Chapter 1 Verse 16

• Paul says I am not ashamed.  He has made other “I am” statements already also…he has said, “I am a slave, I am an apostle, I am distant and different from the world, separated to the gospel of God.”  All in the first verse of this epistle.
• And then there in verse 8, “I am thankful,” In verse 14, “I am a debtor,” and finally in verse 15, “I am ready.”  Ready for what, Paul?  Well that’s easy, Matt…says right here…ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.  And you’re right, but do you know what that means?  What are the implications of preaching the gospel in Rome?  Quite literally, due to the risk…the danger and peril and treason that awaits him there in Rome, quite literally…what’s he ready for?  Anything…
• He’s ready for anything!  To give his life if that’s what is required…to live his life (oh the horror!) precisely as he’s introduced himself…as a willful slave to Jesus Christ, a rescuer of sinners on behalf of the one that rescued him…thankful for that rescue and a debtor both to Greeks and barbarians, both to wise and unwise…in other words, living soaked in humility and valuing others above himself…valuing the Lord above all…
• Paul could have summed it all up and just said, “I am a Christian.”  I am one who follows the Great I AM!  That was the title given to God but man we have claimed that title for ourselves in these last days!  The Bible says that in the last days a great falling away will take place.  Men will become lovers of themselves, lovers of money, proud, boasters, blasphemers…turn over to 2 Timothy Chapter 3 (read verses 1 – 9).
• God says “I am!”  I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life!  I am the bread that has come down from heaven!  Take Me in.  I am the Good Shepherd…I’ll lead you to good pasture…but we as a world have fired Him and hired ourselves as the “I AM!”  The great falling away…is right here man…
• We as a people, as a society, as a nation…we have dressed up capitalism in a fine white robe and have taught our children and ourselves a false Christianity centered on self and that Christianity has no power, that is a Christianity that is ashamed of the gospel of Christ. 
• (Show J. Osteen video if available)
• Folks we are living in the last days.  The man that you just saw preaching a false gospel based on a Sunday message he gave titled, “the power of I am,” boasts a church of over 40,000 in physical attendance each week and millions who watch on television.  $75M was spent renovating his church in Houston, Texas but not one dime was spent on a cross…that’s right, there is no cross there…(there is a rotating globe on his stage), why?  Because suffering doesn’t sell…but it equips, man…Paul was ready…how many of us are?  How many of us are ready to live for Jesus…ready even for His return? 
• I find it tragic that so many just blend in man, doing what the world does, watching what the world watches, consuming what the world dishes out and all the while, demanding…Jesus wasn’t like that, never did any of that…yet even in the church, you take a stand against sin…no I don’t watch that kind of movie, no I don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, yes I make even my smallest of decisions based on Biblical truth…you’re called a legalist, a Jesus freak…
• Paul would have been called much worse.  Yet here he takes a stand.  Paul you are intolerant, uncaring, close-minded…judgmental, harsh…man, you’re a jerk.  Maybe you’ve been called the same…if you’re living contrary to the world, which Jesus did…you certainly have been.  But in this time, in this culture, following this Jesus of Nazareth…Paul, you’re a traitor, you’re an enemy, you’re beyond imbecilic, to leave a life of leadership and luxury…high esteem and admiration for what?  For a man that was crucified on a criminals cross?  You’re a dead man, Paul.
• He had to be one of the gutsiest guys in all of history to write this and send it into Rome.  Rome was the home of Caesar Nero, the madman who was bent on exterminating Christianity.  The one who dressed thousands of Christians in the skins of lambs and threw them to the starved wolves and famished lions and as they were ripped to shreds in seconds, he would cry out, “Where is your Good Shepherd now, little flock?” 
• Nero was the one who dipped Christians in hot wax and lit them as candles in his garden while he shrieked, “How does it feel to be the light of the world now, Christians?”  Yet Paul, in preparation to send this mighty letter, this authoritative letter, this risky letter, quickens his own heart…filled and even surging with the courage and strength and purpose of the Holy Spirit, pens, I am not ashamed! 
• I am not ashamed of a Lord who commanded no army.  I am not ashamed of a Lord who made His triumphal entry on the back of a donkey.  I am not ashamed of a Lord who was pinned to the cross by Roman soldiers.  And even now our hearts are to fall in rank.  Join Paul’s rescue mission…take up our crosses and follow hard chanting…”1-1-6!  1-1-6!”  And yet our letters never get written, our epistles are never dispatched, and we continue to live our lives for ourselves.  Bowing down to sin and sipping the poisonous drink mixture of self and ease…as we coast down the wide and easy path.
• Not Paul.  Paul was much wiser than to waste his life, his only opportunity throughout eternity to serve Jesus in difficulty and suffering and realness.  You ever think about that?  Once we arrive on the crystal seas and golden streets of heaven, that opportunity is gone.  Then we will serve Jesus face to face, we will know Him without any sin or difficulty.  Now is the time we much choose you see because now is the only time when choice is possible.  And Paul has chosen wisely. 
• I want to show you something awesome before we move on, something that Paul knew and something that gave him great strength and assurance…the gospel is absolutely prophetic…it is truth.  It is not something that was new at his time or is new now.  It’s not a fad.  It’s been in style since the beginning.  The beginning of what, Matt?  The beginning of creation!
• In Genesis 5, the first ever genealogy is given.  We see Adam, whose name means “man.”  Adam had a son named Seth, whose name means “appointed.”  Seth had Enosh, whose name means, “subject to death.”  Enosh had Cainan, whose name means, “sorrowful.” Canain had Mahalelel, whose name means, “from the presence of God.”  Mahalelel had Jared, whose name means “one comes down.”  Jared had Enoch, whose name means, “dedicated.”  Enoch had a son named Methuselah, whose name means “dying he shall send.”  Methuselah had a son named Lamech, whose name means “to the poor being destroyed,” and Lamech had a son named Noah, whose name means “comfort.”
• Together, in order, the names read, “Man, appointed subject to death, filled with sorrow.  From the presence of God, One comes down dedicated.  Dying, He shall send to the poor being destroyed comfort.”  Do you see it?  It’s the gospel man!  The gospel of the Christ!  And so interesting, the gospel is given through the first 10 names of the first 10 generations and of course the number 10 is the number of the law!
• Paul is saying here look, the law…from which I preached and raged for so long is death!  But there has come One who has fulfilled the law, just as it was prophesied.  Perfectly Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets!  332 specific prophecies perfectly fulfilled by Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection!
• Paul is not ashamed of that which set him free…brought him alive and he says here that he has found power, man.  All that he had before…all the money, all the position, all the pomp…and no power…yet here, the gospel…he says is the power of God unto salvation!  Literally that word in the Greek is dunamis…where we get out words dynamite and dynamic…this Jesus, this gospel has the exploding power to turn people around and give them great reason for being…

