So Romans is where we're gonna be, and we are gonna be starting today a new series in the book of Romans. And this will probably be the longest campaign, if you could call a series a campaign, the longest campaign that we have done in many years as a church, that Romans will probably take us into next summer or until the Lord returns. We'll see what he has today. But given the fact that I'm gonna read 7 verses and preach one of them, we may be here a while. So Romans chapter 1, we're gonna begin reading in verse 1. And as we read, let's remember, new book of the Bible, but this too is God's very word.
Word. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of the faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God's Word.
And Lord, we pray your blessing over the preaching and the hearing of your Word. Lord, I particularly pray as we open a new book of your Holy Scriptures that you would meet us and change us as we encounter your word. May week after week we be changed individually, as families, but Lord, I also pray, I pray that this book would mark us as a church in a profound and unique way, as a way of opening the next chapter of our church. In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, I thought it would be nice today to begin with a list of hurtful things that people have said about me over the years. You're not great at sports, huh? That was said to me at a basketball court at about age 12. It proved to be true. You're not really Hispanic, said to me by some folks from Mexico at age 15. You're not from somewhere really important, someone said to me when they were from Washington, D.C. You're a bad Shepherd, someone said to me, an angry departing church member. Now these phrases and many others live rent-free in my mind despite the fact that many of them were said to me years ago. They still rattle around in my brain. And I wonder if we peeked inside your brain what phrases rattle around inside yours. You're just blank. You're not blank. You always blank. Whatever those things are that are hurtful, that kind of stick with you, that you can recall viscerally from a decade ago or 30 years ago. And when that happens, my brain often tries to bring other things, other phrases to counteract them, to kind of stabilize myself. Somebody's saying, you're not good at sports. I think, well, but somebody else said I was smart. Right? So, you know, it's okay. Or somebody going, well, you're not from anywhere important. But somebody else told me you're very successful. Or somebody told me you're not very Hispanic. Or, right, you're not really Hispanic. And then I remember my Nana saying, you're a good grandson, mijo. Right? You, you, you, you bring these things, but, but you see how unstable your mental world is, your self-identity is. At one moment you feel like the worst, and then you try to accumulate and feel better, and it's always shifting, isn't it? Always moving.
And the person you see when you look in the mirror, you often see this, this collection of things that people have said about you, and perhaps even things that people have said to you decades ago that still live in your heart, or things you say about yourself. You're a loser. You're a failure. You're never going to be blank. Whatever those things are that live rent-free in your mind, I want you to think about them today because that mental world is exactly where Romans chapter 1, verse 7 is aimed for. For us today. I want to encourage you to, as we walk through this single verse, to fill in the blank. I am blank. What is it that you would fill in the blank that you think, man, that really has shaped my life? Or perhaps at my worst moments, that's what I believe. Because Paul the Apostle is about to go to work on this church and on our hearts together.
Now, you might think, well, but how can an ancient book written by another guy 2,000 years ago say anything about me? You don't— this is one of the things we often think about other people. They don't understand my world. They don't understand what my mental world is like, the things I think. So how could Paul, 2,000 years before this write something that would reorder everything we think about ourselves? Well, 2 reasons. Number one, it's the Word of God. And so God knows you better than you know yourself. But second, humanly speaking, Paul is also writing to a group of people he doesn't know. Paul is not writing to the Roman Christians because he planted this church or because he has visited even this church. He is writing, in a sense, a letter of introduction to the church. So, when you've never met somebody before, you often think, well, what do I say? What do I know about them? You go through your Rolodex of like, do I know— especially in El Paso— do I know anybody's cousin that's related to their cousin? Or, you know, like in El Paso, you're like, oh yeah, I went to high school with his cousin's nephew's sister's neighbor. Right? Like, we're trying to think, do I know— what's my connection to these people. Paul really, he knows a few folks at the Roman church, but he really only knows one thing about this church in Rome. He knows that it is made up of Christians. And in so writing to the Romans, Paul writes a letter, a phrase, a sentence that is true of all of us who are Christians, all of us who are in Christ. And so, Paul's going to introduce the idea. We're going to back up next week and get kind of the context of Paul and his apostleship and all of that stuff. But right now, we're just going to focus on the bare essentials of what it means to be a Christian and hear Paul reshape our identities today.
