WEBVTT 00:00:02.580 --> 00:03:53.009 Introduction...It was a traditional service. 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:57.389 And because I wasn't raised in church, I, they just weren't speaking my language. 00:03:57.390 --> 00:03:59.310 I didn't understand what they were doing. 00:03:59.311 --> 00:04:01.080 I didn't know why they were standing up and sitting down. 00:04:01.090 --> 00:04:03.930 I didn't know why they were reading the things they did. 00:04:03.931 --> 00:04:05.009 I didn't know all the prayers. 00:04:05.010 --> 00:04:07.770 I didn't know all the things that aren't written in the bulletin that they say. 00:04:08.009 --> 00:04:09.669 There's a lot I didn't understand. 00:04:09.670 --> 00:04:11.520 I felt like it wasn't connecting with me. 00:04:11.969 --> 00:04:21.209 And I said to a Christian friend of mine, I actually don't remember who I said it to you, but I remember saying it to a friend of mine saying, this church isn't really feeding me. 00:04:22.459 --> 00:04:23.569 This church isn't feeding me. 00:04:23.779 --> 00:04:25.430 Maybe you've heard somebody say that before. 00:04:25.430 --> 00:04:26.899 Maybe you felt that before. 00:04:27.379 --> 00:04:30.230 Dare I say, maybe that's something you feel even now. 00:04:30.649 --> 00:04:38.180 Of course, that's impossible, but let's pretend that this, this church isn't feeding me and I'll never forget. 00:04:38.180 --> 00:04:41.779 My friend said to me, he said, oh, your church isn't feeding you? 00:04:42.050 --> 00:04:43.310 Then get a fork and dig in. 00:04:45.529 --> 00:04:46.959 Well, like, what were you talking about? 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:51.589 He said, look, can you feed yourself? 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:58.939 I'm like, I mean obviously, yes, and who needs to get fed? 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:00.949 And I said, babies. 00:05:01.069 --> 00:05:01.970 He goes, exactly. 00:05:03.959 --> 00:05:04.860 Are you a baby? 00:05:05.430 --> 00:05:06.540 No. 00:05:07.129 --> 00:05:08.370 You know, IO started to get a little bit offended. 00:05:08.550 --> 00:05:12.360 Nobody is saying, you know, the point that he was making is you're not a baby in your faith anymore. 00:05:12.360 --> 00:05:14.790 You don't need to get spoon-fed your content. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:17.129 You can learn to feed yourself. 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:30.449 And in fact, if you don't learn to feed yourself, you will never grow spiritually because no churches job is to feed you exclusively to give you all the content you ever need. 00:05:30.629 --> 00:05:32.160 That is not the church's job. 00:05:32.279 --> 00:05:35.399 The church's job is to train you to feed yourself. 00:05:37.189 --> 00:05:38.509 And that's, that stuck with me. 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:41.779 And I've had other times in my life where I felt that I'm not really being fed. 00:05:41.910 --> 00:05:43.430 It's time to church shop. 00:05:43.430 --> 00:05:45.379 You know, I am not feeling it. 00:05:46.189 --> 00:05:50.509 And, and I come back to this and I'm like, okay, maybe it is a church thing. 00:05:50.511 --> 00:05:54.620 Maybe they're not equipping me to do that, which is legit. 00:05:54.649 --> 00:06:00.259 But on the other hand, maybe the, I'm not feeling closer to God has to do with me. 00:06:01.100 --> 00:06:05.180 One of my friends who wrote a book called move toward the mess, his named John Hambrick. 00:06:05.180 --> 00:06:05.959 He puts it this way. 00:06:05.961 --> 00:06:07.279 He puts that much harder than than I do. 00:06:08.660 --> 00:06:17.060 He said, here's the thing, if boredom is more about your choices than your circumstances, then it won't be long before you're bored by any kind of church service. 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:18.889 If you allow yourself to be. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:23.600 And then you'll start looking for another church and then another, and then another. 00:06:24.199 --> 00:06:26.209 The problem is not the style of your church. 00:06:26.269 --> 00:06:27.769 It's not the minister or the music. 00:06:28.129 --> 00:06:31.430 The problem is you and me, Ouch... 00:06:34.680 --> 00:06:37.500 Now listen, sometimes, I mean, I'm going to be honest. 