Sold Out for the Lord

Scripture Reading: Romans 1:1-7

If you've got your Bible, I invite you to open up there to the book of Romans. If you don't know where that is, right after the Gospels, you got the book of Acts. And then right after the book of Acts is the book of Romans. We're going to start in chapter 1. And in chapter one, we've actually got the longest introduction that Paul had in any of his epistles that he wrote. And we're going to read there. We're going to read the introduction.

You might say, "Wait, we're going to preach from an introduction." Yeah, there's a lot in here. There's a whole lot in these first seven verses that is in your Bible. It probably has a subtitle of saying something like introduction. There's a whole lot to preach on here. So, we're going there.

We're going to Romans chapter 1 and we're going to begin there in verse one.

I do invite anybody that would like anybody that's able to stand with me in honor of the reading of the word of God. There again, we're in Romans chapter 1 and we're beginning in verse one of Romans chapter 1. There the word of God says Paul a bond servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle separated to the gospel of God which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith from among all nations for his name among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

God, thank you for your word. And God, I pray as we break open your word. God, I pray you speak to our hearts. God, as we dig in your word and meditate on your word and the word is preached, Lord, help me. And God, help us as we're in your word to hear from you. And God, I pray you speak to our hearts and use it to mold us and to shape us more and more into your image. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Hey y'all may be seated.

The Longest Introduction in Paul's Letters

Romans chapter 1, those first seven verses, it's the longest introduction of any of Paul's letters that he's got. And it seems the reason is because Paul had never met the believers in Rome. You know, the gospel had been getting preached throughout the Roman world for about a quarter of a century when Paul wrote this letter under the inspiration of God. It's believed from Corinth that he wrote it. It's believed.

But Paul wrote this letter and I believe the reason why possibly that he had so much in this intro more than any other letter possibly because he had never met them. They had never met him and you see there in the opening verses he's packing a lot in there. He's packing in fact you can go through the rest of the 16 chapters of Romans and much of the rest of the 16 chapters tie in and kind of elaborate on what he's packing in in these first seven verses. And in fact, the final doxology, the final verses in Romans, hit up on many of the same things that Paul hits up in these first seven verses of Romans.

But Paul, he kind of, if you will, starts with his credentials. You know, it says Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle. In other words, he's talking about his apostle authority. You know, Jesus chose the 12 apostles, but Jesus also chose Paul on the road to Damascus. Amen. And so Paul is making it clear that what they're about to read, what they're about to hear, this is a message from God. We believe all the Bible is, yeah, it's written by man, but it's inspired by God.

And then he goes on to say, he's separated to the gospel of God. They're getting a pretty good idea of how this guy, he's called by the Lord and he is separated to live a life all for the Lord. But there's so many themes in those first seven verses. We're not going to go into detail. We're going to focus on one main thing today. But certainly we see the theme of his apostolic authority being called by God equal to the twelve apostles. We also see the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures in the gospel. We see the fact that the gospel and salvation centers around Jesus. There's only one true gospel. There's a lot of other gospels per se that'll go out there, but those aren't the gospel. There's only one true gospel. Also a theme in those first seven verses about the importance of obedience in the faith, being obedient in the faith as believers in Christ and the importance of being on mission for God as believers and the glory of Jesus and God the Father. There's so much packed in those first seven verses.

But where God's led me today is to talk about this. The title for our message today is sold out for the Lord. And that's what we're going to hone in today.

Paul: A Bondservant – Sold Out for the Lord

And you know, as a passage begins, I believe something we see and something we know we see in Paul, in the Apostle Paul, we see one that sold out for the Lord. Watch how it starts there in Romans 1 verse one. Paul. So, we already learned who the author is there, of course, inspired by God. But it says, "Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God."

You know, I love the way Paul describes himself to these believers that have never met. Do you ever introduce yourself that way? He basically says, "I'm a slave of Christ." Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. That word in the Greek doulos means slave servant bond servant. Basically Paul is saying I'm all about Jesus. I'm all in for the Lord. I'm sold out for the Lord.

