"The servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and are called to be saints.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning. We thank you, Lord God, for our lives. We thank you for our salvation, our family, our jobs, all that we have, Lord God, because of your blessing.

Help us, Lord, to have right mind and right heart that we may worship you, Father God, in sincerity. We pray for your anointing, Lord God, that we would have ears to hear, hearts, Lord God, to understand and will to apply all that you have for us. I pray, Lord God, that the study of the book of Romans would really have the effect that your Holy Spirit had intended, that you would renew us, revive us, cause us to commit and love you, Father God, in spirit and in truth.

So we ask for your blessing over this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You know, this week I was able to have fellowship with my old roommates back in college when I was part of a Little Spark ministry, and we kind of lived together for about three to four years.

And they're all, most of them are missionaries, so they're out of the country. And so it was the first time in ten years that all of us were in one place. So it's typically one would come in and the other one would not be there. So we've had meetings throughout the years, like, you know, two of us or three of us.

It was the first time where all of us got together and was able to have fellowship. It was a great time of encouragement. But every one of those guys, with the exception of one, they were all ten, eleven years older than I was when I was younger. So I remember when I was back in college, they would talk about things that I had no idea what they were talking about.

You know, they were ten years older, so they were talking about their parents retiring and how they're going to take care of them. And obviously my parents were not at that stage yet. And so I always felt a little bit, you know, out of place. And then it was a reminder, you know, yes, that this Monday when we got together and we're talking, and I was, the topic of the conversation was Alzheimer.

You know, they were talking about how you should eat curry because, you know, that prevents Alzheimer. And I was thinking, you know, I'm not quite at that stage yet, but they're at the end of, you know, later 50s and they're hitting their 60s. And they're not there yet, but they're, the things that they were talking about, obviously, you know, was a little bit above, above me.

But it was interesting as we were talking about that and how, you know, that issue is very real because some of their parents already have, have dementia setting in. And maybe some of your parents or grandparents have experienced that. But the idea of losing your memory, somebody that you knew all your life and all of a sudden they don't remember you or they don't even remember themselves and how heartbreaking that must be.

And, you know, our ability to be able to understand who we are and be able to recognize our surrounding because that's our life. That's how we function. You know, our, basically our life is an accumulation of the things that we've experienced and that's made you who you are. And then the way you relate to people who's around you.

So your identity is extremely important for our life. It's at the core of who we are. As Christians, again, it's extremely important for us to recognize and understand who we are in our identity because the moment we forget that, we begin to drift out into what the rest of the world is, you know, because we're social beings.

So we have a tendency that whoever we're surrounded with, whatever social environments that we're surrounded with, we have a tendency to just kind of adapt and adopt to that. When we're maybe younger in college and we're surrounded by Christian friends 24/7, we may just kind of go along with the flow and then our identity is solidified by the campus ministry or the church or events or small groups that we belong to.

But once you graduate college and your identity is very difficult to find in the world. In fact, our identity is completely contrary and opposite of what we see around us. So the moment that we forget who we are, we naturally drift to become what the rest of the world is.

I say all of this is because the passage that we're looking at, Paul is introducing himself to the Roman church. And before he gets to the heart of the message and he's going into what we talked about last week where he's going through systematically through the gospel, he introduces himself because he's never been at this church and he's saying, "Before I speak, I want you to know this is who I am." So this morning, we're going to be unpacking three things that he says of his identity and take some time to study and look into that.

And what does that say about us? So the first thing that we see is Paul's identity in relation to Christ. Paul's identity in relation to Christ. Secondly, Paul's identity in relation to the world. Again, it's Paul's identity in relation to the world. Third, Paul's identity in relation to his work.

So one, Paul's identity in relation to Christ. Two, Paul's identity in relation to the world. Third, Paul's identity in relation to his work. So the first thing that we want to look at is the most all-encompassing. And this isn't unique to Paul, but he begins his letter by saying, "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus." In the Bible, the word "servant," there's two main words.

