Beyond Escape: Living as Resurrected Envoys

• The Meaning of 'Doulos' (Slave) 00:43:56 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor corrects the translation of 'bondservant' to 'slave' (doulos), explaining that Paul is a slave to Jesus Christ, not in the sense of American slavery, but as a servant to one master, contrasting this with being a slave to the world's destructiveness.
• The Role of the Envoy 00:45:45 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that Paul is called as an 'envoy' (apostle) whose job is to proclaim good news from his master, Jesus Christ, rather than just being a messenger of abstract ideas.
• Critique of American Christianity 00:47:27 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor critiques the common cultural view that the gospel is simply about dying and going to heaven (escapism), arguing instead that the good news is Jesus' victory over death and our adoption into sonship, calling believers to live in the resurrection now.
• Obedience and Mission 00:52:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor discusses Paul's obedience to Christ's call to collect money for Jerusalem rather than going directly to Rome, illustrating that believers are 'sent' by Christ to where He directs, even if it differs from their personal desires.
• Cultural Relevance and Debt 00:53:55 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses his own experience in sales to illustrate Paul's statement of being a 'debtor' to both Greeks and barbarians, emphasizing the need to communicate the gospel effectively across cultural divides without intimidation.
• Cultural Adaptation and Evangelism 00:54:24 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor discusses how Paul related to different cultures (Greeks and barbarians) and applies this to modern contexts, including his own experience as a 'Yankee' in the South and interacting with bikers.
• Universal Scope of the Gospel 00:56:26 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor asserts that Christ's victory is available to both the 'civilized' and 'uncivilized,' emphasizing that the gospel is for all and Christians must proclaim it to all, not just select groups.
• Divine Providence and Purpose 01:00:15 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that God places believers in specific situations ('right place at the right time') for a purpose, citing Paul's imprisonment as an example of God using difficult circumstances for His design.
• Personal Conversion and Assurance 01:01:03 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares John Wesley's diary entry to illustrate the transition from legalism to faith, emphasizing the assurance of salvation and the 'strangely warmed' heart as evidence of trusting in Christ.
• Call to Discipleship and Perseverance 01:04:33 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor urges the congregation to surrender to Christ, read Scripture, and live lives of grace and mercy, preparing for future persecution by raising faithful generations.

• Sermon Illustration 00:54:07 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his time in sales, describing how he was initially intimidated by wealthy clients but learned to treat them like family ('talk to me like you would your cousin'), which helped him relate to Paul's mission to be a debtor to both the educated Greeks and the 'barbarians'.
• Sermon Illustration 00:48:18 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses a Star Trek analogy, comparing the idea of escaping to heaven in a 'little escape pod' after the ship burns up to the modern Christian view of salvation as mere escapism, contrasting it with the biblical call to live as resurrected beings.
• Sermon Illustration 00:51:15 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a McDonald's hamburger that leaves a greasy taste in your mouth to describe days when he failed to be 'salt' (preservative/flavorful) for Christ, instead leaving a negative impression.
• Sermon Illustration 00:54:24 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts a story about a multi-millionaire who asked him to speak casually, illustrating the need to relate to people across different social statuses.
• Sermon Illustration 00:55:50 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares his personal experience of moving from the North to the South, having to slow down his speech and adapt his communication style to connect with locals who prefer a slower pace.
• Sermon Illustration 00:57:21 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor tells a story about meeting Hells Angels bikers in a bar, overcoming initial intimidation to have a conversation and 'plant a seed' with them, demonstrating the power of personal interaction.
• Sermon Illustration 01:01:03 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references John Wesley's diary entry from Aldergate Street, where Wesley felt his heart 'strangely warmed' while hearing Luther's preface to Romans, marking his conversion and assurance of salvation.

• Pastoral Charge 00:53:06 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to actively share the gospel with people in their immediate vicinity.
• Pastoral Charge 01:00:43 ▶️ 📄
  > Read ahead in the Book of Romans.
• Pastoral Charge 01:04:43 ▶️ 📄
  > Take the message of the Gospel and the sacrifices of martyrs seriously.

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:01] All right, welcome to church. Good morning. That's awesome. For all of you at Dahlia, I can't talk today. Welcome to Broad Street. Some of you that I was meeting for the first time. I'm Benny Gando. I'm Pastor Jeremy. I'm excited to see you here and excited for you to come worship with us today. I'm very thankful for everybody that got everything down here, got this all put together. Thank you for bearing with us. We're going to meet upstairs.
[00:00:34] we're going to turn you over in 10 minutes so what a what a beautiful day that's good to see so many folks here and I kind of like this this is kind of neat isn't it it's cozy a little bit more communal it's kind of like a house
[00:00:54] church in a way so very cool all right let's start with some announcements here Ms. Susan, do you want to?

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:01:03] Yes, I know y'all missed my announcements last week.
[00:01:07] We sure did.
[00:01:10] No, I wanted to remind everybody about BBS, Bay Kitchen Bible School.
[00:01:14] It's starting up July 19th, and we're excited to have a lot of volunteers, but we can always accept more volunteers.
[00:01:21] We'd love to have you.
[00:01:22] Also, we have our police and fire appreciation next Monday, the 29th.
[00:01:29] So if you would be able to help out on that, it's a Monday from 11 to 2.
[00:01:33] We're going to serve our Mooresville Police and Fire, and we would love to have some help and love on those guys and ladies and let them know how much we appreciate all they do for our community.
[00:01:44] So if you would like to help in any way, we would love to have you.
[00:01:48] And then you see our list of Bible school things we need?
[00:01:51] Add two-liter bottles to that.
[00:01:54] There's a list of things, and we'll be adding more to that list and Amazon list as well.
[00:01:59] So just keep Bible School in your prayers and your forefront of your brain.
[00:02:07] So thank you.
[00:02:08] It's a drop-in.
[00:02:11] They're going to be coming in throughout from 11 to 2.
[00:02:17] Thank you.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:02:18] Very cool.
[00:02:20] We missed you, Susie.
[00:02:21] We're glad you're back.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:02:22] Thank you.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:02:23] Ladies, you want to come up and do your report?
[00:02:27] Yeah, I'd like to talk a little about the conference a little bit And what we experienced there is what we're relating here.
[00:02:35] Good morning.

