The Gathering Surf City

Alright, so today we get to really
start into the book of Romans.

We're in chapter one,

verses one through eight.

And I just want to tell
you something.

Something happened to Paul,

okay? Something changed everything in
his just perspective on life and

priority and focus.

And so Paul's life changed one day.

And the result of God's changing Paul's
life provides for us a book like

Romans Letters to the
Roman Christians.

And so as we begin this,

I want you to think along those
lines as to the fact that,

guess what?

God.

God gives us reason for change,

then he changes us.

So as we read Romans 1:1 through 8,

think about these things and try to
make application in your own life.

Alright, here we go.

Paul, a bond servant
of Christ Jesus,

called as an apostle,

set apart for the Gospel of God,

which he promised beforehand through
his prophets in the Holy Scriptures

concerning His Son.

I'm going to read it like it's written
with punctuation because it's not.

Alright, here you go.

I'm going to start over.

Paul, a bond servant
of Christ Jesus,

called as an apostle,

set apart for the Gospel of God,

which he promised beforehand through
his prophets in the Holy Scriptures

concerning his Son,

who was born of a descendant of
David according to the flesh,

he was declared the Son of God with
power by the resurrection from the

dead, according to the
Spirit of holiness,

Jesus Christ our Lord,

through whom we have received grace
and apostleship to bring about the

obedience of faith among all the
Gentiles for His name's sake,

among whom you also are the called of
Jesus Christ to all who are beloved

of God in Rome,

called as saints.

Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 8.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ
for you all because your faith

is being proclaimed throughout
the whole world.

All right,

let's pray.

God, we thank you.

We praise you again for the morning that
we get to share together first

with you and then with each other and
God as we've enjoyed worship this

morning. God,

thank you that you have spoken to us.

Your word is always that opportunity
for us to hear you speak to us and

in your spirit illuminates and shares
and opens up our minds and hearts

to what you've said.

And so God help us to hear you,

help us to pay attention.

Help us to be obedient.

God help us to do that which
you have called us to do.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. Ever anybody,

ever known a person
who did something,

changed something about themselves
so drastically that you didn't

recognize them Right.

I had a friend one time that,

you know,

his hair started thinning and he decided
to be radical about it and just

shave it all off.

He had hair,

wasn't much,

but he had some.

And so he shaved it shiny,

bald.

I didn't recognize the guy.

I mean,

it was kind of like,

wait a minute,

right. That there was a change so
drastic I didn't know the guy.

Right. I mean,

I knew him,

but I didn't recognize him.

Right. Well,

when you see Paul's life,

when we take this journey with Paul
through the book of Romans,

we're going to get a better understanding
of how God explained to Paul

the transformation that the gospel brings
about in the life of anybody.

Ok? And so the challenge for you and
I is going to be as we examine the

Gospel of God.

And that's what it says right there.

It says set apart for
the Gospel of God.

What that means is God's good news.

Anything that God is sharing
with us about Jesus Christ,

about the salvation,

the redemption,

the forgiveness that God provides
in Jesus Christ,

that's good news for us.

And so this is the gospel,

the good news of God,

God's story,

God's proclamation of what
he has accomplished.

Because that's what this
text actually says.

And what's crazy about the way the English
New Testament reflects the non

punctuation of the Greek
New Testament is,

is that there's no punctuation.

And so this is the biggest
run on sentence.

If you've ever tried to diagram
a New Testament sentence,

it takes you all day.

And then I realized that younger students
no longer know how to diagram

sentences. But anyway,

that's aside from it.

I was taught that in Greek,

not in English.

So what I want us to realize is that as
Paul undertakes to write the book

of Romans,

he is writing what God has revealed to
him and what God has inspired for

him in scripture scripturally.

To put this down for our understanding
of the gospel so that we

understand what God has done,

how he's done it and ultimately
why he's done it.

So the point of the book of Romans,

you know,

the reason for its existence
is because Romans,

Romans, people in Rome
need the gospel.

Truthfully, the whole world
needs the gospel.

We need the gospel.

I need the gospel.

This is the good news God has chosen
to deliver to us and for our

understanding and comprehension of
what God has accomplished through

Jesus Christ.

Alrighty, so I want to share with you
that the first point today is just.

Hello Paul,

let's meet Paul a little bit.

Alright, let's get Acquainted
with this guy.

His name was Saul from birth
and good Jewish boy,

born in Tarsus.

You know,

he was a Roman citizen,

but he was also Jewish and grew
up in a Jewish household.

More than likely,

his household was wealthy.

Saul undertook to be a tent maker,

supporting himself later
in his ministries.

Right? So maybe growing
up in Tarsus,

maybe. Maybe his dad had a tent
factory or something.

Right? He grew up in that.

The reason we know he was probably from
a wealthy family is because of

his education.

