Romans #1 - Lost and Found: Finding God’s Peace

[Music] [Music] oh it's a really good day i'm so glad to see you [Applause] there's bad news out there there's good news in here there's problems out there there's a solution named jesus in here out there everybody sad in here we're all pretty fired up welcome to our fourth birthday welcome to our easter celebration i'll tell you what everything's closed but heaven is open and you are all invited to the party that never ends if you've got a bible find the book of romans and as you're finding your place in god's word i want to start with a little bit of a story for every effect there is a cause the bigger the effect the bigger the cost i'll give you one example july 9 1958 at 10 15 pm there was a 7.8 earthquake in alaska it unleashed and and released 40 million cubic yards into the gilbert inlet it created a mega tsunami the largest wave recorded in the history of the world 1720 foot wave the spiritual equivalent of that mega tsunami is the book of romans it has been rolling in an epic way for 2 000 years transforming lives altering destinies empowered by the holy spirit to bring the life of god into god's people and we're going to spend a whole year studying it together and i am so excited to open god's word and to help you learn from what is arguably the greatest book written in the history of the world i will read some quotes for you from theologians now all of this is found in the free study guide pick one up on the way out or if you're online you can just grab it at realfaith.com all of the footnotes are included i'm your new nerd friend i have a shrek size head to hold all of that information i'm very happy to share it with you let me just give you some of the quotes regarding romans from the theologians number one romans is probably the greatest book in the bible that's a big statement because the bible is the greatest book and this might be the greatest book in the greatest book that's great in addition another one says roman stands among the most important pieces of literature in the intellectual history of western man another says it is safe to say that romans is probably the most powerful human document ever written another one says romans is one of the most influential writings in western culture another says more than any other book romans has been the forge of the western psyche when a metalsmith wants to hammer something into proper shape it forges it that is what god is going to use the book of romans to do for you to forge the mind of christ in your mind another says it is arguably the most influential book in christian history perhaps in the history of western civilization and another says every great spiritual revival in the church will be connected with a deeper understanding of this book historically revivals and reformations have come when the book of romans is open and i am telling you that right now the whole world is freaking out and they need a solution and his name is jesus and we have tried everyone and everything else and we have all concluded it doesn't work ultimately the time is ripe for the preaching of the gospel of jesus christ for the opening of the church and for revival to come to the church and reformation to come through the church by the power of the word of god can i get an amen amen that's why we're here let me reload a few other additional quotes the great epic english poet samuel taylor coleridge said that romans is quote the profoundest book in existence john chrysostom the early church father had the book read to him upwards of four times a week just so that he could familiarize himself with it for the duration of his life the great protestant reformer martin luther says that romans is quote the true masterpiece of the new testament and the very purest gospel a christian should not only learn it by heart word for word but he should daily deal with it as the daily bread of men's souls for it can never be too much or too well read or studied what he's saying is this your body was made for fuel you need food but in addition your soul was made needing fuel that is the word of god the jesus says the man does not live on bread alone but every word that proceeds from the mouth of god and what luther said is if you want your soul to be healthy you need to feed it the word of god starting with the book of romans john calvin the great protestant reformer said if we have gained a true understanding of this epistle we have an open door to all the most profound treasures of scripture and then lastly william tyndale he says that romans is the principle and most excellent part of the new testament the most pure gospel and a light in a way unto the whole of scripture here's what i'm telling you fads come and go the news comes and goes marketing comes and goes and the word of god endures forever i don't know when jesus is coming back it may be 2 000 years lord jesus it's your choice we would however request humbly you come before the election nonetheless [Applause] we all i don't care if you're democrat or republican you're like i agree with that prayer right there ultimately when jesus comes whatever you are worried about whatever is consuming your time in media and social media will no longer be an issue but the book of romans will still be widely regarded widely studied and still proclaiming the good news of the person and work of jesus christ what i'm telling you is put time in god's word it is not wasted time it is invested time that being said we now want to receive a word from god so to do so we will open the word of god i now introduce you to the book of romans chapter 1 verse 1 where we learn that we serve the god who serves us here is the opening line paul he is the author you'll get to know him well in our year study of his book together a servant of christ jesus it's all about jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of god let me start by introducing you to this concept of a servant this is a particular noble distinguished role in the kingdom of god it is not particularly distinguished in our world and culture let's be honest we're in scottsdale the whole goal is to make enough money to pay people to serve you true some of you pulled up you're like where's the valet parking we're here to teach you to serve feel free to park your own car we love you but it's good to learn how to serve and a servant is not something that the culture honors but the kingdom of god honors and we want to live kingdom down not culture up and our king