Joshua Boyd

No one serves no one.  In other words, everyone is serving someone or something at all times in their life.  

My message title and question to you today is: who are you serving?  The Holy Spirit through Paul asks a few questions in this chapter too.  The first one in verse 1:   should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?  NO!  We are dead to sin.

Since Adam’s sin in the Garden, every human being is born a servant to sin.  You have no choice in the matter.  It might as well be your blood type—you can’t change it on your own.  

Jordon Gilmore

Joshua Boyd

The Roman’s Road Part 5 - God’s Gifts 

Beginning with John the Baptist, the message of the gospel,  was to repent of your sins.  After Jesus resurrection, the good news of the gospel is repent and receive the salvation from death that offers.  God gave us the gift of His Son to start a new covenant with humankind.  

You and I were counted sinners in this world even before we did anything wrong.  We are born into the sin nature passed down from Adam.  But when we believe God, we are counted as right, righteous, even before we do anything good!!!  This is the grace and gift of God!  

Salvation is a gift.  The grace of God is a gift.  

Ephesians 2

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 1

The faith to receive the gift of salvation, believing on Him, is given to us by God.  

Romans 12:3

Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

Joshua Boyd

Chapter 3 Cont – The Fairness of God

When we read Romans, remembering that originally it was a letter written to believers – a correspondence from Paul to a group of people.  Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is preaching the good news to them – and us – in the letter, telling us in chapter 1 how important it is to accept and worship God as Creator.  

In chapter 2, he commands us not to judge.  Just as Jesus did.  No one is worthy enough to be the judge, not even a Jewish person.  Paul, a Jew of the Jews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, tells the Jews that one is not a true Jew because of birth or the ceremony of circumcision, but one is a true Jew whose        heart is right with God.  

The theme of our passages today is God’s fairness.  This is something to meditate on.  God is completely fair and absolutely right.  We might easily say “amen” hearing that.  But when compare what goes on in the world today, if we believe that everything that happens is God’s will for it to happen, we have trouble reconciling that God is fair and right.  Not everything that happens in the world is God’s will.  Death, destruction and innocent suffering are not from God.  They are the result of sin and those who reject God in their lives.  

Jordon Gilmore

Romans 2:17-3:23
The covenant we have with God.  And our righteousness vs God's righteousness. 

Jordon Gilmore

Romans 1:18-32
Romans 2:1-7

Joshua Boyd

This book, written by Paul most likely when he was in Corinth around 60 AD, is a letter to the Christians in Rome, a place at this point in his life that Paul had not been to yet.  Chronologically, the letter to the Romans did not come first even though it appears in the NT as Paul’s first book.  Many consider Romans and Hebrews to be the “meatiest” of the letters of Paul.  And Paul was the “meatiest” letter writer in the first place.  

Understanding Romans means understanding God’s plan of salvation for Jews and non-Jews alike.  Romans also takes us from the testimony of action and events to the doctrinal.  Romans does not contain any mention of historical events for Paul.  

Jordon Gilmore

Mark 6:39-52

Joshua Boyd

If you watch the news, especially local news, it seems there is bad news all the time. This person died, that person was injured.  It doesn’t end.  If we dwell on it too long it can paralyze us – keep us from doing anything or going anywhere.  Exactly what the enemy wants – to immobilize us for fear of harm.  

There is something better for us though, safety in the Lord.  We have available to us a peace, a rest and a protection that no security system or body guard can surpass.  

Jordon Gilmore

Luke 10
It’s time for us to work. Get off the bench and into the game.