Romans
Calvary Chapel Cherry Creek
Romans 16 vs 1-27
December 1, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Romans Chapter 16 Verse 1 •Cenchrea was a bustling port located in Corinth. And Corinth was an ancient city-state within Greece. Why is that important? Because Paul is bold man. He is out to please only God…why would I say that? Because most likely, Phoebe is Greek. Most likely she is a gentile. In fact Phoebe is another name for Diana and Corinth’s most famous deity was who? You got it, Diana! •Matt, I’m still not seeing it. Well there’s one more piece to this brazen puzzle. Paul calls her a deaconess! That word servant there in verse 1, in the Greek, is diakonos and so with this one sentence…he has once again blown the top off of religion and specifically Judaism. Why? How? Because here we see clearly that women were in formal positions of ministry in the early church! •According to the writings of the church fathers, deaconesses visited the sick, helped young women grow in the Lord, and tended the poor…all the while by virtue of the office assigned to them by the church. The office of deaconess! •And what does Paul say, “I commend to you…” That is a magnificent word (commend) too! It is synistemi which literally means, “I stand with her, I ask you to do the same!” Powerful! This is Paul man…the great church planter, the miracle apostle! And he shatters the male chauvinism that was inherited by Judaism and inherent within the early church, even within the “church” today…shatters it into pieces! •And notice her qualification…the same qualification of any servant of Jesus Christ… Romans Chapter 16 Verse 2 •The word is helper. See that? Not that she has a powerful message, that she can show signs, that she has a gift…her qualification is that she is a helper…more specifically…a strengthener, a guardian, a protector, a provider…that is what that word means literally in the Greek. •Man folks want position and they want to lead because they have the capacity and the talent…but do you have the heart? Jesus said the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life…Mark 10:45. You might be brilliant, you might be a gifted speaker, you might have all the knowledge of the Word of God but look man, you do not serve Jesus Christ until your ministry is to strengthen those around you, guard them, protect them and provide for them. •God is not interested in growing your ministry. He’s interested in serving His children. But Matt, did you see how they treated me? Do you know what they say and how they say it? How they act and blah blah blah…whom do you serve? You, or the Lord? If it’s you…those things are paramount. If it’s Jesus, those things are unimportant…Now Paul will make provision in a moment for those that conduct themselves contrary to the Word of God continually, continually, continually…I call them, “not safe.” Why? Because they drive discord and division…drive it man…and what Paul will say is, “steer clear,” we’ll see that in a moment…but while you are clear of them guess what you are to be doing servant of the Most High…protecting them! Guarding them, providing for them and strengthening them in the eyes of others…and in prayer! •That is what I look for here. Many have come to me over the years with a message, with a ministry…with a request to serve formally…and immediately I access their file in my memory and I survey…are they strengthening others, are the protecting, guarding, providing for others? That is the qualification for ministry, that is the qualification of serving the Lord man…in your home, at work, at the store, at the park…and Paul makes that clear for us here…This is wisdom you pastors. You church planters. Anyone out there maybe reading these notes or listening in on the Podcast…protect your flock homes…lest the wolves creep in unnoticed and steal the little grapes…(reference to the Song of Solomon). •Now Paul launches off into a listing of 32 friends. 33 including Phoebe. Amazing. Can you name 33 folks in this room? Check this out, just a little tid-bit of practical knowledge here, a leader strives to remember folks’ names…Means something to them…and makes them mean something to you… Romans Chapter 16 Verses 3 – 7 •Paul mentions Priscilla and Aquila who are actually mentioned six times throughout his letters in the Bible and what’s cool is that four out of six times he names Priscilla first. This was a husband and wife ministry team and to name the wife first was a clear message. Why? Because in this culture, at this time, that was entirely unacceptable. The man would always be named first. But notice, many scholars believe that it was Priscilla who had the gift man…the gift of leadership and by Paul’s writing and his sure love for them, look he wasn’t going to offend them, no profit in that, and so we can confidently conclude that Aquila was not threatened by Priscilla’s ministry but rather he supported her…strengthened her, guided her, protected her and provided for her… •Now it seems Priscilla is front stage…does that make her the spiritual leader…not at all man…the position of leader is the position of humility man…and so this doesn’t set Priscilla over Aquila by Paul writing this but rather it elevates her, his wife, a female to a position of equality…isn’t that radical man!? Paul does it all the time! •In fact, it’s here again. I don’t know if you caught it. Verse 7. Paul names Junia which is a female name and Paul calls her an apostle! Awesome! So, in the church, can women be deacons…yes of course! Can women be ministry leaders? Yes of course! Can women be missionaries or apostles? Yes of course! How can we say that? Because we see it clearly right here in the Bible! The most perfect litmus check. Romans Chapter 16 Verses 8 – 13 •Apparently momma lived in Rome. Romans Chapter 16 Verses 14 – 16 •Guys, don’t get any ideas. This word for kiss here is literally the word for a fraternal greeting…so don’t try that as a cheesy pick up line! •Now after saluting, Paul turns to a warning… Romans Chapter 16 Verses 17 – 18 •Now, who in here has never offended someone else? And who in here has never been the cause of conflict? Right…not one of us. So what is Paul saying here? Should everyone just avoid everyone? The answer is in the Greek. The word for “cause” is poieo which literally means, “that’s what it do, man.” Ok let me try in the non-New-Matt-translation. Literally Paul is saying here, those that just roam about and can’t help themselves but just start scandals man…they are authors of division among folks…Jude helped us out in his epistle saying “they are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts…emotions is what he means… •So your brother offends, forgive him. But Paul says something wise here…inspect fruit man…and cling to what is good, abhor what is evil…remember that back in Romans 12? Paul states love for real in verse 9 and then be kind, affectionate and honoring in verse 10. But what’s right in the middle of that? This word abhor! Why? How? It almost doesn’t make sense. Well let me help. For love to flourish, there must be humility man…for kindness to not be sickening…you ever had someone who just despises you be kind to your face…makes you want to puke a little bit doesn’t it? Why, because it’s fake! •For honor and affection and kindness and love to be real and genuine, compromise must be rejected man…if you really want to serve Jesus, don’t speak evil of your brother! Cut it out! It’s going to get back to them. It’s going to offend and divide and really the only reason you’re doing it in the first place is to serve not Jesus, but your own lust! Repent from that! •But Paul says mark one (how? Judgment man! But I thought we weren’t supposed to judge? No no no, we are judges…that’s the point. The Spirit of God is within us! We aren’t to krino…to condemn but man judging is what we do. Check this out…inspect fruit, identify fruit. That is how we judge. What the world really is saying, is don’t offend me. Because if I judge you cute, you call it wisdom!) Paul says mark em man…mark one who makes this their job man…and ekklino them…turn aside from them…for several reasons. First, they don’t serve our Lord Jesus Christ. They might serve their homeboy Jesus. They’re cosmic Chris Cringle Jesus. They’re commodity Christianity Christ…but they don’t serve Jesus! Because as Jesus was mocked, spat upon, hated, cursed, slapped, flogged, abused and abused and abused…never did He turn to Peter or to John and crack a joke about Gameliel….never did He complain about Caiaphas…never! And you say you follow Him? How would you ever know that you are off track man…if I share in your folly? I choose to turn aside from that… •Second, if you follow the doctrine of Jesus Christ, you’re heart is simple. Paul doesn’t mean dumb there in verse 18, what he means is sincere. And sincere people are sometimes easily led down the prim rose path…sometimes easily pulled aside. In your sincerity to want to learn more about the Lord or to be students of the Word, don’t allow those who teach a different Jesus to come into your home. Don’t spend time arguing with them, evangelize them and depart, why? •Protection. Satan is clever man and many who have thought themselves strong theologically have succumbed to those who are inspired satanically. Another reason, prioritization. Invest your energy into the fields that are white and ready for the harvest man…Jesus said that in John 4:35…in the lives of those who are open to the truth…get with the seekers, step away from the suckers. •Finally, just don’t share in foolishness. Stuff that won’t survive past this dismal dark world. Stuff that would never happen standing in front of the Ancient of Days in His throne room. Are you really a real deal Christian? Then why on heaven and earth is today any different than that day! •Paul sums it up for us in verse 19. Romans Chapter 16 Verse 19 •What he says here is to be skilled in what is good, and unmixed with what is evil. Totally different word for simple than he used before. And the result? Offense? No. Division? No. Peace and Grace… Romans Chapter 16 Verse 20 •In no time…peace and grace man…peace and grace. Romans Chapter 16 Verses 21 – 22 •Tertius obviously penned this epistle under Paul’s dictation. In other words, Paul spoke it, Tertius recorded it. Romans Chapter 16 Verses 23 – 27 •From his own testimony as a bondservant of Jesus, to theological discussions such as salvation, grace, God’s sovereignty and righteousness…to historical examples and lessons from the lives of Abraham, Moses and Adam…to who we are, you and I, as saved, rescued sinners man…made well by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ…all the way to intense practical lessons…throughout Romans, the message has always been…God is able man…and God alone, wise.
Romans 15 vs 14-33
November 24, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Romans Chapter 15 Verse 14 •Real quick, see the pattern there? The end of it is admonishment. Which in the Greek means exhortation, or warning. We might think of it as instructing or guiding…telling folks what to do…see what I’m saying? But notice the beginning of it? Paul says, “I am confident that you are full of goodness.” Agathosyne in the Greek…and what it really means is kindness. Only used in three other places in the Bible. Twice in the context of spiritual fruit in Galatians 5 and Ephesians 5 and once in referring to the work of faith and power in 2 Thes 1. •So the beginning of it, it what it…admonishing man…is fruit! Whatchu mean? Like apples and oranges? No man…love, gentleness, kindness…then comes the knowledge and it is only then, after those two things…you arrive at leadership! Admonishment, exhortation and warning. Does that make sense? Because we often get that wrong…”I know what’s right, I got the knowledge…let me holler at ya.” But that is not the Biblical arrangement…Exhortation, admonishment, encouragement, correction, leading begins with being full of goodness… •And so Paul here is confident in their kindness, in their knowledge and he is saying here that he would expect that they could teach these truths themselves to eachother yet… Romans Chapter 15 Verses 15 – 16 •He says I’ve spoken boldly to you on some things, some tough truths, not only because I know you can handle them but because that is what I’ve been sent to you to do. See that? Because of the grace of God so that I might minister and in that ministry grow you in Jesus that your lives as a living sacrifice, an offering, might be found to be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Spirit…See that? He says look Romans, I got something for you in this letter. Go and seek, listen and learn, download it man and install…get the app homies…because in order to roll with God, get with righteousness, know power and the secrets of eternity, you gotta be sanctified by the Holy Spirit. •What’s that? Yea, another scratch and sniff given by Paul. Right there in verse 16. To be acceptable, the work we do, the prayers we pray, the ministry we have…must be sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Oh sanctified, what a churchy word…it simply means to be holy man…to be consecrated, separated, dedicated…to be fully rooted and focused on the Person of Jesus Christ. Wait, I thought Paul said sanctified by the Holy Spirit, not Jesus… •He did but what is the ministry of the Holy Spirit? To proclaim Jesus man! John 15:26, Jesus said, “When the Helper comes, the parakletos, the Holy Spirit, whom I shall send to you from the Father (here’s the Trinity in one verse!), the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He (a person!) will testify of Me!” And so yes, I know what Paul says here and I ask that you follow the scratch ‘n sniff! What he is teaching here is that for the work, the ministry, the marriage, the counsel, the day at work, the service at church, the prayer, the minute, the hour, the life…for it to be acceptable, answer this question in the affirmative…was it done for Jesus man? •Paul says that’s why I’ve come to you Romans in this letter. Not like last time when I tried to win you over with intellect. Remember that, Acts Chapter 17? When Paul preached in Athens only he didn’t preach the gospel, he preached an academic lesson…and no church was established! Not this time! This time it’s pure admonishment, filled with knowledge, rooted in goodness, sanctified by the Holy Spirit and fully acceptable to God…therefore…look at verse 17… Romans Chapter 15 Verses 17 – 18 •You see, he’s learned from the last time. I will not dare do it again he says. From here on out man, take it or leave it, I’m only going to teach that which I have learned myself…and what I have learned myself. And that’s quite simple…Jesus Christ came and declared that He was the Messaiah, the Savior…God in the flesh, stepped down into this mess of creation to save it…and then He taught ultimate wisdom, showed signs and wonders and foretold His death and resurrection…He said He’d take my sins to the cross…not just cover them with an animal sacrifice but do away with them entirely with His perfect sacrifice…and then He did it all…did it all! And lives today! •And notice this word obedient does NOT mean BOW DOWN! It means look there’s a truth, respond to it. If I tell you to step away from that ledge you’re about to die and you do it, would that not also be obedience? Obedience is not a bad word. It is not a demeaning or condescending word. It’s a word that means wisdom in light of the truth of an Almighty God! Romans Chapter 15 Verse 19 •Mighty signs, wonders and powers Paul says…yea Matt that sounds like my story man, that sounds like my life, what God has done, what God is doing…slow your roll hard charger…finish the verse. I know you got a story, I know you know it well, but Paul does not link mighty signs, wonders and powers to his story. What does he say here? “So that from HQ, Jerusalem, and round about to Illyricum, which was a major Roman province, I have fully preached my powerful testimony…nope. The gospel of Jesus Christ. •The power is in the gospel man…the power to change hearts. Mighty signs, wonders, powers. Sometimes our stories can insulate, our testimonies…they’re very powerful, no doubt, especially to those who have known us B.C., but simply point to the cross. Paul made that mistake in Acts 17…won’t do it again in Romans 15… Romans Chapter 15 Verses 20 - 21 •People have used this verse in the past to lay down territory…but that is really taking this verse out of context. He’s talking about reaching folks for the gospel…he just finished says “everywhere.” So he’s not talking really about geography but about primary ministry. Primary ministry? Yes! •In other words he doesn’t want to fish in an aquarium! He wants to go and find and catch new fish! Know what I’m saying? People say, oh we can’t plant a church here because there is one right on that corner there…non-sense! Are you telling me that it would be a bad thing to have a strip mall with 20 churches? It would be like heaven!! •I mean we love having Antioch so close to us that they even use this building!!! No we’re not talking geography here. We cannot have too many good Bible believing, Jesus loving churches! What we’re talking about here is that God has sent us to His lost sheep so if you start a new work, go get ‘em! What would be tragic is if those strip mall churches started to argue over folks…what ridiculousness! They want to go, let ‘em go…there’s more fish in the sea man! Only a few in the aquarium… •And so Paul says, I want to seek need, see need, find need and then fill the need…I don’t want to create need…know what I’m saying? That is the heart of the one in love with Jesus man…for sure! Romans Chapter 15 Verses 22 – 26 •Most scholars believe that Paul was writing this from Corinth. Not the most inviting place for him. His heart is to go back to Rome by way of Spain. But first he says that he is going back to Jerusalem. Why? Because they are King’s Kids and they are rolling in the luxury baby…name in and claim it! Prospering with the prosperity of the gospel there in the mother land…NOT AT ALL! •Notice what Paul says here…they’re poor over there man…does this not totally refute the false doctrine of the prosperity gospel? Here are saints and what are they…poor! You see the gospel is not to make you a monetary monarch but that you would find true value, (not the hardware), that you would find out what is right, what is worthy, what is real riches man…the peace of your little one as they sleep, the extra-terrestrial satisfaction and joy of making peace or accepting that you’ve been wronged and serving anyway! The kindness of the touch of a friend, the grace and love and mercy of a God who laid down His kingdom so that you could be free…something on our own we could have never accomplished… •We were hopeless…no matter the digits in the bank…no matter the stack of titles, the education, the possessions…hopeless man…a ticking time bomb that one day would go off and we would be eternally lost…and God in His great love and compassion and broken heartedness for what sin has done to us…what our own choice has done…where it has taken us…made a decision. To give us His riches…so no this prosperity gospel, word of faith false gospel…is not Biblical…we see saints right here, right after the time of Jesus, at HQ…poor…does that make them any less a saint? •Of course not man…the word faith, prosperity gospel will leave men in charge of men and that is the root of it all…it’s a power grab. If the formula is that your bank account is equally apportioned to your faith and your righteousness in Christ then guess what? If I can show you more than you got…I’m better…bow down! Foolishness, weakness man…doesn’t matter what any of us have or have not…we all have access to Jesus! •So Paul’s heart is to go back to Rome…did he go back to Rome, yes of that we are sure. Did he ever make it to Spain? Church tradition says that he did but we have no record of that in the Bible although one thing Paul did say in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have finished my course.” Romans Chapter 15 Verse 27 •Notice the Biblical pattern. The spiritual things precede the material things…many times we get that backwards don’t we? We place material things ahead of spiritual things…Good practical way to ask yourself that…what’s the first thing you do when you come up on some material like paper (money?) Does your mind go to serving the Lord first with those tools or does it go to paying this or getting that? •Just a simple test there to discover our own hearts…we need those. Without a test, there is no testimony…no lesson learned, no truth received…faith that is not tested, cannot be trusted…Paul gives us the right order here… Romans Chapter 15 Verses 28 – 32 •Wow, so we see here that Paul had some beef at HQ. Why? Well he tells us…some of them don’t believe him. They’re suspicious of him…why? Because of what they’ve seen man…he was like Jason, Freddy, Chucky to those Christians back in the day…and some folks are skeptical. Notice his heart. Tell them, defend me, send them a letter, text ‘em…nope…pray for me. That they may see? Nope…that they may be served by me…wow. Powerful. •Why, because Paul is not after popularity or prosperity or permission or approval…he’s looking for peace man… Romans Chapter 15 Verse 33 •Blessed are the peacemakers, Jesus said in Matthew 5:9, for they will be called children of God. No others. No other is called that in Matthew 5…the peace makers….Jesus was a peace maker…He continues today…Would you receive Him today, and receive peace? Just call out to Him. Repent of your sin in wisdom. Obey His call and get off that ledge and enter into the joy of His salvation. In Jesus name.