Now there are more than two words that are described, can be translated for "servant," but there's two main words that are described or translated for "servant." And the first word is the word "diakonos," where we get the word "deacon." And that word basically means to serve, somebody who's serving the table, somebody who's serving to help other people.

But the word that Paul chooses to use here is not the word "diakonos," but the word "doulos." And I know our college students, we have a doulos, you know, and we use the word "servant." But the word "doulos" has a different connotation than the word "diakonos," because "diakonos" is, again, somebody who chooses to serve, but he's not bound by his service.

He chooses to do so. But the word "doulos" literally means someone who is bound in service. That's the word that Paul uses here. Every time we use the term "doulos" or "servant," again, in more literal translations, they may say the word "slave." And I think because the history of, you know, modern history in the last 100, 150 years, the term "slavery" was such an evil institution, I think the modern translators deliberately stayed away from that word, "slave," and they translated the word into "bond servant" or "servant." So that word basically means "slave." But we also have to understand that at that particular time, the institution of slavery was not exactly what you and I know of slavery from watching movies or reading history books.

In fact, at that particular time in Roman history, they figured that up to a third of the Roman population would have been considered a bond servant, a slave. A third. It was part of their economy. Many of these bond servants became bond servants because Rome ended up conquering their nation.

And in order to, again, as a result of conquering their nation, a lot of their soldiers, maybe possibly their families, became bond servants as a result of that. But many of these bond servants were voluntary bond servants for economic reasons. Just like, you know, I guess the most equivalent way for us to look at some of these people is when you choose to go get a job and you get paid from 9 to 5, for 9 to 5 you are a slave of that company.

You are a bond servant of that company because they purchased you for that period. You can't go there and be on Facebook for 10 hours a day. You're being paid to do a certain job for a period. Obviously you come home and during that time is your own time, but during a period that you've been contracted, they own you.

In a sense. Well that's the term that Paul uses here as a bond servant, that he voluntarily has become a servant of Jesus Christ. Now the term that Paul uses here is not just encompassing of Paul. In fact that word is described as Christians generally, that all of us, first and foremost, are bond servants of Jesus Christ, that we belong to him.

Paul's first identity as a Christian is that he has been crucified with Christ. Galatians 2.20 it says, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." As a Christian, our first identity is death. That's why when we talk about baptism, the beginning of Christianity is to identify that when Christ was crucified and was buried, that we were also crucified with him and buried with him.

The moment that we forget our identity in Christ is where we begin to get into trouble. Our natural instinct as human beings is wanting to live. So if you see something dangerous, you stay away from it. You don't calculate and say, "You know what? If I go over here and there's a dangerous cliff and there's no railing, you stay away from that." If you don't know how to swim, stay away from the body of water.

If you go to certain areas, there's wild animals and you may get mauled. You don't go to that place or you protect yourself. Our natural instinct is to live. But the paradox of Christianity is that Christ says, "In order to live, you must first die." And that's why he says, "If you want to come after me, you must first pick up your cross as well and come to me to the cross." How much of our frustration as Christians is directly linked to the idea that we are trying to find life outside of Christ?

How much of the worldly thinking that's penetrated into our way of life, living, our principles, that is in direct contradiction to who we are in Christ, that is causing this anxiousness, this frustration, relational issues? Paul says again in Galatians 6, 14, "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." Not only has Paul been crucified, he said, "The world itself has been crucified.

It's dead to me. There is nothing in the world that I desire to pursue because I don't find life in that." Again, Colossians 3, 3-4, "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, when you also will appear with Him in glory." He's not simply saying if you want to be a Christian, you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you must forsake all that makes you happy.

All the pleasures and all the things that everybody else pursues. And if you're a Christian, you have to be a monk. You can't enjoy what everybody else enjoys. And you just have to live one frustrated life. That's not what God is saying. What Paul says in Colossians 3, 3-4 is an echo of what Christ said repeatedly over and over and over again.

"He who finds his life shall lose it. And he who loses his life for my sake, he shall find it." That is Christianity 101. That is not Christianity for pastors. That is not Christianity for missionaries. That's Christianity 101. The first day that you become a Christian, we identify with His death.

