I Am Not Ashamed | ROMANS: Part 1 | Pastor Alex Himaya

take back, the questions we don't know how to ask, the feeling that we should be doing better by now. So we try harder, we hold on tighter, but through Jesus, God invites us to come close. His grace is a gift, and today we come with openings. So today we pray, Father, help us trust you with what we're carrying. As we open your word, give us the courage to be honest and the faith to respond. Let your grace shape our hearts, our relationships, and the way we live when we leave this room. We're here, we're listening, speak, Lord. Well good morning church, so good to be with you today. Would you just put your hands open like this, and would you just make personal the prayer that we just watched on that video? Would you just say, Lord, would you please speak to me? And would you take a moment and pray for the person on your right, God, would you please speak to them and the person on your left, the person in front of you, the person behind you, would you just pray, Holy Spirit, speak in this room, across this room, to all the people. In Jesus' name we pray, and together we all say amen. Just before we jump into this series in Romans, and if you've got your Bible open into Romans, but I want to make a couple of things known to you, one, is there is a program we've been participating in as a church with teenagers for years and years and years and years, called Student Leadership University. It's a one-on-one, two-on-one, three-on-one, four-on-one program, and it gives kids a 20-year head start in dreaming, in thinking, in visioneering, and I told my kids when they were kids, all of us are same. All of us are the same, except for the people we know, the places we go, and the books we read. And so we are going to know people, we are going to go places, and we're going to read books. And so I helped my children in that and sent them all through all four years of SLU. In fact, this last summer, we graduated 400 teenagers through the 401 process in the Middle

East, which is amazing. Come on, somebody, that's amazing, isn't it? And so 101 has always been in Orlando. It's like $800 to register for it, plus the plane ticket, hotels, all of that. And SOU has agreed to come and do 101 at Battle Creek Church on October the 16th and 17th. So it's just a few weeks from now, a Friday night, and most of the day on Saturday, to take these kids through this. They do Franklin Covey and how to plan your life. They do -- Apologist comes in and does a Christian worldview. It's amazing. And so I just want to encourage you, eight through 12th grade, if your kids are going to be in town, that fall break, sign them up for the SOU 101. And in fact, this morning, early, I was here making sure the TV was the way I wanted it, said, or like we do every Sunday morning, early, early. And a dream team couple approached me and said, "Hey, Pastor, can we just sit down with you for a second?" And we sat down and visited, and they told me that five years ago, their 12-year-old daughter wanted to go to camp. And they did not have the funds to send her to camp. And the church took care of that. And they just said, "Here we are five years later. Our lives changed. God has blessed us. And we want to help other kids go to camp and handed me a check to scholarship kids." So here's what I want to say to you, if you have a kid and you want them to go and they can't afford to go, talk to the team and we'll get your kid in to SOU. Okay. And so sign your kid up. Second thing tonight, 5.30 Hispanic Worship and Prayer Service Interest Meeting here at the Broken Arrow campus, we're excited to see what the Lord is going to do with that.

Now let me ask you this question. Anybody in here still write letters, anybody like with your hand? I'm talking about like you write out letters, okay some of you do. Anybody like to receive a letter or hand written note from other people? What I mean is snail mail, right? I get in the day of AI craze and digital world that we live in. There seems to be, and I'm encouraged by it actually, a return to the analog. It may be in small pockets, but it seems to be coming where something tangible that you can touch and put your hands on. As a pastor, as you can imagine, I get a lot of correspondence and anytime somebody sends me an encouraging note, the very first sentence, every time, is, "Hey, I'm sure you get 50 of these a day." And it must be that premise that causes people from sending them because I've gotten 50 in about 23 years total and so feel free to send a letter of encouragement. But what we do when we receive a letter, maybe it's not you, maybe it's just me, maybe this is confession, okay? And I receive a letter, particularly if it's multiple... I flip to the bat to see who wrote it, because who wrote it is going to determine the intention and intentionality I give to reading the letter. Now maybe that's confession, maybe you don't do that, but I do that. And if it's unsigned, I'm not reading it, because I'm confident it's not from a secret admirer, right? I'm confident, and so if no, but if you don't have the curse to sign it, I'm not going to read it, but there are names that can appear at the end of a letter that not only ensure I'm going to read it, but I'm going to study it, because I care about the person who wrote that to me, right? If Meredith writes me a note or a letter, I read it. In fact, I save them, and I keep them, and sometimes read them again. In fact, when we were dating, in fact, this was the year we were engaged. We were separated miles apart in two different cities.

