WELCOME to CENTRALCHURCH OF CHRIST: Not a place, but a people connected by a common bond of Christ our Savior with a common mission to show HIS love, tell HIS story, and be HIS people!  We’re on week 6 of an expository sermon series this week that I’m calling the “ROMAN ROAD.”  Expository means we learn from the text, and bring out it’s points, rather than topical, which is where we have a point and use the text to support it.  So here we are digging in for a while in the beautiful letter to the Romans from Paul.  I’m thankful for Patrick and Joelah filling in for me while I invested time with my family in the Harding Lectureships and visiting God’s natural beauty around the country.

ILLUS HAYDEN: For example, the great classical composer Joseph Hayden, was criticized because his church music was too cheerful (and you thought “contemporary music” was a tough sell).

  He replied: “I cannot help it.  I give forth what is in me. When I think of the Divine Being, my heart is so full of joy that the notes fly off as from a spindle. And as I have a cheerful heart, He will forgive me if I serve Him cheerfully.”

Romans 7:25a  “THANKS BE TO GOD— through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

“But THANKS BE TO GOD that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.” Romans 6:17

 

  “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

   When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

   “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

   But THANKS BE TO GOD! He gives us the victory (over death and the grave) through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 15:51-57

 

ILLUS PAUL IN PRISON: This legend tells of a wealthy merchant who had traveled to Rome to find this preacher he’d heard so much about. In his search, the merchant found Timothy… and Timothy arranged a visit.

  At the time, Paul was a prisoner in Rome. Stepping inside the cell, the merchant was surprised to find a rather old man, physically frail, but whose serenity and magnetism challenged the visitor. They talked for hours.

  Finally the merchant left and outside the prison, he asked Timothy “What is the secret of this man’s power? I have never seen anything like it before.”

  Did you not guess?” replied Timothy. “Paul is in love.”

  The merchant looked bewildered. “In Love?”

  “Yes,” the missionary answered, “Paul is in love with Jesus Christ.”

  The merchant looked even more bewildered. “That’s it. That’s all?”

  Timothy smiled and then replied, “Sir, that is everything.”

https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/25819-paul-the-apostle-in-love

 

“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replies “I suppose the one who owed the greater debt.”

  ”You are correct” says Jesus

Then Jesus turned to the woman and said

  “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.  Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven— for she loved much.

   But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Luke 7:36-47

Romans 7:25 Paul says “THANKS BE TO GOD— through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

“Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.” Ac 22:16

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners— of whom I am the worst.” 1 Timothy 1:15

“But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.” 1Timothy 1:16

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Mt 6:19-20

 

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

   Thanks be to God— through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 7:24 – 8:2

In a moment, we’re going to sing the song TRUST and OBEY.  The hymn was inspired in 1886 when the composer of the music, Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919), was the music leader during one of Dwight L. Moody’s famous revivals

“We were in Brockton, Massachusetts, and I had the pleasure of leading singing. One night a young man rose in a testimony meeting and said, ‘I am not quite sure—but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.’ I just jotted that sentence down, and sent it with a little story to the Rev. J. H. Sammis. He wrote the hymn, and the tune was born.”

Invitation: If you are thankful for the salvation that Jesus brings, if you are saying along with me, “Thanks be to God!”  Then the next move after thankfulness is trusting and obeying. 

“Trust and obey—for there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”