That we no longer exist. In fact, I would say of all the verses that I've meditated and repeated in my mind over and over again, Galatians 2-20 is the one that I have to repeat to myself over and over and over and over again. I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live. I don't know how many times I have to kind of take a step back because somebody has offended me. And something in me rises up and says, "Why? Why would they do that?" You know? Or I feel cheated and it's like, "Why?

This is not fair." And my natural instinct is to retaliate. My natural instinct is like anybody else. And then I have to take a step back and think to myself, "Peter, are you really crucified? Are you really not living?" Even in my marriage. You know, we get into conflicts and get frustrated, especially in the beginning parts of the marriage.

I don't know how many times I have to recite that to myself. It's like, "Well, you know, Esther doesn't deserve this. Why do I have to go to her again?" And I have to take a step back and say, "Peter, are you really crucified?" How much of our frustration, even with our children, because they do things that are offensive and so selfish.

"Why? Why are you doing this?" So much of what rises up is our own life, is our own desire. And if you look at scripture, it is this desire to be somebody, to be significant, to have better things, to be comfortable. Seeking life in this world is what's killing us.

It's what's causing frustration. And if it gets bad enough, this is what causes war. Every single one of us, when the scripture says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," because we've fallen short of God's glory, we are seeking our own glory. And it is our pursuit of our own glory that is killing us, that is dividing us, that is frustrating us.

That's why Jesus says, "No, first, you must die with me. Come die with me first, if you really want to live. Die with me to yourself. Die with me to the world. Die with me to your passions. Die with me to your pride. Come die with me, that you may truly live in a new resurrected life." And that's why the scripture tells us first and foremost that until a life is fully surrendered to God as a bond servant of Jesus Christ, you cannot live.

No amount of church attendance, no amount of Bible reading, no amount of Bible memory and study can replace being dead in Christ. Because life in Christ cannot be had if you skip the cross. Remember Apostle Paul, when he met Jesus, you know, he thought he was doing the right thing and he was pursuing it through the law, through the religious system.

He was pursuing his own glory. In fact, the way he described himself, he was a Jew among Jews, Pharisee among Pharisees. And he was willing to even murder. And he was going out to Damascus with a whole army behind him and Jesus knocks him off the horse. And the way Paul described this encounter in Acts chapter 26, 14, he says, "Jesus spoke to him and said, 'Paul, Paul, why are you kicking against the goad?'" Now, in our generation, kicking against the goad doesn't have a lot of meaning behind it because we don't use goads.

I don't know, maybe some of you guys use goads. Okay. Maybe if you grew up in the farm, even if you grew up in the farm, I don't think you use that anymore. Basically, a goad was a stick with a sharp end and it was used to poke at the animal to control him.

So whether he's going left or right, maybe the cow is starting to veer right and he's going to fall off a cliff and the, you know, the farmer will poke him through that. And that was the goad. The goad was the instrument that was used to direct the path of the horse or the cow.

So when Jesus described Apostle Paul's life, he says, "You are kicking against the goad," meaning I'm trying to direct you to the right path and you're resisting me. And by resisting, basically you're kicking the goad. The more the animal kicks against the goad, the more he hurts himself because he's kicking against a sharp object.

And this object was there for the purpose of directing and guiding. When an individual goes against the will of God, he says, "We're kicking against the goad." So when Paul says, "I am first and foremost a bond servant who belongs to him," we all know the freedom. And that's the problem that you and I a lot of times get into because we talk about how we are free in Christ.

But you don't, a lot of times we don't understand. We are free in Christ that we may be bound in Christ. That's why the scripture says that we have been set free from the bondage of sin, that we may be bound to righteousness. In order to be bound to righteousness, we have to be set free from unrighteousness.

But we get into this problem where we say, "We've been set free from sin so that I can do whatever I want." But this "whatever I want" ends up binding us to the very things that he set us free from. So therefore, our first and most important identity in Christ is that every single one of us, we are doulos in Christ.