I was in Fort Worth, Texas, starting seminary. She was an Arkansas Finishing College, and she bought this little red leather journal, and every day for a year, she wrote me a note or a prayer for me for a year, and then the next year, Valentine's, she had it since St. Valentine's Day in 1994 and gave it to me. And of course, I read all of them multiple times, right? And I decided I was going to do something romantic, and in the back half, I was going to write her a note every day for the next year. And so I put 1995, Valentine's Day, under it, but I was not nearly as diligent as she was. Journaling is a stretch for me, quite honestly, but I did it, and about once a quarter, I would go to it and put a bunch of days in. And I forgot, on some days, that I'd done an entry about a certain day, and then a quarter later, I'd pick it back up, and I would start with that day. And so verbatim, word for word, almost two pages side by side about the very same day. So it was clear, I didn't do it daily, but I did write her letters. And in the ancient days, in the days of Paul, when they would write a letter, what they did was incredibly convenient because they opened the letter with who sent it. And told you right out of the chute, this is from Paul, right? And Paul in Romans begins with his name, his resume, and his reason for writing, and in Romans, which, by the way, is the height of New Testament theology. It is an important, important, important, well-written and well-crafted book. In the very first verse, this is all about who sent it. Let's read it together as we start this series, and by the way, we'll be here for eight weeks in this series. This letter is from Paul, a slave, say slave, a slave of Christ Jesus chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach His good news. I want you to circle that word, slave, and maybe you've heard this Greek word before. It's the Greek word, do-loss, and do-loss is translated as bond-servant. Slave is a very literal translation, but what it's referring to in the ancient day is a do-loss or a bond-servant, somebody who willingly bound themselves to something else. A bond-servant, and that day, by the way, could remove themselves from their situation, and

could leave the house of the master or the provider, and in some moments, when they were allowed to leave, they chose to stay, because their provider, their master, was gracious and kind and good to them, and so they would stay. A little interesting tidbit, Exodus 21 and Deuteronomy 15 in the Old Testament. Most of those passages tell stories where bond-servants had earned their way out from under the cover, and they chose to stay, and there was a ritual that was given in the Old Testament if you wanted to stay. It was weird, actually, but it's very specific in its writing, and here's what it says. If you as a bond-servant have the right to leave but choose to stay, you are to pierce your ear with an awl into wood. Very specific writing. Choose your ear with an awl into wood. Now I want you to think about that imagery as Jesus is on the cross, his body being pierced into the wood, him making himself a bond-servant to the very plan of the Father for you and for me. Now we get to Paul's job. He's called to be an apostle and sent to preach the gospel or the good news. That Greek word is euangulon. You've heard that word. Where we get the English word evangelism or evangelist. And the gospel, listen, it's not just the story of Jesus' life in ministry. The gospel is the reality of what his sacrifice means to our lives as believers as we put all of our trust in and on him. Now skip down from verse one to the recipient part of the letter in verse seven, and let's see who he's writing to. called to be his own holy people. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Now at the time that he's writing this letter, Paul had never been to Rome. We know he made it there, okay? I've stood in that maritime prison where he was held in Rome next to the water. We know he makes it there, but he has not been there at this point. And for those of you who are curious, around 55 A.D. is when he's writing this book. He's writing it from a town called