00:06:37.500 --> 00:06:41.430 Sometimes you had a church and you gotta make you gotta make a change, you gotta make a change. 00:06:41.430 --> 00:06:43.050 You got to go, go somewhere else. 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:46.680 You know, we've had people who are here for a long time and they had to go find something else. 00:06:47.069 --> 00:06:48.300 They were stuck. 00:06:48.810 --> 00:06:50.670 And I think honestly that's healthy. 00:06:50.670 --> 00:06:56.550 Like if you're stuck and you got to make a change, go make a change, whatever it's going to take to get you closer to God. 00:06:56.579 --> 00:06:58.709 But most of the time it's not the church. 00:06:58.889 --> 00:07:01.230 Most of the time it's you and me. 00:07:02.279 --> 00:07:11.519 So this sermon series that we're starting today is designed so that it can help you think about how to feed yourself and your spiritual journey. 00:07:12.689 --> 00:07:15.750 So we're going to be digging in, get your forks ready. 00:07:16.350 --> 00:07:22.560 I want to encourage you, if you have a Bible at home that's collecting dust or something, you know, bring it in, bring it in. 00:07:22.620 --> 00:07:31.470 The reason is I think one of the things for me that's helped me grow the most has been like ownership in my Bible. 00:07:31.471 --> 00:07:33.000 Like I write in my Bible. 00:07:33.420 --> 00:07:35.790 I don't know if that's allowed, but I do it. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:38.279 I write in it, I highlight, I make notes. 00:07:38.281 --> 00:07:50.040 In fact, every couple of years I have to get another Bible because I don't want the old notes to influence my thinking every time I read a passage, but I have them all so I can always go back to them if I want to go back to my notes. 00:07:50.970 --> 00:07:52.800 But I think that's a big part of it. 00:07:52.980 --> 00:07:54.329 Here's, here's the bottom line. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:57.839 We're not going to grow in our faith unless we take ownership of our faith. 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:02.819 If we're waiting for somebody else to give us all the answers, you're gonna wait until a really long time. 00:08:03.870 --> 00:08:04.620 So we gotta grow. 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:06.930 We gotta dig in and here's the thing. 00:08:06.930 --> 00:08:09.689 Information is not going to get you there alone. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:15.089 You can't grow closer to God because you know more facts about God. 00:08:16.740 --> 00:08:20.519 You're not going to go closer because you know more Bible stories because you have more scripture memorize. 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:22.800 That's not growing closer to God. 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:24.120 It's about a relationship. 00:08:24.930 --> 00:08:29.850 And I never grew close to somebody in a relationship because of the information about them. 00:08:30.389 --> 00:08:33.629 Like my wife Karin, and I've been married 16 years. 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:37.649 We never would've got married if it was just about information. 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:42.059 It was just like, let's tally up Jason's information about his life, she would've ran the other way. 00:08:44.070 --> 00:08:44.610 It was a good thing. 00:08:44.610 --> 00:08:45.299 I played guitar. 00:08:45.301 --> 00:08:46.860 I'm just gonna throw it, throw that out there. 00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:49.049 Played guitar and sang magic. 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:50.879 All you musicians, you know it. 00:08:50.940 --> 00:08:52.830 You know it magic. 00:08:53.879 --> 00:08:59.100 But the point is, it's a, it's not just information and it's the same thing with God. 00:08:59.909 --> 00:09:02.690 We grow closer to God by relationships. 00:09:02.691 --> 00:09:04.529 So let's take a step on this road together. 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:11.190 We're talking about the road and it's going to serve us as we go through the book of Romans together. 00:09:11.191 --> 00:09:14.220 Paul's letter to the Romans and it's a two fold reason. 00:09:14.221 --> 00:09:16.529 One is it talks about our road. 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:19.919 Our journey of faith is like walking on the road with Jesus. 