We're bound in Christ. We are first dead in Christ. It is no longer I who live. It is not my passion. How much of our frustration comes from trying to figure out, "What do I want? What is there for me? How come nobody loves me? How come nobody cares about me?" How much of the frustration and anxiousness is directly linked to our seeking our own life and our own glory?

That's why the first calling for every Christian is to die in Christ. And that's how Paul describes himself. "I am dead in Christ. I'm a bound servant. I'm a bound servant of Jesus. I belong to Him. I am not independent of Him. Anything that I'm going to say from this point on, it is not my words.

It is His, because I'm just a servant." Secondly, not only an identity to Christ, but His identity to the world. He says, "I am a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle." We're all servants. We're all bound in Christ, but we're all called differently. Paul uses that term "apostle" in almost every letter he writes.

The term "apostle" basically means, in the general sense, a messenger, somebody who's been sent. But Paul uses it more specifically than that. In Ephesians chapter 2, 19-20, he says, "The household of God," meaning the church, "was built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, as Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone." Meaning, that office of apostleship was specific to a certain group of people, like the prophets, that everything else that you and I know of was built on top of that.

So Paul wasn't using it in a generic sense. He was using it in a specific sense, that He was a man who was specifically called for that purpose. Now, obviously, he starts out by saying, "I'm a bound servant of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle." You may look at that and say, "Well, Paul is humbling himself and elevating himself at the same time." In essence, he is doing that.

And the reason why he does that in his letters is because the people who are receiving this letter need to understand that everything that he says comes with, "Thus saith the Lord." Now, you may be sitting there evaluating, it's like, "Oh, let's see if this guy has anything good to say." Whatever good or bad thing that comes out of my mouth, if it has any authority, it is because it is basically a reflection of what is being taught in the Scripture.

There is no authority in my life experience. It's just my life experience. And you may have different experiences in life. There's no authority in that. Maybe some people's, other people's opinions are better than other people's opinions. But in the end, there is no absolute authority. Authority comes from His Word.

So in one sense, Paul is saying that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ because he's speaking with authority. Now, you may automatically think, "Well, there's honor and glory that comes along with that." And again, the church has gone into so many problems because people are pursuing glory in the name of Jesus Christ.

But that is the farthest from the case with Apostle Paul. You have to remember. You have to remember. Paul, not only was an apostle, but he says it repeatedly in the New Testament that he was an apostle specifically for the Gentiles. Now you remember who he is. He says he's, to the law, he was perfect.

Pharisee among Pharisees. If he's a man who was perfect to the law, the law, basically, one of the greatest things about keeping the law pure, or keeping the law perfectly, is that you could not be tainted. You could not be tainted. You have to keep the law pure. So by his desire, and the Pharisees' desire to stay pure, they wouldn't touch anything impure.

They couldn't eat what the Gentile. They couldn't eat what they ate. In fact, they took it even further than that. Some of these Jews would not even enter a town where it was predominantly Gentile. They would deliberately go around the city and spend an extra day traveling just so that they can stay pure.

Now that was not in the Scripture, but that's how far these Pharisees went. If there was ever a job description saying, "Hey, we need an apostle to the Gentiles," Apostle Paul would have been the last person to sign up for it. Possibly maybe the best person to be an apostle to the Gentiles may have been a Gentile.

In fact, if you remember, Paul says that he loves his fellow countrymen so much that later on in Romans chapter 9, he actually says, "If it was up to me, I would be accursed myself that they may be saved." So we may think, who would have been, according to our logic, who would have been the best apostle to the Jews?

Probably Paul. Not some fisherman who's lived most of his life catching fish out far away from the temple. But here's a man who's been working all of his life to get ahead in temple worship, and he was at the tip, almost already there. But God says, "I've reserved him as an apostle to the Gentiles." In fact, we know that early on, Paul probably had issues with that.

