The Good News of God Part 1

You know, I was trying to decide where to go with things after I wrapped up my Easter. Sermon series, you know, beginning of the year we talked about discipleship and that led nicely into some of the themes that we talked about with Easter and you know, what was going on there and the Lord Kino demonstrating, the greatest acts of service and sacrifice for the sake of others.

If you'll remember during that series, I showed a video by The Skit Guys, the title of that videos actually called Grace. And you know, it's a conversation between Jesus and Peter and Peter is shocked. By the fact that Christ would be willing to forgive him that he extends that Grace to him, despite the fact that he had denied knowing Jesus. So after I thought about all that, but okay, where do I go from there? Yeah, then I heard a new song out by Matthew West titled good. And then that song, There's a verse that says I think Paul wrote the book of Romans for people just like me. For all the beat up in the broken, who need to know that Grace is free. Yeah, that was the thing that shocked Peter Wright. He was amazed that God would still show him Grace and that he would still restore him back to his position as an apostle. But that's exactly what Jesus did. And as I thought about that, I thought, you know that is a reminder that all of us need as well. That we will stumble in life, we will have problems but Grace is free and we can receive that Grace. Yo, Romans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I always think of that as one of the most obvious versus in scripture, right. I don't think any of us need reminded that we've fallen short. Of the glory of God, but that's where Grace comes in. That's the significant of what Christ did for each of us on the cross.

And that led me to remember a verse that's always been very important to me. Romans 5:8 that says, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners. Christ died for us.

You know, when I was in college and newly married, I had a hat that had a cross on it and on the back had Romans 5:8 and I would wear it when I worked my night shift at UPS every night, loading, and unloading semi trailers. And as I became a supervisor and into management there, you know, I still wore it one night. One of the building manager stopped me and he's like, do you know what that first says? I said, yeah, you know, and I quoted the verse to a man

He said, well, what does it mean to you? and I said well it means that we're all in the same boat the only difference is if we've toes to accept the free gift of Grace or not,

because I like that answer when on the build a relationship with him and find out that he was a preacher's kid of his dad was a Baptist pastor so was a great thing but you know, as I've always thought about that verse. It is so simple and that's what I love about the book of Romans. So we're going to begin a study and work through the book of Romans and you know, I might be biting off more than I can chew cuz I look at the book of Romans we could take a couple years to get through the book of Romans, but we'll see. Where God leads and all that. Michonne getting into our verse this morning, you know?

If you take a quick look at the news I mean I don't know how many people read the newspaper anymore not as many I know that but wherever you get your news if you take a quick look at it it doesn't take long to see that most of the news you read is bad news, right? And there's not really usually very much good news contain there and the problem is the more I look at it, it seems it just continually gets worse year after year, day after day. But you know, the thing we have to realize is that all these things we see happening on a local level at National level. A worldwide level are just a magnification of what's happening on the individual level, the personal level with people, that's what we have to realize, you know, as people's personal problems get worse as their fears grow as their Tolerance of certain things, you know, change. We also see that change in society at large and that's what we see. And unfortunately, like I said, most of the news Isn't good news that we receive. And a lot of that is because his human beings. We need to realize that we are in the hold of a terrifying. Power that grips is to our very core. but we forget that sometimes, And if we leave that power unchecked, it pushes us towards self-destruction more and more each day.

And we, as Christians can identify that power, we know that, that power that has a grip on us while we live in this world is sin. And unfortunately, the news attached to sin is always bad news.

You know, no matter how you look at it, it is and I guess the only good news related to send would be that knowing Jesus defeated it once and for. All right. Other than that it's not Do we have to realize as I said that the consequences that come from sin. Are never good either.

You're the first thing is, we know that sin has selfishness at its heart at its very core. Send his selfish causes us to be selfish, you know, a basic element of Fallen human nature. Is that we love to love our self, right? We love to do whatever we need to to meet our needs. You know, we love to do, whatever we need to do to feed our ego. Mumbai nature, we are self-centered as human beings. We like to focus on herself and we like to do whatever we need to do to make sure we get our way the way we like it will go to Great Lengths to do that sometimes In fact, as human beings were usually. So selfish that, we will push those limits as far as societies going, to let us will go as far as The law will allow and well, sometimes even a little beyond that, right?

But when this self will is unbridled, we 10 to start consuming everything, you know, we will use everything to our advantage and in quest to try to fulfill this longing. This need we have So, sadly enough. So many people's lives today. Are nothing more than just this Perpetual never-ending search for self-satisfaction for meeting just their needs and nothing else. They could care less about anyone else. That leads to Second byproduct of sin. Which ascends produces guilt, which guilt is just another form of bad news. He know no matter how convincingly you try to justify the ends to the means you know and all those things that never works out.

