Skip to content

The River ChurchSermons

Introduction/Main Theme

Caleb Combs · Sunday, 27 April 2025 · Romans 1:1-17 · 49:48 · 7,597 words

Romans S1 · 1:1-17 Holly

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

The pastor opens a new series on the book of Romans, providing background on Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians, written around AD 57–58. He highlights that the letter reveals God’s righteousness and the power of the gospel for salvation to all who believe, emphasizing grace, faith, and the obligation to serve one another. The message encourages listeners to study Romans, trust the gospel daily, and live by faith rather than by works. The series will continue through December.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

motivation 15 great 38 theology 11 idea 21 book 24 gospel 36 introduction 6 selective 4 rome 13 obligation 8 introduce 7 philippines 4

Topics

The Gospel 10 Faith 8 Salvation 4 Grace 3 Hope 2 The Holy Spirit 2 Prayer 2 Righteousness 2 The Gentiles 1 Baptism 1 The Law 1 The Flesh 1

Scripture referenced 17

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 1 6:52 Romans 1 6:55 Romans 1:1-17 6:55 Romans 1 7:01 Romans 1:1 7:03 Romans 1:6 8:24 Romans 1 16:38 Romans 1:7 16:41 Romans 1:12 35:37 Romans 1:12 35:45 Hebrews 10 36:57 Romans 1:14 38:28 Romans 10 39:48 Mark 10 41:35 Romans 2 43:46 1 Corinthians 15 44:00 Romans 16 44:52

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:41. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey, everyone. My name is Dave Hudgens, and thanks for checking out today's message.

We are so glad that you're here, and we want to connect with you and your family.

The easiest way to do that is to text RIVERCONNECT to 97000.

There, we can answer your questions and even help pray for you.

You can also visit our website at theriverchurch.cc to learn more about us and what we have going on as a church.

Finally, if you want to support the work we are doing here at the River Church financially,

please head to our website and click on the Give tab at the top of the page,

or you can text the amount you want to give to the number 84321.

Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

Good morning. This is through a bomb on Pastor Noble, and so he's super embarrassed right now, but that's okay.

So last night, I was at an event at Oakland Christian School,

and so they honor men and women that have been in ministry for, what is it, 15 years?

So last night, Pastor Noble was inducted into their Hall of Faith,

where they recognized men and women that have been a part of ministry, and so it's great.

So I knew you would want to know that, and he's like, you jerk.

No, I'm just kidding. No, it was great.

And so I watched as, I would say, a proud big brother, and so super pumped for him.

I know his mom and dad are here, and they were super excited as well as in-laws, and so it's just great.

And so we want to say this to you. We love you, and we're so proud of you as being a part of it.

Yeah, it was great. It was good.

I literally told him right at that moment, hey, stay here for a second.

He's like, no.

He didn't get an option, so it's good.

It's good. It's good to be with you.

It's just, and I feel like we have so much to celebrate around here, and just God is at work.

I don't know if you were able to watch or be a part of last week.

I know many of you were traveling.

It was just a great, great Easter couple days.

Thirteen baptisms last Sunday right here in Holly.

It was so great. It was really good.

So, and I know maybe you may understand this, not understand. That's okay.

So we had seven scheduled baptisms, so it was just great.

And as a pastor, it's just always great to baptize or watch dads or watch some other staff baptize, and just really, really cool.

And so I offered, if somebody received Christ or had not been baptized, and so we had six spontaneous people in the crowd that, you know what?

Got led to be baptized today.

It was just great.

And so just an awesome, awesome morning.

And just letting you know, we have four more today.

And so it's great.

It's great.

God is at work.

It's good.

I don't know the exact number, but we have somewhere about 8,500 people attend our egg hunts in nine locations.

So 8,500.

It's just crazy.

Hear the gospel and be a part of that.

Just a really, really great couple days.

God was a part of it, and we're just thanking him for that.

I do want to say, as your pastor and as a pastor here, thank you.

Thank you for trusting me as I asked you to invite people that don't know Jesus, as I asked that we participate that together, that we wanted to make the gospel very clear on Easter.

And so I appreciate your trust in me, and hopefully as we're able to see God faithfully respond as we communicate.