Romans 15 vs 1-13
November 10, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Romans Chapter 15 Verses 1 – 2 •Keep in mind, who was the weaker brother in Chapter 14? The legalist! The religious! Shocking, right! I would think that the stronger Christian is the one who has the most dos and don’ts because that’s discipline…actually, that’s only the appearance of discipline. •The fleshly man loves rules. Why? Because with rules and lists and checklists…come accomplishment and accolade. Attention and position…man. So what appears to be discipline and righteousness is actually self-centered and self-righteousness. Is it easier to just serve someone man? To set aside even your own needs for the sake of the needs of others? Is that easier? Heck no! •And so genuine discipline, real discipline…the hard stuff…is love man. It’s the weaker brother who moves and lives in legalism and rigidity. Who has rules and regulations surrounding him that are not scriptural commands, but personal opinions or conclusions and Paul tells us here, the harder path, the narrow way is to love, man. •“No way! They are such a jerk. All they do is look down on me continually. Everytime I want to go out to eat, they want to go to Sweet Tomatoes! I can’t take it!” Hold up, Paul would say. I didn’t say the harder path, the path of true discipline, the narrow way is to love them…it’s to love Jesus man…it’s to fix your eyes upon the Lord and in serving them, you serve Him… Romans Chapter 15 Verses 3 – 6 •I have written in the very front of my Bible something that helps me to understand what it is God wants to teach me everytime I open this book. It reads, “The Author of this book, His M-O (modus operendi) was and is to give His life for others.” And so Paul says look, as a Christian many times you will be called to live by the standards that other men have set and you don’t have to…yet if you walk in love, remembering the M-O of the Author of this book, then you will grow in your relationship with Him! You will grow closer to Him… •And so read this book, learn of the patience and comfort of the Lord through the pages of scriptures and be filled with hope…and then, flex man…all that hope in you will just come pouring forth when you take all that you have learned and convert it to wisdom! Put it into play! Roll out! And then what? Verse 5! The God of patience and comfort will grant you love man! He will enlarge your heart to lead man! •See that word patience? This doesn’t mean that you go about your entire rest of your life being a vegetarian with the weaker brother! This means that through the sufficiency of your relationship with Jesus, being comforted by the Word, you patiently love man and your light shining brightly, your saltiness just enriching, will set folks free man and in time, maybe a lot of time, maybe a little time…but in time toward one-another, PEACE man! Unity! Like-mindedness…they will grow man! And in it all, you will find that all along, it was your heart that needed enlarging, it was you that needed growth…And then together you will glorify God! •Now if they don’t grow, guess what. With one mouth, one mind you will be worshipping Jesus and you the stronger will realize that meat means nothing to you compared to glorifying God with your brother. Does that make sense man? That axe you want to grind. That opinion that you feel so strongly about. When God is being praised, when unity arrives…man all of that becomes what it should be…meaningless anyway. Because what really matters is that God receives them man…right where they’re at. •And no worries. Before too long you’ll have the opportunity to correct them in love. The relationship will be so strong, the light so bright, that one day they’ll come to you and say, “how is it that I should handle this…or react to that…” Oh baby BABY! Well let me show you what the scriptures say! You will get a chance to teach them truth man and you know what Jesus said, “your personal convictions will set them free!” NO! “Your amazing piety and high esteem will set them free!” NOT! No, He said in John Chapter 8, “then you shall know the truth, and the TRUTH will make you free!” •Therefore have the heart of the Author, if you are indeed the strong. Have the M-O of the One who wrote this book…to give His life man…for the freedom and salvation of others!!! Romans Chapter 15 Verse 7 •Why is it that I can’t see the 12 foot 4x4 in my eye but I can so easily see the sliver splinter in yours? It’s not a matter of discernment or attention or acute focus…”oh, it’s a gift, Matt…I can just tell you what’s wrong with people.” Not really. It’s really a matter of love. I just love myself so much that I don’t pay much attention to my own short comings. The world will sing out “love is blind” but not so…lust is blind. Love sees it all man and lays down its right to accuse…to harm…and simply loves… •Look what Jesus did…perfect in all His ways yet He Himself submitted to the law, submitted to sinful men…that’s crazy! Why? For the liberty of others man! And…because we were weak….right? Lines right up here doesn’t it? Romans Chapter 15 Verses 8 – 12 •What a major statement Paul is making to the world! To the Jew, GASP, Jesus came so that the Gentiles might glorify God! To the Gentile, GASP, Jesus came so that they might glorify God! Major game changing statement here. But Paul, don’t lay your trip on me man…you just said that I can believe what I want…oh no man, don’t get it wrong…in the gray areas of scripture man we serve and we love…if we err, let us err on the side of grace… •But where the Bible is clear and concise and quite loud, man we exhort, rebuke, convince and teach but even that, we do in love and unreligious genuine faith from a life that has “found it out” man, not just learned it, but found it out…!!!!…Turn over to 2 Timothy Chapter 4 for just a moment and read with me verse 2. •See that phrase embedded by the Holy Spirit? “With all long suffering…” When you teach, serve. When you rebuke, serve. When you exhort, serve. And when you convince man…let it be with your service!!!! And so Paul here, doesn’t state what he believes. He is laying no trip. What does he do? He backs up precisely the point he made with peculiar parts of God’s Word! The Bible! Scripture! •That’s the key! That is where the power is man…the power to convince, to rebuke, to exhort, to teach…to love man…to serve! •And what does he say to the world using the scriptures? “You’re wrong, see it my way!” No! He says, “sing!” “Rejoice!” “Praise!” “Because there is hope!” THAT is what we say to ourselves, but to others we so often say, “Dumb, Dumb, give me gum gum!” We so often withhold softness and encouragement and go right for direction and correction! Why? Because we are pressing our point! Protecting our personal peace. Not loving, not serving, not honoring or representing Jesus accurately… •The craziness of it all is that will leave us impatient and uncomfortable around that other person…huh? All the way back in verse 5 of Chapter 15…”Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus.” •Well Matt we are like minded…we hate eachother…nice…but Paul said, “according to Christ Jesus.” So, do it your way…according to the passing pleasure of sin and you’ll have what only you can provide…impatience (I’m great at giving myself that) and discomfort…but do it God’s way man and see the truth…that love is the more mature way, grace is the stronger path and that knowing God and being close to God will leave you dripping with both…do it God’s way and take a step back for a minute and realize in courage that you’re not as close to Him as you think…and open your heart to receive His heart for them and guess what…you’ll get what you’re really after man…joy. •Look at the next verse… Romans Chapter 15 Verse 13 •Zinger! Winner! We heard before “God of patience. God of comfort.” Now we hear “God of hope.” A little secret here. A little Bible mathematics here…God of patience, God of comfort, God of hope. The result of comfort and hope is patience. The result of patience and comfort is hope. The result of hope and patience is comfort. The result of believing…placing your trust in Jesus and forgiving…placing your trust in Jesus and simply loving, simply serving, simply believing God’s Word…all three man… •And once secured…once you see the forest for the trees man…a few more words of awesomeness to add to your quiver, “abound.” Not just survive. Man, God did not give all the He had so that you and I can “make it!” What a ridiculous religious carnal satanic notion!!! Abound man! Not just tolerate that person but abound in love for them! Not just tolerate your job but abound in hope! Not just appease your wife or your husband or your parents but abound in patience for them! Not just have your relationships copacetic and unbothersome but abounding in comfort as you come together again and again! •If you’re lacking in any of that…time to consider the cross man. What God paid for your freedom is directly related in impact and proportion to the very freedom that was bought…so what’s the problem? The 4x4 in your own eye man…your own pride man…your own internal scream deep down that I should do it your way man! Which keeps you right where the enemy would have you…stagnate in your spiritual sophistication… •Your capacity, your potential…powerful and limitless but absolutely incompatible with your flesh…and so if you find your capacity and potential less than comforting…guess what is most likely very strong in your heart, soul, mind and strength? Your flesh… •Not belief. Right here look, in believing you abound and in believing you are filled with irrational, extra-terrrestrial power why? Because in believing, truly believing, you open your heart to receive the heart of God…and the power of the Holy Spirit mushroom clouds in your life man… •Will you settle for less? I pray you do not. I pray you see your worth to your Father in heaven…and their worth too…precisely, eternally equal…and that that He would give everything for you AND for them….and that truth that would fill you with courage to give everything to Him! That truth would set you free…
Romans 14 vs 5-23
November 3, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Romans Chapter 14 Verse 5 •So Paul moves from diets to days. Two things that were a real problem for the early church, especially converted Jews. Judaism had very strict diet restrictions as well as day restrictions such as the Sabbath but even the pagan religions followed strict rules concerning days of worship depending on whatever god you were bowing to on that day. •What’s crazy is that we still have this controversy over days today. Never fails, once a month or so, someone will call into Pastor’s Perspective or Calvary Live and talk about how they’re confused as to which day to worship on. Saturday or Sunday? What a ridiculous question anyway! Worship every day! You don’t come to church here once or twice a week! The church gathers! •These walls, this place, this carpet, these chairs…are not the church! You are! And the function of the church is to glorify, exalt and reveal Jesus man…so get to it! Everyday! But there are specifically 17.2 million people in the world that belong to a church that has a significant problem with any church that would meet for corporate worship on Sunday. •They are vehement in their belief that Saturday is the only day to worship and if you worship on Sunday then that is paramount to taking the mark of the Beast because Sunday was named after the Sun god. Well, it’s too bad that Saturday was named after the god Saturn!! •Interestingly enough, the Seventh Day Adventist Church who we’re talking about also prohibits the ingestion of pork or any other unclean food as listed in the Book of Leviticus. I wonder if they’ve ripped Romans 14 out of their Bibles. I mean what do they do when they come to this scripture? How do they remain rigid? Especially when you look at this in the Greek and literally what Paul says is, “one guy prefers one day over the other, let them do their thing man!” •Boggles your mind doesn’t it? It shouldn’t. We do it too. We read “love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength…love others as yourself…even above yourself! Respect your husband, love your wife, submit to your boss, serve those who offend you…hate evil and cling to what is good!” •Luke 10:27, Romans 12:9-10, Ephesians 5:33, 1 Peter 2:18. Almost every hardship and controversy that I meet on a regular basis is because folks have ripped those scriptures out of their Bibles! So it doesn’t surprise me that a group of folks get all upset that we’re here on a Sunday, that we eat steak and shellfish…Actually doesn’t surprise me at all. I give them grace. •They need the same thing that the discouraged employee needs. They need the same thing that the frustrated wife needs, the love starved husband, the offended brother…they need to hear that God’s love prevails man…and that God loves them! That He desires to provide all for them and that with one ounce of effort towards God, He will fill you up with what you really desire! Peace man… •They need to simply be pointed back to Jesus man…the focus and object of our hope and faith. Precisely what Paul goes on to here… Romans Chapter 14 Verses 6 – 13 •15 Times in those verses we just read Paul points the Romans, the readers, he points us to the Lord! Why? Because those that are offended at diets and days…man they are defective in their discerning! Why focus so much on me man…focus on Jesus! All of these self help schemes, these ploys that say go and find yourself…don’t do that! Wanna know why? You’ll find just that…self! The Lord says find Me! Place your focus on Me! And move out man! •Quit trying to persuade the person next to you to see it your way concerning days, diets, desires, dispositions and man just walk it out! Verse 12 says let each one give an account of himself. Verse 5 says let each individual be fully convinced in his own mind! So what are we to do when God speaks to us concerning days, concerning diets, concerning desires? Walk it out man! •This is leadership. This is discipleship. This is ministry. What is? To simply run after Jesus! Hear from Him. Learn of Him. Let Him tell you what it is He’d have you to do and then do it. What a novel idea! Show that it is from the Lord. Bear some fruit and let others come and see man. This is a tenant of not only ministry but this is practical leadership man. •Think of it this way. Maybe there is a better day, maybe there is a better diet…how are we to know if it is from the Lord? Well, John tells us in his first epistle. He says don’t readily go after it but test it to see if it is of God. And how do we know…How do we know if it is of God? How do we know what kind of tree it is? The fruit man! So walk in it and see if it bears fruit! •What do you mean “bear fruit?” Does that mean grow a church? Attract hundreds of people and have all sorts of programs? Does that mean advertise and build a ministry? Let me tell you, you don’t build any ministry. Only the Lord does. You may build a business, you may build a pyramid and place yourself on top, but the only ministry that is built, it’s brick and mortar is purely fruit!! •“Purely fruit?” Hold up. Why are even talking about ministry? Well because as you read through verses 1 – 13, does it occur to you that the person that has the problem with the meat, the person that has the problem with the days, what they’re actually trying to do is minister? What? Yea, but here’s the thing. Ministry is not about someone seeing it your way. It’s about someone seeing Jesus man…and so ministry, every ministry, any ministry…if it is real and led by the Holy Spirit, will have its foundation constructed completely of the fruit of the Spirit! •Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…but where there is accusation, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, divisions and envy…man that’s not ministry, that’s the flesh…all of this laid out for us in Galatians Chapter 5. •Precisely what’s happened here in these scriptures. What Paul has observed as scores of Jews and pagan Romans have come to believe in Jesus Christ…they’ve carried false ministry from their false religions into the presence of grace and truth and so Paul gives great practical direction. •You feel so strongly about it…you do it. Let’s see it bear fruit. Live unto the Lord but don’t lay your trip on others man…just go on the trip yourself. Let love be the rule of your life and ministry will simply flow man… •Now the flip side. Paul will say to us next, “look, that dude that’s laying that trip on you to not eat meat, don’t chew with your mouth open in front of him when you have a mouth full of sheep jerky! Don’t take your maturity and turn it into immaturity!” Look at the next couple of verses… Romans Chapter 14 Verses 14 – 18 •You know what I love about Paul writing this? Paul, the Pharisee of Pharisees, hangs out with Jesus and now is the champion for peace, joy and liberty! That’s what hanging with Jesus will do man…fruit just falling down off the branches all over the place! •And what he says here is interesting. How that nothing of itself is unclean. So interesting. Things aren’t able to sin are they? Days, diets, objects…No! They’re sin neutral, right? This tree was just a tree before it became a tool of righteousness by having the Word of God printed onto it by what? A man! See what I’m saying? Stuff by itself is just stuff but add sinball men into the mix then we have an issue and so Paul is saying, “look, if what you do (not overtly sinful by the way) is stumbling your brother, then how are you walking in love? For he who serves Christ, indeed at the same time, with the same purity will indeed serve his fellow man…” •I read something so crazy this week on this subject. Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, was a cigar smoker. Joseph Parker, a contemporary of Spurgeon’s, who was also a powerful Bible teacher, enjoyed going to the theatre and watching plays with his wife. They publically bashed one another for these things. Spurgeon couldn’t believe that Parker called himself an all-in believer and yet would attend theatre! And Parker was appalled that Spurgeon would smoke cigars. Literally these two, openly, in public renounced one another! Both powerful preachers, greatly used by the Lord and yet in a public fight! •That’s craziness!!! Interestingly enough, Spurgeon finally gave up smoking in his later years when one day he opened the London Times and saw a full-page cigar ad under the headline, “The Cigar that Charles Spurgeon Smokes!” HA! Romans Chapter 14 Verse 19 •Therefore, the sum of the matter, it all boils down to this, this is it man…it if doesn’t lead to peace in the brethren, get up off of it man and go after what will edify. Edify, such a churchy word. It simply means serve, to build up…and we already covered the bricks and the bolts of that building…fruit man…Go back to Galatians 5. Go on a daily basis and learn what to look for in yourself. •Look for the fruit man. It’s like your Godly GPS. God, am I in Your will? God am I going to win, because if I’m being led by you then 2 Corinthians 2:14 says that you always lead us into triumph? Well, is there fruit, or is there flesh? That answer will answer the others. Romans Chapter 14 Verse 20 •Wow, pretty powerful. Paul clearly states that if I exercise my liberty in such a way as to offend a weaker brother in Christ then I am in fact working evil. Romans Chapter 14 Verse 21 •Whoa! You know what that means? That means that my life lived in the law of love is entirely, eternally more stringent than the laws set forth in Judaism. The law we find in Exodus 20! “Oh man, I’m no longer under the law, I’m under grace. I can do this and do that and whatever.” Not so, Paul says. That attitude is actually evil. The law of love does no harm man…makes no accusation. Endures all things, hopes all things, bears all things. Is not puffed up, is not provoked, does not seek its own…and grace, love…never fails…that attitude will lead you right to failure man… Romans Chapter 14 Verses 22 – 23 •Anything that is not of faith, is sin Paul says. What is faith then? Simple, placing Jesus first man. Humility, sacrifice, love…all acts of pure worship unto the Lord. Why? Because those things honor Him man. They show forth His wonder. Faith brings forth fruit man…and if the fruit ain’t there, then you are no fruit tree. You’re something else. •I met with Pastor Sam Park this week. A wonderfully wise man and friend of mine. And he said something that impacted me. He said the strongest of oaks grow very slowly. Quietly and solemnly and yet they endure. They bear lots of what? Acorns!! They bring forth acorns which by the way take between 6 months and 24 months to mature. And the acorn is such a wondrous thing. They nourish many creatures. Birds, deer, bears, chipmunks (Alvin, Simon…Theodore)…even ponies! But weeds, spring up almost overnight…just shoot up man and immediately they’re center stage but before long, they die out man… •And Sam encouraged me to stay the course. Keep it simple. Jesus, the Word, serving the Lord and serving others…and just let the fruit come man…a by product of my own intimate walk with the Lord and many creatures will be nourished…and the strength of the oak will sustain in the storms… •May the Lord give you and I, and this church the wisdom to walk in both liberty and love. Precisely what Jesus showed us on the cross…as He took our captivity and His love and they collided…and we were set free!