Because all his life, he trained himself to hate the Gentiles. So if you watch his ministry path, every city that he goes to, what's the first place that he goes to? Synagogue. Almost exclusively, every city that he goes to, even when he's in a Gentile town, he would seek out a synagogue, and he would end up preaching the gospel there.

There's only two cities that we know where he wasn't able to go to the synagogue, which was at the city of Lystra, where he picks up Timothy, and the city of Philippi. And the reason why is because there wasn't a synagogue. But in every other city, the first place he goes to is a synagogue where the Jews hung out to worship God.

And it wasn't until he got kicked out of the synagogue, he would end up going to the marketplace and start preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. So Apostle Paul, if we look at it, he was probably the worst person to pick. And yet, God called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles.

That's just like God wanting to bring the gospel to the Jews, and then said, "Who's the best person that I can raise up as a prophet to go take the gospel to the Jews?" And then, instead of going to the Jews, instead of going to Israel, and looking at the most religious, most studied, most accomplished person in Israel, go to the Palestine.

You know, they hate each other, and they can't stand each other, and live generations hoping that each other would just disappear. And they pick a leader among the Palestinians, and equips him, and then sends him over. That's basically what happened to Paul. See, his apostleship, even though he introduces himself as an apostle, even the very title "apostle to the Gentiles" reflects his due loss.

It wasn't his choice. He didn't choose this. God chose him. And the way he describes his choice is in 1 Timothy 1, 15-17. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. I know a lot of Christians use this to talk about, like, "Yeah, I'm the worst Christian." And sometimes I hear false humility when people use this, because I don't think you really believe that.

Because I don't believe it. I'm a sinner, but I'm not the worst. Because I know some people that are worse than me. I know a lot of people. Unless you really believe it. But I think most people who use that don't really believe that. And I think, look at Apostle Paul.

Here's an apostle who's giving his life to spread the gospel. Could he possibly be the foremost sinner at the time? Maybe. Maybe that was his perspective. But I think, when you consider who he was, he really was the foremost. This is a guy who actually tried to kill Christians.

Who actually committed to stop the spread of the gospel. He would have been the worst person to choose. Why would you choose a man who actually committed murder to stop the spread of the gospel? He hated Jesus so much that he was willing to die. Why would God choose this foremost of sinners, the worst of sinners, in light of the gospel?

He says this, "But I receive mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in Him for eternal life." He was the perfect person because He was the worst. He was the perfect person to shine the gospel because every time He opened His mouth, it reflected.

If God can save that guy, if He can get that guy, a leader of the Palestinians, to come over here and spread the gospel of love to these Jews. If He can save that man from that darkness into this light, then we have hope. How often do we refuse a calling of God because we don't feel like we fit that mold?

What God is looking for is articulate people. What God is looking for is talented people. What God is looking for is smart people. But when we search the scriptures, God seeks completely the opposite. When Moses said, "I don't have the gift of speaking," did Jesus say, did God say, "You humble man?" No.

He rebuked him. He rebuked him for being arrogant, for refusing Him. "Do you think I called you because I need you? I'm going to display my power, not your power. I'm going to display my power." And that's why Paul says, "It is when I am weak, He is strong." How much of our life is frustrated because we are committed to be strong?

We're committed to be wise. We're committed to be something. And yet everything about our identity tells us, "First be crucified. Lose your life in Christ that we may be found." Third and final identity is his identity to his work. Paul was very clear who he was in Christ. Paul was very clear in who he was to the world.

He was a messenger of God to be sent to these Gentiles. He learned to love them. He didn't, God didn't choose him because He loved the Gentiles. God chose him because He hated the Gentiles. He learned to love them because He obeyed. And he began to preach the Gospel.

That you and I have been called to be ambassadors. Not because you're articulate, not because you have the most knowledge, because God wants to display His glory. You know, this room is filled with people with awesome testimonies. It is a tragedy in the church where you only hear one person, the person up in the pulpit.

