Prayer

So Romans chapter 1 is where we're going to be. And like I said, I love this book. It has truly changed my life in so many ways. I don't even know that I could articulate all the ways that this book has changed my life. But it has and it changes me. I feel like every time I read it. And so I pray it will do the same for you. Before we pray and jump in. I just want to give you a little bit of background about this book as we go into it.

And death. And so we could say a lot more. But we're going to keep it moving. Okay? So let's pray. And that's some of the background. Let's pray and let's ask the Lord to do a deep. Work in us today through his word. Lord we love you and thank you for your word. And I pray today you'd help me to get out of the way completely. That not a word from me would be heard. Please Lord present your word today to us. May we hear from you.

And an older man. And an older man across the room just stops to go, ma'am, can you tell me what's their name? I just want to pray for them. And he begins to write down names so he can pray for her. Pray for the family.

That concept of always in my prayers is some translations may say constantly, or another idea is repeatedly. I am constantly repeatedly. Always. 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.

The gospel changes us. For Paul, the gospel changed him. And the proof is in this letter and in his other letters. You consider his back story and the transformation that Jesus brought about in his life. So as we study this book, my prayer for you, our prayer for our church,

Their daughter was sick. She had to go to the hospital. And I love, I just love that without any initiation from me, there was a group of believers that came together in this building and began to pray for that family. They knew where to go. They knew where the power of God was and what to do. And so they're like, hey, hey, let's pray for this family. Let's pray that God will intervene and do something mighty because we have no power, but we can go to the God that has all the power in the world.

Because I love what Paul has to say, what God has to say through Paul to us as believers today. Especially in a world that deeply needs answers to what the gospel is. let's pray together. Lord, your word brings incredible understanding, and it also brings us to ask incredible questions. Lord, we know that you are righteous. We know that you are just. We know that you love us and show us grace and mercy. We know that gospel is core to our lives. Lord, I pray that as we read your word, both individually and corporately, as we come together as a church, Lord, I pray that you would help us to understand how it all plays together, and that it would give us a deeper appreciation, a deeper love, a deeper thankfulness for the gospel and for your character and for how you treat us. Lord, I also pray that as we go through the letter of Romans, that we would not only be moved to those things as we

You don't know how God's. Lord, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for Paul. Thank you for his desire to serve you and your inspiring him to write this letter to the Romans and to us. God, I pray that as we embark as we begin this journey through this letter, I pray you would use it to strengthen us, to mold us, to shape us, to challenge us and yes, to even correct us. God, may we not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ today but may we look more like Jesus.

given under heaven among men by which we must be saved it is through Jesus Christ and his work so I would ask you this morning has the righteousness of God been revealed to you do you believe today that God will be gracious to you if you turn to him for salvation because he will and you can do it now let's pray together Lord thank you so much for your word thank you for the truth of it thank you for the promises Lord I pray that any person here today or watching online that does not know you would turn to you in simple faith and belief trusting you and looking to you and believing your work done for us Lord we come to you and in our need we humble ourselves and admit it we love you and thank you thank you for your word it's in Jesus name I pray Amen

this morning. I'm filling in for Pastor Justin, and I want to thank you for the hospitality and for having me this morning. But one thing I've noticed, it seems like every time I fill in up here, it's the hard message. So if you'll deal with me today and understand this is God's word, not my word, so don't kill the messenger. But if we would, let's open in prayer and we'll go from there. Dear Holy Father, we lift you up, Lord. We praise you. We honor you. We glorify you as the God of God and the King of Kings. We thank you as we read forward throughout Romans. I'm excited about this passage, Lord, and everything that you have to say through us throughout Romans, knowing that ultimately you gave us a plan of salvation. You gave us an opportunity to be with you forever, and we can't thank you enough for that. We're not worthy of it, and we'll see that this morning. But Lord, I pray that ea

And we're just so thankful to be here today, and I am so thankful to have this opportunity to preach and to be able to lead this location, Lord. And I just pray that you would be with each and every single one of us this morning. Help us to see more of who you are. Help us to understand your word. And I pray, Lord, that your spirit would go before us, prepare our hearts for the word, convict us of sin, and help us to worship you more.

