If you found out that you were going to die in one week, how would you spend your last days? If you are like most, you'd probably cross some things off your bucket list, spend time with those closest to you, and generally live your life to the fullest extent possible. Knowing that the end is near would certainly change your approach to life. Now we consider how a similar approach to our Christian life can motivate us to live and love in such a way that God will be glorified in and through us, and the world will be impacted as a result.

The old bumper sticker slogan "Question Authority" now seems like a universal rallying cry in the highly charged and combative political climate of our current election season. As Christians, we find ourselves increasingly challenged by leaders and laws that are unsympathetic and in some cases hostile towards a biblical worldview and those who hold to that. How should we respond? What is the believers responsibility towards government in light of our ultimate submission to God and his word? Here we look at Romans 13 and the relationship between church and state from God's perspective.

When you think about the word "love", it probably provokes a variety of different responses. We all have our ideas about what true love looks like. We also know what it feels like to receive insincere and inauthentic love. In the gospel, God shows us what true, authentic love looks like. With our hearts changed by God's love, He then calls us to love others with that same genuine, zealous, self-sacrificing love. Now we examine what Paul says in Romans about what genuine love is, and how we show God's love to the church and the world.

When we think of the gift of God's grace in the gospel, we often think of it's individual benefits such as forgiveness, justification, adoption, growth in holiness, and eternal life, all of which are true. But those individual blessings bring us into union not only with Christ, but with other believers and we are each gifted by God's grace in such a manner so as to serve one another in the body of Christ. Here we take up the final section in our study of Romans and look at the practical outworking of the gospel in and through the body of Christ.

When a construction project is underway, the process may at times seem confusing or disjunctured as various stages of the project unfold. To the casual onlooker it is not be clear how all this fits together, but in reality every detail is being guided by a master plan, a blueprint that brings all the elements of the project together in such a way to produce the final grand design. So it is with God's grand plan of redemption throughout all of history, every detail of which God is guiding for the purpose of magnifying his glory and mercy.

Persevering in faith involves keeping before us the amazing grace of God that has been shown to us through the gospel; the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Messiah. We have been brought near to God through faith alone and in that we rejoice and rest. But perseverance in faith also involves heeding the warnings of the gospel against pride and arrogance, and not only to consider God's kindness, but also to fear the severity of his wrath against sin as a means of continuing in his kindness. We continue in Romans 11 and look at the call to stand fast in faith and fear of the Lord.

The status of Israel, God's chosen people, in light of God's redemption by grace through faith in Jesus, has caused much stir and controversy not only in the church, but in politics and world events throughout history, even down to our day. How one views God's plan and purpose for Israel in the gospel era is more significant than one might think. Listen as we see how God's sovereign plan of redemption is at work preserving a remnant from Israel and what difference that makes.

People take all kinds of issues with the good news about Jesus Christ. Some claim that it is not intellectual enough; others claim it is offensive or irrelevant; and still others say its is too exclusive. Yet, despite all of the many objections, countless others have taken this good news to heart and called on the Lord in order to be saved. The question is ‘Why?’ Why do some believe the gospel while others do not? Here we consider Paul’s answer to this question in Romans 10:14-21, and consider the blessed realities of beautiful feet, ready ears, and a patient God.

The fact that God in His sovereign purpose unconditionally calls some to salvation and not others does not negate or contradict the reality that salvation is "conditioned" upon calling on the Lord in faith. Indeed the two go hand in hand: God must call and we must believe. We continue to explore this glorious mystery of the riches of God's salvation for all who call on Him in faith.

One of the struggles many have in understanding and accepting the truth of God's sovereign purposes in choosing to save some and pass over others is that it makes God seem unfair or unjust in holding us accountable for sin. We continue in our series and hear how Paul defends the freedom and justice of God to have mercy on whom he chooses.