Today we move into the second half of Romans 14, continuing our series - Romans: Grace Changes Everything. Paul begins to shift his focus here from the weak in faith to the strong in faith. The first half of the chapter he wrote about specific hangups for the spirituall weak, he finished out this chapter writing to the spiritually strong and their freedom from those hangups. 

Paul cautioned them in the way they live with those freedoms. And it is a good caution and reminder for us today. 

We invite you to listen in to our sermon today and to share it with a friend. We hope and pray you are challenged and encouraged by the Word of God today.

Today we continue our series called Romans: Grace Changes Everything. Paul had just finished writing about our love debt toward one another and the summary of the law being in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. We ended last week with this commendation from Paul: But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires (13:14).

As we begin Romans 14 today, we read that Paul wrote about opinions in verse one. The original language can be rendered differently, but basically Paul wrote about matters of opinion or disputable matters. Paul was speaking about preferences and how some preferences and differences of opinions had led to divisions in the church. It is vital to understand Paul wasn’t talking about matters of sin or salvation. He was speaking about matters of opinion. It is to those opinions we turn today as we seek to navigate how to maintain unity in eternal matters rather than division over disputable matters.

We invite you to listen in to our sermon today and to share it with a friend. We hope and pray you are challenge and encouraged by the Word of God today.

THE TIME IS NOW.  That’s a little phrase you might say or hear when it is time to take some action. When it comes to our passage for today, the Apostle Paul has a message for all of us and it is also that, The Time Is Now. For a couple of chapters, Paul has been giving us some very practical and timely wisdom about how to live in the church and in the world. He has called us to make our lives a living sacrifice in service to the Lord and others. He’s told us about spiritual gifts and how we can make a contribution to the work of the church. He’s told us about learning to bring blessing in the face of persecution and how to not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And last week we learned about what it means to live under authority, specifically that of the government and people in power.

In all of these words from Paul, there is an underlying sense of urgency in becoming the people he’s calling us to be. Well, in today’s passage, he’s going to continue to point us in the direction of full devotion to God’s purposes and he’s also going to explain the reason it is so urgent. He’s going to tell us why The Time Is Now. 

We invite you to tune in to our sermon today as Pastor Jeff continues our series, Romans: Grace Changes Everything.

They say there are two different types of people in the world…those who are rule followers and those who, if an authority lays down a rule, will feel the pull to break it. Submitting to authority is something people approach very differently. Sometimes it has to do with a smaller issue, but other times the issues involved are very consequential. Today we’re going to take a look at a situation that is definitely the latter…very consequential.

We’re in the last few chapters of the book of Romans in our sermon series, Romans: Grace Changes Everything. Today, Paul is going to talk about Living Under Authority, and the specific authority he has in mind is the authority of the government.

We invite you to listen in as Pastor Jeff continues our series through the book of Romans. 

Today we’re going to be talking about Raising the Bar on Relationships. We find his discussion of it all in Romans 12. The Apostle Paul, the author of the book of Romans, has a real burden for the nature of the relationships we have with one another in the church. It is his desire that our relationships would be so strong that regardless of what would come up, we would have the foundation from which to overcome any hardship and move forward with unity and harmony. The first verses we’re going to look at today are going to be Paul’s instructions for making that a reality.

We invite you to tune in to our sermon this week as Pastor Jeff continues our series, Romans: Grace Changes Everything. 

Today, we’re returning to our series, Romans: Grace Changes Everything. This has been a verse-by-verse study through the book of Romans in the New Testament. And as we come to our text for today, there is a major shift happening in the book. That passage is Romans 12:1-8.

As Paul turns this corner into chapter 12, he starts to get very practical. He says, “In light of all these truths about Jesus, here’s how we should live.”  And spoiler alert, he says we should live Holding Nothing Back. Because here’s the bottom line: If you hold back it will hold up what God is holding out.

Paul’s going to take the rest of the letter to give us some specifics about what our lives should look like. And he doesn’t waste any time getting started. There are a few steps Paul gives us right away in chapter 12 if we’re going to be followers who are holding nothing back.

We invite you to listen in to the sermon this week as we discover these steps Paul gives us!

The title of today’s message is Cause and Effect. We all know what that is. If one thing happens, something else is going to result. If you eat Bruster’s Ice Cream every day, you’re going to get huge…enjoyment out of it. If you sign your children up for SonZone, they’re going to have a good time.  If you leave your dog outside during your fireworks, you can get injured. That’s cause and effect and we see it in all sorts of circumstances around us.

Today, we’re going to see the principle of cause and effect lived out in the life of the Apostle Paul and he takes the opportunity to tell the people in the church in 1st century Rome all about it. You can see it too if you’ll open to Romans 11:33-36. 

We invite you to listen in as Pastor Jeff preaches from Romans 11:33-36 as he continues our series Romans: Grace Changes Everything.

Do you ever find yourself saying something like, “That just doesn’t make sense”? I certainly have, because there are some things that don’t make a lot of sense to me. For instance, why is it only acceptable to eat certain foods with certain meals? Why can’t you have orange juice with dinner, or ice cream with breakfast? And why do we eat kale for ANY meal? It doesn’t make sense. Or, why does the dentist stick his/her hands in your mouth and then ask you questions? Or, why some people don’t use their turn signal. Is it too hard to do…that? Or, why does a local pizza shop close on the weekend at 8pm. I didn’t realize people actually ordered pizza before then. It doesn’t make sense.

Or, here’s one…why does it seem like God isn’t very involved in some of the things happening in our world? How are we to make sense of what He’s doing, or NOT doing?

That’s an important question and if you’re asking it, you’re not the first. That’s been on a lot of people’s minds through the years in a number of different realms. We are going to see it in the text we’re looking at today as well. 

We invite you to listen in as Pastor Jeff shares from Romans 11 as we continue our series Romans: Grace Changes Everything.

We have been in a series where we’re taking a look at the book of Romans in the New Testament. This was written to a group of people who were relatively new to the faith and they came out of vastly different religious backgrounds from one another, so Paul is trying to get them on the same page by helping them understand the basics of faith in Jesus. There were a lot of things muddying the waters and he is trying to clear it up.

Paul’s desire is that we would be clear on what the gospel consists of so we can experience its depth and blessing. It’s clear that has always been his driving motivation.

And with that, Paul is going to jump into the basics of salvation in Christ. But before he helps us understand what the basics ARE, he takes a moment to help us understand what the basics ARE NOT.

We invite you to listen in as Pastor Jeff continues our series - Romans: Grace Changes Everything.

Today, we’re going to be looking at some choices. In fact, we’re calling this message, Critical Choices. That means two things, one is that the choices we’re going to look at are critical, in that they are important, and we’re also calling them critical, because there have been people who have been critical of them. The place where we find these critical choices discussed is Romans 9:1-33.

Paul knows that some of his readers had their doubts and skepticism about God and the choices He has made, or not made, and the rationale for them. They are critical choices. So, Paul’s going to give a significant portion of chapter 9 to address those questions that he knows people are asking.

We’re going to approach this chapter by asking those questions ourselves. The truth is that some of us have the exact same questions that Paul’s first readers had. If you’re one who is skeptical or has some questions about why God has acted toward people as He has, this is a great week to be here. We’re going to explore this together as Pastor Jeff continues our series Romans: Grace Changes Everything.