Bible Text: Genesis 12:1-4; Romans 1:1-7 | Pastor: Pastor Jason Bryant |             I honestly don’t know why we still do, but Natalie and I still have a home telephone number.  Call it inertia or what have you, we unlike a great many others, haven’t cut the cord on our home phone.  Although I’m thinking about doing it again.  I mean, it’s election season, once again.  Adding in political calls to the usual mix of telemarketers and con artists, it seems like our phone is always ringing.  We don’t answer it, of course, but its incessant ringing is annoying.

            I talk about those calls because, this morning, I’m continuing our series on the Book of Romans and our author, Paul, is going to mention being called.  Thankfully, he’s not talking about annoyance calls, rather the call of our Lord, Jesus Christ.   

            Last week, we learned more about the Apostle Paul.  Paul, as I mentioned last week, ends up writing 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament.  Moreover, he exerts a tremendous influence on the church, soon after Jesus’ death and resurrection as he passionately begins the work of evangelizing Gentiles.  The Gentiles, in case you didn’t know, are non-Jewish people.  You and I are Gentiles, for example.

            And all of that is truly wonderful, God-inspired.  But what I really, truly hope you noticed is where we ended last week.  Paul, here in the opening words of Romans, declares to that church, and to all the subsequent ages, that he considers himself, first and foremostly, a SERVANT of Jesus Christ. In fact, if you’ll member, that word servant cleans up the original word, doulos, meaning slave.

            Paul gratefully accepted his servant/slave status.  After all, who more than Paul was cognizant at that point of just how miraculously God in Christ chooses to operate?  One moment, Paul is a rock-hurling, ladder-climbing Pharisee, the next (practically) a servant to the very same cause he’d just been persecuting.  To be sure, it was a jarring change.  It required being knocked to the ground, blinded and led around by strangers.   But this change, this new birth, is one Paul came to see more and more as an unmerited blessing from God.  Having been moved from the darkness into the light, from an everlasting death to everlasting life, Paul accepted his newfound servant status with energy and excitement.

            I read to you again from Romans, chapter 1, verses 1-7.  Hear now the Word of our Lord:

            “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,  To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

            I mention that because in our readings from Romans this morning, Paul talks about being called by God.  And there are quite a few differences between the call but I want us all to notice something, what Paul tells us next shows us the awesome power of God to work in our lives and move is in His directions.  Paul declares himself to be “called” as an apostle and “set apart” for the Gospel of God.

            In a very similar way, you and I have been called by God.