Restoring Warriors | Romans | Chapter 1:1

Welcome to the Restoring Warriors study on the book of Romans. In this session, we dive into Romans 1:1 to answer a foundational life question: Who do you belong to?

Too often, we consume sermons without spending intentional time with God. This year, we are challenging you to move beyond passive listening and let the Word of God define your identity and expose compromise. Join us as we walk through Romans line by line, letting Scripture speak for itself.341

In This Episode:
The Power of Identity: Why Paul introduces himself as a "servant of Christ Jesus" before giving any instructions.5
The Life of Paul: Understanding how a violent persecutor was transformed into an apostle set apart for the gospel.6
Authority Through Humility: Why true biblical leadership requires submission and the removal of ego.7
The Cost of Being "Set Apart": What it means to live a life that is sacrificial rather than neutral.8
Key Truths Covered:
Identity always comes before instruction.9
Authority is established through humility, modeled by Jesus himself.10
Being set apart means you no longer belong to "both worlds".11
Practical Application:
Name Your Owner: Ask yourself daily, "Who am I answering to right now—Christ or something else?".12
Invest Time: Set aside 10-15 minutes daily to sit with God's Word, not just to consume content.13
Obey Quickly: Don't delay when the Holy Spirit prompts you to apologize, speak truth, or step into discipline.14
Stop Borrowing Identity: You are not your job, your failures, or your titles. You belong to Christ.15
Reflection Question:

"Am I living like someone who belongs to Christ?" Let your actions answer.16

Connect With Us:

If this study challenged you, please like, subscribe, and share it with another man who needs to anchor his identity in Christ.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, men. Welcome to Restoring Warriors. So happy to be back with you. Hey, I just want to let you know just how genuinely grateful I am for each and every one of you, all of the leaders, all of the men, people who show up every week to these small groups. And just I want you to know that you you really challenge me every single week in a number of different ways. You challenge me to be a better leader. You challenge me to be a better man. You challenge me to live in scripture and not just talk about it. And that's exactly where I want to start this new series, is a challenge. And my challenge to you is this. Okay, don't just listen to sermons. Whatever you do, don't just listen to sermons. I challenge you to actually get into the word. I think we've gotten way too comfortable consuming all of this teaching through through sermons on Sundays at church or through podcasts on YouTube without actually spending intentional time with the Lord. And we listen, we nod, we feel inspired, but we don't always open the Bible for ourselves. So I want to make sure that you take every single thing that you hear, whether it's from me, whether it's from somebody else, whether it's from a pastor that you look up to or follow, or you go and see in person every Sunday. And I want you to confirm those words with scripture. Okay, take anything that is said with a grain of salt. If it's true, the word will support it. If it's not true, the word is going to expose it. So I've been deeply convicted recently and really led just to slow down and go through the Bible, chapter by chapter. And I want to start in the book of Romans, and we're not going to rush. We're not going to cherry pick verses. We're going to go line by line letting scripture do the work. And there's a reason why. Okay, why Romans and why specifically, too, are we looking at Paul? So we're starting with Romans because it's foundational. And we're starting with Paul because his life demands our intention as men. Okay, so over the coming weeks, months, years, I don't know how long it's going to take, but but we're going to break down who Paul was as a man. We're going to understand who he was writing to and why. So all of Paul's letters, uh, the books you read in the Bible, they're all letters written by Paul to a specific audience. And we're going to look at that. We're going to look at the historical as well as the cultural context in which they were written. Then we're going to ask the hard questions. What does this require of us today? Okay, Paul didn't write these letters from comfort, he wrote them from conviction. Many of these he actually wrote while he was imprisoned. He didn't speak in theory, he spoke from transformation, having been transformed himself. And outside of Jesus himself, Paul gives us one of the clearest pictures of biblical manhood: submission before calling, obedience before influence, and then suffering before glory. He did all of these things. And his letters are timeless and that they're God-inspired. Okay. They were written to a specific audience in a specific moment, but they still expose our excuses. They still expose our compromises and all the resistance that we put forth today. So this isn't about information going through this. No, this is about formation. Okay. So I want to start by inviting the Holy Spirit into this. So let's pray. Holy Spirit, we invite you into this room. We invite you into this gathering. Lord, we ask for your guidance and your leadership tonight. Let your words stand above our opinions, above our preferences, and above all of the excuses that we make, Lord. Anything that is spoken that is not from you, Lord, let it fall away. But anything that is from you, Lord, let it take root and produce fruit into our lives. Father, we lay down the burdens we carried into this room tonight, the anxieties, the stress, the weight of the world, the weight of life, and we choose to be present with you in this moment, Lord. We submit ourselves to you and to your word, and we ask that you shape us. We love you. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. All right, so we are going to set the table here. Okay, we're looking at Romans 1, verse 1. Take out your Bible, scribble in it, make sure you're taking lots of notes, okay? So you can review this. Go back and review it. Romans 1, 1 says this. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. All right. So at first glance, doesn't seem like there's a whole lot going on here. It just feels like a quick introduction, but this is actually a very loaded opening line. So in one sentence, Paul really packs in a lot here. He packs in his identity, he packs in what his authority is, and he also packs in his theology. And none of it is accidental. And you will find really quick, nothing Paul does is accidental. So what we need to do is go and slow this down and really bring to the surface what's easy to miss when we read it quickly, because it can be very easy to just take a line like that and just skip past it. Paul's doing several things here, and he's doing them in a very intentional order. So let's break down that first part, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus. All right, the word that's translated servant here is the Greek word doolos. Okay. And it's not an employee, it's not a volunteer, he's not a helper. What it means is a bondservant or a slave. Okay. And Paul here, he's using identity language, not role language. Okay. He's saying, I'm not my own, I belong to Jesus. And this matters because Paul had every reason to lead with status, because Paul, Paul was kind of a G. Okay. Paul, he he he had built himself into something. Number one, he was a very highly educated Pharisee. All right. Acts 23, verse 6 says, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. So that means he knew the law and he knew the scriptures deeply. Okay. He he was also a Roman citizen. He was born in Tarsus, which was a Roman-led city. So he was a Roman city and he was also writing to Romans here. And then on top of that, he was also a recognized authority. And he was also feared. So before Christ, before he was transformed through Christ, he was known as Saul of Tarsus, Saul of Tarsus. Now he's Paul, right? So Saul was known for persecuting Christians. He was known for imprisoning them. And then he would also approve their execution. He had the blood of hundreds of Christians on his hands. So good reputation or bad, everybody knew who Saul was. Okay. Yet he deliberately refuses to lead with any of that. Instead, he says this I am a slave of Christ Jesus. And why does he do that? Because in the kingdom of God, authority flows from submission, not your position, right? Jesus modeled this really perfectly. He said, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. So even when the disciples argued about who was the greatest, Jesus shut it down, right? Status has no leverage in the kingdom. Okay. And this should confront us immediately as men. Because too many of us want Christ as our Savior. Okay. We want all the great things He provides. We want the eternal salvation. We want the, we want the forgiveness for our sins. We want the grace, the mercy. But oftentimes we will resist him as master. Okay. We want all of the things grace, mercy, forgiveness, blessing, salvation, but we fight our surrender to him. And here's what's really easy to miss is Paul is voluntarily calling himself a slave after being freed by Christ. And this tells us something very critical. It is that grace, the grace we receive from Christ, it doesn't remove his lordship. That grace establishes it. Okay. The next line Paul says is called to be an apostle. Okay? Called to be an apostle. Paul doesn't say I decided to be an apostle. He doesn't say I stepped into my calling as an apostle. He didn't say I felt led to be an apostle. He said, Called. Calling is not self-appointed. A calling is received. And this matters, okay? It matters because Paul's apostleship was often challenged. He was challenged so hard in so many different ways. Number one, he wasn't part of the original 12. He wasn't walking around with Jesus when he was doing everything. No, he used to be a Pharisee and he was part of the very group that Jesus rebuked most frequently and oftentimes most harshly. So Paul immediately clarifies right off the bat, he says, My authority does not come from men. It comes from God. I am called to be an apostle. And if you go to Galatians 1:1, he echoes this clearly where he says, Paul, an apostle, sent not from men nor by a man, but by Christ Jesus. Okay, Paul establishes legitimacy without any sort of arrogance. He