As we communicate the gospel, as we communicate the good news of Jesus Christ, we watch people respond in salvation.

It was just a great, great day.

And so I just thank you for entrusting me with family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and just a great Easter Sunday.

This morning we are going to be starting a new series.

And so excited about that.

As you were able to see the bumper video, we will be looking and talking through the book of Romans.

Looking at the book of Romans.

And so this will be our longest series we've done as a church, ever.

And so this is, I would say it's intimidating to preach Romans, and now we're going to do it for, I believe, 30 or 31 weeks.

And so we're going to do it now until Christmas.

Make sure you start your Christmas shopping.

And so we're going to be doing this really now until December, looking through the book.

And so there's 16 chapters.

In the book of Romans.

And we'll be breaking it down.

But I would encourage you as a family, as an individual, you can read it along with us.

And so there's some great resources that we have on our app.

There is a daily devotion, looking and focusing on some of the scriptures of Romans.

There's a weekly study guide that will walk you through exactly what we're going to preach through.

And we have a book in the back.

You can buy these, but the app, they're free.

And so we want to make sure you have a book in the back.

And so we want to make sure you have a book in the back.

And so we want to make sure you have this.

This is part one, okay?

All right?

And so there'll be another one coming out, I think, in September.

And so part two.

And so it's a lot, a lot of information.

We're going to be producing some different things this summer.

We're going to produce a takeaway for you that will walk through the Romans road.

And we'll be explaining that.

And so really leaning into the book of Romans, really from now until December 1st.

And so hang on with us.

I know it's terrible.

You're like, did you really just say December 1st?

In a spring gathering?

I did.

I'm so sorry.

One of the resources that I think that I tend to miss out on more than I would like to communicate

is at our nine other locations, we record video and audio.

And so other pastors will be preaching on similar passages.

This morning, we're going to look at 17 verses.

I will not be able to capture 17 verses in the next 30-ish minutes.

I wish I could, but I'm not smart enough.

So I'm going to take a smaller section of that.

We're going to read through them.

And so some of our other pastors will be walking through them.

And so I'd encourage you to read through them.

Listen to them.

You can drive to work and be listening to one of the messages.

You can flip it in while you're on the treadmill or wherever you're on a walk on a nice spring or summer day.

Be listening to that.

And so it's another great resource that we want to be a part of Romans.

So if you have a Bible, we're going to be in Romans.

Romans chapter one this morning.

Romans chapter one, looking at verses one through 17 this morning.

Romans chapter one.

We're going to start in verse one.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the Holy Scriptures,

concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh

and was declared to be the son of God.

To be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness

by his resurrection from the dead, which we celebrated last week.

Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have received grace

in the apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith

for the sake of his name among all the nations.

Right here, just a quick pause here.

Paul is illuminating and highlighting this idea of grace.

Paul is commonly known as,

the apostle of grace or the apostle of faith.

And so here he's leaning into this amazing grace.

He's talking about being commissioned or called by grace.

I love the quote by Karl Barth.

He says, only when grace is recognized to be incomprehensible, is it grace.

I don't understand it.

I don't deserve it.

Yet God offers it.

And so what a great summary.

Let's continue in verse six.

Including you who are being called to belong to Jesus Christ.

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.

Grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.

Because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of the son.

That without ceasing, I mention.

You always in my prayer asking that somehow by God's will, I may now at least succeed

in coming to you for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to

strengthen you.

That is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

I do not want you to be unaware brothers that I have often intended to come.

I have often intended to come.

I have often intended to come.

I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented in order that

I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the Gentiles.

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

So I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Roman for I am not ashamed of the

gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and

also to the Gentiles.

So I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Roman for I am not ashamed to the

Greek for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is

The righteous shall live by faith.

God, we come to you this morning.

God, thanking you for who you are, thanking you for your love and your grace in our life.

God, this morning, we celebrate and honor you through song and sermon.

We open your word.

We ask that you speak through it.

We ask that you guide, correct, lead us in the paths of righteousness.

God, God, thank you.

For the ability to open your word.

God, we believe it is profitable for teaching for proof and correction.

God, we study it this morning.

May you speak through it.

God, thank you for being here.

We know we're gathered in your name and you're here.

Guide my words.

