Romans: The Ultimate Before And After Story

We trace Romans as God’s great before-and-after and share B-Rob’s hospital-to-hope turnaround, moving from brutal honesty about sin to the freedom and assurance of life in the Spirit. We end with a clear invitation, a prayer for new believers, and ways to connect, give, and share testimonies.

• winter storm banter and childhood memories in Georgia
• Romans as the ultimate before and after of grace
• personal testimony of addiction, illness and surrender
• all have sinned and the gospel levels the field
• Abraham’s faith and justification by belief
• baptism as burial and rising to new life
• the inner struggle and no condemnation in Christ
• unbreakable love, life in the Spirit, real hope
• God’s mercy across Israel and the Gentiles
• practical commands in Romans 12–15 for daily life
• invitation to confess Jesus and follow him
• closing prayer for protection and growth
• website, book, music, giving and testimonies request

Make sure you check out the website www.forChristministry.com. You can get it before it comes out right now for $6. We’d love for you to buy a t-shirt. We’d love for you to give a gift. You can text me, 706-691-1043. I would love to have someone call in and tell their testimony on the podcast.

Chapters

• 1:06 Winter Storm Banter And Backstory
• 4:44 Setting Up Romans: Before And After
• 8:08 Personal Transformation And Letting Go
• 12:37 Humanity’s Diagnosis In Romans 1–3
• 18:21 Faith Like Abraham And Justification
• 22:25 New Life, Baptism, And Freedom From Sin
• 27:47 The Struggle Within And No Condemnation
• 32:29 Unbreakable Love And Life In The Spirit