00:09:19.921 --> 00:09:24.120 You've heard that a lot, but I love it because it's active. 00:09:24.419 --> 00:09:25.740 It involves you walking. 00:09:25.830 --> 00:09:28.320 It's not just waiting for Jesus to drag you on the road. 00:09:28.950 --> 00:09:29.970 You're walking on the road. 00:09:29.971 --> 00:09:32.879 It's a partnership together as he walks alongside of you. 00:09:33.090 --> 00:09:36.600 But also there's something in Romans called the Roman road. 00:09:36.629 --> 00:09:38.009 Maybe you've heard of this before. 00:09:38.580 --> 00:09:55.200 This has been popular for many decades in evangelical circles in that if you read the book of Romans, there are certain scriptures that lead you kind of on a road to the story of the gospel that you can by reading these scriptures, explain what the gospel is and who it's for. 00:09:56.070 --> 00:10:01.440 And so we're going to notice each marker on this road as we go through the book of Romans together. 00:10:02.610 --> 00:10:09.870 So before we jump in the book of Romans, just a little bit about it, remember it was written before the gospels. 00:10:09.870 --> 00:10:13.559 Paul's letters were written prior to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 00:10:13.950 --> 00:10:14.940 They came later. 00:10:14.941 --> 00:10:19.200 So the earliest windows we get into the life of the Christian Church is through Paul's letters. 00:10:19.201 --> 00:10:30.960 That's why we Revere them so much, is that we really get a glimpse at what was it like to be the first Christians figuring out who Jesus was, how to live a life in the way of Jesus. 00:10:31.049 --> 00:10:39.029 We get this from Paul's letters, Paul, and most of the letters that he writes, he's writing to address a certain problem going on in the church. 00:10:39.659 --> 00:10:44.639 So the Corinthians, he's addressing different issues that they had and so on and so forth. 00:10:44.669 --> 00:10:49.740 The book of Romans was, was not like that because Paul didn't start the church in Rome. 00:10:51.269 --> 00:10:54.389 They didn't know him, they knew about him, but they didn't know him. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:11:09.600 And so his whole point for the book of Romans is before he went to go visit the Roman church, he wanted them to understand what exactly he believed about Jesus and God and how it all fit together, which is why it's a really nice theological path to the cross. 00:11:11.220 --> 00:11:16.980 Now, Romans was written between 57 around the year, 57 56 57. 00:11:17.429 --> 00:11:20.250 So not too many years after the resurrection. 00:11:20.429 --> 00:11:26.580 If the resurrection is around 33 or 34, that's about 20 ish years after the resurrection. 00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:33.480 So that's early and, and you have to understand the lenses through which Paul wrote. 00:11:33.509 --> 00:11:48.720 I think this is really helpful and maybe you want to jot this down next to the verse in your bulletin to help you remember as we go through Romans, everybody has a point of view and Paul had his own point of view that helps us understand what he's talking about as we read Romans. 00:11:49.110 --> 00:11:55.559 The first is he's coming from a Jewish apocalyptic point of view. 00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:57.509 What's Jewish apocalyptic? 00:11:57.779 --> 00:12:05.159 Jewish apocalyptic is a genre of literature in the Bible, so just like you go to Barnes and Noble and there are different genres of books. 00:12:05.160 --> 00:12:09.120 This is a genre of literature literature that we see throughout the Bible. 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:10.139 We see it in the old Testament. 00:12:10.230 --> 00:12:13.409 In Daniel, you see all the visions of Daniel that he had. 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:15.389 That's apocalyptic literature. 00:12:15.390 --> 00:12:21.509 That's symbols and you know that's where you get like the winged creatures and all the eyes and all of that. 00:12:21.539 --> 00:12:23.759 You see that very famously in the book of revelation. 00:12:23.760 --> 00:12:31.259 You see lots of SIM symbology and symbolism and all the signs and the numbers, all of that. 00:12:31.260 --> 00:12:42.059 That's all Jewish apocalyptic literature and the point of that literature is to tell the people of God, Hey, I know the world looks pretty bad. 00:12:44.269 --> 00:12:46.700 I know it looks like evil is in control. 