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:02:38] We'll talk about the annual conference that was passed Thursday and Friday.
[00:02:41] Jeremy and I were there.
[00:02:42] First, I want to say thank you for sending me and attending us.
[00:02:46] That was a blessing.
[00:02:49] As Jane and Gary said last year, it's a very worshipful experience.
[00:02:55] It's not a cold, boring, dull business meeting.
[00:02:59] is for worship service and they approach the business of the church as a matter of worship.
[00:03:08] Somehow or another, they make that work.
[00:03:11] It was a blessing.
[00:03:14] This year's theme was sin, as in the Great Commission's sin.
[00:03:20] Jesus gave His commission to go and make disciples of all nations and teach them everything that He had taught us through Scripture and to make disciples of all nations, and they were sent.
[00:03:32] So they focused on that idea a lot.
[00:03:39] This particular conference was a time of transition, leadership transition.
[00:03:47] The bishop is not standing for re-election this year, so we're going to be getting a new bishop in the fall.
[00:03:54] And the conference chairperson is stepping down and the co-chair is stepping into the chairman's position.
[00:04:03] So we're going to have some new leadership.
[00:04:06] So there was a lot of talk about transition and the people who were, the gentlemen who were stepping out were giving their, sharing their wisdom and their thoughts about where we're going.
[00:04:19] that leads into the last point I think we have they have laid a good foundation for our conference and our denomination what I told when I got home Thursday was the bishops spoke with boldness
[00:04:41] and authority of the scripture of God there was no weaseling out of it trying to dodge it, trying to redefine things to the very traditional, orthodox, Christian interpretation of Scripture.
[00:04:59] And they have laid a very good foundation for our denomination.
[00:05:04] So I felt reassured personally.
[00:05:07] And I feel reassured by the leadership that will be stepping in to fill up those positions.
[00:05:15] So once again, I just want to say thank you.
[00:05:17] I'll be sharing the other things that we learned and experienced ideas that they tried to share with us with the administrative council and other leadership in the church as the months go by. Thank you.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:05:36] We had a great time at conference and Lee I just want to say how much I appreciate you for me being bouncy the whole time.
[00:05:47] I got bad static and those chairs were not comfortable. So I would bounce from one to the next, backwards, forwards, and standing up, and I looked like a Pentecostal there jumping up and down the whole time
[00:05:56] trying to get comfortable.
[00:05:59] But Lee, I appreciate you. Get bigger with me the whole time.
[00:06:03] It was a really good time.
[00:06:04] A great time of worship and prayer.
[00:06:07] The tribe I came from wasn't like that. They were so busy fighting the bigger of things and personalities.
[00:06:14] It just flowed so perfectly there.
[00:06:18] For folks that are just so interested in what the gospel has for this world and Christ sending us.
[00:06:24] And I'll talk a little bit more about that later as we get to the sermon, but any other announcements we need to add today?
[00:06:35] A couple other things coming up.
[00:06:36] A couple groups here, probably not as long as August, I'm going to start.
[00:06:40] Men, I'm going to start a men's group.
[00:06:44] And I'd like to invite you to come and invite guys from the community.
[00:06:48] I guess I'm going to do my spiel right now.
[00:06:50] Men and fathers, thank you for being fathers the fathers you are, and we'll talk about that with Steve, but man, I'm going to be honest. This world needs your investment. I'm going to go over the soapbox, but man,
[00:07:07] we need you. This world is falling apart because of you. And I'm amazed here at the love story that I've seen in your marriages. Folks, men, other men need to see that. Ladies, I'm going
[00:07:21] to call you too. You need to invest in the ladies. It's a rough world out there. The Birth rates on the decline.
[00:07:28] Days on the decline.
[00:07:29] Men and women don't want to talk to each other.
[00:07:33] Just relationships, relationally.
[00:07:36] Things are going south.
[00:07:37] I forget the statistic.
[00:07:39] I heard about Mooresville here.
[00:07:40] This is not an indictment or judgment.
[00:07:43] There's so many single moms.
[00:07:45] They don't know how to be dads.
[00:07:47] So guys, I want to encourage you.
[00:07:49] If you've got that young guy next door, or the young guy you see down at the basketball court, put your arm around him.
[00:07:55] Invite him into your life.
[00:07:57] Invite him.
[00:07:59] You've got to really go through and share the gospel with them because the gospel needs to be proclaimed.
[00:08:05] And a statistic I'm excited about, young men are coming back to church.
[00:08:08] The ladies aren't.
[00:08:10] But the young men, I'm excited about men that can lead their families back to Christ.
[00:08:14] Men that go through the tough times don't run when it's hard.
[00:08:17] And, man, this world just really needs your investment.
[00:08:21] And that's one thing I'm excited about Broad Street.
[00:08:23] People ask me about Broad Street Church.
[00:08:25] I said, we have some manly men that love their wives, they love their families, they serve in the church, they are men that are afraid to be, well, you know, toxic masculinity, I hear that all the time anymore.
[00:08:39] Well, men, you need to teach men how to be men, because when I was at the gate, we're going to run for the toxic masculinity of men.
[00:08:46] We're not going to be looking for the weak men that cower in court.
[00:08:49] It's sad.
[00:08:50] Guys, we need your investment.
[00:08:52] So we're going to start a brotherhood, a men's group.
[00:08:54] Love for you to come.
[00:08:56] It's going to be a little bit of devotion time.
[00:08:59] We're going to roast some meat.
[00:09:00] Men love meat.
[00:09:01] I know I do.
[00:09:02] And be a place for men to be able to speak to each other.
[00:09:07] And iron sharpens iron.
[00:09:09] Do you agree?
[00:09:10] That's what the scriptures say.
[00:09:13] Look at Jesus pouring into those 12 men.
[00:09:16] Look what those 12 men did to the world.
[00:09:18] Well, I don't know the truth of this stuff.
[00:09:19] But I mean, oh, look what happened.
[00:09:24] Look what happened.
[00:09:25] Ladies, I'm excited about junior too.
[00:09:27] I see godly women.
[00:09:30] You know, I love for you ladies.
[00:09:31] I know you ladies already have a group.
[00:09:33] But I mean, really, invite some young ladies to your, I mean, middle age, older ladies, whatever ladies to your group.
[00:09:37] Men the same way.
[00:09:38] Invite them to be a part of something bigger.
[00:09:43] This church has so much to offer.
[00:09:45] That's why I came here.
[00:09:46] Because I love you folks.
[00:09:48] And you loved on me when I came.
[00:09:50] And I'd love to see what you would do with the world.
[00:09:51] But like I said, man, really, it would be a father's day.
[00:09:54] even if you're not a father, invite men into your life.
[00:09:58] They need a place.
[00:10:02] And what would a generation of godly men say no to this world look like?
[00:10:05] No, I serve Christ. My family serves that.
[00:10:08] We're not going to become part of the sickness of this world. You're okay.
[00:10:12] We love you, but we love Christ more.
[00:10:15] Alright, so that's my soapbox today.
[00:10:17] But man, I'm excited.
[00:10:18] So like August looked at that, we're going to go through and I like to have a time when we get together.
[00:10:22] You're all invited. Invite some younger guys.
[00:10:24] Lower guys, middle-aged guys. We've got this guy.
[00:10:26] So we invite, I just want guys to come together.
[00:10:29] We need a place.
[00:10:33] All right.
[00:10:34] Let's go ahead and if you, let's go ahead and give our call to worship him.
[00:10:39] Is it page 600?
[00:10:41] It was.
[00:10:42] Okay, before I can say on page 600, I want to say thank you.

