Romans | Week 1 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

We're going to walk through, again, what I believe is the most important theological book that we have in the entire

bible. Anytime you're reading a a book of the bible, you gotta start by asking a few questions to understand the context of it. Now, again, the bible was written for us, yes and amen, but it was not written to us. And so we've gotta ask some questions when we approach the scripture, understanding

that these are all individual letters that have been compiled into one book that we call the bible, but they were individual letters written by people to specific groups. The first question you want to ask is who's the author

of the book that we're reading? We'll read in a second. Romans chapter one verse one starts by saying this was written by Paul. So we know who wrote the book of Romans.

Some of the books in the Bible like Genesis and Exodus, you've got to do a research to figure out who wrote it, but Romans is just as clear. We know it was it was a guy named Paul. Now, again, if you know his story, Paul wasn't always referred to as Paul. He used to be known as Saul of Tarsus.

Because of his pedigree, because of his upbringing, he's the guy that god chose to write the most important book that we have in the Bible, the book of Romans. He was educated by the greatest Jewish scholars available. He was, in his own words, he was a Jew among Jews. He was a part of the the ruling Sanhedrin

that was tasked with stamping out the early movements of Jesus followers because he was convinced just like the majority of the Jewish leaders were that Jesus was actually a heretic. He was not the messiah and that he was actually somebody that needed to be stopped. And so Paul spent most of his life pre meeting Jesus

actually persecuting

the early church. His job was to literally be a terrorist organization against the church. He would prosecute them. He would torture them to the point sometimes he would actually even kill them. But then he has a powerful encounter with God and God transforms him, and he uses his past. He uses his story. He uses his upbringing, his education

to go on to be the most important figure we have in the New Testament outside of Jesus himself.

Most theologians agree that the the gospel or the book of Romans should be referred to as the gospel of Paul. It should be like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the book of Romans gives us his version of the gospel. Now we know who the author is. The second question you wanna ask with any book is who's the audience? Again, this is one of those ones that's kind of easy because the title says Romans. We know that Paul was writing to the church in Rome,

but you gotta understand it wasn't like one church in Rome. It's one of the few churches that Paul writes to that he didn't start himself, but he had a heart for it. It was a collection of churches that were together forming the body of Christ in the city of Rome. Here's why Paul writes the most important letter that we have to the church in Rome. Because Rome at the time was basically like the the anti Las Vegas. And I know you're like holy church people. You've never been to Vegas before. But just for the sake of argument, you you know the the motto of Vegas. Right? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. That's the claim at least. Right? Rome is like the exact opposite.

Paul knew that if he was going to get the message of Jesus to be preached in the East Valley in Desert Ridge High School in 2026,

the message first had to get to the city of Rome. Because from Rome, it would go to the ends of the earth. Paul knew that if it gets to Rome, it gets to the rest of the world. He knew how paramount the city of Rome was and how important the church in that city was. And so he spends the most robust amount of time that he has writing this letter to get to the most influential city. What was happening inside of the church, the third question you wanna ask is what is purpose of the book? Paul was writing to a very divided church. They were just coming back from a season kinda like we had during COVID where there was a governor in place that said the church is not allowed to gather. K? It's illegal for the church to gather, but that guy has left and a new emperor comes in. And after five years of not meeting,

the church is allowed to gather again. But the problem was is a lot of things had changed. And you had these Jews that had that had grown up doing all these Jewish celebrations and festivals and religious rituals that were now going to church with people like you and I, a bunch of knuckleheads called Gentiles.

And together in church, they they could not figure out, k, what Jewish rituals do we have to continue? Because the Gentiles were like, bro, I'm I'm 35 years old. I'm not getting circumcised. I know you think that that like, that's what the Bible says. Like, we're gonna have a conversation about this. And so Paul was addressing

some major tension that was rising up inside of the church. It was an important message addressing some of the most important theological questions of the time that still

that still help us understand how to be a church today. Last question you wanna ask. Fourth question. Anytime you're reading a new book in the Bibles, you wanna ask what is the central message?

What is the thing? K. It's 16 chapters, but Paul has one thing throughout the entire book. He wants us to understand a phrase that he's going to use 17 or 18 times throughout the 16 chapters. It's the gospel. K? The gospel translated literally just means good news.