6 · Thesis statement of the sermon
Because Paul knows one thing about you and about me. If you are a Christian, you are in Christ, and therefore your identity is not constantly up for grabs. It's not constantly unstable. Paul is going to grab us and ground us in our identity related to Christ. So we're going to have 3 sections today. I am, I have, and I know. And by the end of this, I want you to be able to go to work at that phrase that may have been defining you or could be defining you today. Then reshape it by being in Christ.
7 · Begins unpacking Romans 1:7 with emphasis on the universal scope ('to all those in Rome')
Number one, I am. Look at verse seven. To those who are in Rome, actually notice this: to all those in Rome, meaning it's not like this is true for fifty percent of the church, sixty percent of the church. To every single Christian in Rome who are loved by God and called. To be saints.
8 · Expounds 'loved by God' as the first identity reality
Now, this first phrase, I— the first thing you know about yourself in Christ is that I am loved by God. Now, this is an unusual way to greet a Roman church. This greeting bears a lot of common similarities with a lot of Paul's other letters in the New Testament, but this phrase is unique. To this congregation and this letter, that phrase, who are loved by God. Now, here's what I love. Paul, I think, is upending so much Roman culture from the very beginning, reshaping it from the inside out, because Rome was not a touchy-feely city in many ways, okay? These aren't the, like, sensitive Athenian, philosophers in Greece, you know, thinking about, oh, life, or they're not the artists of other parts of Italy. This church is in Rome, right? What did Rome value? Rome valued glory, might, and power, right? This is a church that wants to redefine itself by how many victories have you won? How many votes do you command in the Senate? How many, people do you know? What can you get done? Right? Paul, Paul knows that this church is constantly defined in relationship to power and might and glory and strength. And so from the very beginning, he undercuts it and says, the first thing I know about you, Roman Christians, is not who you know, not how much power you have, not how much might you have. The first thing I know about you is that you are loved by God. Now that, that should land on us. Do you, Christian, believe deep in your bones that God really loves you? Or do you carry a low-level fear that at any moment God might turn away from you or finally get fed up with you. A number of years ago, I was dating my wife Jen long distance. She lived in D.C., and I was taking trips out to see her. And I don't know if you've experienced this, but sometimes after, you know, a date, you'll kind of replay how it went on the way home. Like, yeah, that was fine, but I said that, she didn't really laugh, and I'm like, that's so stupid. I shouldn't have said that. I should have said, you know. And then you could think of the funny thing to say later, you know, or the, you know, I, you know, and then I said like, hey, I'm really having a nice time. And she said, uh-huh. And you're like, oh, you know, you're replaying all of that. Well, guys, I had like 8 to 10 travel hours after every time I visited Jen. And here's what I would often do. I would often convince myself by the time I got back to El Paso that she was about to break up with me every time. Every time I was like, yeah, this is over. It's, It's so over. And here's the problem. The problem is that in that moment of sort of getting to know somebody, you're dating, you're trying to figure out, is this gonna work? Often what I would do in my mind is I would try to come up with almost like, here's my resume of lovability, right? Listen, I'm not tall, but I am kind of smart, or I'm not this, but I am that. And I would look at my resume and I'd think, okay, I'm not tall, I'm not good at sports, I'm not gonna make a lot of money, If I become a pastor, apparently, that's what they're saying. I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna have a lot of power. You know, I'm not gonna be important in those ways. I'm not gonna do this. And you're gonna have to move if you marry me. And all these things. This is my resume. And I would look at the resume and go, yeah, there's nothing here. This resume does not equal enough lovability to receive the love of