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:10:56] What we do is with our world.
[00:12:08] The Apostles Creed, and it's on page 881.
[00:12:26] Yeah, we're standing in front of you.

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:12:27] Thank you for coming.
[00:13:28] Broad Street Church, the friendliest church in town.
[00:13:36] We may not be the biggest church in town.
[00:13:38] We may not be the richest church in town.
[00:13:41] We may be the friendliest church in town.
[00:13:43] Amen?
[00:13:44] And that's what we strive to be here.
[00:13:46] And thank you, those guests that are worshiping with us this morning.
[00:13:50] We certainly appreciate you coming.
[00:13:52] And today is a special day.
[00:13:54] It's Father's Day.
[00:13:55] there are so many guys out there that have raised children and raised neighbors kids and just raised relatives even if you are not a biological father you have been a father figure and we thank you
[00:14:11] for that and we want to thank each and every one of you so if you have not received a little thing here as a father we have a little gift for you It's an air freshener.
[00:14:25] Not that we stink or anything, but we do have an air freshener.
[00:14:30] And then, yeah, she said we're men.
[00:14:32] Of course we're men.
[00:14:33] And then a little card from Abby.
[00:14:35] So if you haven't gotten one of those, make sure you see Abby.
[00:14:38] She's giving those out this morning.
[00:14:40] We also, Abby, if you want to come over here, we also have a gift for a man.
[00:14:46] Now, what kind of gift do you get a man?
[00:14:49] Well, you can get him tools.
[00:14:51] You can get him, you know, you can get him clothes and you can get him ties and things like that.
[00:14:56] But most men like to eat, right?
[00:15:00] We have a homemade pound cake.
[00:15:02] Now, ladies, don't get mad because you didn't get one.
[00:15:05] That's the most I can say.
[00:15:06] We have a homemade pound cake for our, let's say, our most senior man here.
[00:15:13] Our most senior man here.
[00:15:14] We're not going to say oldest.
[00:15:16] Our most senior man here.
[00:15:17] So do we have any men here that are 80 years old or older?
[00:15:22] If you would raise your hand.
[00:15:25] No, TJ, you're not 80.
[00:15:26] I know you won't.
[00:15:27] 80.
[00:15:28] All right.
[00:15:29] Do we have any that...
[00:15:31] I'm not asking everybody to stand.
[00:15:33] As we get up into age, we won't do that.
[00:15:36] Do we have anyone that is 85 or older?
[00:15:40] 85.
[00:15:41] Okay.
[00:15:42] We're going to select an option.
[00:15:44] Backwards option.
[00:15:45] How about 84 years old?
[00:15:48] Jerry, 84.
[00:15:50] Do we have anyone else?
[00:15:51] 84.
[00:15:51] We'll have to split this cake in two.
[00:15:54] Do we have anyone else?
[00:15:55] 84.
[00:15:56] Jerry.
[00:15:58] Congratulations.
[00:15:59] That's a lot of cake.
[00:16:05] Thank you so much.
[00:16:07] See, once you've been here, you've got many cakes.
[00:16:09] I know.
[00:16:10] See?
[00:16:10] You've got to tell him.
[00:16:11] You've been here.
[00:16:14] Well, once again, we thank each and every one of you as fathers and as father figures and just men of this church.
[00:16:22] And as Jeremy was saying, we just need a few good men.
[00:16:27] Amen.
[00:16:29] Let's sing this morning.
[00:16:30] We're not doing praise songs because we don't have those projected or anything.
[00:16:34] Last week we chose my favorite hymn.
[00:16:37] This week we chose one of Marla's favorite hymns.
[00:16:40] So hopefully we'll get back up there next week and we'll be out of hymns.
[00:16:44] So it's hymn number 140.
[00:16:46] Hymn number 140.
[00:16:48] It's in your handbook, and I believe everybody has a handbook this time.
[00:16:52] Great is thy faithfulness. Let's stand as we sing all three stanzas. Great is thy faithfulness.

