Notes From Jon

Did you think I’d given up on Romans?  I’ve been sorely tempted.  But many of my church folks have told me that these are some of the best sermons I’ve done since I’ve been here.  So I’m continuing.

I think the popularity of these sermons is because they are basic and systematic.  They are basic in that they are designed to speak to the average person with no background in Christianity, but with enough depth that we can all learn or be reminded by studying them.  They are also basic in that they deal with very foundational tenets of the faith.  And they are more systematic than I usually am – my series generally do not last longer than three or four sermons.  Of course, I haven’t (until now) tackled a book more than four chapters.

You may have noticed that I went back and renamed the first few sermons – I renamed the posts by the scripture passage instead of just numbering them “Romans Part 1, Part 2″ and so on.  That’s mostly because I’m finding that as I get deeper into the book, I’m taking more and more time on smaller passages.  Before you know it, I’ll be on “Romans Part 26,” and that seems ridiculous.

Also, between the last post on Romans and this one, I did a very brief sermon on a communion Sunday on the first few verses on Chapter 4 – basically talking about the difference between grace and mercy – grace being what God chooses to give us that we don’t deserve, and mercy being what God chooses NOT to give us that we DO deserve.  It was more of a devotional thought than anything else, and I didn’t type it up.

So, all this to say – here’s the next part in the continuing series on Romans, and Paul’s basic outline of the faith.  As always, remember that this is not a full transcript – only the notes I typed up to get my thoughts together.  So sorry if they’re rough around the edges!

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