The Book of Romans

Chester Clark

Dalton SDA Church

Reasonable Service

Father in heaven, today we thank you that you've given us.

You've given us Jesus, and in Jesus you've given us every good gift.

We thank you for the Sabbath, we thank you for your Word, we thank you for fellowship, we thank you for the joy of seeing You working in our own lives, even through some of the challenges and the difficulties we face.

And today, as we think about what it means to render reasonable service, we pray that You would send Your Spirit to be here.

Father, take my lips, take my voice, and may Your words have an impact.

May Your Scriptures have an impact on our hearts today, and we thank You in Jesus' name.

Paul begins chapter 12 of the book of Romans with an entreaty, a plea.

Now this is somewhat unique so far in the book, but it's not unique to how Paul wrote.

In fact, if you look at almost all of the epistles of Paul, Paul began by giving a theological treatise, by giving a presentation of why he believed what he believed, and having given what he was trying to teach, he would then come later in the epistle to this statement where he would then begin to apply what he was teaching to the lives of his listeners, to the lives of his readers.

He's trying to explain to them what their reasonable service would be given the fact that Jesus has brought us salvation, as he has described in the first 11 chapters.

When I think of reasonable service, I think of some of those great stories of heroism, where people were willing to give their lives for the throne, for their king, for their master.

There are different stories we could look at, but 1 of the, perhaps 1 of the most remarkable stories of heroism and loyalty and service is found in the book of 2 Samuel in the 23rd chapter.

You remember it was then that the Philistines had encamped around Bethlehem, and David himself was hiding out in the wilderness.

And David was just sort of musing out there in the desert, out there in the wilderness, without a lot of provisions, no doubt.

David was musing and just reflecting on his childhood and on some of the, maybe some of the more positive memories, you know, reminiscing, and he says, oh man, right now I just wish I had a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem.

He knew the Bethlehem was surrounded, they were at war, the Philistines were there, and there was no way he was going to get a drink of water.

He certainly didn't intend for anyone to take that as a request, but 3 of his most valiant men heard him doing this reminiscing, reflecting, sort of wishful thinking.

And 3 of his most valiant men, they said, we're going to give our king what he wants.

We're going to go to the well of Bethlehem and get water.

Now can you imagine, can you imagine 3 men taking on a whole occupied city or surrounded city with enemy army?

Somehow they either snuck or fought their way through the Philistines all the way to the well of Bethlehem.

They must have taken some time to draw water out of the well.

Have you ever, I don't know how they drew water in those days.

Maybe they had just sort of a rope on a, with a, tied to a, you know, a clay jar or something.

But I'll tell you, I've been in some places in third world countries where they use a bag on the end of a rope because they don't have jars.

It's sort of like a, and it's a little bit tricky to get that bag to start filling.

And once they do, they get it up and here they are surrounded in enemy territory.

They must have had some type of way to carry it back.

I mean, they didn't have our sig bottles that we have today, you know.

They had to have some vessel, some flask of leather or something to carry it back in, and they carry it back through the enemy lines, and they bring it to David.

They were willing, they were willing to put their lives on the line for their King.

And we can talk about the Romans who were sworn allegiance to their generals, who fought for the emperor.

We could talk about the great missionaries who sacrificed much, who were willing to die.

The martyrs who said, Oh, I wish I had a thousand lives to be burned at the stake.

I would like to die a thousand times for my Master." And Paul here, he begins Romans chapter 12 by saying, I beseech you, I plead with you, I entreat you, but therefore...

Now, The word therefore is always very instructive.

The word therefore is filled with meaning.

And sometimes we tend to just sort of speed over it, breeze past it, when we see the word therefore, because it's sort of, you know, we don't think a lot about it, and too Often we read the Bible sort of in just like 1 verse at a time.

But I would propose to you that the word therefore means that based upon what we've already talked about, right?

Based upon some preceding ideas, therefore, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as living sacrifices." Now, therefore, must point back to the first 11 chapters where Paul has been arguing about the gospel.

I shouldn't say arguing, that sounds maybe pejorative and negative.

He has been presenting, he's been eloquently describing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He's been pointing out some of the pitfalls that the Jewish nation had fallen into, of legalism.

He started in Romans chapter 1 talking about how the world is lost.

And just as his readers were about to become self-confident, well, at least I don't do those terrible things that Paul's describing out in the world.

Because it doesn't matter if you go to church every week.

You go to church twice or 3 times or 5 times a week.

You're lost except for Jesus, a miracle of God's grace.

And so chapter 3, he goes on to begin describing what this righteousness by faith is like.

Number 3, I shouldn't say the church is lost, the Good people are lost without salvation through Jesus Christ.

Romans chapter 4, but there's righteousness by faith that comes from God.

And Abraham is given as an example of that, right?

And Romans 5, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 6, our old man dies and God uses the metaphor of the resurrection, death and resurrection, that God speaks new life into our hearts.

That's my heart in 2014, your heart in 2014.

A miracle, divine regeneration, just as a great miracle performed by this same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.

He uses the symbols of marriage and how we can't be married to 2 people legally in God's eyes.

