I'm the youngest of my brothers, and growing up I almost never won. I was smaller and weaker, and most days the game felt rigged.
Maybe you know that feeling. Maybe you feel it when the Holy Spirit taps you on the shoulder and says, "You're it." Speak up. Share your faith. Take the step. All of a sudden you feel outmatched and a little embarrassed.
Paul wrote to believers in the capital of the most powerful empire on earth, and he said this:

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" (Romans 1:16–17, ESV)

The gospel takes weak, overlooked people and makes them power-packed and unashamed.

Every culture keeps a scoreboard, and the gospel doesn't fit any of them.

• The Jewish world said you're in by bloodline and by keeping the law.
• The Greek and Roman world prized wisdom, status, and strength. People used euangelion ("good news") to announce news about the emperor. A crucified Savior was shameful. Cicero said the very word "cross" should be kept far from a Roman citizen's thoughts.
• Our American world runs on achievement, image, and self: the self-made success story, "follow your heart," and a God who mostly wants us to be nice and feel good.

The scoreboards are different, but the message is the same: the power is in your hands. So when the gospel says, "You can't save yourself," it sounds like losing.
Paul wasn't ashamed, because the gospel gives three things no scoreboard can.

The gospel doesn't just talk about God's power. It is God's power.
Scripture is honest about our condition:

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God." (Romans 3:10–11)
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins." (Ephesians 2:1)

A dead world doesn't need advice. You can't coach a dead man. It needs resurrection, not motivation.
And that's exactly what God does:

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved." (Ephesians 2:4–5)

Psychologists call it learned helplessness: lose often enough and you stop trying. Many people live there spiritually. The gospel doesn't tell you to try harder. Jesus moves you to a different playing field, His Kingdom, where the victory is already won.

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)

The gospel is power "to everyone who believes." The only condition is faith, which simply means believing God. It doesn't depend on your bloodline, résumé or reputation.

"That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring." (Romans 4:16)

Faith is like sitting on a plane in turbulence. You don't fly the plane. You trust the pilot. Jesus is the Pilot, and He says, "Take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
There's room on that plane for you:

"Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame… For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'" (Romans 10:11, 13)

Researchers Baumeister and Leary found that the need to belong is one of our deepest human needs, and rejection really does hurt. If you've been picked last or left out, hear this: in God's family, there's a seat with your name on it.

Romans 1:17 changed Martin Luther's life. He had dreaded God's righteousness as a standard he could never reach. Then he saw that God gives that righteousness through faith, "from faith for faith," from start to finish. Faith comes from God, and faith is how we live for God.
That faith does two things.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:8–9)

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6)

When you believed, you "were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance" (Ephesians 1:13–14).
Attachment research shows that securely attached children take more risks and recover from failure faster, because they know someone has them. Secure faith works the same way. You can take risks for the Kingdom because your Father isn't letting go.

Acts 4:29–31 (ESV)
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

It started in a garden. Adam and Eve stopped believing God's word, and shame entered the world.
Then Jesus stepped onto the playground. At the cross and the tomb, it looked like He lost. But that "loss" was the power of all powers.

He didn't just lose a game. He took our place. 'For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God' (1 Pet. 3:18). Now 'if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved' (Rom. 10:9)
He took your place, your sin and your shame, and He rose again. Now the promise is simple:
"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)

You don't have to win the argument. Only the Holy Spirit opens blind eyes, and that same Spirit gives you power to speak.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses." (Acts 1:8)

When the early church prayed, "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31).
My aim isn't to finally tag my brothers. It's to tag the scared ones with the Good News: You're it!

What does Romans 1:16 mean?
It means the gospel isn't just good advice. It is God's own power to save anyone who believes, no matter their background.
What does "from faith for faith" mean in Romans 1:17?
God gives His righteousness through faith from beginning to end. Faith saves us, and faith keeps us.
Why would anyone be ashamed of the gospel?
Every culture measures worth by performance, status or self. The gospel says salvation is a gift, which can feel like losing until you see it's God's power.

An anniversary tells us how long a church has been here. But it also invites a deeper question: Are we growing spiritually, or are we simply getting older?
As TLC Boise celebrates nine years, we have much to thank God for. What was once a dream and a prayer has become a community of people worshiping, serving, and learning to follow Jesus together. Behind those years are quiet sacrifices, faithful prayers, and people who gave without seeking recognition.
That history matters. Getting older is a gift, not an accusation.
But years alone do not make a church mature. Attendance, a building, financial resources, and a full calendar cannot tell the whole story of a church’s spiritual health.
The deeper question is whether we are becoming more like Jesus.
Are we growing in love? Are we willing to repent? Is our faith becoming visible in ordinary obedience? Are we depending on the Holy Spirit rather than merely trusting our experience?
Hosea 10:12 brings these questions into focus:

“Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.”
Hosea 10:12, ESV

The verse gives us three connected pictures: ground, seed, and rain. Together, they call us to repentance, faithful obedience, and dependence on God.

Hosea spoke to the northern kingdom of Israel, whose capital was Samaria. Israel had experienced prosperity, but its increasing wealth had not produced increasing faithfulness. Instead, the people multiplied their altars and placed their confidence in things that could not save them.
Their outward success concealed a deeper spiritual problem.
Into that unfaithfulness, God called them to return. They were to break up their fallow ground, sow righteousness, and seek the Lord.
This was not a formula for obtaining wealth or guaranteeing success. It was a call to turn from sin and return to God.
For the church today, the warning remains the same: we can enjoy God’s gifts while neglecting the Giver.

Fallow ground is land that is not being cultivated. It may have produced a harvest before, but yesterday’s fruit does not prepare today’s soil.
Our hearts also need attention.
We may remember seasons of deep prayer while neglecting prayer now. We may know what Scripture says while resisting its correction. We may desire restored relationships while defending resentment.
We cannot ask God for fresh fruit while defending the hardness He is calling us to surrender.
Jesus’ parable of the sower illustrates the importance of receiving God’s Word. In Luke 8, the same seed falls on different kinds of soil. Some is taken away, some withers under testing, and some is choked by life’s cares, riches, and pleasures. The good soil receives the Word and bears fruit with patience.
The question is not only whether we have heard God’s Word. It is how we are receiving it.
Yet we cannot manufacture a new heart through religious effort. In Ezekiel 36:26, God promises to give His people a new heart. Spiritual transformation begins with His grace, not our ability to make ourselves worthy.
For believers, that grace produces an ongoing life of repentance. We confess sin, receive correction, and return to Christ rather than hiding behind appearances.
This also requires pastoral care. Woundedness, grief, and exhaustion are not automatically rebellion. Some people need confession; others need rest, protection, counseling, or practical support. Often, we need several together.
A practical step: Ask, “What am I defending that God is calling me to surrender?” Name it honestly before Him and seek appropriate help.

Hosea calls God’s people to sow righteousness. That means faithfulness must become practical.
Honesty instead of deception.
Generosity instead of selfishness.
Justice instead of exploitation.
Love instead of indifference.
We do not practice these things to purchase salvation. Ephesians 2:8–10 establishes the order: we are saved by grace through faith, and we are created in Christ for good works.
Obedience is the fruit of grace, not the price of acceptance.
Zacchaeus shows us what this can look like. When Jesus welcomed him, his response became concrete. He committed to giving to the poor and restoring what he had taken dishonestly.
He did not buy salvation by giving money away. His changed relationship with money displayed the fruit of repentance.
For us, fresh obedience might mean apologizing without excuses, making a wrong right, serving someone overlooked, or becoming more intentional about generosity.
For a church, it might mean moving beyond friendly greetings toward genuine relationships, making disciples rather than merely filling seats, and sharing responsibility rather than exhausting a few faithful volunteers.
A practical step: Choose one act of obedience to practice this week. Make it specific enough to follow through.

A farmer can cultivate the ground and plant the seed, but cannot command the rain.
Likewise, we have real responsibilities, but we cannot produce spiritual life by ourselves.
Paul reminds the divided church in Corinth:

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
1 Corinthians 3:6, ESV

Leaders matter. Planning matters. Faithful service matters. But none of them can replace God.
Seeking the Lord is not a way of making Him owe us our preferred outcome. It is an acknowledgment that we need Him in our repentance, our obedience, and our waiting.
The rain in Hosea is connected to righteousness, not simply material blessing. When we pray for renewal, we should look for the Spirit’s fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
A powerful service can encourage us. But spiritual growth also appears in a more patient parent, an honest businessperson, a reconciled relationship, and a congregation learning to care for its neighbors.
A practical step: Bring one burden before God in prayer. Continue doing what He has entrusted to you, while surrendering the outcome you cannot control.

