Sermon given on: Jul 5, 2015

Excerpt:

What we’re discovering in our study of Romans is how counter-intuitive the teachings in the text are. To everything that the church in Rome was dealing with, it was counter-intuitive. Paul was saying things to them, I think, pretty much the opposite of what those people would think and feel were the right things to do. Every body is human and we don’t have an idea of what is supposed to happen. Paul was teaching things that were just probably didn’t make a whole lot of sense to them.

I would think that it was interesting how very counter-cultural the teachings in the book of Romans are to everything that we are dealing with today.

Today we are going to talk about Celebrating Good Times. In your mind you are probably thinking about what good times are, you probably have an idea what celebration looks like, but we’re going to talk about it through Pauls’ lens, his filter which is probably a little bit different.

Romans 5:1-5 (NASB)
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.  And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

To get the most out of this sermon, we invite you to listen to the entire audio.