45 Preaching/Teaching Romans 1

Gospel-The Hope of the World

EOT-Paul wrote a letter to the Romans about his excitement about the Gospel in their lives and what he hopes it to continue to do.

EOS-We must live in Gospel Hope

DDS-For our people to Read Chapter 1 every day this week and give people an opportunity to receive Christ.

Evangelistic.

Quiz

Hey guys your assignment for this next week is to read Romans 1-2

Introduction

"Hope is a dangerous thing, my friend, it can kill a man..." "Hope is a good thing, maybe even the best of things. And good things never die." The Shawshank Redemption right now. Trust me, you won't regret it. It's a beautifully told tale of redemption (go figure), friendship, and hope.

In the scene in question, Morgan Freeman's Otis "Red" Redding is speaking to Tim Robbins' Andy Dufresne in the first line. They're both inmates at Shawshank State Prison, and Red is suggesting to Andy that the hope of release or escape will drive a man mad, as it's immensely unlikely to come true. Andy disagrees.

Andy disagrees because he saw people who hoped in getting out of prison and not get out.

What do you put your real hope in?

Do you put it in your kids being successful?

401k?

students your popularity

Do you put it in your job?

Do you put it in your relationships?

Do you put in your family?

this last month we went through so much stuff as a family we felt like there was no hope.

Maybe you are going through so much junk that you no longer have any hope in anything. If you are there today I am praying that you will leave with real hope today.

Today I want us to put our hope in the gospel!

maybe you do that for the first time.

The Gospel is the Hope of the world

In Romans we are going to see the gospel clearly laid out for us.

What is the gospel- It is good news. dont we all want bad news

most news we read is not good news

Bridge Picture

Man had a problem, God solved the problem. Man can respond or reject God’s solution by saying I am not going to put my hope in that.

essentials of the gospel

Good News has always been God’s plan.

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible Exposition

“The central idea of the passage is that of the whole epistle, that the Gospel, as preached by Paul to the Gentiles, was not inconsistent with, but the fulfilment of, God’s promises to Israel.”

Romans 1:3 (NASB95)

concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,

the old testament is before Jesus, but in the ot it all points to Jesus.

Good News is centered on Jesus.

This is what the Bible is pointing us to all the way from the very first book Genesis.

As early as Genesis 3 the Bible begins to tell us about Jesus. ‘in all 39 books of the Old Testament it points to Jesus sometimes whispering his name other times shouting it

Good News has defeated death.

Romans 1:4 (NASB95)

who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,

why would anyone want to be a part of a dead religion

jesus has defeated desth

have you ever been to a funeral

what would you do if the person came out of the grave

jesus defeated death once and for all

if that can’t give you hope I don’t know what can?

Good News is distinguished by grace

Romans 1:5 (NASB95)

through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake,

What is grace-It is not just getting something we don’t deserve. It is when we deserve something bad but we get something good instead.

If someone get’s sucker punched would it be okay if I punched you back. What if someone punched you and you recieved a 100 bill instead.

That is grace. We deserve seperation from God-he offers us a relationship.

We deserve hell, he offers heaven. This is grace.

This is exactly what is so amazing about grace.

Good News is available to all who believe in Jesus.

Romans 1:14–15 NASB95

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

Today I want to give you a couple of reasons why you need to live in gospel hope-

1. We must live in Gospel hope because life transformation is at stake (1).

Paul the author of this book was changed as a result of the Gospel.

Here is how Romans start off.

Romans 1:1 (NASB95)

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

Who was this author-he claimed to be a servant- the word comes from the word (doulos) which actually means slave, he was owned by God. When we use the word slave we mean it in a negative way but this man who wrote this book and 13 total in the new testament was proud to be owned by God.

Let me tell you about him before he became a follower of God.

But who was he

Before he was a Christian

Before he was a Christian he was a religious leader with the Jewish people. His name was actually not Paul it was Saul. And he was not just any leader he was a leader of leaders. He also persecuted Christians.

If anyone had hope and had made it = Paul (Even his hope = not big enough) had hope. He was the best at his craft at religion. If anyone should of had hope it was Paul.

He had security, he had fame, but he was missing the main thing, a relationship with God.

The Gospel transformed his life.

One day he was walking down a road, it was called the Damascus Road and he was blinded by a light and he had an encounter with Jesus and Jesus said, Saul, Saul why do you persecute me? It was right there on this road that he became a follower of Jesus.

It was a dramatic conversion, but he became an on fire follower of Jesus. He would take the gospel to places it had never gone before, risking his life even to the point of death because of the Love of Jesus.

The love of God changed him so much that he was even willing to say that I willingly want to be God’s Slave, this is my choice.