this girl. Now, thankfully, in God's kindness, she chose to love me anyway. And it has a happy ending. We're married and we have 3 kids. And so it's going great. But don't we often do that in our relationships where we come up with our resume of lovability? Does all of the things I am or have or do, does it equal this person loving me? And friends, here's the challenge. We often do the exact same thing in our relationship with God. Even Christians like us that are, that are like used to talking about God's grace, even Christians that go to a building called Cross of Grace, we can in moments tally up how lovable we are and think, I don't have anything to present to God to attract his love to me this week. I have messed up again. I am not smart enough to navigate this. I did not keep my word here. I have landed in trouble again. And we come to the Lord and we think, I, I am not going to be loved based on this resume. And here is the beautiful thing. Paul starts, to all those in the church who are loved by God. Friends, this is the word of the Gospel. In the Gospel, Christian, you are not loved by God because of how lovable you are. In Christ, Christian, you are loved by God because God has set his love on you. And that's it. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says this, it is almost impossible to believe it, and yet as certainly as we are alive at this moment, we are Christians for one reason only, and that is that God has set his love on us. Oh, friends, it is not as though we're putting together our resume, and you know what you do with a resume? You try to, like, cover gaps and try to make things look nice, and, like, you know, like, you know, picking up coffee for the team becomes logistics management on your resume, or, you know, And you're like, can I put something together that's gonna attract attention to me and get respect from me? And we do that as Christians. And Paul says, Christian, throw the resume aside. You are loved by God because you— because in Christ you are loved. But what if? Nope. You're loved. In Christ you are loved. Jesus says something astounding in John 15:9. He says, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. We could stop right there. We could just start singing. I think I'd be good with that.
9 · Unpacks 'called to be saints' by first clarifying what Paul does not mean (vocational calling) and then what he does mean (set apart for holiness and proximity to God)
But there is more. In Christ, friend, you are loved, and second, you are called to be a saint. Called to be a saint. Now, the reference point we often use for calling, we're going to talk more about this next week, is not what we as Americans often think of as calling. Calling in America often means like kind of vocation, like I have a calling to be a physician or I have a calling to serve the poor or something, something vocation-related. That's not what Paul is talking about here. Calling means— the word literally means called to be saints, means called to be set apart and holy. And it's actually closer to temple language. Okay? So, the church in Rome was a mix of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians that were Roman. And the Jewish Christians, when they think called to be saints, they would think of the Old Testament priests. And if you've never taken a tour through the Old Testament law regulations about what priests had to do or could do or did do or did not do. It's very interesting reading because there are many, many regulations about purify yourself this way. And before you do this, you have to do this other thing. And you have to wear these vestments. And you have to go on this day to this thing. And don't do this but do that. And all of that would be there. And, and they would be set apart. Like the Levites, the holy tribe would be set apart to do this particular work. And often the rest of the tribes would think, okay, we're all, you know, called to God, but, but they're more called to be closer to God. Or for the Romans. Rome was filled with temples. It was a pantheon of Roman gods. And each of them had their own attendants, their own special dresses and vestments and offerings. And, and they would go and they would try to petition the gods to be favorable to them. And so Here's the dichotomy. You have sort of the regular people and then the called to be set apart and close to God people. Right?