Because as you abuse your use of things and other people, you're going to get burned at some point. You know, and it what usually happens is in the very, very least, you begin to feel guilty about your use of other people and other things to try to satisfy to fill this whole within yourself.

Shall we need to realize that guilt is God's way of waving a red flag for us? Because just like physical pain. Guilt is a god-given warning that something is wrong and needs correcting. So when we feel that guilt, we need to ask ourselves why? Because when Guild has ignored or suppressed it continues to grow, it continues to intensify. And with it comes a whole host of other things. Like, fear, anxiety, sleeplessness, and countless other spiritual and physical side effects that go along with That guilt the pressure, the weight of it.

That often leads to the third byproduct of sin, which sin produces a feeling of meaninglessness.

No, I don't think I have to say that. Feeling. Meaningless is bad news. but when we are truly selfish and self-seeking, what happens is that self-indulgent person has no sense of purpose or meaning, Beyond those things that they're seeking to try to help them fill that void. Like I said, you know, life becomes this endless cycle of trying to fill a void with stuff for with other people that really can only be filled by God. But we don't want to acknowledge that. We want to seek and find it. Ourselves not realize that we have to be dependent on him to Phyllis.

And the result of Denise's people get in this endless cycle of seeking fulfillment through other things than God, is this overwhelming feelings of uselessness Despair. And what is the meaning of life? Why am I here? And that leads us to the fourth Link. In this chain of You're the fourth element and sends chain of bad news is hopelessness.

I mean, think about it, you know, if you You know, yourself is she feel guilty about it?

Life seems meaningless. Cuz all you're doing is seeking after all this stuff that really doesn't mean anything. That's all going to perish, it's all going to go away. Life can start to seem hopeless.

You know, this.

Consumption, that can rule Our Lives of just wanting whatever. It'll take to meet our needs. When we get to that point in life, you know, we're forfeiting hope. Both for this life and in the next cuz it's become dependent on material objects that aren't going to last. So those things wear out those things. Get lost those things, go away. Because none of them are Eternal. None of them have an eternal focus and that leads us to feel hopeless. And although we might try to deny it with everything.

You know, for the person who is that selfish, the reality is they realize that even death, isn't the end that something's coming after that, but the problem is, there's nothing they can buy, there's no title they can earn, there's nothing they can acquire that Asher's that there's hope in that next life for them.

So really, that's the ultimate bad news, right? That you can just drive and try to get everything you want in this life, but it means nothing in the next. But that's what God's good news is all about. That's what Jesus came to tell them. And that's what Paul's letter to. The Romans is, Paul is starting out his letter here in explaining to them that the good news. He is, proclaiming really is good news that it is something entirely different and the worldview that they had been taught for so long.

So the first verse of Romans Romans 11, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.

So here we have Paul. Do I think it's an understatement? One of the commentators? I looked at said, God called a unique man. I think Paul was far more than a unique man, and we will see that as we work through the book of Romans. But, Nonetheless. This is who God Called to be his major spokesman. To be the face of the good news in the gospel during this time. and, So really Paul kind of ended up like God's keynote speaker going around sharing and all these different places speaking. The gospel truth. But in this first verse Paul, kind of lays it out there for people why he's qualified to do this. And I would imagine part of that comes from, if you'll remember his story before his conversion. Paul was the one going around hunting Christians, throwing them in jail for what they believe. So people probably had a few questions about his credentials so he starts off this letter talking about it. In the first part of that. Verse in Romans 11 parte, he says a servant of Christ Jesus.

You know, if you look it up in the original language, there's a Hebrew equivalent of servant is used hundreds of times throughout the Old Testament. In fact, the Mosaic law, which was pretty much what their Bible consisted of during that time. Provided for a servant to be able to voluntarily become a permanent Bond slave of their Master. If they really loved him, they really wanted to stay with him. They could do this. We find that verse in Exodus chapter 21, verses 5 and 6 where it says. But if the servant declares I love my master, and my wife and children, and do not want to go free than his master mistaken. Before the judges, he shall take him to the door, or to the doorpost and piercings ear with and all, then he will be his servant for life.