We have to be in the habit of sharing our testimonies. Not only in the church, but outside the church. To tell the people what God has done. Because God didn't just call me to be an ambassador. God called every single one of us. Every single one of you who have seen the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

You are ambassadors to the people who are around you. Third and final is Paul's identity to his work. Every Christian needs to be an expert of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know, you know, we have, this room represents a lot of different fields. Whether you are going into, you know, electronics or computers or medical field or legal field.

Everybody is going into different fields. Everybody begins the same way, but you would expect after 4 or 5 years of training, maybe 4 or 5 years of working, that you are an expert in that particular field. So if I had some legal questions, I would go to a lawyer.

If I had some medical questions, I would go to a doctor. If I had some computer questions, I would go to some of the Apple freaks. Right? I would go and ask you guys about what to do. Right? But everybody becomes an expert the longer you spend in that particular field, you become more and more of an expert in that particular field.

As Christians, every single one of us ought to be a growing expert in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because there is nothing that you know that is more important than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All your learning in legal, in legal documents, all your learning in the medical, all your learning in business, in restaurants, all of these things pale in comparison to what you and I proclaim is at the center of who we are, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is a tragedy that you and I live in a generation where we have a handful of experts that we turn to every time we have a question. But a common Christian is not expected to know. And we just kind of bring them to the pastor, bring them to some of the elders.

But this is something that you and I need to, Paul says that he has been set apart as an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God. Set apart. The word set apart literally means to be holy. In the Old Testament, when something became holy, it was a common article, it was a bowl, and you just picked it up and said you dedicate it to the temple, to be used at the temple.

From that moment on, it became holy. Because now that particular bowl, even though it was nothing here, has become something because it was dedicated to the Lord. Paul uses the term as set apart, to be made holy for God's use. Set apart for what? What have you and I been set apart for?

Well, 1 Peter 2.9 makes it very clear. "For you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." See, if we embrace that, okay, I'm crucified with Christ, you're no longer I who live.

And then we forget our identity to the world. Imagine if we had a commissioning service, and I shared this again when Pastor Alex and his team was leaving out to, going out to China, I said, "You know, we have this great commissioning service, we're blessing them, we're praying for them, you know, and financially supporting them, we have commissioned them, and all of a sudden we go out to Dharminjamboree and they're sipping on boba.

You know, would you just give them a high five and say, 'Hey, how's that boba? Would you just come home?'" Right? You probably was like, "That's strange. I thought we commissioned you. What are you doing?" Like, that's what, maybe you won't say it, but I know you're going to be thinking it.

And then you're going to come home and say, "Didn't we commission that guy? Didn't we commission him to China?" Like, why? Why do you ask? "Because I saw him at Dharminjamboree. You know, he's hanging out there." It's like, "What? When?" "Today. Today. He was out there today." That would be a very strange scene.

What's your commission to all of us? When he said, "Go make disciples of all the nations," that was not just for these people. We've all been commissioned. Now, we may not have been commissioned to China. We may not have been commissioned to a particular place. But we've all been commissioned as ambassadors.

So if you've been commissioned as a lawyer and you don't know the law, you can't be a lawyer. I don't care what kind of titles you have. I don't care what kind of suit you wear. If you don't know the law, you can't practice the law. You can't be a lawyer.

If we're ambassadors for Christ and we don't understand and know the Gospel, you can't practice Christianity. Paul says, not only has he been set apart, he says, "This was promised beforehand through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures." This was not something new that Paul was bringing. This message of the cross has been prepared from the beginning.

When he said, "The seed of the woman is going to come and crush the head of the serpent," from the very beginning of the fall, he was waiting and preparing for his son to come. So this Gospel message has been embedded to everything that we know in the Old Testament so when we come, when Jesus comes, we would recognize who he is.

So if it is this important, how important should it be to us that we not only understand it to be saved, but we understand it enough to be able to explain to other people? If you've been a Christian for three, four, five, six years, and somebody asks you a basic Christian question about Christianity, and you have to constantly, "Talk to my pastor, talk to my pastor," at some point, at some point we have to take a step back and say, "Why am I not investing in the very thing that I consider to be the most important thing?" Every Christian, at some point, needs to be an expert, not just good, not just proficient, but an expert of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So this Gospel concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, again, fulfillment of prophecy, all of this stated in the Old Testament, and he says it was fulfilled because Jesus was born in the flesh, and that's why the book of Matthew begins with this genealogy to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises that God made, that the seed of the woman is going to come.

