"The Gospel is good enough."

Scripture: Romans 1:16

Sermon Summary: 
What apostle Paul means by saying, “I am not ashamed of the gospel”, is that he sees nothing in it to be shameful of. Shame, as we understand it, is a feeling of “you’re not good enough”. Shame comes to us when we don’t meet a certain expectation or shame follows the feeling of embarrassment. So for Paul to state that he is not ashamed of the gospel, we understand that he means the Gospel is good enough. And by the Gospel, we understand that Jesus, God’s one and only son, was sent to Earth so that through his life, death and resurrection, we may be restored, through salvation, by faith, to the glory of God. Jesus is the good news. 
Paul also states that this gospel/good news, is the power of God. Power of God for salvation. Many Jews understood the power of God in two senses: Deliverance and Judgment. But Paul demands that the power of God that we see in the Gospel is not a physical deliverance and judgment as we have seen in the Old Testament. But rather, the Gospel of Jesus is bringing to us a spiritual deliverance. From death and separation from God to a new life and reconciliation with God. And this Gospel ultimately requires from us a response of Faith. 
If we respond to this good news in faith and belief, we can enjoy this salvation promise and enjoy God’s glory. Paul’s statement in this verse can be reworded as the following: I have full confidence in the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who responds in faith and believes in it. This is a clear declaration of the work of Jesus on the cross. So we ask ourselves these questions:
1) Is the Gospel good enough in our lives?
​2) Do we believe in this Gospel? 
We pray and hope that we may live a life that speaks “I am not ashamed of the Gospel”, “I have full confidence in the Gospel”.

[Title] Walk This Way II

Last time, we were talking about specific ways to walk as children of God. The one of the ways to walk was walking in Love. But first, we established that we walk in specific ways because we need to imitate God as beloved children of God.

• This does not mean that we become Lord of my life or be a king of my life.
• This means that we have the heart of God. This means we see the world around us the way God sees and do things the way, which we honor God.
• Not because we have to because we love God; because we are so thankful to be God’s children because God loved us first.
• We became God’s children because of grace and the act of adaption while we are still belonged to the darkness.
• So when we talk in love,
  • We forgive (like Christ died on the cross to forgive our sins)
  • We love and accept others (like Christ loves and accepts us as we are)
  • We give the first and the best (just like the woman with the jar of fragrance, which anointed the Christ before his death on the cross).
• By walking in love, we may imitate God and that is how we must live this life that has been freely given to us through the death and resurrection of Christ.

 
This week, we will talk about the walk in the light. According to verses 7 and 8, we used to belong to the darkness and it is telling us not to be partners with things of darkness. And now, we are in the light of Christ and we must walk as children of light.
 
So what is the light? The light is the Gospel and the gospel is Jesus.. John chapter 1 said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. And Jesus was with God in the beginning. All things are made through Jesus; and Jesus was the life and was the light. And John 1:5 says the light (Jesus) shines the darkness.
So what do we do with this light? You can ask in a specific way. What do we do when you have Jesus in your heart? It is the fundamental question for Christians… What we tend to do is to store Jesus in a very special box in your hearts and access him whenever you want, whenever you need. Especially when you are in trouble or when you are lonely or in pain.. But that is not what it says here; what you do with the light (Jesus and the gospel), you shine darkness with it.
The problem is we think we know everything; and we say everything is good and well. We tell ourselves that we are not sinful and it is okay to permit some area of darkness because we live in a sinful world. We tell ourselves that we cannot help making things better or become an imitator of God because we are born to be a sinner; which is true in a sense.
But the problem is we stop there. We do not try any harder to imitate God, we just give up.
Here in Ephesians 5:13 says, EXPOSE your life with the light so that it becomes visible.
What is that mean? It means expose every aspect of your life with the light of Jesus Christ. It means expose every area of your life with light of gospel.
Do not just say you are a sinner and there is nothing for you or God can do to get out of the sinful life. It says expose your life by the light.
 
Life of human being is like the walking in a complete dark room. If I were to walk out of this room in a complete darkness, I would bump on people in this room and thing in this room. Next thing you know, I would crush my toes and hit my knees with thing and bump my head and fall down on the floor. So what I would do is to “FEEL” my surroundings with my hands and feet. Just like we would feel our ways to get out of the room, we live life by our feelings.
We live what “FEELS RIGHT” for us and we do not recognize that these feelings will make you crush your feet and falling flat on your nose.

• Getting ahead by cheating feels good
• Having sex before marriage feels good
• To get things you want with a little innocent lies feels good.
• We do not realize these things will make us crush our legs and bump our heads to cause us to fall down.

Here in Ephesians, Paul is telling us to expose your life with word of God then it will become very clear as day and you will be able to see where you are going.
 
So are we living in the darkness? What are you talking about, it is bright here? Well, the verse 8 says you were in darkness. Bible tells us in verse 7 that it is easy to become partners of darkness; and gives us a few examples.
Ephesians 5:3~6
3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you …
4 Let there be no foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place…
6 Let no one deceives you with empty words…
Those versus describe things we do and not considering as sins in this day and age:
 
Sexual immorality

• Worldly idea of SEX is it is physical desire and it should not be viewed any differently as your physical needs, like hunger. You eat when you are hungry; you perform sexual behavior when you have sexual desire.
• World tells you it is so much easier to get to know your partner once you sleep together before committing to a serious marriage relationship and wise to live together to see you are compatible with that special someone.
• Bible tells us that, that is darkness.