10 · Personal story illustrating how deeply the two-tier religious hierarchy (ordinary believers vs
Now, let me just say this. Here on the border, we have our own version of this in our minds at times. Uh, the, my whole extended family was Roman Catholic growing up, and my parents were the rare non-Roman Catholics. And so I spent a lot of time in Mass. Growing up, because there was always somebody being confirmed. You know what it's like if you're in a Hispanic family down here. Somebody's always getting confirmed. Somebody's always having a special Mass. Somebody's always getting married. Somebody's always getting buried. Somebody's, you know, we're marking the passing of somebody. There's just, there's always a reason. So we would be in Mass at times, and I'd be there with my grandmother, and I was, as a Protestant kid, shocked at how sort of set apart a bunch of the stuff was. Like, here, if we ran onto the stage, somebody would be like, okay, hey, buddy, you got to get off the stage, right? In the Roman Catholic Church, you run onto the stage, that's the altar, and you start picking up stuff, it's like the police are called. Like, there's a big deal, right? I remember thinking, like, what's this bowl of water? And I remember about to, like, you know, poke it and just be like, what is this? It smells interesting. And my grandmother, my Gambia, going, Mijo, do not touch the holy water. And I remember thinking, oh my. Oh my. You know, like you start to realize like, okay, we're over here and then up there, there's a bunch of stuff and those people and that stuff, that's the call to be set apart and close to God stuff. Right? But as a kid, I remember doing a Bible study with my dad. We were going through some book together or other as a kid, and he said, you know, in verses like this, and I would see grace and peace to you and those who are loved and called to be saints, and I would be like, okay. And I didn't even realize it, but without thinking about it, I had picked up that in my mind. Like, called to be, okay, the set apart, the special people. And then my dad said, you know, mijo, all of us in Christ are saints. And I looked at him and thought, that can't be right. Dad, that can't be right. I've been, you know, like the saints are the people that are up there, the close to God people, the set apart people, the service to God people. They're the people you go to. You go to the saints to ask them to help you. You're not one of those people. And my dad said, no, son, in Christ we are saints. And I thought, No, that's not right, Dad. And it turns out, after looking at the Bible, he was right.
11 · Applies the 'called to be saints' reality by demolishing the ordinary/elite Christian dichotomy
Now, why do I belabor that? Because, friends, all of us have, whether we're from a particular religious tradition or not, have this separation between there's me as a normal Christian, and then there's the people specially called and set apart to be close to God people. And Paul the Apostle and the Holy Word of God says this, if you are in Christ, you are called to be a saint. That you are called to be set apart to be near to the things of God by God Himself. Oh friends, so much of our identity problems are, if I could just achieve this, if I could just do this, if I could get this accolade, if I could get published, You know, if I could get the doctorate, if I could get to this level of management, if I could do this, if I could achieve this, then I would be happy. Friends, there is no higher calling. There is no higher identity than being called to be set apart, to be near to God, and to serve God. There's no higher calling than that. So all of a sudden it's like, okay, I don't need that stuff. We begin to be regrounded. I am loved and I am called.
12 · Signals shift from the first major section ('I am') to the second ('I have')
And then Paul gives us what we have. That's what we are, but what we have. We often are tempted to define ourselves as well by things that we have or don't have. I have this thing, I have this credential, I have this possession, I have this bank account, or I don't have those things and therefore I'm inadequate.
13 · Personal story of financial anxiety before pastor's college
Now, I remember a gut-check moment years ago when I was on my way to the pastor's college program that I participated in, and before entering kind of the school for the year, we were on a sort of what was supposed to be a family vacation retreat before we kind of buckled in and I studied for the rest of the year. And I wake up one morning and I realize, I think I have miscalculated part of our finances and the amount of money we need for this year. So, I get up and Jen's like, okay, hey, we're gonna go out and do this, and I'm like, no, no, no, we're not. And what I did is I spent the entire morning counting and recounting all of our assets to see how much we had going into this pastor's college year. And here's the irony. It should not have taken long because all of it said the same thing. You don't have anything. Right? It's like, you know, you check your account one more time, like, but I thought I remembered another zero in there. You know? And like, how much is my car worth if we have to sell it? Oh, that's not great. Apparently there's not a huge resale market for Pontiac Vibes. And you know, it's just, you know, you— and I remember counting, and then I remember the rest of the day having this feeling that we had just gotten married, we were just about to start careers, right? And I remember thinking, I have nothing. I don't have almost anything. And almost feeling like a hole in my heart the rest of the day. I should have something, but I don't have any. And here's what happens with our identities. That's often what happens. Either we have the lack of something in our life that tends to define us, or we're tightly clinging to this. Like, I have to have this. I have to have this money or this credential or this thing. I have to have this. Otherwise I'm not gonna be okay.