jesus is a humble servant king he is a humble servant king and so when paul declares himself to be a servant he is taking on the same posture of jesus to be a servant is requiring three things number one that you allow jesus to serve you before jesus calls you to serve anyone else he serves you number two then it is accepting jesus as your lord and then number three asking your lord who he would send you to serve and how he would send you to serve a servant does two things they lift burdens and give blessings they lift burdens and give blessings jesus lifts burdens and gives blessings and then invites us to also serve by lifting burdens and giving blessings this is the key to a healthy relationship and they came to jesus on one occasion the disciples did his followers and they asked him who will be greatest in the kingdom of god this should have been a fairly easy question to answer the guy whose mother is a virgin who water-skis without a boat and feeds a stadium with a little boy's lunchable and casts demons out of people probably that guy's the greatest nonetheless they still were having this argument which of us will be the greatest rather than rebuking them jesus redirected them and he used himself as an example he said i did not come to be what served i came to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many jesus was in heaven he came down to earth to serve us jesus lived his life without any sin on the earth to serve us jesus went to the cross suffered and died in our place for our sins to serve us jesus rose from the dead conquered satan send death held the wrath of god to serve us jesus ascended into heaven i'll tell you what right now jesus is still serving he's answering prayers he is lifting burdens he is providing blessings he is altering destinies that jesus is still serving and so what jesus says if you want to be the greatest you need to be the servant of all now paul before he could be a servant of jesus he needed to be served by jesus so let me introduce you to this man paul he started out as a religious terrorist he he before he did jesus he did jihad that's paul he is the osama bin laden of his day he hated despised opposed persecuted murdered christians here we meet him in the book of acts it's the history book of early christianity he appears in chapter 7 where there is a leader in an early church a godly man named stephen and paul shows up with an angry violent mob of men they are terrorists and terrorizing and they put to death they murder stephen simply for the fact that he loves and preaches jesus in addition then we read these words regarding paul in acts 8 execution persecution scattered ravaging the church dragging men and women to prison he would do you love jesus okay then we are going to beat you perhaps murder you and or imprison you here's what i'm telling you the culture that we are in is growing increasingly opposed to biblical christianity and the cost of following jesus is getting more expensive and the children of god will need to accept that there is a price to pay and for the first christians it was payment of their life but they knew that jesus awaited them on the other side so they no longer feared death by acts chapter 9 we realize that paul will not be stopped it says that he was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the lord this is a man who will not be stopped so jesus gets involved it doesn't matter how mighty a man is when he comes face to face with the almighty he loses stronger than any man is the god man jesus christ jesus had already lived died rose returned to heaven and he looked down and he saw what paul was doing he got off his throne came down to take care of it himself he knocked paul to the ground and blinded him and then ultimately paul had to realize that he was wrong that jesus was right that he was not lord that jesus was lord he needed to bow his head and bend his knee and surrender his will to his new savior the lord jesus christ and that man was saved and became a christian he went from a murderer of christians to a christian he went from one who persecuted christians to one who pastored christians the conversion of paul is one of the greatest evidences in the history of the world that jesus christ is god like he said and that jesus god is god who conquered death like he said he would there's no other reason that a man like paul would start worshiping the jesus that he was warring against but his life was changed in an instant and everything changes when jesus shows up how many of you that's your story everything changed when jesus showed up and all of a sudden he becomes a servant of jesus christ and he serves in two ways in deed and in word i will first look at his deeds and then his words but you and i need to be taking on by the grace of god this posture of servant in deed and word he over the course of about a decade of ministry walked upwards of 20 miles a day how many of you would not be a church if you had to walk right 20 miles a day to volunteer in ministry to work a job on the side to make ends meet to go preach a message that everybody hated he started a number of riots and they sought to kill him and he spent time in prison here's how he explains it he says these words in second corinthians 6 afflictions hardships imagine this was your job description like you've got a bad job but it's not that bad this is paul's jobs description afflictions hardships calamities beatings imprisonments riots sleepless nights hunger slander treated as imposters dying punished sorrowful poor having nothing he continues in second corinthians 11 stripes beyond measure that means whippings and scourging in prison five times given the lashes 40-1 40 lashes would kill a man they whipped him five different occasions 39 times right near the point of death if he took his shirt off you would see that he bore the marks of beatings he looked like a p.o.w who had been tormented by captors for years jesus served him and he was living as a servant of jesus he says three times he was beaten with rods that he was also stoned if you're under 25 it's this not this it's people throwing rocks at you in addition he goes on to talk about shipwrecked meaning he was on a boat it capsized he spent a whole night he says adrift on the open sea he says i have night and day perils of water robbers perils of my own countrymen and gentiles perils in the city perils in the wilderness perils in the sea perils among false brethren weariness toil sleeplessness hunger thirst cold