Help me to get out of the way, God, and illuminate you through your word.

Jesus, wonderful name.

This morning's message will be a little different.

And so I really was, I would say I toiled with this message.

A lot as I was telling Pastor Noble, trying to encapsulate or really try to cover 17 verses

and also introduce a series of 30 ish weeks, as well as just putting your toe in the water,

if you will, of the book of Romans.

Romans is, in my opinion, and many scholars, one of the greatest books in the entire Bible.

And you're like, I thought the Bible is a book.

No, the Bible is a collection of books of 66 books.

And so here the apostle Paul is writing a letter, which has been inspired by the Holy Spirit,

where God is inspiring Paul to write a letter to these Christians in Rome.

This letter was written by Paul in somewhere around 57 or 58 AD on Paul's third missionary journey.

So I was saying this sermon will be a little different.

It'll be feel a little teachy for some of you.

And so just trying to,

give you some shaping and some facts as we build some things.

And then we'll, we'll really look at the end of the section of verses that I read this morning.

But as Paul is writing this in 57, 58 AD, just to give you a little more context,

Paul's conversion was in 34 AD as he is on the road to Damascus,

as he's going to really terrorize and kill Christians,

as he was going to arrest them for their worship.

And God is,

revealed to him and his road and he's blinded and then discipled by Jesus.

And now some 20 something years ago or years go by and he's writing to Christians.

Paul's also the author of 13 books of the new Testament.

Then Paul would be martyred or killed in 64 AD.

So you can look about six years left in his life.

The Roman church or the Roman Christians was made up of Gentile Christians,

mostly Gentile Christians.

There were Jews a part of them,

but Paul speaks to this,

this conflict that we'll talk about a little bit this morning.

He's talking about their understanding of the scriptures of,

okay,

how do Jews follow the law?

How do Gentiles follow the law?

Are some better?

Some are not as good.

And now Paul is speaking to these Christians.

The church was founded by mostly travelers,

saved during Pentecost.

The beginning of Acts references this miraculous moment where 5,000 believers are saved,

where the apostle Peter is preaching and they're saved.

And so that message begins to spread like wildfire all throughout this area.

Some have argued that maybe Peter founded the church,

but in my studying and understanding,

I don't see there's substantive evidence.

Paul is writing to these Christians,

the Roman church,

Rome was at this time,

the center of the world.

Most powerful empire in the world was their city capital.

And so you've got to understand as he's writing to these Christians in this,

one of the largest cities in the world at the moment,

where all sorts of people from walks of life and understanding the class system in Rome,

the citizenship and looking at how that worked its way out and all those different things.

And now Paul is writing to these Christians and trying,

trying to build some basic theology,

some basic understanding of God's teaching.

And we'll look at this a little bit this morning and then really all through the next 30 ish weeks.

And I keep saying that it's,

it's overwhelming to say that even in the moment,

but,

and some of you are like,

I got to stay involved in that.

No,

you can listen or watch it another time.

Perfect attendance is required.

No,

I'm just kidding.

All right.

But the theme of Romans is a revelation of God's judging and saving God.

Saving righteousness.

I love this explanation in the gospel of Jesus Christ,

in the cross of Christ,

God judges sin.

And yet at the same time manifests his life saving mercy.

And we'll look at that through this series as with Paul's other epistles or letters or books.

As I mentioned just a few moments ago,

he had written 13.

His purpose in writing was to proclaim the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ by teaching,

teaching doctrine and edifying and encouraging believers who had received the letter of particular concern to Paul.

Those whom the letter was written in Rome were loved by God and called to be saints.

As he references in Romans chapter one,

But I love this,

this,

this summarization.

The book of Romans also lays out an explanation of what the gospel is,

or not only what the gospel is,

how it comes into play in our lives.

And the truth is,

the true meaning of it,

The book makes it clear that there's nothing we can do to save ourselves for by grace.

You've been saved.

Every good deed we have ever done is as a filthy rag before God.

So dead in our trespasses and sins are we that only grace and mercy of God can save us.

God expressed that grace and mercy by sending his son,

Jesus Christ to die on the cross in our place.

When we turn our lives over to Christ,

we are no longer controlled by a sinful nature.

