This week we close our series with Romans 16:25-27. This closing benediction to the letter gives us a beautiful, gospel-rich, densely packed summary of the entire letter that precedes. It’s a chance for us to be reminded of everything we have seen and learned over the past year in our study of Romans together.
Watch Out
December 6, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
Our passage this week is a closing warning to the church in Rome about the dangerous potential of divisive people in the church. It’s an important passage for us as we walk through one of the most divisive times in many of our lifetimes. The beauty and unity of the church is itself a witness to the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a reflection of our hope that the day is coming when Satan will be crushed.
Servants and Fellow Workers
November 29, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
This passage lists a whole bunch of names and people that Paul sent personal greetings to in Rome. At first blush, it may be tough to see how it applies to us, but it does! Paul’s ministry is deeply interconnected with people who were fellow-workers. There is a lot we can learn about the makeup of the early church, who were key contributors, and what it looks like for us to work alongside each other even through to today. The church is a crazy mashup of men and women from different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities, different economic levels, across generations, all working together as a family on mission. This week is a much-needed encouragement to us this week.
Unity in Mission
November 22, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
This passage turns to the final section of the letter, as Paul talks about his own ministry and personal connections with people. There is so much to learn about our own lives and ministry opportunities! This week we get to see that following God’s calling in our own lives will never be boring. It won’t be comfortable, but it will put us squarely in the middle of what God is doing in bringing hope and healing through Christ, and there is nothing more exciting!
Hospitality and Hope
November 8, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
This passage closes out the section on how the church needs to come together in the midst of sharp disagreements. We have already seen calls to both the weak and the strong through chapter 14. This passage brings it all together with a call to live in harmony with one another. What a perfect way to think about things! That means that Christians can be singing distinct notes and melodies with their lives that are able to complement one another and come together to make a more beautiful whole. This is a timely passage for us in the uncertainty and division around us. The Church has hope to cling to and to offer to others that can’t be found by any other means.
Judging One Another, Part 2
November 1, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
This continues the practical application of the call to love, especially in the context of disagreements in the church. While last week we looked at the temptation of the weak to judge those whose consciences don’t align with their own, this week we turn to the strong. The strong, in this context, are those who are able to rest in the accomplished work of Christ for their justification and righteousness, freeing them, not to sin but to greater flexibility in life. The call to the strong is no less difficult than the call to the weak. We will see that the strong are called to lay down freedoms for the sake of the weaker brother or sister.
Judging One Another
October 25, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
This week we continue in our study with Romans 14:1-12. This chapter takes the foundation of the letter as a whole and applies it to some divisions within the church in Rome. The divisions are not over biblical truth, or what is clearly laid out in God’s Word. The Christians in Rome were dividing over gray areas, disputable issues, matters of conscience. This is, once again, a timely text for us. We will take the chapter in two parts, to address the weak and the strong in turn. So, this week we will see what it means to be spiritually weak as Romans 14 defines it, what the challenges are, and how to live together in unity with other brothers and sisters in Christ. Ultimately, we are all weak in some areas and stronger in others.
Walk in the Light
October 18, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
This passage is quite literally a wake up call. It’s a call to understand the times we are living in, and to understand how following Jesus changes us right now. Too often, Christians are very comfortable in trusting God with our eternity while not trusting Christ’s sovereignty in our lives this week. This may be especially true in the stretch we find ourselves in now. This is a timely and important passage for us to walk through together as we work to walk in the light side-by-side.
Christians & Politics, Part 2
October 11, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
This week we turn from looking at a foundational level to get a bit more practical on an individual level. While part 1 focused on the Church gathered, this week we will focus on the Church scattered, and the role and calling of individual Christians in political engagement. We will again focus on Romans 13:1-10.
Christians & Politics, Part 1
October 4, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
Over the next two weeks, Pastor Bill will preach on Christians and Politics. This isn’t chasing a news cycle, this is the next part of our series in Romans as we begin chapter 13. This Sunday we will begin with a foundation of understanding the differentiated roles of the church and the state, and a biblical view of government. Next week we will focus more explicitly on how Christians can engage in life in the public square as individuals. Through it all, we won’t leave the theological foundation we have worked to build through the past nine months of studying Romans together. These are important Sundays for all of us.
All You Need is Love
September 27, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
This final section of Romans shows The Power of the Gospel to transform us. This week we see that the defining mark of every Christian is love. The love that Scripture talks about goes far beyond the warm fuzzies we might think of, though. And our passage for this Sunday gives a realistic look at what we are called to.
Living Sacrifice
September 13, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
This week we start a new section of the book of Romans, the final section of the letter. This is the point in Romans that things get practical. Chapters 12-16 show us that the reality of the gospel transforms our lives as we follow Jesus. This week we start it off with Romans 12:1-8, which gives us an overview of what is to come and focuses on the importance of every member of the body of Christ, the church.
