Courage Church

series: Romans

title: 07 The Exchange

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: March 3, 2019

scriptures: Romans 1:28-32, 2:1-5, Romans 1:18, Isaiah 61:1-4, Luke 4:18-22, Deuteronomy 6:4, Genesis 1

The Hebrew concept of “echad”(unity in the midst of diversity) is an amazing image that we get for God, marriage, and even the church. It is the glue that is holding everything together.

When we begin to view the world the through a lens that says" “what happens to one affects many” or even “what happens to one affects me personally” we are much more apt to work for justice in our communities and on behalf of others.

The list that Paul lays out in Romans 28-31 all fall into this category. The category of injustice. The category of “if these things continue, the whole world will not be able to go on.”

When you understand echad, you stop pretending like you are the one who determines what another person is worth, because we all know their value:

Jesus showed us how valuable each and every human being is, when He paid for us with His life.

The book we referenced in this teaching is out of print and very hard to find, but is listed here as a reference.

series: Romans

title: 06 The Exchange (Romans 1:18-32, 2:1-4)

date: February 24, 2019

teacher: Jacob Bender

scriptures: Romans 1:18, Romans 1:26-32, Romans 2:1-4, John 1:14, Luke 18:9-14, Matthew 9, Genesis 2:18, Genesis 2:24, Ephesians 5:31-32, Romans 5:6

In this sermon, we explore the exchange that Paul talks about in Romans 1:26-27, exchanging natural relations for those “contrary to nature.”

When most of us read this passage, we focus on the act that is being committed, but the action is merely a result of something much bigger that is going on. The real question is, what is it that was exchanged, and why is it such a big deal?

this sermon is part of a four part mini series within our series on Romans, called “The Exchange”

series: Romans

title: 05 The Exchange (cont.)

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: Feburay 17, 2019

scriptures: Romans 1:18-25, Genesis 3, Proverbs 4:23

In the Garden, Adam and Eve traded the glory of God for the knowledge of right and wrong, and we have been trying to navigate good and evil ever since.

As you navigate good and evil, it will cause you to view others differently, because as you begin to navigate good and evil you are going to start figuring out the difference. and slowly, judgment is going to creep in, toward others who don’t share the same worldview as you, or who struggle in different ways than you do. 

The 24.9 billion pixel picture of Shanghai is available by clicking the picture below

The teaching that was cited in the message was by Mark Sayers, and was included as part of the podcast “this cultural moment” - It is called “The Portland Sessions Part One” released February 12, 2019

series: Romans

title: The Exchange (Part One)

teachers: Jacob & Dawn Bender

date: February 10, 2019

scriptures: Romans 1:18-25, Genesis 1:28, Psalm 106:19-23

Paul, in the book of Romans, says some of the most difficult passages that we read in the entire Bible. A great example of that is Romans 1:18-25, as well as the verses that follow. The idea is about an “exchange” - and if you are unfamiliar with the Old Testament, there are a lot of different ways that you could read that.

But Paul quotes the Old Testament 51 times in the book of Romans alone, and some of those verses that seem to be the most difficult, he actually is getting from someplace else. For example, the exchange. When Paul says in Romans 1:22-23 “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” He is quoting Psalm 106:20, a passage about how God wanted to destroy Israel because they exchanged the glory of God for a Golden Calf that they made with their hands.

But this verse reveals something important about the way that Christians should live their lives in a world that has, it seems, gone totally mad.

We should be like Moses.

And by that, I mean that we should do what the Psalmist says that Moses does… it says that God would have destroyed Israel, had not Moses stood in the breach and stopped him. The “breach” is the Hebrew word “perets” - it is the gap between what the people deserve (wrath) and the guilty people. In Ezekiel, God actually looks for someone who is willing to stand in the gap on behalf of the sinful city, and he couldn’t find anyone. Moses, out of love for Israel, petitioned God to be merciful and to spare them, to not let his wrath fall on them and because of Moses’ faithfulness, God spared Israel.

If you are familiar with the story that the Psalmist is quoting, you know that when Moses found Israel worshipping an idol, he was very mad. It would have been easy to agree with God, to have wrath fall on Israel and start all over with a new group of people who would be more faithful. But even though Moses saw that Israel was wrong, and that they had exchanged the glory of God for a stupid idol, and even though Moses knew that this totally went against the design that God had for Israel, he still chose to love his people enough to stand up for them, knowing that they are wrong.

