Simple Gospel

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Don Filcek; Romans 10:5-21 Simple Gospel

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listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsack preaches from his series in the
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Book of Romans, A Righteousness from God. Let's listen in. Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Recast Church.
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I'm Don Filsack. I'm the lead pastor here, and I'm glad that we've had this opportunity or have this opportunity this morning to gather together.
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I don't know how many of you realize this, but 10 years ago this week, it was actually the 13th of September, 10 years ago, that we had our launch service as a church at a storefront up on Red Arrow Highway.
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I think like many of you, some of you have come later, and you're kind of new here, and then some of you have been here from the very beginning, and all in between that as well.
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I've been overwhelmed by the many ways that God has blessed us as a church over these 10 years.
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It's an awesome milestone. We've grown in faith. We've grown in community. We've grown in service.
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We've grown in numbers. We've grown in staff. We've grown in facilities, and all of the honor and glory for all of that growth goes to God.
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It's really Him and Him alone that has accounted for that. He is the Almighty One.
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He is the one we worship. He is the one who affects change and does stuff and grows His kingdom, and so credit and glory goes to Him.
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If it were up to me and my strength, I think we would have faltered for sure. There's a statistic that was running through my mind when we first started
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Recast 10 years ago, and that is that 75 % of church plants don't see the end of their second year.
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By the end of two years, the majority, like 75 % of church plants, fold. We knew that going in, and we knew that if Recast was going to continue, it was going to be
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God's blessing and His alone, so we prayed, and we sought Him, and we sought Him, and He has done this, so glory to Him.
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With that kind of rejoicing in our hearts that God has moved in our community and has done that, let's turn our attention to God's Word this morning and see what
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He has for us to grasp by faith here in Romans 10. I don't know if you guys identify with this or not.
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I think you probably do, but how many of you would say that life is getting complicated? Life is pretty complex.
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Go ahead and let's try that again. How many of you think that life is complicated or complex? I think that's most of us.
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Fifteen years ago, some of you are thinking fifteen years ago is a long time for you, but fifteen years ago, if you wanted to watch a movie as a family, what would you do?
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Well, you'd go to the video store, you'd rent it, you'd go home, you'd pop some popcorn, and you'd watch a movie, right? A pretty simple process.
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Today, if you want to watch a movie, you have to check in to see if it's on Netflix. For free there, not there. How about Prime?
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Nope, it's not there. I guess we're going to have to rent it from, well, is it Prime or is it Hulu? Which one are we going to go to?
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What was the password again? Linda, did you change the password because this mine's not working? Five tries later, you're locked out and you haven't even started the thought about what movie you're going to watch yet.
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So first world problems, right? But anybody relate to what I'm talking about? And that's not even the most complex things of our culture because has anybody here ever tried to figure out your cell phone bill?
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Anybody try to actually understand what it is that you're paying for on that stuff? I mean, there's a lot of complexity to life, and I would suggest to you that we also add a layer of spiritual complexity to our lives.
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We add a level of spiritual complexity where we think that things have to be complex and even our faith can at times be confusing and we wander our way through a variety of different things and thoughts.
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But this text is meant to bring us back to a simple gospel message.
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The gospel is actually a very simple thing, a very, very simple thing. So as we read together our text this morning, listen for the simplicity of salvation.
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Now I'm not saying that the text itself is simple. There's a lot of, you know, I mean, at first reading you might not necessarily get that out of it, but I'm saying that this text conveys the simple, the message of simple salvation.
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And so if you're not already there, turn in your Bibles over to Romans chapter 10, and we're going to be looking at 10 verse 5 through the end of the chapter.
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That's Romans 10, 5 through 21, navigating your device or get your scripture journals out or grab the
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Bible under the seat in front of you or whatever. But let's follow along and read what God has to say to us.
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His precious word. God communicating with us, church, here in the reading of his word.
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So Romans 10, 5 through 21. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.
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But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring
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Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say?
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The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim.
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Because 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.
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For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.
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For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
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For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?
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And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
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And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.
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But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?
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So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard it?
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Indeed they have. For their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.
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But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation.
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With a foolish nation I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me.
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I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. But of Israel he says, all day long
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I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for your grace that has worked in our history as a church, for your grace that has worked in our personal histories to draw us to the place where we're here.