14 · Expounds grace as the first possession Christians have
And yet, Paul regrounds us in something far, far better by saying— look at what he says— to those who in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, what's his blessing? Grace to you and peace. Now notice something important here. He's not praying, oh, grace and peace over the church as if like, man, I hope you get some grace. I hope you get some peace. No, he's saying, As we'll see unpacked in the letter to the Romans. You have grace in abundance because of Christ. You have peace in abundance because of Christ. And I am praying, as we first encounter each other through this letter, that you have them all the more in abundance. So he's not saying, I hope you have some. He's saying, you do have some. May you have it all the more. And he is mashing up a Roman and a Jewish greeting here. Okay, so in Rome, there's a play on words where the Roman greeting is very close to charis, which is the word for grace. So he changes a couple letters, and basically, instead of saying greetings, says grace. And then he adds the traditional Jewish greeting, which is peace, or shalom. And so, these 2 words, friend, look, you may not have 2 nickels to rub together today, You may not have the things you hope to in life, or you may be desperately clinging to something. But this is what you have as a Christian, and it is far better. And the first thing you have is grace. Grace. Now, what does that mean? It means God's unmerited favor on the undeserving. It means that whatever we lack in this life, the one thing we have in Christ is the grace of God, the unmerited favor of God. Now, Dan Duriani points out that we're going to be unpacking the word grace for the next many, many months, so don't get sick of it yet. It's also in our name. So if you're not tired of seeing that yet, you're about to see it a lot more. Duriani says this: Paul uses grace 24 times in Romans. We are justified by grace, Romans 3. We rest on grace, Romans 4. We stand before God by grace in Romans 5. Dorioni points out, grace lets us enjoy success knowing that it is God's gift, and grace lets us endure adversity knowing that we still have his favor. I mean, isn't that a good word? That grace puts everything into perspective. It's like I could achieve the greatest thing I've ever imagined in life. Friends, it's still not as good as the unmerited favor of God Himself in Christ. And you could be going through the worst day you've ever experienced and think, I have nothing left of my life. You have one thing, friend. You have the unmerited favor of God that rests upon you. In Christ.
15 · Expounds peace as the second possession
You have that, you have grace, and then second, you have peace. Now, this word peace, we're going to unpack a lot in the letter to the Romans, but notice that it's the Jewish conception of peace that Paul has in view here. So, the American conception of peace usually is the absence of conflict. Think about it as a marriage thing, okay? There can be moments where you and your spouse are fighting, or you and a close friend are fighting, and then you stop fighting, and there's an absence of conflict, but you ain't at peace yet. You've just gone from a hot war to a cold war, right? It's the stage where your spouse asks, honey, are we okay? And you said, we're fine. We're fine. Do you want to talk more? Nope. Right? And you're thinking, I don't think that's peace. I mean, you're not fighting, but you're not at peace. So the Hebrew conception of peace is not just the absence of conflict, but the presence of wholeness. So it's that moment where you and your spouse get to the point where you're, you're repenting, you're crying, you're praying, you're embracing again. Right? That embrace is peace. And that is what Paul has in mind here. That we have this. This is, I mean, we're going to be unpacking this for months. We have this peace with God Himself. All right, we're going to go through over the next few months how much humanity and you and I have done to break the peace we have with God. To turn away from Him. To cast His things aside. To, to turn from the, the Creator to the creature and, and do all of these things to start open warfare against God. And, and what God does to insert Jesus Christ, sending Him as a substitutionary substitute that is, is dealt with as if He had committed our sins. And the end result is not only the absence of open warfare against God, but the presence of shalom and peace in our relationship. That the God who made us and the God we turned away from is the God who saved us and the God who reconciled us to Himself.