It's called the wrath of God. The wrath of God. Very, very serious. So let's pray and then we'll get into this and ask God to speak. Okay, Lord, we come to you and we love you. We thank you that you love us. And I pray this morning that your word would be clear. Pray you would speak. Pray you would help us to hear only you. Lord, we need you and we come to your word in need. We need you and we come to your word in need today.

So let's pray and let's dive into the truth of this passage. Lord God, as I prayed, I pray that we'll hear your truth. Well, God, I pray that you lead in this. May through this, we see your love, but we also see your righteousness. I pray for help in Jesus name. Amen. Romans 1 18 says this for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and righteousness of men. You may be going, man, pastor, I did not want to come to a sermon on Sunday to hear about the wrath of God.

But I pray it would be a reminder to you, if you are a born-again believer, I pray it would be a reminder to you of what you were. May it make you thankful for what God has done. So the unsaved person here, they are called, in verse 18, ungodly and unrighteous. Watch this, verse 18. The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Now, please understand that this is not just a description of the super wicked in this world. This is every unsaved person.

So mom and dad, they're just, we don't know what to do. They began to pray, reach out to church. We began to pray their growth community. Ladies gather, gather praying and talk to mom, one of the growth community leaders. And they talked about how all year we gather and our prayer was Lord, please stop the fainting. Lord, if you just, will you please stop the fainting? So finally, after doctor, after doctor, after doctor, they get to a doctor.

There's the wisdom to help and seize and seize. And now they're able to get some help. Somehow mom was explaining, man, we've been praying for him to stop fainting. And the doctor said, listen, you don't want, you didn't want him to stop fainting because the fainting was saving his life because his brain was short on oxygen. And so this was the protection over the child. And I just thought how as a believer, I'm so thankful that God's straps are on my life, that even in times when I pray and I don't know how to pray and God, we want, God goes, Hey, you keep seeking me, but I got you.

You have provided the way of salvation. You have accomplished it on the cross. Lord I pray for anyone in here that is maybe feeling that conviction. Lord if your spirit is stirring within them I pray that you give them the courage and the boldness to step forward in faith. To surrender to you to change their life today. To receive this great gift of grace and have the cure to the need of their soul. God I love you so much and I pray that you would help us to go to the world and to give this need to them. We pray this all in the very precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I know none of us can. I just pray for us to examine our hearts this morning. Give ourselves back to God. I want to see a revival in this world like we've never seen. The Bible said it will happen. In fact, those are, they're going to have to give their life for God. I'm willing to do that. I told my wife, I don't think I would have been years ago. I pray that I won't have my Peter moment where I deny him three times. But if it ever happens, I want to know that my life is right.

But I'm letting you know, there's nothing better than Jesus Christ. There's nothing sweeter than salvation. Let's bow our heads. This morning, I just pray that each one of you will just pray and think about what God had for you this morning. Pray that we reach deep and understand that he has a purpose and a plan for us. See, the Bible says the moment you were conceived, God had a plan for you. It takes a lot of questioning out of our lives. We may not always know what that is. We may not know what that understanding is. But I'm saying if you need prayer this morning, I just ask you to just raise your hand this morning. Nobody looking around. Nobody, nobody peeking, please. It's time to get in control. It's a tough message, but I just want to pray for each and every one of you this morning.

your heart, even through a tougher passage of scripture. God, I thank you for revealing to us what leads us away from you, what brings disorder, what brings pain, what brings just strife and sorrow. God, I pray that we would look to the cross, it stands above it all, and that we would actually hear your grace being shown, that you would reveal how to have a relationship with you. For anyone struggling this morning, I pray they would turn their heart to you. For anyone that doesn't know you, I pray that they would give their life to you. Thank you, Lord, for who you are, for what you've done, how you've revealed yourself to us. Work in our hearts now.

