredible story in Exodus 3. You remember the story of Moses – a Hebrew baby, raised by royalty, brother to Pharaoh – and then things go bad and he flees into the wilderness, a fugitive from justice. And he takes up the life of a shepherd – he resigns himself to finishing his life in anonymity. 40 years pass. And then we find him on one of those dull, ordinary days in a life filled with routine – and suddenly, Moses’ life is turned upside down by a burning bush and the voice of God. Moses tries to wiggle out of it with excuses and refusals – but then God speaks – I have seen the misery of my people, I have heard them crying out, I have compassion for their suffering – and now I am sending YOU to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt. But I will be with you, I will tell you what to say, I will empower you.

And let me tell you that God has a bush lit and a job for you to do – and his promise is the same -- I will be with you, I will tell you what to say, I will empower you.

Illustration – In a small Jewish town in Russia, there is a rabbi who disappears each Friday morning for several hours. His devoted disciples boast that during those hours their rabbi goes up to heaven and talks to God.
A stranger moves into town, and he's skeptical about all this, so he decides to check things out. He hides and watches. The rabbi gets up in the morning, says his prayers, and then dresses in peasant clothes. He grabs an axe, goes off into the woods, and cuts some firewood, which he then hauls to a shack on the outskirts of the village. There an old woman and her sick son live. He leaves them the wood, enough for a week, and then sneaks back home.
Having observed the rabbi's actions, the newcomer stays on in the village and becomes his disciple. And whenever he hears one of the villagers say, "On Friday morning our rabbi ascends all the way to heaven," the newcomer quietly adds, "If not higher."

If you know anything about Israel’s history from the Old Testament, you know that they lived on a roller coaster. God would bless them with abundance and they would respond with pride and arrogance. God would send a foreign enemy who would defeat and enslave and oppress them. Then, they would cry out to God in repentance, God would send a deliverer, like Moses or Joshua or Gideon or Deborah, who would rally the people, defeat their oppressor and they would prosper once again. And the cycle would start all over. Pride, oppression, deliverance and abundance. But over and over throughout the OT, God would indict them for the sin that underlay everything else they were guilty of – ingratitude. “Does a maiden forget her jewelry, a bride her wedding ornaments? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number.” (Jer. 2:32)

When someone gives you a gift, what is your natural response? Appreciation and gratitude. If God blesses you, what should be your natural response? Appreciation and gratitude. But God would bless the people of Israel and their response would be complaining, rebellion and unfaithfulness. Let me give you an example:
• When God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery – they have come to the Red Sea with the Egyptian army at their backs and they cry out, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Ex 14:11-12) God miraculously delivers them and they cross the Red Sea.
• Three days into their journey to freedom they begin complaining about how thirsty they are – “What are we to drink?” And God gives them water in the desert.
• One month in the wilderness and the people start grumbling again, “If only we had died by the LORD'S hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” (Ex 16:3) How quickly they had forgotten their miserable existence as slaves in Egypt. But in spite of their ingratitude and complaining, God gave them manna in the morning and quail in the evening.
• And I’m sure from then on, there wasn’t another word of complaint at all… You and I both know that it didn’t matter how much God did for them, it would never be enough. Their response to God’s gifts and blessings was always ingratitude.
• And it is a danger for us as well. In fact, Paul wrote about those very experiences of the Israelites and warned the Christians in Corinth not to fall into that same pattern – “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” (1 Cor 10:11)

How do you avoid it? How do you not fall into the habit of complaining and criticizing, of taking things for granted and always demanding more?

The early church had a word for the Lord’s Supper – eucharist – from the Gk word for “thanksgiving.” It is easy to see why they called it the thanksgiving:
Matt. 26:26-29 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

When Paul reflected on the meaning of the LS - 1 Cor. 10:16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
Thankfulness is what characterized the supper for the early Christians. Yes, it was a memorial service. Yes, in the supper they remembered his body. Yes, the supper was about the suffering and death of Christ.
But woven throughout these simple elements of bread and wine is thankfulness:
• thankfulness for God’s indescribable gift of grace,
• thankfulness for the Savior who rescued us from sin and death and reunited us with the Father who loves us,
• thankfulness that we are loved so much by the Father that he calls us his children.

Thankfulness frames a state of mind that recognizes that all that we have and are is from the Father. And the Lord’s Supper or “Eucharist” is a good time to be reminded of all that God has done for us.

Thanksgiving is a growing process. It is as natural as breathing, but it has the potential to grow far beyond just the basic levels that most of us reach. As I read the scriptures that talk about and describe thanksgiving, they present a depth of gratitude that takes us from level to level as we mature in our relationship with God and in our understanding of his presence and his work in our lives.

Level 1 – Something good happens

The most basic level of thanksgiving is that ambiguous feeling that a person of the world experiences when someone does something nice for him, or something fortunate goes his way. He can’t explain it except to say there are nice people in the world or that he got lucky, or ascribe it to fate or karma – what goes around comes around. I think of a couple kinds of people who experience thankfulness this way. One is the person who feels that he is in charge of his destiny – if something good happens, he made it happen. And the other is the person who feels he is helpless to face life – if something good happens, it’s a fluke. One is a powerbroker, the other is a victim.