The central message of the book of Romans, the thing that we've gotta kind of start with, the cornerstone of Christianity is the gospel message. What is the gospel? The gospel message, very simply put, is that you and I are born into this world sinners.

We have this thing in us that we can't solve on our own. It makes us hostile to God. But here's the good news. Here's why we call it good news, is that two thousand years ago, God saw us in our separated state, and he sent his son Jesus to live the life that we couldn't live and to die the death that we should deserve to die because the Bible says that the penalty of our sin is death. And either we have to die or somebody has to die on our behalf, which is what Jesus did on the cross. And then after he died, he came back to life. And today,

there's an offer available to all of humanity that if you will repent of your sins, put your faith in Jesus, you can be made right with God. That is the gospel. That is the cornerstone that Paul is going to say you and I have to stack hands on before we can move on to step two of Christianity.

And, again, I don't know what church tradition or religious group you grew up in, but I'm here this morning to remind us, friends, the gospel is still good news. It is still something that we are excited about because there's hope for humanity because of what Jesus did on the cross. Amen?

So the two verses we're going to start with today, Romans chapter one verse sixteen and seventeen. Again, these two verses sum up the entire book. The 16 chapters are really him expounding on what he summarizes, what he crescendos in verses sixteen

and seventeen. Here's what Paul says in verse sixteen and seventeen. He says, for I am not ashamed of this good news about Christ. It is the gospel is the power of god at work saving everybody who believes, The Jew first, but then also the Gentile.

The good news, the gospel tells us how god makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. Hear me today. Paul's message, his argument is that the way that we are entered into the family of God, the way that we are made right in the family of God, the way that we are sanctified,

it's not by working harder and trying more. It is all an act of faith. It is started by faith. It is finished by faith. He says, as scripture says, it is through faith that a righteous person has life.

Here's Paul's central message to the church in Rome. Here's my message to us this morning. Friends, we've gotta figure out how to get to a place where we can stand up and make the same declaration that Paul just made. I

I am unashamed of the gospel. I'm unashamed of the message of Christ, and I'm going to live my life unashamed

of who Jesus is. Now, again, if you've been in church before, you you've heard this passage. Right? Lecrae made a whole movement on the unashamed. Romans one sixteen. Right? Like, it's it's this thing that is out there, but I think sometimes we don't really truly understand the implications of what Paul was saying. You you gotta remember, Paul is writing to a bunch of Roman citizens

who have built their life on on status, achievement, conquest, citizenship. Like, were people where status meant something, and yet here's a guy who was also a Roman citizen, Paul, who used to be somebody.

He used to be the guy that when he walked into a room, people noticed him. He he lectured in the most prominent universities around the world. He had clout. He had following. He had status. He had he had wealth. He was literally a part of the most elite religious group in the entire world,

and yet here he is after years of following Jesus, and he's he's a nobody. He's freshly out of jail. He's been shipwrecked. He's lost everything. He has no following.

He's been beaten twice, once to the point of death that we we actually think that he died. He's drug out of the city because they think he's dead, and god supernaturally rises him back to life, and the knucklehead goes right back into the city preaching the gospel message.

And that guy has the audacity to look at a bunch of Roman citizens and saying, I know you think.

I know you think that I would be tempted to say that I'm ashamed of where my life has ended up because of following Christ. If I'm here to tell you that I'm unashamed of the gospel, I would do it all over again because he understands

what the gospel is. Here's my hope and my prayer. Here's why I think we need this message in 2026.

So I think you and I are living in a cultural moment where what we wouldn't vocalize that we're ashamed of the gospel. But the truth is is culture has convinced us as followers of Jesus. We just need to kinda kinda keep our opinions to ourselves. Like, we're living in this moment where, like, you can literally talk about anything. You you wanna talk about your sexuality? Awesome. You wanna talk about the fluidity of your gender? You wanna talk about your therapist? You wanna talk about your issues? Awesome. We can talk about anything

as long as you don't talk about faith, as long as you keep Jesus out of the equation. And I'm here this morning to remind us, friends, we are supposed to be people who are unashamed of the gospel.

We are people who are proud of what Jesus has done. Again, the definition of unashamed in the dictionary is that we are just people who are acting openly without guilt or embarrassment.