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And I know that everybody that's sitting in these seats comes from a variety of backgrounds and a variety of histories.
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Even just our week has varied so much that some are sitting here with bad news and are working through that.
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Some are sitting here at a high point in life and things are going and just clicking really well for them.
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Some are sitting here lonely and some are filled with relationships, almost overflowing and annoyed with relationships.
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And Father, I pray that you would meet us where we're at, that you would provide encouragement for those who need encouragement, challenge for those who need challenge, correction for those who need correction, and that all of us together would hear your word and our eyes would be opened.
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Our eyes would be opened to the truth of this simple gospel. Father, if there's someone here who's been saved for years,
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I pray that this simple gospel would break open afresh on their lives in a call to reach out to others.
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But Father, if there are any here who do not know the simple message of salvation, that today might be a day of salvation for them as well.
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Father, thank you that we have a chance to sing songs before you together in unity.
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And so, Father, I pray that you would accept this as worship to you, that you would allow all distractions to fade away, and that we would see you as high and exalted, and that we would think about you as we sing these songs.
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Not our own voices, not the band on stage, but that it would all be for you and you alone in Jesus' name. Amen. Yeah, you can go ahead and be seated, but remember if at any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts, you can take advantage of that back there.
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If you get up in the middle, you're not going to distract me. If you need to use the restrooms, those are out the barn doors down the hallway on the left -hand side.
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And then please reopen your Bible or navigate in your device back over to Romans chapter 10, verses 5 through 21, our text for this morning, so that you can reference that.
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I'm going to reference it multiple times during the message, and so we're going to walk right through that just like normal. Paul has been concerned since the start of chapter 9, really a big outline heading, talking, moving into the sovereignty of God over salvation.
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And he's been concerned since the start of chapter 9, really 9 through 11 being that big heading of sovereignty with the integrity of God.
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So that's been fundamental to his arguments and what he's kind of explaining in his letter to the church in Rome.
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And it is kind of this fundamental question that is the overarching question of 9 through 11. 9 through 11, how is it that God can be called faithful if the majority of his
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Old Testament people have not been brought into salvation under his
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Messiah, under Jesus Christ? So the majority of the Jews during Paul's day and age were not accepting and embracing
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Christ. And so how is it that God can both remain faithful and the majority of his people don't accept him?
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And so he's made a case, Paul has made a case that it's God's prerogative to show mercy to whatever people group and whatever peoples he would choose.
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And that goes all the way down to choosing the individuals to whom he would choose to show mercy and compassion to.
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But last week, God also made it clear through the Apostle Paul and through his Holy Spirit revealing this, that when we look at it from another perspective, the human perspective, we see that most of the
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Jews miss the Messiah because of their own attempts at self -righteousness. Because their own attempts to work for what
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God was freely offering and said, you can't earn this. You can't pay me back for it.
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It is all of grace and grace alone. It is by faith and trust in what my son has done for you. And so all throughout the
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Old Testament, God has called his people to himself and in our text this morning, Paul is going to expand on that idea.
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What is it exactly that the people of the Old Testament and the people of the Jews were rejecting when they rejected the gospel?
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What were they rejecting? And what particularly has kept the Jews from coming in? And if we come to understand what has kept the
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Jews out, then we may actually begin to see some deeper insights into our own hearts, the types of things that would battle against God in our hearts as well as in the hearts of humanity around us.
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And so I have a loose outline this morning to help follow the flow. Every point in this outline centers around the word righteousness because that's the main point of this text.
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Righteousness is the main point of this section of chapter 10 of the book of Romans.
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So if obtaining righteousness, here's the main point, if you're taking notes, this is the main point, it'll be on the screen. If obtaining righteousness is so simple, then why isn't everyone lining up to receive it?
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That's a question that we ought to ask ourselves. That's an important question to kind of think through even in our day and age.
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It's not just a Jewish problem, it's a human problem. And if it really is so simple as this text is going to convey, then why aren't they all lining up to receive it?
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So here's the outline. The first point is just one verse, it's verse 5, and it's the tough road of a works -based righteousness.
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The tough road of a works -based righteousness. Then verses 6 through 11 are going to be the simplicity and proximity of a faith -based righteousness.