00:12:46.850 --> 00:12:50.570 I know it looks like God is nowhere to be found, but don't worry. 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:55.250 God is in control and one day he will make it all right. 00:12:57.320 --> 00:13:02.210 One day God will bring everything the way that it's supposed to be. 00:13:02.211 --> 00:13:05.960 He will destroy evil for good and only good will remain. 00:13:07.100 --> 00:13:08.210 God is in control. 00:13:08.450 --> 00:13:09.289 Isn't that a message? 00:13:09.291 --> 00:13:11.929 I think the church has to offer the world right now. 00:13:14.019 --> 00:13:15.009 God is in control. 00:13:15.490 --> 00:13:17.559 God will make everything right. 00:13:17.830 --> 00:13:21.700 This is what Paul believed to his core and you see it come out in the book of Romans. 00:13:22.090 --> 00:13:27.220 The second lens that Paul had was I'll call the forensic lens. 00:13:27.460 --> 00:13:39.519 He saw the divine justice of God to be like a courtroom, that God was going to punish evil and reward good, much like a court of law. 00:13:39.520 --> 00:13:41.500 So he uses a lot of legal language. 00:13:41.500 --> 00:13:44.500 He believes we're before the divine bar of justice. 00:13:44.500 --> 00:13:48.669 We are all guilty and we have no defense. 00:13:49.570 --> 00:13:59.830 We stand before the judge, we are condemned and that the last minute Jesus comes in and takes our place and he is found to be innocent. 00:13:59.831 --> 00:14:02.500 So therefore we are found to be innocent. 00:14:02.500 --> 00:14:05.049 This is what Jesus did on the cross. 00:14:06.129 --> 00:14:11.980 And then if I would say a third lens has to do with his Pharisee lens, the fact that Paul was a Pharisee. 00:14:12.700 --> 00:14:21.669 And so what the Pharisees believed, and this was the understanding of the Jewish people at the time of Jesus, was that you had to follow the law in order to be righteous. 00:14:22.389 --> 00:14:23.799 And it wasn't just the 10 commandments. 00:14:23.801 --> 00:14:29.080 There were 613 commandments in the old Testament that you had to follow or you were out of bounds. 00:14:30.100 --> 00:14:31.659 But it was even worse than that. 00:14:31.750 --> 00:14:40.720 Then you had something called the mid rash, which were the interpretations of all the rabbis about the 613 commandments that you also had to follow. 00:14:41.110 --> 00:14:44.740 So for example, keeping the Sabbath Holy, you can't work on the Sabbath. 00:14:44.769 --> 00:14:49.159 Well, there were 39 different definitions of what it meant to work on the Sabbath. 00:14:49.230 --> 00:14:50.129 So you had to follow all those. 00:14:50.269 --> 00:15:00.129 So you see how six and 13 can balloon out of control and they believed unless you followed all of them, you could not be righteous and they prided themselves that they could do it. 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:02.830 This is the Pharisee way of thinking. 00:15:05.250 --> 00:15:05.909 Okay... 00:15:07.830 --> 00:15:14.730 The funny thing is is is, and this is why Jesus is always telling them they're getting it wrong, like work on the Sabbath. 00:15:14.940 --> 00:15:19.200 Remember, Jesus healed somebody on the Sabbath and the Pharisees are like, no, no, that's work. 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:21.509 And I feel like Jesus was like, really? 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:25.169 Because they're missing the point. 00:15:25.171 --> 00:15:27.450 They're so interested in the letter of the law that they're getting it wrong. 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:37.649 It's sort of like if I went to my kids, this is hypothetical, if I, if I went to my, my, my daughter and I said, don't punch your brother. 00:15:39.179 --> 00:15:43.919 And then 30 seconds later I hear, I hear him go out, what are you? 00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:44.429 What are you doing? 00:15:44.431 --> 00:15:45.809 I told you not to, but I didn't punch him. 00:15:45.811 --> 00:15:56.309 I pushed him, technically followed the law, but found a little end around this. 00:15:57.240 --> 00:15:58.710 I believe it's God's point. 00:15:59.669 --> 00:16:01.169 It's not about the law. 00:16:01.169 --> 00:16:03.240 The law is not what makes you righteous. 00:16:04.659 --> 00:16:05.590 It's your heart. 