We are not embarrassed that we are people who've been ransomed and rescued by Jesus. We're not shying away from conversations in the office place. We're not backing away from moments where we can take a stand for Christ because we are unashamed.

Now, again, my goal over the next nine weeks is not to make you unashamed about everything because there are some things that you should feel shame for. K? If you're a Cowboys fan, for example, you should feel a lot of shame for being a Cowboys fan. If you if you go to a football game and that's what you do, like, I rejected it's America's team in Jesus' name. Alright?

If you go home and this is what your house looks like when you've got 37 cats, like, you should feel some shame. Like, do not post that on Instagram. We are going to talk about you behind your back. The reason I can say that is I have a cat. Okay? If I let my wife, that's what our house would look like, and it's not gonna happen. All right? If you go to a gym and you call it a box, right, you're like one of the CrossFit cult members, like, you should feel some shame connected to it. You're not better than us because you do headstand or you do handstand, like sit ups and all the craziness. Right? Obviously, I'm tongue in cheek, and I joke about it. But but we are unashamed about all the wrong things. My hope is is to make us see

through Paul's invitation how to be people who are unashamed about the most important thing in the history of the world, the gospel. Because I truly believe that when you understand what the gospel is and what it does, that it's not something that you will conceal, but it's something that you will celebrate.

If I can convince you today of what the gospel really actually is, the power that it has to save humanity,

then maybe we will become people who don't who don't conceal it, but we actually celebrate it. Five reasons why through the first five verses of the book of Romans, I wanna show you why Paul says we should be unashamed. The first one, if you're taking notes, is I'm unashamed because the gospel is it's from God. Romans chapter one verse one. This is the letter from Paul,

a slave of Christ Jesus.

Just so you know, this is always the tension with preaching these messages. I I wish I had three hours to unpack all of them. You could do an entire sermon on just Paul's introduction throughout the letters that he writes. The first letter he writes to the church in Galatia, he introduces himself as the chief apostle

of Christ Jesus. He starts with like, hey. I'm kind of a big deal, so you should listen to me. By the end of his life, at the end of his following of Jesus, he's writing to the church in Rome,

I'm just a slave of Christ Jesus. You notice what's happening in Paul? It's the same thing that will happen to you and I as you journey with God. The longer I follow god, the more I understand who he is, the greater the chasm grows between his holiness, his goodness, his majesty, and my my brokenness, and my sinfulness.

Paul, at the end of his life, is realizing, man, I I I'm nothing.

The only thing that I brought of worth to god was the sin that necessitated his crucifixion. That's it. I'm not at I'm I'm not at anybody, and Paul is writing to a to a world that is that is built on pedigree and status going, I'm I'm just a slave of Christ Jesus, but here here are his qualifications. I've been chosen by god to be an apostle,

and I've sent out to preach. Here it is. I'm here to preach his good news.

He's not saying that I'm preaching my good news or our good news. What Paul is starting with, as a good lawyer in court would do as he's slowly building the case for Christ, what he's doing is he's starting with a reminder. Guys, the gospel, the message of Jesus and Jesus crucified,

it wasn't the byproduct of a think tank that came up with, you know what would be a really good religion? Let's get Jesus to go and die. Like, no. No. That's not how it started.

This is god's message. This is this was his plan from the beginning of time. And oftentimes, I think we think what happened was god created humanity in the Garden Of Eden, then he looked down and he was like, wait. What are they doing? Alright. Jesus, come on. We gotta get plan b going. And they're like, in heaven, they're like, okay. Here's what we're gonna We're gonna try this sacrificial system. We've gotta get the animal. There's gonna be lambs. There's gonna be an altar, and they're gonna do a blood atonement. It's gonna be awesome. And God's up there with Jesus. He's like, bro, you better hope this thing works because if the sacrificial system doesn't work, you're gonna have to take one for the team, bro. And then they're like, oh, dang it. The sacrificial system didn't work. Right? So Jesus, you gotta like, that's not what happened. Paul is reminding us from the very beginning,

Jesus dying for our sins was always God's plan a. He never had to pivot. He never deviated from the plan. This is a reminder to all of us sitting here today. The gospel, the reason we're unashamed about is because the gospel wasn't invented by men. It was initiated by god. It was his plan. It was his design. It's not ours. It's his. He goes further in verse two and says that god promised the good news long ago through the prophets in the holy scriptures.