Paul was not a slave by force. He was a slave to the Lord by choice. He was all in for the Lord. He was sold out for the Lord. A bond servant of Christ with all God had done to save him and to call him to what God called him to do to preach the gospel. He was sold out for the Lord.

And you know, as we read all through the New Testament, we see example after example, don't we, of Paul being sold out for the Lord, being all in for the Lord. We see example after example of how passionate Paul is about the mission of expanding the kingdom of God and of preaching the gospel.

Most of us, if we read our Bible, we're probably familiar with how Paul came to Christ, aren't we? Acts 9. And if you haven't ever read it, go back and read that. That was the first sermon I ever preached called Saul to Paul. But Acts 9, part of what it talks about there is the conversion of Saul.

Now, if you're confused at all, we read his name Saul first. That's his Hebrew name. But after he gets saved on the road to Damascus, that's recorded in Acts 9. After that, around Acts 13 is in the Bible where we first see him referred to as Paul, his Greek or Roman name. But also kind of symbolically, you see, he was Saul who lived a Pharisee who was a Jew of the Jews. Then he got saved and then the Bible, we start to read his name be called Paul because he was made new. Amen. When he met Christ, he was made new.

By the way, if you surrendered your life to Jesus and you truly converted your life to Jesus, you're changed. Therefore, if anyone was Christ, he's a new creation. Paul was changed when he met Jesus. And by the way, that name Paul too that we start to see him called by after Acts 9 and Acts 13, that name means small. Now maybe Paul was small in stature but I think and I don't know but I think more importantly than that is was a symbol of humility and being the greatness of God and how his life was all about God now and less and less about himself.

But Paul he gave his life to the Lord Jesus visit him on the road to Damascus. We read about that in Acts 9 where he saw a bright light at midday, a light from heaven, a light from above. And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" He said, "Saul Saul, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." Because Saul was persecuting the church. In fact, he was going from Jerusalem to chase down Christians to lock them up because they were sharing about Jesus. And that's when Jesus saved him on the road to Damascus. And when Jesus saved him, he was changed.

And we also see that he was immediately faithful. In Acts 9, we start to read around verse 19, right after Jesus visited him and blinded him on the road to Damascus and he heard from Jesus. It says in Acts 9:19, "Then he rose and was baptized." He was immediately being obedient. He was starting to show that he was going to be all in for the Lord. And then as you go on in verse 19 of Acts 9, then it says, "For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues." He started preaching Jesus very soon after he gave his life to Jesus. He was all you see that pattern of how he was all in for the Lord.

In Acts 9:23, it says, "When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him. But his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket." Saul went from the one being the lead persecutor of Christians to being the one that was persecuted. And early on when he came to Christ, we see he's already being persecuted. But did that stop him? No, that didn't stop him from continuing to preach Jesus cuz he was sold out for the Lord. All in for the Lord.

It says there in Acts 9 26 that he went to Jerusalem and he tried to join the disciples but they were afraid of him. That could have discouraged some to say, you know what, I'm not going to be so all in for the Lord. But not Paul. Barnabas gave him the right hand of fellowship and then Paul began to go in and out with them and became as one of them. Once Paul gave his life to Christ, he was changed. And again, we read that example of him being a bond servant. He was sold out from the Lord from the beginning.

And when you go through the New Testament and you read about the ministry of Paul, don't you see someone that was sold out for the Lord? Over and over you do. It didn't matter what opposition he faced. By the way, when you share the gospel with somebody and you face opposition, don't let it discourage you. Don't let it have you stop sharing the gospel. There's going to be some people that oppose the gospel. And then there always have been. Did that stop Saul from sharing Jesus? No. He kept it didn't matter the opposition. It didn't matter if a mob dragged him out. It didn't matter if he was beaten. We remember in Lystra he was stoned and thought to be dead. But he didn't stop share Jesus. Why? Cuz he was sold out for the Lord. He was a bond servant of Jesus Christ.