lowers himself as a servant while grounding his authority in God's calling. Okay, not ego, not platform, and not his opinion. Paul didn't chase a title. Okay, oftentimes we go out and we want to chase titles as men, but Paul didn't chase a title. He went through a complete transformation. Okay, so on the road to Damascus, Jesus confronts Paul, uh Saul at the time uh directly. Acts 22, 6 through 11 says, About noon, as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord? I asked. I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. He replied, My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. What shall I do, Lord? I asked. Get up, the Lord said, and go to Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do. My companions led me by hand into Damascus because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. So Paul sees a blinding light, a light that literally blinds me. He hears a voice from heaven. It's the Lord, the voice of the Lord Jesus. Saul saw, why do you persecute me? He's physically blinded. And then he's led by hand into Damascus. That a Damascus, that is him being called. Then he's given instructions for a completely new mission. He stopped the mission he was on. And later on, the Lord tells him in Acts 22, verse 21, he says, Go. I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Suddenly, Paul has an entire new mission. Okay. Paul didn't seek influence. He surrendered and then influence followed. Okay. He surrendered to what the Lord told him to do. He followed what the Lord asked him to do. He was obedient to what the Lord had asked him to do. And then influence followed him. And this should cut us deeply as men today, because oftentimes we will confuse ambition with our calling. Okay. We want all the titles before we want transformation. Okay. We we want influence before obedience. Okay. We want to be known as this, or we want to be known as that. We want people to listen to us and take us at our word before we transform, before we're obedient. Just because we we've spoken the words of Jesus Christ as our Lord before putting it into action. Right. But Paul shows us very clearly what the order is A, you're a servant who has been called. And when you're called, you then act obediently and then you are sent. Okay. And it's never in reverse. Okay. The next part of the scripture, okay, let's break it down. Set apart for the gospel of God. Okay, so this phrase would have landed really hard, especially for Jewish listeners. Okay. And the reason why is because Paul was once a Pharisee. And Pharisee literally means set apart. It literally means he is set apart. But Paul is reclaiming the language, okay, and redefining it in the process. He's saying, so I used to be set apart by law, by status, by separation from sinners. Now I'm set apart for the gospel. And this is massive, okay? Paul is no longer set apart from people, okay, like that the Pharisees would do. They would ridicule and they would persecute and they would, they would, they would actively try to be separated from anyone who is deemed lesser than them, anyone who is deemed a sinner, any tax collectors, any prostitutes, any of the people that Jesus went and spent his entire ministry time on earth with, right? Now he's set apart for God's mission. But notice what he does not say here. Okay, what he doesn't say is just as important as what he does say. What he doesn't say is it is not my gospel, not a message, not a philosophy. No, this is the gospel of God. Okay, God is the source, God is the author, God's the authority, and Paul is the steward, not the editor. Okay, so everything that he does is led by the Holy Spirit. He is simply being obedient to what the Spirit has called him to do. Okay, so so let's take a couple of a look here at what's really easy to miss, but's really critical here. Okay, number one, identity comes before instruction. So realize this. This is the first line. This is the first, this is just his opening, right? Paul hasn't told anyone what to do yet. But what he does tell everybody is who he belongs to. He tells every person in this audience who, right off the bat, who he belongs to, before anyone can even challenge him. Okay, so I ask you, who do you belong to? Who do you belong to? Biblical teaching always flows from identity. Okay, and Paul's teaching from this identity he's received in Christ. I think as Christian men, it's very easy to look at other men and look at what the Bible says is true about us and our identity and apply it to other people, but reject it for ourselves. You know, yeah, that sounds really good for him. You know, he's a lot more religious. That man prays a lot better than I do. And we reject that identity for ourselves. Paul persecuted Christians, Paul chased them down, he approved their execution. Yet Jesus came in and changed his identity from Saul to Paul. Okay, the next thing, authority is established through humility. Okay, right off the bat. Paul, who used to lead as a therapy a Pharisee with authority, with with credibility, right, with with his position. No, he lowers himself right off the bat, calling himself a servant. It removes any ego and it strengthens his credibility, especially given his past as a Pharisee. People would avoid him at