God promised this long ago before sin ever entered the picture. Peter actually says in first Peter chapter one verse 20 that god chose him, Jesus, as your ransom long before the world began.

But now in these last days, he's been revealed for your sake. Peter reminds us that Jesus was plan a before there was ever even a human. So this idea that god doesn't know what's happening is a complete lie. There has never been a moment in time where god is sitting there going like, wait, Who got elected? Oh my what are we gonna do now? Right? Like, what what is happening? God hit the panic button. Like, things are falling apart down on earth. Like, that is not what's happening. God is in control. I'm here this morning to tell you God is never reacting.

He's never up in heaven trying to figure out what to do. He's not he's not improvising. He's not surprised. And here's why this matters to us sitting here today is if this is true and if this was God's plan from the very beginning, it means that he's always been in control.

And that maybe he's still a God that you can trust with your life. And that the sovereign plan of God, the sovereign will of God is still something that is good for you and I. Friends, the first reason that Paul tells us that we can be unashamed is because this isn't this isn't our idea. This was god's idea. Notice what he's doing. He's invoking the name above all names. He's invoking god's name. He will use god a 144

times over 16 chapters, and notice what he's doing. He's doing the exact same thing that your mom would do when you were a kid and you wouldn't listen. She's like, I'm gonna call your dad if you don't start listening. You're like, don't call dad. Right? I don't want him to call dad. And if you stop listening, she would then call dad. Your dad's like, am I gonna have to come home? And wish I had called his bluff and been like, yeah, bro. Come home. What are you gonna do? You know? Like, he wasn't gonna come home, but you were the kid. You're like, alright, man. I'll I'll stop. I'll listen to mom. Like, I'm gonna talk about I'm more gonna talk about this when I get home. What was your mom doing? She was invoking a name that had authority and power in your life. Paul's doing the same thing. Guys, this isn't my idea. The reason that he can sit at the end of his life saying it was all worth it was because it was never his plan to start with. This was god's plan. The gospel is his plan. The second reason that we can be unashamed

is because the gospel

is about Jesus. The second reason we are unashamed is because the gospel isn't about us to begin with. It's about Jesus. He continues in verse three, and he says, the good news is about his son. In his earthly life, he was born into king David's family line. Verse four, he was shown to be the son of god when he was raised from the dead by the power of the holy spirit. He is Jesus Christ,

our lord. He emphatically reminds every Jew reading this letter, he's the one we've been waiting for. He's the savior of the world. It's all about him. And I know this is a message that doesn't sit well with us as westernized Americans who've been told that everything revolves around us, but I'm here this morning to remind us, friends, you're not the hero of the story. You are not the central theme of the world. It's about Jesus.

He is the linchpin of everything that takes place in this world. Paul is reminding them we can be unashamed because it's all about Jesus, and he gives us two facts, two details of why as he continues to build his case to all the readers of this letter of why he believes Jesus is the savior of the world. The first one is that he says he's the right person naturally.

He he was born into the right family. He was born in the line of David. Right? And every Old Testament prophet talked about a messiah that would come one day, and one of the qualifications,

one of the fulfilled prophecies that Jesus fulfilled is that he was born into the right family. He's a direct descendant on his dad's side of king David. So he's he's reminding the Jews he fulfilled the obligations that we know in the Old Testament naturally,

but that's not enough because lots of people have come and been born of David's line, yet they they are not the savior of the world. What did Jesus do that proves that he is who he says that he is? He's the only person in human history that has come back to life after death.

And even more so, he actually predicted that he was going to go to the cross, die, and three days later, he would come back to life. He says the reason the reason we follow Jesus is not just the right person naturally. He's also the right person supernaturally.

Here's what I'm trying to convince you of this morning, friends. The proof that we build our lives on the proof that we build our lives on, it is the resurrection. It is the linchpin of this entire thing. If it happened, which I would submit to you, it did, it changes everything. We have over 500 people who claim to have encountered Jesus post resurrection.

