WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.160 Amen. 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:00.800 Thank you, Matt. 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:01.679 Well, good morning. 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:05.360 We are continuing our study through the book of Romans. 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:06.799 We're just beginning the study. 00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:13.199 We're going to be studying Romans for a while, probably a year and a half or so breaking for seasons of Advent and Lent. 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:15.279 We're just going to take it passage by passage. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:18.800 So this morning we have two verses as we open the book of Romans. 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:23.120 Now we can remember that Rome was the greatest city in the ancient world. 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:25.519 Rome was wealthy, it was powerful. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:28.960 Rome was sophisticated, and yet it was deeply broken. 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:35.679 This letter that Paul writes to the church in Rome is Paul's theological masterpiece. 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:37.759 Romans 1, 16 and 17. 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:46.640 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:55.039 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:58.240 So we have five points to work our way through these two verses. 00:00:58.399 --> 00:01:07.760 Point number one, our salvation, so our acceptance with God does not come by our power, but by God's power. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:17.359 So what this means is it means that you are not loved by God because you are lovely or you are lovable or you're becoming more lovely or better or good. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:20.640 You're loved by God because he chooses to love you. 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:22.959 It's not based on your performance or your resume. 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:26.239 It's based on his resume, his choice to love you. 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:36.560 Paul repeats this message in 1 Corinthians 1.18, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:38.560 There, that word is again power. 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:48.799 So that word power is the Greek word dynamis, meaning power, might, ability, capacity, or effective force. 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:51.200 You're smart people, you already figured out. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:53.599 We get the word dynamite from this word. 00:01:53.840 --> 00:02:01.280 Dynamite's something that comes in a very small package and it can create enormous effective force. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:16.960 A hundred years ago, when Mount Rushmore was built, 14 years it took, these guys built Mount Rushmore by blowing 450,000 tons of granite off the side of a mountain using dynamite. 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:20.400 A stick of dynamite doesn't look powerful. 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:22.159 It's relatively small. 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:25.039 It's ordinary looking, but it is powerful. 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:27.759 It holds enormous force. 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:29.919 This is what Paul's saying. 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:35.199 The gospel is not just instruction, it is intervening power. 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:38.800 It actually holds a force, effective force. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:42.639 And the mechanism for that power is grace. 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:47.360 God's one-way love to you is the mechanism of the power. 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:54.400 That grace comes toward you without you causing it by anything from yourself. 00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:59.919 It's unmerited, undeserved, one-way love to you. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:01.840 That's where the power is. 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:05.520 See, religion says, change and you can be loved. 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:09.360 Gospel says you're already loved in Christ. 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:12.479 One way, now you can change. 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:25.439 And that's good news because it takes the pressure off of us to start the relationship with God, but also to maintain the relationship with God because it is by God's choosing that we're in the relationship. 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:27.520 You don't have to save yourself. 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:31.759 You don't have to become more lovely to be loved by God. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:34.000 You're already loved in Jesus. 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:36.000 That's the effective force. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:39.039 And it changes us from the inside out. 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:41.759 And we receive it. 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:45.039 The verse says that it is the power to salvation. 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:56.560 That word salvation, it means all of God's work in us to forgive us, to deem us righteous, to welcome us into relationship with Him here and when we die. 00:03:57.360 --> 00:03:59.680 All of that work, that's a lot of work. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:05.919 All of it has nothing to do with your record, your resume, your performance. 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:08.479 It is God's gift to you. 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:10.159 One way. 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:12.319 We know it in the cross. 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:20.480 That's where we see it objectively in history, that our sin is put upon Jesus on the cross and his righteousness is given to us. 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:29.680 Romans 5, 8, and 9, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, so still messy, still broken, we don't have our acts together. 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:31.680 Christ died for us. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:38.240 Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:46.000 Now you may ask, okay, so the gospel is the power of God, the mechanism is God's grace to us, the one-way love of God. 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:47.120 We know it in Jesus. 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:48.240 What about the Holy Spirit? 00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:50.240 Russ, why aren't you talking about the Holy Spirit? 00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:51.120 I know you were asking that. 00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:52.079 You're so theological. 00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:53.439 You were asking, okay, great. 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:54.240 I'm glad you asked. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:55.439 Glad you asked. 00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:59.360 Years ago, I was weeding in my backyard. 