Romans 14 vs 1-4
October 20, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Romans Chapter 14 Verses 1 – 4 •Division and weakness have crept into the church. Into even our relationships between one another, personally and corporately because we so often refuse to heed the Word of God. Disputes over doubtful things rips apart at the seams best friends, co-workers, families, even church families… •Paul is clear here. This should not be so. There are things that scripture tells us are wrong…things that we should absolutely avoid and stand fast and firm against. With those things, there is no question. But in these areas where the scriptures do not speak specifically, then we are to have this latitude in the receiving of each other. •And I’m not sure if you noticed, but the one that was weak was the one that ate only vegetables. There is an entire Bible study in that statement alone because immediately we would go for the other dude. The one who was scarfing down the meat and the cheese and the deserts…but not so Paul says…who cares if one eats carrots (*shutters) and one does not! Look at you all bent out of shape man about what someone else is snacking on! Where’s your heart at, if that’s your focus…sounds…weak to me. •The key to this statement and really to every sound, clear, practical, powerful teaching you find in the pages of God’s Word…the key to every promise, every warning, every truth, everything you read, as you apply it in your own life, is verse 4. “Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.” I want to develop that statement for a few minutes together with you. I’d like to offer you a thought and then invite you to go and try it out. Really, what good is a thought…what good is truth if you have no heart to walk in it man…Jesus said that it’s like a house built on shifting sand…might look nice, might be functional when the sun is shining…but bring the rain, bring the difficulty and it falls… As we saw this morning, Chin and Scott being raised up to the position and responsibility and privilege of pastor here in this church, all I’ve done for the past 2 and a half years is just what I’d like to do with you this morning. Offer thoughts, invitations for wisdom and then step back and watch…precisely what I’ve done with them…to see what foundation they would choose for themselves, for their families, for their ministries. Would they choose the solid rock and take what the Bible says and lead out with it, uncompromising and unrelenting as they pursued hard after Jesus…or would they choose a coloring book? A coloring book? Let me explain. Bill Gates, one of the wealthiest men on earth has several very precious possessions. One of which rests in his library. He is the owner of a sketchbook used by Leonardo Divinci. This sketchbook is valued at $30.2 million dollars! Extremely valuable. Now, if you were to sit down my little ones, my 3 year old son and my 7 year old daughter, and place in front of them Leonardo Divinci’s sketchbook and a coloring book with some crayons…which one do you think they would choose? There wouldn’t be a choice would there? Within moments they’d tear into those crayons and they’d be busy coloring! Link would probably be running down the hallway dragging the crayon along the wall!!! They may even add some color to the sketchbook! Why? Because they think like children…they don’t perceive the value in the sketchbook…and although they have been offered leisure, what feels good…pleasure-and-play alongside of extra-ordinarily rare-and-unique…their minds, the mind of a child, readily dismisses that which is of true value when faced with a moment of temptation. The fact is, we do the same thing. We have on our laps this morning, on our nightstands, in our cars, in our iPhones, iPads, iPods…all over the place man in this country…we have the most valuable book that will ever exist in all of eternity and yet we color our days away by not heeding it…and the storm comes man…and we fall. But something that Chin has grown to not just know but to understand, something that Scott has grown to not just know (what the hizzy hey is good with knowledge when it is left in the ears?), he has grown not just to know this but to see it, experience it himself…that no one, no book, no earthly wisdom, no passing pleasure, no sensual satisfaction is able to make him stand…God alone is able to make him and you and I stand. You don’t know what to do about your job, about your marriage, about your mom, about your dad, about your kids, about your church, about this government, about your day…God is able to make you stand man! Where in the pages of this power does it say to make something out of your life!? Make Jesus out of your life man!! He’ll take care of you! > Will you believe it or not? Your behavior will find you out and ultimately so will your house…when the storm comes! I’ve learned this throughout my walk with Jesus, man…He reminded me of it this week. On Wednesday night, we got home from church late, much like we always do. We pulled into my driveway a little bit before 11pm. We unloaded the truck, got the kids to bed and went lights out around 11:30ish. At 8am the next morning, Brantley and I were leaving for the day. I was about to drive him to school and we turned the corner to face my driveway and immediately I stopped. Something wasn’t right. I looked around my coldisac confused for a moment and then asked Brantely, “Where’s the truck?” It was gone. I spend much of the morning on the phone with the police and the insurance company, telling the story, filing the report, doing the paperwork and after speaking with the insurance company, they informed me that I’d be contacted by an agent who would handle the details of the claim. I went through my day and that afternoon after I had gotten home, I saw my neighbor outside. Now many of you know the situation with my truck. The ignition malfunctioned shortly after I bought it and the key one day, just refused to come out. Some of my mechanic buddies worked on it and concluded that the entire ignition assembly would need to be replaced and that ain’t cheap…well, many of you may already know this, I am. I concluded that I could just live with it instead of fixing it… So the situation was, the truck was most likely unlocked with the key in the ignition. I know, I know, what an idiot! So I told my neighbor this and immediately out of his mouth, “well don’t tell the insurance company that for sure!” And I looked at him and I said, “Every day, I would rather suffer the consequence of truth then the consequence of a lie…” He looked at me somewhat strangely; like I was stupid…I knew he has a collection of coloring books… You see insurance typically won’t cover you if you’ve been overtly negligent…I knew that, it didn’t matter. My truck may be worth around $10,000 but April and I didn’t care…crayons and coloring books don’t interest us…we know that God is able to make us stand…We have built upon the solid rock no dag on storm changes that. The insurance agent called. The entire conversation was recorded and she asked me straight out, “were the keys in the car?” I replied, “yes they were.” She lit up with excitement. “I am so glad you told the truth. That is so very rare and I am trained, well trained to perceive voice inflection and to use conversational tactics to discover lies and when a lie is discovered, you’re sunk…it’s even a federal offense…insurance fraud, and I am proud of you that you’d be truthful with me.” So we talked for a moment about truth and I told her that my neighbor had even advised me to lie, she said, “it’s a great thing you didn’t listen to him!” I agreed. It’s better to heed the Word of God than the Word of man. Then, the moment, “I suppose I won’t be covered now right,” I said. Without delay she responded, “not a chance, you are completely covered! Just because you left the keys in the car that does not give a thief the right to steal it!” Awesome I thought as I breathed a sigh of relief and gave the glory to God. That’s not all though. Fast forward to Friday. Around 4:30pm my phone rang. It’s the Aurora police department. “Sir, we’ve recovered your vehicle. Two suspects are in custody and you can pick it up between now and 7pm at the impound lot.” We took off immediately. An hour later I approached the truck expecting to find it banged up, destroyed, imperfect (oh the horror!)…nothing. Not a scratch. Stereo in the dash, subwoofer in the back, all my paperwork…there…glove box filled with my stuff…and what’s this? iPod…not mine. Tactical light, not mine. Digital camera, not mine. Bottle of Tommy cologne, not mine, two pairs of sunglasses, not mine. Infrared binoculars, not mine, isotoners….not mine…MINE NOW! What!? Now I’ll call Aurora PD and make sure they don’t want me to turn this stuff in but look at this! Check this out! God is able to make me stand! Not survive! Not sit comfy on the comfy couch…NO! God makes me to stand! The position of strength! They meant to plunder me, I plundered them! Or should I say, God gave my enemies into my hand!!! In 1 Samuel, the Philistines and their champion blasphemed God and at the command of the Lord the people of God engaged and after Goliath was slain the Philistines were plundered! In 2 Kings Chapter 7 the Syrians rose up against Israel and the Lord said “engage” and they were plundered! Jeremiah 30:16 says, “‘Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; And all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; Those who plunder you shall become plunder, And all who prey upon you I will make a prey!” God is alone able to make us stand! Galatians 6:7 says, “don’t get this wrong! God will not be mocked! Whatever you sow…you will also reap! Of the flesh to destruction, or of the spirit to everlasting life.” Put the coloring books away. The wasted time. The lost days. The lost moments. The busted relationships as Paul speaks of in Romans 14…the lost opportunities, the decay man…put it away! Build now, today, start RIGHT NOW, build upon the solid rock man…however you feel, whatever the situation is, whatever the circumstance…you have no excuse to deny God and go after the flesh…and in the end man…you’ll end up plundered. Not God’s will or plan for you folks…He has ordained you, each of you as His ministers of truth man…to mount up on wings of eagles, to run and to not grow faint…to stand when they can’t and to hold fast when the storm comes… Take this out of your ears and install it into your life today man…because God alone is able to make you stand!
Romans 13 vs 3-14
October 13, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Romans Chapter 13 Verses 3 – 5 •Paul writing this under the authority and rule of Caesar Nero. Us reading this under the authority and rule of a similar level of corruption and dysfunction…sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But remember the foundation laid for us thus far in this letter to the Romans. •“Paul, a bondservant, a slave, under the authority of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.” Romans 1:1. “And not only that but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope and that hope does not leave us ashamed, it does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:3-5. “All things work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28. “I’m begging you, therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1. •And here we find ourselves in Romans 13:3 with a mystery. “Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid, do what is good.” Paul is trying to get through to his contemporaries, those that are so very angry and stirred up and frustrated with Roman rule, specifically the rule of the psycho Nero…”wait I though he said words like terror and unafraid?” Understand what he wrote in the original language. A language that reaches so much further into our understanding than English…Paul uses the word for dread here… •He says, “do you want to be unashamed, unswayed and unshaken…free of dread…do good.” What is good? Feed the hungry? Clothe the naked? House the homeless? Help little old ladies across busy streets? Well all that is certainly good superficially, on the surface, but just as we learned last Sunday, every sacrificial act, every good work, everything that we consider to be helpful will end up on the eternal trash heap of insignificance if not fueled, powered and carried out simply in response, worship and love for Jesus Christ! •What? Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, separated, sanctified and called for the purposes of good works…please…a Roomba can do good works…called and set apart for the gospel man…the singular, only, all alone, sole good work from which all other good works originate from…tribulation produce hope and hope is powering because of what…the love poured into us continually by the Holy Spirit who was given to us…by whom? Jesus Himself according to John 14! Having confidence that everything that happens to us as we pursue hard after Christ is working together for His glory man…I thought it said working all things work together for good for us? Oh, ok. Let me ask (axe) you http://something...do you believe that there is any other greater good than to bring glory and honor upon the name of Jesus Christ? •If you consider an answer of yes…go back to Romans 1:1, in fact, please return to John 3:16 and understand that without Jesus, take Jesus out of the equation and you do not simply return to dust, you and I are absolutely, unequivocally, unquestionably, hopeless. Lost. Cut off eternally because of our sin and condemned. The theologically correct and practically correct answer is this…good works apart from eternal perspective, for the purpose of delivering Jesus Christ to the lost, fueled by love, wisdom and righteousness…are indeed, not good at all. •So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was good to the eyes and good to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. (Genesis 3:6) Oldest trick in the book. Dress up sin in logical, rational, superficial and temporal clothing…and start calling it good….but Jesus said, “what good is it if a man gains the whole world, yet loses his soul?” •Interesting. Talk like this on the street. Define right. Teach of truth, absolute truth…and what is the common answer…”don’t judge me man…” But that’s not what you mean. What you mean is “don’t offend me.” “Don’t tell me something that is difficult for me to face.” Because if I judge you HOT, well that’s all good isn’t it? So really it has nothing to do with judgment…but everything to do with offending your flesh… •Paul reveals a mystery to us here. One that is only perceived if one considers Romans 13 in light of Romans 1 – 12…that if we are eternally minded, filled with the Spirit of God, after His glory and exaltation rather than our own, then it doesn’t matter who is ruling us earthly, we have our King. And when the temporary rule maker makes a rule we hate, we respond goodly…and therefore maintain a position of surrender and worship not to Caesar but to Christ and it is as Paul says here, clean, clear, capable and compelling conscience time man…and we fire on all cylinders for the Lord, even in times of tribulation, trouble and tyrants…because the salt is salty and the light is bright! Romans 13 Verse 6 •Paul is really laying it on thick here. Putting us and putting his contemporaries to the test because tax payers were the most hated of the bunch! They didn’t receive a salary from the Roman Government for collecting taxes you see and so they made their money by extorting the people. The tax is 10, they’d tax the person 11 so that they would make a profit and some of the worst tax collectors would tax 20, 30, 50 pieces of money when the Roman requirement upon that tax collector was to deliver 10 pieces of money per person… •But Paul says, even that kind of personal, particular, overt offense…does not bring dread upon one who is not subject to them or to anyone else, other than the Most High God. •Tax collectors are God’s ministers? My horrible neighbor is God’s minister? My ex is God’s minister? My mother-in-law / father-in-law is God’s minister? Let me ask you this…can your decision as to how to react to that person bring glory and honor to Jesus Christ? Can it grow you in strength, maturity and power in the Holy Spirit? Yes? Then yes indeed…God’s minister. Try looking at it that way. Try changing your lens man by which you be hatin’…and see that God is not glorified in your wrath man…in your rational, logical complaint after complaint…He is honored, well pleased and glorified in your love and application of wisdom…and ultimately a world is reached for good, in a sustaining way only if you’ll switch your glasses man… •And check out the revelation of the pattern here by Paul… Romans Chapter 13 Verse 7 •Taxes are due to whom? Caesar, right? Customs are due to whom? The government, right? Fear is due to whom? God alone, right? Not fear as in He’s gonna get you but fear as in recognize the awesomeness man…Matthew 10:28, Jesus said do not render fear to one who is able to kill the body but render fear, recognize the sacrifice man…fear the One who is able to destroy both the soul and body in hell…let what you do be rooted in this very fact, that God rescued you man…and therefore, render honor to whom honor is due…so in light of that…who are we to honor? Eeeeeeeryone man! The bad ruler, the tax collector, the ex, the neighbor and in so doing and throughout all that doing and the undercurrent of all that doing…honor the King. Man that’s the reason… •Peter said it well. 1 Peter 2:17. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King. Romans Chapter 13 Verse 8 •Now check this out. This is cool. The law given in the Old Testament was in the negative as sin reigned. Then Jesus came and took sin away, man. Didn’t just cover it up like the imperfect and insufficient sacrifices of the Old Testament…He wiped it out. And so the law didn’t change…God did not change from the Old Testament to the New…the law is simply fulfilled in Jesus and so what we see is the law given in the negative in the Old Testament yet in the New Testament it is turned to the positive…check it out. Romans Chapter 13 Verse 9 •Catch that? “You shall not, you shall not, you shall not…” be on guard, be on the defense against sin…then Jesus comes on the scene, love came down, Emmanuel, “God with us,” He gave Himself as the perfect and sufficient sacrifice for all sin ever and then, after defeating sin and death, He sent to us the Holy Spirit, to dwell within any person who would accept Him as their Lord and Savior and thus, no more defense…no more retreat! Now…engage man…go on the offense! Overcome man…more than a conqueror, move mountains…live, man! •And amazingly, the power-up…is love. Love is the weapon of righteousness. Love. Now all of the “you shall not’s” transformed by the power of the cross to “you shall!” Love man…it is the fulfillment of the law…why? Romans Chapter 13 Verse 10 •If I simply love, I naturally won’t do these things, you see. Love is the cure, it is the courage, it is the strength, it is the answer, it is the fulfillment and it is only available to those who would offer a reasonable response to Love Himself… Romans Chapter 13 Verses 11 – 14 •I’ve been away much this week. I flew out Monday night to attend a meeting for work in Texas on Tuesday and then flew back Tuesday night. I was here Wednesday and then flew out Thursday morning to attend my Grandmother’s memorial service in Massachusetts. I finally got home early Saturday. Six flights in total…exhausted is not the word. But I’ve been so energized by God… •Being away from my family is always hard for me. Especially when my little little follows me all the way to the door begging to come with me. Link doesn’t leave my side. He sits in the bathroom when I shower. He asks, “dad, can I come” more than any other question and recently, especially this week, everytime I drop to my knee to hold him in my arms, he says to me, “bye dad.” •Breaks my heart. “I’m just giving you a hug son. I’m not going anywhere.” I have plans of taking my kids to the park. I have plans to hang out with them, to play with their toys with them, to eat meals with them, to tuck them in, to pray with them, to tickle them…to just enjoy them and to be their dad…one of the highest honors and supernatural wonders of all my life. Because they are from the Lord to me, gifts the Bible would say, and they have come forth from April and I, of which is a relationship I simply adore. •And it occurred to me this week as I was traveling and talking with the Lord, that in the Bible, specifically Luke Chapter 7, Jesus mentions in verse 35 of that Chapter that wisdom too has children…and I began to imagine my life without my little little…without his innocence, without his love, without his dependence upon me, without “us,” and the thought is next to unbearable… •And yet we live our days without our little ones all the time…not our children but wisdom’s children…the godly consequence of a life lived not for self, but in reality man…for the King man…and I am convinced that if I had never had Link I would be just fine, sleep just fine, go about my day just fine…but show me my life with him…show me the joy of him in my life…and now show me my life without him…unbearable. •Oh how we miss out on life abundant and we don’t even know it. This is what is meant when we pray and when we sing out, “break our hearts for our sin…” because if we knew for a moment the Link’s we have lost because of sin…oh how we would repent. •Paul says, “no provision for the flesh…” No provision. No secret pet sins, no little white lies…man turn from it all and turn to love…walk properly man, in other words, walk in reality…all of these other situations and circumstances mentioned here are simply fake…they are false and they lead to a false conclusion… •A future without the child of wisdom man…no Link…if you could see, man if only you could see…
Romans 13 vs 1-2
October 6, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Romans Chapter 13 Verses 1 – 2 •“Paul, if you only knew…if you only could see what they say today…how they act, the laws they enact, the political playground they perform in! Paul, I understand what you just said but man if you only knew.” •“Um, excuse me?” “Yes, Paul.” “First of all, I didn’t write this, God did. And if YOU only could see.” •“What do you mean, Paul? Surely you can’t mean those people in Washington, D.C. Certainly we’re not to be subject to them. They’re just fiddling around,” we complain. “Oh no,” Paul would reply, “actually the person in my mind is the best known “fiddler” in history: Caesar Nero.” Makes our current Government look like a re-run of Little House on the Prairie! •We are told through secular and church history that, after sentencing the apostle Paul to death, Nero went on a rampage, persecuting Christians, burning them in his garden, feeding them to the lions. Nero was psychotic, barbarous, ruthless, evil and tyrannical. Yet here, even while he is in power, Paul says believers were to be subject to the higher powers, for there is no person in power but that God has ordained him or her to be there. •Now, you might not respect the person who is in power, you might not like them personally, you might hate them particularly but that does not excuse you from living in accordance with truth and wisdom rather than emotions and resentment. •Look, wisdom realizes and reacts to truth, not to temper tantrums and something simple and clear here…a Biblical truth that many of us like to simply logicize out, explain out, complain right out of it…that all power and authorities that exist are appointed by God for the ordinances of God. Even our current Government, even Caesar Nero… •Or have you fallen into the ridiculous idea that protest is more powerful than prayer… •Now that doesn’t mean don’t engage for righteousness sake but understand righteousness apart from wisdom does not happen man…”What does that mean, that’s all churchy!” Look, remember what we just talked about. Uncontrolled negative emotions, resentment, wrath…those are tell tale signs of the lack of wisdom man…a lack of righteousness and people end up getting hurt man…and most always, you don’t even know it and those that have wisdom, realize the truth of Romans Chapter 13 mourn the unnecessary offense and ridiculous rants of those that claim to represent mercy, grace and love. •Well look homie, love suffers long and is kind. Love does not want what others have. Love does not lash out. Love is not puffed up and love does not behave rudely. Love does not seek its own and love is never provoked. Love thinks no evil and does not rejoice ever in unrighteousness and wisdomless actions but simply and solely rejoices in truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, love hopes all things, love endures all things. Love never fails. •How you gonna represent Jesus and fail all over the place man…people getting hurt and oh by the way, the issue persists doesn’t it? The matter that made you so mangled mentally continues doesn’t it but you just added a slew of people to the list of folks that hear you’re a follower of Jesus and yet a hater of man…doesn’t work man…does not compute man…Paul warns us that because of our behavior, the name of God is blasphemed! (Romans 2:24) •So what are we to do then? Trust God, realize Romans 13 is the same in power and truth as John 3:16 and ride out to meet evil righteously and wisely. Recognize, comprehend, grasp, get this! “Lord, You know exactly what time it is…and You are lining up certain events that will fulfill prophecy, usher in Your coming, and establish Your kingdom. I might not like what’s happening, Lord, in fact I don’t. But I believe You. I realize ultimately that You are in control and that every power in place has been ordained by You. Therefore, I acknowledge that the very people that I proliferate hostility towards, are somehow just a part of Your plan… •People call that a cop out…wisdom would disagree. If I promised you tomorrow at this time your house would be caught up in a tornado, carried into the mountains and destroyed, how many of you would say, “If that’s the case, I better get home and finish painting my kitchen…I better go clean man, vacuum the living room?” Not so much. I bet collectively, in wisdom we would say, “I better go get everybody out of that house.” And you would have an entirely different set of priorities…. •Check out Paul, check out Peter, read James, study John, examine Jesus’ earthly life…what was their focus, each one of them!? To change the world temporarily? Not even close man. Their focus was continually, constantly, consistently, righteously and wisely on the kingdom eternally and the people passionately… •Rest. No you don’t have to like them but you don’t have to like your wife either. “Oh man did he just say that?” Yes, you don’t. What does love have to do with emotions man!? There’s many times where April doesn’t like me…especially when I make decisions differently than she would, but at all times she loves me…at all times she places her trust in the Lord and allows His plan for our life together to unfold…because look when you resist, you undermine the very plan of God and guess what, you won’t win. God’s plan will not be thwarted… •So quit dusting the curtains and get out of the house! And then clear the neighborhood…not with hate against the tornado that’s coming, not in resentment of the dirty, debris filled tornado itself, but with the wisdom, love and righteousness of a peaceful heart that knows the truth, knows who is ultimately in control and knows the end of the story… •Paul knew the end of the story man…and so as Nero drooled over the destruction of the just, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gave us this command…just as true, relevant and powerful as John 3:16. •Now that we have our big boy pants on, does this verse set mean we’re never to disobey those who are in authority over us? Not at all man. Again, wisdom and righteousness…those are the keys. Not emotions, dissatisfaction, rage and resentment. We have several Biblical examples of this but here’s the theological point. When the earthly authority demands us to deny eternal authority we must not comply. •Daniel didn’t do it. He refused to stop talking to God when he was told only to pray to King Darius but however, remember what happened…he was thrown into the lions’ den. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not bow down to the golden image of the king and remember what happened, they were thrown into the fiery furnace. Peter in Acts 5 was forbidden by the Pharisees to speak any more of Jesus and Peter responded boldly, “we ought to obey God rather than man!” •The very center of the Bible, the smack dab center verse of the Bible is Psalm 118:8 which says, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put your confidence in man.” But you must know, you must see, you must understand, that even through all of these clear Biblical examples, Daniel was fueled by love and acted in wisdom and righteousness. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were fueled by love and acted in wisdom and righteousness. Peter too…and the beginning of wisdom…the first word of it, the first gist of it, the first step of it and the most basic element of it is the fear of God…and the consummate source of righteousness is love. •And so it is not that you are right. Who cares!? It’s not that you have the Bible bazooka fully loaded and man are those missiles are sin seeking word-for-word in alignment with the Word of God…are you acting in the fear of the Lord and are you acting in love? If not, I don’t care how right you are…you’re misrepresenting the Lord and folks are getting hurt. Hurt more than in their pocket book, hurt more than in their pride as you attack man…they are being eternally hurt and you have sided with the enemy…he used the Word of God too, did he not? The absolute key to accomplishing God’s will is to act in wisdom and righteousness, fueled by love… •Satellite Kite video. http://(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og8encnd3aq) • My ministry to April built a mountain trash heap of insignificance the first few years I was saved…and before we go any further in Romans 13, I pray you get in touch with not just the Democratic heart for the US Government, not just the Republican heart for the US Government, not just the American heart for the United Nations but man get in touch with God’s heart…not just the fact that he SHOULD love you, not just the fact that she SHOULD respect you…Go back to Romans 12. Read it again. •It’s amazing how the truth calms you man. The other day I was on two lane road and up ahead the right lane was blocked with road work and so we were all getting over but it never fails, there are always folks zooming past and cutting in line and as they did I was like, “Oh baby, if only I could shoot your tire out!” I was so angry man… •But then I noticed that the car that just zoomed by me, that I thought was cutting and slowing me up, turned right into the apartment complex entrance that was before the road block. And I repented…I laughed at myself for being so angry…and then guess what happened…cars zoomed by…cutting me off…and you know what, I wasn’t angry…I was able to bless them as they did that and laugh at myself the entire time…It’s amazing what surrendering to truth one time will do…even when offense comes, folks take advantage of you…you’re able to bear all things…you’re able to return love for evil…you’re able to not just police the Word of God but dag on practice it man!!! •Open your heart for a second and quiet your mind and connect with the heart of God…only then will you begin to move the trash heap of insignificance to the eternal landfill. •You know that is what the cross of Calvary is…it’s the place where sin and insignificance is dealt with man…it’s the place where freedom is born…it’s the only place where leaders are designed, educated and commissioned…at the feet of the eternal Leader Himself.