That proves who he is, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul not only was able to defend himself, his whole point of the book of Romans is so that you may be, you and I may be proficient in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Not just good, not just memorize a few scriptures, but to be experts, because this is who we are. Before we are a lawyer, before we are anything else, we are bond servants of Jesus Christ. I remember, you know, right now it's just like Christian music, and there's a lot of things going on, but I remember when I was younger, there was no Christian pop artists, you know?

The quality of the music wasn't that great, so either, I mean, I thought Keith Green was great because of the message, but people make fun of me every time they listen to Keith Green, because it sounds like bar music. He actually used to be a musician in the bar who got saved.

But it was his message that was powerful, but there was no crossing. There was no Christians who were popular in the secular field. And then a few years down the line, the Christian music started to get popular, and then they started crossing over to the secular, and then they would come on secular talk shows.

And I'm not going to name who these people were. But it was kind of a strange scene to see Christian artists on secular TV programs, and they're talking about their band, and all of a sudden, I remember being so disappointed because there was this particular band that I really liked listening to.

It was a Christian band. And they asked the question, you know, "Are these, you know, you're a Christian who's singing praises to the Lord and all this stuff, but not all non-Christians are listening to it, and how do you feel about it?" And the way the front man described himself was, "Well, you know, I'm a musician first.

I'm a musician who happens to be Christian, so it's really relevant to everybody." And then he pointed to a particular song about worship toward God, and he said, "Well, is this toward God or is this toward some lover?" And he said, "I guess you can take it any way you want." Stopped listening to that guy, you know.

I was so discouraged by that. The way he described it, "I'm a musician first who happens to be Christian." Absolutely false. We are Christians who happen to be lawyers. We are Christians who happen to be doctors. We are Christians who happens to be computer scientists. Is that the right term?

Computer science-ist? Okay. Our first identity in him, right, as a bond servant, called to be an ambassador with a message of the cross, to declare His glory. That's who we are. Anytime we stray away from that, we stray away from the life that He promised, because that's where life is.

Life is at the center of Christ. You know, I shared this before, but you know, the very first car that I bought, I, you know, I share this, I'm going to share this again, because I think it's relevant. 1979, piece of junk Sri Lanka, I know you've heard that before, but when I brought that car home, I was so proud.

One, because I paid for it myself. I worked at Carl's Jr. At that time, the minimum wage was like $325 or something, $315, and I remember working from 5 to 11, 1130, and then I would have to bike home afterwards, and I did this, you know, 40 hours a week, and I saved up some money from that, and then I got fired.

I won't get into the reason why. And I got another job cleaning toilets, you know, but that was, it paid me five bucks an hour, so it was like, yes, you know. And then I saved up enough money, about $1,500, and I found this advertisement, and it was way out in the valley.

I think I was living in Buena Park or Downey at the time, and then I found this myself, and I had a friend of mine drive me down to the valley, and I think I was like 18 years old. I was 18 years old, and I never got any help from my parents, and I drove down by myself, and then I gave him cash, you know, because I thought that's what you're supposed to do, so I bought all this cash, and then I gave it to him, and I asked him, like, "Okay, now what do I do?" So he was kind enough, he said, "Well, you've got to register the car." I was like, "What does that mean?" So he said, "Okay, you know, I'm going to have to take this dummy to the DMV." So he took me to DMV, and he went through the paperwork for me, and then we got it all, you know, taken care of, and then I went and found insurance and got all the stuff in, and then I was just, you know, I was so happy.

