Fully Convinced - Part 4

Romans 1:16-17

For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Sometimes, because of God’s tremendous love for us, we think of Him like Santa Claus. 

• He loves us so He only wants what is good for us. 
• But we get to define “good.”
• We treat Him like a vending machine 
• We crawl up in His lap on Sunday morning and expect Him to give us what we want the rest of the week. 

Romans 1:18-20

But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

Psalm 19:1

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.

The skies display his craftsmanship.

All creation points to the Creator. 

But we often worship the creation instead of the creator. 

Romans 1:21-23

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

You may say, “I have never worshiped a false god like that.” 

Where did idol worship begin? 

• “And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.”
• We just talked about our tendency to think of God like Santa.
• God loves me so He would want me to be happy.
• What other false impressions of God to we have? 
• Do you see God as a loving father or a hard to please master? 
• We may not worship wooden statues but we have all fallen into the trap of worshiping money, materials, or mortals.
• Especially the worship of “self.” 

This week has been difficult and troubling. 

• 24th anniversary of 9/11
• Charlie Kick was assassinated
• There was another school shooting in Colorado 
• There were over 200 more shootings this week across our country.
• Israel bombed Quater
• There is mass suffering in the Gaza Strip
• The Brazilian President was convicted for plotting a coup.
• Russia bombed Poland
• France has fallen into mass chaos
• Nepal’s Prime Minister resigned after protests that killed 19
• There was 7.4 magnitude earthquake in east Russia.

We were never designed to cope with this much.

• We are aware of so much more because we are so connected. 
• We have the knowledge of God but we lack the wisdom of God.
• We lack the power of God.

So we try to control the uncontrollable. 

• Politics are so enticing because it fools us into thinking we can have influence and control.
• We become tribal 
• When things go wrong we blame the other tribe.

Read the next passage for yourselves

• What you hope I will say reveals your tribe.

Romans 1:24-27

So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

What is the penalty they suffered within themselves? 

• Was it disease? Maybe. There are natural consequences to our actions.
• I believe it could be deeper than that. 
• Have you ever achieved a dream or accomplished a goal only to find out it did not provide any meaningful, lasting, satisfaction? 
• That emptiness is a deep suffering that many live with everyday. 
• That emptiness is a hole that only Jesus can fill. 
• But if you have rejected God you have also inadvertently refused the solution to your brokenness. 

Romans 1:28-32

Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

Chariot racing in the Byzantine Empire

• The prosperity in the Byzantine Empire
• Particularly in Constantinople
• The wealthy aristocrats started chariot racing. 
• The two most popular teams were the Reds and the Greens. 
• By the 6th century the the divisions between the Blues and the Greens had evolved into two powerful political parties.
• There were even Blue and Green factions in the church. 
• In 532AD the conflict between the Blues and the Greens escalated into a coup to overthrow Emperor Justinian and resulted in the deaths of over 30,000 people. 

Each side blamed the other for the conflict.

They were both guilty of the same sins.

Follow the logic…

• God reveals himself through creation
• People refuse to acknowledge God and instead pursue the creation over the Creator.
• The center of sin is self 
• God allows us to live in that sin and experience the full consequences of our rebellion. 
• Our capacity for sin is unlimited.  

Romans 2:1

You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.

Matthew 9:35-39

Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. 38So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

Covenant Prayer of the week 

Ezekiel 34:11-12

For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search and find my sheep. 12I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day.

I Have Decided…

…to share the gospel.