Lord, I pray that in our hearts, Lord, we would choose you over anything and everything else. Lord, wherever in my heart I am substituting you with something else, convict me. Bring it to the forefront of my mind. Lord, give me the strength through your spirit to deny it and choose you. Lord, if there are individuals in this room who are struggling and hurting, if they're hearing the bad news, I just pray they would know that there is good news.

And so may we have compassion, not anger, compassion to people who are caught in these things. The rug has been pulled out from under them and may it bring us to a place of peace. A place of prayer and repentance and confession and prayer for them. So, in verse 28, we come back to the truth that all mankind knows, and then we're going to wrap it up here in just a moment. So, verse 28, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting.

Lord, I pray for every person here today or watching online that does not yet know you. I pray that they would turn to you now. That they would take their hand off the faucet and allow the truth of who you are to reach their heart and mind. That they would feel shame for sin, but that that would bring about repentance and then forgiveness and life. If that's you this morning, you need to turn to the Lord. He's already listening to you. Turn to him. He will save. It's the reason you're here. It's the reason you're hearing these things. He wants to save you. He loves you.

that Paul usually stops and does is he takes a second, he adjusts, and he says, he addresses some theology. So he looks and explains some deep truths about God, about the church, about humanity. And so he gives these spiritual truths, these theological truths. And then he takes pauses and he says, this is how it applies to you. This is how it shows up in your lives. And so this morning, we're going to take a look at that, kind of that first pause in the first section where he says, okay, here's how all this stuff that I just talked about applies to you. And before we jump into Romans this morning, let's pray together. Lord, I love your word. Your word is truth. It's insight. It's understanding. It's wisdom to live differently. Lord, I pray that this morning we would be shown the truth of your word. Lord, that you would clearly teach us and learn from it. Lord, we love you. In your precio

For God shows no partiality. Let's pray real quick. Lord, I just pray again for your help this morning. Lead my words. But even more important, Lord, I just pray people will hear from your spirit the truth this morning.

You would pray, search me, oh God, and know me. In this moment, you'll pray that very bold prayer before God. Maybe the Holy Spirit of God will speak into your heart and say, yeah, you're religious, but you're not saved. You're a church person. But you're not born again. You're moral, but you've not been made new.

Maybe you want to come and have a conversation with the Lord this morning. Maybe you need to ask for forgiveness. Maybe you want God to help you to change that in your life. I want to invite you to come up and pray. If you would like one of us to pray, we will. Pray with you, we will. But if you're here this morning and you've never trusted Jesus as Savior, I really want you to come up and pray. I want you to consider what we've talked about today.

This is the amazing passage here. This is the truth God has. Let's stand together. I'm going to pray. All right. Lord God. Thank you for this morning. Thank you for Lord. Just an awesome day to celebrate moms and child dedication. But also to run to your truth. Pray Lord that we don't read this passage and go, yep, there are self-righteous people out there Lord. We may take an honest assessment of our lives. See our need for you.

Let's pray and ask God to show up in our lives this week. Lord, I pray that you help us to live differently this week because we have been given such great wisdom from your word. Lord, there's a bunch of things in these passages that are convicting to us. Lord, a tendency to dismiss our own sin by placing blame, placing judgment on other sin, the sins of others. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to realize that we are sinners. We are sinners. The only difference between us and those who are lost or the sinful world is that you saved us, that you paid the debt which our sin incurred. Lord, I pray that it would help us to live differently, to live godly lives. Lord, I pray if there's someone in this room who doesn't know you, who has been content for far too long living in that degeneration of sin. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would press upon them their need for you and that they woul

I pray, Lord, that you would help us to understand your word. I pray that the book of Romans would be unfolded before us, Lord, today in very real ways. It would help us to understand you and your ways and who you are and what the gospel really is. And I pray this morning, Lord, that we would hear from you. Please, Lord, speak. Please, Lord, give us ears to hear and hearts that are ready to receive. We love you, Lord, and we thank you that you are here.