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:35

Hey guys, it's the Food for Thought Faith Cast, and I am your host, B-Rob, and I want to thank you, Faith Cast fam, for tuning in today. Today's episode, we're gonna be looking at Romans. So if you want to turn your Bibles to Romans, check it out. It's the first ever video cast, so we're gonna be on YouTube with the video. Um, I need to find my glasses. What I do with my glasses, Lord have mercy. They're in my pocket, I guess. Yeah, I can't read without them eyes anymore because I'm getting old. But anyway, guys, God bless you, and um, it's a cold winter day out here in Evans, Georgia. It's it's uh supposed to be a winter storm. We were supposed to have it three minutes ago starting, but uh once again the goal poster moved back, and um the uh the the colleagues and the uh scholars and the people on TV and the people on the radio was wrong. Once again, imagine that. Imagine getting paid to predict weather. Man, I remember the days when I was a child, grandparents, granddaddy would just walk outside, he, yep, storm coming today. We need to cover up these crops, we need to do this, this, this. And the TV was only on, and it was like one of them three-channel TVs where you had to, a lot of times I had to be the antenna. It was only turned on when the Braves, the Atlanta Braves, was playing. Because baseball's pretty old. But that's the only time my grandparents turned the TV on. The rest of the time my grandmother was either sitting in the in the chair shelling peas or she was in that Bible. And then my granddad was either working or he was working out in the garden. And I was, uh I would come and I would help them. And, you know, all the change I found in the couch, because people, you know, people back then had change in their pockets and the and they'd fall out in the couch when they visited. So I I would take all that change, pennies and all, and there was a night and day grocery store right next to my grandparents' house, right there on uh where Baston and Petersburg used to be. Now it's uh now it's uh a river watch in Baston. And there's a strawberry stand where my grandparents' house used to be. And the night and day store, that building actually still stands. The night and day was like a little grocery store, like a little convenience store, but it didn't have gas. And then right across the street was the baseball field, and that's where the gas station is now. And then um where Willie Jules is used to be the Columbia County Rec Center. Played uh many, many shows in there when I was uh young. That used to be where local bands played. That was that was kind of cool, but we're uh we're I'm just giving you a little history, and uh I hope you're enjoying that. But let's get into the book of Romans, guys. We are going to be today talking about the transformative power of the gospel and the Rome in Romans all throughout. Paul is basically Paul is um it's a good before and after story. I mean, everybody loves a good before and after story. I have a recent good before and after story. Um November 1st, I fell ill and went in the hospital. But up until that point, spiritually, I was I was sound, I was preaching, I was doing my podcast. I did not go to I visited churches to try to find a church home, and we'll talk about that in another story. But um I was still drinking because I was playing music in bars. So many nights a week I was still drinking. I smoked cigarettes every day, a pack of Marlboro Reds a day, even though I'd quit for a month back in uh March, in April. Actually, it was April, yeah. Quit for a month, got back on them. Quit drinking for a month, got back on them. Yep. But that's, you know, there's there's an old Johnny Cash song called You Can Run On If You Want. You can run on for a long time, run on for a long time. You can run on for a long time, but sooner or later gotta cut you down. God cut me down, but he didn't cut me all the way down. He put me in the hospital, couldn't work for a long time. Made me think about life, made me think about things. Um, kept seeing the verse uh be still and know that I am God. And um God is showing up in my life day after day after day. I've had three or four interviews the past week. Um He's showing up, and that's what matters. And uh that transformation from the hospital, I lost. I went from weighing 210 to 215. I couldn't get over that point, even with fasting every month. Uh went in the hospital, but I lost, I was, I was down to 170. I'm I'm 178. I'm starting to get my appetite back. But I not only lost all that weight, that poison from my body from 50 years of uh you know living in the B system. Not only did I lose that, hallelujah, praise God, I lost the cigarette addiction. I I don't I don't smoke cigarettes anymore. I got me a vape. Um I lost the drinking addiction. I lost uh the weight, and um I lost the anxiety and the wherewithal and the control that I thought I needed me to have, but I give it to God. You see what I'm saying? So that's a good before and after story, and everybody's got one. It might even be just as small as a home renovation, you know, old floors, new floors, that sort of thing. But it's just it, it's when somebody's life completely changes. Because transformation is what gives us hope, and hold on means hope means hold on pain ends. So the book of Romans is God's ultimate before and after story. Um, but it's not it's not about labels, it's not about this life, it's not about habits, it's not about renovation of houses, it's not about any of the things I talked about, it's about our heart. You see, Paul isn't writing theory, he's telling the story of what happens when the gospel collides with real and broken people. You see what I'm saying? When the gospel changes your life, whether you're rich, whether you're not rich. You know, Romans 1.16, if you look at it, it says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then the Gentile. You see, we all have bad news. You see, we all have bad news. Let me tell you how Paul starts Romans, and it's not gentle. He basically says, Let me tell you the truth about the human condition. You see, imagine like sitting in a doctor's office waiting for a diagnosis, and the doctor walks in and he doesn't sugarcoat the diagnosis. You see, Paul walks through humanity's story. People saw God in creation and they ignored him. They worshiped, they replaced worship and praise for God with praise and worship for self and self-rule. So they began to unravel. So if you look at Romans 120, for since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse. You see, that's there's no excuse. And then God, there comes the verdict. Okay. You see, you therefore have no excuse. You have you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself because you who pass judgment do the same things. That's crazy, right? If you look, if you look. At Romans three twenty-three, it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We're all born of the Adam lineage. Human nature is to sin. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Think about the story Paul is telling here. You've got all different types of backgrounds, all different types of people, all different types of mistakes. All have sinned. All that fall short of the glory of God. It's like everybody's in a sinking ship. You know? Think about it. Some people are rich in first class, some people are poor in the bottom of the boat. Some people are just working. But the ship goes down, kind of like the Titanic, right? The ship goes down, and the water does not care if you're rich. It does not care if you're broken. It does not care. So what we're looking at here is Paul is leveling the playing field. He's leveling the room. You see, Romans 3.10, it says, as it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. But you see, there's hope. In 4.3, in Romans 4.3, it says, What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteous. You see, Paul takes us back to Abraham. He changes the tone. Abraham was a man with flaws, he was a man with doubts, he was a man with failures, but he simply had a heart for God, and he simply trusted God. You see. And we all fall short. So if you look at Romans 5:8, it says, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So let me let me paint a picture for you. You're on trial. The courtroom. Plenty of witnesses. You're guilty, and the evidence is stacked against you, and it's very, very overwhelming. You see. He steps down to the treasurer or the bailiff or whatever. He takes his wallet out, he pays a fine for you. He says, You're free, come home with me. You're free, come home with me. You see, that's the gospel. That is the radical gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, Romans 5 1, it says, Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's a great story in itself. We are justified through faith. What does that mean? The God is amazing. That grace of God is that powerful. And people are thinking in Romans, if grace is that powerful, what stops us from going back? Romans 6 1 says, What shall we say then? We shall we go on sinning on that grace so that grace may increase? By no means. We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? That that's that's an amazing question. If you look at 6 4, we were there for buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may have new life. We too may live a new life. It's amazing. You see. Old life goes into the water, it's cleansed by the water. New life comes up. Symbolic. What's it symbolic to? Jesus, right? Pretty amazing stuff. Romans is an amazing book. It really is. If you look at Romans 7, it gets painfully honest. If you look at 7, verse 19, for I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do. This I keep on doing. That's not a theologian talk in there. That's a human. He's telling the truth. You ever uh said I'm done smoking cigarettes, and then a week later you start back? Me. You ever said the same thing, I'm done drinking? And then the next day you pop a beer because you've had a stressful day? Yep, yep, yep. You ever uh had any kind of addiction? It could be anything. Food, porn, TV, internet, social media, phone. It could be anything. That's what they're talking about here in Romans 7.19. But you see, you turn over, you turn it over to Romans 8. 8.1. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You see, Romans chapter 8 changes everything because it gives life through the Spirit. God is giving life through the Spirit here. Through Christ Jesus. Romans 8.11, it says, and if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to the mortal bodies because of his spirit who lives in you. Imagine dropping your phone into a pool. You get all freaked out. But then you come to find out the phone was waterproof. You see? Life's gonna come at you in waves. You're still gonna have pain. You're still gonna be held bondage. You're still going to have pain. You're still gonna hurt. You see, in Romans 8, 38 and 39, it says, For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see, like I said, life's gonna come at you in waves. So, but we have promise. God is writing a story bigger than the story we can think of. You see, in chapter 9, verse 11, Paul steps back and looks at history. Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand. He's looking at the history. He's looking at Israel's story, he's looking at Gentile story. God is weaving mercy through both. In Romans 11, twenty five and twenty six, it says. I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved as it is written. Like I said, Paul's writing Israel's story here. He's rewriting it. Of how God is weaving mercy through both Israel and the Gentiles. You ever look back at your life and realize something felt like a roadblock or something felt like a something was keeping you from something that you wanted, you know? And it didn't happen. Maybe that was actually protection from God. He was protecting you from something you did not need even though you did not even though you wanted it. If you look at Romans eleven thirty three, it says, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. You see that tells you that there is hope, that there is knowledge, that there is wisdom, that there is riches that are so in depth that we probably cannot fathom. Look at twelve fifteen. Twelve fifteen. Let's see. Where is twelve fifteen? Rejoice with those who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn. Do not be judgmental. You see? Rejoice. He's telling you to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. Have a heart. Have a heart. 