Romans 12 vs 9-21
September 29, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
In the past weeks, as we’ve studied Chapter 12, we’ve seen Paul’s instruction as to how faith responds to God. The reasonable response in light of what has been accomplished…the answer to the question. “Why do I not sense the palpable presence of Power Himself in my days, in my life…?” “Why is it that I could care less about reading the Bible or studying the Bible or spending time in prayer, just talking to God…?” “What am I doing wrong?” Verses 1 and 2 answered that for us. Then Paul went on to teach of how faith responds to the church. The reasonable response man…to the family of God in light of what Jesus has done…in glimpsing an understanding of His mercy, grace and love…the answer to the question, “why is my ministry stalled?” Or, “what is my ministry in the first place?” “Hold up, what’s ministry!” “Why do I feel as if I don’t do enough?” “Why do I feel as if folks are better than me?” “Why can’t I seem to fit in?” “What am I doing wrong?” Verses 3 – 8 answered that for us… Now with a thorough understanding of doctrine, (Chapters 1 – 11), and after walking us through how we are to respond in light of that doctrine to God, and how we are to respond to the church, now Paul finally says, “you’re ready for the scoop man of how you go out there and respond in faith to the world.” Yes how you handle the day and yes how you rise above and absolutely conquer issues and strife and worries and complications and obstacles and predicaments…how to soar man…how to win as Paul would say, “run this thing out in such a way as to win, man” in 1 Corinthians 9…but more importantly how you and I are to fulfill a) the commandments of Jesus; to place God first and then our neighbors even before ourselves thus pressing in on the mind of Christ and walking worthy of the upward calling of Christ; fully pleasing to the Lord and b) to make disciples man. This is it! “If this is it, doo wop, please let me know!” I love that old 80’s song…and I’m letting you know! This is it! Jesus said go and be salt, have some flavor, preserve them man…be a light…light up the darkness…but how Lord?! Romans Chapter 12! Jesus said to go out to all the world and yes make disciples, yes baptize them but here’s the batteries…teaching them to observe all things (to see the truth man…to understand the truth and then to walk out the truth) and then the final piece of the primary pattern of passion….”do this,” Jesus said, “and lo I am with you always!” Christian, here are your marching orders. Here is your war room briefing. Romans Chapter 12 Verse 9 •“Let love be without hypocrisy.” How many did I just lose right there? Hypocrisy, the claim of one to have beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform. Oh man. Lord, how we need You. “No worries, mate…lo, I am with you always.” “But Lord I’ve messed up so much. I told them that I’m Your follower, I told them about church, I even told them what I learned at service the other day and then I went off man when they offended me…” •“Son, I said I’m with you…the question is, are you with Me?” “Well, yes Lord I am…” And Jesus responds, “then do as my Word says. Abhor what is evil…hate it…and cling to what is good. I’ve given you good…I’ve showed it to you…first hand, one on one…when I showed you the cross…humility son. Submit yourself to truth, breathe in courage and take up your cross.” •“Yes, Lord.” > “Um, Joe, are you busy? I just wanted to tell you that I’m ashamed of how I acted. I’m so sorry to have been like that. Please forgive me…” And the Bible says that a kind word turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1). And all of the sudden, whether they accept it or not, whether you were even wrong in your perspective or not…doesn’t matter…you’re free and you are filled with the presence of God… •Abhor evil Paul tells us. Man we don’t even dislike evil. You get that? Know that nature you have? That sin nature? Do you think it abhors evil…please. This is an act of the will man…this is an act of revelation homes…as you walk with the Lord and understand doctrine…as you present yourself a living sacrifice, as you walk in your gifts in the church, man reality emerges and you begin to see sin for what it is…and its reach…and the cravings of the flesh become so very dull compared to the strength of the Spirit…but understand man…this is to be learned through steps 1 and 2…go out in the world without having your mind right through the first two parts of chapter 12 and tell me you abhor evil…I don’t buy it! Romans Chapter 12 Verse 10 •What on earth is so confusing about that verse? Irreconcilable differences, give me a break! Talking about how you’re a Christian and yet your most intimate relationship, the one between you and your wife, between you and your husband is a mess? Romans 12 Verse 10. Are you certain that Jesus is your Lord? “Love, honor and preference to eachother.” The Word of God just fixed every marriage in this room! •Oh but we’re talking about the world, aren’t we? So that boss who is a hot head, that neighbor who is oblivious…love, honor, preference? Well isn’t that what the Lord did…when He took up His cross…when they beat Him down and mocked Him by putting a bag over His head and punching Him and then saying, “prophecy oh King, who was it that hit you?” And what did He do? He died for them!!! And you want to talk about how you’re neighbor has got you so messed up because his dog keeps stealing your newspaper! BACK TO STEP ONE MAN! •“What am I doing wrong?” THIS man….And Paul even hooks us up with a step down into the nitty gritty of it… Romans Chapter 12 Verses 11 – 13 •I heard a story this week of a missionary candidate who was to appear before an examiner. A veteran missionary…one who had been in the battle, serving the folks, long days and short nights, he was to make the determination if this young candidate was ready for the field. So he instructed the candidate to be at his house at 5am. The candidate arrived at 4:55am. •“Wait for me,” the examiner said as he ushered the candidate into his study. Three hours later the examiner returned and said, “how do you spell baker?” “B-a-k-e-r,” answered the young candidate. “What’s two plus two,” responded the examiner. “Four,” answered the candidate. •The examiner thanked the candidate for coming and showed him out. When meeting with the mission board, the examiner stated, “I highly recommend this candidate. He is ready. I asked him to arrive at 5. He arrived before 5. I tested his patience and made him wait three hours in my study and he didn’t say a word. I insulted his intelligence by asking him ridiculous questions to which he humbly and readily responded…he will do well on the field.” •You see we’re interested in credentials and qualifications, but the Lord is interested in character. Be fervent for the Lord Paul says no matter how simple or insignificant that service might appear to be…because in doing so you might just be qualifying yourself for even greater service…and by not doing so…possibly disqualifying. •Parents ask you to do something, “why me?” Disqualified…stumped and dead ended right there. Neighbor needs your help…grumble grumble grumble…yea I’ll help you just as soon as I get my paper back from your dog! Dead ended right there! “What am I doing wrong?” Are you absolutely GIVEN to hospitality? •Hint…if steps 1 and 2 are right…yes you are…. Romans Chapter 12 Verses 14 – 16 •Whoa whoa whoa WHOA! Christianity is for the weaklings…? Christianity is a crutch!? Walk this out with me! This is strength on display man. This is the power of someone who has nothing to prove and only a Savior to love…a Lord to rep, man! “Bless those who persecute you; rejoice when they get the new ride, the new job…instead of you…seek humility and reject personal wisdom!?” Entirely contrary to our nature isn’t it? •I mean this is proof this is God’s word and not man’s! Who would write this? “Hey, I want to write a best seller…” Yea, not going in this direction! Yet the number one book ever, over 6 billion in print, in nearly 2,500 languages, not the New York Best Seller the universal best seller ever! Why? Because eternity is tattooed on the heart of every human being…a need to be free…an absolute craving for the transcendental superior…Christianity is the opposite of weakness…it is for the champion. •For the courageous. For the one who has the intestinal fortitude to deny what will feed their sin disease and suffer for the sake of someone else’s ethereal and eternal freedom, man. Not so that they can feed their sin disease…that’s the very definition of political correctness but man we take up our cross just as Jesus did and we show them grace, we show them love, we do not shy from the truth yet we never wield the sword of truth outside of the very mission of righteousness and love… Romans Chapter 12 Verse 17 •Paul already said to abhor evil; here is a necessary step in that mysterious scrath ‘n sniff. “Scratch ‘n sniff?” Yea, in other words, there is MUCH to be learned but you won’t learn a dag on morsel of it until you actually do it! Until you actually set out to abhor evil! And the first step to abhorring evil, hating evil that is, repaying no one with evil…is to identify it. •We waste so much time trying to figure out what’s wrong with eachother when God has called us to examine ourselves! David said, “search ME oh God!” Man, clear vision and immediate discernment of direction as to what on earth to do in this or that situation comes with the identification of evil and the rejection of it…and all of that is mirror work man… •Where are you with the Lord? Is your life about you or is it about Him? Do you believe Him? Do you accept Him as your Savior AND your Lord? Will you do as He says…and man that’s easy, we should do what He says simply for the wisdom of it all…we don’t have to agree or even like it…my kids hate veggies, so what. They want to play in the busy street, so what. Do what daddy says man or your body will be frail and squishy…no nutrients…and do as daddy says so that your safety is just that, safe. •God said to Satan in the book of Job, “He fears God and hates evil…or abhors evil…” And so to abhor evil, you must fear God…you must grow in Him man and understand His awesomeness, His otherness and then mirror work complete, get into the church and then church work working…pound the pavement man! Marching orders received Paul! Romans Chapter 12 Verse 18 •This implies that it is not possible to live peaceably with some people right!? “There is a time for war,” says Ecclesiastes 3:8 and we are to be ready, prepared, willing, able, trained, strong and filled with powerful energy against it man to run out and meet them but we must make sure when we charge them that we are on the side of righteousness man…in other words we have received direct command to do so from our Commander and He is well pleased in even the condition of our heart as we engage…but we will engage! •To be ready, prepared, willing, able, trained, strong and powered up at all times and ready to engage yet to bless those who persecute you is the very demonstrated definition of meekness. Strength under control man…power harnessed and useful to the Master…a picture of Jesus man… Romans Chapter 12 Verses 19 – 20 •This is exactly how Jesus Christ acted towards us. That while we were sinners, His enemies, completely turned from Him and in rejection of Him, He took my cross, my punishment and my shame of my sin was heaped upon Him and man…He is worthy to receive my worship! •That neighbor that annoys you, that coworker that disrespects you, the husband that has grown aloof, the wife that has become apathetic…the friend who betrayed you, the ex-wife that defames you…DO NOT SHARE IN THEIR MISERY but set your heart to abhor evil, to cling to good, to honor God, to represent Jesus and to free them from their misery. Pray the Lord of the harvest man (Matthew 9:38) that He may grant repentance (2 Timothy 2:25) for truly the harvest IS plentiful but those that have the strength to labor in the fields are so very few (Luke 10:2). Romans Chapter 12 Verse 21 •“Lord, what am I doing wrong?” “Son, you’re bent on being defeated by evil. Learn good.” Message received Lord. I’m so thankful for the clear, practical, sensible…reasonable instruction of Paul. •As he taught us doctrine, the why behind the what, so very essential to understand as we walked through chapters 1 – 11. Now he’s stepped us through one of the most, if not the most, critical, vital, essential chapters of the Bible concerning growth in the Lord. First, get our relationship right with God. Nothing happens horizontally in our lives until our relationship vertically is correct. •Then, get active man. Serve your brothers and sisters in the Lord. Use your gifts…all of them. Develop them, get powered up and then get out into the world…they already know that religion is wrong, secular Christianity is a joke…they already know that…angry preachers and self-help schemes…the world, especially this “knowledge” generation, see’s right through that man…go show them something real. •But first, get real yourself. Do not be overcome with evil man…quit being defeated. Grow in your love of Jesus man…”What am I doing wrong?” I’m not loving the Lord. Simple as that…all the strife, every problem, every worry, every emotional strain, every blow of the Bible bazooka, Lord help me love You more and to crush Satan under my feet.
