45 Preaching/Teaching Romans 1B

Romans 1 B

Introduction:

We were created to worship.

You were created to worship

This became very evident to me when I was in Arkansas. I am playing at this college school, but in Arkansas, the whole state goes for the Razorbacks. Now, you can't really understand college football unless you live in a southern state like Arkansas. The whole state of Arkansas is half the size of TX. People started calling the hogs, and it was as I was watching the Razorbacks that I saw one of the most unique worshipers of my life.

https://youtu.be/c2uNgGhDr9E

But don't we know that we were created to worship?

The question is not whether we are worshippers.

The question is, what are we worshipping?

Bubba hog is literally worshipping a hog (Picture of a hog)

Our problem as worshippers is that we worship so many lesser things than God.

In the Old Testament, there was a place that only the priests could go. It was called the Holy of Holies, and in this space, they would experience the very presence and fullness of God.

Did you know that each person has a place in their heart and soul that only God is supposed to go. Our problem is we put other things there even good things.

How often have you settled for putting something else as #1 instead of God?

You can grow up in church your whole life and worship a small God.

Let me give you the setting of where Romans was written.

There was an emperor named Nero. Nero was actually known for lighting Christians on fire to be his night lights while he had parties. It was in this very setting that Pauls quotes our memory verse-

Romans 1:16 NASB95

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Paul said I am not ashamed to worship this fantastic God in a culture where it was not easy to be a Christian.

Paul would go all over the world risking his life to the point of death.

One time, he was in prison, and even in prison, what was Paul doing when worshipping the Lord?

Acts 16:25–26 NASB95

But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

Worship was more than a song it was a lifestyle.

Church, what are we worshipping?

Our problem as people is not that we worship but that we settle in our worship. We decide to worship lesser things that are ultimately less satisfying.

Today I want us to worship properly. I want us to leave today wanting to worship not things we can hold onto but to come to God open-handedly and worshipping the creator of heaven and earth.

I want to give us three consequences if we do not worship the Lord in Spirit and Truth.

1. The first reason we must worship the Lord in spirit and truth is the danger of eternity lost.  (18)

Romans 1:18 NASB95

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

Wrath of God (18)-Right before this verse it talks about the righteousness of God.

Should that not be our great desire to be right before God.

He talks about the good news. But for there to be good news there has to be bad news. What is the bad news? In the old days, churches would talk about Hell every week and, at times, even scare the Hell out of people. Now, Hell is not our main motivation. But the reality is, the pendulum has swung. We used to talk about the reality of eternity all the time, but now we never talk about it.

Why is their wrath, because there is something extremely wrong, man is not right with God, and there has been a problem ever since Adam and Eve ate from the Garden.

ILLUSTRATION: I HAD TOILET WATER AND DROPPED ONE POISON DROP IN IT. WOULD YOU DRINK IT? SIN AND GOD CANNOT COEXIST IT IS AN IMPOSSIBILITY. As a result, we see the wrath of God revealed. 

"God's wrath is his divine displeasure with sin. We call it 'wrath' because it shares certain basic characteristics of human wrath. But because it is God's wrath it can have none of the sinful qualities of its analogical counterpart."

Constable, T. (2003). Tom Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible (Ro 1:18). Galaxie Software.

Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of man, I know what you are thinking. I am not unrighteous. I am a good person. This verse says God's wrath is revealed because we are unrighteous and ungodly. We have a problem. One of my friends told me this.

Could you picture if someone made a video about you, and it was your worst 5 minutes? I know this, and I would not want to watch my video.

A famous preacher, one of the old dudes, wrote a book about this; it was called sinners in the hands of an angry God.

Jonathan Edwards one of the most famous preachers of all time wrote a book called, "Sinners in the hands of an angry God"

"What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?"― Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry GodILL-

When I was in college and my friend, Bible Head Ted, was sharing the gospel with me the first thing he did before he shared the good news took me through the gospel was he took me through the Law-

Have you ever stolen anything yes? What does that make you a thief?Have you ever put anything before God-YesHave you ever lied-YesJesus said if you look at a woman lustfully, you have committed adultery in your heart. Have you ever done that?So you are a lying, adulterous thief.

In that moment, I realized I was a lying, adulterous thief standing before a righteous and holy God, and there was this reality that if I were to die right then and there, the only thing I deserved was the eternal wrath of God.

Romans 1:16 NASB95

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

2. The next reason we must worship the Lord in spirit and truth is the reality of being accountable before God. (19-23)

You will be held accountable for what you choose to worship

Matrix: What pill will you pick? The Blue or the Red. Who will you choose to worship. Jesus or something else?