Level 2 – Something good happens because God allows it

In Matthew 5, Jesus described how many people view how things work. He says, that God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. This person explains a lot of things by naming fate as God. In fact, he might believe in God – a God who maybe was around a long time ago and maybe worked in some people’s lives. But this person is sophisticated enough to give a scientific explanation to most things. He’ll allow that God set up the world to work in a certain way, and we are all beneficiaries of some good things that God allows to happen. But blessings are accidental and arbitrary. And he feels uncomfortable with the idea that God is working in this world today, that he has any kind of personal concern for him and what goes on in his life.

Level 3 – Something good happens because God causes it

This kind of thankfulness arises from the belief that God is actively involved in my life, in my world. I see God working through good things and bad things. I see God providing for my needs and sustaining my life through his active care. The thankfulness this produces is the kind that recognizes God is personally concerned with my needs; that even in the struggles and crises of my life God is there caring for me. It embodies Paul’s words in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Level 4 – Something good happens because God has enabled someone else to do it

Perhaps more than suggest a deeper level of thankfulness here, I want to suggest that we redefine and refocus our thinking. You and I experience the wonderful gifts of other people loving us and caring for us and reaching into our lives with ministry and service. Have you ever found yourself explaining it by saying, “Aren’t they nice people?” And that may be a true statement, but it doesn’t begin to explain the depth of their motivation. It’s okay to be a nice person, but what gets you moving, what keeps you running?

When God uses people as instruments of his service, when God provides for the needs of others through the hands and energies of his people – it produces tremendous expressions of thanksgiving. I love serving people – not for the pat on the back, or that people will think what a great guy I am – but so that God will be glorified. That people will see, not me, but Jesus working through me. And people will be drawn to him. When I see brothers and sisters in this family reaching out and serving, bringing spiritual and emotional healing in people’s lives, providing for physical needs, for being where they are needed, when they are needed – I rejoice and thank God for his wonderful gifts he has blessed us with.

Paul communicated this kind of experience in 2 Cor. 9: “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.” (2 Cor 9:10-12)

Level 5 – Something good happens because God has enabled me to do it.

Level 5 takes what we have just said about the source from which others draw their motivation to serve and internalizes it. I love to see people thanking God for things that brothers and sisters in Christ have done. It’s an even greater feeling of thanksgiving when people get to thank God when it’s something that I have been a part of. But let’s take that thanksgiving one step further. When God uses you or me as his instruments of service and people thank God for it, that’s great. But who is the greatest recipient? All of a sudden it dawns on us, that we – our weak, sinful, stubborn selves – have been used by God. He counts us worthy, he deems us holy, he has molded us and prepared us, and now he has used us. It don’t believe there is any greater feeling of thanksgiving than the thanks I experience when I realize that God has prepared me, enabled me, and given me the opportunity to serve for him in someone’s life.

This was at the heart of the Macedonian Christians, and Paul points to their incredible generosity as an expression of their gratitude to God – “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.” (2 Cor. 8:2-5)

I can’t think of a more thankful person in the Bible than Paul. Pound for pound, Paul not only has more to say about thanksgiving, but expresses his personal thanksgiving and gratitude to God more than any other writer. Why? Because God was working in his life? No question about it. Because people were always doing nice things for him? He is glad to receive it. But Paul’s deepest expressions of thanksgiving are because God counted him worthy to be used in his service. Listen to what he writes: “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.” (1 Cor. 15:9-10)

Thanksgiving does not come most deeply from receiving, but from giving; not from being served, but from serving. Only when we begin to see our abundance as the opportunity to expand our own giving and our ability to bless others can we begin to scratch the surface of true thanksgiving.

When I think of what true thanksgiving does in the life of a Christian, not to mention what it can do in the life of a congregation full of men and women whose lives are transformed by gratitude, it is a force beyond reckoning.

And so much of it has to do with perspective. What do we look for, where are we focused? Does each day come and go without the awareness of God’s working in your life? Do you see his work and care, or do you just casually take it for granted? One step further – do you seek to be God’s instrument of service to others, not for your glory or praise, but for his? Can you serve others anonymously, so that no one ever finds out, and God alone is praised, and honestly give thanksgiving without feeling like you have been ignored or slighted? That’s the true mark of maturity in serving and giving.

Let’s be honest – there are times when I don’t feel thankful – I get caught up in my own pity party, I envy what others have, I don’t appreciate what God has given me – I feel flat and lifeless. When you experience a spiritual flatness, a discontentment, a loss of appetite for spiritual things, if you start investigating I’m pretty certain you will find thanksgiving in short supply. It is a critical spirit rather than a thankful spirit which prevails. And it’s then that we need to remind ourselves to focus on the blessings, rekindle that flame of thankfulness, and return to the foot of the cross.

What would you do if your 2 year old wasn’t walking, or your 4 year old still wasn’t speaking, or your 6 year old didn’t have any of her teeth? You’d be at your pediatrician’s office having tests run to see why they weren’t developing normally – they’d be on vitamin supplements, seeing specialists, we’d want to get to the bottom of it.

How would you feel if your 25 year old son still lived at home, didn’t have a job, couldn’t feed himself, had to be told to brush his teeth, and sat around all day watching cartoons? You’d think, something’s wrong with his development, something has happened that kept him from progressing normally.