Romans 12 vs 3-8
September 22, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Romans Chapter 12 is critical, it’s vital…an essential chapter in terms of growth and maturity in the Lord. Essential in terms of joy, power and intimacy with God…because this chapter shows us in a style of practical mastery…the mind of Jesus, man… You see Paul has laid out doctrine. The wonder of grace. The depth of the riches to be found both in the wisdom and the knowledge of God and the unstoppable force of God’s crazy love for you and for me! And with that foundation firmly in place, Paul now gives us reasonable instruction. In light of the wonderful truths, the marvelous grace and mercy and love of a holy and a perfect God…in light of our condition apart from grace and now our present posture clothed in the perfection of Jesus…Paul now gives us the answer to the most courageous question anyone could ask…”what am I doing wrong.” Why is my life not where I want it to be? Not getting Romans Chapter 12. Why is my marriage a mess? Not following Romans Chapter 12. Why do I not feel close to the Lord? Why can’t I seem to connect at church? And why am I so relationally challenged man…let alone church, I can’t seem to connect…at work or even at home…I can’t even seem to get with the Holy Spirit man…I hear of love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self control, goodness, faithfulness and power man but my life is more like…hard…what am I doing wrong? Chapter 12 has the answer man…and Paul has broken it down for us into a pattern… You see Chapter 12 is one subject, three objects. One question answered, three applications. Three sections if you will. Progressive in their position. Section one deals with how faith responds to God Himself. We looked at this last week. Paul shows us in verses 1 and 2 precisely the mind of Christ man…the response that will lead to power, maturity and freedom…how we as Christians are to approach God. Then verses 3 through 8 lays out how faith responds to the church. The body of Christ. The family of God. Our reasonable response. The response that will lead to power, maturity and freedom in terms of our service and position to and within the church. Finally, verses 9 through 21 shows us how faith responds to the world man. In response to what God has done, who He is and our relationship with Him. The down-to-earth, pragmatic, functional, instructional teaching of Paul and really the commands of the Lord laid out for us and put on display here in this chapter…and notice the progressive pattern. You want to be set free? You want to be filled with power and purpose and direction and freedom man…then here is your mission. First, learn doctrine. Learn Jesus man. Get to know Him. Hear of Him, read of Him, talk to Him, seek Him and find Him. And let Him fill your heart and mind with truth. Then, respond. Get right with Him man…your relationship with the church, your relationship with your wife, with your mom, with your friend, with your mailman…will never be right until your relationship with God is right. That’s why Paul goes there first… Then, get right in the family man. Set your house in order. Not your house with your address, this house! Your Father’s house man! Learn how to properly be in the church…you will not know how to handle yourself in the world if you first cannot conduct yourself properly at home…and if you are a child of God, then church is home. And so Paul presents that second…finally, you’re ready. Relationship with God as it should be. Home life as it should be. Time to hit the streets. Pound the pavement. Put in work man out there as salt and light…Paul gives us action packed, sobering sane and sensible direction in all situations…with God first, the church second and the world third…what are we missing…This chapter…will answer for each of us, “what am I doing wrong?” I wonder if you have the strength to be taught… You see, we’ve misdiagnosed the problem. We’ve questioned God’s faithfulness. We’ve blamed others…and yet the problem persists. You ever misdiagnose a problem? Recently my bike died. Going down the street, it just turned off…With the help of some friends, I limped it home and then began to trouble-shoot. I replaced the starter relay. No dice. I replaced the starter solenoid…nope. Time was passing, money was being spent…bike…dead. Then after about a month I charged the battery and stuck a meter on it…1.6 volts…that could be the problem, ha! You see I wasted time, I wasted resources, I wasted frustration, I wasted, I wasted, I wasted…fixing the wrong problem man…I’m tired of wasting time. I’m tired of having an amazing, powerful, fast, and efficient vehicle and letting it sit dead in my garage because I’ve misdiagnosed. I know what my problem is. It’s me. I’m ready to ride man…I’m finished wasting my time…and so was Paul… Romans Chapter 12 Verse 3 •Paul knows all about thinking of himself more highly than he ought. Immediately our minds go to Saul of Tarsus, right?. The Pharisee of Pharisees. The leader. The elite! But I’m not sure that’s where his mind is as he writes this. Especially in light of verses 1 to 2. I think he’s writing this, and we need to read this, in light of those verses. Body given over to God. Mind given over to the Lord. Yet pride can still mess you up man… •We see it today in churches, mega churches and mini churches alike. Pastors and leaders who sincerely think that they are something more than the people. Some say it, all live it…those that have fallen into pride’s pitfall…Even Paul. Remember his sermon in Athens? Acts Chapter 17 where he was provoked, heart-broken over all of the false gods and he makes an attempt to preach at the Romans…telling them of the “unknown god” rather than giving them the simple Gospel… •No matter what God shows you, no matter how far He brings you, remember…you haven’t come this far because you are God’s gift to the world…Jesus was…and so quit getting high off of pride man…that’s what Paul is saying here…think soberly…you’re vision can get cloudy, your mind can get murky…why? When? When you lose sight of the fact that each one of us…nothing more than a rescued orphan man… •Think of it this way…take Jesus and what He has done in your life away and what are you? Lost, dirty, homeless, hopeless, weak, blind, hungry, hurting, lonely, harmful, angry…right? That is fact…and so we see our true form. The only difference today, Jesus man…the simple and pure and powerful gospel of salvation…grace…through faith…so don’t get cloudy man…don’t let pride promote you. Remember, the branch does not support the root Paul would say… •Do this, keep sight of this, and God can puzzle piece us together into a powerful force man…rather than a group of cancers…doing our own thing, thinking we’re something… Romans Chapter 12 Verses 4 – 5 •This is so clear and so feasible yet so hard to digest! The church cannot function with all pastors. With all deacons. With all children’s ministry workers. With all coffee makers, or all worship leaders…no we need all of that don’t we? Of course we do, man…so what’s your function? •Well I don’t know, you might say. Ok, let me help you Paul would say. Verse 5. Your function in the church, your ministry is first to Christ, growing close to Him and setting your mind on Him and loving Him and serving Him and then second, to one another! It’s right there. Plain sight…yet missed and even if not missed…what do we think so often? That’s not enough! •My heart breaks for folks that say they don’t do enough, they don’t know what God is calling them to…why? Because blessing and power is in their grip man but they’ve been lied to by the enemy…he’s whispered into their ear that service to Jesus and service to others is not enough. Hogwash man! We’re all after the title because that is what the world says is important but God says that love is important! •All of the servants here…the deacons the ministry leaders the staff, they all are simply this…one body in Christ and individually members of one another! You see the first and primary communal ministry of every Christian and every church member and every church leader is right here. This is why we are slow to raise folks up into formal positions here…because have you got this right? If not, a title will eat you alive man! Go right to your head and hurt you…not to mention others! •No. Understand something this morning. There is no greater title then lover of God. Follower of Jesus. Child of the King. So why desire any other? Serve out your ministry…your reasonable response and if you don’t know practically what that means then look around…find someone who is active in ministry, formal or informal and serve them. Talk to them. Invest in them. •There’s a battle a foot and if you don’t know where you should attack, then bear the arms of one who is…make sense? You want to be in children’s ministry? That begins with you serving those who are in it now. You want to be a deacon here…serve the deacons…you want to be a youth leader then serve the youth leaders…got it? God will do the rest and let me tell you, you are needed man…you fit…God has called you, and your ministry is waiting for you…just sitting in the garage, waiting for a new battery… Romans Chapter 12 Verses 6 – 8 •Paul now walks us through the gifts of grace…and really what he’s talking about, because it’s evident in the Greek, is our passion man…what we desire…the Greek word is charisma. Literally that’s it. What jazzes you up. What gets your motor running. What do you like to do…guess who gave that to you? Your Father. According to His grace. •What does that mean? Imagine that you didn’t like to do anything. Nothing ever seemed to be enjoyable to you…how horrible would that be? You see, the things you enjoy, those are gifts man…because they bring what? Joy! And so Paul says here that God has wired you up, hooked you up man and given you passion so use it! And he walks us through the seven roots…there are lots of branches…lots of fruit…lots of leaves…lots of ways these manifest and play out, you’ll find them in 1 Corinthians 12 (spirituals) and Ephesians 4 (positions)…but here are the seven roots… •A friend of mine calls these super powers! And I like that! Ability that has been downloaded into you from on high and everyone in here is included. Let’s take a look… •First though, one second, Paul says different gifts according to the grace given…He doesn’t say different grace. God does not show partiality…He has not favored one person over another…the person next to you hasn’t been given more grace than you…they may have received more…but that’s an entire different teaching… •And so Paul mentions prophecy first. This is not the ability to tell the future…this is simply the speaking of truth. Hearing the matter, seeing the circumstance, observing the thing…and seeing what’s really going on…not just what’s going on on the surface, but the real issue. Discerning the truth you see. And the Bible actually tells us how we can grow in this area, how we can develop this super power…simply grow in your knowledge of Jesus. •It’s Revelation 19, the angel says that the Spirit of prophecy is within those who testify of Jesus Christ. Therefore you want to grow in your understanding of reality? Grow in your understanding of Jesus. •Next is ministry. Simply service man. Ministry takes so many forms but its only service when all it is-is action…it becomes ministry when your fuel is worship. When what you do is because of what has been done for you, not by them, by the Lord. Ministry manifests. Prophecy declares truth, ministry depicts truth. And again, the Bible tells us how we can grow and develop this gift…John 12:26 Jesus says if anyone desires to serve Me, let Him follow Me… •Teaching is mentioned next. So prophecy declares truth, ministry depicts truth now teaching defines truth…breaks it down…bite size chunks, meets people where they’re at and takes them on a trip…shows them the sites you see…and again, I’m seeing a theme here, the Bible tells us how to develop this gift. 2 Timothy 2 tells us that the hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops…in other words, before one can teach, they must first be taught…and Jesus tells us in John 14 our teacher is the Holy Spirit man…so again, grow in the Lord, grow in this gift. •Next, exhortation which is simply encouragement…there are those that are just encouragers man…folks that come alongside you and say, “keep going, you’re going to make it, you’re doing well…let’s run together!” And Paul tells us later in 2 Cor 1 that we receive encouragement from the Lord so that we may encourage others and so again…to develop this gift, you gotta get close to Jesus, man. •Paul lists giving next. And he says give with liberality which can also be translated simply. It is more blessed to give than to receive Jesus taught us but to give with a grudge is a curse man…give with simplicity. Just simply give man. And truly some have a passion for giving. A gift. They just give man and certainly we know that the closer we are to the Lord, the more eternally minded we are, the more we live in the reality of forever, giving just flows naturally. •I like the next one. Leadership. Awesome. Not management. The world will teach you management. Manage your bills, manage your time, manage your portfolio…blah blah blah, this is leadership man. To cut the path, smooth the way, body check the threats and defend the defenseless! To bear the load man for those that you love and are called to serve! Ok so I’m a little passionate about this one…but this was and is precisely how the Lord is, isn’t He? Several passages on leadership throughout the Bible, several wonderful stories of leaders, we just don’t have time to get into it but they all boil down to this…you want to develop this gift in you…seek the Lord. The Leader of all leaders, the King of kings man…and notice what Paul says here, he ties diligence to this gift… •Diligence man. You are no leader if you have not consistency. If you do not purpose to hold fast to what others need of you. To your commitments, to what matters to others, not just to you…leaders serve and serve with diligence… •Finally mercy, the gift to just love on folks man…the desire, the passion for comforting…the burning need to forgive…to just get to peace…such a constant characteristic of God throughout the scripture… •So which gift do you have? All of them. If you have received the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit within you, given your life to the Lord…I just described you. “Oh no, not me.” Cop out. You’re just undeveloped man. Your function may be different than mine, your position, your calling, your most fervent passion and your most developed gift, but the same Spirit we share man… •We are on the same level in terms of grace man…God has given us both the same amount…He’s given us His Son…if someone appears more spiritual it’s not because they’re God’s favorite, it may be because they are just more developed…but I tell you this, your passions are different and your ability to develop in one or more of these areas surpasses anyone you know, for sure… •So how do you do it? Simply grow in the Lord man…and the whole body grows…one member gets healthy, the body gets more healthy…seek the Lord, grow in Him…and be used mightily…and precisely how you want to be used…great joy will come man…press in. •So we’ve seen the faithful response to God, the faithful response to the family of God, next week we’ll look at our reasonable response to the world…
Romans 12 vs 1-2
September 15, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
When I read Romans Chapter 12, I’m reminded of all of the crazy schemes that have come and gone through the years claiming to make folks successful, well, productive and free. Free from depression, free from poor health, free from financial fright…even freedom from relational hardship. Can’t get happy? Take this or try that. Read this and recite that. Can’t seem to get in shape? “Stop the insanity!” Remember that crazy bald lady, Susan Powter circa 1994? She told us she had all the answers, remember!? She was an inspirational, motivational speaker that was on during every commercial break no matter what show, news program or sport you were watching! But where’d she go? Same place they all go…the storm comes, their house falls. Today she is twice divorced and living in a self-described “earth ship” in New Mexico! Can’t get out of debt, or better yet, can’t get that toy that you want? Sell magazines! Remember that advertisement in the back of the kids magazines 20 years ago that had all of the prizes? The awesome inflatable boat? The gameboy? The flashlight and pocket knife combo set…oh man mom didn’t want me to get that one! And even cash! Just sell 200 magazines for this, 400 for that…man I never got anything!!! They even did that at school, that horrible program, remember that? Hey can’t get along with your wife? Google it! Type in “how to fix your marriage,” which I did (not looking for help but looking for an amusing sermon illustration) and I got 50 million hits in a quarter of a second! 50 million people telling me that they know why I’m such a knuckleheaded husband! “Self Help Schemes,” 15.5 million hits in less than half a second on Google. “Get Rich Quick Schemes,” 3.3 million hits in a fifth of a second…why? Because the truth is…we need help. I mean that’s why this stuff sells…folks like us, eeeeerbody, we need help don’t we? I bet every person in this room that has reached an age of adult responsibility needs help at times with fighting depression. If you’re like me, I can’t ever seem to get into the shape that I want to be in physically? My money never seems right…really. And oh certainly a little help with the wife at times could go a long way…even help with you guys, my friends…my coworkers…know what I’m saying? But Google doesn’t have the answer. Isn’t that a crazy thing to say? Between the three searches mentioned before, 70 million answers, all go by the way of an “earth ship” in New Mexico…why? Because you can’t treat lung cancer by prescribing a potent cough syrup… What? I know that was weird, it’s called a transition. It’s how I go from one thought to another. You see all of those schemes address symptoms…they don’t get to the heart of the matter. The tree is wilting…pruning ain’t gettin’ it…better have a look at the roots. Go back, to when you were stronger then you knew. When admitting you were wrong wasn’t so hard…where apologizing wasn’t agonizing. When true comfort was found simply falling asleep in dad’s arms or on mom’s lap. Go back. Link is 3 years old. He doesn’t care one thing about shame. He doesn’t care one thing really about how people think of him. He’s just simply my little one. Making mistakes all day without hiding any (most of the time) and coming clean almost instantly all of the time. Man, Let’s have a look at the root. Chapter 12 is one of the most powerfully practical chapters to be found in all of scripture. It containes the answer. Not the answers, the answer. To the only powerful question…what am I doing wrong? I mean just take the short list from before. Feeling down, don’t like what I see in the mirror physically, can’t get money off my mind and I can’t seem to find peace in my marriage, or in any of my relationships…just those four questions upon a stack of a million that we could ask or think…and the real question that needs to be asked, the courageous question, the righteous question…what am I doing wrong? Chapter 12 has the answer. And Paul knows it… So why not just start with Chapter 12? Why not place it before Chapters 1 – 11? See, that’s what the world would do…go for the glory. Instant gratification. Get it now! The problem is that reading through Chapter 12 has no sustaining power if you have not yet gone all in on Chapters 1 – 11. Chapters 1 – 11 get us a good look at the root you see… The previous chapters deal with our position in Jesus. That is, before Paul addresses how to act, how to be, what to do…he first addresses doctrine. You see when the concepts of doctrine precede the call to duty…when we understand that we have been grafted in as wild messy branches into the family of God, when we hear that the price required to pay our debt of sin is perfection and God Himself has made the final payment, when we know that there is therefore now no condemnation to anyone who is in Christ and that there is nothing more that we must do to get close to the Lord, we find ourselves free…free to simply come to Him and that produces in us a desire to want to serve Him, to want to thank Him for rescuing us… Sadly many churches don’t get that right. Churches teach what Christians should do without laying out the doctrine that Paul has in Chapters 1 – 11 and the result is a legalistic guilt trip that is absolutely foreign to the message of the gospel and the very nature of Jesus Christ. Not Paul. Paul has taught us doctrine, now he says, “you’re ready.” “You’re ready now to answer the question, the only question…what am I doing wrong?” I have titled this chapter in my Bible, “critical, vital, and essential for growth…” Romans Chapter 12 Verse 1 •Paul says, “in light of all this, I beseech you.” Now that is not a word we use today, at least not a word I use. “I beseech you Brantley, run along and check the mail!” Um, no. This is the word parakaleo in the Greek which is awfully close to parakletos, in fact it’s the same word only in the form of action…the verb tense. •The parakletos, the word Jesus uses when speaking of the Holy Spirit. It’s John 14:16, Jesus said, “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper or Teacher (parakletos) that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth…” That is the subject tense of the word, Paul here shows us the “go for it” tense of the word…He Holy Spirit’s us man! •Truth. Power. Encouragement. Correction…He says, “in light of Chapters 1 – 11, my personal testimony, God’s unsearchable glory and inexhaustible love and grace…go for it! Forget failure, overcome man…lemme teach you…parakletos you…by the mercies of God, leave all of these false forms of righteousness behind…” •All of these insufficient sacrifices that the Jews would constantly make and then turn their noses up at the gentiles…all of the things we do that we think makes us right with God…put it all down and place yourself upon the offering alter…in other words, something entirely foreign to the Jews, something entirely foreign even to the contemporary western American church, give your life to God…man. All in man…born again man…for real alive for the sake of knowing God more and more each day…(MJ Story) •My how we’ve so gotten it wrong. How I speak to so many that are religious…they go to church, they’re masterful judges of others, they have no problem using God’s name in vain…it’s “oh my God this and Oh God that’s so funny…” and my heart breaks as my Redeemer is called upon in an act of in-humility! Do you not know that the Bible speaks of the disciple of Christ abiding in Him? The born again, saved and regenerated person will not look and smell and sound like the world any longer…not because they aren’t allowed but because they are in love man…wrapped up in agape…unconditional, eternal, rescuing power and persuaded, just as Paul was, that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come are anything…compared to closeness and oneness with the Lord… •We’ve gotten it so wrong man. This is our reasonable response to what God has done. Not a profession of faith. Not a cross around the neck. Not a bumper sticker and a desire to be a better person…a living sacrifice. Paul says, “let me teach you of what the Holy Spirit does when faith is real…” How I fear for so many… •And really I can understand…people have been taught one verse here, one verse there…topical studies of health, wealth and success…your best life now and the richness of God’s inheritance…which is true as it’s presented in the Bible…it’s just that our sinful nature, I call it our “auto correct” changes the truth of the Word before it takes root in our hearts…Auto correct? Yea! •You ever send a text and then when you hit send you realize that the auto correct has messed you all up? Just this past week April texted me a question and I responded, “not yet, but I will.” However right before I sent it I noticed that autocorrect had hooked me up…”not yet bury wii…” •April would have been in the back yard burying Mario alive!!! See what I’m saying? We need to be taught not by the sinful desires of our heart…to get what we want, when we want it, how we want it…but rather by the Parakletos, the Holy Spirit through the entire counsel of the entire Word of God and the truth of the matter, the reasonable reaction to the remarkable and glorious gospel is that we give Him our all man…and if we do…if the connection is for real…. Romans Chapter 1 Verse 2 •So check this out. Paul is methodical, he’s so clear…if the connection is for real, forget all the self help schemes, leave behind all the get rich quick scams, you don’t need them! •Be not conformed to this world…oh something so cool in the Greek…know how we’ve talked about all of the schemes this world will try to sell you, and sell you, and sell you (which by the way proves it’s a scheme because if it wasn’t then you’d only need to buy one…) well the word here in the Greek for conformed is actually syschematizo! Did you hear it! Even the Greek word includes the word scheme! Don’t fall for it man! •The enemy, the world, your flesh, what you think you should do, what you think will make you well and right and rich will lead you leach you and leave you man! Don’t fall for it is what Paul says but be transformed, emerge, rise up, be something more, find something more! EE-AA-OO-AA (transformer talk!) •Man playdoh is conformed, a play thing…someone’s toy…how is it that we conform to the culture rather than transform it? How is it that we adjust to the culture rather than change it! Because we are a bunch of powerless lumps of playdoh, why? Go back to step 1…is the connection for real? •I want it to be. I want to be a transformer man. A glow in the dark alien that rules the room for the sake of the righteousness and regality of a real and eternal and high and lifted up Jesus Christ! Teach me Paul, parakeleo man…we’re ready, we need it…how can we do this thing??? •By the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God…practical Paul completes the picture…”what am I doing wrong?” •We’re so physical, we’re so works focused, we’re so conscious of proving Jesus in our lives…yet we’ve missed humility man…You see, I can give my body to the Lord…verse 1…as a living sacrifice but it’s incomplete in and of itself if my mind and my will do not humbly go all in for Him also…truly the root of all faith and power and reality…is humility man… •The power to be transformed; the power to light up the room with the glory of the Lord, the power to put it together and the power to be absolutely nothing so that God may be all…humility…and though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day in that power…and as you walk in that, “what am I doing wrong?” is answered clearly…for the proof of what is good, acceptable and perfect…God’s will for your life is unveiled… •You will know His will, you will hear His word, you will shine forth His power as you surrender your life and will to Him…no other way…all others are scams man…