Hosea warned Samaria of judgment. Centuries later, Jesus entered Samaria and offered a woman living water.
These are different historical settings, not identical promises. Yet both passages reveal our need for what God alone can give.
The field cannot manufacture rain. The woman cannot manufacture eternal life. The church cannot manufacture its own spiritual vitality.
Jesus offers Himself as the answer to our deepest need.
The Samaritan woman’s encounter with Him became an invitation to others: come and see. Many believed, and the townspeople came to recognize Jesus as the Savior of the world.
That is the kind of growth we long for at TLC Boise: people encountering Christ, lives being transformed by grace, and that good news reaching our neighbors.

We honor the past without trying to live there.
Our anniversary can be more than a monument to what happened yesterday. It can become a doorway into fresh faithfulness today.
Will we surrender what has become resistant?
Will we practice the obedience God places before us?
Will we seek the Lord who alone gives growth?
Our hope is not that our church is impressive. Our hope is that Jesus is faithful.
Honor yesterday. Obey today. Trust God with tomorrow.
As you reflect on your own spiritual growth, begin with one simple prayer: “Lord, soften my heart, guide my next step, and teach me to depend on You.”

Pressure reveals what comfort can conceal.
It is easy to appear patient when nothing is irritating us. It is easy to feel faithful when every door is opening. It is easy to praise God when the report is good, the family is healthy, and the future makes sense.
But what comes out of us when life does not follow the plan?
What happens when the prayer is delayed, the opportunity disappears, or the road becomes harder instead of easier?
The apostle Paul understood that kind of pressure. Across his ministry, he faced rejection, imprisonment, opposition, physical suffering, and repeated changes to his plans. Yet pressure did not silence his praise, steal his purpose, or stop his witness.
Paul bent, but he did not break. He suffered, but he did not surrender. He was afflicted, but he was not abandoned.
His secret was not extraordinary willpower. It was sufficient grace.
In Romans 1:8–15, Paul gives us a glimpse of a life shaped by the gospel. We see a person who serves God wholeheartedly, prays with a submitted will, receives strength through Christian community, remains faithful through interruption, and eagerly carries the good news of Jesus to others.
These are not five techniques for becoming more impressive. They are five fruits of a life conquered and sustained by grace.

Paul begins by describing God as the One “whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son” (Romans 1:9).
His service was not a performance for people. It was worship before God. Paul did not serve in order to belong to Christ; he served because, by grace, he already belonged to Christ.
That changes how we understand ordinary faithfulness. An assignment does not become sacred only when it happens on a church platform. Work, parenting, study, hospitality, and service can all become worship when they are offered to God in faith and for His glory.
Paul also prayed with a submitted will. He deeply desired to visit Rome, but he placed that desire beneath a stronger trust: “by God’s will” (Romans 1:10). He brought his plans honestly before God without demanding that God fulfill them according to his preferred schedule.
Prayer does not force God into our will; it forms us for His will.
Paul also understood that mature believers still need encouragement. He wanted to strengthen the Christians in Rome, but he immediately added that they would be “mutually encouraged by each other’s faith” (Romans 1:12).
Even an apostle was not beyond needing the faith of ordinary believers. The church is not an audience gathered around a few important people. It is a Spirit-formed body in which every member carries grace for someone else.
We do not gather merely to consume. We gather to contribute courage.
These first three values prepare us for the question at the heart of Paul’s experience: What happens when a sincere plan meets a closed door?

Paul writes:
“I have often intended to come to you—but thus far have been prevented—in order that I may reap some harvest among you.” — Romans 1:13
“I intended, but I was prevented.”
Those words hold desire and delay, calling and obstruction, intention and interruption.
Some of the hardest pressure does not come from doing the wrong thing. It comes from being prevented from doing something we sincerely believed was right.
We prepared, but the opportunity disappeared. We prayed, but the answer was delayed. We carried vision, but the resources did not come. We obeyed the last instruction, but the next door remained closed.
Paul wanted to reach Rome, but wanting a good thing did not mean receiving it immediately. A sincere desire did not place God under obligation to follow Paul’s schedule.
Yet being prevented did not make Paul passive.
The closed door did not cancel his calling. The changed schedule did not destroy his mission. The delayed opportunity did not become an excuse for present disobedience.
Paul continued praying, preaching, planting, writing, and serving. If he could not reach Rome that day, he would remain faithful wherever God had placed him.
That is steadfast purpose: the grace-given ability to remain faithful when the route changes.
Paul did not deny his disappointment. He simply refused to let disappointment become disobedience.

Closed doors require discernment.
Sometimes God closes a door to redirect us. In Acts 16:6–10, the Holy Spirit prevented Paul from entering one region and eventually directed him toward Macedonia. The closed door was not rejection; it was redirection.
At other times, Scripture identifies spiritual opposition. In 1 Thessalonians 2:18, Paul says that Satan hindered him.
And sometimes ordinary providence changes our plans: health, responsibilities, finances, timing, distance, or the needs of others.
We may not always know why a door has closed, but we know who remains Lord over the door.
A closed door is not always a cancelled calling. Delay is not always denial. A detour is not always defeat.
But faith does not mean insisting that God eventually restore our preferred plan. God does not promise to fulfill every version of our ambitions. Sometimes He reopens the door. Sometimes He redirects us. Sometimes He asks us to release the plan and trust His wisdom.
Faith is not demanding that God resurrect our preferred route. Faith is trusting that His purpose will stand even when our route must change.

A navigation system does not spend the rest of the journey condemning us for a missed turn. It recalculates the route from our present location.
In a similar way, grace meets us where we are and empowers the next faithful step.
We may say, “This is not how I planned it.”
God calls us to follow Him from here.
We may say, “I thought I would be further by now.”
God calls us to follow Him from here.
We may say, “I did not expect this delay, loss, diagnosis, responsibility, or interruption.”
Still, God calls us to follow Him from here.
Some of us are so busy grieving the road we did not travel that we struggle to recognize God’s presence on the road where we now stand.
Faith does not require us to pretend disappointment does not hurt. Biblical lament brings pain into God’s presence rather than allowing pain to drive us away from Him. But after grieving honestly, we can examine the situation humbly and obey presently.
Instead of staring only at the door that did not open, we can ask, “What does faithfulness look like now?”
If the large opportunity has not come, we can be faithful in the small one. If the crowd has not arrived, we can encourage the person in front of us. If we cannot do everything we envisioned, we can do the next faithful thing.
Our responsibility is obedience. The outcome belongs to God.

Paul’s perseverance did not come from natural toughness. He endured because God preserved him.
Jesus says:
“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” — John 10:28
The perseverance of believers rests on the preservation of the Savior.
Our grip may feel weak, but His grip has never weakened. Our emotions may rise and fall, but His covenant does not rise and fall with them. Our plans may change, but His character remains the same.
Beneath every trembling hand that belongs to Christ is His unchanging hand.
This is why Paul could write:
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” — 2 Corinthians 4:8–9
The pressure is real, but pressure does not write the final chapter. The interruption is real, but interruption cannot overthrow the purpose of God.

Paul’s purpose remained resilient because his message was urgent.
He wrote:
“I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” — Romans 1:14–15
Paul understood that the gospel had been entrusted to him but was never intended to stop with him.
The gospel is for the educated and uneducated, the powerful and overlooked, the religious and irreligious, the outwardly respected and publicly broken. Sin has touched every category, and Christ is sufficient for every person who believes.
Paul was not only obligated; he was eager. Duty and delight met in him. Grace had so captured his heart that responsibility had become a privilege.
God’s sovereignty did not eliminate Paul’s responsibility to speak. It gave him confidence. Salvation did not depend on his eloquence, but God had chosen to use the proclamation of Christ to call people to Himself.
We cannot regenerate a heart; the Holy Spirit does that. We cannot make the spiritually dead live; God does that. But we can love, pray, serve, invite, explain, and testify.
We open our mouths and trust the Spirit to open hearts.
That means evangelism is neither manipulation nor passivity. We do not pressure people into emotional decisions, and we do not use God’s sovereignty as an excuse for silence. We present Christ faithfully and trust God with the results.

