Courage Church

series: Romans

title: pursuit & glory (Romans 5:6-11)

teacher: Chris Hooten

date: May 5, 2019

series: Romans

title: 15 Discipleship & Suffering

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: April 28, 2019

scripture: Romans 5:1-5

series: Romans

title: 14 The Covenant

teachers: Jacob and Dawn Bender

date: April 21, 2019 (Easter Sunday)

scriptures: Romans 4:16-25, Genesis 15.

series: Romans

title: 13 The Culmination

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: April 14, 2019

scripture: Romans 3:27-31, Romans 4:1-16

series: Romans

title: 12 The Culmination

date: April 7, 2019

teacher: Jacob Bender

scripture: Romans 3:21-26

In celebration of passover, practicing Jews do something called the seder (which means “THE ORDER”) - in which they eat a meal walking through what took place those many years ago when God rescued them from the hand of the enemy, and He did it in a way that made it very clear “I am God… and these are my people.”

And during the seder every year, everything happens in the EXACT SAME ORDER. 

There were four different cups that you would drink from AT DIFFERENT TIMES throughout the meal, they are known as “the four cups of passover” 

The symbolism behind the four cups comes from Exodus 6:6-7, which is God making a promise to Moses THAT HE WILL REMEMBER THE COVENANT THAT HE MADE WITH ABRAHAM. We will get into that covenant more over the next couple of weeks, but the passage we are looking at today really flows right from chapter 3 and goes all the way through chapter 4 which is ALL ABOUT ABRAHAM. 

But in Exodus 6, Israel is still in slavery in Egypt, even though God had promised that he would give them the land of Canaan. So He says, it’s time to leave Egypt. 

And this is what it says:

In this passage is what the sages called “the four I will’s” - and the four cups of passover represented each of these statements:

• I will bring you out.

• I will deliver you.

• I will redeem you.

• I will take you to be my people. 

series: Romans

title: 11 The Mission

date: March 31, 2019

teacher: Jacob Bender

scriptures: Romans 3:1-20

series: Romans

title: 10 The Hope

teacher: Austin Young

date: March 24, 2019

series: Romans

title: 09 The Solution

teacher: Austin Young

date: March 17, 2019

series: Romans

title: The Judgment

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: March 10, 2019

scriptures: Romans 2:3-16, Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 7:21-23, Matthew 25:31-46. 

Due to a technical difficulty during this sermon, there is currently no video available. Please also note that because of the issue we were having with the microphone, we had to re-record/splice in the middle section of the teaching which is a noticeable change, but do to the importance of the content in this sermon we felt we had to make sure it was presented properly.

There is this moment in the book of Micah… and the question is being asked: WHAT SACRIFICE WILL BE SUFFICIENT? 

And they ask (6:7) - will the Lord be pleased with a THOUSAND RAMS? With ten thousand rivers of oil? 

If we kill every animal on the farm, will that get through to God? 

then it goes so far as to say: Shall I give my firstborn, for my transgression?

It’s this willingness to do anything… I mean anything to save your soul. To alter your circumstances… to attain the favor of the Lord… But all they were buying was a false sense of security, all the while now having to live life without the things that meant to the most to them.

But the answer that we find in Micah, to the question of “what does the Lord require - is actually much different than any of them would have thought. And this is PRE JESUS! Remember, the Gospel has always been true.

this is what it says:

 what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? 

You have made your entire lives, and your entire experience with God about the things that you GIVE UP thinking that it is making Him come closer to you… all of the things that you sacrifice… but every time you make a sacrifice, it only takes a moment before you find yourself needing to make another one… because if life is fueled by the things that you give up, there will always be more to give up. 

try this: do justice… love kindness… walk humbly with your God.