The guy writing this letter who's saying that he's unashamed of the gospel is only doing it because he had an encounter with the resurrected Jesus, the guy who was dead and was now standing in front of him saying, it's me. The guy that you are persecuting,

it's me. So he's like, my bad, bro. I'll stop. And then gives his life to Jesus, and for the rest of his life spends every ounce of energy that he has worshiping him and telling everybody who will listen, Jesus is not dead. He's alive. All 500 of those people went to their deathbed claiming

not that Jesus had good principles, not that he was a good miracle worker, not that it was amazing to watch him walk on water, though all of those things happened. All of them claimed that he came back to life. And, friends, I'm telling you, I would listen to you if you predicted your own death, burial, and resurrection, and you did it as well. But because you didn't, we're gonna listen to Jesus instead.

Paul says, this is how you can hang your hat on Jesus. He conquered death. Friends, the resurrection is still something that we get pretty excited about as the church because if it's real,

it changes everything. Here's the third reason that he's gonna say here in verse five. He says, through Christ, God has given us the privilege and the authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory

to his name. He starts to talk about the progression of what submitting to the gospel begins to look like. How do you receive the gospel? He says you've gotta you've gotta believe him, and then notice what it leads to. It it leads to you obeying him. Here's the third reason why you and I are unashamed of the gospel. I'm unashamed because the gospel produces

obedience.

I don't know how you argue this point. See, this is the this is the part that's hard for skeptics to get around, that I know people, me, myself, being one of them, who used to live one way, and then after encountering Jesus, I started to change and I started to be different. I started to have obedience be the byproduct of my life. And here's what's crazy. Nobody at any point as I walk out of church service was like, hey, bro. Here's the manual. K? Here's the things you gotta start doing as a follower of Jesus. Here's the things we don't do anymore. K? You gotta stop doing this. You gotta start like, that never happened. But what took place was god's spirit began to take residency in my heart. And all the things that used to be fun and exciting and thrilling to me were all now like, I don't know. I don't wanna do those things anymore.

And I didn't know where else to go after giving my life to Jesus at 19 years old as a knucklehead, so I just kept going back to the same parties I was going to before I met Jesus.

But all of a sudden, the drinking, the drugs, the girls, the jokes, they just weren't funny anymore. And true story, the only reason I stopped going was because my friends were like, hey, bro. Can you do something else tonight? Because you're not that fun to hang out with. And you're I know. Like, I I don't know what's happening. I just don't I don't desire the things that I used to desire. And this is the thing with skeptics is you can't argue

that Jesus when he gets a hold of people's hearts, when he gets a hold of people's marriage, obedience begins to follow not out of obligation but out of willingness. The spirit of God begins to change you from the inside out. Paul says in verse five, so that when they believe, they will obey him and eventually bring glory

to his name. This is what's freeing for me as a pastor, is I'm not in the the behavior modification business. I don't have to sit up here and tell you, hey. You gotta start doing this, and you gotta stop doing this because it's not my job to change your behavior,

but it is my job to preach about the one that can save your soul. And here's the beautiful invitation that Paul says is what will begin to happen to you when you give your life not to a dead religion, but to true transformation of the gospel

is you will begin to not have to obey Jesus. You will actually you'll want to. And God won't just change your desire. God won't just change what you're doing. He'll actually change your desires, and you will begin to become a new person. That's what the process of being born again looks like. And now, again, this is what begs the question. For a lot of us that have just grown up in church, for a lot of us who've been around the things of Christianity, we've reduced following Jesus to just a bunch of rules.

And you gotta hear me. You you can't follow enough rules to be made right with God apart from repenting of your sins and accepting Jesus into your heart. You have to, at some point, accept the free gift of salvation for you. But the Bible is clear.

Eventually, what will happen is you will know that you have genuine faith because that genuine faith will be marked by a desire to please God.

Eventually, you should be able to look back on your life and go, okay. We again, it's not like you become perfect in one moment, but you start to see, like, there there there's a progression towards holiness.

I I see my relationship with sin differently. The sin that used to not bother me, now it bothers me. And I wanna wage war with it. And if you're sitting here today and you still are apathetic towards your sin, I'm here to gently remind you, friends, that that is not the fruit of the true

gospel. That's the fruit of just dead religion that can't save you. The reason that so many of us walk in the doors of church and we're just apathetic is because we've never actually met the resurrected Christ. We've never had the power of the resurrection take residency inside of our hearts and our souls that should be marked by a desire to please god. But, again, what Paul is saying is that right living doesn't save you. K? Don't hear me.