We have certain milestones that we look for in development, standards of normal development that we look at to tell us whether something is wrong with our child that needs to be looked into. And there are certain expectations that we have for our children that tell us they are maturing and growing like they are supposed to. We do it physically, academically, socially, emotionally – and when they aren’t where they ought to be, we recognize that something has gone wrong and needs to be addressed.

Take academics for example –
Kind. – not only count but recognize numbers to 100
3rd – times tables -- adding, subtracting, multiplying fractions
6th – pre-algebra equations
12th – conceptual math analysis and calculus
We don’t expect a Kindergartener to be doing calculus, but if a 7th grader can’t multiply 7x7 without using his fingers, something’s wrong.
Elementary schools use a system of points called Accelerated Reader to determine the grade level and difficulty of a book. Little children are reading books like Clifford and 6th graders are reading My Side of the Mountain. We don’t expect a 1st grader to be reading Shakespeare, but if a Junior in H.S. is struggling with Cat in the Hat, there’s something that has really been missed.

We understand that there are certain developmental processes that a child goes through in becoming an adult. There are learning processes, physical development, social changes. And we don’t expect a child to think or act like an adult. We let them be kids, we allow for immaturity, we know they grow up. But we also look for that development to take place and when it doesn’t we want to find the problems and correct them.

There are some of those same dynamics in the spiritual life. A new Christian has to grow up in the faith. We can’t expect a baby in Christ (even if he is 40 years old) to understand and act with the spiritual maturity of a Christian who has years of faith under his belt.

But when someone has been a Christian for 20 years and still has to be coaxed to read his Bible and spend time in prayer – who is selfish and impatient and demands to have his way – who doesn’t get involved and doesn’t have a place of serving in the body – who doesn’t come to Bible class and doesn’t exhibit any signs of spiritual maturity – something has gone wrong with their development spiritually -- and we should be frantic with concern about what to do.

I’m concerned this morning that we don’t really recognize this in the body of Christ. What seems obvious in our physical bodies, we don’t recognize in our spiritual body. But Paul did: It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

Four myths of spiritual maturity:
Myth #1 Spiritual growth is automatic.
Fact: Spiritual growth is intentional.
Spiritual growth does not “just happen,” once you are baptized, even if you attend church every time the doors are open.

Churches are filled with people who have attended church services their entire lives, yet are still spiritual babies. But that is something that is as old as the first century church. The writer of the Hebrews letter wrote to people who had been Christians for years, but still needed to grow up. Heb. 5:12-14 “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

Every church has members, whose names have been on the membership roles for years, yet who are not much more than permanent visitors. They dutifully fulfill an obligation to be inside the church building regularly, but they do nothing to serve the Lord. They’ve never served in any ministry, they’ve never made any effort to build any relationships in the body, their offering is less than they tip the waitress at the restaurant after church.

Is it that they are bad people? No – they are spiritual babies. They act like we would expect immature Christians to act. They wait for something to happen to them – for somebody else to make them grow, and ironically, resist when somebody tries.

And spiritual growth doesn’t happen, because spiritual growth is intentional. You only reap a harvest from a crop you’ve planted. You can only make withdrawals from an account in which you’ve made deposits. And for some the well is dry. And the well is dry because they’ve never sunk their roots down into the life-giving source where they will find the water of life. They are like that Samaritan woman at the well who came out day after day in the heat and dust to draw from a well that wouldn’t quench her real thirst. And then Jesus said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (Jn 4:10)

Myth #2 Spiritual maturity is measured by what you know.
Fact: Spiritual maturity is measured as much by how you live as by what you know.
We are a people of the book – we pride ourselves on correct doctrine. But in the process, we have convinced ourselves that all one needs to do to be a good Christian is believe the right things. However, while knowledge of the Bible is foundational to spiritual maturity, it isn’t the total measurement of it.

The truth is that spiritual maturity is measured as much by behavior as by beliefs. The Christian life isn’t just a matter of correct doctrine and strongly held convictions; it includes conduct and character. Beliefs must be backed up by how you live.

The NT repeatedly teaches that our actions and attitudes reveal our maturity far more than our words: Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says….
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. (James 1:22, 2:14-18)

If your faith hasn’t changed the way you live, the way you act, the way you treat people, then your faith isn’t worth much. In every NT letter, the importance of practicing what we believe is driven home with a sledge hammer.

There is a real danger in making right beliefs the sum of your spiritual maturity. Paul reminds us in 1 Cor. 8:1 “Knowledge puffs up, love builds up.” Some of the most carnal Christians I’ve known were encyclopedias of biblical knowledge. They could explain any passage and defend any doctrine, but they were mean-spirited, self-righteous and judgmental.

We don’t truly start to mature until we start applying what we know – living what we believe.

Myth #3 Spiritual maturity occurs with more frequent church attendance.
Fact: When your Christianity is all intake and no outflow in ministry, your faith will stagnate.
Now, I’m going to be one of the first and loudest to encourage people to be faithful in attendance when the church gathers for worship, for Bible classes, for fellowship events and workdays. I believe it is absolutely essential to our spiritual growth. But folks, some of us think that the only time church is going on is when the building is open. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Christianity was never intended to be a building centered religion. Yet, we seem to think that our duty as Christians is to come, to sit, to listen, to leave – until next week.
The Great Commission was not “Come to the building.” It was “Go into all the world.”