I was driving, and then I came home, and the first thing I did was I cleaned the car, I waxed it. It was a piece of junk, but I waxed it, and then I said, "Okay, I'm going to put tint on it." So I put tint on it. Somebody told me that if you put tint in the driving side that you're going to get a ticket, so I tinted it, but I still wanted the tint, so I tinted it, and then I cut out the corner like that so that I can see, so I would, technically, I'm not illegal, and I put cheap-skinned car seat in it, you know what I mean?

So it'd be smooth, and then, you know where the, what do you call it, the stick shift where they pull it? I bought a new one, put a brand new one in there. You know, every time my friends would come into the car, they're like afraid because the car is like rattling, and I couldn't put it in first gear first because something was broken, so I'd always have to take it into second gear and then put it into second gear, first gear.

Parking brake never worked, so if I don't leave it in first gear and I forget, the car would actually roll back. So it was a piece of junk, you know? When I rode that car, I was so proud, and it's not because I was, you know, naive and I didn't know what that car looked like.

To me, that car represented independence. I bought that car by myself. I caught, I registered it myself, I got insurance by myself, and I cleaned it up. So to me, prior to that car, the most precious thing I owned up to that point was a $50 guitar. That was it.

So this was the next most important, most expensive thing that I had, and I took care of it. Every time I drove that car, I felt proud. I used to stick my head out with the music bumping, and you know what I mean? It may be pumping, you know, pumping along, but to me, it was precious because to me, that represented, you know, a year of hard work, scrubbing toilets and, you know, getting fired from, you know, Carl's Jr.

and finding the car by myself. I was an adult in that car. You know why I share this with you? Because the moment we forget who we are in Christ, we start to live like who we were before we met Christ. How precious are we if He purchased us by His own Son?

That was precious to me because that was everything I had into that car. The Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. When He says the world, He's talking about you. He's talking about me. That first and foremost, our identity is someone who has been plucked from the condemnation of this world and made us His own.

That we would become bond-servant of this One who gave everything for us. And then He equipped us to be apostles, to the small letter apostle, to be messengers, to this world with this precious message. To go declare and to go declare His glory so that people may see who you are and say, what an awesome God you serve.

What an awesome, awesome God that you serve. Can I come and see who He is? That is our identity. That is the most important identity. The moment that we stray from that even an inch, we are ruined. That's why Paul begins this letter by not only identifying himself, by identifying himself, he's setting the foundation.

This is who we are. This is who I am. And this is why I live. Again, as we continue to study through the Book of Romans, that you would not be passive listeners, that you would be active in equipping, that hopefully at the end of the study of the Book of Romans, you can say, I know the Gospel.

Not only know it mentally, but I know it. That our identity in Christ may be clear. Can you take a few minutes to join with me in prayer as I invite the praise team to come up? If there's anybody in this room who've been invited and you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I ask you this morning to come before the Lord in just simple prayer.

Lord, I've never asked for forgiveness. I've always heard, and I have Christians around me, and I'm intrigued, but I've never personally invited you as my Lord and Savior. Would you take a few minutes to come before the Lord and pray? Maybe you're not exactly even sure. Is He going to listen?

But just be honest before God. There's no religious things that you need to say. There's no formula. Just like you would talk to anybody else. Just come before the Lord and say, Lord, if you're real, forgive me of my sins. I'm a sinner. Forgive me. And I want this life that the Scripture promises.

And the Scripture says if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you of all your unrighteousness. That no matter what sin that you've brought into this room, maybe some of you guys are thinking you don't know what I've done. You don't know my past. You don't know what I struggle with.

I don't, but God does. To come before Him, you can't fool God. Come before Him and confess what He already sees. And ask for forgiveness. And if you pray that prayer and you desire help and you have some questions, come and ask us. You can ask me, you can ask your friends.

But I invite you this morning to take some time to pray. For the rest of you, please, please pray for the world. Pray for the non-Christians in this room. Pray for the non-Christians in your life. Pray for the non-Christians that live around us. That we would not just say with our mouths who we are.

That that would be our very life. I am a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an ambassador with the precious message of the Gospel. That that would be my confession this morning. So let's take some time to pray before the Lord this morning as our praise team leads us.

(papers rustling)