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The third point is the need to communicate a faith -based righteousness.
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That's verses 12 through 15. And then the fourth one, not all will obey this faith -based righteousness.
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That's verses 16 through 21. So let's launch out into this. The first point is just this first verse, verse 5.
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That one verse, but this is primarily, verse 5 in this text of chapter 10 is primarily a quote from Moses from the book of Leviticus.
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It's interesting that Paul had at his disposal quoting from the book of Leviticus. He had studied the
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Old Testament, he knew it, and he says, Moses wrote in Leviticus 18 .5 that the person who obeys the commandments must live by them.
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And that's kind of an archaic phrase to us, it's something that doesn't necessarily communicate a lot. The verse could be understood in a variety of ways, and I had to do some research to kind of dig down to what is
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Paul getting at by this verse. But in context, Paul is using this verse to contrast an attempted righteousness based on obeying laws and rules, trying to earn your own self -righteousness, trying to look good in God's eyes, trying to get his attention, and contrasting that with the rest of the text, which is a righteousness that is given to a person based on faith and trust in Jesus.
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So two different brands, two different ideas, two different concepts of righteousness. A righteousness that I can earn by being good, or a righteousness that can be given to me by God based on the work of Jesus Christ.
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So verse five is that front end, it's the righteousness that somebody would try to earn by obedience.
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And the way most scholars understand Paul's use of this quote is that he's identifying the comprehensive, whole -life nature to choosing to live a self -righteous life, trying to obey rules and please
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God by the law. Notice the last word in the English Standard Version of the translation of verse five.
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It is the word them. Well, what is them? The person who bases, it says, the person who bases their hope for righteousness on law must live by them.
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What is them? The laws. How many of them? Well, he doesn't minimize it.
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All of them. Not some of them, not a few of them, but all of them.
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So I just have to ask you, how much of this book is laws and rules? How many of you have read it?
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How many of you have read through the Bible in a year? You've read this book. So you've got some idea. How many of you know that there's a lot of laws and rules in here?
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And then the other question to ask is, how comprehensive are those rules? Well, they cover every aspect of our lives, don't they?
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All the way down to what you eat and even in the old civil law, the things that you wear and sacrifices and all of those things.
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And so the law, it's just comprehensive. There's a lot going on in there. And so how many of these laws do you have to obey to be okay with God?
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And that's a fundamental question if you choose a works -based, law -based righteousness.
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If that's what you want to do, then he says you're going to have to keep them all. You want to be a religious person and try to get right with God through obedience?
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Obey them, live by them, all of them. And now let's just take one little one of them. Honor your father and mother.
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How many of you have broken that one? You don't really even have to raise your hand. I am a father and I've been a son and I know how life works.
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And so you don't have to raise your hand because I know that every single one of us at some point has dishonored our father or our mother.
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So that's a given and that's one of the more simplistic laws. How about we take a more complex one?
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Like love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I don't even need to go on to the neighbor part.
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How many of you have ever broken that one? Anybody else O for two? I think we're all
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O for two on this one. I don't even need to go on. Have you broke the Sabbath? Have you ever lied? Have you ever lusted?
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Have you ever, ever, ever, ever, and you just keep going through them and I mean we're not doing too well.
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When we look at righteousness from this perspective, it suddenly snaps into focus. I'm in trouble if it's up to me to save myself.
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If it's up to me and my perfection in keeping this law, I'm busted. And so in this short first verse,
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Paul says, you want to seek righteousness in God's eyes by the law? Fine. Simple.
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Just do all of them. Just completely and perfectly keep the law, then you'll be all right.
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You see, this is a tough road that never arrives at righteousness for someone who is a sin -cursed individual on this sin -cursed planet.
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Now certainly there is one who completed this righteous law on our behalf, right? His name is Jesus Christ and he fulfilled it for us.
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So I can't say there's no one that has ever achieved righteousness through this because Christ did so on our behalf.
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But the road to a works -based righteousness is a tough and eventually fruitless road for any of us.
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So let me just stand up here as your pastor and just say, don't go down that road. That's not the road for you. That's not the path that you want.
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You don't want to have gone that road that leads to the judgment. There's another road that leads to judgment and it's a much more pleasant road at the end.