What we do at the building is important, and its purposes are twofold: First, it centers our lives – it reminds us of who is in control and who deserves all the glory as we worship God. Secondly, it prepares us – through our fellowship and through the word, God is recharging us and renewing us so that he can send us back into the world to be his servants, his ministers to the world.

Myth #4 People are too busy to give more of themselves to the Lord.
Fact: People want to give themselves to something significant.
This is a myth we have used to convince ourselves of how busy we are, and justify ourselves for how little we do. The truth is that people make time for what is most important in their lives. It is not a matter of scheduling, but of priorities.

Because it is a matter of priorities, people have to be very selective of what they do give their time to. It’s not that people are too busy to give more of themselves to the Lord, it’s that they want to give themselves to something significant. And I’ll have to admit, for most people, spending more time in a church building and more time sitting in a pew isn’t significant – they want to make a difference. They want to invest themselves in something worth giving their lives to. Amen.

I believe God made us for more –not more time in a pew – but more of what makes life significant.

We were designed to grow up into servants
God never made us to stay where we are at – inert, stagnant – spiritual couch potatoes. He made us to grow up!
Listen to what the Bible has to say about spiritual growth:
1 Peter 2:2 “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”
2 Cor. 3:18 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” God made us to grow up – to mature and change – into the likeness of Christ.

When we began this morning, we read the passage in Ephesians 4. Do you remember what God said the purpose of leadership in the body is?: “…to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up …” (Eph. 4:12)

God made us to grow up – as individuals – as a congregation – for the purpose of becoming servants, so that we can build up the body. Spiritual growth isn’t just about me – it’s about what I can give to others.

We have somehow bought into the idea that building up the body is the work of the elders and ministers. But that’s not what Paul was saying. The leaders’ job is to equip each of you for serving others and building each other up.

What keeps us from growing up? Satan is always at work. But let’s admit – we like being babies. Everybody looks after us, takes care of our needs. If we cry loud enough we get our way. There are lots of advantages to being a big spiritual baby. But it costs – it costs us and it costs the body.

Think of all the images God uses for the church and the kingdom – the body, a seed planted, a newborn baby – they were all meant to grow – and if they don’t, something is wrong. It’s time to grow up!

God didn’t just make us for pew-sitting, he made us for ministry. Did you hear what Paul was saying? If you want to grow, you have to be involved in ministry – “the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” You were made for ministry.
Look back in Eph. 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We were made for ministry.
1 Peter 2:9-10 “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” You were made for ministry.

God never intended for our modern clergy-laity mentality – we are all ministers – priests in a royal priesthood – In 2 Cor., Paul called us “God’s fellow workers.”

Ministry is using whatever gifts and talents God has given us to serve him and tell the good news. Not professional – just surrendered. That means we make ourselves available to him 24/7. We begin every day by praying, “Lord, open my eyes - make me aware of the opportunities you will put in front of me today.”

I realize that for some of you I’m speaking a foreign language. You’ve never thought of yourself as a minister. Church is, for you, a place, a building where you come and be religious one or two hours a week. Jesus demands more – he has made you his minister – he is calling you to service – every moment of every day, everywhere you are.

Just because you have not, does not mean you cannot. There will never be a better moment than right now to decide that’s what you want to do with your life.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:13-15)

Unless you’ve been sleeping through First John, you know John has an agenda. This isn’t a chatty little news-letter to catch you up on all the hometown gossip, this is an epistle with a point. John wants you to know that you have eternal life.

In fact, it’s especially interesting to read this passage side by side with his purpose statement in his Gospel. In John 20:31 he writes, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
• John’s Gospel is written to non-believers, that they might read this testimony of God about his Son, that they might believe in him because of the testimony, and believing receive eternal life.
• This letter, on the other hand, is written to believers – not that they might believe and receive eternal life – but that having believed they may know they have received and be confident they have eternal life.

I’ll have to tell you, after my #1 concern of worldly people who don’t give a flip about God and couldn’t care less about eternal life, comes my #2 concern: Christians who go to bed every night wondering whether God still loves them and question whether they have done enough to make it to heaven.
• Not long ago I saw this license plate: IMHATED How bad must a person feel about himself to announce to the world on a vanity plate, I am hated?
• God writes it across the heavens, he engraves it in our hands, he painted it on the cross in the blood of his only Son: You are loved.
• And John wants us to have that confidence.
• Over the years we’ve battled our religious neighbors over the doctrine of “once saved always saved” to the point that we’ll only grudgingly allow, “if saved barely saved.” I guess we’re afraid if you’re too free in giving away God’s grace that people will take advantage of it.

Confidence in your salvation is not a license to live however you want. Knowing your salvation is secure is a vote of confidence in the Savior who died for you and the God who poured out his grace on you.

There are a lot of forces in this world working to undermine that confidence and tear down that relationship that God is working to build with you. The world chips and scratches and hammers away at it, John talks about the false teachers who claim you can’t know God without their brand of illumination, ultimately it is Satan who is working to destroy what God has created. John wants us to know, absolutely know that we have eternal life.