Are You Sold Out for the Lord?

So, I guess a question I've got for us, for all of us to think about is, are you sold out for the Lord? How sold out for the Lord are you right now? Not 20 years ago, not 30 years ago, not a year ago, right now. In your day-to-day life, are you sold out for the Lord? Because listen, we're going to be sold out for something. Something is going to get our heart. Is it things of this world or is it the Lord? What are you sold out for?

Paul, he gives us a great example of being sold out for the Lord. And I hope and I pray that me, that you, that every one of us honestly take a moment to do business with God and to say, "Am I sold out for the Lord like I need to be? Is there some area of my life that I need to get out so I can be more sold out for the Lord?"

Because we talked about Galatians 5 last Sunday, right? The flesh and the spirit, they war against each other. And we got to walk by the spirit, not by the flesh. You better believe if we're letting the flesh rule us, we're not going to live a life sold out for the Lord. Are you? How sold out for the Lord are you?

You know, I believe as I read this and as I think about Paul's example, I believe we ought to be sold out for the Lord if we're a child of God, if we're saved, if we're born again, we ought to be sold out for the Lord. Amen. With all God's done for us. Think about how if you're saved, think about what God's done for you. With all God's done for us, we ought to be sold out for the Lord. We ought to not be sold out for sin and fleshly desires of the world, we ought to be sold out for the Lord.

Reasons We Ought to Be Sold Out

There's a lot of reasons I think we could speak to, but what I want to speak to about reasons why we ought to be sold out for the Lord, I want to take us through this passage that we just read the intro in Romans 1 because I believe in it.

One thing we're reminded of is another reminder about why I should be more sold out for the Lord. Why you should be more sold out for the Lord as we read through it. One thing I think we see and we can be reminded of as we go into verse two of Romans 1. We ought to be sold out for the Lord because God cared enough to have a plan to save us. Even before you and I were ever born, God already loved us enough. He already cared for us enough to have a way that we could be saved and rescued from our sin. He already cared for us enough and had a plan for us that we could be forgiven and made right in God's eyes.

Watch what Paul says again. He's talking to these believers in Rome that he's never met. It says, "Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead."

In verse two, we're reminded God always had a plan to save us. Before we were ever in our mother's womb, before we were ever conceived, God had a plan to save you. It says which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures. You know, when you go through the Old Testament, it all points to Jesus. The Old Testament points to Jesus. Think about Micah, the prophet Micah. Probably 7 or 800 years before Jesus came down from heaven to walk this earth, we're told the exact town that Jesus would be born in in Bethlehem. Think about Isaiah. Isaiah said he would be born of a virgin, Emmanuel, meaning God with us. The prophets and also in Isaiah, we're told he would be of the line of David.

God always had this plan because God knows we're sinners and God knows that there's nothing we can do to be forgiven and be right and holy in his eyes. It had to be through what God did for us. So I hope and I pray that when we just think about the fact that God has always had this plan before you were born, before your parents were born, before your grandparents were born, God always had this plan to save us. And I hope that if we're saved, if we've been forgiven, if we've been forgiven of our sins and promised to heaven, I hope that that knowing that he always had that plan that he loves us that much that it encourages us to say, you know what? I ought to live for him. I ought to be sold out for the Lord.

You know, I tell you something else. We ought to be sold out for the Lord because of his grace and mercy to save sinners like me and like you. Going back to Romans 1 and verse 5 there in verse 5 it says through him talking about Jesus we have received grace. We don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. You don't deserve it. But through what Jesus did, God sending his son Jesus Christ down from heaven to this earth, born of a virgin and born with a purpose, born to die. Jesus went to the cross. He suffered for our sins. He died for our sins. And he rose on the third day so that anybody who believes in him will be forgiven and saved and washed by the blood of Jesus.