Romans 11 vs 17-36
September 8, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Imagine reading this passage, this scripture set, the last couple chapters that deal with the nation of Israel and their rejection of Jesus Christ and the gospel of grace…imagine reading this passage under candle light. Sitting in a hand crafted wood chair, feet resting on a wood plank floor with the sound of horse and buggy faintly heard in the street outside your door. It’s October 31, 1517. Martin Luther distraught by the simplicity of the gospel and the complexity of religion…how the two were and are entirely contrary to each other, he takes out a feather tipped pen and wrote out the “Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences." What you and I now know as the “The Ninety-Five Theses.” He like Paul had lived as part of a system, a method, a machine that sought to make men and women acceptable and clean by way of payment. In Paul’s case, the payment of the law. Temple sacrifices, temple taxes, ritual and religion. In Luther’s case, the payment of indulgences, store bought clerical approval of sin, as people would pay forward their fleshly living and by that payment, be absolved of sin. And yet the gospel is so simple. The payment required and taught in God’s Word is not a thing such as a sacrifice at the temple…in fact the payment of the sin debt throughout God’s Word is not a thing at all…not a coin contributed to a corrupt cleric…not a ledger of do’s an don’t…the payment required is perfection itself…Perfection Himself…and that payment has been made. Jesus came to set men free. He said it Himself. He said in John Chapter 8 that sin enslaves us. Demands payment after payment after payment…rips out our liberty and our hope and in exchange delivers chains and entrapment and control while His mission, His purpose, His grace and mercy, pardons mankind…dismisses us from the bonds of sin, relieves us, rescues us, releases us… And so Luther, distraught; Paul desperate…both disquieted…preach with practical purpose…to free the people. To remove all of the complex junk of man-made tradition and light the path to the truth, the simplicity of the gospel. Luther wrote 95 theses, Paul wrote 90. Between chapters 9, 10 and 11 of the Book of Romans we have 90 verses. 90 verses comprised of Paul pleading with his people to simply consider, the simplicity of love man… It’s like God is saying through Paul, “I remember you. Before the giving of the law, you were Mine and I was yours. How simple we walked together. How you depended upon Me when days were long and times were tough in Egypt. How you individually knew Me. I remember how simple it all was…just you and Me.” I think about that often…as ministry grows and problems proliferate. As issues arise, and affairs of the church arouse anxiety…I start to grow http://weary...and I hear Him say to me, “I remember you. When we first met. How you were so light and filled with joy…” And I breathe and come back… The resolution to my irritation, my worries, my troubles is not to pay the bills or tune out or veg out or perfect my plans…but to just return, return to the warmth of a simple walk with the Lord. The comfort of close communication with the King of Kings…just as He’d have it…just what He secured for me upon the cross of Calvary…access, peace, joy…simplicity… That is the motivation and the message behind Luther’s objection to the ridiculousness of religion…the same disposition given in Chapter 11 by Paul as he concludes his theses to the Jewish people (again using the examples of the gentiles to do so), and in classic Pauline form, he sprints to the finish line… Ever run the mile at school or on the track team? You know you somewhat pace yourself for the first three turns but when that fourth turn comes around…its, “Jarvis put everything we got into the thrusters!” Romans Chapter 11 Verses 17 – 18 •So again, in addressing the gentile, he speaks to the Jew. He says to the gentile, “you were wild, out there, out of control and by God’s goodness and grace, He has brought you into His family…pulled you out of the poverty and perversion of self destruction (through self service) to be partakers of the richness and power of truth and freedom.” •“So don’t boast against those that have broken off.” Well who’s that? we might ask…the Jew would know…”hey, he’s talking about me!” (Could you imagine reading this as a Jew?) “And the gentiles are boasting against me!” See how they would gash up right here??? •And they would hear this epistle read, the Jews would that is, and they would say, “yo man, the root supports us”…and Paul would answer without even having to answer…cause he’s already said it right here, “roots don’t support broken off branches!” Sprinting he is! See that? •So by implication, who supports the broken branches…? Nada man. No one…but the broken branch itself and so Paul reveals to very strategically their broken position in their religiosity and self sufficiency! Romans Chapter 11 Verses 19 – 20 •Oh man Paul is really rolling out the red carpet of ridicule here isn’t he? He has spent the last two chapters pleading and reasoning with the Jew and now he’s ready to move on to practical Christian living so he’s going for the gold! Finish Him! (A little Mortal Kombat quote there – a,b,a,c,a,b,b!) • So let me get this straight. The Jew would ponder. “I am a natural branch, broken off and in my place these wild branches have been grafted in…now I’m missing out on the richness and fatness of the olive tree and it’s all because…I’m in unbelief! Oye Vey!!!!!” Romans Chapter 11 Verses 21 – 24 •Paul talks here about the “goodness AND the severity of God.” The world quickly, readily and gladly accepts the goodness of God but the severity? Not so popular. Why? Because that implies responsibility, accountability and liability! Liability? Yes to consider only God’s goodness is to make Him liable to you…like He owes mankind…not the case at all. It’s the other way around…because of His goodness…man we owe Him!!! •And what Paul is saying here is something we have discussed at length in the past…you will have what your free will desire man. You desire God, His love, His grace, His truth…to honor and to serve the King of Kings…your free will will go and get that for you. “Seek and you will find,” Jesus said… •But if you are bent on serving you, tail spinning in sin and indulging in that which will bring about confusion and corruption, your free will will go and get that for you. However, in the first example, you will know God’s goodness so very well…yet in the later, you will understand His severity…free will really is free will and if you choose death, God won’t stop you man…lest He violate His own goodness… •Therefore, where you are today…how you feel and how you react…what comprises your day and what fills your heart…your choice man…choose God > Get ready for His goodness…the root and fatness of the olive tree…choose you > prepare to find God quite severe as your free will delivers to you precisely what you demand…failure. •And Paul shows us something here that John later expounds upon in 1 John Chapter 2. He says God’s goodness is delivered in the continuance IN His goodness…two truths here…first, simply this…you cannot expect the goodness of God upon your day if you do not press into Him man…Jesus said, “why do you call Me Lord and do not what I say?” Later He described a house that fell in the storm because it was built on shifting sand. The same is the life of the man or the woman who conducts themself apart from the Word of God… •And so the truth for us as Christians…those who rep God, those who claim to be His…if you desire the filling of the Holy Spirit then draw near to the Holy Spirit…so very simple right? Fill your day with carnality and “all about you” stuff, man forget about it…your days before too long are going to be spent in counseling and crying…even though you’re saved as saved can be man… •And then the second truth…1 John 2:18-19 says it clearly, “the spirit of the Anti-Christ,” which is what? The spirit of deception. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” Can you lose your salvation? Answer this question. Can God lie? The answer is no and thus the answer to the losing salvation question, no way. You cannot be unborn again, you cannot have all your past, present and future sins forgiven and then unforgiven lest you make God to be a liar. •So can you “walk away” from your salvation? No. Same as losing it man. So what’s the biblical truth? Well here it is in 2 John, mentioned by Paul in Romans 11, you lose it, you walk away, you never had it in the first place…you continue in it, that shows man that you’re the real deal…that saving faith has arrived, rebirth has occurred…faith without works is dead James would say, why? Because man if you abide in Him, you are His disciple indeed, Jesus said it Himself in John Chapter 8. •And so Paul says here, “gentiles…you who have called upon the name of the Lord…if you find yourself “going out, walking away, losing it…”could it be that you’re still a broken branch? It certainly isn’t that God is unfaithful, that He has lied…” •Goes for you Jews also…and now Paul reveals an awesome mystery, the future of Israel… Romans Chapter 11 Verses 25 – 27 •God is yet going to deal with Israel as an entire nation. Ezekiel 39 speaks of this. Jeremiah 31 tells us of this…that the Jews missed the Messiah the first time, they won’t miss Him the second time…and when is that? Revelation 19. After the Great Tribulation and just as the millennial reign is commencing, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah returns and He cannot be mistaken…eyes of fire, armies of ten thousand thousands…and the Jews, as a whole…will believe…Paul says here, it’s plain, all Israel will be saved. •Many spiritualize this, I’m ok with that…but I’m a biblical literalist and I take this at face value…makes sense to me…the entire nation will turn to Jesus! Why? Check the next couple of verses… Romans Chapter 11 Verses 28 – 29 •So why? Why will the whole nation turn? Because the promises of God are irrevocable man…and He promised them long ago, I will be to them a Father and they will be My people…and God is always true to His Word… Romans Chapter 11 Verses 30 – 32 •The plan revealed…the subject, object, precept and concept of God’s heart exposed…the ultimate answer to the question, “why?” “That He might have mercy on all!” And so check this out…after laying it out plain and simple and now revealing an awesome prophetic mystery that puts on display God’s goodness and faithfulness, Paul just worships… Romans Chapter 11 Verse 33 •How many times have you discussed the question, “did Adam have a belly button?” Or, “if God can do anything, can He make a rock so big that He cannot lift it?” The more you discuss and try to find out His ways…you know what happens, you just become more confused…why? Because His ways are unsearchable…now, Paul does not say that His ways are un-understandable…isn’t that interesting…because the truth is that when you stop questioning God with the limitations of mankind’s tiny little brain and simply marvel at Him for who He is…then understanding, revelation, truth simply arrives… •Check this out…I know my car runs sweet…purrs baby, turns and burns…but the minute you start walking me through how it do…man I get frustrated, I get bored! My router routes…internet happens man and I understand that…but the minute we start talking protocol and flux capacitors…I hate you! HA! Ugh I’d rather go to the dentist HA! Why is it that we think we can figure God all the way out man…just enjoy the internet…just enjoy the drive man and understanding enters…marvel at His goodness and drop these stupid, useless questions…can God make a rock so big that He can’t pick it up…No! But I thought God could do anything? He can…FIGURE THAT OUT! HA! Romans Chapter 11 Verse 34 •Well Paul, I have...”God don’t forget, God do this, God do that…” as if I know what’s best for this church, my family, this country…I’m amazed sometimes at the audacity of my own prayers…my prayers should only always be in the spirit of “Lord, what do You want to do with my life…what is Your desire…help me to know that and to have the faith to walk in that…” Romans Chapter 11 Verses 35 – 37 •And so we close this section of Romans, knowing that God has proven Himself to the Jews. He chose them soverignly, deals with them equitably, and promises that He will not give up on them eternally. Generations before us read this and said, “sounds good Paul, but where’s Israel today?” You see we’re blessed. We don’t have to stretch to accept this scripture set because Israel is back man…therefore we see that, ponder that and we know somehow deep down that things will come together for us also… •He’s promised they will, we can trust Him. He remembers just walking with us…simply in love man…in trust and peace…we should have no problem ushering that back in man…just looking at His faithfulness to the nation of Israel, who’s messed up just as badly as I have…oh how complex we’ve made it…time to post our own 95 theses at the door of our own hearts…
Romans 11 vs 7-16
September 1, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Romans Chapter 11 Verses 7 – 10 •Seems harsh…I mean Paul says clearly that it was God that gave them over to staggering, to blindness and to deafness as he loosely quotes from Isaiah 29, Deuteronomy 29 and Isaiah 6…but look at what Paul said to begin to this thought, “Israel has not obtained what it seeks…” •Well what does Israel seek? To make themselves righteous before God! To establish their own sufficiency, man! Even today, the Jew is seeking a righteous standing before God all based on works, centered on self. Yom Kippur is no longer a day of sacrifice by the high priest where sin is recognized in responsibility, repented of in humility and covered by the loss of an unblemished lamb…now it’s a day of reflection where the Jews weigh their good deeds against their bad deeds. •This has crept also into the church. Groups, movements, denominations that are busy, lots of activity, lots of people but is the gospel being preached? Are people being saved? Are lives being set free, man? Is salvation by grace through faith in Jesus being proclaimed and is humility growing? These are major questions, indictments even that Jesus brings against the different churches in Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation… •And so notice, get enlightened this morning, this action of God isn’t harsh, it’s actually helpful, even necessary (not to mention totally in alignment with all that God has promised – because He is the Never Ending Story of faithfulness). •You see it’s simply a truth of God’s Word and a compassionate component of God’s character as a good Father! That if you continually ask for another chain with which to imprison yourself that much more, God will intervene, man. The Jews, these folks, even us…we so often seek selfishly…and I know there are some here this morning that won’t personalize this, won’t take responsibility for this…His word promises that right here in this verse set… •But I know what’s coming, man. Stupor. Why? Because He so loves you. Enough to even cause you to hit the dead end that you are so pursuing so that you might do as the prodigal son did and come to your senses. Stumble just enough to realize that the ground you’re standing on is not solid but notice what Paul does not say. He does not say that God makes them, us, you or I to fall…not His MO. (Modus Operendi) •God’s way is to correct, teach, rebuke and encourage…to chasten us…to call us back to Himself…to chase us right into liberty and strength and power and purpose…and so when you see someone stumbling man come alongside them, encourage them and tell them of God’s goodness, His faithfulness, His love for them…and when you see someone who has fallen, sin is rampant…their family consumed or even gone…and they’re flat on their face fallen, then have compassion on them because that is not the work of the Father…that is the work of the fallen one, the consequence of the flesh…so you go and you restore them. •Just like them, just like the Jew, just like you, God loves you enough to move you off the path of wasted time man but the enemy hates you enough to use God given tribulation to deliver flesh eating temptation to cause these folks, the Jews even you and I to fall… •Think of it this way. Most every time I go into my teenager’s bedroom, his dresser drawers are open. Why? Well two things really. First, he’s smart. He knows that he needs clothes at night and clothes in the morning and so why close the drawers, just going to have to open them again. But the second reason is not so noble because it drives his mom and I crazy and it reflects a deeper attitude, an under-current, a developing habit…of laziness with a pinch of selfishness. •That’s where the danger of the flesh resides man…the opportunity opening of the enemy to bring in offense. When you park 10% in front of your neighbor’s yard. When you get into the habit of just hanging the phone up when the conversation is over rather than saying goodbye. When you sign emails with only your name and no pleasantry. When you leave your sweater on the side of the couch every night just because it’s more convenient for you, and hey…not hurting anybody…the problem…NOT SERVING anybody! •How is it that we have arrived at this false fleshly mentality that as long as it seemingly doesn’t hurt anyone else then it’s ok! Man that is the very essence of evil creeping in! The truth is that if it’s not serving someone else and ultimately serving the Lord, guess what!? Its sin man, and one more thing that I pray you reject in your life, a “means to an end” thinking. That oh well I have to do this now to bring about a higher service to others, a more better service to God…man serve Him NOW! The two great commandments, love God and love others, being violated and all the while rationalized? Wrong. •Plain and simple sin man and that sin is opening the door wide open to the enemy to wreak havoc with your life, with your day, with your understanding even! You wake up one day and your situation is such a mess and guess what you are…confused! “How did it get this way?” False, fleshly, mentality…laziness with a pinch of selfishness…and I will protect my children against that, how much more My good Father in heaven? •And so what do I do? Drawers left open again. I run in there with a sledge hammer and bash the dresser to pieces and give him a few good whacks for learnin’ sake! NO! I tell him what I just told you and then I offer him a choice. Fix it and be free or continue in it with consequences. Why? Because I love him. I don’t want his adult life and his young adult life for that matter to be filled with opened drawers and unfinished work. That will harm him. So I step in and place in his path a stumbling block, a consequence, so that he might turn and learn wisdom…not that he should fall and fail…that would be to do nothing, to not correct, teach, rebuke and encourage… Romans Chapter 11 Verse 11 •(Note: Word for fall here is pipto which is literally to be thrust down and condemned.) And so notice the truth Paul is sharing with us! God is strategic! God is good! He is wisdom! Not only to turn the Jew back to Himself but to also reach out to the gentile. Man God is strategic. Do you know what that means? That means He is center stage, on the scene at work…but He is also behind the scenes working it out! That’s how He do! •Do you know what’s NOT in the Bible? “God works in mysterious ways.” Not in there. Why. Because if you have ears to hear me this morning then know this…if you seek Him, you’ll see Him. If you look for Him, He will be found and if you desire wisdom, He’ll deliver it. It’s like my flash drive. I get ready for work in the bathroom and then once I’m finished I gather my things off the dresser in the bedroom. The bathroom is bright, the bedroom is dark. Hard to see. And my flash drive is black…and so each morning I have to take a chill pill. Stop for a minute…and stare at the dresser…let my eyes adjust until I see the outline of the black flash drive…then I grab it. Man God is just like that…if you stop, chill, look, seek…you’ll find Him…once your vision adjusts just a little bit to that dark situation you’re in…that takes courage my friends… •Why is God so concerned with His children following His word rather than their own rationale, even intelligent (leave the drawers open) logic? Because logic don’t see in the dark man…there is much more going on then just what we see center stage! When you love your wife as Christ loved the church, not loving to get something in return but loving to love…even loving to be taken advantage of! I mean the Bible said that Jesus loved the shame of the cross for the sake of the salvation of the world! When you obey God’s word and just love her guys then spiritual strategy occurs! This is wisdom! This is why marriages fail because folks have no sense for strategy! •When you simply love her right where she’s at, a mess and a flawed wife and a flawed person (just like all of us are) then you free her to respect you man. When she no longer has to worry about how you’re going to treat her, because she knows it will be filled with love, grace and affection…then the chains fall off of her and she’s free to be WITH you, just like YOU desire her to be. Not against you. Not undermining you. Not questioning you…but WITH you… •When you put God first and others second…making yourself to be a distant third, supposing each and every person better than yourself just like the Bible says…check Philippians 