Paul really shows us his love for the people in the Roman church in his introduction to the letter. He longs to share in fellowship with them, to encourage them and to be encouraged by them. By verse 15 though, it begins to become clear that the thing he longs to share with them more than anything else is Jesus. To encourage them with the depths of the gospel and the power of God.

The letter of Romans was written to a real church, full of real people. Understanding what was going on in their context and the things that Paul was specifically addressing helps get a deeper understanding of what he was trying to communicate. But the beautiful thing about God’s word, and specifically Romans, is that although it was written to a specific church and people, the truths found there are just as powerful and relevant today as they were 2000 years ago.

*Bonus Content: Watch this amazing video on Romans to get a great overview of this letter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej_6dVdJSIU

This week we began our series in Romans, but before really diving into the book we wanted to have a deeper understanding of it’s author, Paul. This letter written to the Christians in Rome gives us deep insights into not only God, his character, and Christ, but into the Jewish man that wrote it.

Throughout this series we have said holiness is not really about us, but about God. That even the actions we need to change are about the glory of God, rather than us being “better” people. At the same time, holiness says something about how God views us. God’s sacrifice and effort to make his people positionally and practically holy before him shows us our true worth to God.

As God calls us into holiness he is also calling us away from a love of the world. To no longer pursue the things the world values, but purse Christ. Living that out and knowing how to pursue the right things can be really difficult. Thankfully God doesn’t leave us alone to figure this out.

Warning the podcast episode is meant for mature listeners.

Pastor JT takes us on a journey of discovering why marital intimacy outside of God's plan is so dangerous while reminding us of it's beauty in both marriage and in it's likeness to the relationship between Christ and his bride; the church.

How important is it that we make our time “holy” in this life? How much (or little) have you thought about that before this Sunday? During this podcast Pastor Jake takes us deep with Jesus in order to examine our ideas about Sabbath.

Our pursuit of holiness is not about us, but about what God is doing in us. But if it is about God then how do we walk in holiness? How do we pursue holiness without it just becoming an obligation or striving to simply be moral? Christ tells us, abide and obey.

The call of Scripture is that we are to be holy as God is holy, but how can that be? It’s clear from the Bible that we are sinful and incapable for fully walking away from our sin, much less be holy. As with forgiveness, God hasn’t left us alone in our pursuit of him. It’s not primarily through effort that we are made holy, but by God himself.

In the sermon we talked about what confession was, and several practical/relational questions regarding how it plays out in everyday life.