Bible Guys Classics: Romans 5 Part 1

Hey, guys, today we're gonna be talking about how to find joy? Do you want joy? I want joy? I love joy. Let's go. Yeah. So we're talking about how faith brings joy, and in this case, Paul's talking about under trials and how even trials and persecution can actually lead to joy. So it's going to be interesting. So he's Kyle and I'm Chris, and today we are the Bible. Guys. Man, I am so excited for today's episode. I think we got some really good content today. But it also before we. Even get into what we're going to read in the scriptures today. Here, I actually want to play a quick game. And many of you guys know this, but Chris is a huge movie buff. In fact, I enjoy watching movies and I thought I really was a movie guy until I met Chris and I realized there's different levels to this game. That's funny. You know, so quotes so many scenes. He knows it all. By the way, just in case you're wondering what ends up happening is is Desiree is our staff member who makes these segments and she hands them to us and we purposefully do not read them until this very moment when we shoot. So I have not read this, and I always feel the pressure because now you've just announced me. Well, because this is not only you're good at movies, but also this is kind of funny in general. I'm going to give you a sentence description of a movie, and it's a bad description. How many? How many are there? There's five of them? All right? If I get three, i'll be good, but my goal. Is to at least get four. Are you nervous now because I hyped you up too much a little bit? Yes? Okay, well you're gonna do great. Okay, these are funny bad descriptions. Okay, first one, this movie is about an elderly man who uses balloons to kidnap a small boy. Oh that's hilarious. That's up. Yep, I've never heard it that way before. That's why it's great. It's the bad description. It's like, you know, what's like, what's that movie about? They try to describe you, and you're like, what, that's not what that movie was about? Okay, First of all, that is the creepiest. An elderly man uses balloon You kidnap a small boy? Hey, little boy? You want to that's terrible? All right, next one. Yes, a broke man commits identity fraud so he can manipulate a group of school children. Holy cow, this. Could be a broke man commits. Identity fraud so he can manipulate a group of school children. School children, so somebody lies. Oh wait a minute. Uh oh, I was gonna say kindergarten cop. But no he's not. He's not a broke man. Uh came out, jack black or what is it? He's a musician A school of rock. Yeah, buddy, that's it. School of rock is not. A good description, he said, school children, which was the only thing that helped me out. Yeah, there you go, Okay, here you go. This one. I like this one. Okay. Older sister ruins younger sister's chance to appear on television. Older sister ruins younger sister's chance to appear on television. Oh jeez, I'm not going to get this one. It's a tough one. Older sister ruins younger sister's chance. To appear on television. She ruins her chance. Why does she ruin her chance to appear on television? You know what, I'm not going to waste everybody's time. What is it? Answers Hunger Games. It's just you wouldn't think like when you think of it, you're thinking like a pot like a you know, volunteer. Okay, yeah, American invades foreign land and kills the local female leader over sparkly shoes. Oh, sparkly shoes. Wizard of Oz. American invades foreign land and kills the local female leader over sparkley shoes. Is so sorry you got three out of four. That's great. By the way, that is really cleverly written, very funny. So I actually do not remember this this movie, so you may not know this one. I think it's actually pretty tough. We save the hardest for last. Okay, so even if you get this wrong, it's okay. But last one is man grows potatoes. Period. That's it. Yeah, man, why would why would somebody say. Man man grows potatoes? Man? So his name's not man, so it must be mankind grows potatoes. Oh the Martian you do that? Yeah, that was the main thing of the whole movie. I don't know, man, I saw that movie and I did this. I do not recall that part of it. But wow, potatoes were the only thing that saved his life. Okay, Wow, Okay, you got to look at that four out of five. I told you he's great at this. Baby, he's great with the movie stuff. So if you have any you know, you see him around and ask him about his favorite movie. I'm sure I love you man Kind Grows Potatoes. Yeah, that was. That was That's really cool. That's right. Hey. One thing we would love for you to do, if you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and comment. Let us know some thoughts about your favorite movie. Let us know some thoughts about Chris's his awareness of you know, just movie trivia, anything, just anything you want to share with us, go ahead and do that on YouTube at this time. But today we'll be reading in Romans five. You want to just share some quick context for anybody who was not caught up with us. Chris. Yeah, so we're walking through the Book of Acts and uh, and chronologically we're breaking whenever Paul decides to write a letter chronologically throughout his life. In this case, he's writing to Rome, and he he's never been there. He's writing through the church in Rome, and so because he's never been there, he's hoping to go there on his way to Spain, he's going to stop at Rome. That's his goal. But he is introducing himself in the letter. He doesn't you know, we've sort of been through all of that. But what he's doing is he's laying down his theology. He's laying down what he stands for, what he wants the church to understand about their faith, because this is one of the very few churches where he has not started it it actually started. It's mostly Jewish, but it has some Gentiles