Listen to what I just said. Religious knowledge without spiritual transformation is damning. Remember those other two groups of people that Paul already pointed the mirror to? The consequence is, hey, you're in deep water. You're the bad news. You need to understand. The bad news before you can really grasp and hold on to the good news. So let's pray before we really dive into, we're going to be in the 17th verse. Let's pray and ask the Holy Spirit to lead us, to guide us, to direct us as we walk through these passages.

So again I'll ask one more time before we pray as you stand before the Lord and give that account what are you answering with? Let's pray. Lord Jesus we love you so much and we cannot thank you enough for this wonderful morning. We cannot thank you for the goodness of who you are. We cannot thank you enough for how good and loving and faithful of a God that you are. And I pray for each of us we are able to examine ourselves this morning and see what are we upholding in our lives?

Father, thank you for being here. We thank you for the promise that will never leave us nor forsake us. Thank you for the Holy Spirit being here and working on our hearts and pointing out the areas that we need to address and clean up. I pray for the person here who's feeling a conviction to lean toward Jesus, that they would take that step. They'd boldly come forth and give their life to you and let others know. I pray that the reputation of this church, the reputation of each one of us would be pleasing to you.

lays down is super hard. It's hard for me to preach. It's hard for me to hear. But Lord, the truth sometimes hurts. And we need to hear the truth even when it hurts. Lord, I pray if there's anybody here that's really struggling with this identity, whether they've walked in religion or not, Lord, that they don't know whether they have a relationship with you. Lord, I just pray right now that your spirit would convict them, would push them to follow and pursue you. It's not anything complicated. Lord, your scripture says very, very clearly, repent, believe. In fact, Paul speaks of this later in Romans, I think it's chapter nine or chapter 10. If we will confess with our mouth and believe in our heart, Lord, we will be saved. Lord, I pray this is something that if anybody has a question on, they would not walk out today without knowing it.

Outward form of these things, but not actually the real thing. If so, confess that to God now. Turn to him in your need. Lord, we love you. We thank you. You are merciful and kind. We thank you for your love and for your grace. But I pray for any person here today that does not know you, that they would turn to you. Lord, if you have revealed today that we are only, only outwardly these things and not real, I pray that, Lord, you would help them to turn to you in this moment for salvation.

But for us today... I'm excited to be here just to be able to fill in for Pastor Caleb. So one of my friends, a guy I've known for a long time, and he knows more embarrassing stories than me than I care to count, but I'm just blessed to be able to fill in. But for us today, let's pray, and let's just see what God does this morning. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. Lord, thank you so much that, Lord, your love starts everything.

So Lord, today, I pray that you move. Lord, I pray you do something amazing. Lord, and I pray that ultimately people move closer to you. Be with me, guide me, direct me. But Lord, we love you. And we pray this all in your beautiful name. Amen. So, I've been fascinated with something in my own life as of late, where I've been really, really focused on how I respond to things. So I'm learning this fancy thing called empathy, and it's not a go-to trait for me.

It's a hard truth to hear, though, that we are sinful people and that we fall all the time. But it's very important for us to hear. So let's pray and then we'll jump into the word today. Dear Heavenly Father and Lord, we love you so much. And I thank you so much for this. This amazing morning and the blessing to be able to worship you freely. I pray, Lord, right now that your Holy Spirit would go before me, that you would just speak through me and you would penetrate all the hearts of everyone in here.

So today, the title of the sermon is, Church, We Need to Take a Good Look in the Mirror. We need to take a good look in the mirror. We'll be starting in Romans chapter 3. I'm going to start us with a prayer and then we'll go into verses 1 and 2. Will you pray with me? Lord, we come before you today and we're just thankful, Lord. We're thankful for the gift that you've given us of all these beautiful people that gathered together under your word, gathered together under your name, gathered together as followers, believers.