Romans - Masterclass 101
Romans Chapter 1 through Chapter 3
Good Friday Service
April 7, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman
Come join us in person or online in the worship of our Savior as we look at the price He paid for us on the Cross. The service will be interactive, and nursery care will be available in the ARK. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24
The Triumphal Entry
April 2, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman • Mark 11:1–11, Matthew 21:4–5, Zechariah 9:9, Luke 19:39–44, Luke 23:8
This week we will be celebrating Palm Sunday or the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem to present Himself to the nation of Israel as their long awaited Messiah. It begins a week filled with great highs and great lows. It's full of drama, doubt, darkness, questions, and pain and all of that eventually gives way to the triumphant joy of the resurrection. We, who know Jesus, enter it with both apprehension and anticipation as we watch death give way to life. It is our prayer that you will walk through the Triumphal Entry, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday with new eyes ready to be moved again by the wonder of the Gospel.
Missions Sunday with Pastor Onesmus Kibera
March 26, 2023 • Pastor Onesmus Kibera • Titus 2:10–11, 2 Thessalonians 1:3–12
Join us as we welcome Pastor Onesmus Kibera from Mount Kenya Baptist Church in Nanyuki Kenya to preach the gospel and share the gospel work in East Africa. Mount Kenya Baptist Church is a local New Testament Bible teaching, Bible believing congregation in Kenya with a passion for missions.
12 Romans Masterclass - A Global Gospel
March 19, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman • Romans 3:27–31
As we conclude this first semester of the book of Romans Paul will declare that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is universally relevant and culturally transcendent. Our God is the God of the whole world, and He has left signposts throughout the multitude of human cultures that the earnest evangelist can use to connect the timeless truth of Jesus living, dying, and rising again to the spiritual needs of every person. His promise of eternal life to all who believe is available to anyone who would believe.
11 Romans Masterclass - The Best News Ever
March 12, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman • Romans 3:21–26
Have you ever received good news before? Of course you have. We love good news and wish we got more of it. This week the apostle Paul, in his masterclass on the Gospel, will take a turn from the bad news to the good news. We will touch the depths of true grace, true love, and true beauty as we consider the truths of justification, redemption, and propitiation. And, just as the bad news was really bad, the good news is really good. In fact, it's the best news ever.
10 Romans Masterclass - The Worst News Ever
March 5, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman • Romans 3:9–20
Have you ever been lost before? Most people are lost before they realize they’re lost. That’s the common human experience. We’re born lost but because “lost” is our natural state, we don’t realize it. This week the apostle Paul will seek to convince us that apart from Jesus Christ we are hopelessly and desperately lost. And what is worse is the fact that mankind’s “go-to” move to deal with his lostness - religion, doesn’t work. That makes this week the worst news ever.
09 Romans Masterclass - How do we change God?
February 26, 2023 • Pastor Andy Shanks • Romans 3:1–8
The guilty rarely want to admit their guilt. It’s natural to want to blame someone else for our actions or to argue that we shouldn’t be held accountable for our choices. We want to question God and hold Him to the light of judgment rather than allow ourselves to be judged by Him. The problem with that is this - our God will always be true to Himself no matter what we believe or do, and His way will always prevail. Join us as we explore this reality and what our response ought to be.
08 Romans Masterclass - Religion Profits Nothing
February 19, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman • Romans 2:17–29
Spiritual practices can be immensely important in the life of a believer, but they become dangerous the moment they devolve into religious practices. The world sees little difference between Christianity and the other major religions, but the apostle Paul is clear to say that Biblical Christianity isn’t a “religion” and religious practices are of no benefit. It is our prayer that this week’s text reminds us that eternal life isn’t found in climbing religious ladders but in a sincere faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
07 Romans Masterclass - The Conflicted Conscience
February 12, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman • Romans 2:12–16
It’s popular in culture to encourage people to follow their heart. The Bible, however, says that the heart is bent toward sin. The Scriptures would point us to our God-given sense of right and wrong, otherwise known as our conscience. The conscience, however, is only a reliable guide to the degree that it has been biblically trained. Sin can sear our conscience and grace can melt it, make it moldable, and teachable.
06 Romans Masterclass - The Condemnation of the Moral Man
February 5, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman • Romans 2:1–11
Have you ever met a hypocrite and thought to yourself, “I want to be just like them”? Probably not. Hypocrisy is almost universally despised and yet we can all play the part from time to time. In this week’s passage the apostle Paul is going to warn the moralist against the hypocritical judgement of others. The reality is that even if our morals make us distinct from the culture at large, they never place us above it, and they certainly cannot save us.
05 Romans Masterclass - From Pleasure to Pain
January 29, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman • Romans 1:24–32
For most people the thought that God would simply allow them to chase their pleasures, happiness, and passions down any road they like would sound like a dream come true. In reality it’s a nightmare and a sure sign of God’s passive wrath upon an unbelieving world. This week we explore what happens when the human heart is allowed to run wild. The result is never pleasure. It’s pain.
04 Romans Masterclass - Evidence
January 22, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman • Romans 1:18–23
The universe we live in is unimaginably vast and all of it exists for one singular purpose – to display the glory of our creator God. In this week’s text the apostle Paul will make it clear that creation is designed to reveal truths about the existence and character of God and only a fool would turn a blind eye to it all. And, yet we live in an day where it is increasingly popular to claim there is no God. This week we will examine the reasons why and the results of such a false and foolish belief.
03 Romans Masterclass - Gospel Indebtedness
January 15, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman • Romans 1:8–17
As Americans, we understand financial indebtedness, but do we, as Christians, understand Gospel indebtedness? Paul is clear that the Gospel is not ours to keep. The Church has been given the Gospel as a trust. We are caretakers of it until it's given to its intended recipients. Who are they? They're the lost people around us. In that sense, we are indebted to the world until we give them the good news of God. Let us fulfill our obligations and not be thieves of what belongs to another.
02 Romans Masterclass - It's All About God
January 8, 2023 • Pastor Doug Forman • Romans 1:1–7
The book of Romans isn’t just theological. It’s also deeply practical and relational. Therefore, the apostle Paul opens this great work by briefly introducing himself, and then he wastes no time getting into his favorite subject: the Gospel of God in Christ. Paul is clear that his aim was to see the nations come to faith in Jesus Christ for the sake of God’s great name. We pray that his one ambition would be ours and everything we do would be bent towards that one overarching ambition.