16 · Direct application of the grace-and-peace reality
Look friends, I don't know what you have in life. I don't know what your inventory of stuff is. But I know one thing you do have if you are in Christ. You have peace with God Himself. But you think, okay, if I don't have anything, at least I've got that. I don't know what your close relationships are, but when you have a close relationship with maybe a father or a mother or a spouse or a child, and you think, okay, whatever goes on in life, if we're okay, I can face anything. Or conversely, it doesn't matter what's going on that's good in life. If we're not okay, I can't face anything, right? Well, I think that is deeper and truer on the most fundamental level in our relationship with God. If we're not okay with God, we can't face anything. But if we're okay with God, we can face everything. Friend, I don't know what you're facing this week, but I guarantee you, if you are in Christ, you face it with the grace and peace of God, blood bought on the cross, and you have it in abundance. So count that. Don't count your bank account like I was trying to. Don't count your degrees. Don't count your friends. Don't count your followers online. Count the grace and peace of God.
17 · Signals shift to the final major section ('I know')
And third and last category is who we know. I am, I have, and I know. I know. Sometimes everything changes because you know the right person, doesn't it?
18 · Personal story of bureaucratic healthcare nightmare resolved by knowing a well-connected orthopedic surgeon
Years ago, I was battling chronic pain, and I got lost, as you may have experienced, in that labyrinth of doctors' offices and scheduling appointments and insurance forms and And I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but sometimes you end up in this weird spot where you're like, okay, well, we can't do anything until that doctor's office sends us that form. And you call the first doctor's office, can you send the form? And they're like, well, we can't. We need to have— the form has to be requested. We can't just give out the form. And you go to the second one, can you request the form? No, we can't. They have to send the form. And you're like, can we just get on the phone together? And they're like, okay, well, I can request the form. But not tomorrow. Why not? Because we're closed Tuesday. And you're like, oh my goodness. And once we get the form, we'll be able to start the scheduling process. And that scheduling process can take anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks. And, you know, and you're just going, oh my goodness, oh my goodness. Can I just walk in? Can I beg? Can I find the doctor at the supermarket, at Albertsons, and just beg them to take a look at my leg? Or, you know, it's like— and so I was lost in this, you know, going from appointment to appointment. And my parents said something. They reiterated an offer that they'd made way early on. They said, you know, if you don't— if you want to, we have a great relationship with our neighbor, and he just happens to be one of the top orthopedic guys in the city. And so finally, I got desperate enough, and I was like, okay, maybe just talk to the neighbor. I don't know who this neighbor is. Just talk to the neighbor. And so my parents text the neighbor, and he texts back, how's it going? Oh, it's great. Thanks for the pie, or whatever, you know. Can you see my son? And then they— he said, yeah, just call my office. I'll let him know. So I called the office the next morning, and I was like, hey, I know Dr. So-and-so. And they're like, oh yes, Dr. So-and-so told us to expect you. And I was like, when can I get in? They're like, tomorrow. I was like, tomorrow? They're like, yes, what time's good for you? And I thought, what time's good for me? And so, you know, I show up and they're like, oh, right this way. And then, you know, they're all like more mindful of me somehow. And the doc— and you know how sometimes you see like 5 people and then the doctor? I like see the doctor. He like shakes my hand. I'm going, what is happening? And Fred said, sometimes knowing the right person makes all the difference, doesn't it?
19 · Expounds 'God our Father' by contrasting the Old Testament's corporate/indirect use of fatherhood language with the New Testament's intimate, individual access opened by Christ
Well, in life, knowing the right person makes all the difference. The difference and read in light of that, read verse 7 again. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh man. Okay. It's not like, you know, a top orthopedic surgeon. It's like your Father is the sovereign King of the universe. And do you think he can make some stuff happen? I think he can make some stuff happen. If you're going, I just don't know how to navigate life, just talk to him. Right? Our Father. Listen, this phrase is profound. It can't be overstated. In the Old Testament, there were some references to God as Father. But they were often used indirectly. What I mean by that is they were often used of the nation. God is Israel's Father. But it would be an unusual thing for an individual believer in the Old Testament to be addressing God as their Father with frequency until the coming of Jesus Christ. And so Jesus comes, God the Father, God the Son in the flesh, and he teaches us to pray. Our Father who is in heaven. Right? Because Jesus knows he is going to the cross to open up this relationship in a new and profound way by reconciling us to God, by coming in grace and bringing peace, Jesus opens the way that we can relate to God, the transcendent Creator of the universe, The once offended, the once righteous judge arrayed against us, but because of what Jesus done, we relate to him as our Father.