There is a second confidence that John wants us to have. When we pray, God hears. In fact, John says that “if we ask anything according to his will he hears us” and if he hears us, it’s as good as done. Listen to how John worded that – “whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.” John says pray as if God has already answered your prayer. Pray with the kind of confidence that anticipates the answer as a done deal.

That’s part of our problem with prayer. We approach God with this apologetic, weak-kneed attitude that he probably won’t hear me anyway. James had something to say about that – “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord.” (James 1:5-7)
Or listen to the writer of Hebrews: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb. 4:16)

Now let’s make sure we hear what John isn’t saying. God isn’t a magical genie in a lamp – you rub the lamp, say the right words and poof – you get anything you ask for. The key to this is that phrase “according to his will.”

Illustration: There is a shrine in the French Pyrenees where people come to pray for healing. A war veteran who had lost a leg made a trip to the shrine to pray. As he hobbled his way along the street to the shrine someone said, "Look at that silly man! Does he think God is going to give him back his leg?" The man overheard the remark and turned towards the speakers and said: "Of course I do not expect God to give me back my leg. I am going to pray to God to help me live without it."

Illustration: John R.W. Stott on prayer: Prayer is not a convenient device for imposing our will upon God, or for bending his will to ours, but the prescribed way of subordinating our will to his. It is by prayer that we seek God’s will, embrace it and align ourselves with it. Every true prayer is a variation on the theme, “your will be done.” (Stott, The Letters of John, p. 188)

Having talked about the power and the effectiveness of prayer, John now calls us to use it – If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. (1 John 5:16-17)

Satan leaves victims strewn across the spiritual battlefields in his war against God. Those brothers and sisters who have been maimed and disabled by sin need our prayers. He says if you see a brother in sin, (and the tense here is future – not that you should ask but that you will ask) and God will give him life. It is not John’s command, but the Christian’s inevitable and spontaneous reaction. The way to deal with sin is to pray.

But John makes a distinction here between sin that leads to death and sin that does not lead to death. Apparently they knew what John was talking about, but you can only imagine what the different biblical scholars and commentators do with this passage.
• Of course, from Tertullian in the 4th century on, this prompted scholars to make lists of major sins and minor sins – some could be forgiven, with others you might as well be packing your asbestos underwear – you could never be forgiven.
• Others will point you to Hebrews 6 where the writer talks about the impossibility of bringing back to repentance those who, having once been enlightened, have fallen away.
• Others talk about Jesus’ condemnation in Matt. 12 of those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit as committing the unforgivable sin.
• Still others point to John’s own letter as naming those false teachers, those antichrists who had rejected Christ and by their “going out from us” showed they were not of us in the first place. They were not apostates, but imposters. Their sin is unto death.

I’ll tell you what – I’m not sure what the sin is that is unto death. I do know that John tells us all wrongdoing is sin and all sin damages our relationship with God. Paul tells us that “the wages of sin are death.” James tells us that “sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

I’m not wise enough to tell you who has committed this unforgivable sin and thus shouldn’t be prayed for. I don’t know when a person has run so far away from God – their heart so hardened to God – that they are incapable of returning to him. There may be that point when they are beyond hope, when prayer for them becomes useless. I don’t know where that line is.

So, let me make this suggestion – err on the side of praying for too many than too few. Even if there is someone that has crossed that line – bring them before the Father’s merciful throne of grace and let him work it out. Don’t ever underestimate the power of prayer or the lengths to which God’s grace will extend.

John concludes his letter with a powerful series of “we know” statements:
Verse 18: We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. Again, John reminds us to remember whose we are – we are children of God – sin no longer has a place in our life. Sin always damages our relationship with God. It keeps us from experiencing that closeness and intimacy with God that we really desire. Sin is as incompatible with a Christian’s life as drinking engine oil to quench your thirst. Paul says it this way: “we died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

But John also tells us we are not alone in our battle with sin – it is Jesus, the one born of God who protects us and does battle with Satan on our behalf. When faced with temptation, let Jesus step out and do battle with Satan for you.

Verse 19: We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

John also tells us not to underestimate our opponent. The world is under the control of Satan. And as Peter describes him, Satan is a roaring lion, prowling around “looking for someone to devour.” Do not be complacent in your battle against him. Don’t ever stray far from God.

Verse 20: We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Jesus has come, and his coming was to reveal God in a new and dynamic way. In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples: “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” And he says this God is true, we are in him who is true – and, hold onto your seats – Jesus himself is “the true God and eternal life.” This eternal life that we hunger for is not a place or a time or a state of being – it is a person. When we are in Jesus Christ, then we possess eternal life.

One last note in verse 21: “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”

John is not warning them against going down to their local “Idols-R-Us” and picking up a fancy graven image for their mantel piece. He is telling them not to let anything take God’s place in their life.

I’m sure that nobody here considers themselves an idolater. We don’t worship other gods, we don’t offer sacrifices to carved images in our living rooms. But lest you think you’re off the hook, do you remember reading Colossians 3:5 - Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

Paul says greed is idolatry. If you let money rule your life, you’ve made it your idol. Anything that challenges Jesus as the Lord of your life, as the ruler of your priorities -- that controls your schedule, influences your choices, affects your relationships – that is an idol.