And when I think about the grace that God gives us to save a sinner like me, we ought to be all in for him. I mean, I know this much. I've done some things I'm not proud of, and I know God's not proud of. And you know what I know else? I know every one of you have, too. You know why I know that? Because that's what the Bible tells us. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And think about what Paul said. I love this about Paul because I believe the more he matured, the more he knew he was a sinner. He said, "I'm the chief of all sinners."

But God's grace is amazing. And you know, there's that hymn that we love, Amazing Grace. God's grace really is amazing. When you think about how and the Bible describes us, sometimes we some of us might say, "I'm pretty good." Bible tells us we're like filthy rags compared to God's holiness. Yet, God forgives us. And I don't know about you, but when I think about God's grace to save sinners like you and me, that's another reason where I'm saying ought to live more for him. Ought to be all in for the Lord. Ought to be sold out for the Lord.

And you know, I think when we think about God saving us, that's got to be one of the most the way to stay the most encouraged to be sold out for the Lord because he saved you. You know, Kurt Pounders was told he doesn't have many days left and only God knows how many days. But the reality is every single one of us one day are going to die unless we're a part of that generation that gets raptured first. You know, but every one of us otherwise will die. But you know, we've got a hope and a promise because of God's grace that we'll if we've trusted in Jesus that we'll go to heaven. God's grace is amazing. And whatever time he gives us here, I hope we're encouraged to be all in for him, to be sold out for the Lord.

And when I think about his grace, I think about he forgives our sins. I love what the psalmist says. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. That's incredible. With all that we've done to sin, he's wiped our slate clean. We owe him everything. We ought to be sold out for the Lord.

I tell you something about being sold out for the Lord. When we are sold out for the Lord, we're going to be helped to walk in obedience to the Lord. That's another reason we ought to be sold out in the Lord so that we can walk in obedience. Cuz if you're a child of God, do you want to be obedient to the Lord? Do you want to live for the Lord? I believe we do, right?

Well, if we want to be obedient to the Lord, we're not going to get it half in, half out. We're going to get it by being sold out for the Lord. It says in verse 5, "Through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith."

We got flesh. It's very easy for us to fall into sin. Very easy. We've got an enemy who tries to tempt us to sin. Again, we talked about last Sunday, we got to choose to walk by the spirit, not by the flesh. And although none of us are going to ever be perfect, we're not. We do have God living inside of us, the Holy Spirit indwells inside of us as believers. But I believe there's something to making that decision to say, you know what? I'm going to be sold out for the Lord. Cuz if one foot's in and one foot's out, we are not going to be obedient. We've got to be both feet in. We got to be all out for the Lord. We got to be fully in.

You know, if we say, "Well, you know what? God's forgiven me. I'll go out and I'll party and do whatever I want Friday and Saturday night. I'll just come back to church Sunday and be all right." First, you're going to be miserable if you're really a believer. Second, if we stay in sin and keep staying in sin and keep staying in sin and keep staying in sin, are we really saved?

If we want to be obedient, Lord, again, if you're born again, you want to be obedient, right? I want to walk in obedience. I need help from God. Do you? If we want to walk in obedience, we need to be all in for the Lord. If we're saying, you know what, I'll keep this in my life and that in my life and this in my life and that in my life, even though I know it goes against God, we're going to get pulled away. The enemy is going to use that. So when we are sold out for the Lord, we will be helped to walk in obedience.

And you know, Paul again, he gives that example of he made a choice. He got saved and he was changed. Therefore, if anyone is Christ, he's a new creation. We aren't meant to walk in the old man. We're meant to walk in the new person we are in Christ.

And I tell you, we ought to be sold out for the Lord because we're called and chosen by God. Watch what it says in verse 5. Through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. Paul's saying it's not just me that's called. You also church in Rome. You also church here at Longleaf Baptist. You also are the called of Jesus Christ. Verse seven. To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.