20 · Unpacks the three-fold name 'the Lord Jesus Christ' to establish the magnitude of who believers know
Friends, I don't know who you know in life. I don't know who the people you think, well, at least I know this person. At least if I need help, I can talk to this person. Friends, Those are good. Those are gifts. But friends, you have somebody far better that you know if you are in Christ. You have a Father that loves you, that made you, that saved you, that cares about you. And not only— here's the thing. It's not even just our Father. Our Father and— you're thinking, what could get better? Okay. And the Lord Jesus. Christ. Each one of these is like a boom, a thunderclap. Lord, meaning the one worthy of highest respect and allegiance. Jesus, that word means Savior. It means God saves, literally. God saves. And Christ, meaning the— is a translation of the Jewish word Messiah, the promised mythical Savior, King. So not only do we have a Father, we have the Lord who saves, the promised Messiah himself. Now friends, that, that's unbelievable. If you read the Gospels, one of the things you see is that Jesus has command over area after area after area. Almost as if to demonstrate Yes, this thing owes its allegiance to me. Yes, I'm Lord over this. Yes, I'm Lord over that. So you'll have these areas like, what about nature? What about giant storms? He's the Lord over that. What about demons and all the evil spiritual forces? He's the Lord over that. What about sickness and disease that can't be cured? He's the Lord over that. What about this or that or this or that? He's Lord over all of it. And so friends, you know in Christ The one who is Lord over all. Oh, friends, you know a guy. And it's not just like, I know a guy who could do a transmission. That's a good guy to know. I know that guy too. But you know a guy who created the world, who saved you, who loves you, who showers you with grace and peace, who holds your future in his hands, and who is Lord over all things. Well, friends, that's finally a place to rest, isn't it?
21 · Establishes the polemical edge of Paul's greeting
Now, one last thing I want to point out here is that this, all of this, is profoundly countercultural as an opening to the letter to the Romans. Because here's what the Romans were used to doing. They're used to doing something that we're actually very good at doing in our day. The Romans were pantheon guys, right? There were— there could be an unlimited number of gods, and if you have a new god, great, just add them to the pile, right? It's like, you do Zeus, you do Apollo, you do Jupiter, you do, you know, Mercury. Okay, great, add them to the pile. We'll do a temple for them too. It's fine. Just bring them on in here. And, and you know what Paul does? From the very beginning of his letter to the Romans, he says Jesus is utterly different. Those words Lord, Savior, and King, oh friends, they were all used of Caesar. The Romans would say Caesar is Lord. The Romans were taught that The guy who saved them from the evil Gauls, the guy who saved them from the ugly tribes, the guy who saves them from all the threats outside, that's Caesar. And, and in fact, the Romans conceived of Caesar as a mythical savior king, right? Jonathan and I are reading that, we just finished reading the Aeneid, right? It's this whole mythical backstory basically to argue for Like, hey, actually Caesar's not just a guy. He's the, he's the basically culmination of thousands of years of history, of mythical history. They believed all of these things about Caesar. And so the Romans were more than happy for the Christians to show up as long as they were willing to place their Lord Savior King in the Pantheon. But Paul the Apostle, from the opening of this letter, shows up to the Roman Pantheon with a sledgehammer and says, no king but Christ, no Lord but Christ, no Savior but Christ.
22 · Applies the anti-syncretism claim to contemporary culture
And this is so important, guys, because today in our age, we have the same kind of syncretism and pantheonism Meaning, oh, you wanna believe in Jesus? Cool. I believe in this philosophy. I dabble in this religion. I also love money. I also wanna be loved by people. I'm bowing down to the god of love, the god of sex, the god of lust, the god of money, the god of power, the god of glory, the god of credentials. You know, just put Jesus on the pile. We'll make an offering to him too. And Jesus, look, Jesus will not coexist with these other gods. You will have them or you will have Jesus, but not both. And I will even go so far as to say, friend, if, if some of this is ringing slightly hollow where you're like, well, but I want to be loved and I want to be called and know that I'm set apart and I want to have grace, I want to have peace, and yet you've not experienced the fullness of it, let me encourage you. It may be because you're trying to keep one hand on Jesus and one hand on a bunch of other stuff. And going, well, the grace isn't working. It's because, friend, you got your hands full with something else. You need all of Christ for all of life.