Romans 1:19–20 NASB95

because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Creation (Natural Revelation (No Excuse))-(19-20)-Natural revelation tells people that there is a Supreme Being, and it makes them responsible to respond to their Creator in worship and submission. However, it does not give sufficient information for people to experience salvation. That is why everyone needs to hear the gospel.

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible Exposition

Natural revelation tells people that there is a Supreme Being, and it makes them responsible to respond to their Creator in worship and submission. However, it does not give sufficient information for people to experience salvation. That is why everyone needs to hear the gospel.

“Utter uncompromising, abandonment of hope in man is the first preliminary to understanding or preaching the gospel.”

Example of Natural Revelation: I remember I used to go to Colorado and we would climb these 14's and words can't even describe the glory and majesty and splendor that is experienced when you see God's creation. Even if you are not a believer you just sit their in amazement of God.

We are going to be held accountable before God. Man has a responsibility to respond to God and the creation proves this.

Natural Revelation condemns us before GOd.

How were these people responding towards God?

As Fools.

Romans 1:21–23 NASB95

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

How did they respond towards God?

As fools

How did Adam and Eve respond towards God?

As Fools

Apart from Jesus, how do we respond towards God?

As fools

Extreme Ownership (21-23)-How did they respond? They professed to be wise. As a people we do not like to take accountability for our actions-We like to push it off on someone else this happened way back in the garden. Adam and Eve Blamed shifted each other. But the best teams and companies they take responsibility for their work right.

WE HAVE SPECIAL REVELATION: ILLUSTRATION. In salvation God does almost everything except this one thing, there are different views on what God does and what man does. But the one thing man has to do to get to heaven is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Should this also not want us to share this great message with everyone we know.

The Very thing that allows us to worship is powerful. SO the implications is that when we will worship the Living God in spirit and truth we will be powerful.

nate will be held accountable

This week Nate texted on Monday and it was a bad practice. Actually we snap now, I am on Snap Chat. What a parent will do to connect with their kids.

Here was our conversation:

Dad I had a bad practice

What happened

Nothing Terrible, I just didn't play good. I couldn't hit a shot. Im being agressive, I don't know.

Me: So it is not a confidence thing

Nate

Nope I just coould hit a shot, I diont know how to play on this guys system.

You are going to have good and bad days. Trust me if you really want to play at a high level don’t over think the game. Just play, you may think you don’t know how to play in this guys system but you do know how to play. And if you know how to play you can play whether it is at CCU or in China. You are a stone cold baller and if you don’t believe that yet you need to start believing that. When you are off, keep being aggressive and find other ways to win. But never lose hope and never lose confidence. I am proud of you and tomorrow will be your day. Love you dude

Nate is going to have to choose if he is going to go all in with this mindset or if he is going to give in and take the easy way out.

We are going to have to choose are we going to worship God or are we going to worship other stuff.

Paul said I am all in I am going to make worship a lifestyle.

3. The last reason we must worship the Lord in spirit and truth is the danger of sin spiraling out of control. (24-32)

“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. –”

In the TV show breaking bad Walter White, a HS science teacher finds out he has cancer and is expected to die. So wanting to provide for his family he begins cooking Meth in a little van with one of his students named Jessie. Innocent enough, doing something a little bad to try and help his family. As the series goes on, this little business they have started begins to grow, but the reality of this evil enterprise costs Walter literally everything he has. In the last episode his side kick Jessie is literally in a underground dungeon tied up log a dog.

Now I know this is just a TV show, but too me it was one of the greatest pictures of sin and how it can start so small and so innocently and before you know it, it is completely out of control.

We really do become what we worship.

Look at this God gave them over. They rejected God and God gave them over and this sin literally spiraled out of control.

Let's walk through these last verses together.

“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. –”

God will let them do what they want to do

Romans 1:24–32 NASB95

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Conclusion:

We were created to worship

We become like that what we worship

The Very thing that allows us to worship is powerful. SO the implications is that when we will worship the Living God in spirit and truth we will be powerful.

Maybe as christians are we not overthinking it.

Just worship

Worship here at church

Worship at your work

Worship at your home

Martin Luther said the things I have held onto I have lost, the things I have given to God I still possess.....

Gospel-Roman’s 1:16

Let’s worship the Lord this week

Paul in the jail cell

Romans 1:16 NASB95

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Outline

(18-20)-Gods standard = violated

18-Problem wickedness of man

They wanted to believe what they wanted to believe

19-God has made his standard plain to ma

No excuses-Extreme ownership

20-How he has made it plain to them

(21-23) Man's Response

21-Knowing vs Knowing (about)

21-Glorified-Catechism-enjoy and know

22-23-The great exchange

24-32-The great Spiral

24-25-We become what we worship