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:22:01] Continue to pray for Diane. She's in all of her care and her needs.

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:22:06] I got to see Diane yesterday. She misses you all.
[00:22:12] She talked extensively about you all, so it was, I got to hang out with her and David yesterday, and David, thanks for having me yesterday.
[00:22:21] It was a blessing to be there.
[00:22:24] Just to hear a deep story, just sort of reminiscing through things.
[00:22:27] I got to ask her, I said, how did you meet David?
[00:22:29] She told me she was excited to tell me that story.
[00:22:32] So, doing good stuff.
[00:22:34] I praise God for that.
[00:22:36] Well, who else are we praying for?

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:22:40] My doggy, David Grass, when he's raining.
[00:22:43] My doggy, we need grass. We need some rain.
[00:22:50] What's your doggy's name?
[00:22:53] Oh, I ain't got time to name all of them.

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:22:56] Pray for some rain, my goodness gracious, it's looking dry out there.
[00:23:02] North Carolina daisy, where I come from, I'm from Pennsylvania, so when it rains, it's damp forever.
[00:23:09] Like here, you can have a downpour, it's dry like five minutes later. It's amazing.
[00:23:13] and even breakfast rain anybody else we can pray for oh sorry

[00:23:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:23:22] uh W server is coming up in the next few weeks so just that we get everything together did you say

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:23:30] Jody yeah oh Jody okay I didn't make sure yeah the echo here is kind of weird up here so I'd like to offer a praise at our annual conference they were talking about folks feeling
[00:23:43] called to ministry a seven year old kid raised in South Dakota I'm excited about that. I'm excited. I know right where he's at. About the age where I was at, I'm like, yes.
[00:23:54] So I'm excited about a family that will be there to nurture him. That's the base of our tribe. What we're going to do.
[00:24:00] Christ does for us. Amen.
[00:24:02] Any other prayers or prayer?

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:24:06] We have Noah with us today. He's not been with us in a little while.

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:24:11] Okay. Very cool.
[00:24:20] I have a new great great

[00:24:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:24:23] one in 10,000, you get a great boy.

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:24:28] That's awesome.
[00:24:30] Little boy or little girl?
[00:24:32] Little boy. Okay, very cool.
[00:24:34] Very cool. That's awesome.
[00:24:39] Anything else we can pray for?
[00:24:42] Traveling mercies

[00:24:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:24:43] for the Reynolds and Hatt family tomorrow.
[00:24:49] Well, and while Jessica gave me her brother's name, Jeremy Hengrin.
[00:24:58] He's with the Peace Corps in S1?

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:25:01] Continue to pray for our conference Our tribe is going to be in North Carolina I'm excited about new church plans I've talked about before I hear the guy speak from there I pray for the church plan
[00:25:31] and I've prayed for so long for that area.
[00:25:33] It's full of witches and warlocks and just all kinds of devil worshippers and all kinds of weird things and I'm excited for the light to go in there and start to shine.
[00:25:43] I praise God for that.
[00:25:44] I pray for them also.
[00:25:46] That's an undertaking. If you ever plan a church, it's tough.
[00:25:50] It's hard. It's hard work.
[00:25:52] But it's rewarding at the same time because you're doing Christ's work.
[00:25:55] So, amazing stuff.
[00:25:59] Anybody else?
[00:26:01] I have praise.
[00:26:02] My grandson, Michael, finally got out of the Marines this week.

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:26:07] So they can't call him back.
[00:26:10] But he is officially out and home.
[00:26:15] So that's a praise.

[00:26:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:26:17] Praise God for that.
[00:26:18] We appreciate his service.
[00:26:24] Let's take these things to the Lord in prayer.
[00:26:26] Join me.
[00:26:27] Lord Jesus, we come into your court today with great thanksgiving.
[00:26:31] We are thankful to be your people.
[00:26:33] And we are so thankful that you are in us.
[00:26:36] and we in you that Lord we know that we can lay these things at the foot of the throne and you hear our praises and our prayers and you intercede on our behalf Lord I just ask for healing
[00:26:49] the need of Lord I just ask you to touch those traveling for those in far away lands Lord I just ask you to protect them help them to share the gospel and be safe from disease and sickness
[00:27:02] Lord I just ask just your blessing upon the Global Methodist Church is they seek your direction, Lord.
[00:27:11] And as we as a church, we seek your direction, Lord.
[00:27:14] I ask you just to guide us, shape us, grow us all in your image.
[00:27:18] Help us to bring a gospel to a dead, dying world that needs to hear it so badly. And Lord, we're full of praise today. We're thankful for all those that we have seen, Lord. We're
[00:27:29] thankful for the things that we've missed, all the blessings you've poured out upon us. Lord, we're thankful. We love you in your great, mighty name.
[00:27:35] Amen.

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:27:36] I chose I love to tell the story

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:30:18] because that's what we're doing when we're doing what Jesus wants us to do.
[00:30:22] We're telling His story.
[00:30:24] So I love to tell the story.
[00:30:26] So if you want to sing with me, feel free.
[00:30:32] Especially if the chorus, you know, that's usually the easiest to remember.

