Saved, Serving, Sent and Separated

[0:00] this message was recorded at vision baptist church in alfred georgia it is our prayer that you'll be blessed by the preaching of god's word take your bibles if you would and turn with me to to the book of romans chapter one romans chapter one and verse one is all we'll look at today romans chapter one and verse one of course you're going to go in lots of different places in the bible but i'm excited about the book of romans this will be the second message out of the book of romans look if you would romans chapter one and verse one how about reading it out loud with me romans chapter one verse one can y'all read together with me are you ready the bible says paul a servant of jesus christ called to be an apostle separated under the gospel of god well i see four things right there that you might make a note of in your bible number one i see paul i want to talk to you about a sinner saved by grace that becomes a saint that's who paul is so the sinner and the second thing he's a servant and then he's a sent one called to be an apostle and he's separated under the gospel so i'm going to talk to you about those four things today saved serving sent and separated father i pray now that you would open our hearts and open our minds and help us to love you god i pray for the one that's here that hasn't accepted jesus as their personal savior and is not sure that they would go to heaven when they die i pray god that you would wake them up cause them to see your great uh mercy and grace and love and that they would be saved i pray god that you would help christians today to acknowledge their position and their relationship with you as servants or slaves to you i pray you'd help us to find the ministry you've sent us to do and help us to be separated to you and to that ministry we'll give you praise and honor and glory for what you do in jesus name amen number one thing i'd like you to look at with me as the word paul that's uh we've studied several books by the apostle paul that he has written under this praise the holy spirit but just real quickly i don't think i've gone over much of his testimony with you and i'd like you to take your bible and look at some of his testimony the first time he's mentioned is found in acts chapter 7 and verse 59 acts chapter 7 and verse 59 and that's the story of stephen being stoned to death stephen was one of those first guys that was uh had hands laid on him ordained probably a deacon i think a deacon a good godly strong layman in the church who has given his heart to really serve god and stephen was not only serving as a deacon but he had man he was preaching and he goes up and he's preaching to the pharisees the sadducees and the religious people and they stone him and when they do they lay their coats at the feet of a guy named saul he will later be called paul he'll become the great preacher in acts chapter 8 and verse 1 after he sees that happen we see him moving into his new ministry he becomes a great persecutor chapter 8 verse 1 of acts the bible says and saul was consenting unto his death and at that time there was a great persecution and it caused all the believers in jerusalem and they were scattered abroad they went everywhere preaching and teaching about jesus because saul made great havoc of the church chapter 8 and verse 3 boy he was looking for people if they were born again he would have come busting in the doors here he'd have grabbed those of us that said we love jesus that are here and he would have taken us to to prison if he could and so people were scattered there he did everything he could to harm the church to injure it to damage it to ruin it to destroy it uh they started all that right after the death of stephen now i want you to see something that's the wicked guy that's who you would see and understand as being a wicked fellow but i want you to understand that to get saved he had to see himself for who he was and he had every reason to be very proud of himself and that's probably the biggest stumbling

[4:03] block to our salvation is i think too highly of myself and if you're not born again this morning you're probably thinking pretty well of yourself and that may be the very reason you're not saved in philippians chapter 3 in philippians chapter 3 the apostle paul tells us about himself so we'll know who he was before he got saved in philippians 3 4 he says though i might also have confidence in the flesh if any man thinks he has whereof he might trust the flesh i have more now look at this this is paul tennessee hillbilly paul said hey if you're trying to talk about how good you are and why you are a good guy and why god would like you and why everybody would think well of you and you'd like to brag on some of the stuff you've done well just to be blunt honest i got a whole lot more i could brag about than any of you guys i have more to brag about he said man i was born into the nation of israel i was circumcised on the eighth day i'm of the tribe of benjamin i'm a hebrew of the hebrews i'm a pharisee and by the way if you'd like to know about keeping old testament law you have never met a more moral man than me i am good or i was good look at chapter 6 or verse 6 philippians 3 6 look what he said talking about himself philippians chapter 3 and verse 6 he said concerning zeal persecuting the church but look at this phrase touching the righteousness the perfection the goodness the being right which is the law well i was blameless i was blameless i want you to understand something this morning