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:01.279 We had a big oak tree in the backyard. 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:03.600 The tree's not there anymore, but at the time, big oak tree. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:07.600 We had English ivy around it, had some hostas around it, a little shade garden. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:09.199 So I couldn't spray weeds in that area. 00:05:09.279 --> 00:05:10.800 I had to go through and pull them one by one. 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:14.560 About once a month, I'd have to go through that area, pull the weeds. 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:18.000 So I start pulling and I'm pulling, I'm working my way around the tree. 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:19.600 Looking back, it's looking so good. 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:20.959 I'm so pleased with myself. 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:27.680 And I pulled this one weed, and as soon as I pull it, I feel a sting right on my neck. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:32.000 And then I felt a sting kind of right here on my leg. 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:36.720 And then just a swarm comes up. 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:37.199 Right? 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:40.560 Georgia Tech fans, y'all that's the only time I'm gonna give. 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:44.560 It's the only Georgia Tech shout-out I'll ever give. 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:46.399 Swarm comes up. 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:50.319 I mean, I take off down the driveway, down the street, right? 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:54.879 About 10 yellow jacket stings later, I'm back in the house. 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:58.319 My sweet wife, you know, oh, oh, you're so tough. 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:00.079 You're not even crazy, you're so manly. 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:10.240 So she takes some anti-sting medicine and she applies it to the to the stings. 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:15.120 Here's the point the medicine is the gospel. 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:18.160 My wife is the Holy Spirit. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:20.399 Now she's gonna love that illustration. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:25.120 But in the illustration, she's the Holy Spirit. 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:29.279 She's applying the medicine, the power. 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:34.160 The Holy Spirit applies the gospel to our hearts. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:43.680 The Holy Spirit is the person of God that applies the one-way love of God known to us in Christ and His work in the message of the gospel to our needy hearts. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.000 See, aren't you glad that you asked for the Holy Spirit? 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:48.399 That the Holy Spirit's applying the medicine. 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:49.439 Applying the medicine. 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:54.480 Point number two, the gospel is for every person, which includes the beautiful and the broken. 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:59.120 The truth is we're all beautiful and we're all broken and we're this at the same time. 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:03.360 Last Sunday we took our oldest to college for the first time. 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:07.600 We packed her up and packed up two SUVs full to move her into her dorm room. 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:11.519 We had everything in crates and bags and got it all loaded up early Sunday morning. 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:17.040 We drove the University of Georgia to the parking lot at Brumby Dorm and we start to unload. 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:21.680 And I'm looking around and we got all these SUVs and trucks and we're all unloading. 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:26.079 And every other dad in midlife, we all look exactly the same. 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:28.879 We got on our khaki shorts, a golf shirt. 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:30.720 We've been somewhere, we're special. 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:32.639 We got our sunglasses around our neck. 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:34.560 We all look exactly the same. 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:36.560 Every girl looks about the same. 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:39.839 They're all wearing about different colors, the same Lulu outfit. 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:42.000 They're all looking, we're all looking about the same. 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:43.680 We're checking each other out a little bit. 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:48.160 We're working and sweating, loading and unloading, but but we're kind of checking each other. 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:49.040 Like, who are you? 00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:50.000 Where are you from? 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:51.360 And we're checking it out. 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:55.120 A matte finished defender pulled up. 00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:58.160 I mean, we were like, what's up? 00:07:58.319 --> 00:07:59.519 Like, oh, who are you? 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:01.519 You know, it was like, I was like, I like your truck, man. 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:02.560 I gave him a little nod. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:07.680 I mean, we had a we had a Georgia football coach on our hall. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:13.759 I mean, big deal. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:14.959 Right? 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:17.680 We're all status signaling. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:20.560 Status signaling and sorting. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:28.000 Maybe your status signaling by not status signaling, you're like, oh, I don't do that. 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:30.160 Yeah, that's your status signaling. 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:32.639 We've sorted you. 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:40.639 It's just the human way of justifying our value in front of other people. 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:48.320 And then if we're worldly, we give and withhold love based on our conclusions. 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:52.879 And Jesus does none of that. 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:55.279 Not a bit. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:59.279 The gospel does none of that. 00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:04.080 God's one-way love is absolute to all people. 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:14.000 I mean, we read this verse and we go, oh, to the Jew and the Greek, but to a Jewish, a Jewish person in Rome at the time, blow their mind. 