in there too. Yeah, and so we're talking about joy, like we mentioned earlier, and how to find that joy. So, starting in verse one, we're reading from the NLT version says, Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ, our Lord, has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of underserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trial, for we know that they help us develop endurance, and endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who was especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, we will certainly save us. He will certainly save us from God's condemnation. For since our friendship with God is restored by the death of his son, while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. Now I love this because the verses we're kind of covering this week actually like what something we would refer to as like a Roman's road, kind. Of walking through the steps of salvation. It's kind of the gospel that it's the good news of Jesus and we kind of cover one of those verses in here, but we'll probably get to that in a second. But what stands out to you from these verses, Chris, Well. Yeah, I would just say, first of all, the chapter starts with the word there for, and you know, everybody who has been around Bible reading knows that when you see the word therefore, you have to ask the question, what is it there for? Right? And it's there because it is connected to his previous thought, because after all, Paul didn't have chapters and verses. We created those to find you know, where we are in his letter. So just remember that, like this sentence, this thought is directly connected to the last one. So he's talking about you're made righteous in God through faith, not by works, which was yesterday's podcast. Even Abraham is the primary example. So he says, therefore, since we've been made right by in God by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus has done for us and because of our faith. And then he starts going on, well, here's what I here's what I love is he basically talks about the same thing that the Book of James talks about. You know, remember, remember the Book of James Chapter one, where it says, count it all joy when you fall into trials and temptations, because faith, when it completes its work, it brings about, you know, patience, and patience when it's completed, you know. So Paul is talking. About the same kind of concept, and he says, when you have problems in trials, they develop endurance, and endurance developed strength of character, and character in our brings our confidence of hope of salvation. And then this hope will not lead us to disappointment, but it gives us joy. So I think that that's really an interesting stepping stone. It is, you know, so trials and temptation, which. Almost seems like an oxymoron, right, like like it's like, hey, suffering, it's good, you know, right, we don't that way. And it's the same thing that James passes. So let's go all the way back to the fact that he's really the subject of the matter is trials and. In problems. Problems in trials. Now, in this particular case, if you followed Christ in the first century, you were under persecution. The church was still under persecution, and so you know, Paul, who was the chief persecutor, by the way, let's not forget that, you know, he knows this more than anybody. For those you know listeners who don't remember Acts Chapter nine is when Paul was converted way back you know, jeez, how many podcasts ago where he was actually a person who was commissioned by the Sanhedrin and by Caiaphas himself, who committed Jesus to death, and he was actually writing letters and giving Paul permission to, you know, put the same practices in the city of Damascus that he had already put in place in Jerusalem by rounding up Christians. And some people would even say killing Christians certainly, we know, persecuting them, uh, you know in Rome to. Like the type of the you know, the way they were killing them was just gruesome. Yes, yes, I mean the Colosseum, right, I've seen the Colosseum in person. So anyway, bottom line is is, uh, just understand the context in which these people are receiving it. So we're talking about not the kind of trials and persecutions that we have. We think of cos and persecutions we think of first world problems. Yeah, no, that's true. It's true. When I read that, I was thinking that our view in American twenty twenty three is so different than what Paul was writing. People read this, this felt like like a message of hope. Yeah, you know, because they're reading their love. They can they can like they're there. They understand the obstacles, they understand the challenges. I think we read this, and you're right. First world problems are like, you know, not enough people like my Facebook posts when I or well the ones people share this prayer your Facebook you know post you know, as far as far as like like our actual faith. Uh. First problem, Yeah, I have too much dip from my chips. Yes, and if I opened if more chips, I'll have too much ships from a diplous. Hey, here's a straw, suck it. Up right, here's a bridge, just get over it. So hey, so this you know what this reminds me of. So let's just give our listeners a little bit of context. You and I both have been to Cuba, yes, and so you know, there's not too many places I think that we've both been. Uh you know and developed a witness stuff like that. And developing countries. But Cuba you've been there as well. And I got to tell you I actually went to Cuba before the country opened. I actually went there under religious visa where nobody was allowed. Americans were not allowed in Cuba, and that's the first time we went. So when we were planning on going in, we had to pretty much lie, right, We had to lie, which you know, you know, it is what it is, right. People people