The Wrath and Redemption Of God

Heart behind the series

Romans 1:16 CSB

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

Paul wrote this book from Corinth, a city filled with religious views and people who worshiped idols

Paul was not ashamed to share the gospel with a dark world. The good, the bad, and the ugly. The whole, complete word of God

This is the most theologically complete book ever written by Paul

It is the culmination of his walk with Christ and explains the character of God in a detail

The wrath and redemption of God

Before we understand God’s love and grace we need to know why we need God’s love

The reality is that we need saving from something. We often let the phrase God saved me become routine and we miss the heart of that message. That you were a sinner destined for hell, but Jesus lived the life you couldn’t and died the death you couldn’t so that you could be with God.

A study shows that only 74% of Christians believe in hell

The truth is that if you are in Christ he is the greatest friend you could ever have, but if you are not in Christ he is the worst enemy you could ever have. Because he has the power to send you to hell by your own free will

Romans 1:18–32 (CSB)

18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. 21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. 24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. 28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. 29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. 32 Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

What is your idol?

Image

Dating

Sports

Success

Family

Money

Without contact with God, the human heart loses contact with reality, misses the purpose of one’s existence, ignores God, and becomes ungrateful.

Without contact with God you begin to get caught up in worshipping your idols

Paul talked in this passage about the power our idols have in pulling us away from God

It went as far as to say that because of their idols their thinking became worthless and their hearts were darkened.

Our idols blind us to the work God is doing in our world

The bible says in verse 26 that for this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. This is called free-will. God will never, ever make you love him!

If i tried to make Elaine love me, Yo boy would be single. I love Elaine because she cares for me, she is good for me, she serves me, she loves me, she spends time with me. She loves me for the same reasons! God loves you genuinely and he is calling you to a genuine love for him. He would never force you to love him though.

All Sin Sucks

Romans 1:29–31 CSB

29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.

The later half of this passage specifically calls out homosexuality as a sin that this group of people struggled with but also mentions 21 different sins that leads to death. Paul even says that because of these sins these people deserve to die.

Because of your sin against God you deserve death

What is your sin struggle?

In our sin we are apart from God

The full gospel of God is like a 20 car pile up on the interstate. people are hurt, people are dying, people are in pain. There are a few different emergency vehicles that come, each with their own purpose, but to fulfill the mission. You have the police who come and they do that to bring the law. To punish the guilty party if there is any and to bring justice. Then there is the ambulance that comes with the sole purpose of saving peoples lives. They react quick and bring people to healing. Both of these have their roles and work together to save people.

Conclusion

Maybe today you need to get in the ambulance. Maybe you are hurting, in pain, or on your way to spiritual death. (We all are)

Maybe today your heart is to bring the ambulance to the world, I know that is my prayer for this youth ministry. That we can be the ambulance to a broken world and bring people to the healing that is Jesus

Pray

Break into Small Groups