And I’m pretty sure there’s something in all of our lives that we have to fight not to let it have that place of priority. And it’s not necessarily something evil and wicked. It might be your job, it might be your recreation. What is it for you that if it competes with God for your time and attention – it will always win? That’s your idol. And John says “keep yourselves from idols.” Don’t let anything become more important or influential in your life than Jesus.

In our Life Journal reading from yesterday, we read Gal. 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

What a statement of complete and absolute commitment to Jesus. Jesus said, “Whoever would be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” Who is alive in you and in control of your life?

Have you been crucified with Christ? I’ll have to confess my sinful nature keeps trying to dig its way out of the grave and every day I have to throw another shovelful of dirt to keep him buried. But I want Christ to rule in my life – not money, not an idol, not myself. And so every day I wake up and say, God, today belongs to you – use me however you need to bring glory to your name.

Intro - A few years ago, on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” one of the fictional advertisers was a fellow named Bob. Bob announced that he had founded a new religion and named it after himself – “Bobism” – and invited listeners to visit his world headquarters, the Central Bobist Temple in Rapid City, SD. He and his wife Judy, the group’s co-founder, had considered naming their new faith after her, but as Bob explained, that name was already taken.

It’s about that easy to start your own religion, and a lot of people do these days – they pick and choose from everything around them and construct their own view of God and declare themselves spiritual. We haven’t changed much from the people to whom John wrote.

I always hate it when someone gives away the surprise ending of a book or a movie or gives away the score to a game you’ve recorded to watch later. So, I hate to give away the ending of this book, but if you’re wondering who comes out on top… it’s God.

Our question isn’t really, where does God come out, but “where do I come out?” And John has an easy answer for that one – on top – if you are with God.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 1 Jn 5:1-5.

Here’s what really counts: Are you born of God? Are you a child of God? John gives us a three-fold test.

Part 1: Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God?
If you think doctrine doesn’t matter, think again. What we believe, and especially what we believe about Jesus matters profoundly. John doesn’t just throw it up for grabs. Jesus is not just a good man, he is not just a great teacher, he was not just an admirable, heroic figure. He is the Son of God. He is the Messiah, the Christ, God who became flesh, lived among us, suffered and died on the cross, and who took the sins of the world upon himself -- the sinless for the sinful, and who was raised from the grave on the third day. If you believe something else about Jesus – if you think it’s absurd to claim he was God, if you can’t accept his being human, if you think only a fool would die on a cross, you can’t be a child of God.

Part 2: Do you obey God?
Regardless of how loudly you proclaim your love for God, without some pretty solid evidence, your claims are going to sound awfully hollow. John says, “This is love for God: to obey his commands.” Are you walking in the will of God? Is Jesus really the Lord of your life? John isn’t being legalistic. He’s not saying God isn’t going to love you if you don’t perfectly toe the line. What he is saying is that obedience is the evidence of love. If you are still walking in sin – still living in darkness – there is something wrong with your love – it is defective. True love for God will display itself in a life that is lived in obedience to God’s commands.

Part 3: Do you love God’s children?
Please forgive me for being redundant, but John can’t seem to move beyond this obsession with loving one another. In John’s mind, nothing negates our claim to belong to God faster than our unwillingness to love others. Listen to verse 1: “Everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.”

Your claim to love God is either confirmed or negated by how you treat people. If you really love God, you’re going to love the people he loves, and you don’t have to read very far in the Gospels to realize that Jesus didn’t just love the people who loved him and agreed with him. He loved the people who were unlovable. He loved the people who were hard and difficult. He loved the people who opposed him and who nailed him to the tree. So, I don’t know who it is or what they’ve done that you can’t love them, but God loves us in spite of ourselves – and so should you.

So here is John’s three-fold test: Do you believe in Jesus? Do you obey God? Do you love each other?
And while you were listening to me read those first five verses, did it sound like John was having a hard time keeping them separate and distinct? Because he does. They all blend together, they are all dependant on each other, none stand on their own isolated from the others. Believing and obeying and loving are so entwined in one another that you can’t separate out the threads without doing damage to the fabric. You can’t isolate one and say, “that’s what I’m going to major in” and neglect the others.

Did you pass John’s test? Are you born of God? Then verses 4 and 5 are for you: “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

Illustration - Diana and Justin (6 yrs old) – conversation about God and the devil – “we want to be on God’s side don’t we?”

God makes us a promise: Stick with him and you will overcome the world. Now, lest you get the idea that overcoming means you become a success in the world and everything goes your way, and you never have to suffer, and you get everything you want, the way you want it – John isn’t finished.

Overcoming isn’t about being a success in this world and getting everything you want. Overcoming is about being a success in God’s eyes and getting everything he wants you to have. And sometimes, overcoming involves suffering and ridicule and poverty and even death. But overcoming also brings with it something the world can never touch – an intimate, eternal relationship with God.

God promises us blessings that you can’t put a price tag on.
Overcoming means never having to take a step without knowing that God is right beside you.
It is experiencing a peace and a confidence that doesn’t worry about upturns and downswings in the stock market, that isn’t upset by the threat of murder and war and violence.

Paul used this same word John uses when he wrote in Romans 8. Listen for the word “conqueror” – that’s the same word as “overcomer” – Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39.

