Chapter 1 Verses 1 – 4

• So Paul has introduced himself and last week we looked at his credentials, his qualifications…what it was that not only enabled him but also straight-up compelled him to write this letter to the Romans.  It was his desire to serve Jesus…his immeasurable love and appreciation for the One who had rescued him from the hell of his life…
• And in light of that rescue, he had left all to serve Jesus even taking on the title of slave willingly, accepting the high calling of God upon his life as we see there in verse 1, and then coming out from this mess of a false reality…unplugging from the Matrix that has been set up around us to control us and to use us and to ultimately end us, man…
• This filled him with desperation to set others free, to write this epistle to the Romans…a dangerous epistle (as he was a Roman citizen who along with all the other Roman citizens were to be bondslaves, worshippers of Caesar)…an authoritative epistle, which meant many would hate him for it…and an epistle that poured out his own heart for them and for Jesus…which would cause many to think him weak.  He was anything but weak.
• And you know what occurs to me?  For not only this letter but the other 12 that Paul wrote that we have here in the New testament…all 13 dangerous, authoritative and risky letters…what occurs to me is that I’d like to thank him one day.  People do things for us and we think it normal.  Oh they work for me…or they’re a Christian, I expect that…April does things for me…her life is filled with routines actually of doing things for me…and for you for that matter…and so often we, and I fall into what we would say nicely, “taking it for granted.”  Said honestly, we’re ungrateful…
• We don’t think about that Paul left all, lost all, risked all…and because of that we have such a wonderful and enlightening and rescuing testimony of Jesus Christ inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself.  But we should.  We’re such a consumer-society that we’re used to getting, getting, getting…so used to it that we get flustered when we don’t get, don’t we?
• We should deliberately look to see what others do for us…they know.  April is fully aware of every action she does that doesn’t benefit her specifically…but only me…and I don’t want to grow spiritually lazy and hard hearted…I want to live a life that doesn’t just say, “thank you,” but man actively expresses it…and one day, I’d like to say, “Paul, thank you.  You didn’t have to do this…but you did…and I honor you.”
• His qualifications inspire me, his dedication and effort absolutely humble me and cause me to open my eyes to see how so many do so much for me specifically and in that man, there is such joy.  There’s no joy in taking folks for granted…and Paul here presents the One to us in verses 3 and 4 that he most absolutely does not take for granted…
• He says the prophets and the Holy Scriptures…they’re ALL about Jesus Christ, who is my Lord and our Lord, who was just like you and me…born according to flesh of the seed of David…fully man…yet also completely unlike you and me…fully God…perfect and holy and therefore the grave could not hold Him.  He lived, just like us…He died…just like us…He rose…supremely and distinctively unique!
• Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the absolute proof of the power of the gospel that we preach.  Evidence, confirmation, substantiation of the gospel in which we pour in all of our hope! 
• Siddharta Gautama, otherwise known as “Buddha,” we have his bones…in the grave he remains, pillaged by death and decay.  Confucius, we have his tomb and in it he remains, overwhelmed by death.  Epicurus, Muhammad, Charles Taze Russel, Joseph Smith, Krishna…they are all dead and death cannot save!  But as Job said even deep in torment and suffering, “I know my Redeemer lives!” 
• The thrust of the gospel, the authoritative authentication of our hope, and the declaration of Paul that Jesus Christ was and is indeed fully God and fully man, the Savior of the world according to the Spirit of Holiness…is the undeniable and accepted fact of that day…that this man Jesus, was dead…yet lives!