You you can't live rightly enough to escape the judgment of god. The judgment of god is coming for all of us. But but here is what he's saying is that right living is the evidence that Christ has saved you. The question that I get asked probably more than anything else is, Daniel, how do I how do I know that I'm saved?

And I always ask the same question. Well, when can you think back to when can you look back in your life and see a moment where things began to change for you? Again, not that we become perfect and we never make mistakes again,

but you start to see the progression that the person that you used to be is changing. The desires aren't there anymore. All of a sudden, you you you start to feel differently towards your sin. That's how you know

that the heart transplant that was prophesied about in the book of Ezekiel is taking place in you, where the heart of stone you used to have has been replaced with the heart of flesh, and you are now in the process of being born again. Nobody will give you a rule book, but all of a sudden, you'll start to feel you will start to feel the conviction of the holy spirit. My encouragement to you today is to remember, the reason that being unashamed matters is as you start to feel the conviction of the holy spirit, don't feel like you gotta shy away from it and and shy back into a corner. And culture will tell you, well, like, that's that's your thing. Keep those things to yourself, and just, like, apologize to everybody around you if you're gonna stand for Christ and you're not gonna do what everybody else around you is doing. No, friends. I'm here to remember to remind us that Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, in the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see.

Why? Because they're gonna praise your heavenly father when they see it. What Jesus is saying is that the world is dying to see the true transformative power of the gospel alive in action in people's lives. And if we just keep shying away from it,

making excuses for it, how will the people in our lives ever see that we're being changed by it and see who our god is through it? Here's my point. I think that in 2026, we've gotten to a point that that what the Bible describes as, like, basic one zero one type Christianity for us looks like radical Christianity.

And we look at people that are willing to talk about Jesus, who are willing to trust God with their money, who who are willing to actually live out the things of the scriptures, and we're like, that's that's so crazy.

When I'm like, no. No. No. That that's like padawan level following Jesus. Like, we're not even with the Jedi stuff yet. Like, that's just one zero one. But we've we've been in a culture for so long where Christianity is so, like, culturally accepted and it's so lukewarm

that when somebody actually takes a stand for Jesus, we're like, wow. That person is radically following Jesus. And I'm like, because they asked to pray for you? You know? Like, that's just that's who we are. And here's why, again, I think this matters because we are in a really interesting cultural moment.

We are in a moment where I think the followers of Jesus are needed more than ever. Again, I put it in your notes. I think the people who don't look like the world are gonna be the people who change the world.

The world around you is actually asking the question, whether they verbalize it or not, Is this Jesus thing real enough to actually change me? Because it doesn't look like it's changing you.

Your life looks very similar to mine. You talk like I talk. You do what I do. But I know on Sundays, an hour, you go to a different building than I do. I'm just here this morning to gently nudge us. Friends, we don't have to be ashamed of the gospel because it will be the thing that produces obedience

out of us. Here's the fourth reason why we're unashamed. I'm unashamed because the gospel

is for everyone. This is what's so beautiful about Christianity. It's the only world religion that says, wide is the door. Anybody can come through. Paul said in verse five again, I'm gonna tell the Gentiles everywhere

what God has done for them. He'll say later in the chapter, I've got a burden for the educated and the uneducated. Here's what's amazing about Christianity.

It's the only world religion that isn't behind a velvet door. It's an open door saying anybody can walk through. Paul will eventually get to Romans chapter 10 verse 13, and he says that everyone

who calls on the name of the lord will be saved. Friends, why are we unashamed of the gospel? Because if you're white, you can come to Jesus. If you're black, you can come to Jesus. If you're in the middle and you're kinda brown, you can come to Jesus. If you're a republican, you can come to Jesus. If you're a democrat, you can come to Jesus. If you're independent, if you're tall, if you're short, if you're large, if you're small, if you're educated, if you're uneducated,

you can come to Jesus. Friends, anybody who calls on the name of the lord will be saved. And I am unapologetic about the gospel because it is for everyone. It is the hope of humanity. And I know you would be tempted this morning to go, yeah, but you just don't know about all the things that I've done.