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:30:38] Challenge that.
[00:38:41] I'm going to water Christianity down to I say a little prayer, I do a backflip, hallelujah, there's more to it than that.
[00:39:09] We said we'd look for failure when we presented it that way. Paul's writing this letter to the Romans to encourage.
[00:39:20] A little unusual letter.
[00:39:23] He's not correcting anything.
[00:39:24] but giving what we call a form of what we've been reading on our Wednesday night systematic theology has come from this what does it look like to understand that Christ loves us what does it look like to be
[00:39:36] in Christ Jesus there's responsibility in our faith it's not Homer Simpson theology, you ever watch the Simpsons Homer Simpson said you know I can go through, I don't have to go to church I can sit all my life, get on my deathbed
[00:39:52] I can look at the Bible and say Jesus, Jesus saved me Does it work that way?
[00:39:58] And John Wesley's heart was born by Romans.
[00:40:08] He went to a reading that he didn't really want to go to, like a Bible study.
[00:40:13] He was there, and they read the introduction to Romans, written by Mark Luther.
[00:40:18] He said that his heart was strangely warmed.
[00:40:22] Folks, I had that experience myself.
[00:40:24] I didn't really minister.
[00:40:25] I was a rule keeper.
[00:40:25] If you want God's favor, you can do this.
[00:40:27] You don't do that.
[00:40:29] You live this way.
[00:40:29] You don't live that way.
[00:40:30] It was all rules.
[00:40:32] I was a Pharisee.
[00:40:35] One day I got knocked on my horse.
[00:40:38] And then I came to my senses.
[00:40:40] And I said, you know, it's all about grace, love, and mercy.
[00:40:45] And proclaiming the good news.
[00:40:47] And what is the good news?
[00:40:47] We're going to talk about that today.
[00:40:50] I'm going to run over your cages through Romans a little bit.
[00:40:53] I'm going to have some ruffled feathers.
[00:40:55] That's good.
[00:40:58] But I want you to see what Christ has in Romans for us.
[00:41:02] What is Paul saying?
[00:41:04] You're going to the optometrist and they switch up a lens.
[00:41:06] Isn't that cool?
[00:41:08] Can you see a little better with this or this lens?
[00:41:10] So I'm going to ask you to switch your lens today to a Christ-centered lens.
[00:41:15] To look through the way Christ does, not the way the world looks at things, but how does Christ look at us?
[00:41:22] What is his good news?
[00:41:25] And what is Paul proclaiming here?
[00:41:27] We're going to jump right in here.
[00:41:28] Paul says, Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be apostles separated to the gospel of God which he promised before through his prophets and his holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord
[00:41:43] who was born in the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with a power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead through him
[00:41:56] we have received grace and apostleship through obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ.
[00:42:07] To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, call to be saints.
[00:42:13] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:42:18] First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the world.
[00:42:24] For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing, I may mention of you always in my prayers. May you request by some means, now at last I may find a way
[00:42:37] in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gifts, so you may be established. That is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith of
[00:42:53] you and me. Now I do not want to be unaware brother, that I often planned to come to you, but was hindered until now, that I might have some fruits amongst you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to
[00:43:11] great and to barbarian, both to wise and to unwise, so as much in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you, who are in Rome also. The word of God for the people of God. Thanks
[00:43:24] be to God. Pastor, what do we get out of this introduction? It's an introduction. Let's move to the meat. This is the glue that binds Romans together and creates the argument.
[00:43:39] The argument that Christ's gospel is superior to all other religions, it's superior to other thoughts, and how we are to grow in Christ. Paul begins with a word here that kind of is translated.
[00:43:52] They say bondservant.
[00:43:54] That word is actually incorrect.
[00:43:56] The word is actually doulos. I'm not going to give you a brief lesson today, but the word means slave.
[00:44:05] Paul is a slave to Jesus Christ.
[00:44:08] And it's not only to me, but when I even had that tattooed on me, that's when I get goofy in my ways.
[00:44:13] I look down and I'm reminded I am a slave to my master.
[00:44:17] Now, I'm getting some confused looks out there.
[00:44:19] It's not like American slavery, what it was.
[00:44:21] Not anything like that.
[00:44:23] But Paul calls himself a slave because he serves one master.
[00:44:28] You can't serve two masters.
[00:44:32] Oh, Pastor, I'm not a slave.
[00:44:34] Oh, absolutely you are.
[00:44:36] We're all slaves to something.
[00:44:38] Jesus said that.
[00:44:39] What are we slaves to?
[00:44:41] Are we slaves to the passion of this world, the destructiveness of it, to the things that drag us down, destroy us to the darkness?
[00:44:49] Or are we drawn to the light?
[00:44:51] Do we go through and follow the one true master that loves us and he owns us?