Chapter 1 Verses 5 – 6

• Through Jesus, the given Son of God, His work upon the cross validated by His resurrection, which once and for all removed the separating power of sin between God the Father and His creation, Paul says we have received grace…and notice…AND apostleship!  Grace…unmerited blessing, undeserved, unearned favor…love showered upon us even as we have sinned and fallen short of God. 
• And when we glimpse grace…what do you mean glimpse grace?  Well look, grace is given by God, originating from God and therefore without God, we cannot begin to understand it.  But when the Holy Spirit is welcomed into your heart, He brings with Him revelation.  Understanding of something that is beyond humanity, further than intellect and reason…I call that glimpsing.  It’s when God Himself speaks directly to your spirit on a matter and your brain just drools in wonder and your heart fills with awe.  And when you glimpse grace…Paul says apostleship follows closely after.
• He couples them together, man, because truly if you have received the grace of God then you know Him and you know God’s desperate desire, so desperate that He gave His all, His only Son, is for all men to receive His grace…and therefore you are mission-on-a-fide!  You’re on a rescue mission, sent to all those who have not this grace…an apostle.
• And what else does that filling of grace do?  Paul says it here, it produces a heart that doesn’t have to be obedient, doesn’t have to serve Jesus…the One who has set you free…God Himself, “El Shaddai,” “God Almighty,” “El Elyon,” “the Most High God,” “El Olam,” “The Everlasting God,” “Jahovah Jireh,” “my Provider,” “Jahovah Nissi,” “My Banner,” “Jahovah Shalom,” “The Lord of Peace,” we don’t have to serve this wonderful Father and Lord…but the heart that has truly met grace…will whole-heartedly yearn to serve Him!
• And Paul says here, through Jesus, man grace has arrived and because of that…my life is to be used by Him, my heart’s desire is to obey Him, trust Him, know Him…among all the nations…and that high calling Romans, is upon you also!

Chapter 1 Verse 7

• Notice this is a letter written to the church there, the believers there in Rome and also notice Paul begins his letter as he did often with the Siamese twins of Christianity…grace and peace. 
• To the Romans, “grace and peace.”  To the Corinthians, “grace and peace.”  To the Galatians, “grace and peace.”  To the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians…to Timothy, Titus and Philemon…all, man, “grace and peace.”  And always in that specific order…why?  Because once the grace of God enters your life, peace has arrived!  Peace first with God…sin no longer accusing, guilt no longer weighing, and then the peace of God man…the peace that knows the end, man.  Jesus has paid the price that all might know…but there are many that stop grace at the door!
• Many flat out reject Jesus all together in unbelief, and they do so to their own demise, their own eternal and “ternal” (as in here-and-now) disadvantage!  But even in the church, even in THIS church maybe there are those that stop grace at the door and say, “hold up, you don’t want to come in here…it’s a mess in here…”  But not so!  God cares nothing of the mess, it’s you He saved…He punted your sins, man…He couldn’t care less of what you’ve done, where you’ve been, what you’ve said, what you’ve lost…He cares only for you!
• And so no, covered in your sin, clinging to your mess and identifying with your regret…you’re not good enough…and it’s not Him that’s saying that…you are…and unless you give all of that up, repent and accept His grace then, man your life as a believer will be full of turmoil and regret heaped upon regret. 
• But man when you submit to His grace…that although He is perfect and holy and you’re not, you’re accepted and washed clean in Him, set free from the power and penalty of sin, then look…we just covered this…what springs up in you?  Yes Jesus said a fountain of everlasting life…and what does that look like practically?  A heart completely and utterly given over to serving Him.  Following Him.  Denying your stupid damaging and detrimental flesh…taking up your cross and getting after His glory!
• Then what?  Another secret is out of the bag…the fundamentals here…making champions out of y’all…then what?  Peace man.  Peace is to be found only in receiving grace and following the Lord. 