You don't know how bad my life really is. You don't know how broken my marriage really is. And here's what's amazing to me. The posture that the scriptures paint of god towards you and I, even in our sinful state,

is that even though god knows the worst of you, friends, he thinks the best of you, and god loves you. And the picture we have of god in the scriptures is that he's like a a father who's longing,

who's searching every day for his wayward children to come home, and all he needs from you is to turn the corner. He doesn't need you to get all the way to him, And the bible says that he will come sprinting after you because it's only when you begin to understand who you are in Christ that this life begins to make sense because he's the god that made you. He knows you better than you know yourself. The bible says he knows every hair on your head. While you're in your mother's womb, he knit you together. And it is only when we return back to him that this life begins to make sense. Last point, last reason I'll get us out of here. I'm unashamed because the gospel,

it is powerful.

This is what Paul said. First verse that we read in verse 16. He says, for I am not ashamed of this good news about Christ. It is the gospel is the power of god at work saving everyone who believes. If you got a bible, highlight, underline, circle those two words, power and saving.

It is the power of god at work saving everyone who believes, the Jew first and also the Gentile. Paul says that the gospel is the power of god. He uses a work in the Greek that is the word dunamis,

which is where we get a word dynamite from. What what Paul says is that the gospel message, the salvation that's available through Jesus, it's powerful. It's stronger than any addiction.

It's stronger than any brokenness in a marriage. It's stronger than any that any feeling of self harm that you might have. It's stronger than any depression that you have felt. The gospel message is powerful enough to break through anything.

He says, it is the thing that will save you. And that word salvation in the Greek is the word soteria. We get the theological idea called soteriology, which is how we understand people are saved, whole can of worms for another day. But soteria is this word that is so much more all encompassing

than what we think salvation is. See, we've been told that salvation is the get out of jail free card. It's how I get my sins paid for. And does it include that? Yes and amen. But that that's like the the barrier to entrance. Soteria is this Greek idea of holistic internal transformation,

that the power of God when you interact with it, when you actually encounter the power of the gospel,

it will holistically transform you from the inside out. It can change you. It can restore you. It can fix any brokenness that you feel. It can take a marriage on the brink of failure. It can revive it back to life. And I'm here today as somebody whose life is a byproduct of having encountered the power of salvation through Jesus.

Twenty years into this thing, man, fifteen years of full time ministry, I'm still blown away that through services like this,

the bible says that the spirit of God through the preaching of God's word, salvation is brought to men, is brought to women. Salvation is brought into the homes of people. And it's still mind blowing to me that things happen like a couple weeks ago happened where I'm sitting in the gym, and this guy walks up to me literally in tears.

And he's like, man, I just gotta I just gotta talk to you for a second. I'm like, okay. It's fine. I'll turn off the treadmill for a second. We'll talk. It's cool. It's totally fine. Right? And this guy just in tears

starts to tell me about how he got invited by a friend. He's like, I was the guy that nobody would invite to church. And I get invited to church. I didn't really wanna go, but my marriage was on the brink of failure. And I walked in the door, and it felt like the god of the universe speaking directly to me the whole time. He said, I surrender my life to Jesus. I brought my wife the next week. He's like, we're only a few weeks into this thing, and our marriage feels like there's there's hope again. And this marriage that was on the brink of failure now has life back in it, and he was articulating

what Paul is saying here, friends. The reason we're unashamed about this is because the gospel is the only thing that has the power to change the hardest and the darkest and the furthest human heart from God. It is the power that can save. So the question is is why are we so ashamed of it?

Why do we shy away from conversations around it? If you had the cure to cancer, you literally had a vial that you knew this thing saves everybody from cancer,

I'm telling you, you would not sheepishly walk into a hospital going, well, hey. I got this thing that, like, it works for me. And I don't know. You could think about it. You could pray about it. See if it works for you. Like like, you would be kicking doors down being like, bro, I'm about to dump this thing on your head so you can be cured of cancer. Why? Because you got the solution.

And yet most of us in this room, lots of us in this room would say that the gospel, the invitation, the salvation available through Jesus is the thing that transformed us the most, that changed us, that revived us, that brought us back from death,

and yet still we would be tempted today in cultural moment to be shy about it, to be embarrassed by it. Again, my hope and my prayer over the next nine weeks is teachers, how can we be people who are unashamed

of the gospel? But there are some of you who are here today, and I'm telling you, I think that God brought you here to hear this message. And I don't know what it is exactly that you are walking through that you are desperate for the power of God to move in. Again, don't know if it's a marriage that's about to fail. I don't know if it's it's suicidal ideation.