Jesus did the same thing in John 8, with the woman caught in adultery. So when we do the same for the people in our lives who have exchanged the truth about God for whatever lie they bought into, we are bearing the image of Christ. If we get this right, it will be a lot easier to understand the things that are coming up next in this letter of Paul,

series: Romans

title: 03 The Thesis

date: February 3, 2019

scriptures: Romans 1:16-17, Habakkuk 2:4, 2 Corinthians 5:21

The heart of the entire book of Romans is Romans 1:16-17. If you read what comes after, without first reading verse 16 and 17… you will be so confused… and you run the risk of thinking that the entire thing is law… legalistic… oppressive… all the things that people tend to say that the book of Romans is, when in all actuality, the book of Romans is a book about the only hope that exists IN OUR OTHERWISE HOPELESS WORLD - and that hope is ONLY FOUND IN JESUS. 

series: Romans

title: 02 The City

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: January 27, 2019

scripture: Romans 1:7-15, 2 Corinthians 9:10

In around A.D. 49, Claudius Caesar decreed that all Jews had to leave Rome entirely. They were exported out of the city. 

Claudius later married a woman named Agrippina and even adopted her son, Nero, as his own son. But in A.D. 54 Agrippina poisoned Claudius Caesar, and her son Nero took the role of Emperor.

This began a time known as Neronis quinquennium, “the five-year period of Nero” - it was a time, for the most part, of peace and one where Rome was at its strongest and the best it had been in years. 

And as part of this early reign of Nero, the Jews were allowed to return to Rome. But when the Jewish Christians returned to the churches that they had previously founded and been apart of in Rome, they found them to be in a very different state than they had left them, because of course, the churches continued on without them and the only ones that remained were Gentile Christians. Christians who hadn’t been given the law, the ten commandments, who didn’t understand the rituals, circumcision, etc.

So they came back to what they would have been considered to be a very disorderly state in the church.

Of course, in that day, Rome essentially ruled the whole world, and they got what they wanted in any way that they wanted. Especially by the end of Nero’s reign as Caesar, to be a Christian was one of the most dangerous things that you could be. So when Paul says “I am not ashamed of the Gospel” - what he ultimately is saying is that there is NOTHING that Rome can do to him that will silence his message, because it is the only message that has the power to change the whole world.

One of the things that we have to really wrestle with when we read the book of Romans, is the fact that the church in Rome is one that Paul had never been even been too. He did not found it, nor had he ever had a first hand experience with the people of the church he is writing.

The reason that this is so significant, is because Romans is also Paul’s clearest theological piece. Its almost as if it is “his Gospel” - and it is written apart from specific circumstances that he would have had to of spoken into.

This really comes into play when we get into some of the more difficult sayings of Paul in Romans. Context always matters, and the things going on in Rome at that time do matter, but what Paul ultimately seems to be doing with the book of Romans is he is giving us his theology.

series: Romans

title: 01 The Introduction

teacher: Jacob Bender (sermon introduction by Dawn Bender)

date: January 20, 2019

main passage: Romans 1:1-7

additional scripture: Acts 9:15-16, Luke 24

In the introduction sermon for our series on the letter to the Romans, Pastors Jacob and Dawn begin by explaining the importance of approaching this book with an “empty glass” - not going into it thinking that we have all the answers or looking to be affirmed in what we already believe, but rather, ready to be changed by the Word of God.

Our prayer as we begin this series is this:

Most people believe that Paul wrote the letter FROM CORINTH, and the context of writing is rather simple: Paul wants to go to Rome, preach there, and use it as a stepping stone to ultimately get to Spain.

Paul’s entire life was CONSUMED by the GOSPEL. To Him, there was nothing else that mattered, and his address to this church was fueled by his desire to go preach to the greatest city in the entire world because of course for him, he thought “if we can set a fire in people’s hearts IN ROME, that thing is going to spread” 

So he just POURS IT ALL OUT IN THIS LETTER TO THEM.

The book of Romans is written in four sections that flow into each other, ultimately showing us how the Gospel is FOR EVERYONE, and has the power to TRANSFORM EVERYONE.

In this introduction to the series, we focus only on the opening verses of Romans 1:1-7, and on the man that was the Apostle Paul, the significance of who he was before Jesus got ahold of him, and what it means that he is an Apostle.

The letter to the Romans was written somewhere around A.D. 58.

That means that Romans was written well before (at least a decade before) Herod’s Temple was destroyed by Titus and his army, which is incredibly significant when you consider the way that Paul so clearly viewed our lives to be the ultimate temple.

In this short highlight clip, Pastor Jacob reminds us that the Bible’s job is not to affirm us, but ultimately it’s job is to convict us to live more intentional Kingdom focused lives right here and now.

title: My Father was a Wandering Aramean

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: January 13, 2018

series: Ancient Cliff Notes

title: The Covenants

teacher: Dawn Bender

date: January 6, 2019

series: Ancient Cliff Notes

title: Gideon

teacher: Austin Young

date: December 30, 2019