And so John writes: Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. John wants our faith to be secured in something immovable, someone who has always been and will always be. And he wants our faith to be in the Christ of the scriptures, not some imposter custom designed by the false teachers, the antichrists he has already dealt with in chs. 2 and 3 and 4.

In the next 7 verses John lays out his evidence that Jesus is worthy of putting our faith in: This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:6-12)

Now, I imagine you listened to that and wondered what is he talking about – water and blood and spirit? What kind of evidence is that? But remember who John’s audience is and some of the influences that are waging war in this battle for their souls. Let me explain:
• Verse 6 “This is the one who came by water and blood – Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood.”
• This is John’s reference to two decisive events in the life of Jesus – his baptism and his crucifixion – the water and the blood. You will remember those false teachers distinguished between the human Jesus and the divine being, Christ whom they said came on Jesus at his baptism and departed before the crucifixion – because, they said, a divine being could not suffer and die. But John says, NO! He came, not just in the water – his baptism, but in the blood – his crucifixion – his side was pierced, his blood was shed. Jesus, the Christ – one, inseparable – fully God, fully man.

It is the water and blood that testify to the solidarity of our faith. And there is one other who testifies – it is the Spirit -- the Spirit of God, who by very definition is the truth.
• John says it’s one thing to listen to a lineup of human witnesses, all giving their testimony about what they have experienced – it’s another thing to have God himself testify about his Son. And when God says it’s so, it’s so. And anyone who denies it is calling God a liar.
• You can dig up dirt and impugn the integrity of men, but God is unimpeachable. God is a witness who not only will not, but cannot lie. His word is truth.

But John goes on to tell us, this isn’t just an external witness – one whose word is outside of us and dismissible, but it is a witness whose testimony takes root in our heart – Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. (5:10).
• It’s one thing to read the transcript of a witness’ testimony and say, “he was coached, he is biased, he wasn’t there.” But John says this testimony is in your heart. It’s irrefutable. Not only does God say it, but you have experienced it. You know it to be true.
• Some of us tend to intellectualize our faith – we make it about facts and evidence and we analyze it and keep it out here where it is objective. But John says one of the ways you know that Jesus is who he says he is is by what he does inside of you – the changes he makes and the confirmation of his words in your own life. Let’s not minimize or dismiss that.
• And here’s the testimony: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

What makes you an overcomer? What makes you victorious over the world? It is the gift of eternal life.
• Life that cannot be touched by the trials & attacks of this world.
• Life that is not affected by a diseased or an aging body.
• Life that is spent in the constant presence of God himself.
• Eternal life is not just a future “pie in the sky, by and by” but a present day in, day out reality. If you are in Christ Jesus, you are living eternal life. You don’t have to wait until you die to experience eternal life – you have it already.
• Death no longer looms as this future, terrifying terminus of life. We know that our lives stretch out beyond that for all eternity.
• Jesus defined it in John’s Gospel – “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)
• And if you have life like that, if you know God and walk with him daily, there is nothing that can overcome you, nothing that is powerful enough to threaten your peace.

That is God’s promise. It is a promise so secure you can bank on it, and you know there is precious little in this world you can bank on. Paul asked the question: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” The answer is, “no one.” There is no one, no thing, no circumstance that you need fear, if God is on your side – and if you are born of God, if you are his child – he is.

Let me close with verse 12. It is a pretty sobering statement. “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
Do you have the Son? Are you born of God?
For all the modern rhetoric about tolerance and acceptance these days – and Christians ought to be on the forefront of bringing peace and reconciliation to a fractured society – the Bible has a very narrow, focused definition of salvation. As out of touch as this is with our modern spiritual climate where everyone’s right and nobody’s wrong, John says, either you do or you don’t, either you are or you aren’t. “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6).

There was never a person Jesus could not, would not save. He came to save all people everywhere. He pours out his grace and mercy freely. But…. He does it on his terms. Salvation is a free gift, but it can be received only through believing in Jesus Christ, being united with him in baptism and committing your life to living for him.

We watched an outstanding movie last weekend – “Courageous.” It presented, from an overtly Christian point of view, that what is wrong with so much of society comes back to the fact that so many fathers have abdicated their role of spiritual leader in the family – and how if we as fathers are willing, we can make an incredible difference in the lives of our children and grandchildren.

There are a lot of contenders out there for the “Worst Dad” award. But my vote goes to… Darth Vadar. You remember the scene in the first Star Wars where Luke and Darth are fighting and slashing with light sabers, and Darth tells Luke – “I am your father.” What a kick in the head to find out your father was Darth Vadar! So, if some of you think you grew up with a lousy dad – it could be worse!

There is something pretty neat about having someone say, “Your son looks just like you.” It’s nice to have people notice a resemblance.
On the other hand, there are times we see or hear our children do or say something we know they got from us – something that brings, not pride, but embarrassment or shame.
The truth is, our children will inherit many of our characteristics: physical, but also emotional, relational and spiritual. And some of us are packing some pretty heavy baggage on those young shoulders.

That’s what John is writing about here in ch. 3 – family ties and a family resemblance.
I love the implication in 2:28 – who is it that has confidence and is unashamed to run into the presence of the father? His children.
Illustration - Abraham Lincoln and his son, Todd
1 John 3:1 – “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” Children of God know their father and glory in his presence.