Corinth, but I want you to notice as he writes this letter, he's heard about the believers in Rome. He's heard about them. And he refers to them. Look what he says. He says, "You are called and you are holy people called and holy people." These are phrases that describe the New Testament church. And even though I haven't met you all, he's saying, I know you are believers and I have heard about your faith. And you'll notice throughout the series, he calls 20-something people by name, even though he's never met them, he's heard of their faith. Okay? So now we know who's writing, who he's writing to. Let's go back and read the verses sandwiched between those two sections, verse two. God promised this gospel or this good news long ago. It's not new. He promised it through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. The good news is about his son in his earthly life was born into the family line of King David. Now Paul gives us some heavy facts about the gospel. It's promised, say promise. It's promised by who? By the prophets, meaning what? In the Old Testament, it's not a new story, right? Everything in the Old Testament is pointing to the New Testament. By the prophets throughout the Holy Scriptures, again the New Testament is not new. He's continuing the very same story. All of this, by the way, is pointing to who? To God's Son, the Son of God who is in the King David's family line. And so here's what he's trying to point out here. It's God's Son. He's fully God and it's man. He's fully man. This is incredibly important to your theology to understand that Jesus Christ was always fully God and fully man. And I know I've shared with you before. I kind of imagine stories that aren't in the Bible and I don't ever preach it as the Word of God, but sometimes I share it with you just to fill your imagination. Like my imagination is. In order to enjoy it, I have to kind of imagine conversations that are happening that aren't recorded in the Word. And so I do that all the time. You remember the story where Jesus was 12 and his parents took him to the temple for the festival and they forgot it. Any parents ever forget your kid somewhere? Raise your hand and confess right now. Let's just practice confessing. If you did not raise your hand, you're not a parent or you are a helicopter parent. It's good for your children to lose them periodically. It happened to Jesus and we're still talking about him today. Your kids will be okay. And so Jesus was for God. It's a multiple day journey to get back to get him. And when they arrive, remember they find him in the temple sitting and I don't know why, but I imagine them drinking tea out of a glass with mint crushed in it and they're just discussing the scriptures. And this 12 year old boy is confounding the wisdom of these religious teachers. Why? He's explaining to them the Word of God. They didn't know it in

that day. We know it. He wrote it. So of course he understands it and it's all about him. So he's explaining it to them, blowing their minds. And I imagine some of the conversations the Bible hasn't recorded. Like I'm certain one of those bald guys looked at Jesus and said, "Hey boy, what is your name?" To which he said, "Well, that's complicated." What do you mean that's complicated? Well, on my mama's side, my name is Yeshua, which Jesus, which means I've come to save, God saves. But on my daddy's side, my name is Emmanuel, which means God with you. Can't you just see them scratching their heads? Well, where are you from, boy? Well, on my mama's side, I'm from Bethlehem, Bait, La Ham, which means the house of bread. And I am the living bread. You're going to want to eat of me. On my daddy's side, it's not where I'm from. It's what's from me because everything that is is from to and by and for me. Well, on my mama's side, I'm 12 years old. But on my daddy's side, I'm age to age to age to age to age. Where are you going and where are you headed? Well, on my mama's side, I'm headed to a cross where I would die for your sins. But on my daddy's side, I'm going to sit next to his throne forever and ever and ever. He is the God-man, fully God and fully man. And Paul is declaring right out of the chute, "This is important for you to know and understand." Now watch this in verse 4. He says, "And he was shown to be the Son of God when, when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, he is Jesus Christ, our Lord." And through Christ, God has given us, say us. Look at your neighbor and say, "You us," right? This is to us, not just them in that day, but us. To us, he has given the privilege and authority as apostles, not the very same word as apostle earlier, but we are sent out ones to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them. Why? So that they will believe and obey him and bring glory to his name. Verse 6, "And you are included among those Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ."

Now, let's talk about this word for a minute, because it's all over the book of Romans and it's important in the book of Romans. Many times he says the Jews first, the Gentiles, we're going to get into this in the coming weeks. It is a Gentile, a Gentile simply is a non-Jewish person. Somebody who does not have Jewish heritage or Jewish blood running through their veins, which by the way is a big group, most of us, right? Most of us do not have Jewish blood and Paul is talking clearly to the church and he's talking about the Jews and the Gentiles in the church. It's important. Why isn't it so important because in Rome, the church was established by Jewish converts, by Jewish believers. Most scholars believe these Jews traveled from Rome to Jerusalem for the Passover and at Pentecost, met the Holy Spirit and were converted, were saved, and then went back home to Rome and started a church. And the church began to grow and Gentile believers are being added to the church and about five years earlier to when this is being written, the emperor of Rome, this is before Nero, it's Claudius. Claudius signed an edict that most Christian Jews must leave Rome. So a church which in other places would be mostly Jewish in Rome, it's mostly Gentile and that makes Paul's writing very, very unique in this letter. Why? Paul is Jewish. He's not a Gentile. And he calls himself the apostle to the Gentiles. In other words, he recognized something in his life. And by the way, one of the most spiritual things you can do is study your life. What is God blessed? When you touch it, God blesses it. That's the thing you're called to.