We are controlled by the spirit,

which will,

we'll take almost a whole month of looking at what the spirit controls and compels us and how the spirit controls and compels us to live.

As we make our confession that Jesus is Lord and believe that he is raised from the dead.

We are saved,

born again,

repaired back to God.

As second Corinthians says,

made a new creation.

And we need to live our lives,

offered to God as a living sacrifice,

wholly acceptable and pleasing to God.

That is our act of worship.

Few major themes and what we'll jump into the passage this morning.

As I mentioned just a few minutes ago,

this idea of building a foundational theology,

building foundational theology,

which is simply our view,

our perspective,

our study,

our knowledge of who God is.

Theo meaning God.

Our look at who God is.

What's interesting,

what's interesting is we begin to build this idea of theology.

Our theology is often blended with our worldview and say,

what does that mean?

Our understanding of how we read the Bible.

And so our worldview is sometimes shaped with how we're brought up in denominations or how we're brought up in the church or out of the church,

or maybe some of our past sin or our past struggles,

And as we read and study,

it begins to shape our world.

View in some ways,

that's a good thing.

Okay.

And in some ways that's a bad thing because we can allow our pain.

We can allow our perspective to overtake ultimately true theology,

And so trying to,

to balance that out is what Paul is speaking too much in the book of Romans.

And a lot of what we'll talk about over this series,

Paul is building a systematic,

or simple and a break it down for you,

giving them the ability to verbalize their beliefs and views of God in a logical and coherent manner,

being able to communicate this is what I believe who God is,

what God's word says,

and this is why Paul gives them a detailed and structured presentation.

And my goal for the series is to do the same to echo being led by the Holy spirit to communicate.

What God is teaching us and answering the questions of can one be made right with obeying God's word?

How are we made right?

How are we reconciled?

What role does the old Testament come into play and how we live our lives today?

there's 66 books.

Do we just totally trashed the previous 39 and just followed the last 27 or what and how does that come into play?

And it's so important for us as Christians to be able to understand that.

There are some that believe go,

you know what?

We can actually just put or unhinge ourselves from the old Testament.

Well,

Timothy says this very clear.

All scripture is profitable.

It's inspired by God.

It's God's word.

So I would think it wrong for us to go,

you know what?

I'm going to put this aside and I'm only going to read the new Testament.

No,

it's important that we study all scripture to seek to understand it as it builds our theology.

And so looking at,

what roles to the old Testament.

So a major theme is building that theology.

The second major theme would be unifying the church unify.

I find this interesting that Paul is speaking to unity in the church a couple of thousand years ago.

And yet we still have to preach that same message.

What an interesting thing.

I,

I'm not,

I'm not,

I'm not leaning on anybody this morning,

but the reality is we know there's division in the church.

You put people in play.

You put people in,

put people with one another and there comes division and hardships and disagreements in conflict.

And just as the apostle Paul is preaching or teaching or a call towards unity in the church,

I would echo his same words to be unified.

What were unified by ultimately by the gospel and the word of God,

but looking to see and speaking towards direct conflicts to this idea of pride,

seeing someone yourself better than someone else.

That's what we're here for.

We're here for the unifying the church.

I can say this very clearly.

There is no one better than anyone in this room today.

The only person we're here for is Jesus Christ.

That's it.

All right.

That that's,

that's a very important thing that is so important and the sad reality is in many churches and just the idea in Christendom or or Christianity,

there's this sliding in of,

you know,

I've been a Christian longer.

I come from this line.

I'm a,

I'm a woman like the reality is there's no one better.

God is not a respecter of persons when it comes to that.

And so we look at this call towards unity where Paul is hoping to bridge the divide between Jews and Gentiles emphasizing their shared faith in Jesus Christ,

not practical ministry in Jesus Christ.

So looking to see what does again the Old Testament teach on this and looking at what the law walks through the last kind of main theme.

That will walk through his Paul's goalers missionary purpose is his desire.

And what we'll talk about that this morning is desire to see them.

He wanted to use Rome as a base for his future missionary endeavors,

particularly heading to Spain or or or Eastern Europe or excuse me,

Western Europe.

And so we're going to look at look at this idea today a little bit more.

The passage I read for you this morning is broken down into two main sections.