2:3, then check this, you surge with eternal perspective and ethereal power! You bring heaven right down to your habits man and spiritual strategy strengthens…but oh man we are so wrapped up in front and center, show me, give me, please me, feed me…when the riches of God are always to be found in a behind the scenes type of faith and reliance upon Him…I wonder if you have the courage to try it out…to just trust Him and to do as He says…that’s where you learn…that’s where you grow… •If my kid doesn’t push in his dresser drawers consistently, faithfully, habitually and in accordance with his father’s word…then he’ll never learn why I ever wanted him to in the first place…he’ll just feel as if he’s being commanded…know what I’m saying? Romans Chapter 11 Verse 12 •(Note: Fall here is paraptoma which means lapse) Obviously God is not through with the Jewish people, right?! I mean right here, “how much more will the world see when their fullness comes in?” Speaking of the future… •What future? The kingdom age man. The millennial reign when Jesus returns to the planet as we know it, before the new heaven and the new earth, and He reigns for a thousand years. The Jew, at that time, as one will stand in belief and submission to Jesus Christ and the whole world will be blessed… Romans Chapter 11 Verses 13 – 15 •Paul’s so clever! He basically just showed his hand here. He says to the gentiles, “look, I’m not only trying to explain the gospel to you, I’m also trying to exploit the gospel through you! And not only to the Jew but for the reconciling of the entire world!!” Romans Chapter 11 Verse 16 •So I dig this verse entirely. And yes Paul is talking about the Jew and using the Jew and the Jewish state and the Jewish condition to reach the world but I see such power in this principle. •Now a lot of teachings and commentaries and very sound students of God’s Word will apply this to giving…to tithing because where this idea of firstfruits is introduced in the Bible, literally God is talking about money and increase however listen there is so much more to this than money…money just happens to be a primary application because it is something tangible, something that we can all measure…and oh by the way…it’s the hardest thing to physically let go of…it’s much easier to give time and effort and sweat equity and prayer equity then it is to part with my cash… •And in my own life, I know that I readily give what folks can see but I faithfully give what folks cannot see and in that I find where I truly am in terms of my life being submitted to God…but there’s so much more in this verse than just money…this is everything!! •If the first is holy, the rest is holy. Apply that to your marriage. If you first desire to serve your husband as you would serve the Lord…boom, your love for him will be affected in a most holy way! Heaven man! (Heaven isn’t too far away! Great song!) If you first focus on cherishing your wife as Jesus cherishes His church and gave Himself for her…then boom, your heart will fill with heavenly holy hotness for her man! If you first seek to honor God with how you parent…He’ll take care of the rest. •If you seek first God…almost even refusing anything else but to honor God, to serve Him, to glorify Him, to worship Him and to accomplish His will for YOUR life…then man, the whole lump, all the branches of your life…will be as they ought to be… •But this is more than money. This is more than mornings, this is more than the first ten minutes of a hundred minute project, this is everything…this is the secret to a fruitful, purposeful, powerfully valuable life…a loving and lasting marriage…a lucrative and delightful job…an involved and mighty ministry in the church or to the church…. •Now turn it around. Make the Lord a component, a piece…albeit an important piece but just that, a piece in the puzzle of you…and not the primary, not the first and foremost, not the everything and you will have this truth applied just as powerfully…the lump will wilt, the branches will wither…and I want you to know oh child of God…God loves you too much to allow your branches to fail forever…He will bring about trial and storm and difficulty and testing time and time again to bring you to ultimate freedom…because He loves you and is so at work behind the scenes! •Time for some firstfruit faith y’all. Especially as we see this world deteriorate…as we watch folks fall…time to get after what’s eternal and set your eyes on the life to come so that even now, what God has willed for your life…what you even desire deep down…the BEST for you…will begin to come about… •Stare a little longer…consider the love of God in the cross of Christ intently…see the frame of the flash drive…step back from the busy preparations for the day…and seek the Lord…place Him first, unlock the secrets of His truth in your life…
Romans 11 vs 1-6
August 25, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
You know, you never take a chance when trusting in God. His faithfulness, His grace, His love…is the original Never Ending Story! (That movie was such a rip off anyway, I mean IT ENDED!) What I’m saying is that God is ultimately trust worthy. You’ll never hear God say or display, “come unto Me, trust in Me, choose to follow Me…and it just might work out…” Not going to happen. The promise is given, the delivery is sure…that if we come to Him, we will find rest for our souls, peace in our hearts, and purpose for our lives. Its not will God work it out, it’s will we allow Him to lead? So often I don’t. I just have to figure it out for myself…sometimes even “help God out.” But I’m just like a kid. In fact, I’m His kid. Until I let Him lead, even the help that I give Him, the effort that I exert, is really just…in His way. Friday, we received a piece of furniture that April ordered from http://target.com. And guess what, it came with, “some assembly required.” And so I gathered the required tools and cracked the box. Then around the corner comes guess who? Link! My three year old and immediately he grabbed the hammer and as I would secure each screw, he would come behind me and just tap in those screws. Each one. And he wanted me to watch so I’d have to pause between screws and hype him up, you know let him know I saw him and that he was doing well before I could move on to progress. But here’s the cool part. When it came to attaching the doors, I literally needed a second set of hands and so I asked Link to hold the door in position. Guess what? He didn’t get it! So I tried again. And then again, and then finally I just put him in position and said “stop! Stay right here. Hold this.” And he did it and together, we secured the doors. It was cool…and then wisdom slapped me in the face like it has to do to get my attention so often…that is exactly how I am with God. I don’t know how to help until I let Him show me and most often He has to just say, “Stop! Stay right there…hold this.” And when I trust Him to lead and just rest in His grace, beautiful things are built in my life and in the lives of those around me! That’s precisely how Paul wrapped up Chapter 8. All things are working together for the good to them that love God and are called according to His purposes. Why? Because nothing can separate us from His powerful love! That is not a Bible verse that you take a chance on, that’s biblical proof…experiential reality man. But it’s tough sometimes to rest in that, right? When times are tough. Situations are straining and patience is seemingly powerless. We all see those times, even Paul…and if that’s you then Romans 9 – 11 should encourage you. Because after proclaiming the wonderful Biblical reality of Romans 8:28, Paul pauses and inserts the nation of Israel as a historical, spiritual and factual illustration that He is faithful even when His people are fitful! You can take that to the bank. There’s no “chance” there. No matter where you’re at, what you’re going through, God will be, and is being, utterly, 100%, perfectly…faithful to you. I like what Gandhi said. “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always.” How can I be sure? Look at God’s relationship with Israel… In Chapter 9, Paul points to God’s past dealings with Israel in terms of His sovereignty, His perfect and complete knowledge. In Chapter 10, Paul deals with God’s present dealings with Israel and what stands out is His divine equity…His impartiality…His fairness in that whether Jew or gentile, all are invited to be saved. Here in Chapter 11, we come to God’s future dealings with Israel, which puts on display God’s immutable integrity. What does that mean? Look God made certain promises to Israel which He will fulfill. Even though they’ve blown it badly, God has promised to see them through…and get this, not based upon their righteousness but based on His own. The same is true for you. God has promised that He started the work in my heart, He’ll see it through (Philippians 1:6) and so whether I blast off or break down, wisdom tells me He’s not through. You never take a chance on Jesus. He’s the only decision you can make moment to moment that will continually, always, without fail or fluctuation…be the right decision. Whether we see it now or not. And in that, we find rest for our souls. Romans Chapter 11 Verse 1 • Last two chapters, pleading with the Jew on how they’ve sought to establish themselves as worthy which was never the intention of the law in the first place and now Paul says, so what does that mean…has God now rejected them as a people…has He “moved on?” Paul’s answer is clear…No! In fact, “certainly not!” In other words, “not in the least!” • You who seek to understand Biblical prophecy, what’s coming, what’s going to happen, take note of this because many groups and people teach that God is finished with Israel and that teaching leads you to a very confused prophetic picture. This whole false doctrine of Replacement Theology…that the church is now the recipients of the blessings that were promised to Israel. Not so, the church has simply been grafted in man but let me tell you, my main issue with this is that God made a promise…and we don’t take a chance on him. • So exhibit A. God made a promise to Israel, that promise stands. Exhibit B. Paul states clearly for us, the Word of God is explicit; God has not cast away His people. And then exhibit C. Paul himself happens to be a Jew…helloooooo! Romans Chapter 11 Verses 2 – 4 • The early, the original church, who started it all man? The whole world being flipped on its head for righteousness sake, the entire world being informed, enlightened, illuminated by the truth of Jesus Christ…the Savior of the world, God in the flesh, the fulfillment of all scripture…the original church was comprised of whom? You got it! Jews! • And here Paul debates, discusses, discloses to us that broad brushing the Jew as OT theology is bad doctrine…why? The church is instituted where? The NT! • So Paul here points to Elijah and says to his fellow Jew, “don’t lose heart man. Remember that Elijah caved himself in with complaining and disbelief…don’t do that!” He’s speaking to the Jew but we do this all the time. (Paul will invoke Elijah for the sake of the remnant, just as there is a remnant of the Jews who will accept salvation by grace through faith…precisely what the law originally taught! But before we get into that, there’s a mighty point here…Elijah caved himself in man…with complaints…specifically complaints against his own people. We do the same thing, man…) • We pray against people, we plead with God for Him to “get ‘em” but here’s the thing…Elijah didn’t know the whole story and neither do you. There are things about them you just don’t know, qualities of living behind their eyes that you just can’t see and know this…this is fact…this is wisdom…God sees people in a whole different light than we do. • Yes God see’s their failures and their frailties, but He also sees His plan, what He’s doing…He see’s their tears and troubles that we care nothing about! We miss it…why? We judge folks by what we think they should be while God looks at them and sees what they would have been without Him. • And so what do we do then when one is falling, flaking out…fakin’ man…we correct, rebuke, exhort and teach in love, we serve, we pray for them…not against them, and we encourage the remnant within them! Just as Paul is bringing to mind to the Jew right now that even though it seemed that all have turned from him, little did Elijah know, there was a remnant in the valley praying for him… Romans Chapter 11 Verse 5 • Think of “election of grace” like this, God’s sovereignty. People get all bent out of shape when they run into a Biblical word like “election” so let’s bring it one level down on the book shelf so that we all can reach it…think of it this way, “God is perfect, and his knowledge is perfect.” Romans Chapter 11 Verse 6 • You ever notice how a blurred picture, blurs your eyes? You look at a picture and it was taken by a 5 year old and the person has like six eyes that are all joined together by a smudge of colors? And you squint your eyes a little bit and for some it even gives you a little eye ache. Then you look up…and for a moment, everything is still blurred… • Paul says to the Jews, to us…look up and let your eyes adjust…you’ve been looking at a blurred picture…thinking you need to present yourself good enough to receive God’s love…that’s Jesus’ job… • This remnant that Paul speaks of is not a remnant according to the law. Rather it’s a remnant comprised of those who are saved by grace. And what’s true for them is true for us…you and I were saved by grace, if you don’t know the Lord today you can be saved…not by doing this or paying that or reciting this but simply by receiving the grace of God through Jesus Christ! And if we were saved by grace, let’s continue in it man… • That’s not a blank check for sin…come on man PLEASE! Read Romans Chapter 1 again! To continue in God’s grace is to give Him the praise continually! Because it’s all His doing. His creation, His love, His compassion, His Son, His blood, His righteousness…and so we, you and I, I am…His! • But so many start to mix in works saying, “Lord, look at how hard I’m working for you, surely the blessing is a-coming…” and ultimately that morphs into, “God, You owe me!” That happens in our marriages when we serve to get, in our jobs when we serve to get, in our families, kids…as you serve your parents to get the BIG present at Christmas…ultimately and indefinitely it turns you bitter man…locks you in poisonous prison…why? “Man, you owe me dad!” Dad don’t owe you nothing! And neither does God. He’s done it all and if you wanna work hard for Him then run with me man but let’s do it for His glory and not our own! • I am convinced that the Lord is looking for people, families, employees, kiddos, churches that He can just light up with blessings who will truly say, believe and live out the fact that it is only by God’s grace that we’ve been blessed. This church, this family, this job, this and that and this-and-a…is not because God has done something WITH us, it’s because He has done something FOR us…all of it man! Every good and perfect gift…simply because He so loves each one of us and because of grace…because of Jesus, He can freely know us and we can freely draw near to Him. • And I’m convinced that the church, the family, the dad, the mom, the employer that believes for real that God’s blessings and love and provision is not because of our powerful prayer, our diligent devotions or our endless energy…that God’s love and blessing and provision is simply, purely, utterly and solely according to His grace…the person that is for real about that…will know Him as He desires to be known…in Spirit and in Truth…in freedom and in joy…and will ignite a movement so powerful that the entire world will be turned on its head as folks come alive…in Jesus name. • That is Paul’s desire for the Jew. No more of this lawful, self righteousness…no more of this religious elite and religious condemnation…just freedom man…just life and life abundant…just walking with Jesus man…the Garden (of Eden) restored in the regenerate heart of His beloved child… • And then the taping of the screws stops, the beautiful work begins…
Romans 10 vs 5-21
August 18, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Anyone here ever heard of CaJo? Canton Jones? He is a very popular Christian recording artist and he has this one track called “5 seconds.” Have you ever heard of it? He sings, “I'm about 5 seconds away from giving you the most amazingest praise!” And recently I was able to hear his testimony. How he grew up in a solid home, ended up going down the wrong path and getting to the point where even murder was on his mind… Then the gospel got a hold of him. As he looked around his life and saw what he had become, his heart broke and he gave his life to the One who had never left him. He called out to the One who showered Him with love and a constant calling even through the darkest parts of his life. And so now he sings out, “I’m about 5 seconds away from giving You the most amazingest praise!” So what if his testimony was, “I’m righteous. All my life I’ve held to the law of God and anything I’ve ever done out of line I’ve quickly and completely made right by offering sacrifice, confessing to the priest, saying my hail-Mary’s, paying my tithes, so I’m good man. And now I’m about 5 seconds away from giving Him the most amazingest praise.” Doesn’t even work does it? You see that is the very heart of the point that Paul has been pleading with the Jew. That the thought that they can love God and praise God and worship God with their badges of perfections and righteousness due to their own works…it just doesn’t work. That doesn’t produce praise for God that produces praise for self! Paul knows this man…he was that. Now he’s free… (The following is for online notes only and not to be shared in the sermon due to time) His whole message, his practical straight-forward, plain elementary point is that the law doesn’t make you free, it sells you out man…it reveals, it teaches you…takes you to school as we used to say on the basketball court after school…the law shows us that we are indeed not righteous and are all together unable to cleanse ourselves. I saw this on a church billboard right up from my house…you know those billboards designed to get people to think deep thoughts…I saw one that said, “Walmart isn’t the only place that saves!” And I saw one once that said, “What did Noah do with the woodpeckers?” But really, right down the street from me, perfect for where we are at in scripture…it read…”the law detects…but grace corrects!” Hear me please Paul cried out in the first four verses of Romans 10. My heart is not to put you down, to call you out, to make you condemned but it’s that you, all of Israel, may be saved! You got zeal but it ain’t for real! It’s zeal to be perfect and that zeal will lead you to being 5 seconds away from giving YOU (as in self) the most amazingest praise! And that is the very essence of evil man as we’ve looked at in depth during our Wednesday night verse by verse study through the Book of Revelation. You’ve sought to establish your own righteousness you see. The law was never meant for that…and that path has led you to ignorance, no intimacy with God, no relationship, no amazingest praise man…because you got no heart for it! You haven’t submitted to the righteousness of God and so you’re out there. Your testimony doesn’t work…why praise a God who owes you man?…but the Bible says that God delights in the praises of His people, He inhabits them…He’s all about them…why? Because busted and sinful creation praising a holy and perfect Creator means that there is communion. That Jesus’ prayer has been answered… John 17, “Father My will is that they’d be with Me.” Praising the Lord is fueled by the fact that that prayer came to pass. That although none of us are sinless, we are called righteous! He has removed the distance between imperfection and perfection and called us to Himself through the cross of Christ. Now put that all together and you have a very neat and universe impacting truth. Your universe. Prayer is answered…at the cross? Not so much. Through the cross! Jesus prayed that the sin distance between the Father and His children would be annihilated. And through the cross that prayer was accomplished man. Same with us. Whatever your prayer is. Whatever. Doesn’t matter if it’s about money, marriage, your job, your kids, your car, your WHAT – EV – ER! God’s perfect will for the situation will be accomplished only one way, through the cross. Are YOU willing to go to the cross man…give your life for theirs? Lay down your trip…and say as Jesus did…nevertheless, not My will by Thy will be done. All prayers are perfectly and completely accomplished through the cross. And the ultimate accomplishment of Jesus Christ, the perfect man and holy God dragging our sin and failure to the grave and locking it down for all eternity, THAT will make a man hit his knees in spirit and in truth…in love and in submission…not this zeal for self righteousness! Recall last week we looked at the breakdown of Chapter 10. How first Paul spoke of Jesus Christ revealed as Savior, Messiah…that the search is over, love was right before their eyes, love was with them all the while…That was what we looked at last week in verses 1 – 4. And then as we continue through this chapter today, verses 5 – 15 we’ll see that Jesus would be received by some of Israel and then finally, verses 16 – 21 we’ll see that for the most part, Jesus will be rejected as Messiah by Israel. And we know that Paul is a wreck as he wrote this. Back in Chapter 9 verse 3 Paul basically says that he’s so broken over what has become of Israel that he would even trade his own salvation, he’d give them his own place in the family of God if it were possible. Why? Because he’s the one who taught them for so many years how to hate, how to increase their own pride, how to stiffen their necks, how to stiff arm the true spirit of righteousness…Which is what? Faith. Paul, stiff arming faith? I thought that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews? Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; concerning the law, a Pharisee; zealous and blameless concerning the righteousness which is in the law? Yes indeed. He was all of those things but in all of that one thing he was not…he was not faithful! What? He wrote of himself in Philippians Chapter 3 that concerning the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless? How can you say that he was faithless? Check out the very next verse he wrote in Philippians Chapter 3…But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ…I have counted it as trash, why? Because all it sought to do was establish my own righteousness and as long as I have righteousness in and of myself, I need not Christ. And I miss out. I miss out on faith! I miss out on trust. I miss out on intimacy, on relationship, on love man…Look at Romans Chapter 5…Paul will contrast righteousness which is of the law and righteousness which is of faith. And so we continue our discussion this week as Paul is relentless in reaching out to his fellow Israelite… Romans Chapter 10 Verse 5 •“The man who does those things shall live by them.” One of the most used phrases throughout the Bible. You’ll find this phrase verbatim in 7 verses within the pages of scripture. First uttered by God Himself in Leviticus 18:5. Repeated by Nehemiah in Nehemiah 9:29. Again by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 20:11, 20:13, 20:21 and finally twice by Paul. Here and Galatians 3:12. •Why? Why so many times? To show us clearly, perfectly, completely that the law itself is good and perfect…yet the courtroom still exists, the Judge still presides, the prosecution still accuses and the mediator still defends. Well why? If the law is good and holy and perfect then why does it not simply proliferate life? Why the need for the courtroom? Well because yes the law is good, perfect and holy…but man…is not. •Paul wrote in Romans 7:10, the commandment, the law which was to bring life…I found to bring death. Why? Because it was never a means by which man might be made right with God but rather it was always meant to reveal to us our need for a Savior! We’ve discussed this at length as we trekked through Romans. Specifically back in Romans Chapter 3 verses 19 and 20 where Paul says that by the law, the entire world is made guilty for by the law is the knowledge of sin. •There’s that word again. Epignosis. We looked at it last week, remember? Romans 10:2. The zeal the Jew has for God is not according to knowledge. Epignosis. The experiential, first hand, intimate, one-on-one personal relational knowledge of God. The knowledge that sets you free man…well Paul busts open the door of theological revelation here, this morning, by showing us a predecessor of intimacy with God. A forerunner of faith…something that must and always does come first…the fact that one must come to the end of themselves. •That you and I must have the courage to view the law, holy perfect and true and then view ourselves and in the strength and humility of honesty, confess in your heart of hearts…that you can’t keep it. By the law is the knowledge of sin…the sole purpose of the law…to sweep folks feet out from under them such that they land on their knees… •But the Jew took the ten commandments, extrapolated them out to 613 Mitzvot or smaller do’s and don’ts contained within the Mishnah and they were careful to observe each and every minute detail and in doing so could themselves be made righteous…only one problem with that. God did not write the Mishnah. It’s not His law. His law was always and is today that you shall have no other gods before Me and you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul and with all of your strength. Deuteronomy 6. •But the Jew departed from what God has commanded of them and sought to establish their own righteousness much like the contemporary crowd-pleasing Christianity that we find so often on the scene today. •Believe in God, pray a prayer and then try. Where is that found in the Bible? Jesus said to Nicodemus, unless you are born again…you die and I live through you, unless one is born again then you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God! But Christianity today has turned into something so very weak that one can simply proclaim himself a Christian and then actually believe it. No different than what Paul is saying here of the Jew. Seeking to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God. •No faith. Just law. No need of righteousness through grace by faith…we got our own. And thus the church is no longer on their face, broken over sin and absolutely in love with Jesus Christ with all our heart, all soul and all our strength. Why? Because the truth is not believe in God, pray a prayer and try…it’s believe in God, pray a prayer…and die! You see repentance, a turning from selfishness, self righteousness and sin in implicated by the Biblical gospel…and listen, I understand…the truth is simply not popular… Romans Chapter 10 Verses 7 – 8 •In other words the law leads to self righteousness which leads to judgment which leads to elitism…I’m better than you, you need to be more like me…hogwash man! We both need to be more like Christ! I don’t want to be more like you! You’re a mess. You may not look it. I may not be able to see it…but man your heart is deceitfully wicked beyond even yourself knowing the Bible says so no! I’m not going to try to be more like you! I’m pressing in to power man! •But what does righteousness by faith say? That the word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart. Man Jesus is so very close. So very accessible to everyone and anyone but by seeking our own righteousness how very complicated we have made it all! Do this, don’t do that. Say this, repeat that. Pay this, tithe that…when all that was ever required, ever since Deuteronomy 6, ever since the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, all that was ever required of us was and is for us to just put down the weapons of our own righteousness and submit to God completely. To call out to Him and to bear your heart to Him…allowing Him to lead you, to fill you, to teach you, to use you… •But man the Mitzvat, the Mishnah, contemporary commodity Christianity, religion…we’ve so scummed it up! Jesus said become like a little child man…draw near to Me, trust Me…and wait upon Me. If you’re lost, call out to me! Ever lose a child in a store? What does that child do? They begin to check off their shopping list of things to get. No! Kids don’t have shopping lists!! They scream! They call out for mom and dad! Paul says put your shopping list down man…your checklist of self righteousness and scream! Romans Chapter 10 Verse 9 •See that? The spiritual conversion and the physical manifestation? If you believe in your heart. That’s not your beating heart. This thought originated with the Jew thousands of years before. And the word heart was selected but the thought is the very core of a person. Their…nucleus! The abiding place of their spirit and the birth place of their soul! •And Paul says here that if the truth of gospel of the resurrection penetrates to that depth, and the mouth calls forward unto God then man, rebirth occurs…and you will be saved!!! So simple, and man how man how scummed it up! Check it, Paul explain it to us… Romans Chapter 10 Verses 10 – 13 •Jew, gentile…doesn’t matter. Same Lord and salvation is close man…even at the door of the heart and at the tip of the tongue…available to “whoever.” Bout to give Him the most amazingest praise …. •And now the heart of what I really wanted to talk about today…(joke) Romans Chapter 10 Verses 14 – 15 •Wanna see my beautiful feet? I’ve been waiting to show you. Naw, just kidding! That’s not the heart of this scripture set and I was joking that this is what I really wanted to talk about…a little pastor joke there…but Paul is saying here…I don’t know if you see the pattern…having heard, having believed, having known, we are now responsible to tell….why? •Because look, do you want folks to call out to Him or not? Religion is an easy sell. Do this, perform these works, you’re qualified. You’re righteous. Good to go now go live your life. See you next time you need to hear a lie. •But grace is something totally different. Grace is to introduce someone to agape man. Love that loves loving. Love that is not of this world. Love that frees, truth that frees, reality that frees but the kicker, the tough sell is that to grasp onto grace you gottsta have faith! Faith that God is. Faith that even though you are a busted sinner, Christ died for you. Faith that even at times although He slays me, still I will praise Him. Tough sell and so God has sent you…one who is soaking wet in the very love which you preach…to set em free! I love that… Romans Chapter 10 Verses 16 – 17 •A little profound truth nugget hidden here in verse 16. That to not obey the gospel, to reject the Word of God is to simply simply simply not believe. Well let me say it a little better. You hear the word and yet live contrary to the word, that shows, reveal, tells on you man…you don’t believe! •And believing in God, walking with Him and drawing near to Him in a manner that is in lock step with this Word that we now discuss this morning, verse 17 says that is the showing, the revealing, your heart telling on you man…that you are indeed faithful! You’re walking in faith…and the Bible says that faith is pleasing to God. It’s what He’s looking for, why? •Well we just discussed it! Because faith means you’ve heard the Word of God, accepted it, believed it, and you’re walking it out…it means you TRUST HIM! THAT IS PRAISE man! •And in the Greek here there is something so very neat which confirms what we just discussed. That word for “word” in the Greek there in verse 17 is not logos as you may suspect which is the eternal or deep thought type but rather it is hrema which means “the word via experiential reality.” Walking it out man. •Faith comes by hearing and hearing even by walking it out. You don’t get it do you? How some can have peace. How some can as Psalm Chapter 1 says be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that brings forth fruit, whose leaf does not wither and whatever they do man just looks and feels and produces something so graceful and powerful…this is the diff man…hrema. Faith is surging bro! Because faith comes by hearing…NOT what you’re doing this morning. You’re listening…but some of y’all don’t hear me doh (you don’t hear me doh – remember that from early 90’s lame rap?). •What? How? You all listen, I read the word and I listen but if I don’t go and install it…download it into my iOS, believe in my heart you see…then I’m really not receiving the herma of God…the experiential reality of God in my life…very powerful truth. A truth that many run in circles their whole life not caring a bit about…and then the wake up call when they show up in the presence of Jesus and He says yes you spoke of me often, I saw you at church all the time, I used the money you gave to further My kingdom, I used your life to heal and set folks free…but my child, I never knew you…(Matthew 7:23) Why? Hrema…experiential reality never was allowed into your life and therefore faith never was established. •You’ve heard that verse many times before…Romans 10:17. Means a little more to me after doing this study…I pray the same for http://you...paul continues… Romans 10 Verses 18 – 21 •So Paul continues his plea with asking his fellow Jew to do something he himself would have rejected. Embrace the gentiles. Why? Because God has sought to bring the Jew near to Himself by showing them the joy and the blessings available to them by His grace, His mercy His love through the gentile. •And maybe God has done the same in your life. This is why relationships and discipleships are so important. So that you might see the goodness of God in the life of a brother or sister and it might stir you up to draw in closer to Him. How very essential in our personal journey’s with Jesus… •And you know what…I ask you all the time to be introspective and to really assess where you’re at and I know sometimes that may bring you down. Because if you actually have the courage to do so, no matter who you are, you’ll find one thing consistent within us all. We are all a mess. But as we close today, Paul reminds us, the Holy Spirit encourages us, I’d like to maybe show you for the first time…God is not offended. He’s known all along what’s really in there… •Yet all day long, he stretches out His hands and offers you peace. I’m about 5 seconds away…now four…now two…may our lives give Him the most amazingest praise for His love, His mercy and His grace…
Romans 10 vs 1-4
August 11, 2013 • Pastor Matt Korniotes
Paul’s heart pounded with sorrow throughout Chapter 9 as he was reminded of God’s grace while he penned Chapter 8 which really reminded him of his crime against his own people…how for years he was the one who led the assault against the very grace that he now preaches. And as he developed his thought concerning his desire for all of his Israelite brethren to come to the saving knowledge of that very grace, he spoke of God’s sovereignty. God’s perfect knowledge in promising Isaac, promoting Jacob and repulsing Pharaoh. This week, as we get into Chapter 10, Paul will continue his heart cry to Israel as we’ll see him speak of God’s equity, His equality, His impartiality, His utter fairness in His present dealings with Israel because no doubt by now many of the Jews are reading of righteousness being granted to the gentiles who did not seek it by the law and they are thinking “HOLD UP!” “We’re the ones who keep the law! We’re the ones who structure our very culture around righteousness and lawfulness!” And God’s reply to them through Paul has continually been, “yes but don’t you yet see? Your life, your law, your culture has utterly departed from that which it so desperately seeks…righteousness…why, because it’s not by the law it is by faith…total dependence and submission to Me!” You know that’s what faith is…faith is not some sort of emotion that tells you which way to point your rudder…faith is not some sort of magical force that we use to accomplish our will…no. Faith is an obedient response to God. That’s it. That’s the deal. And later in this chapter we’ll read that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God…are you dead set determined to learn truth and then live truth? Paul has spoken of how the Jews desire for righteous equality with God, (self exaltation), has led them light years away from righteous equity that is only to be found in the Savior. To the point that they missed Him. Jesus came on the scene. Fulfilled every prophecy in every prophetic, messianic verse down to the crossed “t” and the dotted “I”. Every minute detail perfectly fulfilled in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth yet blinded by their own self righteousness, they missed Him. And what we’ll see through this Chapter is that revelation from Paul which is found in the first four verses. We’ll see that some of Paul’s countrymen will receive Jesus, verses 5-15. And finally we’ll see that most will simply reject Jesus as Savior, verses 16-21. And the kicker in the end, won’t be their verbal rejection but their rejection is shown solely through their disobedience to the Word of God…their lack of faith… Romans Chapter 10 Verse 1 •Real quick here. We’ve talked about why Paul’s heart is broken for his people so we don’t need to develop that truth any further, but one practical principle I see here, important and essential, is that one’s heart to serve…to honor God…to bless and to love…will always start right at home. •This is why Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy Chapter 3 verses 4 and 5 to not serve alongside a person who is not absolutely broken primarily for their own home. Who does not have the heart to serve and to be the least of all in their own home…because as they settle in here…into ministry…and this becomes more like home…guess what? They will no longer have a heart for the church either. And so you who believe God has placed a calling on your life to serve Him corporately, know this. He has placed a primary calling on your life to serve Him completely and that begins, sustains and ends in the home. •Man I got that wrong for years. I was like Iron Man without the miniaturized arc reactor! God had set me free, given me His Spirit, discernment, drive and determination! It was like H.I.! Heavenly intelligence right! Downloaded right into my main cpu! Very different from A.I. The artificial intelligence that I had all my life had fallen off of me like weights! But now…as I walked through the Stark Industries platform of eternity…crash, the breastplate of righteousness. Ping, the shield of faith. Clink, the helmet of salvation and shing! The sword of truth! The armor of God installed…like Iron Man only stronger…Platinum Man…(heavenly chorus – hopefully that actually happens during the study) – but one thing missing…the arc reactor…no power…why? •Because as I charged off to tell the world…tell ‘em man of the freedom…tell ‘em man of the grace and the love and the truth and the salvation not just for eternity, although that is enough, but for today…salvation for even this present predicament, this judicial junk between you and your husband, between you and your neighbor…even between you and your enemies!!! Freedom man! I forgot to show my family! And in all my evangelizing, in all my witnessing, in all my serving, not for a moment was I serving the Lord…because His command to me was to start at home… •Man, real service to the Lord…is founded, learned, sustained and increased ONLY in the home…this place, this ministry, your ministry, is in truth, a by product…and really the truth is…your ministry at home is a by product of your ministry directly to the God Himself. •You got no love for your wife…you got no love for the Lord. You got not heart to honor your husband and…you go not heart to honor the Lord. You got no ear to obey your parents…you have no desire to obey the Lord… •You learn to serve God not on the streets of this world but within the walls of your world man…right in your home and that is the very knowledge from which you personally can impact the world…not the other way around. You don’t impact the world and then come home powered up to serve your husband, love your kids, serve your wife, lead your roomie…nope. You serve, love and lead first in your own home…that is the knowledge that you and I need to grow in our intimacy with God! This is the knowledge that the Jew did not have… Romans Chapter 10 Verse 2 •Paul knows first hand. He doesn’t need a witness, he’s the witness that they know all about God but they don’t know God. This is huge. This is major. This word in the Greek for knowledge is not to know someone by name. It’s not to know someone by reputation, by fact, by perception, by sensation…this word is to know someone through experience. Epiginosis. •This is what the Jew lacked in all of their religiosity yet what even the gentile could attain to in the grace of God’s love. In that He put skin on, stepped into His creation and showed us precisely what He’s like and then after paying the price for our sin upon the cross and rising after three days, He delivered to mankind the ability, the gift, the indwelling Holy Spirit so that anyone, whosoever, all that would call upon Him in humility, void of self righteousness, anyone who would believe in Him would know Him from the inside out…and the experience comes not only with the abiding but with the responding. Hence the knowledge Paul speaks of… •What do you mean not only with abiding but with responding? Well, there was one who abided with Jesus all throughout His earthly ministry but NEVER responded, correct? Judas Iscariot. •I’m talking about drawing near to Him. Knowing Him. Living not just with Him but for Him. To live is Christ Paul would write…and knowledge, experiential revelation, divine wisdom…manifests. Man this is huge, why? Because this is what religion misses. This is what carnality misses. This is what sin and Satan attempt to stop. Ready for this? •This is the knowledge that produces wisdom in the believer (Ephesians 1:17). This is the knowledge that protects unity in the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). This is the knowledge that causes love to abound in your life (Philippians 1:9). This is the knowledge that leads the believer into a walk that is fully pleasing to God (Colossian 1:10) and the knowledge that fills you with grace and peace (2 Peter 1:2). THIS is what God wants to show you (1 Timothy 2:4). •SO many say they know God, they walk with God, they follow God, they press in on God and yet their tree withers! Wisdom fails as their emotions burst forth and they react, react, react. Strife and division, lovelessness (well not really lovelessness in total just love for others), grace and peace are requested – not manifested – and yet the whole time they plead their case that the problem is not them…James would say these are the same who look in the mirror, behold their face and then walk away immediately forgetting what they see… •No peace, no grace, reaction Jackson! The Bible is not true in every other situation EXCEPT for this one! You have a knowledge issue man. And Paul dives to the root of the problem as he continues. That the experience of God, walking with the Lord, sowing to the Spirit, revelation man…begins, originates, stems from something that the religious, the carnal, the victim lacks…submission… Romans Chapter 10 Verse 3 •That word for ignorant there is actually “willfully ignorant.” It’s the root word from where we get our word agnostic. And so it’s not that they haven’t heard, haven’t been told, haven’t considered…they have, it just doesn’t work for them. Because when you read of God’s will, God’s ways, God’s laws guess what, it’s not about me! It’s all about Jesus! Doesn’t work for some… •God wants me happy. God wants me to have what I want. God wants me comfortable. God wants me to be respected, to be served, to be high and lifted up! Really? Let me offer you some correction in love. God wants the best for you. •I want the best for my children. Do you really think that giving them everything they want, making their lives couchy comfortable, bowing to them, serving them hand and foot, night and day…do you really think that is best for them? Not hardly man! My grandfather worked on a peanut truck from the time he was 12 years old to help support his mom and dad and siblings. Every day he would get up, go work, go to school, come home and go to work. •And guess what. When he became a man, he led. He walked the soles out of his shoes to provide for his own as a door to door life insurance salesman. Listen up young men. His shoes were always tied. His pants were always secured with a belt above his butt. His hair was always combed. His shirt was always pressed and his demeanor was always respectful and powerful. •David tended his family’s flock from a young age. He cared for them, watched them, did not sleep on protecting them because that was his responsibility. And guess what. When he became a man he led. He defeated the lion and the bear. He defeated Goliath…both David and my grandfather honored the Lord and the blessings of God were provided to this dark planet through them…ONLY because they knew about submission man… •They read the scripture and accepted that it’s not about them, it’s about Jesus and what flowed > not zeal, zeal is only as good as the volume of your voice but knowledge, knowledge that is good for generations…in David’s sake good for eternity as Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away but in no way will My Word pass away and guess who’s all up in His Word? David! •“My God wants me to be happy!” What? “My God wants me to be served” Come Again? “My God wants me to have peace at the expense of others.” Say it to my face! (Nacho Libre alert!) Get saved! You got the wrong God! And that is precisely what Judaism had metastasized into! Jesus said they honor God with their lips but their hearts…GONE! Why? Because they seek their own righteousness rather than submitting to the Kingship, the love, the grace, the purity, the ONLY subject and object (not just the primary, not just the component) the only substance of real righteousness in all of ever…God Himself! •And God Himself revealed. The Savior sent to save us all from sin…Jesus Christ. Look at verse 4. Romans Chapter 10 Verse 4 •Why is this so hard to get man? Folks hear this, they nod north and south to this but then they go home and press for their own way with their wives…and its face palm time for the Holy Spirit and for me as your pastor…submit to God! “I am submitted to God.” Then put down the fiery darts that Satan gave you to use against her…and just love man! Know Jesus experientially just as while we were His ultimate and eternal enemies, He willfully, humbly and gladly took the cross on man! Is your husband your ultimate and eternal enemy? No of course not. Is your boss your ultimate and eternal enemy? Is your roommate? Is your ex-wife? No! Of course not…then what’s the problem? •Correct answer. Only answer. You’re not submitted to God! •Check this out. You go to Amazon to buy something. You see it. It’s awesome. You got the cash. You fill out the order form, do you have it yet? Is it yours yet? No. What do you have to click? “Submit!!!!” It’s not yours until that little box labeled “submit” is clicked is it? And until then…what you even can see…what is even within your reach…ain’t yours! This is where the majority of Christians settle in their hokey pokey Christianity. •One leg in, one leg out…half in the Lord, half in the world. The application is filled out…the prayer has been uttered…they know God as fact, as friend…but the revelational knowledge of eternity ain’t even close to being delivered man…it’s not even shipped yet you see…because that little button “submit” remains unpressed. And life is still about you… •The core of God’s indictment against religion. The root cause of the turmoil in your today’s…I wonder do you have the courage to accept the truth today. I wonder will you accept what is best for you. I wonder do you have the strength. Do you have the will to gain wisdom, to protect unity, to let love abound and to walk fully pleasing to God? •Time to complete the order form…time to click submit and live for God. The problem isn’t meeting commitments usually, it’s making them…time to commit to learn God’s ways through His Word and then learn Him personally through walking the soles of your shoes out to provide for your family and honor your Father. Install the arc reactor. Power up man and get out of the battle for your own soul…tie your spiritual shoes…pull up your spiritual slacks man and take the city for the Christ! In Jesus name!