From the Blog
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God’s Righteousness Through Faith
Are you right with God? Every religion asks this question. And all of them but one, give the same answer–– it depends on your spiritual report card. If you have good moral and religious grades, then God will accept you. But this is not the answer given in Christianity. Authentic Christianity actually informs us that…
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God and Human Accountability
We are all born with a kind of moral compass, an intuition for right and wrong, called a conscience. We even have a desire for justice and accountability in this world. From our earliest memories, we have a desire for fairness. Yet, the world is not fair. And justice doesn’t reign. Unfortunately, our idea of justice tends to be more for everybody else, while we make excuses for our own sin, calling them mistakes, shortcomings, bad habits, etc. But rarely, sin.
Paul has something to say about God and human accountability. In Romans 3:1-20, the apostle Paul concluded that all humanity–– whether the pagan Gentile, the self- righteous moralist, or the outwardly religious–– all humanity is accountable unto God for their sin and therefore in desperate need of the gospel. We can be convinced that we are all accountable unto God for our sin and in desperate need of the gospel. -
God and the Religious
Why do we need this gospel which grants us the “righteousness of God?” Well, that’s the question that Paul spends the next portion of his letter answering. From Romans 1:18 all the way up to Romans 3:20, Paul explains why everyone needs the gospel. In Romans 1:18-32, we looked at why the irreligious and Gentile pagan need the gospel. Last Sunday in Romans 2:1-16, we discussed why the moral, self-righteous need the gospel. Today, we’ll be looking at Romans 2:17-29 in a message we’ve entitled, “God and the Religious,” discussing why the outwardly religious, whether it’s Judaism or Christianity or any other religion, will not make us right with God. The religious need the gospel!
We live in the middle of the Bible Belt. I thought about titling this sermon, “God and the Bible Belt.” Because people who live in the Bible Belt need the gospel. Just because you’re an flag-flying, BBQ-eating, church-going, American, that doesn’t mean you’re right with God. True Christianity is not about religion, but a relationship. Outward religion does not please God. In Romans 2:17-29, the apostle Paul told the Jews that their outward religion would not make them righteous before God. We can recognize that outward religion will not make us righteous before God. -
God’s Judgment Revealed
The truth is, we usually think of God’s judgment as something that someone else needs a good dose of! Many think that they don’t need the gospel because they are a good person and therefore God won’t judge them. But Paul’s letter to the Romans has something to say about that. In the book of Romans chapter 2:1-16, Paul warned the self-righteous that they would have no defense
before God’s judgment. We can understand that our own attempts at self-righteousness will provide no defense before God’s judgment. -
God’s Wrath Revealed
Why do we need the gospel? Is it so we can be better parents, have better marriages, experience greater happiness? Sure, these are benefits of receiving the gospel by faith. But no, they do not get at the real reason that we need the gospel. We need the gospel because we have offended God’s righteousness.…
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God’s Gospel Revealed
In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul told the believers in Rome that he was eager to reveal God’s gospel to them as it had been given to him. We can receive God’s revealed Gospel as it has been offered to us. The gospel that reveals God’s righteousness calls us to God, obligates us…
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Physical Touch
We all have a basic human need for physical touch. It’s definitely an important love language. But how can we apply it to expressing our love and worship of God? We can offer our physical bodies to God as worship. We can say, “Jesus, you offered your body to save us, so we’re offering our…
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Acts of Service
All our service, at home, at work, and at church can be an expression of love and worship for our Lord. But it has to come from the heart. It’s all about serving out of our wholehearted love for the Lord, not out of some sense of earning or duty. So how can we express…
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Giving Gifts
How can we express our love and worship with all heart, soul, mind and strength? It’s only possible because God has first loved us.
How has God loved us first? He created us. He gave us everything we have and everything we are. And even though we have rebelled against Him in sin, He loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus to redeem us. And to those of us who believe in Him, He has given us His Spirit to live in us, making us His children, and promising us eternal life with Him forever in glory. That’s how He has loved us!! So what gift can you give to the Lord to express your love and worship to Him? In the gospel according to Mark, Jesus commended the extravagant gift of worship given by the woman who anointed Him. We can learn to express our worship by giving to the Lord from this woman’s example. -
Quality Time
Without routinely giving God our Quality Time or “Undivided Attention,” we will struggle to know and be known by God. We will find ourselves feeling distant from Him, despite how much we might do for Him. We will struggle to perceive His will for our life and will be shaken by the questions that come with each day. We will find ourselves feeling tired, no matter how much rest we get.
In Mark 6, Jesus dismissed his disciples and the crowd and intentionally went off alone to give God His undivided attention. As we learn from Jesus’s actions in this story, we too can worship God with our undivided attention.