I don't know if it's an addiction that's been there for years and years and years, and you don't know how to get out of it. I don't know what it is, but what I do know is the solution and the antidote is the same. The gospel,

it is the power to save human souls. The bible says that what we have to do at some point is we've gotta respond to it. We have to actually accept the free gift that is available. It's one thing to hear about it. It's a whole another thing for it to go from an idea to a concept that begins to live inside of a heart. The bible says you gotta confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is lord. And when you do that, you will be saved, and the spirit of god will take residency inside of your heart. You'll begin to go through the process of being changed from the inside out. And so I believe some of you are here today to have that moment with God. So I'm gonna ask everybody in this room if you would close your eyes and bow your heads. I wanna create a private moment between you and the God that made you.

This is an atmosphere just between you and God that genuinely, I believe, was architected from the beginning of time.

Before you ever stepped into the earth, God knew that this moment was going to be there. This day would happen where your name is going to be written in what's called the lamb's book of life. You're gonna move from death to life, from darkness to light, not by achieving, not by working,

not by solving all of your issues, but by faith reaching out to God and accepting the free gift of the gospel. If that's you today and you wanna respond not to some dead religion that can't change, but you wanna respond to the powerful dynamic gospel,

I wanna give you an opportunity to do that. On the count of three, I'm gonna ask you if that's you, right where you are, just so I know who I'm praying with. Throw your hand in the air just so I can see everybody I'm praying with. One, if that's you, man, don't be talked out of it. Two, this is your moment. Three, right where you are, hands going up all over this room. No shame. Hands going up all over this place. It's been happening all morning. Reach out. Put your elbows up to your ears going, father, we are reaching to you right now, unashamed

of needing your help and needing your salvation.

Jesus, by faith, we are reaching out to you right now. I thank you for every single one of you responding to the gospel message this morning. You can put your hands down. If that was you, I wanna invite you to pray a prayer like this with me in the quietness of your heart. Again, it's about the posture of your heart more than it is the words that you say, but just say, Jesus,

by faith, I accept the free gift of salvation that you have on offer for me. By faith right now, I acknowledge you as my savior and as my king. I believe that you are who you say that you are. I believe that you are the god of the universe. And so right now, with all the faith that I have, I'm giving you my past,

my present, and my future.

Would you come into my heart, become my lord, my savior, and my king? In Jesus' name, all God's people said, amen. Stay with me for just a second. I know we're gonna cheer. We're gonna erupt in just a second. Stay with me and posture a prayer. There's another group of you that I wanna kinda gently nudge. K? I think there's a lot of us sitting in this room that if I were to ask the question, hey, are you ashamed of the gospel? Of course, we would all say no. But Barna just released this massive study over they studied a bunch of Christians around the nation. 75%

of them said that they have not had a consequential conversation of faith in the last two years. They couldn't remember the last time they talked about their faith with somebody that wasn't already in their faith community. And that just tells me that maybe maybe we've allowed culture to relegate us to being Christians

behind closed doors. And here's my ask, here's my challenge, here's my nudge to us as followers of Jesus, that we would ask the spirit of God to again, just like we sang this morning, would you holy spirit again transform me fresh anointing, fresh fresh pouring out of your spirit so that I can learn how to be unashamed

and to take this gospel message that is the hope of humanity and bring it into my sphere of influence. Amen? Let me pray for you. Father, I'm asking. I'm asking by faith, God, that you would raise up boldness in the church again.

God, I know you're not asking us to become the weird people standing on the corner screaming at everybody, but God, there's a way that we can be bold with our faith,

understanding that we are the light of the world. And if we take our light and put a bolt over it, there's nothing but darkness around. And Father, you have left us in this earth to transform it and to impact it. So, God, if there's nobody else that's willing to go, would you send us? How would you use us?

Would you use our influence? Would you use our impact? Would you use our income? God, would you use what we have because we know that we are living in the last days, and Jesus, you are coming back soon. So help us, father, live for you in the time that we have left. In Jesus' name, all God's people said. Amen and amen.