and nakedness if you didn't quit your job by then naked we're all out he ultimately endured everything why jesus gave it all to serve him and he would give it all to serve jesus and if jesus would come from heaven to earth to pursue him he would do anything he could to pursue others you and i need to have this heart of paul not just the theology at paul we're going to study paul and some of you will love the theology of paul but i want you to also have the heart of paul not just think his thoughts but have his zeal he would do anything he possibly could to tell people about jesus he wanted the good news of the resurrection of jesus to get beyond israel to the nations including ours he is the apostle to the gentiles what that means is jesus is jewish the early christians were jewish and god wanted the message to get to the nations including ours had it not been for paul's zeal you and i would not know about jesus and this church would not exist and christianity as we have known it for 2000 years would never have made it to the nations of the earth there's something more important than your convenience and his name is christ we live in a culture in arizona that is really fashioned by retirement and vacation and i'm just here to tell you that we serve christ not comfort we serve christ not convenient and ultimately paul was a man who had a very lavish and a very secure lifestyle and gave it all up so that you and i could hear about jesus and what he adds in his testimony here he said and beyond it all he concludes with this my constant concern for the churches i love paul's heart and i love the church i love our church happy fourth birthday what god has done here supernatural amen in addition i love all churches that serve jesus and what we're dealing with right now is churches are closed and the message of jesus is not moving forward and they're saying that one in three christians will never return to church and that 20 percent of churches will possibly close in the next 18 months and what i'm telling you is this if we care about suffering and human suffering we have to care about the worst suffering the eternal suffering that ultimately i don't know when you will die and everybody's freaking out oh we're gonna die we all knew this well before everybody dies did anyone not know this the question is what happens next and so we need to tell people about jesus so that he can prepare them for eternity because for us this is as close to hell as we will get that's why it's all on fire right now let me reload in addition paul not only serves indeed he serves in word this is how we serve in word and deed he is a wise man filled with the spirit of wisdom he had an incredible impeccable education in acts 22 it says he studied under the leading rabbi in that day gamila this would be like getting into an ivy league school and then graduating at the top of the class he was fluent in three possibly four languages the old testament language of hebrew aramaic the new testament language of greek and possibly latin he has an incredible impeccable mind he writes books of the bible i'll explain those in a moment but on a hundred occasions he just quotes the old testament hundreds and thousands of times he references and alludes to it he does so from memory and heart because he is walking and he is also in prison now when it comes to your bible and i know many of you are new and we're glad to have you the bible is really a book in two parts the old testament is 39 different books preparing us for the coming of jesus the new testament is 27 books telling us about the coming of jesus and the ensuing movement of christianity of those 27 books in the new testament thirteen are written by paul he may have written hebrews were uncertain of its authorship if so he would be the author of fourteen books in the book of acts which is the history book of the new testament from chapter 13 through the end of acts in acts 28 the focus is on the mission work of paul in addition the number one contributor to the new testament is an author named luke he's a medical doctor he writes luke on the life of christ and acts on the life of christians and he is traveling companions with paul paul is his pastor dear friend and luke the medical doctor is the one who puts paul back together after the beatings riots and imprisonments what i am telling you is in addition in second peter 3 peter who is the leader of the disciples writes two books of the new testament first and second peter he says that paul is a beloved brother who writes scripture with the wisdom that god gives him so everyone knew that paul is writing books of the bible furthermore what i'm telling you is if we lose paul we lose the majority of the new testament so much of what we know and believe about the personal work of jesus christ does not exist apart from paul serving us in word giving us the word of god how many of you are so sick of bad news paul is all about good news how many of you are sick of all the problems paul is all about jesus as the solution i would argue that at least in our nation there has perhaps never been a more incredible opportunity for the hope of jesus christ to be known and the good news of jesus christ to be proclaimed as paul instructs and models than right now i believe there is a divine time right now where the word of god needs to be unleashed and the need is perhaps greater than ever now when it comes to paul what i want you to know is that his insight is unprecedented and unparalleled let me give you a few quotes the early church father john chrysostom he anticipated it in the image of scales weighted balance he says put the whole world on one side everything that everyone has ever taught or thought and on the other side of the scale he says you will see that the soul of paul outweighs it what he's saying is this everyone versus paul paul's thoughts are heavier they are weightier they are deeper in addition augustine the church father said that he wished to have seen christ in the flesh and paul and the pulpit he's saying i wish i could have seen jesus and heard paul in addition martin luther calls paul quote the wisest man after christ now let me say our world values intellect but not wisdom there are people that are educated beyond their intelligence there are people that have more degrees than fahrenheit but if they don't have the spirit of god they have no wisdom if you don't know what this looks like find a college walk onto campus find a professor and just ask a few questions