Well, hey, good morning. I'm so glad that you're here today. Look, I know, I know this has been said probably a couple of times to y'all already, but honestly, we're gonna say it more because I don't think we can say it enough. I don't think we can celebrate it enough. Last weekend, across all of our campuses, across all of our venture church campuses, we were able to celebrate baptism with 13 people. 13 people who stepped from death into life and wanted to make that public and celebrate that with their church through the act of baptism. 13 people last weekend. And then this weekend across all of our campuses, we are going to be able to celebrate with 19 people, 19 different people who said, Hey, look, that's my story as well, and I want to take that step because God has given me new life and I wanna celebrate that. He said, listen, I don't, please, yes, I don't want you to miss. I was talking about this, uh, just a minute ago as we were kind of getting ready, uh, for the experience of some of the baptisms. Like, don't miss the movement that that is right, like that, that you and I are in the midst of miracles, seeing lives, seeing eternities change. Like that's what we celebrate with baptism. It's not just a dunking, right? It's not just that someone got wet, but that lives, that eternities have been changed, man. Like this is, this is a miraculous thing. Like it's not normal that we get to see this and celebrate this. And so, like, I don't, I don't wanna lose sight of just how incredible that is. And I also don't wanna lose sight of the fact that that's why we do what we do. That's what this is all about, right? We, we do all of this so that the hope and the eternal rescue of Jesus can be made known. And so we wanna lift these stories up to you as constantly as we can, not to celebrate any numbers. Like, I don't, I don't want you to mis hear anything I'm saying, misinterpret anything I'm saying on accident. 'cause I know like sometimes preachers get to talking about numbers and we get a little weird, right? Like, that salesman kind of comes out like, I, listen, I, I wanna lift these stories up to you not to celebrate numbers or, or to celebrate any, any full spreadsheet, but so that we can make much of the name of Jesus and his goodness and his grace and his eternal rescue that's available to all of us. And so we wanna celebrate it, man. We wanna celebrate it as much as we can.

We have been, um, we, we, we've been walking through the, the book of Romans together for a couple of weeks now. Um, I think this is our third week we've been in this series. And, and really this is kinda where we left off this conversation last week. And the good news, right? The good news of God's eternal rescue. Look real quick on Romans chapter one, verse 16 and 17, this is where we left off last week in this conversation, um, the last couple of, uh, of verses we read last week says this. Paul said, for I, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. That is the good news, right? This is what the word gospel means. The good news in this case, the good news of Jesus Christ, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God. I love that he uses that word. It's not like some accidental misstep, but it is a powerful choice, a powerful movement. It's the power of God for salvation, for eternal rescue to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. This is the good news, right? This is, these verses by the way, are kinda like the summary of this entire letter. Like everything that Paul is writing in the book of Romans, we see in these two verses, namely this, that God has the power to rescue every person from the slavery of sin. God has the power to rescue every person from the slavery of sin. Like, that's the good news. That's the good news of the gospel. That's good news. We're celebrating like, it, it blows my mind sometimes that like Taylor Swift announces new concert dates and we absolutely freak out and lose our mind. And God steps in and says, Hey, look, I have eternal rescue available to you. And we're like, yeah. Whoa, that's cool. Let's sing about that once a week. And this is incredible stuff to, to be able to wrap our heads around, right? That God's goodness, that God's grace, that God's eternal rescue is available to every person who believes regardless of your story, regardless of your background, regardless of your demographic. He says, I've got it for you. It's good news.

Now, I don't know if you know this about good news or not. I don't know if you've ever kind of made this connection in your head, but in order for good news to be good, it has to invade the dark places of our lives. Kinda makes sense, right? Like in order for good news to be good, bad news has to exist. In order for light to exist, darkness has to exist, right? In order for fast to exist, slow has to exist. Like the opposite has to be real. And so in order for good news to be good, there has to be bad news that it is counteracting. Otherwise, it's just news, right? And so for there to be good news, good news of the gospel, good news of hope, of reconciliation, of eternal rescue, then there has to be an alternative. And that's where we're gonna go in our text today, to the alternative, to the bad news, on the opposite side of the good news of God's eternal rescue and salvation. And so, listen, I understand might not have been the thing you thought you were walking into. I'm gonna like turn this a little bit because I feel like I might need a little protection from you today. You know, it's a little barrier. Um, and I realize that might not be the thing that you thought you were walking into today. The bad news, the, the, the flip side of the coin from God's eternal rescue. But listen, hang with me, okay? Hang with me for another 20, 25 minutes. 'cause we're gonna end somewhere really good. If you invited somebody with you, if it's your first time hanging out, you're here because like your school, uh, team came, hang with me. All right? Lean over. You can apologize to somebody. I promise you if somebody invited you today, they did not know we were talking about this, okay? So it's not their fault. Um, come back next week. Might say something, okay? Um, I got, I gotta get into it.