In the next few verses John is going to describe for us how you know you are a child of God – and be careful you don’t make some automatic assumptions that you already know, because his answer isn’t our answer. We usually ask, “Have you been baptized?” John asks, “How do you live?”

For John, being a child of God is not participating in a ritual, but living a life. And if people look at you, and don’t see the family resemblance in how you live and how you treat people, chances are there is something wrong with the relationship.

John is going to reduce this family resemblance down to three basic distinctions: 1) Do you do what is righteous? 2) Have you severed your ties with sin? 3) Do you love your brothers?
In fact, he says in vs. 10, this is how you tell the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil. “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”
The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

John begins and ends with the statement that righteousness is THE distinctive family resemblance – it is one of the basic definitions of God’s nature – who he is – God is righteous – and as such, his children will also be righteous.
The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

Twice in this passage –
2:29 “If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.”
3:7 “Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.”

But what in the world does “righteousness” mean?
What does it look like in real life? Wrapped in flesh and blood? When Jesus tells his followers in the Sermon on the Mount, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” what exactly is Jesus telling them is so important that everything else will follow if we seek it?

We know that “righteousness” is virtually synonymous with “godliness” and “holiness,” and that says a lot in itself.
In Romans 2, Paul says the man who obeys the law is righteous. In Romans 6, that obedience leads to righteousness. But in Romans ch. 1,3,4 and Galatians ch. 2,3, he emphatically declares that righteousness is NOT because we perfectly keep the law, but because of our faith in Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness – and that righteous people are ones who live by faith.

Jesus helps us define it in Matt. 25 – in a familiar passage – he talks about those who will be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven – vs. 35-40 “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Righteousness comes down to acting like God acts -- treating people like God treats people. Righteousness boiled down to its essence is doing what is right.

Of course it’s always easier to define something by what it isn’t. And we get some help from the Bible in defining the opposite of righteousness. In speaking of the unrighteous:
Romans 1:29-32 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Ephesians 5:3-5 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Certain lifestyles, and choices are incompatible with righteousness. A child of God cannot be a part of them and be a part of God. The child of God will start to resemble God in how she lives and acts. To borrow Paul’s words – we are being “transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ.”

And that is essentially John’s second point in 1 John 3:6, 8-9. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him…. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
Sin is the family characteristic of the devil – his children imitate him in lives of sinfulness and unrighteousness.
The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

As Tony Ash writes, “sin is not a miscalculation, not an error in judgment. Sin is letting Satan have control, not God.” Continuing sin in your life is evidence that you simply don’t know God – if you did, you would want no part of it. If you are a child of God you will let God have greater and greater control over your life and sin will become less and less a part.

The third family resemblance John points out in the last few words of 3:10 – “…nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”
John began this discussion back in ch. 2, will address it again in ch. 3 and in ch. 4. This really is key to John’s main theme.

You see, there were some Christians who believed and were trying to teach that religion is a personal, private affair with God – it didn’t matter how you treated people, and it didn’t matter how you lived your life. The church was unimportant and irrelevant because you could “do religion” on your own. As long as you felt right with God and were a “spiritual” person, you could live however you wanted, treat people however you felt and you could still be a good Christian. It’s a good thing we live this side of the cross and know better!

If there is one consistent message in the Bible, from OT to NT, from Paul to James to Peter to John and from the very lips of Jesus himself – we are in this together. Jesus puts us in his church, dependant on each other. We cannot survive spiritually without the “one another” of body life. And it DOES matter how we treat each other. John will say, “Whoever loves God, must love his brother.”

And it DOES matter how we live. If Christ died on the cross for our sin, we are spitting in the face of God and nailing Jesus back on the cross if we willfully choose to live a life of sin.

Let’s notice one more thing in this powerful little passage. As you listen to 1 John, you hear a word occur over and over – it is the word “know” – 29 times in 1 John, 6 times in these 12 verses.
There are a lot of things John says “you know”:
2:29 – You know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
3:2 – But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
3:5 – You know that he appeared so that he so that he might take away our sins.
3:10 – This is how we know who the children are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

But for John, this is not abstract information – this is personal application. This is getting a glimpse into your family tree. This is the spiritual DNA that makes you who you are. It affects everything about you.

This kind of knowledge isn’t spiritual trivia (“I’d like biblical knowledge for $500 Alex”) – it is the path to changing how you live. Knowledge without doing something about it is worse than ignorance, it is rebellion. James wrote: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”

Knowledge – real knowledge is never an intellectual exercise. Real knowledge always leads to action – to some kind of change of life.

If we always think about “righteousness” as something that is for the super-saints – some kind of unattainable goal for the normal Christian, or something that applies to someone else (who really needed to be here to hear this sermon), we have missed the point.

God wants you to ask, “what does this mean for my life?” He wants you to look inside yourself and ask, “how would my life be different if I really strove to be righteous?”
James said it this way, “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

The question is, how much do you desire to look like your Father? How much do you model your life after him? Act like he acts, think like he thinks, value the things he values? Do people look at you and think, “He reminds me of someone…”

Illustration - The Touch of the Master’s Hand