I mean,

Saul had the highest of education
for Jewish young men.

What we find out is that I'm going
to read to you from Acts 22.

Here you go.

Acts 22.

If you want to turn there,

it's not going to show
up on the screen.

It's just what I got for you.

It says,

brothers and fathers,

listen, listen now to my
defense before you.

When they heard that he was addressing
them in Aramaic,

all right?

So he's.

He's writing in Greek,

speaking in Aramaic.

Okay? Knows Hebrew,

I'm sure.

So it's well educated,

right? When they heard it,

he was speaking to them in Aramaic,

they became even quieter.

So they're listening to him,

and all of a sudden he starts
speaking to them.

They went,

shh, shh.

What's he saying?

Right? So then he goes on,

he says,

he continued,

I am a Jew,

born in Tarsus of Cilicia,

but brought up in this city,

educated at the feet of Gamaliel according
to the law of our ancestors.

I was zealous for God,

just as all of you are today.

I want you to notice that sentence.

He says,

I was zealous for God.

We look at Paul's life before Jesus and
we think of him as persecutor and

this horrendous person who would
strike out against Christians.

But what is it that Paul
believed about his life?

He was zealous for God.

He believed he was doing what God had
purposed designed and planned for

him to do in his life.

He didn't see himself
as this contrary,

kind of,

I'm going to fight against
Christians and Jesus.

That's not how he saw himself.

He saw himself as an
advocate for God.

All right?

But then he goes on to say,

he says,

I persecuted this way to the death.

So. So he's admitting,

guess what?

They didn't call him Christians
until Antioch.

But. But he says,

I persecuted followers of the Way.

These people who are following
the way I sought.

I even.

I was standing there when Stephen was
stoned and I held everybody's coats.

I was into this thing
I was one of you.

He probably sat the Sanhedrin
that he's on trial before.

He probably sat with
them as friends,

brothers and fathers.

He says right there.

So Paul was one of them.

He was probably sitting in the Sanhedrin
when they brought Jesus before

the Sanhedrin.

Okay, so Saul is not ignorant
of what's going on.

He says,

I persecuted this way to the death,

arresting and putting both men and women
in jail as both the high priest

and the whole council of elders
can testify about me.

So he's saying,

you guys know me.

Y'all know what I did.

Y'all know how on fire
for God I was.

After I received letters from them,

the elders and the high priest
to the brothers,

I traveled to Damascus to arrest those
who were there and bring them to

Jerusalem to be punished.

It wasn't good enough that I was throwing
people in jail in Jerusalem and

having people stoned in Jerusalem.

I wanted to go down the street and grab
some more and bring them back.

And so I got letters to do that.

And then he says this.

As I was traveling.

Now I'm going to stop right
there a minute.

I want you to consider your day,

any day,

just pick a day,

whatever day,

as you're going through your day,

as you're traveling,

walking, talking,

working, hanging out,

whatever you're doing,

as you're going through your day.

See, Paul was just doing
what Paul did.

Now, I've kind of characterized
it this way.

You know,

wealthy, probably tent making,

family became a tent maker.

He was not a peasant.

He was not like the disciples
or the apostles.

He was not a fisherman.

He was not a peasant.

You know,

Matthew was probably the only one
of the apostles that had a,

you know,

sort of a source of wealth
of any kind.

His education was of the high.

He was probably working with
his dad up till about 14.

Right then he went to Jerusalem
to be trained,

spiritually speaking,

with regard to religious instruction.

And somewhere around 20ish,

probably he came under the
teaching of Gamaliel,

who is a.

In that first century,

you can read extra biblical texts
that talk about the writings of

Gamaliel and some of the things that he
produced as one of the leaders of

the Judaism of the day.

And so Saul became one of the students
and obviously one of the highly

regarded students.

Put it in your mind like this.

He graduated like summa cum laude
from Harvard among the Jews.

All right?

That was his education.

He had a career path
in front of him.

I'm going to be a Pharisee.

I'm going to be a ruler I'm going
to be on the high council.

Can't be high priest,

because that's a family thing.

But anyway,

I can rise to these heights
as a ruler among the Jews,

be wealthy,

because guess what?

Those guys were wealthy.

Like it or not,

I can.

I can ascend the heights in my community
and my people until,

while traveling to Damascus,

whoops, about noon,

an intense light from heaven
suddenly flashed around me,

and I fell to the ground.

Now, I like to characterize this as.

As Saul was riding a donkey and
he fell off his donkey.

But we don't know that.

It just says he fell to the ground.

So just imagine they're traveling
up a dusty road,

and he's got his entourage so that he
can capture some Christians and

take them back to Jerusalem.

And he's walking along.

Pow. He's blinded by this light,

right? Falls to the ground.