paul gets saved his name was saul that was his more of his hebrew name paul's more of his greek name but he he gets saved he gets saved he is he's going to go to heaven when he dies he becomes an apostle and god's going to use him but it starts with this he had to know that he wasn't good enough to go to heaven he had to know that he wasn't good enough to go to heaven he was really on fire for god the best way he knew how he was extremely religious he actually persecuted those who went against what his religion taught and he was born the right way and had all the right stuff done to him even when he was eight days old he got circumcised he had every reason to brag but he tells us very clearly in romans chapter 10 and verse 1 what the problem was with him what the problem was with the jewish people and can i say what the problem is with people who live in georgia in the southeast united states this is the problem with cultural christians this is the problem with everybody here thinking they're saved if anybody thought he was good it was paul he said hey look you want to talk about obeying the 10 commandments hey blameless don't mess up at all ever good guy fact is genesis excellence leviticus numbers did romney find any of the rules i do good i mean i really do good i was born right i was raised right i'm out of the right family out of the right tribe i am just all the way around a great guy if anybody has a reason to go to heaven it's me now look what he says to the in romans chapter 10 and verse 1 and read with me if you would what he says in romans chapter 10 and verse 1 he says brethren my heart's desire and prayer to god for israel is that they might be saved stop israel those are the people of god that's the religious group on the planet that's the people who write the 39 books of the old testament that's the people who had the prophets that's the people who jesus was born to and somewhere along the way what was born in abraham what was born in isaac and jacob and the 12 tribes what was born in hundreds of people that had been born to them what they loved god and they were saved and they believed in him had become culture had become routine had become well that's just the way we are we're americans we're christians one of the things if you were to go to the country morocco one of the things you'd hear them say is moroccans are muslims moroccans are muslims

[8:07] if you're a moroccan you're a muslim and basically you know we like to say this we are a christian country we were founded on christian principles we are a christian people and we use that as an excuse to not get saved we use that as excuse not to be christians and so look what he said he said man israel needs to get saved israel might be the people of god might have been formed all the right ways might have all the right past but look if you would at romans chapter 10 and verse 2 he said i bear them record that they have a zeal of god boy they do love god and they do all the right stuff i mean really these guys are so good about keeping the rules verse 2 but not according to knowledge they were doing what they were doing because they were supposed to do it they were not liars because mama taught them good people don't lie they weren't thieves because mama taught them good people aren't thieves and i hate to say this but our sunday schools have taught a lot of little kids how to be real good people and obey all the rules and never let them see their filthiness their wickedness their sinfulness we are raised so right can i just tell you my little testimony i was born in 1954 i was saved in 1962 i've only been in the bed with one woman in my entire life i've never had drugs uh except what the doctor gave me when i had surgery i've never had drugs i've never had i've never been an alcoholic a drug addict i've never i'm boy and i good i've been in church all my life had the books of the bible memorized so early i don't even remember when i memorized them boy am i not something that's the story of most of us most of you say well you ain't got to know me big boy you think you got reason to brag i'm or you sound just like paul that's i mean we're all like that we're good guys we're good guys but look what happened they weren't doing the things according to knowledge because look at verse 3 this is the key this is the clincher this is the important thing he says for they being ignorant of god's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted under the righteousness of god now that verse that verse is like a clincher verse for you to look at this morning i want you to think of this and if i could if i could somehow illustrate it up here this morning i would i want you to picture a extremely rich super rich big in there and he's got a table loaded down with billions of dollars he just covered up in money and you're over on the other side of the room and you got and you're stacking up your dollar bills and man you're up to five thousand ten thousand dollars you're thinking i'm trying to get enough money to be like him but you're never going to be like if this guy's got a street made out of gold and all the doors to his city are pearls and all the fancy all the fancy rocks and everything you can imagine all the all of the gems make up his city he's perfect and you're never going to get there here's what happened the god of heaven stood on this side and he said you have all sinned you've all failed me you all deserve to go to hell and there's no way you could ever be good enough and here's what we do we say no that ain't true god let me i was born in america i went to church in the old days back when they had pallets on the floor back in the back of the church and no nurseries i have never missed church i have never been drunk i do you know how good i am and we brag about how good we are and god's looking over and saying boy you're ignorant you could never ever make up for what i did on calvary and on calvary what god did was take all of my sin and place them on jesus christ paul paul who's going to preach the book of romans paul who's going to be the great apostle was a sinner just like you that's where we all start we all start knowing we