you'll see that this is confirmed fact that you can have a great education and no wisdom that's why some of the smartest people do some of the dumbest things amen very offensive we've only begun this is the introduction we're still on verse 1. it has 434 verses imagine how bad it's going to get now this being said here's what i want you to know when you study paul and we're going to study them together for the better part of the year two things are going to happen first thing there are things that he is going to say that you're going to find very complicated and confusing peter says this in second peter 3 he said there are some things that paul writes that are hard to understand here's what peter's saying i'm filled with the spirit of god i wrote two books of the bible jesus taught me for three years and paul's way smarter than me and gives me a headache that's what he's saying so if you're reading paul you're like oh he's smart i'm not welcome to the club you're in good company when you read paul there will be things that are hard to understand i'll give you some clues we're going to get into something called predestination and election one of you like yay the rest are like no okay now here's the big idea because some of you are americans and you think no no we need to vote here's what i would ask how's that going how's anybody it's working so well we're all unified looking forward to the future it's no you know what we need let jesus vote what election is is that ultimately jesus votes he votes for who gets to enter the kingdom of god so we're going to get into things like election and predestination and the holy spirit and all these things and you know what your brain's gonna hurt you're just gonna be like oh gosh my brain hurts it's because your brain is smaller than pulse that's why he's wiser than you so here's what i'd say don't skip it don't change it dig into it dig into it number two as you read paul you're going to be very offended he's going to say some stuff you're going to be like that's very offensive my inner child just got a spanking you're going to feel it okay you're going to feel it let me give you some examples paul's going to say very soon that we're all bad sinners so be like not me i'm a good person my mom said i have a good heart your mom's a false prophet she's a liar in a few weeks probably when facebook bans me i'm going to be in romans 1. and it has it has these these crazy ideas like male and female okay we're gonna be like no it's a spectrum no it's not it's not boy girl boy girl and it says that sex is for [Music] marriage marriage is for a boy and a girl crazy ideas i know wacky and it's going to talk about all kinds of gender issues and sexual issues and gender confusion and transgenderism that's just an old book it doesn't relate to us yeah it does and what's going to happen is you're going to be very offended by it okay and some of you s you single guys here's what you do bring your girlfriend so i can make her your ex-girlfriend that's where we're going in romans 1. okay so now when we get there here's what's going to happen you're going to read it and you're going to think it's wrong you know what you're wrong that's so offensive and insightful very helpful so when you read paul either he's wrong or you're wrong you're wrong and i know right now on social media there's some 22 year old guy at his mom's house borrowing the internet she paid for typing i disagree you don't count you are not paul you're not that smart i'm going to tell your mom to change the password to the internet so you can stop saying things i actually had a single guy tell me this one time he's like well that's paul's opinion you're oh please listen so what's going to happen then is when you read paul and you disagree here's what i want you to practice we'll all practice it right now repeat after me i'm wrong and if you're married i just saved your marriage say it all the time just saved your marriage there are times you read the word of god if you disagree you got to say i'm wrong i'm wrong because ultimately we cannot be conformed to the pattern of this world we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds paul says that later in romans that ultimately worship including our lives must include our thoughts as we thank god's thoughts after him repentance is this concept of change and repentance starts in the mind if i disagree i'm wrong and i need to change my mind so that i can agree with the word of god and what he is doing is he is modeling for us through his own testament let me say this if there's hope for paul there's hope for all of us if there's grace for paul there's grace for all of us if jesus can fix paul jesus can fix any of us if jesus can use paul jesus can use any of us amen okay so he uses the worst guy to do the best things to give the rest of us a little hope but it all starts with being served by jesus and then taking the posture of a servant and if you will adopt this as your lifestyle as paul did i just tell you you'll have a better marriage better relationships better friendships will have a better church you'll contribute to a better company and we'll have a better world because there's only three kinds of relationships and let me just start by saying we all live on a spectrum from very selfish to a servant we all start very selfish and by the grace of god we need to actively pursue service two selfish people it's a brutal relationship it's a war i'm gonna win no i'm gonna win you're gonna lose no you're gonna lose a selfish person and a servant that's an abusive relationship i give you take i win you lose a servant and a servant is a beautiful relationship what god wants for your marriage is to servants what god wants for your family is servants now let me say this how many of you are parents here's a little parenting tip the lie is if our children just had better servants they would be better children if we could just get a better teacher if we could get a better coach if we get a better kids ministry director we get a better student ministry to direct if we get a better tutor if we get a better nanny all of those things might help but your child will never mature by being served only by serving you cannot be like jesus without serving the best thing for you is to serve and the best thing for everyone is to serve and the point is this that your life is going to have problems and pains and so what you need over your life is a purpose that is greater than your problems and your pains and