While We Wait begins with a simple premise: We want to see Jesus! We are ready and eager to see our Lord return for us. However, we are still “waiting,” and in that waiting, we have two options. Are we going to sit idly by as we wait for our Lord to return, or are we going to engage in the world that so badly needs Him? In this series, we will unpack this question and many more throughout the book of Romans in an interactive series through Romans’ most compelling passages, Romans 13:11-14

Week One

Romans 1:18-23 Key Concepts — Truth, Revelation, God’s Wrath While We Wait… for the Lord, we live in a world that doesn’t know Him or believe in Him. Worse than that, we await His return in a world that adamantly says He doesn’t exist and can’t exist. This position is seen as the most educated and informed position you could take, so how does one share their faith in God in the midst of this atheism/agnosticism? Can God be proven? Is there evidence He exists? If there isn’t definitive proof, are people still responsible for not believing in Him? 

Week Two

Romans 1:24-32 Key Concepts — Sexuality, Gender, Culture While We Wait… for the Lord, we live in a culture that embraces sexual promiscuity. Sexual immorality, homosexuality, adultery, etc, are very normalized. Sexuality and gender are confused, blended, and blurred. All of which begs the question — does God have a standard for sexuality? Is there a reason why everything has been upended? How can believers speak into the confusion and the brokenness that we see in our culture? 

Week Three

Romans 3:10-18 Key Concepts — Depravity, Doing “Good,” “Seeking” God While We Wait… for the Lord, we are confronted with the brokenness of humanity. We see this in ourselves. We see this in our friends and family. We see this in our closest allies and our worst enemies. No one is naturally good. In fact, everyone is naturally not good. But do we at least have a little goodness in us? Can we do some things to please God or to earn a little more favor in His eyes? Are we completely broken? When the Bible says, “No one is righteous,” how are we supposed to understand this? 

Week Four

Romans 6:15-22 Key Concepts — Slaves of Sin, Freedom from Sin, Slaves of God While We Wait… for the Lord, we can’t help but look back and see what He’s done for us, including all that He has saved us from. He has saved us from the oppressive control and power of sin. We are no longer slaves to it. Instead, we are slaves to righteousness and slaves of God. But what does that mean? Are we still children of God? What does this mean about our relationship with Him? What does this mean about our responsibility to serve Him? How does relationship and responsibility balance together?

Week Five

Romans 7:7-25 Key Concepts — Sinful Nature, Sanctification, Battle with Sin While We Wait… for the Lord, we still struggle. Specifically, we struggle with the very sin that we were freed from in Christ. We battle every day to do what God has called us to do, yet no matter how hard we try, we manage to keep falling short and to miss the mark. How do we qualify this battle? What should our perspective be? Do we resign to keep struggling, or is there something more that God is doing in us? 

Week Six

Romans 9:10-23 Key Concepts — God’s Election, God’s Justice, God’s Mercy While We Wait… for the Lord, we can get discouraged and wonder why everything in our world seems so out of control. We know that God is there and is in control, but experientially, we struggle. As this struggle intensifies, we can start to question our own security with Him. We question our salvation and our future with Him, and the worries start rolling. But what if the same God who holds us holds the world? What if He is sovereign over the details of our soul as well as the breadth of our universe? How would we live differently if we grasped the power and magnitude of this big God? 

Week Seven

Romans 12:1-8 Key Concepts — Conforming to this World, Spiritual Gifts, Body of Christ While We Wait… for the Lord, we are pulled in by our culture and tempted to change, to make concessions, and to waver in our convictions and perspectives. We know what God has for us and what He desires for us, but if we aren’t careful we can lose the bigger picture and be drawn in by world around us. God tells us not to cave to this pressure but to lean into it. The question is…how? How do we battle with the pressure to conform to our world yet still engage that same world for the sake of Christ? How do we draw strength from one another and move forward as a unit, all for the glory of our God? 

Week Eight

Romans 13:1-7 Key Concepts — Submission to Government, God’s Establishment, Honor/Respect While We Wait… for the Lord, we live in a fallen world with fallen governments, social structures, and leaders. The tension in our spirit is to rebel against all the sin and corruption that we see, but should we? God makes it clear that, despite how morally objectionable our culture is, we are told to honor and respect our leaders. So how does this work? How do we honor and respect the people and institutions that we know oppose our God? How do we submit to this authority while following our ultimate authority—Christ?