The first section we're just going to summarize very briefly.

First, eight verses, but then looking at nine through seven,

we're going to spend a few minutes discussing it and looking through what is God teaching and how can I apply that in my life?

First, eight verses are introduction, really a general greeting to the Christians in Rome.

If you know anything about Paul's other letters, his 13 other letters, very common.

He'll write a very similar letter.

Grace to you, peace to you, intercession.

He's introducing himself, describing himself as a servant or a slave or a prisoner and sometimes literally writing from a prison cell.

And Paul is communicating to the Christians in Rome.

He's introducing himself.

He's giving details he had never met.

As we looked at these passages more, he never met these Christians.

He never he had heard about their their faith.

It was famous in the world as as Romans one describes, right?

I had heard all these great things about you, but I've never met.

My desire is to meet you.

I was thinking Paul is really writing a hello.

My name is I want to give you these details of my life.

I don't know if you've ever done a school or work icebreaker.

Have you ever done those uncomfortable times where you say, hey, you need to introduce yourself?

How long you've been here and what your favorite ice cream is or something like that?

You know, those uncomfortable moments.

Do you get uncomfortable?

I do.

I was like, I start to stress out and it's.

It's across the other room and I'm already thinking I have no idea what they're saying.

I'm not listening because I'm already thinking about my answers.

And if I if it gets to me, I don't have my answers.

I'm going to be stressed out.

I'm gonna look dumb.

That's just me.

OK, that's not you.

All right.

But Paul is giving a if you a classic icebreaker, introducing himself to these Christians in Rome.

He delivers an introduction of who he is.

I am Paul, a servant of Christ, an apostle set apart for the gospel of God.

That is who I am.

I can probably wrap the message up today with that passage.

If that could describe each and every person that can hear my voice, whether you're in person or online, that would be the great call for us as followers of Jesus Christ.

If that could be our reputation, if that could be what people know us for and say, you know what?

My name is Caleb.

I am a servant of Christ called to represent Christ, to serve him, set apart for the gospel.

That's who I am.

If that could describe and be my reputation.

You're right.

If that could describe and be my reputation, isn't that what we desire?

There it is.

And so Paul is introducing himself.

He is.

This introduction is a little longer and a little more detailed than other his many of his other introductions.

You're saying, well, why is it longer?

Well, Paul is concerned that the people, these Christians would receive only parts of what he would say.

And so he wanted to really break it down and be specific.

He's really speaking to this idea of selective reading or selective reading.

Selective listening.

If you're married, you know what I'm talking about when it comes to this idea.

I'm a professional.

Just ask my wife.

I have now.

It's really interesting.

I, I, I used to think I had the gift of selective reading.

I could read something, summarize it and understand that is gone.

I miss out on some really important details.

Now in text, you're like, oh yeah, you told me to go this.

No, it said, I said, don't go here.

And so you miss those.

And this is really what, what, what Paul is speaking.

He's like, Hey, see these details.

These are important.

I want you to know everything that's happening, going on.

And so don't tune me out.

Paul gives, as I said, the first eight verses are a great introduction of who he is.

And I could cover them more, but I felt like the spirit of God wants me to walk through

verses nine through 17 and land there just for a few minutes this morning, because we

see this idea of Paul introducing himself and then in verses nine through 17, giving

a clear motivation of who he is.

What is his motivation?

Why does he do what he does?

What is so important?

I, I, I read what's my motivation.

And as a kid of the nineties, I think of the Sprite commercial.

If you, you would now see my age now, right?

Some of you are like, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Well, you're either too old or too young.

All right.

If you know, you know, the Sprite commercial and said, what's my motivation.

That's what Paul is giving.

Hey, I want you to know who I am.

And now I want you to know why I do what I do.

In verse nine through 11, he gives the first explanation of why he does what he does.

And it's so great.

He says for others versus nine, he says, for God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit

and the gospel of his son that without ceasing, I mentioned you always in my prayer, asking

that somehow by God's will, I may now at least succeed in coming to you for I long to see

you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift.

To strengthen you.

He longed to meet these Christians in Rome.

It was his goal.

Every time he'd get there, he'd get detoured.

You want to find all the detours that he, that he came across.