think it's worth it. People people lied all the time in scripture for God's glory, right, and so pretending to be something they weren't, you know, fooling people, the enemies kind of thing. So anyway, under this oppress of government of Fidel Castro, we we we we were there to do certain things. So anyway, we went in there and I remember that we almost didn't even get in the country. And then when we actually stayed, we stayed at the Copo Cabana, you know, the. Famous Yeah. So, uh, there was a Copo Cabana in in uh in the United States and that what's his name? Who sang it? Oh, come on, Barry Manelone. So uh. Anyway, but that was actually patterned after the Copa Cabana that Americans experienced during the prohibition in Cuba. So this is the original Copo Cabana. But anyway, this was a government owned hotel, and the locals said, the reason why we're putting you at this hotel is because when you get through the country, when they ask you where are you staying, if you say the Copa Cabana, they will feel relieved like you're not here on some sort of a religious mission, because the Copa Cabana is a well known, uh government owned hotel that actually has it's bugged. So you know, in America you can't bug somebody's hotel room. No, right, you can't do that. Yeah, but the locals, and I don't even. Know if it's true because I actually looked for bugs, actually was in my room and I was looking like, is there a. Camera, microphone, camera, a microphone? But I'm telling. You that the locals just said absolutely, if you're in the room, you cannot say the word Jesus. Wow, you cannot say it. And so we got so comfortable after five days that my buddy Seth and I were in the room and we were doing interviews with Christians and secret secretly and we were saying, oh, yeah, you know, he was talking about Jesus. And all of a sudden, Seth WOULDOK at me at these big eyes like changes changes. Wow. Because and we did pass. A room by the way where there was a bunch of cameras. It was like three hundred cameras, and we barely glanced in this room at the hotel, and the thought are there cameras in the rooms? Like what are these three hundred cameras? Anyway, bottom line is this, I'm sharing this long story. When we were interviewing the Christians in secret that we were we had the camera set up in the middle of the street, and the locals were telling me that people are paid to turn in Christians. And so what happened was You're sitting there interviewing and you're hearing somebody mention the word Jesus. And then this little old lady who's like eighty years old, she's walking by and she stops and she starts listening to the conversation. And I'm just thinking she's a pastor, by sweet old lady. And then they all look at each other and said, okay, pack it up, we got to go. Pack it up. We got to go. And I was like, what are you talking about? And they said, they're going to turn us in because they get money, because everybody's poor in Cuba. They're going to turn us in, they're going to get paid, and they're going to come arrest us. So we packed it up and had to run. Well, I had a situation we were I was there in twenty nineteen with our young adult ministry, some people from there, and you know, they told us that they said, hey, just you know, you have to be care like even volume, be careful when you're like preaching. So myself and our executive pastor where there were doing some train for the local leaders in the area, the church leaders they had, and it was kind of going through some purpose driven church stuff. Anyways, they said to us, like, there was a guy who was our translator who was very on edge, and it was interesting. He was making me on edge. We're talking and he's kind of pacing the room, he's kind of walking around a circle, he's looking out the windows, is whatever. And I'm very aware that this guy, I mean, I have ADHD. Anyways, I think we're both kind of the same way. So I see him kind of walking around the room scoping things out. And finally we get done with that little session, he's like, hey, He's like, just you know, there may be a time very soon where we have to quickly pack it up and move upstairs. And so we ended up having to do that because what he said is there was just government officials walking around and then he just had us. So in the next spot we go to, we moved to a different location, same thing, there was a different like person. So it's one of those things where you begin to realize that we were going door to door and we're sharing our faith, which is kind of what we were doing there is we're going and sharing our story, God's story and how it can impact their story. And just seeing like the people there, this was new news to them, right and brand new news, this hope that could be found in Jesus, and they had face trials, like real trial. It's like you, I mean, they're living not in great look at you know what I'm saying. They're growing up in a certain you know, political environment that's not very advantageous. And I think that the hope of Jesus was legitimately like life changing for a lot of people that I had talked to and experienced. And that's why even like there's a verse actually that's in here that's like one of the famous verses of this section here it says while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And Paul puts that in there. I feel like, strategically right after talking about trials and suffering and he's like, hey, you're going to face these trials and it's going to produce these things. But also while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And I just love that She's reminding that is where that unspeakable, unshakable joy comes from, is remembering that one simple truth that like, it wasn't before you got your stuff together. It wasn't before you you know, made it all right, before you got fixed up and cleaned