Released from the Back and Forth

Justin's Last Sermon - Romans 7:7-12

• Some of us are chronic rule followers. And even those who aren’t type A know that we need to know what’s expected of us in order for a relationship or job to go well. This is the same for our relationship with God. But, as we see in this week’s sermon, our relationship with God is not measured by law but by love. 

What happens when you suddenly tell a group of very religious people that they are no longer bound to the Law for righteousness? They start sinning, that's what. Paul knows people and so he gets ahead of this human impulse with a series of rhetorical questions. Paul expects that the Romans will wonder if they have to keep obeying now that their standing with God is based on grace.

• Sin can be very sticky, leaving us confused on how to get out. But when we trust in Jesus, our relationship with sin categorically changes. Jesus has changed our identity, which changes how we live and think about ourselves. That’s why freedom from sin doesn’t come with just trying harder, but seeing Jesus better. 

In a one-off sermon this week, Josh looks at Jesus’s transfiguration in Mark 9:2-8.  We explore how Jesus’s transfiguration verifies for us that he’s the right person to follow, and shows us that he’s worth following. 

This is the final week of our Rest series and we are looking at Isaiah 55:8, a well known verse that tells us that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and that God’s ways are not our ways. 

This week in our Rest series, we’ll see how Jesus’s heart is always inviting and open, ready for us to come to him despite how poor or how well we’re doing.

Justin and Josh preach on Icons Future