Romans Chapter 1 Verse 17

• The gospel, the good news that Jesus has overcome sin and the grave, reveals the righteousness of God, Paul says, because in it we see that God doesn’t just wink at sin and say, “boys will be boys.”  I mean if we lived in a community in which righteousness was not enforced, in which police officers and judges and magistrates simply said, “people will be people, lets just close our eyes to murder and kidnapping and crime in general,” if that was the policy of the community that you lived in…you’d move!  Look, the gospel reveals the righteousness of God in that God neither winks at sin nor wipes us out because of sin but rather, he washes away our sin by the Blood of the perfect sacrifice…
• And within that righteousness of God, love dwells…because the only way for us to be saved was for Jesus to come, His only beloved Son, in whom He was and is well pleased.  And God did not restrain.  He did what had to be done…because of his supreme love for us individually!
• And Paul says that rightousness of God, that love of the Father is revealed from faith to faith and here is where so many err.  We all know and accept and grasp that salvation is from faith as each person begins a walk with the Lord…simply embracing the gospel and believing in Jesus by faith…but then it seems that we transition right to works.  I mean whole religions are set up based on routines and religious rites and repetitions!
• We all start off so well, just trusting in God, enjoying the presence and filling of the Holy Spirit and then we maybe make a mistake or we find ourselves one day saying, “I don’t read as much as I’d like, I don’t do this enough or that enough,” and we feel the wooing of the Holy Spirit to just return to simple worship, to turn from whatever it is that is distracting and come back to just intimacy with God…knowing Him.
• We’ve wrapped scary words around what I just described.  Conviction and repentance.  That sounds so negative doesn’t it?  Truly they’re not…both are wonderful in the life of a believer.  Let’s redefine them today…lets call conviction “texting” and repentance “responding.”  And so you’re saved, you’ve placed your trust in Jesus and you’re moving along in faith, being faithful and then…distraction enters…sin entices…zeep zeep…God’s texting…you unlock your phone, “son, daughter, will you come meet Me please at My place?  I want to fill you and free you again.  I can see that you’re drifting…”  And then you type back, “I’m on my way…no actually, I’m there!”
• So simple.  The Holy Spirit calls for your attention…and calls for you to stop whatever it is that it is…whatever you’ve got going on that is not at all God honoring…and your responsibility to be made free is simply to respond.  I mean the very root of the word responsibility is “respond!”  Do you see it?
• Yet many turn their phones off.  Some even take their batteries out…and so what happens…they stay at home in their own lives and they clean…just for it to get dirty again and again…that my friends, is religion. 
• Paul does not say here that the righteousness and love of God is revealed from faith to works…he says faith to faith.  You came close to the Lord and you were set free…how do you think you will be set free today as you drifted back at home in your life?  Being again…close to the Lord.  Faith is not only the starting point of your salvation, it is the staying power of your liberty and strength. 
• Paul wrote to the Colossians, “even as you have received Christ, so walk in Him.”  And he wrote to the Galatians, “have you grown foolish?  Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?”  No the key to this Christian experience is not religion and business…you know doing this and not doing that and now maybe I’ll feel better about myself…the enemy would love to see you locked into that destracting deprevation…the key is simply simply simply living faith to faith in your moments, days and weeks…placing your trust in the finished work of the cross and the resurrected presence of Jesus Christ.
• Forgiving and being forgiven…loving, serving, worshipping, walking circumspectly and gently…despising evil and loving righteousness…bearing fruit worthy of God…and being free, man.  Rescued from hopelessness and free to live and love unto God the Father…that is the natural effect of one who is simply close, and I’m talking about physical, mental, spiritual proximity, all three…one who is simply close to the Lord.  Paul calls them, “the just.”