That's the thing you're anointed for, right? And so Paul is looking and studying his own life. He is sharing the gospel with people who've never heard of God before and they're becoming Christian. And he's realizing the hand of God on his life that God was using him for just that. Now look at verse 13, "I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I plan many times to visit you but was prevented until now." He's blaming it on God, that he can't get there yet, right? "I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit just as I've seen among the other Gentiles." And what Paul is saying here is, "Hey, you guys, the church in Rome, I know you want me, the apostle, called by God, to come visit you." And all the churches wanted the apostle Paul to come visit you. And when you read the book of Acts, Peter says that Paul had already written some letters that are already considered Scripture. So they know he's from God. And so they want the one from God to come visit them. And he's saying, "Hey, your priority of me visiting you is clearly not God's priority." And I'm going to follow God's priority. And what God clearly wants me to do is to take the gospel to people who've never heard it before. And the application for a New Testament church is, we must always prioritize the reaching of unreached people because that is a priority in the heart and in the mind of God. And I found a church that takes his hands off the steering wheel, that car will be out of alignment and turn and go right back towards self-centered and self-serving if you don't And maybe you've come here from another church and you're like, I feel like this place is different. I'm gonna tell you, one of the things that makes this place different is we have set from day one a very high priority on reaching people who have not yet been reached.

In fact, three times a year we specifically do it. It happens almost every week, but three times a year we do what we call gospel Sunday. We do it on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. We do it on the last Sunday in August right after school starts and we do it on the last Sunday of October around Halloween weekend. And so three times a year we do this gospel Sunday where we ask you to invest in people's lives so that you can invite them to come to church that day. And we will from children all the way to adults share the gospel for people who maybe have never heard the gospel and every time people respond. Last Sunday, I mean last August, six weeks ago, whatever it was 149 men and women and boys and girls gave their life to Jesus Christ. And so the next one is three weeks from today on October the 25th, I'm imploring you, commissioning you, sending you out to go invest in people's lives and invite them to come with you on October the 25th. And by the way, this takes us all the way up to verse 16. Let's jump in there. For I am not saying, this is the height of this book, maybe the thesis of the whole book, this verse. Maybe you memorized it. I am not ashamed of the good news or the gospel about Christ. Why? Because it is the power of God at work saving everyone who believes.

The gospel is the power of God. That Greek word, this translated power is the Greek word, dunamis. Which is where we get our English word later out of this Greek word, dynamite. Meaning that the gospel has explosive power. I love what Dwight L. Moody says about the gospel. He says the gospel is a lion. All we have to do is open the door of the cage and step back and let it do its work. And Paul is saying, don't be intimidated and don't be ashamed, just share Jesus. But the gospel does something else. Watch this in verse 17. The gospel, which is the power of God, in it the righteousness of God is revealed. It's a big deal. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the scripture say, it is through faith that the righteous person has life. That the gospel is the power of God and it reveals the righteousness of God. It reveals how righteous God is or how holy God is. But listen, it shows us that we can be righteous. Not be like we're gonna work for it and we're gonna do it. Like become righteous in his sight when we accept the free gift of salvation. What happens when we're saved? We've talked about it hundreds of times.