Paul began the intro of the letter saying, Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle. And he finishes up the intro saying, you also are the called of Jesus Christ. You also, you also are the called of Jesus Christ.

The Christian walk in living for Jesus and walk in obedience and proclaiming the gospel isn't meant to just be for the Apostle Paul. It isn't just meant to be for Billy Graham. It isn't just meant to be for preachers. Every one of us as believers are to share Jesus. And every one of us as believers are called to live for Jesus.

We ought to be sold out for the Lord because we are called and chosen. You know, each and every one of us, if we've given our life to Jesus, God called us to that. We're called by God and we're chosen by God. God chose you and you chose God. Amen. You made the decision to say, "Yes, I'm trusting in Jesus." And you made that decision cuz God started calling in you, starting in you, and then you trusted in Jesus. I hope that that encourages us to know that God, he called you, he chose you, and you decided to follow him and trust him.

I hope that encourages you to say, "You know what? I ought to be all in for the Lord. Ought to be sold out for the Lord."

Closing Challenge: Commit to Be All In

I just want to kind of close. It's a simple message, but it's a hard one to do. Amen. Cuz we're flesh. Just a challenge in this new year. Let's be sold out for the Lord. Let's be all in for the Lord.

And if that's you, if you say, "I want to be all in." And by the way, we never quit growing. There's a way you and I can keep growing in the Lord. Even if you feel like you're doing pretty good, you can do better. I can do better. Let's ask ourselves, how can I be more sold out for the Lord? Paul said, "I'm a bond servant. I'm all in." Let's be sold out for the Lord.

Will you commit to that today with God? Will you say to God, "I'm going to be all in for you. I'm gonna step up my game." Because you know in sports, some guys, girls might sit on the bench. Not with the Lord. Everybody's in the game. Every single one is in the game.

Will you be all in in the game? Will you be all in for the Lord? Will you be sold out for the Lord? If that's you, if you want to say, "Yes, I want to be more sold out for the Lord." I want to ask God to help me be more sold out for the Lord. It's a matter of saying, you know what, I'm all in for the Lord.

I'm going to be a part. I'm going to be active in the church cuz I know that's part of God's plan, not forsaking us, as someone of ourselves together. I'm going to gather to worship. You know, I'm going to be all in. I'm going to be sold out for the Lord. So, I'm going to be growing in the Lord by pouring in the word of God. I'm going to be sold out for the Lord by being in the word. If we're not in the word, we're going to get weak real quick.

I want to be sold out for the Lord by meditating on the word, by pouring into the word of God, by being a part of Bible studies, by spending time alone with God in the word. I'm going to be sold out for the Lord by being dedicated to prayer. I'm going to step up my prayer life. It might mean I watch less TV or I will look at less phone, but I'm going to be more all in and more sold out for the Lord by being more dedicated to prayer. Hey, I'm going to even come to some of these prayer times that the church has got. And hey, I'm going to even make time in my own day daily to spend more time on prayer.

I'm going to be all in for the Lord by being faithful to give back to tithe just like God's word says. And anything I've got, it's God's anyways. And by the way, if I can't trust God with my tithes, how can I trust him with salvation? I'm going to be all in the Lord. I'm going to be faithful to the Lord to be faithful to serve. I'm going to come to worship, but I'm going to also see where God wants me to serve. I'm going to be all in the Lord.

I'm going to be faithful to the Lord to say, I want, Lord, I want to live for you today where I'm at, where you got me. You got me at school. You got me in the workplace. You've got me here. You got me there. Whatever season God's got you and you're saying, "I'm going to be all in to ask God to help me live today and every day for the Lord. And I'm going to be all in and sold out for the Lord to be a bold witness for the Lord."