00:16:06.429 --> 00:16:09.759 The problem is a heart problem, not a behavioral problem. 00:16:10.330 --> 00:16:15.070 In this is what the Pharisees were getting wrong and this is why Jesus spoke against it. 00:16:16.929 --> 00:16:17.950 Okay, let's dig in. 00:16:19.570 --> 00:16:35.080 Romans chapter three starting in verse 19 now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 00:16:35.259 --> 00:16:38.019 I highlighted those phrases because those phrases go back one. 00:16:38.230 --> 00:16:58.240 Those phrases are come from verbs that talk about like forensic legal terms, so the whole idea that nobody has a defense to give because of their sin, their mouths are held shut and they will, the world will be held accountable by God. 00:16:58.240 --> 00:17:01.929 This is again Paul's legal understanding of the gospel. 00:17:03.610 --> 00:17:09.130 Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law. 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:11.289 The law's not going to get you there. 00:17:11.290 --> 00:17:13.390 The law is not going to make your heart right. 00:17:15.099 --> 00:17:18.970 It's a heart problem, not a behavioral problem in and of itself. 00:17:24.930 --> 00:17:29.190 In other words, sin is much worse than you thought it was. 00:17:34.250 --> 00:17:43.329 It's like a, it's like a pitcher of water that has been tainted by a drop of ink, right? 00:17:43.339 --> 00:17:44.569 The ink ruins the whole picture. 00:17:45.319 --> 00:17:47.089 It doesn't just ruin a little bit of it. 00:17:47.090 --> 00:17:48.470 It diffuses into the whole thing. 00:17:48.471 --> 00:17:51.529 The whole thing's the only way that you get clean water. 00:17:51.690 --> 00:17:55.609 Again, you've got to change out the water, and this is what we believe that Jesus did on the cross. 00:17:55.759 --> 00:18:08.869 He changed out the water to his living water that's inside of us, but since much worse than you thought, everybody who is under the law, you thought that the law could save you that if he does, did it just.... 00:18:09.079 --> 00:18:16.299 You didn't punch your brother, you'd be set, but the problem is your hearts still broken by sin. 00:18:19.210 --> 00:18:29.880 The problem isn't behavior and listen, the law isn't why you give your heart to somebody relationally, right? 00:18:30.109 --> 00:18:31.369 It's, it's about love. 00:18:33.910 --> 00:18:42.660 Yes, marriage has a legal part of it, but that's not why you're in love, because you follow the law. 00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:44.490 That'd be like somebody coming to me. 00:18:45.779 --> 00:18:47.190 Jason, do you love your wife? 00:18:48.150 --> 00:18:51.970 Well, I didn't cheat on her slap. 00:18:53.470 --> 00:18:54.309 Not a good answer. 00:18:54.310 --> 00:18:58.720 I don't think that's one of the five love languages like, well, I didn't cheat on you. 00:18:59.859 --> 00:19:03.250 No, I mean that's that because love is relational. 00:19:05.079 --> 00:19:08.289 Love is relational and you see this all throughout the scripture. 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:16.000 Even the whole idea of adoption that we were adopted, sons and daughters of God has a legal transaction to it, but why do you do it in the first place? 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:16.329 Because of love. 00:19:16.330 --> 00:19:21.019 Love always proceeds the law. 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:29.319 It's about knowing God, not just information about God. 00:19:29.320 --> 00:19:30.130 Okay, let's keep going. 00:19:32.670 --> 00:19:36.809 Second part of verse 20 no, just kidding. 00:19:39.509 --> 00:19:44.099 We'll go with, I thought it was at a different spot. 00:19:44.101 --> 00:19:44.309 Okay. 00:19:44.310 --> 00:19:45.509 The whole world held accountable to God. 00:19:45.510 --> 00:19:55.500 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law, rather through the law, we become conscious of our sin. 00:19:55.829 --> 00:20:02.910 In other words, that's Paul thinks that's the real use of the law is that it shows you that you're broken, that you can't measure up. 00:20:04.599 --> 00:20:07.180 It lets you know that sin is a problem for you. 00:20:11.710 --> 00:20:25.000 Now, here's the radical thing he says, but now apart from the law, now imagine you are a Jewish believer and you are hearing this, that you believe the law is what creates righteousness. 