that purpose is to serve your lord jesus christ and what this is a great opportunity is your role as servant never changes though your responsibilities of serving can't change so whether you're single married or divorced whether you have kids or are an empty nester whether you are employed or unemployed whether you're going up the corporate ladder or fell to the bottom you could still serve your role never changes though your responsibilities will change and no matter what there is always a purpose over your life that is greater than the pains and the problems of your life that's the testimony of paul that was a good first verse okay let's get another one okay here we go it's all about jesus this is what i love to say he's going to talk about the gospel that literally means good news in a world filled with bad news we need some good news the gospel of god which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures he's talking about the old testament and the prophets who prophesied the coming of jesus i'll share a few with you in a moment concerning his son that's jesus who was descended from david that is indicating that he would come as a king over a kingdom according to the flesh that jesus would come in a physical body was declared to be the son of god in power according to the spirit he was anointed filled and led by the holy spirit and gives the same spirit to us the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead i have really good news jesus isn't dead i have really good news jesus conquered satan sin death hell the wrath of god we killed him he killed death he is alive right now he is answering prayers he is changing lives he is forgiving sin he is altering destiny he's still serving right now he's resurrected jesus christ our lord we want you all to participate in this allegiance to jesus as our lord through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations what he's saying is this everyone needs jesus every culture needs jesus every nation needs jesus every language needs jesus every race needs jesus and we live in this foolish world where we think that the highest authority is culture over all cultures is christ well these people think this way and these people think that way well over them all is jesus and we all need to be in allegiance to the same lord and culture does not replace christ culture needs to bend its need to christ because christ belongs to all nations and rules over all nations our jesus is a big jesus our jesus isn't in charge jesus our jesus is an anointed appointed authority that's our jesus amen all right you both fired up let me let you know a little secret this ain't a library okay you can make noise i know that you've not been out of the house much and everywhere kind of stinks right now but we're pretty excited to see you so if you want to make a little noise you're welcome to okay all right [Applause] i know it's nfl kickoff day and you guys are gonna go home and here's what you grown men are gonna do you're gonna sit on the couch and critique athletes you should go faster you can't even get up you'd spill the chili you're gonna sit on the couch but if a guy carries a dead pig over a chalk line you're gonna jump up shout and cheer what i'm saying is be as excited about the resurrection of jesus as you are a touchdown i'm just throwing it out there as an encouragement that's all i'm saying so he's gonna tell us here about jesus let me tell you about jesus his first name is the derivative of joshua christ means anointed chosen by god as the savior and messiah he lived about 2 000 years ago he grew up in a small rural town with peasant parents who were probably teenagers the size of the home he grew up in was most likely about the same size as the parking stall you parked your car in for the first 30 years of his life he lived in obscurity he swung a hammer as a carpenter with his adoptive dad and then he had a three-year ministry that included preaching sermons and healing sick people and casting out demons and doing the supernatural religious people hated him broken people loved him arrogant people hated him they opposed him they harassed him they lied about him they ultimately betrayed him they arrested him and they crucified him and just as he promised three days later after dying in your place for your sins as the suffering servant he came back roaring very much to life he conquered sin he conquered death he conquered satan he endured the wrath of god and he showed up to paul and paul couldn't deny this fact jesus is who he says he is and jesus does what he says he does and paul became a christian and in the wake of jesus resurrection christianity is the biggest movement of any sort of kind in the history of the world a billion people on earth today claim that jesus is their lord we measure time by the life death burial resurrection of this man jesus b c is before christ a.d is anno domini the year of our lord we celebrate his birth every christmas we celebrate his resurrection every easter more songs have been sung to him more paintings painted of him more books written regarding him more lives devoted to him than anyone who has ever lived on the history of planet earth there's nobody bigger than jesus there's nobody better than jesus there's nobody bigger than jesus there's nobody better than jesus and what paul is saying is the prophets told us he was coming so we would be ready let me share with you just a few examples there are hundreds but i won't share them all i will just share a few 700 years before jesus was born isaiah 7 14 the lord himself will give you a sign the virgin young teenage unmarried mary will be with child will give birth not just to a child but a male son and they will call him emmanuel which means what god with us jesus is god come from heaven to earth well where will he be born 700 bc micah 5 2 bethlehem no you're small little town out of you will come for me one who will be ruler of israel king whose origins are from old from ancient times in the original hebrew eternity the eternal god is going to come as a king and he's going to be born in the town of bethlehem malachi 3 1 400 bc i will send my messenger that's john the baptizer who will prepare the way before me the lord that's the lord jesus you are seeking will come to his temple this gives us a historic designation timeline deadline the temple stood until 70 a.d and then it was torn down it was destroyed the temple was the meeting place between people and god it housed the presence of god