Now, this became very real to me
in the last couple of days.

Did y'all know if you step from grass
onto concrete where there's ice,

it's like going to Damascus?

Because I went to get the mail,

I'm looking at the mail,

I'm looking at the mail,

and I went,

whoo. Bam.

Like that.

I forbid the security team from
looking at the video,

but they did anyway.

Now, that's not so bad.

Except that I did it
again this morning.

I went back to the mailbox,

walked across the same
grass and fell again.

And I was like,

you know,

I'm getting too old for this.

But imagine Paul sitting on the ground
and asking the question,

well, actually,

Jesus speaks as so,

so why are you persecuting me?

He doesn't say,

why are you persecuting Christians?

He doesn't say,

why are you persecuting the way,

why are you persecuting my people?

He says,

why are you persecuting me?

And Saul says,

wait a minute.

Who are you,

Lord? I mean,

think about that.

You just got blinded by somebody.

Now you can't see them,

and they're talking to you,

and you're answering them back,

I'm Jesus of Nazareth,

the one you are persecuting.

Now, I can imagine Paul thinking
and Saul thinking in his mind,

I'm not persecuting you.

We killed you.

I saw you die.

You see?

So all of a sudden,

I mean,

I like to say it in as humorous
a way as I can.

I can imagine Saul in the
back of his mind going,

oh, right.

I mean,

think about it a minute.

Uh, oh.

Because now he's being
confronted by Jesus.

And then it goes on to say,

now those who were with him,

saw the light,

but they did not hear the voice
who was speaking to me.

I said,

what should I do,

Lord? The Lord told me,

get up and go to Damascus.

There you will be told everything that
you have been assigned to do.

And then we get the
rest of his story.

So I want you to.

I want you to understand Paul.

Paul was just doing life.

Paul had a trajectory for his life.

I've told you all the story.

You know,

my family really revered
the medical profession.

My mom was a registered nurse.

My uncle became a pharmacist
and a nurse practitioner.

My aunt,

my mom's youngest daughter,

she.

She went to college,

and then she got into med school,

and she started into med school,

and she got into the second year
of med school and quit.

So from middle school,

I wanted to be a doctor.

I was going to be a pediatrician,

right? Because I loved kids.

I thought being a pediatrician,

man, I could play all the time.

My mom told me,

as a nurse,

she said,

you realize the kids you
see will be sick,

don't you?

I was like,

okay, maybe not.

But anyway.

But I had a.

I had an idea in my mind
what I was going to do,

where I was going to go,

who I was going to be,

right?

That doesn't always happen
the way you want it to.

Did you know that some of you are probably
in places that you thought.

I never thought I'd be here.

Didn't want to be here.

Can I tell you something?

I believe God puts you where he wants
you for his kingdom's sake.

You might not be where
you want to be,

but guess what?

If God's got you there,

he's got a reason for
you to be there.

Okay? So when I look at this,

I think,

well, you know what?

Paul could have.

Saul could have gone on and
been a Pharisee for Jesus.

There are some.

Y'all know,

I'm just telling you,

not Jewish Pharisees.

There's just some Christians I
know that act like Pharisees.

See the gospel's life changing,

y'all. Jesus confronted Saul
on the road to Damascus.

Saul is his Jewish name.

Paul is his Roman name.

It's not like Abraham.

It didn't.

Like, he changed his name.

Said, you'll no longer be known as,

he's still Saul to a lot of Jews,

but he's Paul to the
New Testament body.

But the gospel changed his life.

Can you imagine?

He starts calling the First
Baptist Church in,

let's say,

Ephesus and goes,

hey, I got saved and I'm
an evangelist now.

Can I come speak at your church.

And the Church of Ephesus is going,

no, no,

no, no,

no. You kill people.

We don't want you to come
speak at our church,

right?

But what happened?

Peter took Paul and just affirmed his
conversion and what God had called

him to.

So here's the challenge,

right? Here's the point for us.

God has designed,

provided and planned for redemption
and salvation in the lives of the

people that he calls in our lives.

If you're a Christian this morning,

God designed and purposed that
you would be his people.

All right?

God promised it.

The text right here tells us that he
promised beforehand through his

prophets in the Holy Scriptures,

concerning his Son,

who was born of a descendant of
David according to the flesh,

who was declared the Son of God with
power by the resurrection from the

dead, according to the
Spirit of holiness,

Jesus Christ our Lord,

through whom we have received grace
and apostleship to bring about the

obedience of faith among all the
Gentiles for his name's sake.

So Saul,

Paul is talking about himself now,

says, you know,

that God has purposed this redemption
through Jesus Christ,

and I have been given grace and apostleship
to share Jesus Christ with

the Gentiles.

And then it says,

among whom you also are the
called Jesus Christ.