The gospel is not advice about how to improve ourselves. It is the good news of what God has accomplished through Jesus Christ.
God is holy, and every one of us has sinned against Him. We could not climb our way to God, so in love, God came down to us.
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, took on human flesh. He lived the righteous life we failed to live. At the cross, He stood in the place of sinners and bore the judgment our sin deserved. He cried, “It is finished.” Our debt was paid completely.
Jesus was buried, and on the third day He rose bodily from the grave. Sin was defeated, death was conquered, and Christ now reigns. Everyone who repents and believes in Him receives forgiveness, righteousness, adoption, and eternal life.
We are not paying Jesus back. Grace cannot be repaid. We are passing on the good news that Jesus paid it all.
God may have placed someone within the reach of our love, prayers, and faithful witness. We cannot save that person, but we can tell them about the Savior who can.
Someone needs to hear that shame does not have the last word. Addiction does not have the last word. Failure does not have the last word. The past does not have the last word. Death does not have the last word.
Jesus does.

A faith that thrives under pressure is not sustained by personality or willpower. The gospel forms it, the Spirit empowers it, and grace carries it.
When service becomes mechanical, we come to Christ.
When our will fights God’s direction, we come to Christ.
When disappointment makes us passive, we come to Christ.
When fear makes us silent, we come to Christ.
His grace is sufficient. His Spirit is present. His hand is secure. His gospel is powerful. His purpose will stand.
Perhaps the door in front of you has closed. Perhaps the route has changed, and you do not yet understand why.
Grieve honestly. Ask for wisdom. Trust the Savior who holds you. Then do the next faithful thing.
You may be interrupted, but you do not have to become immobilized.
You may be disappointed, but you do not have to become disobedient.
You may be prevented, but you do not have to become passive.
Follow God from here.

It's easy to be fired up when everything is going your way. When prayers are being answered, when opportunities are opening, when everything seems to be working, it's easy to come across as a Christian who has it all together.

But what do you do when prayers are not answered?

What do you do when you've spent years and years and years preparing, but the opportunity has never presented itself?

What do you do when you begin to walk by faith, but pressure comes?

What do you do when you're being bent but you're not broken?

When you're being beaten on the anvil of your calling and you're crying, but you know that the Lord is shaping your purpose?

When you're being put into the furnace and sometimes it feels lonely, but God is refining you?

I want to talk to you about a faith that thrives under pressure.

Paul is going to face shipwrecks, beatings, slander, imprisonment, criticism, and much more before he makes his way to Rome. Yet what comes out of him is a faith that knows how to thrive under pressure.

We all have a pressure index. You can only take so much before you go kaboom.
I've told my family many times, “I am this close to losing it.” And I meant it. I've felt that way in church. I've felt that way leading a church. I'm this close to throwing in the towel and walking away.

Truth be told, I face pressure every day, every week, in various scenarios and various ways.
And if you're honest, you do too. If you're living, if you have a pulse, this world throws anxieties at you. It throws pressure at you. It throws depression at you. It throws things at you that you cannot sweep under the church carpet and call it good.

You've got to deal with it.

That's why I want to show you the secret to a faith that thrives under pressure.

Before we go further, I want you to understand something very clearly.
A faith that thrives under pressure is not sustained by personality or willpower.
This isn't about being more flamboyant, more eloquent, more talented, or finding an opportunity to get on a stage.

The faith I'm talking about is formed by the gospel.

The Spirit empowers this faith.

And there are values that expose it.

Every believer who has given their life to Jesus ought to see traces of these values in their life. And when you see them, get excited. Say, “Lord, I want more of this faith.”
Not because you've mastered it, but because you want more of Jesus.

So let's look at what Paul shows us.

1. Serve With a Surrendered Spirit
The first characteristic I see in the apostle Paul's life, and in every believer who has experienced the gospel, is this:
They serve with a surrendered spirit.
Paul says:
“For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son.”
God is his witness.
That can be exciting for some people and terrifying for others.
Man looks at the outside. Man looks at how many times you served, how many times you tithed, how many times you showed up to church, how many times you wore a cross, how many times you said, “Praise the Lord,” how many times you prayed before you ate.

But God sees how you serve.

God sees with what heart you come.
God sees with what heart you get up in the morning and go to work.
God sees whether the gospel is what's fueling you to walk by faith or whether you're just walking mechanically.

The word “serve” here is latruo, which is a very interesting word. The Hebrew equivalent I connected it with is abad, a word used multiple times for the priests serving in the tabernacle and temple.

But Paul does something beautiful with this idea of service. It's not merely external service.
Romans 12:1 says:
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”

There is an external manifestation. There is discipline. There is surrender and submission.
But it comes from something happening within.

Too many times we're doing the external things thinking that if we do enough external things, the inside will change.

No, no, no.
It starts here.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6 that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit and that we are not our own. We were bought with a price.

I was reminded of that this week when I had to say goodbye to one of my motorcycles.
I like working on motorcycles. I fix them up, ride them for a bit, and eventually sell them. This particular Harley was a bike I really liked, and I didn't really want to sell it. But we needed to downsize.

When the guy came to pick it up, he was admiring the bike. He started telling me all the things he was going to change.

I'm thinking, “You're going to do what? You're going to change the handlebars? You're going to change the suspension?”

But I couldn't tell him what to do with that bike. It wasn't mine anymore, I had signed the title away. Now he gets to do what he wants with that bike.

And when you came to Jesus, the title deed for your life was changed.

The beauty is that the title didn't change from your name because it was never your life to begin with. It's always been His life. He's your Creator. He's the one who made you.
But the gospel came and shined this beautiful light, and you said, “I belong to Jesus.”
So now I don't belong to the world.

I don't belong to my divorce.
I don't belong to my illness.
I don't belong to a poverty mentality.
I don't belong to a religion or a denomination.
I belong to Jesus.

And because of that, I want to serve Him.

Romans 7:6 says that we serve “in a new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”

It's not simply, “What do you want me to do? When do you want me to show up? Okay, fine. I'll show up.”

There is zeal.
There is passion.

And that zeal doesn't come because of what you know. It comes because of who you know.
The title deed belongs to Him.
I see His name on my life.
"And now, Lord, I want to serve You."

Maybe you're thinking, “But Pastor, I'm not a pastor. I'm not an evangelist. I'm not a worship pastor. I'm not an apostle.”

What does this look like in your life?

Whatever it is God puts you to do, whatever opportunities He places you in, you can serve with a surrendered spirit.

You could be sweeping your house and say, “Lord, because I belong to You, I want to serve with a surrendered spirit.”
Trust me, your sweeping will change.

I remember when I was a youth pastor, we were meeting in the art garage while we were renovating the youth chapel. One Sunday morning, one of the youth was sweeping the floor. I asked her if she had swept behind the chairs.
She said, “No, nobody's going to see it.”
That made sense. Nobody was going to see it.
But something in my spirit taught me something that day.
I said, “But the Lord sees it. And we're going to worship Him here. So out of honor for Him, let's do that.”

That moment has stayed with me.

“If I can trust you with little, then I can trust you with more.”
Whatever you do—whether you're sweeping a floor, caring for patients, cutting hair, working a call center, taking care of babies at home, doing dishes, cooking, or sitting in a classroom - you can say: “Lord, I want to serve You with a surrendered spirit.”

But this kind of service is hard.
To wake up every day and say, “Lord, I want to serve You with a surrendered spirit” is hard.
And that's why this unshakable faith needs to be fueled in prayer.

2. Pray With a Submitted Will
Surrender and submission go together.
The second thing I see is this:
Pray with a submitted will.

If you're stiff-necked like a mule, this is going to be really hard for you.

Here's what's going to happen when you start praying, “Lord, I want to serve You with a surrendered spirit.” - Because God has a sense of humor and He loves you, He's going to put you in places that show you why you're not surrendered.

Not because He hates you; Pressure will reveal what's in you.
He's going to show you where your heart and desire are good, but where you still need to grow.

Paul says:
“For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.”