[12:09] have sinned against the holy god we all start knowing this i cannot be good enough i cannot be good enough can i just tell you that maybe you like me growing up in america and growing up in this christian environment you know i mean i struggled with whether or not i was saved i used to lose my salvation all the time in my heart never told anybody i would be so concerned am i really saved did i pray that prayer just right did i say the right words did i believe strong enough did i really mean it and man i was always scared i can remember sitting in a meeting and this pastor was up there preaching i was already a pastor i'd already been worked at two churches it's a as an assistant pastor i was now a pastor of the church i'd started and i was there with some of my church people and he said some of you preachers ain't even saved and i was going i might be one of them because i could always think of this no matter how much i went to church i knew man man i had a dirty mind you wouldn't believe some of the things i've thought i mean i even i didn't i might not have done it but i thought about it you wouldn't believe some of the attitudes i had towards my dad one day my dad came to me and he said son i probably whipped you too many times and i said no sorry dad you didn't really catch me most of the time i mean i was a hardened criminal by the age of seven seriously i used to go in the little store and my mom and daddy didn't give me money to buy candy every day but all the other kids on the little school bus it was a about a 15 passenger that took us out to the big road where the where all the country boys got on the real bus that went to the real school and i used to go in that little store and steal a candy bar every day until the guy caught me and when he caught me he said are you charlie's boy and i said oh lord i'm dead and thank god he never told daddy i wouldn't be here preaching today but you know by the way i was a hardened criminal a hardened criminal you say oh it's all cute not in god's eyes i remember being in first grade and uh there were two of us in battle for number one in math class you know adding up like one plus one and two plus two and this one guy always beat me so one day i started copying everything he put down so that we'd always get the same grade and somehow that turkey only what six years old he went and he discussed with he discussed with the teacher what i was doing and the teacher told him to put all the wrong answers down and he wrote down all the wrong answers and i copied them and i ran up and put my paper on the desk when he did and he took his paper back erased them i put the right answers i got a zero and he got a hundred hardened criminal i you see we don't want to think of that as being wicked i was trying to establish my own righteousness look at this please listen to what i'm telling you you aren't good enough you never were good enough you have to see yourself as a sinner or you can't get saved you have to realize you have failed a holy god you cannot establish your own righteousness and if you're saved here this morning it's not because you were good but he is good it's not because of what you did but because of what he did paul said romans chapter 10 and verse 3 they be ignorant of god's righteousness he is right and they went about to establish their own righteousness and they would not submit to god's righteousness god i don't need your help god i don't need your help i am a good guy i was born in the tribe of benjamin i was born and circumcised on the eighth day i'm a hebrew of the hebrews and by the way if you want to talk about keeping your rules i kept all of them some of us in and so on and say hey not me buddy i was really a rotten sinner that's probably the best testimony because you know you were and some of us have to i had to realize one day i'm the biggest sinner now watch where paul goes next in roman in first simpathy 1 15 i just want to show you what paul

[16:15] thought about himself remember this i need you look at me a second i'm talking to you watch this you remember this paul guy said hey if you think you got reason to brag i got more reasons by the way keeping rules blameless me but in first simpathy chapter 1 in verse 15 he says this this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation everybody will approve this this is a true statement jesus came into the world to save sinners jesus came into the world to save who jesus came in the world to save who and paul said and i am the biggest one there ever was i'm the chiefest now wait a minute this guy never broke any rules this guy was born right raised right never broke any rules but you don't get saved you realize that ain't good enough yet you do not get saved you are not a born again believer because you got baptized you're not a saved person you're not going to heaven because you've been to church all your life you're not going to heaven