Romans 5:1-11
Getting on the Same Pages As God About Benefits of Salvation
Introduction
A. When you are looking for a new job there are many factors you need to consider
B. Such as where is it, how many hours do they want me for, what will I be doing, how many employees are their, and What is the salary.
C. There is also another important factor. Benefits. What type of Benefits does the job offer?
D. If health insurance is $300 a month and one job is offering $10 an hr with no health insurance and another job is offering $9 with full medical, Which one if better?
E. The $9.00 an hour. You will make an extra $116 a month
F. See Benefits are important to us
G. They make a big difference
H. We have been going through Romans and we have discovered
a. We are all guilty
b. None of us gain entrance into heaven by what we do
c. God has provided salvation
d. And we can receive salvation by faith
I. Which brings us to chapter 5.
J. Chapter five can be broken up into two parts, The Benefits of Salvation and The Basis for Salvation
K. Today we are going to be looking at the benefits of Salvation Specifically
a. Peace
b. Joy
c. And Hope
I. Peace
A. Explanation
1. The first benefit is hope
2. Read Vs. 1 with lack of enthusiasm
3. When you look it like that you miss the point
4. I thought about this for a long time
5. Why do we not get exited about the word peace hear?
6. Why do we read it like to quote Sinfield “yada yada yada”
7. After kicking it around for a while I came up with two reasons
a) We do not know what peace means
b) We have used the word some much that it has lost it meaning
8. If you turn on the news watch 10 minutes, or the 11 at 11 I guarantee you will find out that this world does not have peace
9. We have 100,000 troops fighting to gain “Peace”
10. We have Kids shooting teachers, we have kids shooting kids, community with drug epidemics, we have hepatitis break outs, we have families who fight constantly, we have bosses on our backs for 50+ hrs a week, trying to provide a life for our families that is better then what we had
11. Obviously, we are often in turmoil
B. Application
1. What is peace? And where can I get some!?
C. Illustration
1. There was a young assistant diplomat who was sent on a very important diplomatic meeting. He was staying at the guesthouse of the government. He tried to sleep and tried to sleep and just could not fall asleep. In the middle of the night he woke up the Butler and told the Butler he could not sleep because he was afraid that he would do something wrong and mess up all diplomatic efforts. The Butler said to him “Do you believer God ruled the earth before you were born. Yes I do. “Do you believe that God will rule the earth after you are gone?” Of course. Then sire, why not let him rule the present too?
2. Peace is willing to let God rule over everything
3. Unfortunately we have little control in a lot of things that happen to us
4. Peace is saying “God you do it”
5. In Mathew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
6. See were not talking about being physically tired we are talking about rest from all the “stuff on our plate”
7. I do not know how I would ever make it through this world if I did not have peace
8. I think about all stuff that is happening, all the stuff that happens to me, all the stuff that I am responsible for, all this stuff keeps piling up
9. You know how I keep going? I have peace
10. Working at the lighthouse giving away 40,000 a year was most certainly not an easy task. Who should I help, how much should I help them, who is the most qualified, how do I know this person is telling me the truth. I could easily cause me to suffer a nervous break done.
11. But I had peace. You know why? Because I let God rule my life. Therefore, if someone was lying to me, they were not lying to me, they were lying to God. And God will deal with them.
12. Once you let God rule the now, once you let God be God
13. You will find peace
14. Peace is a benefit of salvation
II. Joy
A. Explanation
1. Which brings us to the next benefit, Joy. Come sing with me “I got the joy joy joy down in my heart”
2. Now when you hear that song you instantly think of it as a little kids song
3. True it might be song by little kids but think about the words for a second
4. I got the joy down in my heart
5. That phrase is more important then we think
6. First of all happiness is not equal to joy
7. I read a quote the other day that I thought was funny and true "if happiness were based on ease and freedom from worry, the happiest individual in the world would be and American Cow”