Alright, Romans chapter one verse 18. This is the text we're gonna look at today, okay? This is where we're gonna gonna begin to dig in to what Paul has for us as the church. So here's what he says. Romans chapter one, verse 18. He says, four, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth. Verse 21, skip down to verse 21, for, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile and their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Now, admittedly, the the idea of God being a wrathful God can be a hard thing for us to wrap our heads around sometimes, right? At least for some of us, most of some of you like, you're about this, right? This is like, yeah, gimme the bumper, sticker turn or burn. You know, um, that's, listen, that's terrible. Please don't use that. I'm sorry. Golly. Alright. Um, some of you're like, yeah, get 'em. Alright. Um, most of us normal people, this idea of like the wrath of God, like that's a hard thing for us to wrap our head around, right? Because, because we know God, scripture teaches us that God is love. Like not just that he has love, not just that he expresses love, but he is love. Like we, we understand love because we know God. It's not that that our definition of love defines God, but it is God who defines our definition of love. Like he is the very essence of love. Love is God. God is love. And so how can this God who is love, have or express wrath? Like it doesn't make sense. Those two things don't seem to go together to use my, my, my native language of, so-so those things don't gha, right? Like they just, they don't go together. How does that work? How can a God who who is love, have or express wrath?

Well, lemme give you three things. We'll do this real quick. Lemme give you three things that might help kind of wrap your head around this idea of how God can have wrath to begin with. We know this. Here's one thing. God's wrath is patient. God's wrath is patient. Nine times in the Old Testament, in Nehemiah and Job and Psalms and Exodus, nine times the Old Testament writers will use this one phrase to describe the characteristics of God. It's one of the most common phrases used to describe God in his characteristics. It's this, that God is slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love. He is slow to anger. It's there, the wrath is there, but he's slow to it. He's slow to anger. And it's not his anger, it's not his, not his wrath that is overbearing. It's his love. His love is the thing that's overbearing. His love is the thing that's abounding, that's overflowing. One of the reasons that we have such a hard time reconciling and wrapping our head around this idea of a God who loves being a God who has wrath is because we have a picture in our head of, of the wrath, the anger of man fair, a, a, a husband, a, a, a boss, a coach, a father who, whose anger, whose wrath was, was, was sudden, was emotionally charged with just fly off the handle. We had no idea where they were coming from. And that anger of man or or woman, like, I don't know your story, right? We're equal opportunist here. Like, I don't know, but that, that wrath of, of mankind like it. H how does that h how do we match that with this God? Well, it's because God's not, man. That's the beauty of it all. Right? Like God's wrath is, is patient. It's not, it's not ill tempered God. God's wrath isn't sudden. God, God's wrath isn't, isn't overbearing gray at the hunt club? He gave me this word, capricious. God's word isn't capricious. I don't really know what that means, but you can Google it. It sounded good, but it's patient, right? God's love is, is patient.