00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:32.019 And he says, but now apart from the law, this would have been like an explosion in their ears. 00:20:32.380 --> 00:20:42.039 They would've thought this was total blasphemy says, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. 00:20:42.279 --> 00:20:52.670 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to who believe that Jesus is the way that we receive the righteousness of God. 00:20:52.700 --> 00:20:58.579 There's a little rabbit trail here that I just want to let you know about because it gets a lot of ink spilled on it. 00:20:59.690 --> 00:21:03.140 And that is this little phrase, faith in Jesus Christ. 00:21:03.319 --> 00:21:06.589 If you've ever been to seminary, or you've taken seminary classes? 00:21:06.590 --> 00:21:15.140 Or maybe you've heard of this in your travels, um, is that the Greek in this place can offer two different definitions equally. 00:21:16.009 --> 00:21:21.430 In fact, it's debated as to which one it is, and it just has to do with law. 00:21:21.470 --> 00:21:25.220 Like in English, you have a genitive tense and it's, is it objective or subjective? 00:21:25.221 --> 00:21:34.250 Don't worry about any of that, but you could translate this phrase that this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ, which is what most of you have in your current Bibles. 00:21:34.250 --> 00:21:36.140 Or it can read this. 00:21:36.141 --> 00:21:51.029 Righteousness is given through the faith of Jesus Christ to all who believe that it was the faith of Christ that makes us righteous. 00:21:51.049 --> 00:21:52.849 It's not our faith that does it. 00:21:53.059 --> 00:21:55.970 We believe in him and actually even our faith is imperfect. 00:21:56.420 --> 00:22:01.339 So it's the faith of Jesus that makes us righteous or faith in Christ. 00:22:01.549 --> 00:22:06.230 I think, uh, the reason why I think this matters is I like both. 00:22:06.230 --> 00:22:07.940 I think both work. 00:22:08.210 --> 00:22:16.759 Interestingly, it's not until Martin Luther comes around that they translated it faith in Christ before that it was faith of Christ all the way through first 1500 years of Christianity. 00:22:17.390 --> 00:22:18.319 Interesting, right? 00:22:18.349 --> 00:22:26.650 But the whole idea and the point is this, righteousness is not something that we can create that we can earn rights into. 00:22:26.651 --> 00:22:27.950 This is a gift. 00:22:29.980 --> 00:22:32.650 That to me doesn't sound like an obligation of the law. 00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:35.789 It's out of love that we give gifts. 00:22:36.359 --> 00:22:43.400 God gives the gift of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:49.119 File that away in information that's slightly interesting. 00:22:49.470 --> 00:22:51.970 All right, well let's continue. 00:22:51.971 --> 00:22:58.400 Verse 22 there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. 00:22:58.401 --> 00:23:04.250 In other words, Jewish folks, if you thought just the fact that you lived under God's law was going to make you right with God. 00:23:04.339 --> 00:23:07.700 Sorry, you're just as bad as the Gentiles. 00:23:08.119 --> 00:23:25.880 Reason is that it's a heart problem, not a behavioral problem for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God in all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came through Jesus Christ. 00:23:27.859 --> 00:23:36.529 In other words, sin is much worse than you ever thought, but the grace of God is much better than you ever imagined. 00:23:40.410 --> 00:23:45.309 Sin runs deeper and further than you ever thought, but so does God's grace. 00:23:53.460 --> 00:23:54.390 so what did we do with this? 00:23:54.420 --> 00:23:56.670 How do we land this in our everyday life? 00:23:56.671 --> 00:23:57.960 Cause that's the important thing, right? 00:23:57.990 --> 00:24:03.359 It's not just information about God, but how does this inform our everyday walk with God? 00:24:03.779 --> 00:24:08.519 How does this help us take a step of hearts on the road of faith? 00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:13.009 And so we asked what is the Roman road? 00:24:13.010 --> 00:24:21.319 The Roman road is this journey of taking a step of your heart each each step along the way. 00:24:22.009 --> 00:24:28.549 So what the first marker on the road marker one is for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:24:28.550 --> 00:24:32.869 This is the fundamental understanding of what it means that Jesus did for us on the cross. 