In my opinion, this has been the best sermon I’ve heard Pastor Steve preach.  He proclaimed the gospel boldly and clearly.

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The Power of the Gospel
Series: Redemption, a study of Romans 1-8
Pastor Steve Moltumyr

Romans 1:1-17

• Romans 1-8 show us everything that’s wrong with humanity and how God goes about redeeming us.
• Verses 1-7 are the heart of Paul’s gospel and verses 16-17 is the mission statement.
• Paul himself is an oxymoron because he killed Christians.  Now he’s an apostle, spreading the gospel to all people instead of killing gospel people.
• Bill Maher is an outspoken atheist today.  “Bill Maher would be nothing compared to the apostle Paul before his conversion.”
• The gospel was not invented by men who brainstormed up a way to reconcile man to God.
• The Bible is one book with one main point: Jesus Christ.
• What is so great about the gospel?  God became man in Jesus Christ.  He is able to identify with our weaknesses.  Yet Jesus didn’t sin.  He died for our sin.  And what’s better is that he didn’t stay dead.

The Heart of the Gospel

• The Gospel is good news, not good advice.
• The Gospel is what separates Christianity from all the other religions of the world.
• The Gospel is something that has already happened.  It is not something that we can do.
• Most people think Christianity is about just being good like Jesus.  And when these people are asked, “Do you live like Jesus?” they are either shrugged, bugged, or smugged.  That is, they are apathetic, offended, or self-righteous.

The Content of the Gospel

• Verse 17: The righteousness of God is the righteousness that comes to us when we believe by faith.
• The gospel is more than forgiveness.  The gospel is about the complete justification we have before God because of Christ’s perfect person and completed work.
• God delights in me now, because of Jesus, as much as he will in a million years from now in eternity.