Chapter 1 Verses 8 – 12

• Paul just said, “grace and peace,” and the close family member to those two…another fundamental…thankfulness.  “I thank my God….” Paul says.
• And then the next as the family continues to grow…the family of fundamentals…why was my family dysfunctional growing up, maybe yours too?  Why can’t we seem to “function” in a victorious life as Christians?  Taking you once again all the way back to the beginning of the book, it could be that you have not yet been infiltrated, filled by the Holy Spirit as Paul says in verse 1 and finding yourself desiring to serve Him as a slave.  No matter what happens, you could care less about rights and comfort and whatever…man truth has arrived, grace has landed and peace has come…and then you’ll tell ‘em man…Paul bondslave, called and sent to on a rescue mission…an apostle…and completely other than this world, separated Paul calls himself…TO the gospel…these are the fundamentals folks.
• Then grace, obedience and peace…which spurs thankfulness as you wake every day FREE and alive and you had no part in it…Jesus did it all…so very thankful…and then here in verse 9…prayer…man all this and what does Paul do without ceasing…talks to God!
• How do you do that?  How do you pray without ceasing?  The phrase there in the Greek for “without ceasing” is “adialeiptos” which literally speaks of a tickle in the throat.  So in other words to pray without ceasing is to go through the day praying as often as you’d cough when you experience an incessant tickle.  As you drive to work and see someone waiting for the bus, as you see people looking weary and dreary sitting at a stoplight…as you checkout in King Soopers, as you wait in the drive through line at Chick-Fil-A…life becomes an adventure when you pray without ceasing…
• Why?  Because man when you pray, your eyes are opened to what God would bless you with…ministry!  Your heart is prepared for the opportunity…and man most of all you’re just talking to the Lord bro!  The Maker of the universe, the One who set the captives loose…we dream of a day to talk with the President of our company or Michael Jordan or “the most interesting man on the earth” but don’t you know you can talk to the One who hung the stars in the sky?  And look, He talks back!  I love that!  Try it…read His word, hear His word, and then talk to Him…see if He doesn’t talk back…even more than you talk!  (well maybe some of you, probably not me…I tend to talk too much, as you know)
• Look at Paul’s life, mighty in adventure to say the least.  And so another wonderful fundamental…prayer…not forced prayer, “oh man I gotta make 30 minutes for prayer today…pooooooor me…..” NO!  Pleasurable prayer!  We don’t have to pray, we get to pray!
• And Paul says his prayer is to hang with them, to impart some spiritual gift to them, in other words to encourage them, to worship with them, to share his faith with them, to teach and be taught by them…all wonderful gifts…not from within you, man, but from the Father we receive these wonderful things…
• And through that fellowship, that imparting of gifts Paul says here that great encouragement…and what is encouragement, it’s strength!  Hope.  Joy….and notice Paul says here, you can’t minister without being ministered to.  “We will be encouraged together by our mutual faith…you and me.”  Ministry always blesses both parties!
• One last fundamental this morning and then we’re through…

Chapter 1 Verses 13 – 15

• He says his heart is to come to them…possibly because he failed last time and did not come to them…as we talked about last week that many scholars believe he indeed had been to Rome already but it was that Acts 17 scene, that sermon without Jesus that caused the church at Athens to not be planted that day…but since then it appears that it had been…he desires to share the fruit of the Spirit with and among them…
• And then he explodes a wisdom bomb…a fundamental of fundamentals in verse 14…I am a debtor…notice, not to Jesus…that is grace received man.  God is not holding your salvation mortgage note that you’re making payments on monthly…that’s religion…you’ve been set free, He’s grafted you into the family and all that we do and all that we live…for Jesus is not out of debt…its out of love man…thankfulness…it’s a reasonable response for the forgiveness of our debt…
• Paul says here, he is a debtor to his fellow man.  His heart is that he owes them man.  For every moment spent living for himself.  For ever night he slept soundly in his comfort while others suffered hunger and sleeplessness.  For every lesson he received in school while children elsewhere were searching through trash heaps to survive the day…he is in debt. 
• For every thought of his own gain without care for those that already had much less…even now, as he follows Christ, every opportunity missed…such as the one we read of in Acts 17…he is not ignorant to it…and neither are we…we just suppress the truth so that we can live with ourselves…we’ll read that next week…
• Well that’s what sets us apart Christians…many say, “I’m not a bad guy, I’m not a bad gal…a bad person…God knows me man…he knows I love folks and understands my situation,” not me.  I’m guilty.  I accept that…you know why?  It’s true.  I’m guilty of caring for me and manipulating for what I want.  I’m guilty of laziness and living my life for me, I’m guilty of eating lavish meals and caring not for the little one who has never even seen a full meal…I’m guilty of not caring, not wanting to care…I’m guilty!  I’m guilty of the cross of Christ.  My sin held Him there...that’s the difference maybe between you and me…not faith, not gifting, not calling, not God’s favor, not ability, not skill…I am debtor both to Christ and to you…I’m guilty….
• Not April when we argue…not my kids when they disobey, not my coworkers when they disrespect, not you when you offend me…me…I’m guilty…because of my sin I can’t humble myself to my wife.  Because of my sin my kids cry out for love and leadership.  Because of my sin my coworkers are able to harm me…hurt my feelings…it’s my sin that craves revenge on the weak in the faith…and I detest that sin.  Yet, I am no fool.  It remains…and therefore…I am your debtor April, I am your debtor Chin…I am a debtor to, and of and for the Lord’s grace.
• And in that, you know what, I’m free to love.  Isn’t that amazing?  Isn’t that odd?  That my friends, is fundamental.  And Paul says here, “so much as is in me, I am ready…” in the Greek, I will to do and will do nothing else!  “I am ready to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ man.”
• You too.  Hear the fundamentals.  Reset your faith based and anchored afresh upon God’s Word and be alive!