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Maybe a more difficult road along the way, but it's a better road. And yet, so many, so very many take this road of attempting to assert their own righteousness and their own great standing in God's eyes.
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But the contrast comes in verse two. There's a righteousness that is based in faith and it doesn't require radical and heroic actions and deeds.
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The journey to salvation is not like an epic quest. It isn't a radical search for a hidden savior that we must climb the stairways to heaven to find and bring him down to us.
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We need not plunge into the depths of the abyss to conquer the underworld to bring up our savior.
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We are not Hercules. We are not Perseus. Think about all the
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Greek things that Paul would probably have been aware of. All of the pantheon of Greek and Roman gods and all of the stories about charging the gates of Hades and winning people back and doing all of those heroic and epic deeds.
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But salvation cannot be achieved through heroic and epic means. No, actually, our savior willingly just came down for us.
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And our savior has indeed come back from the abyss for us. We are not, hear me carefully church, we are not the main characters in our own stories.
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Despite what every magazine headline and self -help title tells you, you are not the hero of your own story.
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You are the helpless character who needs rescuing in your story. So it is not girl, wash your face.
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It's girl, have your face washed. That's really the message for all of us. It is that one would come and take care of you, not you working and working and working and heaping on all kinds of things for you to accomplish these epic and heroic deeds of the day.
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What are we called to? A humble trust in the work that our hero has done for us.
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He has done it. We can't. We are the helpless character in need of rescuing in our own story.
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And so in this sense, salvation is a simple thing. What we're being called to in our understanding, what we're called to in our day -to -day, not just talking about the one time of salvation, but the daily reminder that we need to wake up and remind ourselves salvation is accomplished for us and that changes our day if we grasp it.
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If you wake up in the morning free in Christ, you wake up free to live for him, to honor him, to love him.
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No longer under the fear and the tyranny of I've got to do all of these epic things for him today.
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But in Deuteronomy, Moses wrote that the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.
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He's quoting Deuteronomy, but he's talking to the church and he's talking in terms of the salvation and this righteousness and what he's basically getting at is the simplicity and proximity of salvation in this quote.
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Wherever the gospel is proclaimed, salvation has drawn so very near that it could rightly be said that it is in the mouth and the heart of the hearer.
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The one who hears the gospel and understands it and comprehends it and takes it in with their ears, it is in their heart and in their mouth.
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It is so, so, so very near when the gospel is proclaimed.
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I had the chance a few weeks ago to share the gospel with a 97 -year -old, a 97 -year -old woman that I love and my hope, my only hope for her, she's not a believer, my only hope for her is that here in these last days, last weeks, we don't know how much longer we have with her, but my hope is that the words of Christ are in her mouth and that the words of Christ are in her heart and that's the hope that we obtain when we get the chance to speak and proclaim the gospel to someone.
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No one is beyond the realm and the reach of God. As long as they have breath, as long as they have life, as long as they have a mouth that can speak, as long as they have a heart that can believe, there's hope in that.
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And the only hope, of course, that I have is that I've had an opportunity to proclaim the gospel with her. Without that,
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I don't know if she's heard it, I don't know if she gets it, I don't know if she believes it. I certainly don't even now know whether she believes it, but I know she could.
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I know she could profess it right this second because she knows it and she has it now.
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Is that making sense? In her mouth and in her heart, waiting to be expressed if she would choose to express faith in the words of life.
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How heroic is our part in salvation? How heroic is our part in saving ourselves?
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Well, it says in the text in verse 9, we confess that Jesus is Lord with our mouth and we believe in our hearts that he died and rose again and we will be saved.
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That doesn't sound super epic. That doesn't sound super heroic. It sounds just simple.
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Salvation is close to anyone who has heard the gospel. It is as close as mouth and heart. And a word about the necessity to confess with your mouth, because some of you might be kind of weirded out by that a little bit, like, do
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I have to speak it, do I have to say it out loud? And what if somebody can't, what if their mouth literally doesn't work, then can they be saved?
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You know, and kind of think of exceptions and stuff like that. But you might be wondering, do you have to say it out loud?
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Is it like a magic formula? And I don't believe at all that's the case. Paul is using an
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Old Testament quote from Deuteronomy to bring the Jews along into his explanation of the gospel.
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He has hopes that some of them might receive this. And so Paul explains in so many places all throughout his writing that faith alone is necessary for salvation.
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But here he adds confession or profession with the mouth as a logical outflow of saving faith.
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And he does so in order to parallel the Old Testament that he's quoting, mouth and heart from Deuteronomy.
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So taking something that the Jews, a formula that the Jews would have understood, and he's borrowing that and bringing that into Christianity, bringing that forward into his message and saying, no, mind and heart with the law in the
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Old Testament, mind and, I mean, mind and mouth in the Old Testament law, heart and mouth in the
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Old Testament law, heart and mouth in the New Covenant as well. So we know this, by the way, because we have so much of Paul's writing to compare this with.
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So, Don, are you just kind of trying to get us out from underneath something here? But there's so much of his writing.
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He only uses the word confess that's used here in this text three times in all of his
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New Testament writings. Paul uses that three times. He uses the word for faith in conjunction with salvation 40 times in the book of Romans alone.
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So he is faith, faith, faith for salvation, not faith plus confession, faith plus baptism, faith plus, it's faith for salvation.
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And then other things come along, other things will come along with that. The foundation of salvation is believing in your heart.
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The outcropping of that salvation by faith is that you would confess Jesus with your mouth and you would do so readily given the opportunity.
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That is part of it. That given the opportunity to confess Christ as your Lord, you will.
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And the simplicity of the gospel is expressed in various ways throughout this text, but verses 10 and 11 intentionally show simplicity.
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You can look at verses 10 and 11 there, justification comes by believing in the core of your being, in your heart, believing that Jesus was indeed victorious over sin and death, and with your mouth you confess
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Jesus as your new ruler. He's your leader. He is your king. He is your
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Lord, your master. I'd suggest to you that we love to complexificate things. Yeah, probably not.
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But to be honest, I think that that's one of the main points in the text. That's one of the main things that Paul has an interest in expressing to us.
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The fact that salvation is so simple is what causes many to stumble. It can't be that easy.
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We ought to be able to earn it, or we should at least be able to contribute something to it. It's hard for the arrogant to get in because they're used to trusting in themselves.
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It's hard for the wealthy to come in because they're used to trusting in their wealth to buy their way through life.
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And what God is looking for is belief and confession. A genuine humility that says,
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I'm not the savior, Jesus is. A genuine humility that says,
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I'm not king, Jesus is. I'm not even king of my own life,
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Jesus is. In verse 11, there's a direct correlation. Everyone who believes in him, it says, will not be put to shame.
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We heard this before at the end of chapter 9. Chapter 9 ended with that quote, that same quote from Isaiah.
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But here, the emphasis is a little bit different in chapter 10. The simple hope, the simple gospel, the simple salvation is the hope for all.
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Everyone who believes, everyone who believes will be shameless before him on that great day of judgment.
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So this locks together, by the way, here in verse 11, this locks together those whom God shows mercy and compassion to with those who believe in him.
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We know we have been selected for mercy and compassion. Why? Only because we have believed in him.
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So there's a simplicity and a proximity and a faith -based righteousness here. And as long as you have a mouth and a heart, you are only belief and confession away from salvation.
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No movement necessary, no heroic or epic valor required. That's the second point.
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The third point in the outline begins in verse 12. This faith -based righteousness must be communicated.
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A troubling question might be teasing at the edges of your mind right now if you've been following the text and thinking it through.
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If a faith -based righteousness comes by faith that leads to confession, then what about those who haven't heard the message?
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What about those people? Have any of you ever thought that question before? What about those who haven't heard? What about those, like, the tribes out there, you know, you kind of get your mind wrapped around these conundrums or these exceptions and things like that?
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If a faith -based righteousness comes by a faith that leads to confession, then what about those other people?
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And instead of saying, you know what, look at what Paul says here. Instead of saying, you know what, God will save people who haven't heard the gospel in some other way.
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He's got another back door. Surely there are tribes of people far removed from Jesus and they can come through some other means.
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There's got to be another way, right? But instead here, Paul doubles down once again on Christ as the simple but necessary door for salvation.
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Jew and Gentile alike must come through the door of the Messiah, the Lord, the
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King. He is the Lord of all, whether or not he is recognized as such, but he is so gracious to bestow his riches of mercy and grace and forgiveness to all who would call on him, the text says.