Pay attention to that last part: Paul really wants to go to Rome.
He's not hiding his desire, but his desire is under a much deeper trust.

He's saying, “I really want to come see you, but I want God's will more.”

Mature prayer isn't devoid of your desires.
If you want to get married, it's okay to say, “Lord, I really want to get married.”
If there's someone you want to marry, you can bring that desire to God.
But your desire has to be surrendered to God's will.
Paul isn't pushing his way in Jesus' name. He's submitted to God's will.

And Paul prays always.
That doesn't mean he's on his knees every second of the day.
It means the rhythm of his life is prayer.

Every time he experiences a burden, he's praying.
Every time he experiences opposition, he's praying.
Every time he meets someone new, he's praying.
Every time he's excited, he's praying.
Every time he's doubtful, he's praying.
Every time something new happens, he's praying.
Everything in his life is surrounded with prayer.

There is a beautiful hymn that says:
“What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry everything to Him in prayer.
Oh, what peace we often forfeit.
Oh, what needless pain we bear.
All because we do not carry everything to Him in prayer."

Philippians 4:6–7 says:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

God isn't saying, “Don't bring your desires to Me.”
You can say, “Lord, I really would like this.”
But you can also say, “Lord, I want this if it is Your will.”

My prayers can be big because my God is big.

But my prayers don't force God into my will.
My prayers shape me and form me into His plan and His purpose for my life.
I may not know how my prayer will be answered.
It may not be answered the way I want it answered.
But my God who hears will send me an answer, even if His answer is no.
And it can bring me peace.

Philippians says that "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus."
That's a peace the world can never give.
When I face uncertainty, I need to take it to the Lord.

Peter says:
“Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

How many anxieties? All of them.

Paul isn't saying, “God, I'm going to hold You hostage until You send me to Rome.”
He's saying, “Lord, I really want this. And I want my church to know I really want this. But I want God's will to be done more than anything else.”

A faith that thrives under pressure trusts beyond the pain.

When you know the character of God and you're rehearsing the promises of God, you're able to pray with a submitted will because you know that whatever He takes you through, in the end He will get His glory.
And His glory is our greatest good.

If you think Paul is a weak example, look at Jesus.

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed:
“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.”

His heart was being crushed.
And yet He surrendered His will.

You might have been praying for an open door and you haven't seen it.

Stay in prayer.

You might have been praying for influence, but all God has allowed is pain.
In the pain, your testimony may be speaking much louder than your words because people can see your life in pain and see that without grace, it would be impossible for you to do what you're doing.

You might have been praying for strength and God has allowed weakness in your life so that you will know that His grace is sufficient.

So pray until you can truthfully say:
“Lord, I want this, but I want You more.”
“Lord, I really want this, but I really want You more.”
Not as mental gymnastics to convince yourself, but so that your spirit recognizes who the Lord is.

Sometimes you have to teach yourself not to go back to the old ways.
“Lord, I want this day to go a particular way, but Lord, I want Your way.”

Prayer does not force God into your will.
It moves me to be shaped and formed into His plan and His purpose for my life.

3. Strength Through Shared Faith
Now this private growing—this private intimacy with Jesus—begins to explode externally.

The third thing I see is:
Strength through shared faith.

Whenever you face anxiety and pressure in life, there is something very common that people tend to do: We isolate.

You stop showing up to church.
You stop talking to believers.
You isolate.

Now, there is a healthy retreat that we need. Some of you need to pull away from people so you can spend time with God. That's healthy.

But I'm talking about unhealthy isolation.
You start living on maintenance.
You stop trusting God.
You become grabby.
You develop a poverty mentality.
You try to save yesterday's manna for today, and it's all turning to worms.
You still have the Jesus talk going on, but there is no Jesus in your life.

A faith that survives pressure is surrendered. It is submitted. And it speaks courage to the people around it.

It creates a thriving community of courage.

When you come to church, you're not just coming to consume.
You're coming to be a person who gives courage to those around you.
The encouragement isn't supposed to come only from the pastor or from the songs we sing; it's supposed to come from each and every person who comes to church.

When we're walking with a surrendered spirit and a submitted will in prayer, we begin to explode in encouragement.

Romans 1:11–12 says:
“For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.”

Paul is a church planter. Thirteen books in the New Testament bear his name.
He could have walked into Rome and said, “I'm the apostle Paul. Sit down and listen to me.”
But that's not what he says.
He says, “I want to encourage you.”

And then he says that he wants to be encouraged by them too.
That's beautiful.

When you enter the church, you're bringing your testimony with you.
You're not leaving it in the car.
You're bringing your story with you.
You're bringing your endurance in faith.
You're bringing the gifts God has given you.
You're bringing the warfare you've fought this week.
You're bringing evidence that grace is still working.

When I get up to preach, I'm fired up not only because of what I've seen in God's Word and what I've experienced in my spirit at home.

I'm fired up because I see your faith.

When I hear about baptisms, when I hear people say, “Pastor, my faith is growing,” it encourages me.

When someone tells me, “I didn't realize how much trauma I've been dealing with, but praise the Lord, I'm free now,” that encourages my spirit.

When I hear about your hardships and see you walk by faith, I want to start dancing.

When someone says, “The enemy had me down. I struggled. I was depressed, but I dragged myself to church and the Lord spoke to me,” I want to celebrate.

Even when you're at home and you open your Bible and say, “Pastor, I struggled. I was doubting. I fought with my wife, but the Lord convicted me and I repented,” I'm encouraged.

I'm not here as the man who knows everything about the Lord and has come to teach everybody else. I'm learning from you too.
That's what this beautiful faith does.

It is surrendered in prayer, and then it bursts out in encouragement.
Just by you existing.
Just by you coming to fellowship.
It brings encouragement.

Hebrews tells us to "consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, but encouraging one another all the more as the day draws near."

Start With one person
I want you to apply this.
Find one person whose faith is encouraging you and tell them.

And on the other hand, find someone you know who is hurting.
Maybe you're an introvert like me and you're awkward like me, but you know people in your life who are hurting. Text them. Talk to them. Let them know they are not alone in carrying the burden they're carrying. Tell them you're praying for them. Tell them the Lord sees it.
Tell them you're praying for God's will to be done.

There is coming a day when there will be no more tears.
There is coming a day when there will be no more death.
But in the meantime, Charles Spurgeon reminds me, saints will cry.
Saints will feel the pain of standing at the casket of a loved one.
Saints will face moments when, if God doesn't intervene, they will surely die.
But praise the Lord that the God who has called us is faithful.
He who began a good work will see it to the end.

So let's come in obedience.
Let's come with a surrendered spirit.
Let's come with a submitted will.
Let's strengthen one another.
And let's trust the Lord with the faith that thrives under pressure.

When someone says your name in a room, what comes to mind?

Every person has an identity that becomes associated with them. Say Steve Jobs, and people immediately think of Apple. Mention a person you know, and an image, personality, or reputation may come to mind before you have even finished saying their name.

But what happens when the name being mentioned is yours?
What do people remember you for? What emotions come up when your name enters a conversation? How does the temperature of the room change when people begin talking about you?

We all have a reputation. A reputation is formed through repeated behavior. One foolish decision may create an impression, but when something is repeated again and again, it begins to establish an identity.

The question is not whether we should worship what people think about us. We are not called to live our lives trying to make everyone like us. But we are called to be an influence in this world. We are called to be salt and light, to walk in the authority and power of the risen Savior.

So the question remains: What are you known for?

In Romans 1:8–17, Paul gives us a picture of what the church in Rome was known for.
From there, I want to make the question personal.

A Church Known for Faith
The church in Rome was not one large church meeting in one building. It was made up of multiple churches meeting in homes, perhaps at different times and with different styles of worship, but gathered together as one body of Christ.

And there was conflict.

Jewish Christians had been removed from Rome under Emperor Claudius. When they eventually returned, Gentile believers had been leading the churches. Now there was conflict over leadership and priority. The Gentile leaders had their experience of leading the church, while the Jewish Christians believed they had historical priority.

There was racial division. There was disagreement over worship, leadership, and how the church should function.

Paul had never been to this church, but he longed to go. In the middle of all that noise, he wanted the church to regain the effectiveness it was supposed to have.

And yet Paul does not begin by praising the church for its building, its social work, its music, its book sales, or how many people attended its services.