because you don't lie cheat cuss and go with them that do you're not going to heaven for those of you you're going to heaven because one day you realize i am a sinner have you realized that if you have look back on that day and say and that day i saw myself as dirty unworthy a failure a sinner and that's a glorious day because until you're sick you will not need a doctor and until you're a sinner you will not need a savior in acts chapter 9 when the lord knocked paul off his horse and onto his rump he was on his way to damascus being religious to persecute some more christians the light shines the voice is heard and paul falls flat down and paul says in act in acts chapter 9 in verse 5 who art thou lord who are you lord and the lord said i am jesus whom you persecute and paul would have said i never persecuted you jesus i only persecute christians because of no you're persecuting me and your sin you say it didn't hurt anybody and you would like to somehow work it out to where you're a good guy no you're not the apostle paul had to realize he had sinned against holy god and that the lord deserved to be recognized as lord in his life some of us are just too good for our own good you hear that you are too good for your own good because until you get bad he can't make you good have you seen yourself as a sinner in need of a savior have you been trying to establish your own righteousness or you're trusting his second word i'd like you to look at in the verse that's paul that's paul you see i just want you to know that paul didn't get saved because he was a good guy paul didn't get saved because he was an apostle paul became an apostle because he got saved paul god did the work but the second word paul uses in romans chapter 1 and verse 1 look what it says paul a servant of jesus christ and we read across that quickly and we we run right on down to the rest of the verses we never stop and realize what he said because we have we again we speak christianese we speak bibleese and we think of servant and well everybody's a servant and everybody ought to be nice to everybody else and everybody ought to serve other people but to be blunt honest this word here is like the word slave it is paul a slave now slaves i mean that's a that's a blight and a curse word and a bad thing in our history of our country it's a bad thing around the world where it still goes on today but paul proudly said paul a slave a servant of jesus christ i'd just like to go over a few things with you real quickly do you understand well you're going to you're going to get more you probably want to hear about this this morning but do you understand do you understand that paul didn't proclaim man now i'm a free man now i run my own show now i'm in charge paul said man i got saved and i am a servant paul didn't say hey i'm an apostle and i run the show

[20:23] paul said i am a servant that's what he said now what's the bible say about a servant if you would in titus chapter 2 and verse 9 when paul writes to titus to tell him what to tell people he said exhort the servants exhort the slaves to be obedient to their masters now how many of you have a job hold your hand up would all y'all go tomorrow and tell your master how much you're going to obey him how many of you consider your boss your master huh you know that's not we don't use that term you say well that's just a king james term no it's the word master that's exactly what it guess what the word master means in the greek master here's a real deep bible study for you master means master it means the owner it means the guy who who is in charge of you it means the guy that you are serving and paul said servants obey your masters and please them well in all things and don't you smart talk them not answering again a slave doesn't own himself a slave is owned by someone else a servant in the bible is owned by someone else in exodus chapter 21 and i won't take the time to read that passage with you but you need to look it up exodus chapter 21 verse 3 and following this hebrew is sold into slavery to another hebrew and he's only going to be a slave for like seven years and he'll be set free and the story's told that while he's a servant a slave to his master his master gave him a wife so he got another woman and he gave his servant his slave he gave her uh gave him a woman another woman another one of his servants he said slave i'm gonna let you get married to slave slave a will marry slave b both of you belong to me and he let them get married and they had children and when they get ready to leave this is bible exodus culture but it's also it's trying to teach you a big lesson when they got ready when before the time of his slavery was up they had several children and so it was time for him to get free and he goes to his master and says i'm going to leave and his master says in exodus chapter 21 his master says this okay but your wife is mine she stays and your children are mine they stay have a nice life and the guy said i don't want to leave my wife he said well then you can be my slave forever and if you want to stay with your wife and your kids fine we will take you to the doorpost and we'll drive a hole in your ear so that everywhere you walk down the street you said i chose to continue being a slave a servant that's the word paul used when he said paul a servant didn't even own himself didn't own his wife didn't own his kids and didn't own his own little laptop computer anything else he had at the house it all belonged to his owner that's the word paul used servants slaves