 
 
Impurity and covetousness (idolater in verse 5)

• What is coveting? Covetousness is your worldly desire. It is jealous thought. It is desire that you have for something God does not allow you to have. Whatever it is… It is state of un-satisfaction, wanting things you will not and should not have. Even if you finally get it, you will not be completely satisfied. It is opposite of “poor-in-spirit”
• When you desire something, you would work for it, you would try so hard to gain whatever it is you feel that you are missing out in your life. You think about it and you plan it and you would consume your entire mind and thought, your life to get what you want.
• Verse 5 says covetousness is what idolaters have in their hearts. You worship things you want to get.
• Rather than receiving the satisfaction and completeness by submitting and worshiping Christ the King, you would worship the things of darkness.
• Verse 11 says Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them
• When you expose your life with Christ, you will become the imitator of God and you will find the complete satisfaction in Christ. The state of poor in spirit.
• Matthew 5: says you will inherit kingdom of heaven if you are poor in spirit.
•  SO what does it mean if your life pursues things of darkness? like sexual immorality and covetousness? Then end of verse 5 says You will have no inheritance in the kingdom of God
• What does that mean? It means you have no place and you cannot partake in building the kingdom of God which is very reason that God chose you and saved you from the eternal hell according to the beginning of Ephesians.
• Bible is very clear on this. It completely agrees with and supports the promise you receive if you are poor in spirit.

What else is there? There are plenty more Paul talks about the darkness in our lives:
Foolish talk and crude jokes:

• This does not mean that you cannot have a little fun in life. I talk a lot and say things to people and I make jokes. And I find to be very fun.
• After all, talking to people is one of the ways to proclaim Jesus with the words I speak. But it can damage relationships and hurt people if I am not careful.

 
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. (James 3:3-6)
 

• James talks about this issue with our tongues. It says our tongues are like a rudder that moves large ship or a bit which is able to control the large animals like cows or horses. Or small fire that is capable of burn down the whole forest
• Your tongue can control you, makes you a saint or a respected person, at the same time, it can make you a fool or an undeserved person.
• James says your tongue is controlled by Satan himself that will destroy you and people around you and destroy instantly every godly thing that you have worked for as Christians. Because of one small part of your body. Your tongues.
• So James says be careful with what you say, especially if you are teachers. That you will be judged more severely. Because what you say matter. And what you say to people either build them up, or break apart.
• Foolish talks and the jokes will destroy relationships and will not bring and display glory of God, where your tongues have power to do so.
• Instead, in Ephesians 5:4 says, let there be thanksgiving. Show gratitude with your words.

 
Empty words

• What is the prime example of empty words? Lies
• Let me tell you a story about a lie.  I said this before but it seems fitting in this case.
• Did you know whole world fell and human being became sinners because of one small stinkin’ lie? Satan said “you will never die if you eat that fruit, your eyes will open, you will become wise as God, know the right and wrong. Interestingly enough those things that Satan told to Adam and Eve were not all completely lies. Let me tell you. Listen carefully. This is from Genesis chapter 3.
  • Adam and eve did not die:
    • Not right away anyway. Correct? But God said “you will surely die.” This is how Adam and Eve died
    • 1) Physical death: they started get age
    • 2) Spiritual death: they were cut away from God.
  • Their eyes did open: they realized they were naked.
    • Shame: They have new emotion called “shame”. Shame only comes after causing sins. Verse 12 says 12 for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. Adam and Eve were doing something behind the back, they were sinning in secrete
    • Sin entered in human lives: After they have suffered the spiritual death, sin entered into their hearts. Bible describes your hearts as vessels. It contains spirit. After the spirit of God departed the human hearts, spirit of evil occupied human hearts.
    • Their eyes are open indeed. It opened for unholy things but closed for the heavenly (spiritual) things. This is the start of your eyes collecting information to give you doubts and worries in your minds, instead of eyes of faith for heavenly things.
  • Became like gods: instead of God lives in your hearts as your king, you became the king of your castle, your mind, body and soul.
  • Because of corruption of your mind, you have a wrong (or skewed) standard for the right and the wrong
• It says in verse 6, Let no one deceive you with empty words,
• Not only from Satan or other people, especially do not let yourself convince you with empty and foolish ideas

 
Thankfully there are benefits of walking in light:

1. Verse 9 said you will have the fruit of the light found in good, right, and true
2. Verse 10 said you will be able to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. This means you will be able to see what God wants of you in your life, because everything will become visible, everything will be clear to you.

 
In your small group, I would like you to talk about how you can imitate God by walking in the light.

• What is light?
  • What do we do when you have in your heart?
• What is darkness?
  • Physical desires
  • What is coveting? And what does that have to do with idolater?
  • What are the effects of empty words?
  • What is the result of pursuing darkness?
• What are the benefits of walking in light?

 
Let’s close our eyes. Let us think about what it means to walk in the light.
It really means to have Jesus in every aspect of your life.
Let him shine the areas of darkness in your life.
And ask him to be the Lord and the king of your life. Do not say you believe in Jesus and put him in a cage. And access him only whenever you need him.
I am not judging you; I am speaking as one of you.
We only look for Jesus, when we are in trouble or when we need him.
That is not walking in light. We must illuminate entire areas of our lives with gospel so that we may not walk in the darkness. Let us have time to pray to confess our sin of not making Jesus king of our lives. And ask him to be the center of our lives.