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:19.919 God's love is to all people, all socioeconomic levels, races. 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:23.360 I mean, even different college football fan bases. 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:26.879 I mean, it's that, it's that wild, wild love. 00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:31.679 It's absolute in its offering, and then it's personal in its reception, right? 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:35.679 For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:38.639 So there's a personal reception of it. 00:09:38.799 --> 00:09:40.240 Let's jump to verse 17. 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:46.240 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:51.759 Point number three is this the gospel reveals God's righteousness to unrighteous people like you and me. 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:59.840 The question underneath Romans, this theological question that's going to play out, he's going to theologically argue this for chapters. 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:08.720 How can a holy and righteous God justify sinful people without compromising his own righteousness? 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:11.679 Doesn't God get dirty in the process? 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:16.000 Doesn't it make him unrighteous to just give out this love so freely? 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:18.639 Romans 3, 21 through 26. 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:25.600 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:45.759 The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:53.120 This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 00:10:53.360 --> 00:11:03.840 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:16.720 So God remains fully just while also being the justifier who can love and be gracious to sinners because Jesus paid that price that we should have paid. 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:20.480 Meaning that you can be imperfect and broken and messy. 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:24.320 You can be a great Christian, you'll be a horrible Christian. 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:27.360 And in Jesus, you're fully righteous. 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:34.559 Point number four, we become righteous not by our giving, but by our receiving. 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:37.440 Now we call this receiving faith. 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:39.919 Paul's going to hammer this home for us in chapter four. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:42.159 Here's a taste of it, Romans 4, 5. 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:51.279 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:56.639 This past Father's Day, I received one of the best gifts I've ever got. 00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:57.440 What a huge gift. 00:11:57.519 --> 00:11:58.799 It was a little gift about this big. 00:11:58.879 --> 00:11:59.759 It's called turtle box. 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:00.960 Anyone else got a turtle box? 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:02.000 I didn't know I needed this. 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:02.879 Apparently it did. 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:05.759 Thought I had all the speakers you could ever need in your life. 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:07.440 But I get this for Father's Day. 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:09.120 A turtle box is this little speaker. 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:11.600 It's little, it's loud, super clear, it's waterproof. 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:12.720 Mine has initials on it. 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:13.840 Thought that was kind of cool. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:14.399 Love that. 00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:16.639 I've been taking it with me everywhere I go. 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:20.559 If I go on a trip, I pack it, go to the lake, I take it, back porch. 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:22.159 It's just always with me. 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:24.720 Dave Matthews Band has never sounded better. 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:26.320 It has sounded so good. 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:28.080 I mean, what a gift, an amazing gift. 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:29.039 Didn't know I needed it. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:30.240 It came to me. 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:34.879 The gift came at me and I received it. 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:40.799 Me implementing it into my life is the act of receiving, which we could call faith. 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:43.840 The gift has changed my life as I've received it. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:45.759 That's what good gifts do. 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:48.559 That's faith. 00:12:48.879 --> 00:12:53.840 Receiving the gift from outside of me, letting it be implemented into my life. 00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:56.399 That's point number five. 00:12:56.559 --> 00:12:59.759 The gospel produces new life in us and through us. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:01.759 That's what we read in verse 17. 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:08.000 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:10.879 Paul's quoting Habakkuk 2.4. 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:14.639 He's showing that this principle of faith is not new. 00:13:14.879 --> 00:13:19.519 This Christian religion didn't invent it, that the Jewish people were still living by faith. 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:29.120 But Paul is developing this idea further in Romans that we're putting faith in Jesus for all the work that we need done for us. 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:32.240 Theologically, we could say it this way. 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:33.759 We have security. 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:39.360 We'd call that theologically the security of the saints, granting us assurance of salvation. 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:44.000 Security of the saints granting us assurance of salvation. 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:57.279 We are secure with God, not based on anything we do, but by the gift, which gives us assurance of salvation, which means that we don't have to be anxious and insecure on a day that you may be with all sorts of parts of your life, just not with God. 00:13:57.440 --> 00:13:58.480 Isn't that relieving? 00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:00.960 That at least that part of your life can be relieved. 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:07.600 You can be anxious about all sorts of things, but we don't have to be anxious and insecure about our relationship with God. 00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:10.799 This is why theology matters. 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:20.639 It's because I could send you out of here making you more anxious and more insecure if I give you a message like half Jesus, half your own work. 