And by the way, we're going to have times we struggle. And I believe one thing the church is to do is to help each other. So, as a church, let's help each other. It's not about judging. Oh, look at that person. Look at what they're doing. Judge not that you be not judged. With what judgment you judge, you will be judged. With what measure you meet, it will be measured unto you. No. But as a church, we help each other. We help each other to say, "Hey, find somebody to say, I'm going to be all in for the Lord." Find somebody to say, "I want to walk with the Lord. I want to be sold out for the Lord." Find an accountability partner that can help you with that. We all need accountability. Find a brother or sister in Christ that can help you with that.

And I tell you what, you know, the last couple of years, we've seen the most salvations of baptisms that our church has seen. In the other nine years I've been here, and I for several years before that, I do believe this with all my heart. I believe with every fiber, I mean, not we can't save anybody, but we can proclaim the gospel. And when there's more people sharing the gospel, more people sharing Jesus, there's more people hearing about Jesus. And I believe with every fiber in me, when we are sold out for the Lord, living for the Lord, serving the Lord, and being faithful to share Jesus with people we come cross paths with, invite them to church so they can hear the gospel, tell them about Jesus in our own life. I believe with every fiber, we're going to see God work in mightier ways for salvations.

If every one of us are more and more sold out for the Lord, more and more all in for the Lord, we're going to see God work. You're going to see God work in your life in more ways than you've seen. I'm going to see God work. If we are sold out for the Lord and we do business with God and we say, "Here's how I can be more all in for the Lord. Here's how I can be more sold out for the Lord." God is going to work. He's going to work for salvations. He's going to work for baptisms. And he's going to work to see his people growing and living more and more for Jesus.

Closing Prayer and Altar Call

God, I love you and God, I thank you for your word. I thank you for this reminder to be sold out for you, Lord. Lord, help me to be to die to self daily and to take up my cross daily and to live more and more for you. And Lord, I pray for this church, for our church. I pray you help each one of us, those that are born again, that are believers. Help us, God, to be honest, to not just go on and move on and not think about this, but to really talk to you, to really take some time to pray to you and to say, "God, how can I be more sold out for you? Because I know I owe you everything. How can I be more sold out for you?"

And God, I just pray that as your people are faithful to be living for you, I know you're going to work. And I just pray we get to see great and mighty things for your kingdom purposes. God, we love you. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

We're going to just have a time for the Holy Spirit to move. I invite you to just pray to God. Take some time with God right now. This altar is open if you want to come and deal at this altar and give anything to God. I'm here if I can pray for you. If you need to go up to a neighbor and pray with somebody if God's leading you to whatever God's leading you to right now, just take a moment to just talk to God.

Call out to God. You might want to call out to him about being more sold out for him. Take some time right now to talk to God. You might really be burdened today and just need to call out the Lord for help. You might feel led to pray for somebody else and do that. And maybe today you've strayed and when you think about being a bond servant, you know that you've drifted and maybe today you need to talk to God about returning to the Lord, about rededicating and coming back to the Lord.

Maybe today you're here and you know you need to give your life to Jesus. If that's you, I pray today would be the day that you give you fully surrender. Be like Paul who was all in when he met Jesus. He surrendered all and he was changed and he was immediately coming for baptism and preaching.

If God's calling you to salvation, I pray you know how much he loves you. I pray you know you're a sinner like all of us. But there's a way to be forgiven of sins. And there's only one way. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

You might say, "I'm not worthy. None of us are worthy." But God's word says, "Whoever." When you call on Jesus, he'll forgive you. We can't get to heaven by being good. We can't get to heaven by following rules. There's only one way to heaven, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith that he came, born of a virgin. Faith that he grew up and he went to that cross. Faith that he suffered and he died on that cross for our sins. Faith that he rose on the third day so that anybody who believes in him will be saved.

So I pray right now as you do business with God, if God's working on you about something, give that to God. Call on God. And I pray if God's working on you about salvation, you come forward to share it so we can gather around and pray with you so we can be here for you. If God's calling you to rededication, I pray you come forward to share it so we can support you and pray for that.

Whatever way God's dealing with you right now, I invite you to respond. This altar is open. I'm here if I can pray for you. You come as God leads.