All Means All Series

All Means All

Romans Series

CCCAG March 15st, 2020

Scripture- Romans 3 (Shane Reading)

One of the great tragedies of today's culture is that we have lost the ability to talk to one another reasonably.

The reasons are twofold.

The first is a deficiency within our educational system in that we don't teach philosophy and history together. A little bit more about that in a moment

The second is the advent of social media.

We have limited our debate skills to 140 characters or less. If you're not familiar with what that means that's the amount of characters you can have On Twitter to make a point. We have become a people of extremely short attention spans who are easily moved emotionally by every clickbait story or even extremely slanted TV news broadcast that we see.

Much of our society has completely lost the ability to have a rational conversation, and instead largely hide behind our walls and lob single sentences or thoughts at one another instead of sitting down and having an actual conversation.

That’s why we are seeing the chaos in our nation today. We have forgotten how to think for ourselves, and how to communicate those thoughts in a manner that is compelling, honest, and kind. (punched)

Going back to the first point- the failure of teaching history and learning it’s lessons.

Education is not about stuffing facts into your head. Real Education is about giving you a knowledge bases so you how to think for yourself.

There was a slogan a number of years ago that said, “Challenge Everything”. A number of pastors had a problem with that saying because it meant that we encouraged people to doubt the authenticity of our faith.

I don’t see it that way- I encourage you to question your faith. Ask the hard questions. In fact, in many parts of the bible, God encourages honest questions.

A few weeks ago, we lost one of the greatest Christian apologists that has ever lived, Dr Ravi Zacharias. A Christian apologist is not one who repeatedly says I'm sorry for Christianity. The term apologist means that he is able to give an answer for the hard questions at people pose to Christianity both from a scriptural perspective and from a philosophical perspective. His whole ministry was answering tough questions about the faith.

I would hope that all of us would strive to be good apologist for our faith that we can answer those tough questions for people.

However, when we go to answer those questions let's do it with an actual conversation and not do it online or through some sort of technology. That's one of the ways where the world today has lost its way.

If He were walking the earth today, Jesus might have a social media page, but all of his important conversations would still be done in person.

One of the ways that we practice apologetics is through making a statement and then allowing other people to challenge that statement with questions.

I want you to remember that for the next couple of weeks as we delve into Paul’s defense of the Christian Faith in the next few chapters of Romans.

Paul is being a Christian apologist in that he is making a statement and then answering the logical questions that can come from that statement.

That's exactly what a lawyer does in a courtroom. He takes what is considered to be a fact and starts to dissect this “quote unquote” fact an either prove or disprove it depending on which side they're on.

That's where Paul is in the first part of Romans chapter 3 here is that he is answering some common objections that people have with the gospel of grace .

So I just encourage you to keep that in mind as Shane comes up and reads Romans chapter 3 today.

Romans 3

3 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.

3 What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written:

"So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge."

5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7 Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" 8 Why not say — as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say — "Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved.