Risen With Christ

Good Morning church

NEW PEOPLE WELCOME…REGISTER ON LEFT SIDE

IM TONY CARTER LEAD PASTOR…NO BIBLE? SEAT IN FRONT OF YOU!

Romans 5:1-11.

Everybody likes getting a gift…

Im not a good gift receiver…it often makes me uncomfortable…

But deep down opening a gift is exciting!!!

What could it be?

What need will it fulfill? (Every Christmas, momma gets us socks) (if she didn’t id be in trouble)

What joy will it bring me?

These are the things running through your mind as you rip open the paper wrapping…

And when we open it…it is finally revealed!!!

We feel satisfied and joyful…

Our focus then often turns from the gift…to the one who gave us the gift…

We are thankful and grateful…

Especially if we didn’t get that person a gift…

We know we didn’t deserve the gift…and that makes it so much sweeter and makes us feel more grateful and appreciative…

Getting a gift is exciting…

How many of us would receive a gift from someone…and sit it to the side for a few years and not open it???

How many would leave a gift addressed to you under the tree for a few months before you opened it???

NO ONE!!! The suspense would kill you!

AND IT WOULD BE RUDE!!!

We would be crazy to do that…

***Every year we celebrate a gift that we recieved…

A gift that we didn’t earn…but we got anyway…

A gift that we needed (we would be lost without it)…

A gift that brings us an incredible joy…

A gift that we have incredible appreciation for…

AND A GIFT GIVER THAT WE WORSHIP DAILY!!!

But for some of us in this room we left this gift unwrapped for years…

For some of us in here…its still unwrapped…

WHAT BETTER DAY TO UNWRAP THIS INCREDIBLE GIFT… THAN THE DAY THAT WE CELEBRATE ITS PURCHASE…

On this RESURRECTION SUNDAY…

WE WILL TOGETHER UNWRAP THE GIFT OF SALVATION THROUGH FAITH IN THE SHED BLOOD OF JESUS…

AND REJOICE WHEN WE EXPERIENCE WHAT WE HAVE RECEIVED…HOW WE RECEIVED IT…AND WORSHIP THE ONE WHO GAVE IT!!!

Lets take the bow off this thing together what do yall say???

READ V1-11

ALRIGHT! So we have just opened the gift…

Lets look at…

WHAT WE RECEIVED

PEACE (V1)

We were enemies of God…

Slave to sin..mastered by satan…

1 John 3:8 KJV “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”

YOUR AN ENEMY…thats a bad place to be…

We see what God does to His enemies…

BUT Jesus brought Peace between you and God…

Like 2 waring countries…an Ambassedor of Peace has come to reconcile the relationship…

He took us from enemies of God…and made us children of God!!!

Before God treated you as an enemy…with judgement…His wrath…

Now He treats you as His child…

We have peace through Jesus…

It gets better…keep digging through this gift with me…

Because we are no longer enemies through our faith in Jesus…

God gives His children…

GRACE (V2a)

We stand in the Grace of the Lord…given to us through our faith in Christ…

Now that we have peace…The bible tells us where we stand…FOREVER

ENEMIES don’t get grace…they get wrath…

We don’t get the wrath of an enemy….we get the grace of a child…

When your children do wrong …we as parents give grace…

Like a loving father…we receive grace…and it doesn't fade…remember we stand in it

Now that we are children…we have a patient and grace filled father…who watches over us…

When we mess up…we get disciplined sure…but not destroyed…

WE STAND IN ABUNDANT GRACE…

HOPE (V2b-5a)

We also have hope!!!

Hope in the glory of God!!!

As we stand in grace…and try to live our lives according to the word of God…we know trials will come…

We still experience pain, sickness, persecution, struggle, death…

WE EXPERIENCE SUFFERING…

Both persecution and the reality of life…

Your body is designed to break and wither to dust…

You desperately need a new body..and eternal one…

SO HE GIVES US HOPE!!!!

But Paul says here we rejoice in our suffering…

BECAUSE WE HAVE HOPE IN THE GLORY OF GOD!!!!

WE WILL ONE DAY BE GLORIFIED IN A NEW BODY WITH JESUS…THERE WE WILL SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM IN HEAVEN!!!!

You can always spot the difference in the world between someone who has placed their faith in Christ and someone who hasn't…

Because the one who has …no matter the situation…has hope…

Persecution, sickness, pain, death has no effect on them (talk about how you saw this before you were saved)

WE HAVE HOPE IN THE GLORY OF CHRIST

And this hope is sustained in us and stirred in us by the Holy Spirit…

Because through Jesus we have ONENESS WITH GOD!

ONENESS (V5b)

HE LIVES INSIDE OF YOU!!!

HE DWELLS IN YOU!!!

HE IS WORKING IN YOU!!!

GIVING YOU HOPE!!!

REASSURING YOUR HEART!!!

AND NO MATTER WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH…

WHATEVER SUFFERING YOU ARE EXPERIENCING…HE IS POURING OUT HIS LOVE…HE IS THE HOPE AND THE REASON FOR IT…AND THE CATALYST FOR IT…INSIDE OF YOU!!!

Because of Jesus…you have access to a holy, mighty and righteous God 24/7

Late Pastor Tim Keller QUOTE…

Exalting Jesus in Romans We Stand in Grace (Romans 5:2a)

Tim Keller said this about this text, “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child [of the King]. We have that kind of access”.

BECAUSE we have recieved peace with God, He made us His dwelling place…

And as His children we have access to Him…and He gives us Grace and Hope through His spirit…

AND HE GIVES YOU HIS LOVE POURED OUT ON YOUR HEART!

AND THIS ISN’T JUST YOUR STANDARD KIND OF LOVE…

As we continue to pull out the pieces of this great gift…we pull out Peace, Grace, Hope, and Oneness…

We find that we deserve none of these…

What did we do to receive such a gift…

We were enemies...

We find they were all given to us through the…

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF THE LORD(V6-8)

We were not saved by our self proclaimed worth…

But instead by the value placed upon us…

How can you tell the value of something?

By what it costs you…

We are not righteous…we must understand that…NOT EVEN ON OUR BEST DAY…

But the Lord in His unconditional love for us…looked down to us…in our sinfulness…

And said I love them so much…that I will come down from my thrown…humbly in the flesh…AS A SERVANT…

TO LOVE AND TO HEAL…TO FEED…TO PROTECT…TO WASH FEET…TO DIE FOR …TO SAVE…

To only be betrayed, abandoned, mocked, spit on, stripped, beaten…and hung on a cross…

He showed His love for us…by what He was willing to pay for us…HIS RIGHTEOUS LIFE…

This gift we are opening…is dripping in the unconditional love of Jesus!!!!

For God so loved the world He gave His only Son…

And through Him recieved this incredible gift...

SO NOW THAT WE KNOW WHAT WE HAVE RECEIVED…LETS TURN OUR ATTENTION TO…

HOW WE RECEIVED IT

READ V9-10

THROUGH THE GOSPEL (V9-10)

-HIS DEATH RECONCILED US (V 9-10a)

On GOOD FRIDAY if you were here with us…WE REMEMBERED THIS MOMENT…

Justified by the blood- made righteous through the blood atonement for our sins (you owed a debt that must be paid in blood)

the penalty for sin is death…the shedding of blood

THE WRATH OF GOD…

UNDERSTAND…There is a bar to hit… (WHITE BOARD-draw the bar)

God is just, he must judge justly…we commit the crime He must give us just judgment…

DEATH…

The bar is righteousness…sinlessness…

If you fall below this bar…the penalty is death…

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Jesus took that just penalty of death for you and me!!!

AND HE RECONCILED US WITH GOD…

He made us right…healed the relationship between sinful man and a righteous and holy God…

Gave us PEACE AND GRACE…

ALL THROUGH HIS BLOOD…POURED OUT FOR US…

THE DEATH HE DIED WAS MEANT FOR YOU AND ME!!!

AND HE WHO KNEW NO SIN BECAME SIN AND TOOK IT!!!!

BUT HE DIDN’T STOP THERE…

BUT HE DIDN’T JUST DIE …HE ROSE!!!!

-HIS RESURRECTION SAVED US (V10b)

THE CROSS AND TOMB ARE EMPTY!!!

1 Corinthians 15:20–22 “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

God has made us one with Him…His fate is our fate…

If He dies on the cross and still laid in the tomb…we would be laying right beside Him…

BUT HE ISN’T!!!

HE LIVES!!!

HE IS RISEN!!!

(WHITE BOARD- Vertical LINE) HE CAME DOWN HERE…DIED FOR YOUR SINS, BECAME ONE WITH YOU, AND ROSE YOU UP WITH HIM IN HIS GLORY!!!

AND WE ARE RISEN WITH HIM THROUGH OUR FAITH IN THE BLOOD!!!!

You can go to the grave of Muhammed….You can go to the grave of Buddha…

BUT the grave of Jesus Christ is EMPTY!!!

HE LIVES!!!!

DEATH HAS NO POWER OVER HIM!!!

AND BECAUSE OF HIM…DEATH HAS NO POWER OVER YOU!!!

BOTH THE DEATH ON THE CROSS (WHERE JESUS SPILLED HIS BLOOD TO COVER SIN)…

AND HIS RESURRECTION THAT GAVE US ETERNAL LIFE ARE ESSENTIAL!!!!

SIN AND DEATH WERE BOTH DEFEATED IN THE DEATH , BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST!!!

THERE IS NO GREATER GIFT THAN THE ONE WE JUST OPENED!!!!

HOW WE RESPOND

BELIEVE! (V1)

Romans 10:9 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

REJOICE! (V11)