When we are saved and give our lives to Jesus Christ he justifies us, justification. Meaning he makes us just as if we have never sinned. And then by his grace he sanctifies us. Sanctification is happening our whole life from salvation to death. Meaning what? He is making us righteous. That's the gospel and that's the good news. But what makes good news good is that it is overcoming something. It's overcoming the bad news. And Paul headlines this letter with good news but the next several chapters he gives us some really, really bad news to explain to us why we even need the gospel to begin with because if there's no problem we're not looking for a solution, right? The reason Paul is gonna give the bad news is people need the bad news before they're willing to accept the good news, right? The people need to know they have a problem before they want your help to fix it. They need to know they're sick before they're interested in a cure. Now the gospel is the power of God and in it is revealed the righteousness of God and he's gonna go on and say something else is revealed in the gospel. The wrath of God is revealed in the gospel.

It is being revealed from heaven against all the godless and wickedness of people. In other words, do not miss this. There is a direct line from God's righteousness to God's wrath. You can't have one without the other. That means there's a facet of God's righteousness that is his anger against sin. And it also means that God's wrath is his righteousness. And when his anger is revealed, it is to make us righteous. You follow that? Let me point something out to you, aired in the way that it is written into English. Some of your Bibles say God's wrath is being poured out on Godless and wicked people, but this translation is actually a better translation of the Greek and it says it this way, the wrath of God is being revealed or poured out against what? Godlessness and wickedness of people, not on people. In other words, God is not pouring his wrath towards people. He's pointing it towards sin. People are not the targets of God's wrath. Sin is. And when people, they feel the wrath of God when they hold on to their sins. Listen, people were not created by God for the wrath of God. They were created for his good pleasure. Now, you understand what I'm saying to you today? Some of you are looking at me like a calf staring at a new gate. When God built it the way he wanted it and Genesis 1, will you agree with me? He built it the way he wanted it. At the end, when he solves the whole thing and he brings it all back together, would you agree? He put it back the way he wants it. So on both ends of the book, God made

people for him. In relationship for relationship, it was beautiful and it was glorious. And we messed up, which brought about the sin of the wrath of God. It led to the wrath of God. And when God had it the way he wanted it, it was glorious and beautiful. And we messed it up and brought on the wrath of God. By the way, this verb for being revealed is in the present tense, meaning it's happening currently, right? And of course, there is a future reckoning when you read the Bible. There is a future reckoning for all the sins of the world. And sinners who refuse to repent will feel the full wrath of God on the day of judgment. We'll get to that in the next chapter. Come back for that. Good news next week, right? But sinners who refuse to repent. Listen, we'll get to that. But right now, God's wrath right now is being poured out on sins so that they might avoid the future wrath of God. In other words, if we experience a little bit of the wrath of God today, maybe we can avoid the wrath of God that is to come. But do not miss out on this. He pours his wrath and anger on sin. Does he hate sin? Absolutely. Does he hate sinners? No. But if we hold on to sin, we are holding on to the very thing that God hates and is pouring his wrath out upon. And the only reason that we taste the wrath of God on this side of eternity is with the goal that we will let go of sin and accept his free gift of salvation. The whole point of God's wrath on this side of eternity is to lead us to repentance. His wrath is part of his kindness. But now Paul is going to get to the argument about why any of this and all of this is fair to begin with, but because shouldn't God hold back his wrath? Why should people be subject to the wrath of God? Well, let's read it. They know the truth about God, because God has made it say it obvious to them. This is one of the verses

that supports the theological principle we call natural revelation. There is specific revelation, meaning it's specific. It's spelled out. Jesus and the Bible are our specific revelation. But this is natural revelation. In other words, in nature, God is revealing himself in very subtle but very clear ways to convince people there is a God. We don't need a lot of argument in our world about God's existence. Why? Because God has made it obvious. Truth is to all of us right? The argument that people don't know about God, they haven't heard is not actually a good argument because through natural revelation, God has made it obvious to them. And that does not mean they don't need specific revelation. In fact, it makes it even more important because they know there is a God, they know something about right and wrong. They need the answer that only comes from the gospel. Now look how Paul explains this in verse 20, forever since the world began or was created. Meaning creation is pointing to the existence of God. People have seen the earth, the sky through everything that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities, like what? His eternal power, divine nature. So they have no say it excuse for not knowing God. In other words, because of creation, we know God exists. Why? Now look at what happens in verse 21. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused, claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