And so, if we're still married to our old life, we can't be united with Jesus in Romans chapter 7.

Romans chapter 8 talks about how we can live by the flesh or we can live by the Spirit, but God wants to give us the power to be the sons of God, to be led by the Spirit of God.

And so, he's gone through all of this description of how we can experience salvation in Jesus.

Romans is a book of the Bible that we can thank God for, because it gives us 1 of the clearest understandings of the gospel.

And Romans 9 and 10 and 11, he talks about particularly the problems that the Jews had fallen into.

This trap of legalism, of thinking because you were doing good, you were good.

Of thinking you were defined by the things you do.

No, We are defined by who we are inside and only Jesus can change who I am.

Only Jesus, a miracle of Jesus, can change who I am.

And so based on all of this, Paul says in Romans chapter 12, I beseech you therefore, therefore, because of all of this that I've presented to you, this is your response, that you present your bodies, present yourselves as living sacrifices, living sacrifices, which is your reasonable service.

Now the word reasonable there, sometimes it's translated spiritual.

I don't know exactly how they come with the spiritual.

Now that pretty much means it's rational, it's reasonable.

This is something that if you knew all of the information, you would do.

You see, the world thinks that Christianity is irrational.

The Bible argues within itself, at least, the Bible argues that no, God says, following me, giving yourself, your bodies as living sacrifice, giving everything you have to me is actually logical, if you know the facts.

To Be Happy

Well, this morning we're going to talk about happiness.

And you know, for different people, happiness means different things.

And so we're going to try to define that, but we're trying to especially see what it means from God's Word, what it means to be happy and how God's Word has the answer to be happy.

I don't know about you, but many were surprised just a couple of weeks ago when the life of a comedian, a comic, Robin Williams, ended rather abruptly.

And when you think of someone that makes people laugh, someone who is funny, when you think about someone who has fame and fortune and friends and connections and everything seems to be going right in their life, it's rather surprising to find out that they're actually not happy, isn't it?

Now I have a little confession to make, maybe some of you of younger generations can understand, I actually didn't know who Robin Williams was.

And so someone said to me, it was when we arrived at Oshkosh, someone said to me, you know, Robin Williams died.

And I'm thinking, what Pathfinder club is he from?

And so that's just, I'm confessing my cultural ignorance here, I guess.

But some younger people might understand how I feel.

And so as I began to read more about him, I began to see that Robin Williams was someone that you would expect to be happy, right?

He was someone that you would think would be happy.

He was 1 of the best talents, 1 of the sharpest minds, 1 of the funniest, wittiest, a person who made people laugh all the time.

Some of the things I read in this article from People Magazine, I read about Robin Williams and 1 of the co-producers who worked with him said he had money, fame, people around him who loved him.

Especially when there is a way to find peace.

Especially when there's a way to find peace.

Another, Gary Marshall, director and friend, said he could make everybody happy but himself.

And when I read that, I felt a little bit of a twinge of maybe, I'm not sure that people even know what happy means.

It seems as though he could make everyone laugh.

And Robin Williams somehow wasn't able to be happy.

And as I read about his life and as I read about him and I saw the impact that his death had on Hollywood and celebrities around the world and even the president issued a statement on it, I realized that this world wants to be happy, right?

We want that peace and that satisfaction, that fulfillment.

We don't find it where we think we would find it.

I want to turn with you, through you in our Bibles today, to the book of Ecclesiastes.

In Ecclesiastes, the wise man, Solomon, reflects on his life and on his attempts at finding happiness.

And we're going to see here that Solomon tried to find happiness in all the wrong places.

And I suppose not much has changed in human nature since Solomon's time.

Would you agree with me that we're basically the same human beings, fallen mortals, that Solomon was?

And we might think that we're sophisticated and we're technological and we're advanced and all those things, but we're basically the same human beings as Solomon was.

And Solomon tried to find happiness And so if we just pick up in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, we notice here, he says, The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

This life is just a bunch of running on a treadmill.

They hop out and they're in the same place.

And they hop back in and they hop out in the same place.

That's what life is like, Solomon's saying.

And he says, what profit has a man from all his labor which he toils under the sun?

1 generation passes away and another generation comes.

The sun goes down, or the sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose.

The wind goes towards the south and turns around and comes again to the north.

The wind whirls about continually and comes again on its circuit.

All the rivers run into the sea, and the sea is not full.

To the place from which the rivers come, there they return again.

All things are full of labor, man cannot express it.

The eye is not satisfied with hearing, nor the ear with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." And so Solomon is saying, look, what's the point?

We're just going to live and we're going to die.

It's just like so many illustrations that he sees in the natural world, the rivers just keep running and don't accomplish anything because the sea isn't any fuller than it was before.

And so, Solomon decided that he would try to find what he is missing.

Notice with me in verse 12, the preacher was king over Israel and Jerusalem.

So, what do we know about Solomon already?

Surely if you have power you can be happy.

But here he is sitting on the throne, a mighty monarch, and he didn't have happiness.