So you've got grace too,

see, because he's writing
to Roman Christians.

And we remember like two weeks ago,

I told you there were people
from Rome in Jerusalem,

and some of them saw
the crucifixion,

some of them saw Pentecost.

When they scattered because
of persecution,

they end up in Rome.

They start getting their friends
and family together,

talking about Jesus.

And so there's small house,

churches all throughout Rome,

scattered all around.

So Paul's writing a letter.

We call it a book of the Bible,

but he's writing a letter to
them to explain the gospel,

to explain how the gospel works,

to explain what God has accomplished
in the good News,

you see?

And so when I say that Romans
needs the Gospel,

the Roman people need the Gospel,

the world need the gospel,

guess what?

The gospel's for you and me.

And it's life changing.

You know,

you might continue on your career
path and your career trajectory.

You might end up in a place that God
wants you to be for his sake,

because of something in you or because
of something around you,

I don't know.

But the truth of it is,

Paul, God took Saul,

called him,

Paul, sent him.

That's what apostleship means.

He sent him out.

And so he's writing this letter to all
who are beloved of God in Rome,

called as saints.

How about that?

Now here you go.

Now remember last week we did the deacon
thing and I mentioned small D

deacons.

Deacon in Greek means servant,

capital D.

Deacon is an office that we sort of made
in administrative direction for

the way we do church.

Small S saint means set apart.

Set apart for the gospel.

Do you know every Christian is
set apart for the gospel?

You have been set apart
for the gospel,

right. So called as saints.

And then he says this grace to you.

Peace from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ.

First I thank my God through Jesus Christ
for you all because of your

faith, because your faith is being proclaimed
throughout the world for

you, the gospel,

grace, peace,

community and faith.

Now I'm going to drive
the nail home.

In the Book of Acts,

chapter 22 is this verse,

get up,

go into Damascus,

and there you will be told everything
that you have been assigned to do.

Who assigned it to him?

Jesus did.

Right? What have you been
assigned to do?

See, when I asked that question,

everybody comes up to me.

A lot of people come
up to me and say,

well, tell me where you need me.

I don't know because I don't know
what you've been assigned to do.

Right. There's a whole next
step tablet out there.

You can tap your phone on the back of
the chair and just scroll through

there and just find a place
to get involved.

Or go to work and live.

Jesus, wherever it is you are,

go live your faith.

Go live the good news.

Go live your testimony.

Maybe it's in your own home,

it's on your street,

I don't know.

But you've been assigned something because
it's not like out of all of

this we look at Paul's life and go,

okay, Paul's the only one that
ever got an assignment.

Not how it happens.

God has called us all
and assigned us all.

Where are.

Where will I'm.

Let's pick a time.

Where will you be at 9:37
in the morning?

Okay, where will you be?

Maybe you'll be in school,

maybe you'll be in your house.

Maybe you'll be hanging
out with your kids.

Guess what?

You have an assignment in that you have
an assignment for the gospel.

Wherever you are.

We're supposed to live it out.

That's what Romans is about.

Because the world needs the gospel.

And I love this last line,

because your faith is being proclaimed
throughout the world.

Young, we got folks that are part of
this gathering who are on the other

side of the world right now serving,

called assigned,

but they're a part of
this gathering.

We don't see them much anymore,

but they were here.

See what I mean?

As you go out and share the gospel,

your faith being proclaimed
throughout the world,

don't miss your assignment.

Don't miss God's expectation
for your life.

You can go live the world
if you want to.

You can go make decisions that dishonor
God's call and love in your life.

Yeah, you can do it.

He'll let you.

Careful. If you see a bright light,

though, that's the warning.

We're going to sing a last song.

If you don't know Jesus
this morning,

we want you to know Jesus.

We want you to meet him today.

We'd love to introduce him to you.

Maybe you know him and maybe you
know that God's telling you.

All right,

it's time to get busy.

That's between you and him.

I'm not the one to police that.

Okay. If you want to pray
about something,

I'll be down here to pray with you.

Alrighty. You just let God lead you.

You can pray right where you are,

too.

Just so you know.

Alrighty. Let's pray together
as we get ready to sing.

God, thank you for today and for
all that you are accomplishing.

Thank you,

God, for your love for us.

God, I thank you for good news.

I need good news every day.

It's safe to say I need
the gospel every day.

So, God,

this morning as we gather
in this place,

God, we want to praise you and thank
you for what you're doing.

Want to praise you and
thank you that,

God, you've loved us
and cared for us,

and yet,

God, that's not where it stops.

It stops where we show others the
love that you've shown us.

And then it just continues.

So, God,

help us to be where you want us to be
and that we'll be who you called us

to be and that we'll
be obedient to it.

God, thank you for your love.

And we pray it in Jesus name,

Amen.