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible Exposition

“Paul never thought of himself as a man who had aspired to an honour; he thought of himself as a man who had been given a task.”

Has your life been transformed by the gospel?

Paul’s life was transformed by the gospel!

When I was a freshman in college a man that I did not know at the time shared the truth of the gospel with me and in a old stinky dorm room I recieved the gift of God and my life was transformed by the gospel.

Has your life been transformed by the gospel?

The gospel is still transforming lives today.

When I worked as a youth pastor I saw the gospel transform lives.

Illustration-We had a lady name Geneatte start working there. Geneatte was a single mom raising a young son by herself. My friend who was our worship leader shared this good news with her and she decided to receive God’s gift. She brought her son Cardarian to youth group and we built a friendship. After awhile Cardarian began a relationship with Jesus. His life was transformed. He came to youth each week, he came to our camps, Cardarian had been changed from the inside out.

One night, I remember it vividly it was a Sunday night, we get one of these calls you never want to get, Cardarian’s dead. What? He was in a 4 wheeler accident. At 14 this kid who had so much life is no longer with us. As much as this tory pains me even to share I can still rejoice and have hope because Cardarian has real hope. Cardarian is in heaven because his life was transformed by the gospel. As much hell as his mom has gone through as a result of this, thank God she began a relationship with Christ, and I know that she longs for the day that she is reconnected with Cardarian in heaven.

It transfromed their lives forever. This is the hope of the Gospel.

If you life has not been transformed by good news today could be your day.

2. We must live in Gospel hope because it gives the greatest thing we can live for (8-9 & 16).

The American dream is big.

It is tiny compared to living for the gospel.

The American dream is a good thing. But it is not a God thing. When I wanted to make the NBA, make money and marry a beautiful wife there was nothing wrong. But that is so small compared to what living with Gospel hope does.

When my life was changed, I wanted not just my life to be impacted I wanted to see others lives impacted. This is exactly what happened to Paul. He wanted to see lives changed for God’s glory.

Rome was arguably the most influential place on the planet and Paul wanted to go there to see the gospel spread. Notice what he says here:

Romans 1:8 (NASB95)

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.

Notice he is excited why?

Because their faith is being proclaimed throughout the world.

When we live with Gospel hope life is not just about us, it becomes about others and Paul was so happy that their lives had been transformed like his.

Paul was praising God because of Gospel hope.

Illustration-Have you ever had a friend who got involved in a pyramid scheme. Paris TX. 800 dollars a year, But 4500 for a lifetime membership

The Romans Christians and Paul were a part of the greatest pyramid scheme of all time. They wanted this message of the love of God to go out to the entire world.

Romans 1:14–15 NASB95

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

Remember after Jesus died there were places that did not have churches and needed to hear the gospel and Paul went all over the world sharing this message that God loves you and starting churches.

He wanted anyone and everyone to experience the love of God.

Church today there are still places all over the world that have never heard the gospel that need to hear it.

Should this not be the desire of our church that we want to Renovate our city.

Next week we have a meeting here on Saturday night with youth all over Pearland. Why are we opening up our church, because we want to Renovate our city right here and right now.

But church we want to say what Paul we don’t just want to renovate our city we want to see the world changed because we have the greatest message ever told and it transforms lives.

Can you say what Paul says?

Are you living for something bigger?

I got to know Mike and Mary through their father Joe. They have been believers for awhile and have worked with numerous churches in town and have felt called to RCC. They jumped straight in to our worship, don’t they do a great job with our worship and lead the youth. They are all in with the Lord and with their service to RCC. I could share about a lot of our people at this church that we have like this. But why do they put so much time and effort into so much at this church. Because their lives have been transformed and they are actually living for something greater than themselves.

"Hope is a dangerous thing, my friend, it can kill a man..." "Hope is a good thing, maybe even the best of things. And good things never die."

While he was in prison some of the illegal contraband that Andy got from Red was a hammer and a poster of a model. At the end of the movie he escapes and they figure it out. For 20 years Andy had been using that little hammer to break through the wall. IN the last scene he is in Mexico and Red who is now out of prison came to visit him.

This movie is filled with a beautiful friendship and Redemption.

Today God is offering us to have hope. But not hope in this world. So today we are going to give you a chance to respond to hope. And two things specifically. The first one is if you have never began a relationship with Jesus today is your day.

Explain the gospel and lead through a prayer

Second if you are a believer in Christ and have never been baptized today is your chance to set that up.

Baptism does not save us, it just shows the wold that we have trusted in Jesus. While the band is playing we have some prayer partners back there and if you have made any of those decisions go ahead and go back there.