This is what sin does. It fries your mind. It makes you confused. It fills you with darkness. And then worse yet, watch, watch, watch, watch, watch, watch. It leads us to worship creation over the creator. Bad, bad news. Look at verse 23. "And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, "they worshiped idols, made to look like mere people "and birds and animals and reptiles." And by the way, what Paul is doing here with this birds and animals and reptiles, he's reaching back into Genesis 1, to creation. He's talking about creation. This is the very order in Genesis 1 that God created them. And Paul's argument here is that creation is less than the creator who should be worshiped. But instead what's happening is people are worshiping the creation. Do you remember in Deuteronomy 34, when Moses died on Mount Nebo? Remember that story? It's a peculiar story. In fact, I've stood on Mount Nebo many times with people. Overlooking Jericho. I mean, it's like right there, you're seeing Jericho. You're seeing the Jordan River. And you see where Joshua crossed the Jordan River

and took the people into the Promised Land. Why was it a Yeshua who had to cross the Jordan River and take them into the Promised Land? Because it needs that God saves person to do that. Moses could not do that 'cause Moses represented the law. The law would never take anybody into the Promised Land. But on a clear day, standing on Mount Nebo, and we're gonna go next October, a year from now, but standing on Mount Nebo on a clear day, you can look off to the left and see Jerusalem. And as you're standing here watching this, we read this story in Deuteronomy 34 of Moses dying and God burying him. And here's what the Bible says, he buried him secretly. Why did he do that? Well, in the New Testament, in the book of Jude, we find out there is this cosmic battle happening over the body of Moses. That Michael the angel is fighting the devil himself over that body, which begs the question, why? Why would the enemy fight for dust and bone of a dead body? Paul is telling us that one of the devil's strategies since the very fall of mankind is to get God's people to worship creation over the Creator. Look, God hid Moses' body, not to protect the dead body, but to protect us, his people, from worshiping his creation over the Creator. Now, let's keep reading. Look at verse 24, so God abandoned them. That is, he turned his back or turned them over

to what they wanted to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did degrading things with each other's bodies. God turned them over, abandoned them. That's what the picture is. He gave them up to do what? To sin. This is very, very important to understand. A function of God's wrath against sin is more sin. In other words, he will give you what you want. Look at verse 25. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God looked created instead of the Creator himself, who was worthy of eternal praise. And all the church said, amen. They worshiped creation, we call that idolatry. Idolatry is replacing the image of God with nature, something God made. Immorality is twisting the image of God in ourselves. Look at verse 26. That's why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men. And as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty that they deserved.

Now let me just say this. There is nothing in the Greek. And nothing you can do with the exegesis of this passage that allows for any other interpretation except for the fact that homosexuality is sin. It's clear in the scripture. It is twisting the very image in our own bodies. And as we go through the scripture, you know this, I'm gonna give you the facts. I will not sugarcoat it for you or water it down. And some of you are not gonna like it, but this is the very word of God. And you cannot argue with me about this, actually. It's so crystal clear in the text, but what is the punishment for sin? It's more sin, right? It's what we just read. Now look at what he says here in verse 28. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. In other words, they know there's a God, but they will not acknowledge him. Why? Because they love what they're doing more than they love God. And God's grace is so great that he will actually let you and I sin even more with the hope that eventually we will get to the bottom and to the point that the sin is too much for us. And we will repent and turn to God to get out of him.

And people ask me, come on pastor, don't you think God is good? Of course I think God is good. All the time, God is good. If he's good, don't you think a loving God would just save everyone? Isn't he powerful enough to do that? Could he not just snap his fingers, make every one of all time Christians? Why does he not do that? Why won't he do that? Listen, it's because grace is a gift. You cannot force a gift on anyone. You cannot make anyone accept a gift. You can only offer it. Now there are things you can do to make it more appealing, but you cannot force them to take it. That's not grace. And one way that God makes his grace even more appealing is by making sin even more detestable and horrible. With the goal of the moment we get sick of our sins, we want the grace of God even more. And that's why God is pouring out his wrath on sin. That's why he pours his wrath out on Godlessness and wickedness. But hear me on this and listen to me very, very closely because I am confident my words are going to get clipped and edited and put out. So for those of you who are actually paying attention