Look at the end of second Corinthians.

Dude went through some difficulties, shipwrecks, arresting, uh, beaten.

I mean, stone went through these crazy things.

His desire was to get to Rome because he wanted to expand, not his empire, but he wanted to

expand the reach of the gospel.

And he felt called and compelled.

He was called by God to do that.

So he longed to go there and he had never met them.

And he's like, Hey, you know what?

You, I don't know you, but you're always in my prayer.

You're always in my prayers.

That concept of always in my prayers is some translations may say constantly, or another

idea is repeatedly.

I am constantly repeatedly.

I am always, you are on my mind.

I am lifting you up.

You may know someone.

That is a prayer warrior.

I, when I say that, I'm thinking about like that, that person that wakes up every single

day and they got a list of people.

They walk down a prayer after prayer, after prayer, after prayer, after, and they're

praying for people.

I know many of you text me all the time.

Say, you know, a pastor, I'm praying for you.

I truly appreciate that.

You have no idea.

I could not say thank you enough because the idea, I believe in the power of prayer.

I believe in the protective hand of God through prayer.

I believe that prayer is so important as we lift up.

And pray for one another is so important.

What's great about this, Paul doesn't even know their names.

He doesn't know their names.

He's like, Hey, you know what?

I've heard about your faith.

I heard that you, you, you trust God.

I heard these great things.

I'm praying for you.

What a great example or call for us as believers, as our focus and our care is to pray for one

another.

What's great about this is you're sitting in a room.

There's a lot of people sitting in this room.

There's, there's people joining us online.

Guess what you could be praying for one.

Another, whether, you know, people's names, issues, struggles, sins, or not.

Did you know that?

Cause you know who does God does God does you're like, man, can I, I can pray for people.

Yeah.

What's great about practical ministry.

What's great about practical face to face, authentic, raw, the way God has called us

to be the church is you don't have to know them by name.

They can be sitting down there and say, Hey, you know what?

We sit in the same section every week.

I sit by that person.

I can't remember the name.

I don't know them.

But I just got, I lift them up right to you right now.

God, I don't know what their job's going like.

I don't know what their finances, I don't know what their health, I don't know what

their struggles are.

I can guarantee you this.

A hundred percent of the people sitting in this room or joining us online would be okay

with that.

Let me phrase that.

Would love that.

You don't even have to do that.

All right.

I'm going to try it one time.

I'll try it one time.

Paul's focus, his motivation, his others.

I long to see this story about the man who founded the salvation army, general William

He was invited by Queen Victoria of England and she wanted to participate in his ministry,

wanted to hear about it.

She wanted to know all these great things and how she could help and really hear about

his motivation.

So as he came to be in front of Queen Victoria of England, she asked him these questions.

Why do you do this?

What is your, your motivation?

And he said, your majesty, some people's passion or motivation is money.

Some people's passion is power and authority.

But my passion is others.

It's focus and care for others.

See, Paul longed to see them, prayed for them constantly.

This summer, I'm going to have a, one of my, one of my dreams come true.

As a kid, this church built, I believe somewhere about 10 to 15 buildings in the Philippines.

And so I remember sending teams, praying for them.

I was as early nineties.

They started to go.

Some of you may have been.

Yeah.

Even on those trips.

And so prayed for them.

I remember this and seeing pictures and teams coming back and forth.

And so this, I've always longed to go.

I always wanted to go.

I've always wanted to go to the Philippines.

Many of these, these people have, have, have come to my home, these missionaries, and

I've become friends with them and seeing them.

I haven't seen some of them in literally 15, 20 years.

Some of them have even gone home to be with the Lord.

And, and so I have longed to be, to see them.

And so this summer, I've been to the Philippines.

This, this June, uh, me and four other guys are going to the Philippines, going to preach

in some of these churches, going to visit them.

And, and I was like, I understand what Paul is saying.

I long to hear about your ministry, but it's great to hear, but I want to see it.

I want to be a part of it.

I want to see what God is doing.

And so I, I understand that.

And so what a, what a great motivation.

His second motivation is in verse 12.

It's a, this idea of, and encouraging one another.

Verse 12, he says,

That is that we may mutually encourage, be encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

Great call for us.