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:30.240 But when Jesus is the full sufficiency of your relationship with God, your whole life is just coming from the overflow of this gratitude and security and assurance. 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:33.120 This is the lived experience of that theology. 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:38.879 We are justified and saved by grace, God's power, through faith, our response. 00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:43.120 So we do not have to be anxious and insecure with our faith, not in our faith. 00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:46.480 Other things, sure, sure, me too, but not our faith. 00:14:46.799 --> 00:14:49.360 Because it is not faith in our own faith. 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:55.360 Meaning, you don't have faith in your uh list of Christian to-do things to do. 00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:59.840 You don't have faith in your Sunday attendance, you don't have faith in your quiet times, your devotion. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.159 All that is expressions of your faith. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:03.600 You don't have faith in your own faith. 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:07.360 You have faith in God's power, the effective force. 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:09.759 And we live by that faith. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:14.639 And that root that's in you, that gift, it begins to be expressed outward. 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:26.240 And it's not a perfect performative life, but it's a Christian life of humility, graciousness, confession, gratitude, love, obedience, more confession, more mistakes, more confession. 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:30.399 One of my favorite movies is The Truman Show. 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:31.919 Remember those were 30 years ago or so? 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:38.639 Jim Carrey was in this movie, and his whole life, he unknowingly is living inside of a TV set. 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:39.600 It's a TV show. 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:40.399 He doesn't know it. 00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:48.639 He's like a grown man, but his entire life, everything around him, is one massive town inside of a TV set. 00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:53.840 Everybody he knows, everything he sees, they're all in on it except him. 00:15:55.519 --> 00:15:59.840 And he gradually discovers this truth to be to break free. 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:04.159 Here's the scene, the first time the truth breaks through. 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:04.960 Let's watch this. 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:07.600 Don't forget to buckle up out there on Radio Land. 00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:48.639 Okay, what did Truman need? 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:50.480 Well, he needed a breakthrough. 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:57.759 He didn't even know how bound he was until he had an outside word breakthrough. 00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:01.120 The radio gives a message and then it changes everything else. 00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:02.080 You should go watch the movie. 00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:02.879 Great movie. 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:07.519 From this point on, everything changes because of an outside word. 00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:13.039 The truth intervenes, it finds him, and then has the power to create a change. 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:15.759 Truman needs to be set free, didn't even know it. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:17.039 We need to be set free. 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:21.519 Often we don't even know it because we're bound by our own sin and selfishness. 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:28.240 We need the outside word of grace to come to us that we can be loved even while we're sinners. 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:29.759 And we don't have to earn it. 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:32.319 We receive it in the gift of Jesus. 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:48.559 This is sort of what Paul's saying in Romans that this gospel is dynamite, it's effective force, it's a power, but it's only gonna have power as an outside word being spoken to you into your heart. 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:52.480 Outside love coming to you unmerited. 00:17:53.759 --> 00:17:55.920 That's what we know in the cross. 00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:06.000 That's why our hope for you in our church is that you leave each week more enamored of Jesus and not so much just thinking about the Christian life. 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:14.319 Meaning, if you're more enamored by Jesus and how good he is for you, your Christian life's gonna be an expression of that. 00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:26.160 But if we just give you what to do, how to live, five ways to get better, you could leave here and slowly get sort of like half Jesus, half my performance. 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:28.799 And that's not the theology of Paul. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:44.799 The theology of Paul is that the entire effective force of your relationship secure with God and any change that you have fruit in your life, obedience, it will become, it will be out of the root of Jesus in you. 00:18:45.359 --> 00:18:47.519 He is the effective force. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:51.200 If you have any questions about the sermon, need prayer, I'll be down front afterward. 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:52.079 Love to pray with you. 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:52.720 Let's pray together. 00:18:52.960 --> 00:19:07.279 Heavenly Father, we're so thankful we're not left on our own, bound and powerless, just staring at ourselves, trying to get ourselves better, all the while recognizing we don't really have our acts that that together. 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:13.440 Lord, I'm the first to say that I don't have my act together. 00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:21.839 When it comes to thoughts and motives and Lord, I am in need of Jesus. 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:28.400 Lord, as a church, we come before you and we say that we are in need of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. 00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:32.720 We are in need of Jesus for our righteousness. 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:41.519 Help us all the more to be more enamored by your unmerited love to us than our performance in front of you. 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:44.400 And would our hearts be changed. 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:49.359 Would we have more gratitude? 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:56.079 Would we have more empowerment to want to obey you, follow you, live for you, love others? 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:02.000 And would all this come because we are casting our gaze upon Jesus. 00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:04.319 We pray this in Christ's name. 00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:05.279 Amen.