12.1 says, Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. He wants you to live like the gospel actually happened. You see, Paul doesn't end with just ideas. He ends with action. He's telling us that we have to take action. Look at 12.9. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. 12.18 says, if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone. Let's skip over to chapter 15. Look at verse 7. Verse 7 says, accept one another then as just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God. Let me let me read that one more time because it's very important. Accept one another, then just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God. What are we doing? Arguing online. The division is at an all-time high because the enemy loves to distract. He loves to kill, steal, distract. You see, Paul's ending Romans with worship. If you look at 16, verse 27, to the only wise God be the glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen. That's how he ends the chapter. That's how he ends the book of Romans. You see, everybody in Christ, every believer in Christ, every children of God in Christ has a before and after story. It's a testimony. The only difference is the details. You see, the grace from God is the exact same before and after. And guys, if you never trusted Christ, if you don't have a relationship with Christ, I wouldn't normally say get right, but today can be that turning point. Today you can go from that before to the after. All you have to do is accept Christ in your heart. If you turn back to 10. If you turn back to 10 9, and you've never ever accepted Christ in your heart, today can be your turning point. Today can be that day. Today can be that day. I want you to read Romans chapter 10, verse 9 aloud with me. If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Now, if you read that and you honestly believe that in your heart, and you believed that God came here, walked on this earth, died for all of our sins so that we could have a relationship with the Father. The veil was torn. We do not need a tabernacle. We do not need a priest. We do not need any of those things anymore. Because Jesus came and we have salvation through him. He died and he was raised from the dead three days later. If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And I want you to know that if you just did that, and you keep walking with God, the great author in the sky, he's gonna write your story, and everything that you're thinking of right now, and everything that you thought of in the past is going to be changed. It's the greatest before and after story ever told. And you can be a part of it. And if you were a part of it, I want to pray right now. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you today, Lord. I just want to pray for the listeners. I want to pray for anybody who just prayed that prayer and gave their heart to you, Lord. I want to pray a hedge of protection over them, Lord, because they will be attacked from the enemy like never before. I want to pray that you put the armor of God on them and keep them safe. And we know that you will because you are the great author of the sky, Lord. You are the great story writer of all the before and after testimonies, Lord. Your grace is so amazing that we cannot even fathom how good it is, Lord. Lord, we thank you for your blessings. Lord, we thank you for your lessons, Lord. We thank you for everything you do, Lord. Lord, we pray for our country. We pray for all the folks in it, Lord. May they turn back to you, Lord, and change from their evil ways. Lord, we pray that the veil will be torn and the truth will be told to everybody, Lord. We pray that people see the distractions for what they are. We pray for a new set of eyes, Lord. Lord, we just pray for comfort in this new season of February, whatever that means, Lord. You know our hearts, Lord. You know the next chapter, Lord. Let it be your will and let it be done. It's in Jesus' holy, heavenly name we pray these things. Amen. And hallelujah. Guys, we thank you for tuning in today. We just want to thank you for um just being a blessing to us. I I'm so thankful to God for being able to do this and have a voice and a platform and to be able to have people who actually listen. That's that's an amazing thing. God is an amazing father. And he loves you. And guys, I love you. Make sure you check out the website for Christministry.com. That's www.forchhristministry.com. You can check out B Rob Music on there. You can check out the links to the podcast and the links to my book. You can get it before it comes out right now for$6. It's a PDF e-file, Lululu. But it will be out on Amazon and all that good stuff soon. It's called Discernment A Wake Up Call for a Generationally Cursed Society. And I think you will enjoy it. Have a uh church up in uh New York, I think. Um who might use it as a Bible study, that would be a blessing because the word of God and what he has spoken and brought to my heart and my lips are his words and his words only, and I give him all the credit. I am just the vessel. But guys, I am B-Robb. I'm your host. I love you. Guys, we would love uh, you know, we can't do this uh ministry without uh funds. Um, we'd love for you to buy a t-shirt. We'd love for you to give a gift. Um uh do it on the website. You can uh text me, 706-691-1043. Even if you just want to text me uh somebody to put on a prayer list, I will definitely pray. And I would love to have someone call in and tell their testimony on the podcast. So please keep that in mind. Pray about that, keep that in your heart. And if God leads you to do that, please give me a call. I love you guys. God bless you guys. And if you do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and if you do not pray that prayer, you better get right.