[00:45:00] That sounds so weird, doesn't it?
[00:45:02] But that's a relationship we have with Christ, that we serve him and him only.
[00:45:07] We follow him and him only.
[00:45:09] He has bought us.
[00:45:12] He has redeemed us.
[00:45:14] Therefore, we belong to him.
[00:45:17] So right off the gate, Paul goes through and says, I am Christ's slave.
[00:45:22] I belong to him only.
[00:45:25] And we kind of have trouble translating from Greek to English.
[00:45:28] It's tough to do that.
[00:45:30] It's kind of like a translator trying to translate another language to somebody, trying to make their things sound like our things, so we understand how to communicate with each other.
[00:45:39] Paul goes through and says here that, you know, He is the apostle separated.
[00:45:43] He is called.
[00:45:45] And it actually has a Greek word called envoy.
[00:45:47] He's called to be an envoy to this world.
[00:45:51] What does an envoy do?
[00:45:55] An envoy comes and he proclaims good news.
[00:45:58] He brings from his master a message.
[00:46:03] And Paul is proclaiming the message here of Jesus Christ.
[00:46:07] That he's separated from the gospel.
[00:46:11] that God has called him to proclaim this gospel.
[00:46:16] And this has been promised through the prophets and has been promised throughout the Holy Scriptures of what God would do and He continues to do.
[00:46:24] I'm here to proclaim that.
[00:46:27] As an end point, I bring good tidings and good news.
[00:46:33] And He talks about this Jesus that came.
[00:46:35] He was born of the seed of David.
[00:46:38] He was man.
[00:46:39] But also, He was divine by the Holy Spirit.
[00:46:43] He's making that declaration.
[00:46:46] And in that declaration, he's talking about the resurrection.
[00:46:49] Folks, what is he saying here?
[00:46:51] I come to proclaim Jesus Christ's victory over death and over evil, and the chains are broken.
[00:46:59] We now are adopted to sonship to God.
[00:47:02] We are no longer slaves to the wrong things.
[00:47:05] Christ has called us to something bigger.
[00:47:08] He has called us to himself.
[00:47:10] a servant, a slave, that goes and proclaims to the world freely.
[00:47:23] And he talks about the resurrection from the dead.
[00:47:27] Folks, here's what American Christianity claims is the good news.
[00:47:30] Hey, you get to die and go to heaven someday.
[00:47:36] Okay?
[00:47:38] So I get to escape someday.
[00:47:41] Yes, you go to heaven. No, you're not saying that. Bear with me.
[00:47:44] But what is the good news?
[00:47:49] Yes.
[00:47:51] Jesus Christ died.
[00:47:52] he lived a perfect life in the flesh that I can't live.
[00:47:57] He went to the cross and he died for a brutal death that I deserved.
[00:48:02] And he was resurrected three days later.
[00:48:04] He came out of the grave to make human to a new creation.
[00:48:10] So he watered down just to get to heaven.
[00:48:11] That's what it's all about.
[00:48:12] I just got to get to heaven.
[00:48:13] I got to get to heaven.
[00:48:13] Yes.
[00:48:15] Heaven's for real.
[00:48:16] Heaven's a place.
[00:48:16] But we don't escape to get there.
[00:48:18] Do you realize it's escapism?
[00:48:20] Here's a Star Trek fan in here.
[00:48:22] You know, the ship's burned up.
[00:48:23] Oh, no.
[00:48:24] You run into a little escape pod that you can jump in and hit the button.
[00:48:26] Like, oh, hi everybody. I'm saved.
[00:48:29] That's what we've brought our Christianity down to.
[00:48:32] Is that what it's about?
[00:48:34] No.
[00:48:35] Paul is saying it's something bigger.
[00:48:38] We live in the resurrection, folks.
[00:48:40] We are resurrected people.
[00:48:42] We are resurrected beings.
[00:48:43] We are called to live that way.
[00:48:45] To proclaim the great news.
[00:48:47] Hey, do you know what my Jesus has done?
[00:48:50] And he continues to do.
[00:48:52] He frees us.
[00:48:58] Romans is about that.
[00:49:03] What does it look like to die to self?
[00:49:05] What does it look like to live for our neighbors?
[00:49:07] What does it look like to take all that stuff Jesus talked about and to live?
[00:49:13] Not to talk about.
[00:49:14] We talk a big talk.
[00:49:16] But do we live?
[00:49:18] And as brothers and sisters, I'll raise my hands.
[00:49:20] I scroll.
[00:49:20] There's times I do really well, and there's times I've lost.
[00:49:23] I'm pretty bad.
[00:49:26] But I know I can come back to my king.
[00:49:31] He sent me back.
[00:49:32] He continues.
[00:49:38] Obedience and faith amongst all nations for his name.
[00:49:41] among who you are also called in Jesus Christ.
[00:49:48] People are being called.
[00:49:54] They don't know what it is a lot of times.
[00:49:58] This world feeds on people a lot of goodly good.
[00:50:00] I mean, there's a lot of junk.
[00:50:03] I mean, look what we've tried.
[00:50:05] Folks, the sexual revolution is going to free us.
[00:50:08] We're going to be so free.
[00:50:09] We're going to be so happy.
[00:50:10] It's going to be good.
[00:50:12] What happened?
[00:50:13] We have the most depressed world of people today.
[00:50:15] Our relationships are in trouble, and the world's falling apart.
[00:50:18] We use all the isms.
[00:50:19] You can put whatever ism you want into it.
[00:50:21] They're all garbage.
[00:50:22] Well, if I live by this ism, my life's going to get better.
[00:50:26] All I see is on Facebook, look at the battles going back and forth.
[00:50:31] Where's the love of mercy in that?
[00:50:33] Where's the envoy in that?