don't decide what they will do with their life slaves don't decide what they will do with their lives in ephesians chapter 6 and verse 5 paul said servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and serve them not like men pleasers not with eye service but do what's right as to the lord slaves don't complain slaves can't complain be a dying offense i could take plenty of time to show you things in the old testament but let me show you a story jesus told i can hear you now well that was old testament but in the new testament jesus wasn't like that well jesus told a story in luke chapter 17 and verse 5 the apostles came to jesus and they said we would like you to increase our faith and so he tells them a slave story oh i want you to increase my faith lord he said okay let me tell you a slave story lucas luke 17 5 and the apostle said unto the lord increase our faith the lord said if you had the faith of a grain of mustard seed and you might say to the sycamore tree be thou plucked up by the root

[24:27] be thou planted in the sea and it should obey but which of you see you guys would really like to have more faith so you can be big shots but let me explain to you where your real faith is it's when you realize i'm the owner and i'm the master and you are but the servant and he tells the wildest story you've ever heard in luke chapter 17 you can look this up later verse 7 and following he says in which of you having a servant plowing or feeding the cows and he gets through plowing and feeding the cows and he comes in the house would you say to your servant hey servant thanks for working hard all day sit down and let me fix your supper and jesus said oh i don't think so here's what you would do if your servant came in you would say to your servant hey fix my supper and when he gets through fixing your supper and you get the reading and he's cleared the table you know what you would say to him wash the dishes and when you get all that done and everything's finished you don't even say thank you he's your servant that's the word paul used about himself voluntarily you see paul didn't come to god and said look god i'll get saved but when i get saved i expect prosperity health and wealth i expect here's what paul said paul a servant of jesus christ paul a servant of jesus christ everyone is a slave to someone or something according to the bible i want you to go with me to romans chapter 6 if you would romans chapter 6 i don't have time to read all this to you but you can read it later romans chapter 6 starting in verse 16 the bible says know ye not that the whom you yield yourself servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness paul said we all choose who will be servants to some of us choose obedience to christ and some of us choose disobedience and become servants of sin and here's what he said he said but but verse 17 but god be thanked that you were the servants of sin but you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you look just wait a second are there any people in this room to be honest enough to say that you know you used to be a servant to sin and servant the sin used to rule your life if that's your testimony you don't have to say man just nod your head or something i was standing in uh the hunter church 20 years ago i guess i was preaching and i talked just about this kind of verse and i said some of you used to be owned by sin some of you used to be a servant to sin and sin controlled your life and a guy named walter hollered out that was me right in the middle of the service that was me he got the lesson you used to be a servant to sin but now you're a servant to christ that now you're a servant to christ verse 19 romans chapter 6 verse 19 i speak after the matter of men because the infirmity of your flesh for as you've yielded your members service to uncleanness you know how you used to serve sin and iniquity unto iniquity and uncleanness even so now yield yourselves your members right servants to righteousness unto holiness because what you used to do only brings embarrassment for you it only brings embarrassment for you things that you're ashamed of but you've been made free from sin and you became the servants of god i need you to look this way and i want you to listen to this when you were lost you were a servant to sin you did what sin wanted you to do it ruled your life but when you got saved listen to what i'm fixing to tell you jesus didn't free you from sin to do what you wanted he freed you from sin to serve him he didn't free you from sin to do what you wanted he freed you from sin to do what he wanted your phrase ought to be austin a servant of jesus christ i belong to him he rules in my life he makes decisions for my life he owns me i belong to him

