Latest / The Daily Word / May 20 – Don’t Drift Away
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good wee hours of the night. Whenever you are joining us, welcome to the daily word podcast from Lake Shore Christian fellowship. My name is Corey Barnes. It's my privilege to pass dark atop a campus and I am excited to jump on in with you to the book of Romans today. Today is May the 20th. So that means Romans one is on the docket. Now Romans is by many considered to be Paul's greatest work, somewhat his magnum opus. ⁓ Martin Luther said that it was the most important piece of the New Testament and the theology from Romans was central to Martin Luther leading the Protestant Reformation. ⁓ This book is so rich and so deep. that it really is one that you kind of have to really slow down, take your time in reading the book of Romans because every sentence has so much depth and meaning and there's so much to glean from it. ⁓ the genius of the apostle Paul, ⁓ under the anointing of course of the Holy spirit is on full display in this letter. And I'm excited to be jumping in with you now in The first chapter here, Paul begins towards the end of that chapter, building a theme that is going to carry him for the next several chapters. And that theme is God's wrath. See the apostle Paul begins painting a picture of just how dark, just how bleak, just how bad things are in the world before later he's going to pivot. and show us the good news that comes out of that, which spoiler alert, the good news is going to be Jesus. Come on somebody. But first Paul starts painting this picture of how dark things are and we can glean things from that that are cautionary in our Christian life that help us to be sober minded and can help us to walk forward with Jesus, ⁓ full of reverent awe. Him and taking this Christian walk Seriously, so let's jump on in to verse 18 gonna read verses 18 through 23 in the NIV The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness Since what may be known about God as plain to them because God made it plain to them For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse for although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. So what Paul is saying here is from the very beginning, when God created all that we see and know God put pictures of who he is in his creation. How often have you been out in nature? And as a Christian, you're, you're, you're gobsmacked. You're an awe and wonder of the beauty of what God created. Well, it's not just us as Christians. that God put that picture there for it's for all of humanity. And Paul says that humans are with no excuse when instead of glorifying and giving thanks to God, they turn away and create idols, images made to look like humans and birds and animals and reptiles. And he goes on to say that based upon that fact in verses 24, it says therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their heart. Verse 26 says God gave them over to shameful lusts. And then in verse 28, God gave them over to a depraved mind. See when, when humanity turned their back on the God who made himself visible through what he created, God turned them over to themselves. their depraved mind, to their desires, to their lusts, and he let humanity reap the consequences of going after what they desire. And we see the results of that down further in verse 24. They're full of envy, murder, strive to seat malice. They're gossip slanderers, God haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. But the good news for us is that once we have accepted Jesus and we walk with him instead of turning us over to a depraved mind, the Lord actually gives us the mind of Christ. Paul lays this out in first Corinthians two 16. He tells us we have the mind of Christ. See, when we keep our eyes set and our hearts stayed on the Lord, we worship him. We make sure that we're not prioritizing other things over him. He walks with us and instead of turning us away, he actually guards us and loves us. It's that Psalm 23, him shepherding us, him walking with us as long as we continue on a path with him. Choose him. He will walk with us. He will lead us and he will guide us and he will never forsake us Because the last thing we want is to turn our backs on the Lord so long and so often that he decides to let us reap the consequences of doing things our way instead of allowing him to grace us to be able to do things his way So I guess that's our application today? Is there any area of our life where we have forgotten or intentionally decided not to follow the Lord? Is there any area of our life where instead of keeping our eyes set on him, giving him thanks and worshiping him, we've allowed other things. Maybe it looks like a mortal human being or birds or animals or reptiles, or maybe it looks like a career. relationship, something of that nature that we've allowed to take God's place in our heart. The last thing we want is for that to become a pattern and for the Lord to turn us over to those consequences. Because when he turns us over to those consequences, it's not to harm us, it's in hopes that those consequences will bring us back to him. But here today we can make the decision to never leave him in the first place and never have to face those things. So let's just do an examination of our heart. Is there an area Lord that you know that I need to bring correction into? Have I put something else in front of you? Am I not giving you what you're worthy of because I am fixated on this other thing. Let's pray father. I just thank you. I thank you for who you are. thank you that when we walk with you, you do give us the mind of Christ. You allow us to think about things the way you do. You give us grace and peace and love and mercy. And I thank you, Jesus, for all the benefits that come along with salvation. We thank you that you've rescued us out of darkness. Colossians one tells us that you have translated us from the kingdom of darkness into your kingdom of light. And I thank you Jesus that you have set us free in the kingdom of light. We don't have to be bound. We don't have to be led by our own desires, but in you there can be freedom from those things. So Lord, I pray that if you have turned any of us over to a depraved mind, Lord, I pray that you would give us the opportunity right now to repent, to turn back to you and to acknowledge that you are good and that we want to do things your way. And Lord, I pray that you would draw any of us that are flirting on that line that are walking it and could fall off either way. I pray that you would draw us back in Lord and help us to walk before you and with you so that you can shepherd us and lead us and guide us so that we can be in your protection and in your grace. We love you Jesus. We really do. Amen.