You know that practice reflects the essence of what Paul means when he calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ. After his conversion, the Apostle had given himself wholeheartedly to the work of God, and what God was calling him to share about the gospel and he'd planned on doing that for the rest of his days on this Earth. He had no intention of doing anything else so that Was an important part of his credentials to him, that he was called to do that. In the next part of the verse there, it says called to be an apostle. you're the next thing that Paul is stablished his right off the bat is his authority to do ministry. You know it's not just based off the fact that he wants to be a servant. It's based off the fact that he was called to be an apostle. you're normally people think of the Apostles as the original disciples that were there and you know, directly taught by Jesus Paul wasn't really one of those but the one thing Paul has in his resume that none of the other Really can say that they have is that Paul was you know called out by Jesus Through The Vision that he had through the entire going blind thing on the Damascus Road and then being led. So there's this whole series of events that led to him being commissioned as an apostle. so he's saying hey you know I may not have the same credentials as the others as far as being with Jesus when he was here as his Earthly Ministry but He called me after that point to be an apostle. Yeah, it wasn't something that Paul volunteered for. It wasn't a position. He got elected to by fellow Believers. You know, it was something he was divinely called to and that's what he is trying to establish here.

In 1st Corinthians 9:16. Paul wrote. For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast since I am compelled to preach woe to me. If I do not preach the gospel,

you know the whole Damascus Road experience changed Paul so much and you know he'd been given a task by God a task that he never dreamed of a task. He never would have even imagined it's certainly not a task that he asked for. Yep. Paul understood that God had done all these things in his life to shape him for the purpose that he gave him soap, all new The things weren't going to go well for him. If he didn't follow his Divine commission that he'd been given

The last part of that verse Paul says, set apart for the gospel of God.

You know because Paul was called by God and sent by God as an apostle, his whole life was set apart for the Lord service. You know, any person who has been called by God to serve, the Lord can't be a hundred percent effective if they're not separated unto God for the gospel of God. But what does that mean? You know, what does it mean for someone to be separated unto the Lord? You know Paul's understanding of this separation comes through a lot of what we see him right to his young Protege Timothy. You know, Timothy was indeed a genuine servant of God and he had been personally discipled by Paul and you know, commissioned by him and he's succeeded him as pastor at the church in Ephesus, Timothy was the one who followed him. But as we read those letters from Paul to Timothy, we realized that at some point. Timothy, you know must have been In danger of becoming an effective. You know, something was getting in his way of fulfilling his calling. And we don't really know why it doesn't go into details of that, you know. It could have been fear of opposition from other religious leaders in his community or just Other negative influences going on, or maybe just weakness on his own part. As the leader, whatever the circumstances were, it was serious enough for Paul to address it.

2nd, Timothy chapter 1 verses 6 & 7. We see Paul write this. Says, for this reason, I remind you to Fan into Flame, the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the spirit of God gave us does not make us timid but gives us power, love and self-discipline. now, for some reason,

Timothy was struggling. but it simply, You know, despite his High Calling in the fact that he'd been trained by Paul himself

for some reason Paul was worried. That this young disciple was losing his focus. And like I said, we don't really know the backstory here, but whatever it was, Paul felt it necessary for him to remind Timothy that he was set apart by God for God's work.

You know, Paul had to remind him that his ultimate Authority, his boss was God and no one else. That whatever it was that he was fearing or worried about. didn't matter his ultimate responsibility, his primary task was to work. Has God called him to work to do what God called him to do which was to proclaim the gospel and nothing else. Now that was what God had set him apart to do.

But somehow Timothy must have got sidetracked and, you know, Paul's saying that in the beginning of this letter to the Romans that I know this is what God has set me apart to do. To share the gospel. So that's what I'm here to do.

And we'll see that as we continue to dig into this, over the summer and into next fall.

You don't know, a lot of what we'll see is that Paul himself was just living proof of God's great love. And mercy, his story shows how God can change someone and use them in a powerful way, because even though he had opposed Christ and persecuted, the church God made him the church's. Chief spokesman quite swing of events there. May not can imagine, especially when Paul was in his error of going about hunting Christians. He never would have thought he would be going around promoting their cause is proclaiming the gospel.

The reason he could was because after the whole Damascus Road experience, Paul, truly understood the gospel. He knew how good the gospel really was. If it could change his heart, if it could turn him around and if God could use him as a messenger to go Proclaim, this gospel. It must be really good. So, that is what we're going to explore and greater depth over the next couple months. How good? Is the good news. Please pray with me.

heavenly father as we come to you today, Lord, we

Come to you in largest. Say Lord I pray that you will show us how good the gospel really is. Lord help us to. Truly understand where we would be without you in our life.

Lord, I pray that you will help us to not feel timid but have the boldness that you give us through your spirit Lord to proclaim the gospel to others. Lord to live our life in such a way that they see something is different with us.

And Lord, I pray that you will give us the boldness to live that out. You play the song, your most, holy name. Amen.