[00:50:35] What are you proclaiming?
[00:50:36] What am I proclaiming?
[00:50:42] So Romans is a call.
[00:50:46] What do you proclaim out of your mouth?
[00:50:48] Are you an envoy for Christ or are you an envoy for the enemy?
[00:50:50] What do you bring?
[00:50:52] What do people take to experience with us?
[00:50:56] And I can raise my hand on that.
[00:50:57] I have engaged my day at the end of the day.
[00:50:59] Was I salt white?
[00:51:01] Was I so salty that I made, well, not salty bad, but salty the way where people thirst for Christ?
[00:51:06] Or do you remember that McDonald's hamburger that you need to chew and it slides down your throat and leaves that greasy taste in your mouth?
[00:51:15] Was I that?
[00:51:16] There's days I'm that.
[00:51:18] It's engaged.
[00:51:21] So Paul is saying, you know, the Romans, you know, you've been called.
[00:51:26] People are called.
[00:51:27] You're being sent.
[00:51:28] I'm being sent.
[00:51:31] What do we live into?
[00:51:34] And he talks about his desire to visit people in Rome.
[00:51:36] What's that got to do with anything?
[00:51:38] Paul couldn't get to Rome.
[00:51:39] He wanted to go to Rome, but he couldn't get there.
[00:51:42] He was actually in different parts of his third missionary journey collecting money for poor Jews that lived in Jerusalem that were being persecuted for their faith.
[00:51:56] Christianity is tough, folks.
[00:51:58] It's not easy.
[00:52:00] And Paul was understanding something, and I want you to see it.
[00:52:05] We may desire to do things.
[00:52:06] Because we may want to go right, but Christ sends us left.
[00:52:09] Or we may want to go left, but Christ sends us right.
[00:52:11] He's in control of where he sends us.
[00:52:14] Because we're being sent.
[00:52:18] That part of his missionary journey was important, that he helped those folks.
[00:52:26] And Paul was obedient to that.
[00:52:27] I want you to see the obedience.
[00:52:28] Because he could have said, hey, now somebody else, hey, here's the bag.
[00:52:32] I'm going to go to Rome, and you go finish this.
[00:52:36] But Christ called him to that.
[00:52:37] He was obedient.
[00:52:38] So we kind of talked about that last bit of obedience.
[00:52:45] are we being obedient to what Christ calls us to?
[00:52:50] What gospel are we proclaiming?
[00:52:54] I'm going to speak for myself.
[00:52:56] My gospel stinks.
[00:52:58] You don't want mine.
[00:53:01] But the one of Jesus is the gospel we need to proclaim.
[00:53:06] Folks, I challenge you.
[00:53:07] There's a world out there right outside these doors that needs to hear it.
[00:53:11] The failures of what the world has given.
[00:53:13] We've seen that as minions have passed up the poison.
[00:53:16] Here's the Kool-Aid everybody can drink.
[00:53:17] Oh, how better are you?
[00:53:18] Let me give you more Kool-Aid.
[00:53:20] Let me give you more poison.
[00:53:21] You can't drink poison with poison.
[00:53:24] And at the end of Romans here, Paul, well not at the end of Romans, but in the second part of verse 1 here that we talked about, he talks about, as he planned to come to them, that he's a debtor. Paul says, I'm a debtor both to Greek and to barbarians, both to wise and unwise, so as much as in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you, who are in Rome also.
[00:53:55] So, kind of a preface, I was in the sales world of my life, and when I got into different types of sales, I usually just dealt with everyday workers, everyday people.
[00:54:07] And then I started dealing with the wealthy 1%. I was intimidated. I thought to myself, I don't want to deal with those folks. I don't speak their language. I don't know who they are. I don't resonate.
[00:54:18] I'm going to broke down Haunted. He's going to boss Roddy.
[00:54:22] How am I going to relate to that guy?
[00:54:24] And I'll never forget that guy.
[00:54:25] He was a multi, multi, multi-millionaire.
[00:54:28] He said, talk to me like you would your cousin.
[00:54:31] He said, I'm no different.
[00:54:34] I sort of just kind of used an application with people.
[00:54:37] I just kind of talked to everybody like people.
[00:54:39] And it worked out. I wasn't no longer intimidated.
[00:54:42] Paul actually went through a little bit of this. Paul was a very well educated man. I mean, he spoke He spoke several languages. He was a Roman citizen. His dad had toured the world. So he was a man of the world. He knew things that went on in different parts of the world. And Paul kind of struggled. He says he's a debtor to the Greek and the barbarian alike. What does that mean to us today?
[00:55:08] Like, okay, he talks to Greeks and barbarians.
[00:55:11] But in the Greco-Roman world, those who spoke Greek or those who spoke Latin were considered to be, you know, like, civilized people.
[00:55:22] If you spoke anything else, you were a barbarian.
[00:55:27] So Paul kind of struggled with it.
[00:55:28] How do I speak to, okay, I can understand these educated philosophers and these religious guys.
[00:55:33] I can talk to them, but how do I talk to a barbarian?
[00:55:39] How does that match?
[00:55:40] because somebody outside of maybe my idea, my culture, where I'm from, I mean, I have a little culture shock, too.
[00:55:50] I'm one of those Yankees that reinvaded the South.
[00:55:52] So it was a culture shock to come down here because I had to pace myself here because I'm going to talk fast, get through it, do my thing, and I'm not going to be talking real fast today.
[00:56:01] But I've had to slow it down because a lot of people go,