sacrifices were made there for sin by a priest once jesus died for our sin and rose we no longer have a temple because we no longer need a temple we don't go to a place we go to a person named jesus we don't have a priest we have a great high priest we don't offer sacrifices we trust in his sacrifice once for all the temple was destroyed because we don't need it anymore we have all we need in jesus therefore my jewish friends who are awaiting the coming of a savior messiah you missed him his name is jesus he he came to the temple the temple has been closed for almost 2 000 years you need jesus he's a jewish guy you'll like him okay uh in addition uh psalm 22 16 a thousand years bc a band of evil men has encircled me they have pierced my hands and my feet what is that the crucifixion of jesus through the most sensitive nerve centers on the human body the hands and the feet this not only predicts the crucifixion of jesus this predicts the invention of crucifixion you may not know this crucifixion was not invented for a few hundred years after this prophecy by the persians not only does this predict how jesus would die it predicts that this mode of execution would be invented and he was nailed through the hands and the feet as was predicted a thousand years bc psalm 22 1 my god my god why have you forsaken me who said that when did jesus say that on the cross he quoted psalm 22 1. you know why he wanted to let us know that he was fulfilling the prophecy jesus trusted the word of god jesus preached the word of god jesus prayed the word of god jesus fulfilled the word of god oh my goodness he's going to die in our place for our sins he's going to endure the wrath of god he will be forsaken he will be put to death good news a thousand years bc psalm 1610 you will not abandon me to the grave he's going to die and be buried but he will not let the holy one and there's only one who's holy his name is jesus c decay so here's who we're waiting for we're waiting for a male son to be born to a virgin mother who came down from heaven in bethlehem from eternity prepared in advance by a messenger showing up before 70 a.d at the temple crucified through the hands and the feet forsaken by god dying in our place for our sins enduring the wrath of god being put in a grave and then coming out and defeating death what's his name jesus people need jesus everybody needs jesus all the questions are ultimately answered in the death burial resurrection of jesus this world has a lot of problems but there's one solution his name is jesus everything that the bible promised came true you can trust the word of god two things i want you to know number one god wrote this book god wrote this book number two god knows and rules the future and reveals it to us the god who is good for all of his prophecies and promises is true for those that remain when god says that there is a heaven and there is a hell it's because he knows and rules the future and he is preparing you for eternity and i am i'll just tell you what how many of you are sick of people predicting the future and not getting it right oh gosh this has been a year of false prophets it's going to get better it's going to get worse i recently heard an expert i won't say his name he's like it'll either get better or worse thank you what revelation yes it will get better or worse thank you so much for that clarity now i know how to proceed forward in full confidence over and over we try to predict the future right i mean right now what are we trying to do predict the future how's it going we don't know we don't know some of you say i know no you don't only god knows the future so here's the good news we don't need to know the future but we can know the god who does and we can understand that he is the lord over the future and he is the savior through the process into the future and his name is jesus so let me make this real personal you are called to belong to jesus christ romans 1 6 and 7. let me make this real personal including you you know what all that we're talking about love of god the grace of god relationship with god forgiveness of sin eternal life it's for you not amazing it's for you it's for you the guy with the beard that's a good look by the way the guy with the hat all right the gal with the bow in her hair it's for you when's the last time somebody said you know what i'm for you when's the last time somebody said i'm here for you when somebody said i want what's best for you his name is jesus he's for you and you are called to belong to jesus christ because you're loved by god let me unpack all this for you and called to be saints grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ let me share a bit of my story with you i met my wife grace march 12 1988. we were 17 years of age in high school and she gave me this bible this was my first bible it's got a new cover because i wore the first one out i went off to state university fall of 1989. okay class 89 all right okay okay it was 89 we were rocking like doc and it was good times back then and i went off to college at a state university and all the classes that i took had very negative things to say about christ christianity and the bible go to the anthropology class ah it's ruined civilizations go into the philosophy class ah it's oppressed ideologies go into the gender studies class that's very binary and they have negative things to say and then eventually a lot of my teachers were talking very negatively about a guy named paul i didn't know and then in the philosophy class they started talking about paul as well so i thought you know i got to figure out who this guy paul is so i go back to my dorm and i didn't know the bible so i got this bible and i'm looking for the book of paul hey grace did i get the whole bible i can't find paul i didn't know that there wasn't a book called paul there was a guy named paul who wrote books so then i found out that paul wrote books so i'm looking for books written by paul because everybody's trashing them in all of my university classes and the first book i found was romans and it's not because he wrote it first but they place it first among his letters because it's in the prominent preeminent position so i'll never forget it was the fall of 1989 i didn't have a crisis or an emergency i wasn't a drug addict i didn't murder my mother i wasn't you know smuggling heroin for the cartel we always put people up who have the craziest testimonies i was just a happy pagan 19 years of age that's it no heroin no