And I set my heart to seek out and search out by wisdom, concerning all that is done under the 7, under heaven, I'm sorry, this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.

And so he began to find wisdom and study, knowledge, all of those things, education.

Verse 16, I communed with my heart saying, look, I have attained greatness and have gained more wisdom than all who are before me in Jerusalem.

My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.

And he says in verse 17, I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly, I perceive that this also is grasping for the wind.

And much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." Students, don't listen to that quite yet.

But the point is that studying won't make you happy, right?

If you think that your education or degree, sometime down the future, you're going to be happy because of the letters behind your name or in front of your name, it's not going to happen.

And Solomon discovered this many, many years ago.

And he says now in chapter 2 and verse 1, I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with mirth.

I searched my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives." But do you think that helped him?

Humor didn't work, entertainment didn't work, joking and laughter didn't work, using substances to distort his mind didn't work, and so he began to look to things.

Verse 6, verse 4, I made my works great, I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards, I made myself gardens and orchards and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them, I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove, I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house.

Yes, I had greater possessions than of herds and flocks and all who were in Jerusalem before me.

I also gathered myself silver and gold and special treasures of kings and of the provinces.

Anil Kanda

Ceres SDA Church

At The Top Of The Ladder

You know what makes this day of worship different from all the days that we worship Jesus?

And by the way, how many days are we to worship Jesus?

But what makes this day of worship different?

So when it comes to worship throughout the entire week, God calls us away on this very special Sabbath day to come before Him in a very special type of worship.

And that's what we're gonna do right now.

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we just come to you just as we are.

And Lord, our great argument is just our need of your grace right now.

Father, we pray and ask that you would bless us with the Holy Spirit.

We're living at very critical times, and God, we need to understand your will, your ways.

Most of all, our heart's desire is, Jesus, that this morning we would have a revelation of your character, That we may walk away changed because we have behold the Lamb of God.

Thank you so much Jesus, in your name we pray.

By the way, just a reminder, what is taking place next Friday?

And that prophecy seminar is entitled Revelation Today, right?

And this is going to be an exciting time.

How many people here have been to our Prophecy Seminars in the last 3 and a half years?

If you have not been to these Prophecy Seminars, I want to invite you out.

It starts with a delicious dinner at 6.15 and the actual presentations start at 7.15.

And so folks, we want to invite each and every person to come on out.

Invite your friends, your family, your neighbors.

There's going to even be like a 12-minute discussion time.

And folks, this is the time that God is calling us to go look for those lost sheep.

So if you know people around you, you know neighbors, you know the policeman, the doctor, you just give them an advertisement, you just say, here, we want you to come till this starts next Friday.

Well, the name of the sermon is called At the Top of the Ladder, At the Top of the Ladder.

Did you know we had people all the way from Mariposa showing up to this health fair?

And that's exciting because a lot of people are interested in health.

If you missed it, you missed something really big.

You name it, all over from the community.

In the fireside room, we had different checkups that were taking place, free cholesterol screenings.

We also had our, you know, what do you call that thing, by the way, Barb?

So we had that taking place, and by the way, that was by the Curves booth.

And she actually remarked, she's not an Adventist, she said, I have not seen a health fair this organized before, and the unity that was here, it was awesome.

And so what a testament to the spirit of God.

We had a rock climbing wall as well by Camp Awona.

There was this massive green blob that began to go throughout all of Ceres.

And it was just really exciting just to see the young, the old, all different ages participate in this fair.

And when this took place we had a just a wonderful energy that started off our whole fair and that's Ed Holm right there.

It's these times that we need to proclaim the message that God has given to us.

And our Health message is an opening door to many people.

You know, like I said, about 15, 20 years ago, people used to object to the health message and say things like, well, that was done way without the cross and all sorts of things.

Now when you bring up the health message, it's something so attractive that people say, we want to know more about it.

Because people are interested in health, amen?

And this is the time for us to use this as a way to get people to know Jesus.

Well, we're going to start off with a very interesting passage of scripture.

We're going to Genesis chapter 28 and we're going to study the story of Jacob.

And if you're there, go ahead and say amen.

Now Jacob was a very interesting patriarch in the Scriptures.

And he decided 1 day that he was going to absorb his brother and take the birthright by deception.

He decides there's a better way to get God's blessing without having to follow God's way.

The Whole Enchilada

You know, it's awesome just to see our church reaching out more and more to the community.

And that's why we're doing this health fair tomorrow.

Now how many people plan to be at this health fair tomorrow?

You know what's really awesome about this health fair is that we have been praying that God would explode the advertising.

We've been praying that prayer and just in the last few days some remarkable things have been taking place.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Reasonable Service

47m

To Be Happy

47m

At The Top Of The Ladder

38m

The Whole Enchilada

45m

The Swimmer

42m

The Most Dependable Time Prophecy

39m

Horns, Winds, and Eagles’ Wings

44m

Our Gift

29m

Pilgrims and Strangers

35m

Super Hero

42m

Revelation’s Apostate Trilogy

50m

The King, the Mother, and the Daughter

50m

Sound Doctrine