[00:56:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:56:03] huh, what did you say?

[00:56:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:56:06] And it's like, you know, I had to slow it down because I do talk fast.
[00:56:09] but then I had to learn how to rape some people because I'm a northern guy I want to move fast, get things done here we want to sit on the porch, tell me about your cousin
[00:56:17] and drink a cup of tea. It's different that's not bad, it's just different so how does Paul relate to that?
[00:56:26] So Paul goes through and he breaks it down simply for us the victory of Christ is available to all that's to the civilized guy and the uncivilized guy that's to the person inside of what we
[00:56:40] We kind of look at respectful culture, maybe outside of our culture.
[00:56:43] You know, the gospel is for all.
[00:56:46] Jesus' love is for all.
[00:56:51] And there's a responsibility to all.
[00:56:57] What does that mean for us as Christians?
[00:57:00] I mean, do we proclaim that good news to all?
[00:57:07] Or do we just go to our select groups and we think we can talk to them?
[00:57:17] We're a little short today, folks.
[00:57:18] I don't want you chewing this from being a father of David.
[00:57:19] I'll tell you a story.
[00:57:20] I'm a stories guy.
[00:57:21] So there's a bar down the street from where my brother-in-law, my ex-brother-in-law, lived at.
[00:57:29] So they'd like to be down to drink. I'm a Diet Pepsi guy and a Dirty Glass guy, you know what I mean?
[00:57:33] That's kind of my experience. They had excellent hot dogs.
[00:57:37] So I'll never forget, I was in this bar setting, I was eating my hot dogs, and these big, burly biker guys came in. I'm talking, they were big.
[00:57:46] And they weren't the nicest group. You know, people, they looked, they were Hells Angels.
[00:57:49] tells angels they didn't.
[00:57:51] They don't like to have guys you mess with.
[00:57:56] So they come in and they sat down, of course, by me. I was a little intimidated at first.
[00:57:59] Like, these guys are big. I don't want to make any plays because I think these guys are perfect.
[00:58:03] So the conversation started.
[00:58:08] The guy looked at me and big man, big beard, big mic-looking guy. And he said to me, he says, what do you do?
[00:58:17] I'm like, I'm a pastor.
[00:58:20] What's that?
[00:58:22] Like a preacher?
[00:58:22] I said, have you had bad experience?
[00:58:30] He said, you see who we are?
[00:58:36] I looked on the back of his coat and I said, yeah.
[00:58:40] He said, you're Hells Angels.
[00:58:41] Do you know what we do?
[00:58:43] Yeah, get a motorcycle club.
[00:58:45] He said, you're going to put up nicely.
[00:58:46] So we sat and talked, ate hot dogs together.
[00:58:54] I was kind of looking at him, I don't know anything about motorcycles.
[00:58:57] I know that they're a pretty cool one.
[00:58:59] I'd probably wreck one.
[00:59:00] But, you know, it was just neat to talk to this guy.
[00:59:03] Finally get it done on a one-on-one level.
[00:59:05] This is not a look at Jeremy moment at all.
[00:59:07] But you know what?
[00:59:08] I got a chance to plant a seed with that guy.
[00:59:12] Just by just talking to him, kind of calming down, and just being in Christ has called us to be.
[00:59:20] And as the conversation got bigger, he went from that conversation with him to his buddy.
[00:59:26] And, you know, I've never seen those guys again.
[00:59:31] I don't remember their names.
[00:59:33] But you know what?
[00:59:34] I know the power of God.
[00:59:37] what is done for me I really get that I don't know the church I don't know it's it's amazing what happened there the other night I said I was one of those people yes it's bigger than you know Jesus is bigger than me I got one time
[01:00:01] event by police officer all rest that's a great I got a new congregation something like grandma said a minute how much you stick with this and think about this. God places us at all times
[01:00:15] in the right place at the right time.
[01:00:20] If you read through Paul, the centurion said to him, we put you in prison, but God will be here.
[01:00:26] You have nothing to do with it.
[01:00:30] Imagine who Paul touched.
[01:00:33] And his life is not easy, folks.
[01:00:35] Keep this in mind. I'm going to invite you to read ahead and run this. It's going to be a little rough the next couple of chapters.
[01:00:43] Sometimes we stop at the world ghost for instance.
[01:00:44] Well, that's not the way it is. It loves love and all this garbage inside, but it's not.
[01:00:52] God has a design.
[01:00:54] He has a purpose for our lives.
[01:00:57] He has a calling.
[01:00:59] I'm encouraged to read John Wesley.
[01:01:01] I want to end with his diary entry.
[01:01:03] He had heard Merriman and Prince kind of smallness.
[01:01:09] But he went to Aldergate, this place where they were having this prayer meeting.
[01:01:14] Didn't want to go.
[01:01:16] Just got back from America.
[01:01:17] He was defeated.
[01:01:19] He was a rule keeper guy like I was.
[01:01:20] Hey, do this, don't do that.
[01:01:22] Do this, do that.
[01:01:23] I'm surprised he lasted two years in America.
[01:01:25] They kicked him out.
[01:01:27] And he went back to England and defeated a man, still faithful, still loving God.
[01:01:31] But he's like, God, why am I in this place?
[01:01:37] And this is a short little thing here, but I felt my heart strangely warm is kind of the title that he put on it.
[01:01:46] So it says, Wednesday, May 24th.
[01:01:49] I think it was about 5 in the morning that I opened my testament on those words.
[01:01:54] There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, even that you should be partaker of the divine nature, 2 Peter 1.4.
[01:02:05] Just as I went out and I opened it again, on those words, you are now far from the kingdom of God, Mark 12.34.
[01:02:15] In the afternoon I was asked to go to Paul's.
[01:02:18] The anthem was, Out of the deep have I called unto you, O Lord.
[01:02:23] Lord, hear my voice.
[01:02:25] Oh, let my ears consider well the voice of my complaints.
[01:02:30] If you, Lord, will be extreme to mark what has done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it.
[01:02:36] For there is mercy with you, therefore shall you be feared.
[01:02:40] O Israel, trust in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him plenty is redemption.
[01:02:47] And he shall redeem Israel from all sins.
[01:02:52] And that evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Hallergate Street where one of them was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans.
[01:03:03] About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through the faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.
[01:03:14] I felt I did trust in Christ.
[01:03:16] Christ looked for salvation and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins even mine and saved me from the law of sin that will resonate with you as you think about what we've talked about
[01:03:36] today, what is the gospel you can claim from us, where is your heart with Christ, I want you to do a series I want to talk to you about it that's fine, but where is your heart
[01:03:52] are you in Christ Jesus or are we just going through devotion say I'm a Christian, I attend church are we living the life that we're called to live perfect, but are we repenting? Are we living a life that
[01:04:09] others can see that's full of Christ's grace and Christ's love, grace, and mercy?
[01:04:17] Folks, I encourage you to read ahead of Romans. Read the book. Read Chants. See, what does Christ have for you in here? Read through that lens.
[01:04:27] Read through that lens.
[01:04:33] Surrender yourself to Christ.
[01:04:37] Lord, what do you have to show me in your scriptures?
[01:04:43] Folks, I'm going to ask you, take this stuff seriously.
[01:04:46] Do you realize men died for this?
[01:04:51] And people went to their deaths to proclaim Christ.
[01:04:56] Folks, and sometimes what I put as a gauge when I end with this is just that, do you realize that we are planting trees?
[01:05:00] I say this a lot.
[01:05:01] We are planting trees that will never enjoy their shade.
[01:05:04] Do you realize that someday there's awful stuff coming?
[01:05:06] I don't want to scare you.
[01:05:07] But we're going to raise faithful generations that will survive persecution, that will survive a sword and fire.
[01:05:14] Folks, they will hunt us again someday.
[01:05:16] and your contributions and contributions of those folks we've gone through to disciple again one day we'll go through and live faithfully in a time where it's an unfaithful time one little rock can change the entire
[01:05:36] trajectory of a waterfall let us pray together, let's say the Lord's prayer together, our Father

[01:05:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:05:48] who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come

[01:05:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:05:53] 393, spirit of the living God

[01:06:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:06:29] church Thank you very much.