He writes:
“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.”

Faith.

In the middle of conflict, the church could still be known for its faith.

Every church has flaws. Even churches planted, taught, and served by the apostles had conflict. But there is something a church can still be known for: faith.

Faith Is More Than Belief
So what is faith?
Faith is not merely head knowledge. It is not blind trust. It is not simply hoping that everything will work out.

Faith is confident trust in God’s character and promises, expressed through loyal commitment and faithful action.

The promises of God matter. But there is something else that matters just as much: knowing the character of the God who made those promises.

It is possible to know what the Word says without knowing the Father who gave the Word.
Jesus illustrated this through the story of the prodigal son. The son had rejected his father, taken his property, squandered everything, and eventually found himself sitting among the pigs, longing for what they were eating.

Then he came to his senses.

He remembered his father’s house. Even the servants had food to eat there.

The father had not given him a guarantee before he left that he could simply return whenever he wanted. But sitting in the pigsty, the son remembered the character of his father.

And he got up.

That is where faith becomes action.

The prodigal son did not make his way home because he had somehow worked up enough righteousness within himself. He remembered the character of his father, and that knowledge moved him toward home.

You can be the prodigal who has run away, failed, fallen, created conflict, lived in shame, or gone farther than you ever thought you would go. But if you know the character of the God who created you and the God who went to the cross to take away your sin, faith begins to rise.

You begin to make your way home.

Faith is confident trust in God’s character and promises that gets you moving, no matter how far you have gone.

Faith When Uncertainty Comes Knocking
Faith is not simply a church word. Every person walks in faith every day.

You sit on a chair trusting that it will hold you. You eat food without knowing everything that happened inside the factory where it was made. Every day, you make decisions based on things you cannot completely see or know.

Faith acknowledges uncertainty.

Anxiety is fear that comes in a season of uncertainty. It is the feeling of fear when you are walking into the unknown.

Faith does not pretend uncertainty does not exist.
Instead, faith acknowledges uncertainty in the light of God's character, nature, greatness, and truth.

Anxiety may knock on the door, but fear does not have to open it.

Faith opens the door.

We develop pathways in our minds based on how we have responded to things before. When conflict comes, we can immediately return to the same patterns we used the last time. When heartbreak comes, we reach for the same things we used to soothe ourselves before.

There is nothing wrong with evaluating your life, talking to counselors, or meeting with pastors and trusted people. But we have to ask why we are doing it.

Are we allowing fear to open the door?

Faith says, “Stop.”

Pause. Remember the character and nature of God.

Then rehearse the promises of God. Pray. Bring petitions and thanksgiving before Him.

And then act.

Stop. Remember. Rehearse. Act.

When God has spoken, faith takes the next step.
Go to sleep.
Go to the interview.
Send the email.
Take the courageous step.

Faith says, “God said it, that settles it.”

The issue is not whether uncertainty will come. It will. The question is what we will allow to answer the door when it does.

That is what the church in Rome was known for. In the middle of conflict, they were walking in faith.

A Church That Submits to God's Righteousness
There is another characteristic Paul points toward in Romans 1:17:
“For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

Faith reveals the righteousness of God.

As we trust God's character, we begin to see more of His nature. And as we see His righteousness, we recognize that we cannot live by our own wisdom, courage, friendships, or goodness.

Romans 3:21–22 says that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus came and lived the righteousness that humanity could never live.
And that righteousness is given to those who believe.

The church in Rome was known not only for faithful confidence in God's character, but for submission to God's righteousness.

Faith leads to joyful obedience and surrender. It leads us away from dependence on ourselves and toward dependence on God and the righteousness of Jesus.

That matters because many people struggle with the idea that God could give them His righteousness.
So they try to act worthy of it.
They try to deserve it.
But that is not faith.

Faith recognizes, “I am not worthy. I don't deserve it. But I am going to trust the character of God.”

He said it.
That settles it.

Knowing the Promises Without Knowing the Father
There is a danger in knowing a great deal about God while never actually knowing Him.

Paul addresses this in Romans 10. He says there were people who had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. They were ignorant of God's righteousness and were seeking to establish their own righteousness rather than submitting to God's righteousness.

It is possible to tithe regularly, attend church regularly, read the Bible every day, have devotionals on the shelf, and know Scripture—and still not know the Father who made the promises.

It is possible to be in church and not be saved.

It is possible to know the writings while your eyes are not on His face.

Paul also writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned.

The message has to be received.

God isn't looking for your good works. He's looking for your faith.
 
Jesus asked in Luke, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

That question matters.

The grace of God is calling people to receive the message, to let faith arise, to remember the character and nature of God, and to rejoice in the righteousness of Jesus.

This is not merely about having more information in our heads.

It is about relationship with the God who wants to give us faith to see His character and nature.

When a Church Becomes a Tourist Attraction
While visiting Greece, there was a picture that stayed with me.
Tiny wooden churches were scattered throughout the islands.
They were everywhere—on the mountains and near the ocean.

I asked local people about them.
What do they do in these churches?

The answer was essentially that they had become tourist attractions. People liked the way they looked against the backdrop of the ocean. Sometimes people held weddings there. Sometimes homeless people slept there. But for the most part, they were no longer places where church services happened.

These places had history. The apostles had come and taught there. There was a history of wisdom, faith, and righteousness in Jesus. And yet, for the most part, people no longer cared about Jesus. They were returning to man's wisdom, philosophy, arguments, and debates.

And the Holy Spirit was bringing such deep conviction.

He said, "Joel, if the church loses sight of the Holy Spirit, this is what will happen to every single church. It becomes a tourist attraction. It becomes a place where people can take pictures. It becomes just a caricature that tourists will buy and take back home to put on their shelf."

The purpose of the Living Church Boise is not simply to be a space that meets. It is to be an organism that comes together and is known for something.

Known for faith.

Known for celebrating God's righteousness.

“My Jesus, My Savior”
The question eventually becomes personal.
What are you known for?

But there is an even more important question:
Are you known by Him?

I want to tell you why that question is so personal to me.

As a teenager in a home church in Vizak, India, I was a runaway from home. My family did not know where I was, and I did not know where I was going. Fear was opening the door in my life every day. I was extremely suicidal and had been using drugs to escape the misery of overthinking.

A missionary from Australia was part of a tiny house church.

One Sunday morning, the song “My Jesus, My Savior” was being played. The guitarist was playing plenty of wrong chords, and I was irritated enough that I went into the house church looking for a fight.

I kept coming back, though.
Not because I had already been saved, but partly because the missionary had a daughter.

Then the song came around again.

As we sang about mountains bowing down and seas roaring at the sound of His name, something happened.

I got on my knees.

I had been a prideful, arrogant teenager who was simply waiting to die. My father had left. I carried serious abandonment. I did not care if I lived.

But there, something changed.

I heard the words, “My Jesus, my Savior,” and the Lord asked me,
"You're hearing them sing, 'My Jesus, my Savior,' is He yours, Joel?"

That question changed my identity.

Life did not become perfect afterward. There were still storms. There were still times when I doubted. Even recently, there have been times when God felt far away.
But over the past two decades, I have learned not to let fear open the door.

Faith does.

I trust that the Father in heaven will come through.
I trust that He will never abandon His people.

And that brings the question back to every one of us.
What Are You Known For?

That is the homework.
Every morning, ask yourself the question - "What am I known for?"
You may need to ask people you trust what they believe you are known for. You may discover something God has placed in you that you have been ignoring for a long time.

But before you answer that question, there is another one you have to answer.
Are you known by Him?

Do you know Jesus—the author and perfecter of your faith?
Do you know Him well enough to move even when you are in doubt?
To move even when you are in pain?
To move even when you are depressed?
To move even when you are broke?
To move even when you do not know what tomorrow holds?

You can move because the God you worship is the God of your tomorrows.

“My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like You.”
There is none like Him.

His holiness matters. His righteousness matters. But the greatest gift is His love.
His love helps us see His righteousness and the healing He wants to bring into our lives.

So this week, ask yourself the question:
What are you known for?

But first:
Are you known by Him?