[28:30] jesus frees up from serving sin to serve him as a servant are you willing to release control of your life you see servants don't have control there's this tremendous story mocked all the time about a slave called uncle tom and uncle tom was a born-again christian in the story most of you would never know that because all you know about is a junkie here but he was a born-again christian and because he was a born-again christian he willingly accepted his slavery that's why he's made fun of and one night he hears the master talking about selling him to make money and separating him from his wife who he'd lived with for a long time and he was extremely trusted servant he went everywhere with no chains on him and he worked for the master he handled things at the house his wife they came telling his wife said you've got to run and he said no i'll not run and the whole story is about he actually gets killed by adam simon legris he gets killed at the end of the story but he will never resist he acknowledges that he is a slave i read that story and the whole time all i could think about is i want to be uncle tom to jesus that i know he's my master that i trust him with my life and no matter what it means happens to me and the old guy by the end of the story realizes there's nothing that can break the faith of the great christian uncle tom and today i tell you we are servants that is socially offensive it is not politically correct but this is a room full of slaves to jesus christ act like it we belong to him lose control of your own life trust your master to take care of you and yours your master will take care of your children he's not some nasty simon legris he's the god of heaven you can trust him will you willingly serve him back to romans chapter one paul the sinner that became a saint by the grace of god was a servant and i'm going to skip this one right here because i'll just look at with you another time but he was an apostle an apostle was a sent one that god sent to do a certain job they became the foundation of the church the church is built on jesus as a chief cornerstone and a foundation that the apostles laid and so god used these apostles in a great way but i would like to i would like to jump with you if i could to the another word that is extremely offensive to us that separation look if you would at romans chapter one in verse one paul a servant of jesus christ called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of god separated unto the gospel of god now i want you to listen to something i'm gonna give you some strong bible to help you first off it's a really freeing thing the day you acknowledge that you are just a servant to jesus that he owns you you belong to him you gave up the title deed you gave up the plan you don't even say god what you will for my life you just say god you speak i'll do you know you know you heard that one when you was a kid uh when i say jump you jump and on the way up you say ha ha that's our relationship with jesus jesus you say jump i'll jump and on the way up i'll say hi because you are in charge but here comes another very offensive word servant or slave that's offensive as you can get center well that's an offensive word we've got like three of them going in this verse the only nice one was set one the apostle and i skipped that one and the last one is separated unto the gospel separated unto the gospel of god so i'd like to show you something listen what it says in the verse not just separated from the world but separated to the gospel not just separated from the world but separated to the gospel and a lot of you grew up in homes and you grew up in churches where you were told to live separate from sin but that's only half of the story and it's the bad half of the story

[32:35] and it's really not the biblical side of the story separation in a christian's life is not a separation from sin but a separation from sin to the lord jesus it's not a separation of well don't do it don't do it don't boy i wish i could do it but i can't i'm separate the guy i wish i could do but i can't i'm separate it's not that but it's a willing turning of your back on that and say i love you jesus i want to do that and paul said i turned my back on how good i used to be i turned my back on how blameless i used to be i turned my back on the religion of my parents and i turned my face to jesus in the gospel of god the bible says in second corinthians chapter 6 and verse 14 that hated passage by independent baptists because you came to this church because you don't like that word it says be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness what communion has light with darkness what concord hath christ with balai what part has a believer with an infant unbeliever an infidel what agreement has the temple of god with idols you are the temple of god i will be your god and you will be my people so get away from all those people and be separate i'll receive you man you got all these promises come to me watch this i would have loved to have done this this morning uh but time escapes separation in the bible is never a negative overall negative thing it's a positive thing in uh august i guess in june may or june of 1973 i had fallen in love with this girl who was raised in a more well-to-do home than i was i grew up with an outhouse until the 10th grade she was she had a bathroom nearly as big her room and her bathroom and her dressing room and her walking closet was nearly as big as our house and i walked up i sat down with her on the steps of a friend of mine's house and i said would you marry me and you know what she did she separated herself from her parents she separated herself from all that money she separated herself from all those luxuries and we moved into a little two-room duplex that wasn't much bigger than her bedrooms again and for us that wasn't a negative separation she said no to all those things and yes to me and i said no to all those girls that would have loved i married me todd you're not to laugh like that in church you see separation is not the negative thing you think it is it wasn't hey when i said betty will you marry me she didn't go oh what about my money what about my bedroom what kind of house we're gonna live in i didn't she just said yep and she came running and married me over 39 years ago now this