all costs because of his status above others. Now Pharisees were known to look down at others. This makes him one of them. It makes him one of the people. It strengthens his credibility. Then the next term, set apart, when he says set apart, it implies there's a cost to it. To be set apart means you don't blend in. You don't get to live neutral. You don't get to dip your toes into the gospel on weekends like a lot of us do, right? When we go to our sermons and we bring our families and we get all dressed up and then go back to our Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday. You don't get to live neutral. You don't belong to both worlds. This isn't symbolic language that he's using, it's it's sacrificial language. Okay? And this single verse, this single verse here, Romans 1.1, it forces some very uncomfortable questions. First, am I truly submitted to Christ or am I just associated with him? Have I been called but resisted being set apart? Do I want the benefits of the gospel without the cost of obedience? Right. No, he's defining the standard before anyone can argue against him. But before Paul tells any of us how to live, he tells us who be who he belongs to. He makes it very clear who he belongs to. And until we settle that question ourselves, nothing else in Romans is gonna sit right. So, men, I ask you plainly, who do you belong to? Who do you belong to? Do you belong to yourself? Do you belong to your job? Do you belong to your schedule? Do you belong to your children, your your kids' sports? Do you belong to your spouse? Do you belong to your past? Do you belong to your boss? Or do you belong to Christ? Alright, so if we if we say that we belong to Christ and we want to belong to Christ, we need to own our identity in Christ. So if identity become comes before instruction, then this can't stay theoretical. Okay, so here's a few practical ways that we can begin owning our identity in Christ, starting right now, starting this week. All right, so number one is start naming who you belong to. Identity isn't proven by what you say in public, it's revealed by who you obey in private. And think about integrity, our core value of integrity. Okay, now ask yourself this daily. Who am I answering to right now? Is it to Christ or is it something else? When decisions come up, how how do you spend your time, how your money, your energy, pause and consciously submit that choice to the Lord. Ownership begins with acknowledgement. Okay, number two is align your schedule with your allegiance. Okay, we often say Christ is Lord, but our calendars will tell a much different story. And if Jesus truly has authority, he deserves intentional time, not your leftovers. Okay, so every single day, set a specific, protected time to open up scripture. Okay. Don't sway from that ever, even if it's just 10 to 15 minutes of undistracted time. Okay. Not to consume content, but to sit with the word. Oftentimes we'll say that we don't have time to get in our Bibles, but we'll have plenty of time to scroll through Netflix, to scroll through TikTok, to scroll through Instagram or whatever else that we do, right? Identity grows where your time is invested. Okay. Number three is obey quickly in the small things. Okay. Most of us aren't resisting God in massive ways. We're delaying Him in the smallest ways. When the Holy Spirit nudges you, do these things, right? To apologize, right? To cut something off. All right, you probably know what that is. It's probably in your gut right now. To speak truth, to step into discipline. When you hear these things, when you get nudged, this conviction from the Holy Spirit, respond quickly. Delayed obedience slowly erodes identity. But quick obedience, it strengthens it. And man, you get those quick wins and it feels good and it makes you want to pursue that next thing, right? Number four, stop borrowing identity from roles that you play. Okay. You are not primarily your job, your performance. You're not your past, you're not your failures, you're not your titles. Those things may describe you. They may have had some influence on you, but they certainly don't define you. Begin anchoring your self-talk in truth. I belong to Christ, I am his servant, I am set apart. You don't earn that from identity, okay? You live from it. Then a final challenge, okay? This next week, ask yourself one question every single day. Am I living like someone who belongs to Christ? And then let your actions follow it. Amen. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your word tonight. We don't want to just hear it, we want to be shaped by it. Lord, search our hearts and expose anything that's not surrendered to you, where we've claimed your name but resisted your lordship, Lord, bring conviction that leads to repentance and not shame. Teach us what it truly means to belong to you, strip away false identities, misplaced priorities, any divided loyalties, and make us men who are fully submitted, fully obedient, and fully set apart for your purposes, Lord. As we leave this place, help us live what we've heard. Let our faith be proven by our obedience, and our obedience be fueled by grace. We give you our lives again tonight, Lord, and it's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.