What if the thing you've been using to disqualify yourself is not actually strong enough to disqualify you from God's calling?
What if your failure doesn't have the final say? What if your past doesn't have the final say? What if your insecurity, weakness, addiction, family history, disappointment, or spiritual failure doesn't have the final say?
What if God is calling you anyway?
That is where we begin our journey through the book of Romans.
Romans is going to show us where we fall short. It is going to expose our inadequacies and show us just how far we are from God's standards. And that's actually good news. We don't want a doctor who tells us we're perfectly healthy when we're sick. We want someone who will tell us the truth and then show us how to become healthy.
Romans does both.
It exposes our inadequacy, but it also reveals the grace of God—the grace that doesn't simply point out where we fall short but empowers us to become who God is calling us to be.
And that is the message we need to hear from the beginning:
God is calling you anyway.

God Doesn't Call You Because You Have It All Together
Romans begins with Paul introducing himself:
"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God."
Before Paul talks about his ministry, his accomplishments, or his qualifications, he identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ.
The Greek word translated "servant" is doulos, referring to a slave—a person who willingly belongs to a master.
That matters because we often think God's calling comes after we've gotten ourselves together.
We think we need to become more disciplined, more educated, more successful, more confident, and more spiritual.
Maybe then God will use us.
But that's not how grace works.
God isn't calling you because you've perfected your personality. He's not calling you because you've finally gotten your finances together, started a business, gotten married, become disciplined, or figured out how to communicate perfectly.
God calls because of grace.
Grace is God's unearned gift. It isn't something you can achieve or deserve.
One pastor described grace as "God's riches at Christ's expense."
That means your weaknesses don't get the final word. Your insecurity doesn't get the final word. Your family's failures don't get the final word. Your past doesn't get the final word.
Grace does.

Paul's Past Should Have Disqualified Him
If anyone had reasons to believe they were disqualified from being used by God, it was Paul.
Before becoming the apostle we know from Romans, Paul was violently opposed to Christianity.
He describes his former life in Galatians:
"I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it."
Paul wasn't merely indifferent toward Christians. He actively sought to destroy the church.
He was present when Stephen was killed for his faith. He received authorization to capture Christians, have them beaten, and bring them to trial.
Then, on the road to Damascus, everything changed.
Jesus encountered Paul.
A light from heaven surrounded him, and Jesus asked:
"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
The man who had made it his mission to eradicate Christianity became one of Christianity's greatest messengers.
Think about that.
Even the people who had personally walked with Jesus had to learn that God's grace could have the final say over Paul's past.
And Paul's testimony tells us something important about our own lives.
You may be on your own road to Damascus.
You may be walking away from the purpose God created you for. You may have spent years building a life that looks nothing like what you think God wants. You may have made choices you regret.
You may be carrying anger, judgment, self-righteousness, insecurity, or shame.
But none of those things are stronger than the grace of God.
Paul said that God had called him by grace—and that this calling happened before Paul had done anything to earn it.
God doesn't wait until you're perfect before He calls you.

Calling Isn't About What You Do—It's About Whose You Are
One of the most important distinctions in this message is this:
Calling is not primarily about what you do. It's about who you belong to.
We can become obsessed with asking:
"What is God calling me to do?"
"Is God calling me to ministry?"
"Is God calling me to start something?"
"Is God calling me to lead?"
"Is God calling me to plant a church?"
Those questions aren't necessarily wrong.
But they can cause us to miss the foundation of calling.
Before God gives you an assignment, He calls you to belong to Him.
It's not first about what.
It's about whose.
When you belong to Jesus, you don't have to fight your way into God's purpose. You don't have to manufacture your own significance.
You surrender to Him.
You become His servant.
And that surrender brings humility, freedom, courage, and boldness.
The question isn't simply, "What are you capable of?"
The question is:
"Whose slave are you?"
What has become your master?
Your insecurity? Your success? Your past? Your anger? Your reputation? Your desire for control? Your addiction?
Sometimes God has already brought us out of a prison, but we return to it because it's familiar.
Grace calls us to something different.

THE GOD-MAN WHO SAVES YOU IS JESUS
If the first point is that God calls people who don't have it all together, the second is even more important:
What qualifies you is Jesus.
Not you.
Jesus.
Romans calls the message "the gospel of God."
The gospel means good news.
And the good news isn't that humanity finally figured out how to reach God.
The good news is that God came to us.
Jesus entered a world that was broken, fallen, sinful, and dark.
And He wasn't afraid of the darkness.
John 1 says: "In him was life, and this life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."
That's what happened to Paul.
A great light entered his darkness.
And darkness couldn't overcome it.
Maybe you've experienced your own darkness.
Not simply a bad week or a difficult season, but the kind of darkness you can't seem to explain or fix.
You can't simply drink more caffeine and make it disappear. You can't entertain yourself out of it. You can't work your way out of it. You can't simply try harder.
The good news is that Jesus enters the darkness.
He comes as light.
And that light brings life.

Stop Trying to Clean Yourself Up Before Coming to Jesus
One of the greatest obstacles to experiencing grace is the belief that we have to get ourselves together first.
We say:
"Let me clean myself up, and then I'll start following Jesus seriously."
"Then I'll start reading my Bible."
"Then I'll get baptized."
"Then I'll deal with this sin."
But if you're waiting until you're clean enough to come to Jesus, you'll never come.
That's precisely why you need Jesus.
The gospel is initiated by God, carried out by God, and ultimately completed by God.
That doesn't mean sin doesn't matter.
It doesn't mean we're given permission to continue living however we want.
It means that we don't defeat sin by relying on our flesh.
God gives us the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit empowers us to live differently.
So when you come to Jesus, you don't come pretending you're incapable of failure.
You come knowing that you need Him.
You surrender and say:
"God, I can't do this in my own strength. But if You said it, I will trust You to empower me to walk in it."
That is grace.

The Resurrection Proves That Darkness Doesn't Win
Romans 1:4 points to Jesus being declared the Son of God in power through His resurrection from the dead.
Jesus was crucified as a criminal.
Religious leaders tried to silence Him.
Rome tried to kill Him.
But the grave couldn't hold Him.
Rome couldn't silence Him.
All of hell couldn't defeat Him.
And that means something for you.
Your crisis cannot dethrone Jesus.
Your weakness cannot exhaust His grace.
Your future doesn't surprise Him.
The One calling you is Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Romans 8:11 reminds believers that the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in them.
The power that raised Jesus is not merely an interesting theological concept.
It is the power God gives His people to live.

Christian Life Is Falling and Getting Back Up
There is a simple picture of the Christian life:
You fall. You get up.
You fall. You get up.
You fall. You get up.
And one day you fall and they put you six feet under.
And then... YOU GET UP!
That's the Christian life!
Not because falling is the goal, but because grace teaches us that failure isn't the end.
Peter is a powerful example.
Peter denied Jesus.
Yet Jesus had already prayed for him.
Jesus didn't tell Peter, "If you come back."
He told him, in effect, "When you come back, strengthen your brothers."
Peter's failure wasn't the end of his calling.
Grace had the final say.
And the same grace that restored Peter is the grace that meets us when we fail.

This leads to the third major truth:
God doesn't give you an assignment so that you can earn His grace. Grace comes first.
Romans 1:5 says:
"Through whom we have received grace and apostleship."
Notice the order:
Grace first. Assignment second.
That changes how we think about calling.
We don't serve God so He will finally accept us.
We serve because we've already received His grace.
We don't obey so God will decide we're worthy.
We obey because we've encountered the God who has called us.
First comes grace.
Then comes the assignment.
And God has given every believer gifts that can be used to serve others.
1 Peter 4:10 says that each person should use the gift they've received to serve others as good stewards of God's varied grace.
So what has God put in you?
What are you good at?
What do you enjoy doing?
What brings encouragement and light to other people?
Maybe your gift doesn't look like traditional "church ministry."
That's okay.
God is interested in your whole life.
Your home.
Your workplace.
Your kitchen.
Your family.
Your friendships.
Your everyday conversations.
Everything can become an opportunity to glorify God.

Your Calling Isn't About Building Your Own Name
Romans 1:5 gives us another important piece of the calling:
"For the sake of his name among all the nations."
God's calling isn't about building our platform.
It's not about recognition.
It's not about having a title.
It's not about getting a bigger audience.
It's not about a career or a 401(k).
It's not about proving ourselves.
It's for God's glory.
How do you know you're walking in your calling?
First, you're relying on grace.
Grace is your fuel.
Second, you're not doing it for yourself.
You're doing it for God's glory.
God gives the gift.
God gives the opportunity.
God gives the strength.
And God gets the glory.