We also know god's or god's. God's wrath is patient. We also know that God's wrath is righteous. Paul connects those dots for us right here in this text. Verse 17, that the righteousness of God is revealed. Verse 18, the wrath of God has revealed both of these ideas. They seem like opposites, but the reality is they're, they're two sides of the same coin. That, and depending on, on how you're holding that coin, depending on how it's oriented towards you, depends or, or, or dictates what it is that you see what it is that's, that's in focus. But they require one another. The, the word that Paul uses here for, for wrath, without getting in too much of like a linguistic study, um, there's a couple of words he could have used. But the word that he chose to use for wrath here, um, is, is a, a slow building indignation. The, the patience. It, it has this picture of like a water being, being collected, being built behind a dam. It's there, but it's, it is being held back. And the thing that's being held back by is God's righteousness. The righteousness of God is in fact, the dam that's holding back the wrath, that is the water being collected behind it. And both necess or they necessitate one another. Both are required. You take either one of those things out of the picture, you take the water away, you take the dam away, then the story completely changes. But when you put them both together, you see a picture of of collective power, right? And so we could say it this way, that that wrath without righteousness is hateful. That's what many of us have experienced. Wrath without righteousness is hateful. But the flip side of that is equally too equally true. That righteousness without wrath is weak. It's ineffective. You could say it's pointless. 'cause here's the deal. The, the wrath of God is what upholds the seriousness of sin. And if we don't understand the seriousness of sin, then we can't understand the goodness of God's grace. And so we have to understand that there is wrath in order to stand, understand just how spectacular, just how amazing God's grace in his righteousness is towards us, right? Like the, the, the picture of baptism. The reason we celebrate that, the reason that is miraculous, man. The reason that that, that, that we want to honor that as much as possible is because we're seeing a cleansing, a wiping away of sin in that moment. God's righteousness holding back God's wrath. It's a beautiful picture of power, but they're required together.

Now, here's the third thing, and this is the one I really want you to do something with. God's wrath is patient. God's wrath is righteous. God's wrath is also predictable. It's measured meaning, meaning we know what stirs the wrath of God. Like, it, it's not unexpected. Like God doesn't just wake up mad in the morning, right? Just slept wrong, wrong side of the bed, just mad. Boom, your coffee pot's broken. I'm mad, right? Like he doesn't do that. God doesn't like come home from a, a, a bad day at work of saving people from their sins and be like, man, I'm just tired of you asking questions. Go to your room sick. Like, that's not God's wrath. We know it stirs the wrath of God. Paul tells us here that it's those who suppress the truth, those who suppress the truth. And so when you and I, here's the picture. When you and I take the truth of God, when we know the truth of God and we take the truth of God and we hold it in submission, we hold it underneath our desires and our wants rather than allowing the truth to submit our desires. And once the wrath of God has stirred, like, understand, understand that that knowledge, knowing the truth isn't the issue at hand here. It's doing something with the truth. Those who suppressed it, stir, agitate the wrath of God. Jeff, our pastor, said a year or two ago, I remember this man, it stuck out to me. He said, don't mistake information for transformation. That's what God's after transfer. God's not after information being transferred into your head, into your mind. God is after the transformation of your head and of your heart. God is after a change.

Listen, I I want you to kind of sit under the, the weight of this for just a moment here because man, I've had to sit under it for weeks. And I don't want you to suffer with it. I'm just kidding. Um, I I want you to understand the, the, the weight of this man, God's wrath is reserved for those who know the truth and do nothing with the truth. Let that resonate for a minute. 'cause here's the deal. The, the, there's a lot of people who know a lot about God. There's a lot of people who spend a lot of time in church. There's a lot of people who can quote a lot of scripture. And yet what they're going to experience, what they do experience is the wrath of God. Because that knowing never moves to following. And I, I don't say that lightheartedly like I know I'm, you know, make a couple of jokes about God's wrath being coffee pot, not working or catching all the red lights on your way to work. Like I I I don't mean this lightheartedly like this is a weighty thing, the wrath of God. It meant that that, that the creator and sustainer of the universe holds, has wrath that you and I could be subject to man. That should cause us some serious pause and consideration.

What does it look like? What does the wrath of God look like? Well, look at, um, verse 24, um, Romans 1 24, Paul says, therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchange the truth about God for a lie. And they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. We, by the way, are the creature, we are the creative thing. Like Paul's not just talking about golden cow statues like worshiping ourselves who worshiped and served the creature, the creative thing, rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Three times, three times in this chapter, we'll read the next couple in just a minute, three times in this chapter, Paul's gonna use the same phrase to describe the wrath of God, that God gave them up. This is a, a legal term that was used to talk about, um, a judge who would hand over a person found guilty to their sentence through their sentencing, to their condemnation, right? He would give them over to to to their judgment. And so when it says that God gives us up, God gave them up. Understand what it's not saying. It's not saying that God gives up on you. God doesn't give up on you. Like don't don't ever buy into that lie that is a lie from the enemy. God does not give up on you. I don't know how many times we've said it in here. I'll say it some more. That if you have breath, God's not done with you. If you're not dead, god's not done. If there's breath in your lungs, God hasn't given up on you. He doesn't give up on you. I mean, he's the, he's the good Father in the parable of the prodigal son that's looking for his lost son, waiting for his lost son. He's the good shepherd that will leave the 99 to go find the one lost sheet that's lost and helpless. He, he's the, he's the widow that will turn the house upside down, flip every table and every chair to find the one lost coin. God doesn't give up on you. He will, however, let you chase your own desires. And that that is a far more destructive thing. One of the worst things that could ever happen is that God would let you chase your own desires to their inevitable destruction. John Piper said at this pastor theologian, Piper said, the thing that is worse than we expect is that God joins us in our crusade against God. See, God's wrath isn't weighing, isn't putting something heavy on you. God's wrath is removing something from you. Judges chapter 10, he said, you have forsaken me and served other gods, therefore, I will deliver you no more removed my deliverance. I've removed my hand of protection. That that's the wrath of God that should stir fear in us. And listen, my my goal isn't to like have us respond in fear, but it's to understand the reality, the reality of our desires and our decisions and the destruction that is in at the end inevitably.