00:24:33.049 --> 00:24:39.279 If we don't get this, we don't get the gospel that we can't measure up. 00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:42.539 We actually need a savior. 00:24:42.569 --> 00:24:44.759 We cannot save ourselves. 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:51.039 You would think that this is painfully obvious just looking at the world, but it's not. 00:24:51.040 --> 00:24:52.059 There are many believe that. 00:24:52.060 --> 00:24:54.700 Well, it's just human nature. 00:24:54.910 --> 00:24:57.220 It's just how people are. 00:24:57.519 --> 00:24:59.049 At least I never killed anybody. 00:24:59.050 --> 00:24:59.950 It's not that bad. 00:24:59.980 --> 00:25:00.339 Yeah. 00:25:00.420 --> 00:25:04.799 If I might tell a couple of white lies, right? 00:25:04.800 --> 00:25:08.190 We love to talk ourselves into being the heroes of our own story. 00:25:08.220 --> 00:25:13.319 You know, I had a really good reason that I did that horrible thing. 00:25:13.920 --> 00:25:15.059 Yeah, it wasn't great. 00:25:17.980 --> 00:25:22.480 But no, this is the fundamental understanding that we are not our own saviors. 00:25:22.660 --> 00:25:24.339 We fall short, all of us. 00:25:25.670 --> 00:25:31.799 But that's why the gospel is such good news is that we all can be forgiven. 00:25:31.800 --> 00:25:34.799 I don't care how bad you've been on care, how far away from God you've been. 00:25:35.579 --> 00:25:40.170 I mean, thinking about this, there's nothing you could do to make God love you any more than he already loves you. 00:25:41.660 --> 00:25:44.569 And there's nothing you can do to make him love you less than he already loves you. 00:25:48.069 --> 00:25:50.259 How does that impact your life? 00:25:54.460 --> 00:25:56.049 How does that change the way you live it? 00:25:56.050 --> 00:25:57.339 By knowing that about God? 00:26:00.460 --> 00:26:05.079 I think for some of us it's like, it's very practical. 00:26:05.259 --> 00:26:08.980 You know, it's not, um, well, you didn't go to church enough. 00:26:10.119 --> 00:26:13.329 Your attendance at church is not what saves you. 00:26:15.190 --> 00:26:16.509 You're just like, Oh, thank God. 00:26:17.380 --> 00:26:17.759 Oh, thank you. 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:21.609 It's not about that. 00:26:22.269 --> 00:26:25.240 And then other people are like, dang, I've really good attendance. 00:26:25.240 --> 00:26:33.069 It's not, our behavior comes from the relationship of love. 00:26:33.070 --> 00:26:43.150 The reason why I care for my wife, well, clean off her car after it snows, Whatever it is that I do to show an act of love. 00:26:43.151 --> 00:26:49.180 It's because of the relationship and my behavior is to support the fact that I love her. 00:26:49.181 --> 00:26:54.640 This is the same in our relationship with God it's a relationship because I love God so much. 00:26:54.641 --> 00:27:04.180 I want to be with God's people at church to learn more, to worship him together, to receive communion together, to feel the presence of the Holy spirit in my life. 00:27:05.079 --> 00:27:09.789 I want to do those things because I love him and I want to love him more. 00:27:14.990 --> 00:27:16.250 It's not about legalism. 00:27:17.569 --> 00:27:18.470 It's about freedom. 00:27:20.549 --> 00:27:22.680 It's about saying, I love God so much. 00:27:23.009 --> 00:27:24.000 I don't want to be without him. 00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:32.460 You know, like when you've been in those stages of relationship where you're just obsessed with somebody, you know, you just can't stop thinking about them. 00:27:35.619 --> 00:27:36.609 What if? 00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:39.069 What if it was like that with God? 00:27:39.400 --> 00:27:40.089 Here's the thing. 00:27:40.869 --> 00:27:49.000 I've never met anybody in my life who felt like they were growing closer to God who said their life got worse ever. 00:27:50.660 --> 00:27:59.380 A hundred percent a hundred percent every person that I ever knew that ever said they were growing closer to God, it felt like their life was better. 00:28:03.059 --> 00:28:08.930 Maybe now, maybe this year, that longing in our hearts can be satisfied fully. 00:28:09.500 --> 00:28:10.009 And finally