up. No, it's while you were still sinners. Christ is willing to go and die for you. I just love that. I like how Paul said Christ died at the right time for sinners, and he said most people will be would would not be willing to die for an unjust person, although someone might be able to die for a person who's especially good. So if you think about it, like, yeah, would you die for your wife, would you die for your kids? Right, But then if you're going to die for you know, you're going to jump in front of the bus for your wife or your kids, But you're going to jump in front of the bus for somebody who is you know, think of like the lowest. Uh, you know, the existence of a life like that guy is just a scuzz you know, whatever what he's done, who he is, he'll never change, you know, the world'll be better without him. That kind of thing, right, And who would jump in front of the bus and push him out of the way and give their own own life. That's sort of the thought of what Paul's saying. Paul saying, Hey, someone might die for an upright person, but nobody dies for somebody who's unrighteous, somebody who would you know who is? Uh, you know, the sinners and so and so think about that, the idea that Jesus died for us. So we always think about sin, and uh, you know, you and I can breathe easy because we know that we are under God's grace. We know that Jesus paid for our sins, that penalty is gone. That kind of thing. But once again, it's like what we talked about in the three days ago, where we talked about the fact that just because we have grace, it doesn't make sin less serious. So the seriousness of our sin put Jesus on the cross, the fact that he had to go through it. You know, think about Good Friday, think about the agonizing prayer that he's praying. You know, he's saying, Father, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me. And by the way, that was referring to when you sit around the fire and everybody passes a cup, and what you do is you basically share the wine and you pour a cup, and then you pass it around and you drink of somebody's cup. It'd be just like me saying to you, come to my house for dinner, share of the bread, of the loaf of bread, share of my cup, and and I hand you my cup. And so a lot of times, if you're sitting in the circle, you either partake of the cup or you let the cup pass. He said, no, thank you, I'm not partaking. I'm letting it pass. That was that was what it meant to break bread together. And so what Jesus was saying is let this cup pass from me. I do not want to partake. I do not want you know, I do not want to receive what is given to me. That's what that means. Yeah, and so Jesus prayed that he prayed. You know, I don't want this to happen. Now. The only reason why God, who you know, had all his Jesus powers, he's a hundred percent God, but he was one hundred percent man as well. The only reason why he would pray that is because it was the most excruciating, painful, awful thing. And Jesus became our sin spiritually and he died physically. Yes, right, And so. That's that's what Paul is saying. All of that is wrapped up in because remember this had only happened several years ago. Paul wrote the Book of Romans in fifty seven AD. So Jesus dies somewhere around you know, thirty three twenty nine later, Yeah, twenty nine AD to thirty three a d right, So here here it is twenty years later. People remember, they know the stories. They still see people crucified. Yep, they see the brutality. I just thought of this, but Romans see the brutality more than anybody else, right, so they know the brutality of this reference. Yes, it's interesting. I want to share too, just as an encouragement to our listeners today. Maybe you know you're feeling like you know, when it come to sharing your faith, we have people out there who are sharing their faith currently and maybe you feel some trials and tribulations with that. You feel struggles, You feel like maybe your coworkers think you know your your stories, you know your faith in Jesus is a joke. Maybe you think your family nobody gets you. You feel like you're all alone, you're facing that Trouch tribute. I just want to encourage you today, wherever you're at on your journey, to read and to really soak in the words that Paul has to say, as somebody who's writing to the people in Rome, and he's writing to this church, and he's reminding them that as they share their faith, as are being pierce persecuted, as they become these martyrs, to in that hope that can be found in Jesus, that while we're still sinners, Christ died for us. And so again just want to encourage you. You know, if you are somebody who's sharing your faith, there's somebody you feel like you're on the outsides, that there's a God who's walking alongside you can put our hope in that today. That's a great word. I think that's probably a good place to end, And I would just say, it's a privilege to share your faith. It's a privilege to identify yourself with Christ. Just think about the privilege that we have in America that other people, like people in Cuba don't have. Yes, uh and and it's and it's easy to be able to say, hey, you know you want another reason why I behave different, Why I act different, Why I'm able to, you know, not get mad like you get mad. The reason why I forgive my boss when you have. A hard time forgiving. Why I'm not vindictive, why don't talk back the way that some people do. Is because I'm a Christian. Yes, because I know Christ. And hopefully you live a life the where you can qualify that. Yeah, just being bold, Yeah yeah, yeah, because we have to. We have to, you know, let God change our lives. And hopefully people will ask you and you'll be able to say with absolute confidence because it is a privilege. So that's where That's a good place to end. And we will see you tomorrow hopefully on the Bible guys. Mhm m m m