23 · Evangelistic pivot addressing non-Christians directly
And so friends, let me encourage you. If you're not a Christian, this is a crazy Sunday to show up. We just took up a big offering. We prayed for a bunch of people you don't know. And now a guy is saying, I know more about you than you know about yourself from the Bible. Let me encourage you. This is true, but it, it is not yet true for you unless you're willing to say Jesus is your Lord. Jesus is your Savior. Jesus is your King. But friends, here's the good news. Here's the offer. If you are willing to say that, he will be those things for you today, and he will be your Father today, and you will experience his love and calling and grace and peace, not when you go out and do a thousand good deeds, but today. Won't you come to him today, friend? This is an invitation from 2,000 years ago left for you that you might come.
24 · Frames the closing prayer by identifying two life stages where identity instability is acute: teenagers/young adults (identity formation) and retirees (identity retrospection)
Now, I want to wrap this up. It just— I felt as we were ending, just 2 categories in particular that I want to pray for as we wrap this up. Because look, these are truths, guys, that are so simple you could write them on like a napkin, and so profound you will spend the rest of your life trying to live in the good of them. And so I want to pray for 2 groups in particular today to be— to have their identities reshaped by what we're talking about. And the first is, is those of you guys who are teenagers or early 20s, that you're right in that place where you're trying to figure out who you are. And you're trying to figure out, am I my GPA? Am I my last boyfriend or girlfriend? Am I my career? Am I this? Am I that? What, what, who am I? And I want to, I want to pray that God would reground you not in all the pantheon of stuff out there, but in here, in the, in the identity you have in Christ. And then I just feel led to pray for our retirees. Maybe you've recently retired, you're about to retire, you have retired a couple years ago. That's another place where your identity gets all topsy-turvy. You start looking back over your life going, who was I? Who am I? What do I have? Did that mean anything? What about this relationship? What about that? What's the sum of my life? What's my story gonna be? And I just want to pray that you'd be regrounded, not in all of the stuff out there, but all the stuff in here, in who you are in Christ.
25 · Closing prayer petitioning for both groups: that teens would be rooted and stable in Christ rather than tossed by cultural identity narratives, and that retirees would be freed from regret and fear by grounding in Christ rather than career summation
So would you stand? I'd love to pray for those, those 2 groups. And if you've got a teenager or know one, just put a hand on them as we pray for these folks. Lord, we pray over our teens right now, Lord. We gather around them and we just come to you because this is a world that constantly is telling people, you need this to be something. You need this. You don't have this. Lord, far too many of those in this stage of life grow to believe their maybe even internal words that they're a failure, they're a loser, they should be more, they could be more, they aren't this, they aren't that. Lord, I pray that today in the name of Jesus Christ you would reground them in their identity in the Lord. Lord, may they be rooted and solid and stable, not drifting, not tossed around. May you settle them in their hearts. May they not be restless. May they find their rest in thee. And may they Be a beacon then for a restless world looking for something better. And Lord, I also just pray for our retirees. If you got one around you, you know, just put a hand on 'em and say, Lord, we go to you on behalf of these folks. We ask that you would ground them in their identity, not, not in the sum total of what they think they have done in their career. Not in their own evaluation of themselves, but rather, God, their identity in Christ. And I pray that none of them would look back on the past with ungodly regret, that none of them would look to the future with ungodly fear, but rather they would be rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ. Assured of your love for them, assured of your grace for them, and assured of your relationship to them. Pray that you would seal these things in our hearts as we sing. Amen.