one will tell you this one i'm gonna tell you here's what the bible says it paul was separated unto the gospel of god it wasn't like paul you can't sin anymore paul was like i'm not worried about sinning you mean i get to be with you jesus you mean i get to talk about the bible i get to serve you i get to love you you mean i get to be with you by the way it's a term referred to in your bible more than once you ever heard of this one when you get married you leave and you you leave and you say it again with me you what and you you know what you know what you did but one day when paul got right god saved was born again paul said i leave all i had before and i cleave to jesus that's the verses about getting married you understand you understand this separation is not about don't do don't do don't do separation is about i get to do i get to do i get to do separation is about not that i don't get to do all these other things i used to do it's about man he loves me he loves me he loves me and i love him and i serve him and i

[36:40] love his book and i love serving him and i love all he's done for me separation is the same thing happened to that slave you remember him his master said you can leave but your wife stays here you can leave but your children stay here and he said oh forget the freedom i'll stay and that's what happened he was separated in colossians chapter 3 and verse 1 the bible says if you then be risen with christ seek those things which are above where christ sits on the right hand of god set your affection on things above not on things of the earth no words fall in love with jesus fall in love with the things of god and turn your back on those things and that's what happened paul says before i start this book you might ought to know a little bit about me and we ran across that normal in normal reading and never pay attention paul i used to be a sinner but i got saved by the grace of god and i'm a saint today paul not a free man but a servant a slave of jesus christ paul on a mission sent from god as an apostle paul separated under the gospel my life is under the gospel of jesus christ by the way this gospel that paul preaches is the opposite it's the opposite of everything paul had lived before you see paul was a part of a performance-based religion his goodness with god was based on how good he was it was based on what he did to get god to like him and so he was blameless in the law when he was born on the right day he was circumcised on the right day and he did and he did and he did but sooner or later you get tired of doing and you're like i can't keep it up i'm not good enough and paul said but i was separated from all that doing stuff and separated unto the good news of jesus christ that god loved me in my sin god saved me when i didn't deserve to be saved and god gave me new life the gospel is that jesus did for me what i could not do for myself i tried to be good i sought to build my spiritual resume i wanted god me and everyone else to know i was good enough but i wasn't he saved me by his grace ephesians 2 8 and 9 the bible says for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it's a gift of god not of works the city man should boast my question are you trusting the gospel of jesus christ in your life have you left sin to serve the lord are you separated to him for every married couple in this room one of the most exciting things about your marriage is this that that person sitting beside you chose one day to leave and cleave that person chose to separate themselves from and separate themselves to and that person willingly surrenders their love and their life and their service and their heart to you and here's what paul said as i begin to write this letter let me tell you who i am i'm the sinner saved by the grace of god and made a saint by god but i'm still a servant to him and i have been sent on a mission by him and i am separated unto the gospel this morning i have two or three questions for you do you know that you'd go to heaven if you died now listen to my question here not are you good enough not are you trying to establish your spiritual resume not are you trying to prove how good you are but have you realized you sinned against the holy god because the christians real born again people are all just sinners who realized they were sinners and trusted jesus and what he did on the cross at calvary are you a servant this morning do you really willingly yield your life paul braggingly says paul i'm a slave and a servant of jesus christ i am sent on a mission by jesus christ and i'm separated

[40:45] under that mission by jesus christ is that your story if it's not today make it your story father in heaven i love you and i thank you for the privilege of preaching your word and i pray god that you would save those that don't know you in this room this morning and i pray dear god that those that aren't born again would be born again today and know for sure they're saved god help them realize they've gone about establishing their own righteousness and help them to choose not to do that any longer and i would ask you dear god to help christians that have been living a life of self to come into the service as servants of the lord jesus help us to separate ourselves to you to dedicate ourselves to you to direct our lives to serving you and i will give you great honor and glory you have been listening to austin gardner pastor of vision baptist church for contact information location service times or more audio and video recordings log on to www.visionbaptist.com