Now, I wanna make sure we get to, um, these last, uh, several verses. I don't know, I can't count right now. Um, but Romans chapter one, uh, verse 26, I wanna read through the end of this chapter and then into chapter two a little bit. But, uh, here's what Paul says. He says, for this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women, exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passions for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their heir. Now pauses right here for just a minute and let me just implore you, beg you don't fall for any kind of TikTok theology on this, okay? Don't, don't listen to that cheap theology that says what Paul really meant, what Paul was trying to say. No, the the text says what it says and it says it for a reason. What Paul is clearly telling us here, what Paul is clearly addressing here is that homosexuality goes against God's divine design for marriage, God's divine design for relationship. And what, what Paul is showing us here is that there are clear places where our desires don't always align with God's design. And there's a twisting and distorting that begins to happen there. And that is the places where we need to pay careful attention to where God has given us up or given us over, not given up on. God didn't give up on you. We need to pay attention not to where God has given up on us, but where God has allowed us to chase desires that do not lead to the full and abundant life. He's created us for you tracking with me on that.

But wait, there's more because that's not the only thing Paul addresses here. Look at verse, uh, 28. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. If anything goes, then who's to say what ought not to be done? Hey, listen to me. It it before, before you spend too much time trying to judge verse 26 and 27, make sure you're paying attention to these verses. Verse 29. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, of evil, of coveted ness, of malice, jealousy. They are full of envy, of murder, of strife, of deceit, of maliciousness. They're gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. Dang foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. Chapter two, verse one. Therefore you have no excuse. Oh man, every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge practice the very same things.

Lemme give you two thoughts right here real quick. Okay? One, I wanna read that, um, first verse of chapter two intentionally that we have no excuse to those of us who judge because what what we have in this moment is not an excuse to judge people who sit on a different side of a debate from us. Okay? What we have in this moment is we approach this text and God has given us the opportunity to approach this text, this truth together. What we have is an opportunity to examine ourselves, not to judge someone across the table, but to examine ourselves. And in this examination, as we examine ourselves, we have to be willing to acknowledge that we have been born with, and I'll use that language intentionally. We have been born with a variety of propensities and preferences. And when we follow those preferences to fulfill our own passions rather than the purpose of God and our life, pain is the inevitable result because God will allow us to chase our desires to the inevitable destruction until the pain of change Is greater than the pain or until the pain of staying the same. Lemme get that one right until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. Well, now surely, Surely That doesn't really mean like my relationships. Sure, that's not surely that doesn't mean my, my sexual orientation. Like that's who I am. Well, first of all, yeah, it, it, it definitely does. And it's like, like you're so much more than that. You understand, right? Like, you're so much more than, than you're, you're orientation like you are man. You are an image bearer of God. Jesus. Listen, Jesus taught us that following him requires denying ourselves. This is true for every person, okay? Every single person. This is a, this is us examining ourselves. Jesus taught us that following him requires denying ourselves. This is a language he use to deny yourself, which means to follow God requires a daily saying no to the things of the flesh so that we can say yes to the better things of God.

