Romans 11 - 13 (10th December) - Xiao Woon

Romans 11

God’s mercy on Israel

6 “And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.”

Like what we learnt in sermon, grace is something we have although we do not deserve it. Works in itself is not able to save us because if works can save us, then there’s no need for God’s grace in our lives.

We are not beyond recovery! Thank God for His mercy for us =)
No matter how bad your past or the things you did, God is always ready to forgive you =)

Be careful not to let unbelief into our hearts or we’ll be broken off from the olive tree, but always trusting the Lord. Just as how the branches trust the roots to provide the nutrients for them to grow, let’s also trust the Lord to provide us the ‘nutrients’ for our growth.

Our God is a God of second chance. Notice that the passage says that God can graft the original branches back onto the olive tree. As we realize our unbelief and repent, God will bring us back to him =) It is His desire for all man to turn to Him.
God’s mercy is for everyone

From the Israelites and the Gentiles, we can see the wisdom of the Lord. How we can never understand fully His ways and decisions! But we know that His ways are good and will never harm us. His ways are much higher than our ways, that is why we should obey Him even when we do not understand why.

Like what Nick Vujicic said, we have a plan, but God has a greater plan. Follow God’s plan and we will never go wrong=)

Romans 12

A Living Sacrifice to God

W must be a living and holy sacrifice for the Lord.

Our God is a God of justice. No worries about revenge or payback time. God will do that in time to come.

All we have to do is to behave like a Christian, doing the right things and obeying God. Cling onto the good and from verse 21,
Rom 12:21---“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Sometimes it’s tough to follow God and 100% do the things perfectly. There’ll be times we may feel like falling. This is where we need the Holy Spirit to counsel us and also God’s supernatural strength to help and bring us through.
Romans 13

All authority comes from God

All authority comes from God, be it your teachers, your bosses, your managers, your leaders, your parents, the government etc…so respect them even if they are unreasonable. It’s our duty to show our respect for the authority, whether or not they are mean to us God will deal with them accordingly=)

Heb 13:17---“Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.”

God placed the various authorities over us for certain reasons. Though we may not understand or may not like it, we should just obey and slowly God will reveal His reasons for His ways, maybe not fully, but at least bits and pieces of it. He definitely wants us to learn certain things from the authorities =)

Love Fulfills God’s Requirements

Love is the key to all other things.

10 “Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.”

With love for one another, one would not think of hurting the other party in any way to gain any sort of benefits for oneself, which is why loving our neighbour as ourselves is the greatest commandment as it concludes God’s law. The root of all the other commandments is love.

We must live decent lives for all to see.