dead body nothing just me so so i sit down on my dorm and i literally open this bible to romans chapter 1 just to see what it says i wasn't expecting anything and i read romans 1 6 you were called to belong to jesus christ my whole life changed one verse from romans god flipped a switch in my soul that i don't fully understand all of a sudden i changed it was supernatural if you're a christian you know what this is you know what this experience like also i just i read it and literally i just said you're called to belong to jesus christ okay i belong to jesus now literally i literally stood up for my dorm bed oh i okay i belong to jesus now my life is no longer my own so i defined a church found a good church that preached through books of the bible and that's one of the reasons i love doing so to this day so i'm in the church and they say hey you got to sign up for the men's retreat why are they retreating i thought i thought they were men we advanced advance why do we have a reverse gear for men i don't understand okay i'll go to the retreat so i sign up for the retreat and i go to the retreat and they you know we're singing songs and a lot of beards and bibles and it was good and uh so then the pastor's like all right you guys need to go meet with god i was like all right where is he i don't know what i'm doing i'm 19. i went to public school i don't know what i'm doing and so he's like no no you got to go talk to god i was like uh don't know the number not sure the hours uh he's like no just go talk to him i said how does that work he's like just just go talk to him so i got in the woods like god it's mark i mean you probably know that but you know um i'm kind of new yeah you know i'm new i'm new i just said jesus you're the lord tell me what to do and i'll do it and he spoke to me audibly he said mary grace yes preach the bible as i i better read it train men which is my heart and i'll see you guys on wednesday night okay see you guys on wednesday night and plant churches so then grace and i got married and i've been preaching the bible for about 30 years and then we planted a church before we had kids and god said plant churches we planted churches out of that and then i never thought of it until recently the trinity church is the fulfillment of that prophecy because god said plant churches we planted one this is the second church we planted this is the fulfillment of the prophecy that god spoke over my life in 19. that's why we're here god's been very gracious [Applause] so then i became a pastor and started preaching books of the bible i thought i'm going to preach romans because i got saved reading romans i love romans and so i started preaching romans in 1998. i stopped because it was killing me i was not ready imagine a kid who's in his 20s saying i'm going to hike everest and he shows up in flip-flops with a slurpee you're like bro you're not ready for this you need a little more preparation so i started preaching romans and i got poor window and i'm like i can't do this i'm not ready so literally since my dorm bed in 1989 i've been waiting 30 years to preach this book of the bible i tried it in 1998 and just gave up so pray for me i hope to make it to the end but here's what i'm telling you god has thank you god has given me this burden for 30 years so i'm really excited i'm really excited okay and if i'm yelling it's because i'm really excited i'm not angry i'm really really excited i want you to be really excited i want you to be more excited than democrats and republicans i want you to be more excited than saints fans and patriots fans i want you to be more excited than people with massive people without mass i just want you to be excited about the bible that's where i'm at [Applause] it's going to be awesome [Music] so let me let me make this real personal for you you're now going to make the most important decision of your entire life and that is whether you will receive or reject jesus christ as savior and lord the most important thing about you is what you decide about jesus christ what you believe about jesus christ how you respond to jesus christ when he says that you are called to belong see i get to share with you now the verse that changed my life and i wanted to change your life because the same holy spirit who used it to change my life he can use it to change your life that's why we're here when it says that you are called to belong the language there is an invitation to friendship my first date with grace do you want to go out to dinner grace and i just got back from a week together on vacation hey you want to go on vacation yeah it's an invitation to loving intimate warm friendship when it says that you are called to belong it's jesus inviting you now some of you would wonder mark you trying to convert me to your religion no actually i'm trying to convert you to a relationship with a person named jesus who's alive and paul is a great example true or false he had religion his problem his problem your problem is religion the solution is a relationship with a person named jesus some of you would ask pastor mark are you trying to convert me exactly thank you for paying attention that's exactly what we're trying to do and he explains this relationship with jesus using four incredible words i'll share them with you briefly love love our world has a real shortage of love it's because we are disconnected from god who is love and the source of love you can't give something you don't have and you can't have it unless you get it from jesus how many people love you and when it says love it's this active pursuit that jesus is pursuing you in relationship to serve you to lift your burdens and give us blessings some of you have not been loved some of you have had people say they love you and they just use and abuse you some of you have only had people pursue you for their benefit not yours jesus is not like that he comes to love and pursue and serve in addition paul uses this other word he says that jesus wants to see you as a saint this is kind of a odd word how many of you grew up catholic like all me okay so my name's father mark welcome to our mass this is my caller here's my levi vestment we're very glad to have you when you hear saint you think oh those are the superhero christians oh it's chastity man and oh yeah that's i can't do that you know it's those are the superheroes you can laugh that's funny come on do you know that if you come into relationship with jesus christ he forgives you sin your sin he lifts