Paul said, Hey, you know what?

I want to, I want to hear about your faith.

I want you to hear about my faith.

He didn't go in going, Hey, you know, I want to tell you, I'm a theologian expert.

No, I want to hear about your testimony, about what God has done in your life, how he's changed

and he's transformed and he saved family, how he's done some miraculous things.

I want to hear about all those things.

And so we can encourage one another.

The truth of the matter, it is, that's what Sunday morning should look like.

That's what a gathering of the church should look like.

As we sit in, in homes with a growth community, we sit in a, a morning class.

We sit in a gathering is as we worship Jesus, as we lift him up in song and service, as

we open to, to hear his word, we should be encouraged by one another's faith.

We should be encouraged by one another's trust in the Lord.

Hebrews 10 is very clear.

Let us consider how to.

Stir one another up to love in good works.

And then it says, when is that happening in the gathering of the church until the day

of the Lord comes, Hey, be doing this.

I've shared this before on a Sunday morning.

I don't think many of us get out of our car and go, God, who can I encourage to follow

you better today?

Who can I stir as a, that's a big word.

Who can I push?

Who can I encourage to live for God more this week?

And then, and then go, Hey God, you put, you put somebody in my path.

You put somebody in my path today.

Doesn't have to be just the gathering of the church.

It can be every day.

Can you imagine waking, waking up tomorrow, taking your head off the pillow and going,

God, put someone on my heart today that I can encourage to follow you more.

And then not just stop with that.

When he gives you somebody do it through a text, through a call, through a visit.

What's like, I've been the guy, like, I, I, I really feel like, okay, God puts him in

I'm so busy.

No, no, no.

It doesn't have to be some grand gesture.

Practically rubber meets the road, encouraging them to follow Jesus Christ.

This mutual encouragement, faith to faith.

And then he says in verse 14, I am under obligation, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to

the wise and the foolish.

So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are also in Rome.

Paul's again, looking forward to his visit, but he died.

He uses a different word here.

So obligation, he uses, describes the Greeks, barbarians, the, the, the wise and the foolish

Willie, what he's, he, he's writing articulately.

He's describing everyone.

I'm excited to meet everyone.

I'm obligated to them.

See his obligation for his first to the Lord, but it manifests in his ministry to people

calls himself a servant.

Others.

He calls himself a slave prisoner.

He describes himself as a debtor.

See Paul's debt was to God, but his payment was to man.

Aaron is love obligated, not a popular topic to talk about today.

Romans 10 describes themselves as our, we're called to call a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable,

pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

This is just the baseline is giving your life to Christ.

The great missionary Hudson Taylor spoke directly to this when he was asked why he gave his

life to the people of China.

And he said, not because I love the Chinese, but because I love the Lord.

My focus is.

I'm loving the Lord and it's manifest this way out as how I love and I care for people

Contracultural idea that we are indebted.

We are obligated, man.

That's not a popular word in the church today, is it?

Let's get honest, right?

We don't love them.

So, Hey, you know what?

The pastor comes to say, Hey, you are obligated to do this.

Who do you think you are?

Right?

But the truth of the matter is Paul is saying this very clear.

If you are a follower of God, you are obligated to care for other people.

It's an obligation.

It's a part of the job description.

If you will.

This is not a, Hey, you know what?

I, I like, I love the Lord, but you know, his people are real hard to love.

I thought I'd get a woohoo there, right?

To serve and care for one another.

No matter if you are who we are, a pastor, a teacher, an office worker, an electrician,

a corporation president.

If we are to be productive followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to be servants to one

another.

Mark 10 is very clear on that.

It's our obligation to fulfill our calling.

Paul was called.

I believe this wholeheartedly.

I could preach a whole nother message and I won't this morning, but this idea that every

single person that can hear my voice is called by God.

You don't have to be a pastor.

So you can be called by God in your school.

You can be called by God in your university.

You'll be called by God in your, your workplace.

You'll be called by God in your home.

You'd be called by God in your neighborhood.

God places you there.

Use it for his glory.

I love Colossians and whatever you do in word or deed, do all for his glory.

The very plan and the purpose of God in your life.

The last thing is verse 16 and 17, his motivation.

This is here.

It is.