What God Is Calling You To Do May Be Bigger Than Your Reach
There's another pattern throughout God's calling:
It's often bigger than us.
God doesn't always call us to something we feel capable of accomplishing.
In fact, we may feel completely unqualified.
That's exactly how the beginning of this journey through Romans felt.
Teaching Romans is an enormous task.
The book is deep. Its theology has shaped centuries of Christian thought.
And yet the call is to teach it anyway.
Why?
Because what God wants to do is often bigger than what we can accomplish on our own.
Romans says the gospel is going out "among all nations."
That's bigger than one person.
It's bigger than one church.
It's bigger than one generation.
And that's the point.
When God calls you to something beyond your reach, He's inviting you to depend on His reach.
So when you feel lethargic, discouraged, or incapable, don't automatically assume that means you aren't called.
Instead, ask:
"Holy Spirit, empower me to go beyond what my body can reach, beyond what my mind can reach, and beyond what my brokenness can reach."
This Calling Is for You
Romans 1:6 makes the message personal:
"Including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ."
Including you.
Not just Paul.
Not just pastors.
Not just missionaries.
Not just people with theological degrees.
Not just people who have their lives together.
You.
Grace found you, but grace didn't find you to leave you where it found you.
Grace gives you a new identity.
Grace gives you a new family.
Grace gives you holiness.
Grace gives you a mission.
And the grace that transforms you is meant to move through you toward someone else.
Who Has God Put Right in Front of You?
It's easy to get distracted by huge dreams.
We can think:
"God, send me to the nations!"
And perhaps God is saying:
"I've already put someone in front of you."
Who has God placed directly in front of you this week?
A coworker? A family member? Your child? A neighbor? A friend? Someone you see every day?
Don't overlook the person standing right in front of you while dreaming about the person you'll reach someday.
The nations can begin with the person God has already placed in your path.

What Act of Obedience Have You Been Delaying?
Here's another question worth sitting with:
What act of obedience have you delayed because you feel unqualified?
Maybe you already know what God has been asking you to do.
Maybe you've been waiting to feel ready.
Maybe you've been waiting until you stop struggling.
Maybe you've been waiting until your faith feels stronger.
Maybe you're afraid you're going to fail.
But what if God is calling you anyway?
What if you take Him more seriously than you take your failure?
You don't obey to earn God's grace.
You obey because you've received God's grace.
Has Grace Stopped With You?
There's one final question:
Has grace stopped with you?
God's grace is meant to transform us.
But then it moves through us.
If you've truly experienced the love and forgiveness of God, there should be something in you that wants other people to experience it too.
You don't have to manufacture a testimony.
You don't have to repeat somebody else's words.
You don't have to pretend.
Let God write your story.
Let the reality of His grace become evident in your own life.
Then when you talk about Jesus, you don't simply repeat what someone else told you.
Your life tells the story.

Your Failure Does Not Have the Last Say
The journey through Romans begins here:
You are inadequate.
You are not enough.
Neither am I.
But that's not the end of the story.
Grace is.
God doesn't call you because you've earned the right to be called.
He calls you because of His grace.
Jesus is the One who qualifies you.
The Holy Spirit is the One who empowers you.
Your assignment is bigger than you.
Your calling is for God's glory.
And the grace you've received is meant to overflow into the lives of others.
So surrender.
Not to earn grace.
Surrender because grace has already been given.
Surrender knowing that the One who called you is faithful.
Surrender knowing that your past doesn't have the final say.
Your weakness doesn't have the final say.
Your insecurity doesn't have the final say.
Your failure doesn't have the final say.
The grace of God does.
What if God is calling you anyway?
Maybe the answer is simply:
Yes.

There are seasons in life when everything seems to change at once. What once felt stable becomes uncertain. The future that seemed clear suddenly disappears. You find yourself asking questions you never expected to ask: What happens next? Did I misunderstand God? Does He still love me? Will He use me? How do I move forward when I do not even know what I am moving toward?

Uncertainty is not an unusual experience for the believer. In fact, even a church birthed by faith, rooted in love, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and committed to seeing people redeemed will still walk through uncertain seasons.
That is true for the Living Church Boise. It is true for the larger body of Christ. And it is true for every follower of Jesus.

The question is not whether we will face uncertainty.
The question is how we will navigate it.

Romans 8:28 gives us a place to begin:
“And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Most Christians have heard this verse many times. Some can quote it from memory. But familiar verses can become so familiar that we lose our sense of wonder. We can hear the words without stopping to consider the astonishing truth they contain.

Paul does not say that we will understand everything. He does not promise that every circumstance will turn out the way we hoped. He does not say that every relationship will be restored, every job will return, or every painful situation will receive a fairytale ending.
He says that we can know something—even when there is much we do not know.

And that changes everything.

When Obedience Does Not Immediately Produce Clarity
A study titled Understanding Uncertainty: A Risk Analysis, published in 1994, concluded that when people face critical decisions involving risk, there is often more information they do not know than information they do know. The study argued that our focus should be on understanding and effectively dealing with what we do not know.

That sounds reasonable until you stop and think about it.
How do you understand what you do not understand?

Sometimes life brings us to a place where trying harder does not produce clarity. We pray, fast, seek God, and attempt to do everything faithfully, yet we still cannot see what He is doing. We may know we are supposed to trust Him, but we do not know what the next step looks like.

We can face uncertainty in our relationships, finances, purpose, calling, anointing, or salvation. We can wonder whether God really loves us—and, if He does, whether He will actually use us. We can feel that the dreams He placed in our hearts are far beyond our education, age, talent, eloquence, or ability.

Sometimes life feels like it has slammed on the brakes when we were expecting to live in overdrive.

And sometimes the hardest part is not knowing how to begin again.

When we walk with God long enough, we will eventually enter a season in which our obedience does not immediately produce clarity. We may be doing the right things and still feel unsure about where God is leading us.

In those moments, we have a choice.
Choose confidence over chaos.

That does not mean pretending everything is fine. It does not mean ignoring grief, denying fear, or acting as though uncertainty has no effect on us. It means refusing to let what we do not know become greater than what we do know.

The world tells us to try to understand everything we do not understand. Scripture calls us to lean on what we know.

Romans 8:28 begins with the words, “And we know.”

The Greek word used there, oida, carries the idea of knowing, perceiving, or being aware of a settled fact. Paul is not pointing us toward complete information. He is pointing us toward a confidence rooted in something already revealed.

When uncertainty surrounds you, do not lose your mind over what you do not know.
Return to what you do know.

Confidence Is Not Complete Information
What should give us confidence when our circumstances are unclear?
Not complete information.

Confidence is not complete information. It is a settled trust in God’s character.

We do not become confident because we have all the answers. We become confident because we know the One who does.

God is not frightened by the chaos in our lives. He is not overwhelmed by what is happening in the world. He is not intimidated by our failures, our temptations, our family situations, or the things we cannot control.

He is greater than all of it.

That is why Paul directs our attention to the comprehensive sovereignty of God.
God’s sovereignty means that He is greater than anything else. He is stronger than anything else. He knows more than anything else. He is not limited by the circumstances that limit us.

His sovereignty is comprehensive. It covers everything.

Romans 8:28 says that “all things work together for good.” That means there is no part of our story that is beyond His authority. There is no trauma we have experienced, no identity we carry, no sin we have committed, and no evil done against us that is greater than God.

This does not mean God is the author of sin. He is not morally guilty of evil, and He does not delight in wickedness. Human beings remain responsible for the evil they intend.
But evil is never outside His authority.

God is able to redeem what evil intended.

That does not mean we will always understand why something happened. We may never receive an explanation for a particular loss, betrayal, illness, or disappointment. But even when we cannot explain the event, we can know that God is not defeated by it.

He is not absent from our pain.

He is still able to accomplish His holy purpose.

The Good God Promises Is Greater Than a Happy Ending
We often interpret Romans 8:28 through the lens of immediate circumstances.
We hear that all things work together for good, and we assume that the good must mean the relationship will be restored, the job will return, the illness will be healed, the finances will improve, or the dream will finally come true.