your burden of sin he gives you the blessing of his righteousness he declares you holy innocent means and ultimately in eternity jesus will make you perfect that ultimately you are going to be a resurrected perfected you if you belong to jesus christ so what jesus says is he says well i'm not going to primarily speak over your life your past i'm going to speak over your life my future this gives you hope that when you become a christian you become new and you're in a process that ends in perfection and so jesus calls you as he will see you eternally and then he walks with you into that eternal perfection this should give you real hope and this is how we need to see each other we're in a process that is going to end in perfection and i want to see you as you're going to be when jesus is done with you and i want to love you and help you get to that place he then uses two extraordinary words that our world could use more of grace and peace what grace means it means a gift you don't deserve it means help you don't merit it means burden lifted blessing given and it's not because you earn it it's because he's good you know what our world needs right now a lot more grace are people giving each other grace there's no it's a graceless world our canceled culture our critic culture our crazy culture it's a graceless world the only way that we can have a relationship is with forgiveness and grace that is true with jesus and one another and so if we want to have healthy relationships we need to forgive each other and give grace okay we need to forgive each other and give grace [Applause] i need to learn this so bad god gave me a wife named grace i'm always reminded of the need for grace and let me say this it doesn't matter what you've done there's grace for you there's grace it doesn't matter what you need there's grace for you there are two kinds of people people that need grace and people that need more grace and the result he says is peace again we live in a world that lacks love we we live in a world that lacks hope for people's future we live in a world that lacks grace and we live in a world that lacks peace because we live in a world that lacks jesus and this peace it's peace with your past some of you have things you regret you look back i can't believe i said that did that jesus died for it you can put it to death there's peace with your past in addition as you look at the future many of you have fears and right now let's just say it's a fearful time but you can have peace for your future knowing that jesus is the lord over it and he is the savior through it and the jesus who brought me this far will see me through to the end and there's a peace that comes to the children of god that surpasses all understanding so here's what i'm asking you would you please receive jesus invitation to a relationship he loves you he died for you he rose for you he's been pursuing you he's prepared a place for you he has grace for you he has love for you he wants to be the savior of your life and the lord over your life so i'm going to ask you now to pray with me and to welcome jesus into relationship with you if you would pray this prayer jesus will answer it yes every single time and the christians who are here would tell you it's the best decision you will ever make and it's the one decision you'll never regret i've never met anyone i've met a lot of people that have made decisions they regret i've never met anyone who met jesus and regretted meeting jesus for those who are saints would you testify that is your story that's your story so here's what i'm going to do i'm going to lead you in a prayer i'm going to ask you just to do two things one you don't have to put your hands up but just put them palms up because we come to god first that he would serve us and give so that we could serve others and i'm going to ask you to close your eyes so raise your hands and just close your eyes everyone here's my question to you friend are you ready to receive jesus are you ready for that relationship to begin are you ready to receive forgiveness of sin eternal life relationship with the living god if so please pray after me dear jesus i am a sinner i need a savior i believe you are god i believe you died for me i believe you rose for me i believe that you can hear this prayer i'm asking you to be my savior i want to begin this relationship and i invite you to be lord over my life thank you for hearing and answering in jesus name amen amen welcome to the family of god welcome to forgiveness of sin welcome to burdens lifted welcome to blessings given welcome to hope saint welcome to the family saint for those of you who have now received jesus christ we're going to throw a party to honor jesus we call it worship and we're going to baptize the new christians everybody okay with that if you are a christian who's never been baptized or you just prayed that prayer with me go to the back or if you have questions about jesus go to the back we'd love to talk to you pray with you some of you are like i don't i didn't know i was gonna get baptized god didn't tell you because he knew you wouldn't show up he told us he was going to save you so he told us to have towels shorts and t-shirts and he just told you so now we're all on the same page ready to go we are ready to baptize you and this shows the death burial resurrection of jesus christ our savior our god our friend our lord we would love to baptize you showing what jesus did for you and the future that he has for you amen all right if this doesn't fire you up your wood's wet it's a good day here's what we're going to do i'm going to share a little testimony video as we prepare to baptize the new christian sticker out every time somebody gets baptized i want you to make more noise than a cardinals fan watch the video i'm getting baptized because jesus christ died on the cross for me and shared his blood for my life so i want to be baptized because i love jesus and i want to pursue him for the rest of my life i love jesus and it's time for me to take the next step i want to get baptized because i love jesus and i want to proclaim that in a public way what jesus has done for me is he saved my life jesus has pulled me from the disparaging depths of my own addiction and my life my flesh

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 27,164

Rating: 4.871212 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse

Id: Rh-2QRcN9uc

Length: 63min 15sec (3795 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2020