He had motivation and the confidence and the power of the gospel to sometimes describes

the very thesis statement for the book or 16 for, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to

the Greek for it is in the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it

The righteous shall live.

Paul here is confessing his desire to preach the gospel in Rome, but now gives a reason

for his zeal, a confidence, a motivation.

I rely solely on the gospel.

It is the power of God to salvation.

What a big statement.

His reliance on Jesus Christ.

It's that, that word, same Greek word that's used for power is where we get this idea of

The gospel is indeed powerful.

And for many of us has done a great job of renovation, good news, gospel of Jesus simply

means good news, echoing the same words of Luke chapter two, where the shepherds were

visited by angels, where good tidings of great joy, which will be for all people.

This great news of Jesus is arrival.

And Paul echoes in first Corinthians 15.

Now, I want to remind you, brothers of the gospel.

I preach to you what you received and what you stand by, which you are being saved.

You hold fast to the.

Lord, I preach to you unless you believed in Blaine.

Here it is.

For I delivered you as first importance.

What I also receive.

Here's the gospel.

Here's the good news that Christ died for our sins.

Accordance with the scriptures that he was buried and he raised on the third day in accordance

with the scriptures.

There's a very clear, succinct, simple gospel and our lives are built on it.

Some of you may be sitting here today and say, Caleb, you reference that gospel a lot.

I'll tell you this.

I don't reference it enough.

You may be sitting here.

I'm saying, Caleb, the gospel is for the unsaved.

You'd be wrong.

The gospel is for the saved.

The gospel is for the unsaved.

It's for every single one of us.

Here it is.

It is the power of God that leads us to salvation.

It's something that we need to eat, breathe, breathe and sleep about the gospel every single

It's the hope for the world.

It's the hope for your life.

It's the hope for your marriage.

It's the hope for your kids.

It's the hope for you at the workplace.

It's the hope for the church.

It's the hope for America.

It's the hope for the world.

The gospel is what we are built on.

And that's what Paul is giving the very thesis statement of the book.

But more importantly, the thesis statement for our lives.

The gospel has to be the very cornerstone of our lives.

It's got to be.

It's the power of God.

Sorry, I preached a little long today.

Trying to go.

I told Pastor Noble, I'm like, man, give an introduction of Romans.

Really just want to encourage you this morning.

We deep dive Romans.

Download the app.

Follow those devotions.

We wrap up this morning with a song.

Just a few moments.

I'm going to baptize four, which is so good.

17 says,

A big statement for the church around the world, really.

To call to live by faith.

Paul, really through the book of Romans, is going to lean into this idea.

Because at the time, he's writing to the Romans that they thought they could get righteousness by doing good things.

Doing good works by accomplishing it.

The truth of the matter is, just as Genesis referenced, Abraham was redeemed by his faith.

You and I today are redeemed by the very same faith.

Paul is pushing us to this idea of faith and trust in him.

He says, as it is written, he's referencing Habakkuk, an Old Testament prophet.

I should still live by faith.

He's emphasizing to Christians, this is so good.

We are saved by faith, but not only just saved by faith, we're to live by faith and our trust in him.

The great preacher, Martin Luther, said this idea was the chief foundation for all his doctrine.

The writer of Hebrews says,

So this morning as we close, I challenge you, challenge us, may we live in that same manner.

Live in a trust and reliance in Jesus Christ.

Not by sight, but by faith and trust in him.

Looking forward to this book.

Looking forward to being a part of Romans.

Seeing how practical theology will work in our lives.

Hopefully you're excited with me.

Hopefully you'll dive in with me and jump in and we'll all learn together, okay?

Let me pray and we'll close with a song and I'll baptize a couple.

God, we love you.

We praise you.

God, thank you for this morning.

Thank you for your word.

God, thank you for Romans.

God, God has preached this morning as we try to build a baseline.

God, thank you for the gospel.

May we not be ashamed of it.

God, as we talk through Paul's motivations of others,

his obligation to you, care for the church, the gospel.

God, thank you for the gospel.

God, help us to see and apply those same motivations in our everyday life.

God, we praise you this morning.

Thank you for your word.

Thank you for speaking.

Thank you for moving.

We love you.

We praise you.

We honor you.

In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.