to people I'm pastoring, don't hear what I'm not saying. I am not saying that God has a special type of wrath just for homosexual sin. Absolutely not. In fact, this Paul's point that yes, those acts are wicked, but they're on the very same level as all kinds of wickedness. In fact, look at what he says in the very same paragraph, verse 29, "Their lives are full of every kind of wickedness sin and greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, gossip." Uh-oh. Backstabbers, haters of God, insolent. That means rude, proud and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning and, look at this, I love how he did this. They disobey their parents. (congregation laughing) And all the parents say amen. And there's an indication here that Paul was trying to make the list get worse as he goes. And we have this tendency, all of us, to look at our sins, look at our neighbor's sins and say, "Well, my sin isn't as bad as their sin." Question. Where did Paul say God's wrath is being poured out on sin? Period. And hear me today in case you're asking, the sin you should concern yourself with is the sin you're carrying around and holding onto.

Not the sin you don't have a problem with. In fact, if you've never given God your sin, I'd love to lead you in a prayer helping you do that. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes at every campus? And I'm gonna ask for the next three minutes, nobody move if possible. It's a holy moment we've been moving towards and we've been praying towards. you pray this with me and you're gonna hear people praying all around you would you just pray and say dear God I know I'm a sinner today I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin Jesus coming to my life to be my Lord my Savior my forgive her and the best way that I know how I turn my back on my sin and I trust you alone Jesus to save me take all my sin and before we look up and before we say amen if you just prayed that can I just say to you it's the wisest decision you could ever make it's to let Jesus be your personal Lord and Savior and before we move on I want to ask you for the next two minutes three minutes with your eyes closed and heads bowed to imagine yourself as the only person in this room draw a circle around yourself and ask the Holy Spirit of God to speak to you right now to speak to you from his word and by his Holy Spirit I'm gonna read those last two verses again to you and if at any point the Holy Spirit is speaking to you or the word is speaking to you and you are convicted of a sin in or on your life I'm asking that moment you stand up heads bowed eyes closed nobody looking as if you're the only person in the room just you and the Lord in his word at every campus if the Holy Spirit speaks just stand up keep your head bowed and eyes closed and stand up through the remainder of the prayer their lives became full of every kind of wickedness sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, corolling, deception of any kind, malicious behavior, gossip, hater of God, rude, proud, boastful, they invent new ways of sending if there's any other sin the Lord has convicted you of just stand at every campus

disobeying their parents. By standing what you're doing is making confession which means you're saying the same thing the Bible says about your sin you're calling in sin it's a powerful moment and the power is not in confession alone it's confession and repentance and repentance is about changing your direction and it involves your mind your will and your emotions and so let me encourage you to take the next step of repentance turn around and if you're standing just turn around face the back of the room at your campus as a picture and a sign of repentance and now I'm gonna ask you just at your chair would you kneel and in your own words would you say a prayer of confession and repentance and churches you do this let me say to you this is a powerful powerful powerful moment receive the gift it's a gift repentance is a gift from God receive it tell him you want it and you receive it and as you walk through this for a you in prayer in just a moment, but you do work with the Lord right now. [Music] Father, we thank you for those who are praying on their knees right now, and we pray for those who are sitting on their seats right now. And Lord, you know our hearts, you know our sins. Father, I just pray for those of us who have so much to surrender to you. Father, we're thankful that you don't call us out of darkness to keep us in shame, but you bring us into the light with a promise of the freedom that you've given us through your Son. So, Father, as we walk out the doors here this morning, don't let us walk out holding on to the shame of our sin. The guy we would be reminded of the freedom that comes from loving you. May we feel forgiven, may we feel empowered, that every sin would be broken, that there would be freedom from addiction, that God whatever is in darkness would come to light, whatever is in secret would be made public, and that God you would give us the freedom of knowing you. Jesus, we thank you for your grace, we thank you for your forgiveness, and we thank you for new life. And we ask for all of this in the name of Jesus, and I pray, amen and amen.