8. We do not sing I have the happiness down in my heart
9. Why? Well because Ecc. 3 tells us there is a time for everything thing including a time to cry
10. I am sorry I do not cry when I am happy
11. But even in those times of sadness, we can have joy
B. Application
1. You are probably sitting their saying “How can I get some of this joy”
2. Joy comes through salvation
3. Joy is knowing that no matter how awful things get here, you still can enjoy heaven for eternity
4. Joy is knowing that not matter how bad I screwed up, I still can go to heaven
5. Joy is knowing that someone who lived 2000 years ago paid for your sins
6. Joy is knowing that you can have a relationship with someone who will never let you down
7. Joy is knowing that you can loose your house, your job, your dignity, and still God loves you
8. Joy is knowing that “while we were sinners, Christ died for us”
9. How could anyone make it through this world with out knowing the joy of salvation?
C. Illustration
1. If there is someone in the world that could say they had no joy, you would think it would be Joni Earackson Tada. She had a horrible swimming accident that left her paralyzed next down. Here what she wrote about joy:
2. “You don’t have to be alone in your hurt! Comfort is yours. Joy is an option. And its all been made possible by your Savior. He went without comfort so you might have it. He postponed joy so you might share in it. He willingly chose isolation so you might never be alone in your hurt and sorrow.”
3. Because of salvation, we can have joy. What a benefit
III. Hope
A. Explanation
1. This brings us to the third benefit, hope.
2. Hope is a funny thing it can help us do things we did not believe we could do
3. Let me explain how this hope stuff works
4. All of us as some point will suffer. Great or small we will all suffer
5. Now suffering produces perseverance to have the ability to continue
6. Out of that perseverance we develops character
7. The character makes up who we are
8. Out of that character we have hope
9. We have hope that not matter what happens
10. Not matter how bad our “sufferings” are
11. We have hope
B. Illustration
1. There was an interesting science experiment conducted a while back. A group of behavioral scientist put some rats in a tank of water. The tank had smooth sides so they could not escape or rest. The scientist observed the rats to see how long they would survive before drowning. The average time was 17 minutes, pretty good huh? Then they repeated the experiment, this time however they would “rescue” the rats right before they drowned, they then returned them to the cages, fed them, let them get their strength back up and repeated the experiment. What do you think the average time was? It went from 17 minutes to 36 hours. The rats had hope.
C. Application
1. What can we gain from all this?
2. Just like in the experiment we have someone who cam and rescues us
3. WE have someone who saves us from impending doom.
4. WE have hope when all is wrong, that things will get better
5. WE have hope when all the world is against, that things will get better
6. We have hope when a friend stabs us in the back, that things will get better
7. How will they get better?
8. We will be with Jesus in heaven
9. No matter what happen here on earth, if you have accepted Christ as your savior you have all the reason in the world to have hope
10. Hope is a benefit of salvation
11. Without salvation there is no hope
12. But because of salvation there is still hope no matter what circumstance.
Conclusion
A. Allow me to ask a few Questions
a. If you are not a Christian, Why?
b. Wouldn’t it be nice to have true peace in your life?
c. Wouldn’t it be nice to have true joy in your life?
d. Wouldn’t it be nice to have true hope in your life?
B. These are all things you receive when you accept God’s Salvation, not to mention forgiveness of your sins, and eternal life
C. If you are a Christian, may I ask why?
a. Is it because of the peace?
b. Is it because of the joy?
c. Is it because of the hope?
D. If you are not experiencing peace, joy, hope in your life, maybe you should consider two possibilities
a. One you have not let God be God. You are trying to do everything yourself and you are to the point were you just cant and your restless and your feeling down and you just have no reason to live anymore.
b. If that sound like you, you need to realize the benefits of Salvation. Of course that is real easy for me to say and I know it is a lot harder to do. But if you are in this category, start talking to God and find an Elisha, someone who will stick with you no matter what. In fact, let me do something bold. Is there anyone here right now that is feeling that way, let me see your hand. (wait a while, and then maybe assign them an Elisha)
c. 2nd possibility is your attitude. You are not being grateful for what Christ has done for you. You are failing to recognize what Christ did for you.
d. WE are now in the Thanksgiving season, Start giving God thanks. If this is you, and if we are honest we have all probably been in this category at some point in our lives, if this is you, I have a homework assignment for you for you.
e. For one month I want you when your reading your Bible (which in and of it self help considerably) I want you to ask a question:
f. What has God done or promised that I should be thankful for?
g. Soon you will start to realize what all God does, and you will develop an attitude of gratitude
E. Salvation is great!
F. The question is, are you on the Same Page as God about the Benefits of Salvation?