Is it like this? This is a thing that, that we just, I think we've been afraid in some ways to say in, in our culture and for, I don't know, fear of judgment. I don't really know what it is. This might be the only time you ever hear this sexual intimacy, physical intimacy that is not the highest ordered thing you could ever experience spiritual intimacy is. And so if, if, listen, if there is a sexual desire, if there is a relationship of any order of any kind that keeps you from experiencing the fullness of God's design for your life, then that is a no worth saying so that you can say yes to the better things of God. 'cause God has more for you. Now, that's true in that arena, and it's true in every other arena in our life. 'cause we can say the exact same thing in, in, in the exact same way that it is necessary and worthwhile to say no to any, to any sexual orientation or desire relationship that pulls us away from God's design. It is necessary to say no to, to a prideful heart. It is necessary to say no to a lustful heart. It's necessary to say no to pornography. It's necessary to say no to flirting at work. It's necessary to say no to jealousy, covetness, anger, lashing out gossip. But they deserve it. God said, deny yourself. It's a daily saying, no. It's, we, we don't have time to go through the whole list. Okay? So lemme just, lemme just say this. If you are not daily saying no to something In order to follow Jesus, then you really need to consider if you're following Jesus or if you're worshiping yourself. If you're not daily saying no, are you pursuing God's purpose? Or are you pursuing your own passion? Every single one of us? That is true of.

Now, if that's overwhelming, you don't know where to start. Let me, lemme kinda land the plane here. Okay? I promise you, I promise you, uh, that we would land somewhere good. Here it is. I promise we're gonna land somewhere good. Okay? Um, lemme, lemme kinda land the plane three times in this passage. Paul uses that phrase, God gave them up, right? All three times in this chapter. Paul's using that phrase to acknowledge, God allows us to chase the destruction of our own desires. Three other times in this letter, he uses that exact same phrase to talk about Christ giving himself up on the cross for you. That Jesus gave himself up on the cross for your repentance, for my repentance, so that you and I may find experience, no grace, redemption, eternal rescue. So even in the language, even in the very language that Paul is using here, what we see this reminder of God's goodness, somebody said that, that God's, um, God's, God's wrath is always mingled with his mercy. Good God's mercy is always, always evidence. So lemme give you this, this one verse, okay? It's the last verse 'cause we're gonna Lamb chapter two, verse four. Paul said, or do you presume on the riches of God's kindness, of his kindness and forbearance, his patience, his kindness, his patience, his forbearance, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. I, I've read this verse, I don't know how many times, and I I I didn't see the intentionality of this language honestly until late last night, that God's kindness leads you to repentance. 'cause I don't know that I would've ever articulated it this way, but somewhere deep in my heart, I, I felt I repent so that I will find God's kindness, repent, change my mind, seek forgiveness that I repent, I do that. I change my way so that I will know God's kindness in God's love. But Paul says that's backwards. That God's kindness is what's out front, not my repentance. God's kindness is leading the way. God always leads with love. And in his love and in his kindness, he leads us to repentance, to change, not to just excuse it away, but lead us to a place of seeking him above our own passions and desires. He leads with love. His kindness is out front.

And so let me ask you this question, okay? Just man, as simply as I can, where is your yes, something has your yes. You're saying yes to something. What is it? Are you saying yes to God's design, to God's purpose for you and your story? Are you saying yes to your own passions and pursuits? Are you saying yes to? Where is your repentance, your change? That's what repentance means. Where is your change needed? What is it that you need to lay down? What is it that you need to say? God, don't leave me to this. God take this from me. God protect me. Put your hand back over me. I'm about to pray for us. We're gonna, we're gonna enter into a time of, of worship and response across all of our campuses. Maybe you need to lay a, a desire down at the cross. Maybe you need to go to one of your prayer team members and say, man, I just, I need you to, to pray. Pray that God will protect me. Pray that God will bring me back from this thing. You need to take communion to remember, to celebrate His kindness, his goodness that he went to the cross First for you.

Lemme pray for us. I'm gonna give you just, just a moment to kind of sit in some reflection and then we're gonna stand. We're gonna worship together. Lord, we thank you for your kindness. God, in the midst of difficult conversations, God, you lead us into 'em with love. And it is, it is a, it is a weighty thing. It is a heavy, it is not easy to to, to wrestle with where, where our desires have distracted us from your design. But God, I pray that you'll give us clarity of mind. That you'll give us strength to say no to the things that need to be said no to that you'll give us, um, the courage to say yes to the things that you have for us, God. And today will be a day where, where our stories are marked by pursuit of you above all levels. Pray that you'll guide us, that you'll move in this time. All things we ask in your name. Amen.