Sometimes God does restore those things. But that is not the ultimate good Paul is describing.

The good God promises is greater than a restored relationship. It is greater than receiving a job back. It is greater than getting the building we want, having the ministry we imagined, or seeing every earthly problem resolved.

The good is that God is making us more and more like Jesus.

Romans 8:29 explains that God’s purpose is for us to be conformed to the image of His Son.

That is the good.

We could receive everything we want and still miss the purpose of God if we are not becoming more like Jesus. We could have a large building, a successful ministry, financial stability, and public influence—and still be spiritually empty.

But if we are becoming more like Christ, then even an ordinary or difficult season can be filled with eternal purpose.

Joseph gives us one of the clearest pictures of this truth.

Joseph was loved by his father and hated by his brothers. His brothers sold him as a slave to Egypt. He was separated from his family, falsely accused, and thrown into prison.
None of that looked good.

Yet God was working through every part of Joseph’s story. Eventually, Joseph became second in command to Pharaoh. God gave him wisdom to interpret dreams, and through that wisdom Egypt prepared for a famine. When the famine came, people from surrounding nations came to Egypt for food—including Joseph’s own family.

Looking back at everything that had happened, Joseph told his brothers:
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”

Joseph did not call evil good. He did not pretend that betrayal was harmless. He simply recognized that God’s sovereignty was greater than the evil committed against him.
The same truth is seen in the death of Jesus.

Acts 2:23 describes Jesus as being delivered according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, yet crucified by the hands of lawless men. Acts 4:27–28 explains that Herod, a Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel gathered against Jesus to do what God’s hand and plan had already predestined to take place.

The crucifixion was the greatest act of human wickedness - and God used it to accomplish the greatest act of redemption.

If God can work through the cross, He is not defeated by your uncertainty.

If He can bring resurrection out of death, He is able to bring redemption out of what you cannot yet understand.

Sovereignty Does Not Mean You Cannot Cry
There is a danger when we begin talking about the sovereignty of God. We can make people feel as though trusting God means they are not allowed to grieve.

That is not biblical faith.

Just because God is sovereign does not mean you cannot cry. It does not mean you cannot feel sick in your stomach when you face uncertainty. It does not mean you cannot toss and turn at night, wondering what is going to happen next.

Trusting God does not make you less human.
In fact, biblical trust gives you a safe place to bring your humanity.

There are seasons when we must say, “God is sovereign, so I will cry while trusting Him.”

“God is sovereign, so I will grieve while trusting Him.”

“God is sovereign, so I will admit that I do not know what is going to happen while trusting Him.”

This is not unbelief. It is honest faith.

The psalmist writes:
“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.”

Notice, he does not say, “When I am afraid, I will pretend I am not afraid.”
He does not say, “When I am afraid, I will shame myself for having fear.”

He says, “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.”
Fear may be present, but fear does not have to be in control.

Psalm 56 continues:
“In God I trust; I shall not be afraid.”

The order matters. Trust comes in the middle of fear. Confidence grows while we are still learning to surrender.

We should not become like Job’s friends, who spoke when silence would have been better. Sometimes people who are hurting do not need a lecture about how God has everything under control. They need someone to sit with them, listen to them, and allow them to grieve without treating their sorrow as spiritual failure.

God has made us human. He knows what it is like for us to hurt.

And He remains sovereign while we hurt.

Confidence Grows Where God Is Loved
Romans 8:28 does not simply say that all things work together for good. It says this promise is "for those who love God and are called according to His purpose."

That means the foundation of confidence is not merely knowing that God is sovereign.
It is knowing Him and loving Him.

The Christian life does not begin with religious performance. It begins with relationship.
We cannot force ourselves to love God through sheer effort. We cannot repeat, “Jesus, I love You,” while our hearts remain untouched by His love. That would be a strange relationship.

Love begins with God.
“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

Before we ever reached for Him, He reached for us. Before we understood His love, He demonstrated it. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The cross is where we see the love of Jesus most clearly. It is where our hearts find their home. It is where we discover that God’s love is not sentimental affection or religious obligation.

His love is sacrificial, unconditional, and transforming.

When we understand that love, we begin to respond.

Love Is Demonstrated by Obedience
Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

Love for God is demonstrated through obedience. We do not obey in order to earn His love. We obey because His love has captured our hearts.

A healthy relationship does not consist of one person constantly trying to earn the affection of the other. When love is real, obedience is not merely an obligation. It becomes a response of trust.

Love Is Not Legalism
1 John 5:3 says:
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”

Following Jesus is not supposed to be empty religion. It is not supposed to leave us spiritually dead, dry, and exhausted because we are constantly trying to prove ourselves.
When we love God, obedience becomes a joyful response to who He is.

That does not mean obedience is always easy. It means it is no longer meaningless. We are not simply checking religious boxes. We are learning to trust the One who loves us.

Love Is Not One-Sided
1 Corinthians 8:3 says:
“But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.”

That is astonishing. When you belong to Jesus, you are not an anonymous person in a crowd. You do not need a name tag in heaven. God knows you.
He knows your name, your story, your weakness, your history, and your heart.

The relationship is not one-sided. We love Him because He first loved us, and as we respond to that love, we discover that we are already fully known by Him.

Love Changes the Way We Live
When people fall in love, they walk differently. They smile differently. They carry themselves differently. Love changes their confidence because they know they are loved.

How much more should the love of the God who created the universe transform us?

The confidence to stand in uncertain times does not come from having a trick up our sleeve. It comes from knowing that God loves us, that He loves His church, and that He is faithful to His purposes.

Love Looks Beyond the Present Trial
James 1:12 says:
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

The promise is not merely for those who attend church, serve, give, or participate in ministry activities. The promise is for those who love God.

You may not know what is happening next, but you can know the God who has brought you this far.

You may not understand the road you are on, but you can know the God who is walking with you.

You may feel weak, but the Spirit of God is interceding for you.

The answer to uncertainty is not always a detailed explanation. Sometimes the answer is a deeper relationship with the One who holds everything.

“Lord, I Believe. Help My Unbelief.”
For someone who has not yet entered into a relationship with Jesus, Romans 8:28 is not a promise to use like a lottery ticket or a genie in a bottle. It is an invitation into genuine relationship with God.

The invitation is not simply to believe that God will make your circumstances better. It is to know Him, love Him, trust Him, and surrender your life to Him.

The invitation can begin with a very simple prayer:
“Jesus, help me to love You more.”
That is a prayer every believer can pray.

In Mark 9, a father brings his demon-possessed son to Jesus after the disciples were unable to heal him. The father asks Jesus if He can do anything.
It almost sounds like Jesus is getting mad at him. He says, “What do you mean, ‘If I can?’ Do you not know that I’m the comprehensive sovereign God?”

And Jesus says, “All things are possible if you believe.”

The father gives his response:
“I believe; help my unbelief.”

Perhaps uncertainty has caused you to doubt. Perhaps unanswered prayers have made you question whether God is present. Perhaps you have wondered if you did something wrong or whether God is disappointed in you.
You can bring that honestly to Him.
“Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

You do not have to pretend. You do not have to manufacture confidence. You can bring your fear, your doubt, your grief, and your questions into the presence of the sovereign God who loves you.

Stay at His Feet
For those struggling with unbelief, ask God to help you.
For those burdened by religion, shame, and guilt, ask God to help you love Him.
For those walking through uncertainty, ask God for the faith to keep trusting Him—even when you are crying, even when you are tossing and turning, even when things are not going your way.

The goal is not to become people who never feel afraid.
The goal is to become people who know where to take our fear.
When we do not know what God is doing, we can throw ourselves at His feet and stay there. We can wait for Him. We can trust that the God who began a good work in us will carry it through to completion.

Our circumstances may remain uncertain, but God is certain.
Our future may be unclear, but His character has not changed.
We may not know what comes next, but we know the One who holds the next season.
So trade your chaos for confidence.

Not confidence in your strength, wisdom, education, charisma, or ability to control the outcome.

Confidence in the comprehensive sovereignty of God.

He is not defeated by your pain. He is not absent from your grief. He is not threatened by your weakness. He is able to redeem what evil intended and accomplish His holy purpose.
And the good He is working is greater than simply giving us the ending we want.
He is making us more like Jesus.

That is a good we can trust—even here, even now, even when we do not know.