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And so in verses 12 through 13, we see the repeated word call here. All who would call on the name of the
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Lord will be saved. In order to call on him, we need to know who he is, which will be clearly expressed in verse 14, but what does it mean to call on him?
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Is it enough to just utter the name of Jesus? Is that what it means? If I've ever said the name Jesus, then I'm saved, but of course not.
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But Paul quotes from the prophet Joel here in verse 13, and interestingly, the word that is used in Greek here, whenever it has a personal direct object, did that help anybody in the room?
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Probably not. Let me back up. The Greek word, whenever it is used for a, you're calling out to a person for help, or whenever you're calling out to a person, it is always for help in the
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Greek language. So that word for call always means asking for help, crying out for help, when it's used of someone else.
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So whenever you're calling a person, it is for help. And calling on the name of the
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Lord, of course, that means calling on him for help.
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So the question of am I chosen by God that might have been on our minds a couple of weeks ago ends up being swallowed up by the more imminent question, have
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I called out to the lifeguard for salvation? Am I still working for it on my own, or have
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I given up on my own flailing attempt to save myself in the waters? Have I cried out and said,
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I need help, it takes humility. Have I cried out to the name, a beautiful name, the name of Jesus, the name that means he saves his people.
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The name is powerful, the name of Christ is powerful because of what it means. Jesus is a beautiful name because if you actually and honestly trust in what the name means, you will be saved.
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Do you believe he is the one who saves his people, enough to cry out for help to that name?
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Jesus, save me, Jesus, rescue me. Do you believe that he is the one who will save his people?
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Then why not become one of his people? But again, all of this presupposes that we have some understanding about what
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Jesus has done. And that is why the third point is the need to communicate a faith -based righteousness.
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It has to be spoken, it has to be proclaimed, it has to be declared. How could a person call on the name of one they don't believe exists?
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And how will they believe in one whom they've not heard of? And how will they hear if nobody proclaims to them?
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And so the conundrum about the tribe out there that doesn't hear is that we know and we need to go to them and share it with them.
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That's the answer to the question. We always want to put a back door that gets us out of responsibility, that gets us out of the equation.
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And the fact of the matter is, how is your neighbor going to hear? Well, maybe God is sending you.
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How are they going to find out over there? Well, maybe some people from our congregation are going to be raised up to go over there and tell them.
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But the answer is here in this line of questioning that we see. How are they going to believe if they've never heard of him?
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And that seems to presuppose our question as well. How will those tribes find out? Well, that seems unfair,
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God. Maybe it's our response that needs to be a part of this equation. How will someone proclaim to them without being sent to talk to them, he says.
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So the flow of these questions points to the necessity of evangelism and mission. The necessity of our voices going out, proclaiming the message of the one who saves his people based on faith and faith alone.
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And the end of verse 15 gives a shout out to those who proclaim the gospel to others. Hopefully some of you in this room are proclaiming the gospel to others, and then that makes this verse true of you, that you have lovely feet, beautiful feet, is that, feet are gross, you guys.
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Like, I mean, I was looking for a loophole to this, and I found one this week. I actually found it, and I was like studying this, and I was looking for it.
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But I actually didn't have to look far, because all the commentaries that I read on this, all of the scholars that I studied on this,
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I had never heard this until this week. And that is the fact that the word beautiful here is equally translated in old
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Greek documents as timely. I like that better. Timely feet.
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I don't find any feet beautiful, but I can find timely feet, feet that show up on time.
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Okay? And apparently it's interesting that both the Greek language and the Hebrew language both have that overlap in the range of those words.
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So it's interesting that both the Greek culture and the Hebrew culture found timeliness to be beautiful.
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Now not the timeliness like, you show up on time. As a matter of fact, from what I understand, if you go to Middle Eastern culture in Israel, you might find that they're not extremely timely in the way that we might define it.
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But timely as in, have you ever had that circumstance where something happened at just the right time, and it was a beautiful thing?
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Like you were just like, how did that come together in just that moment? Like you ever run into an old friend at a shopping mall or something, and it's like someone you haven't seen in 10, 15 years, and it's like, that's a beautiful thing.
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Because the timing, like I was going to go in this store, but instead I walked over and I went to this store instead for just a second, and there you were.
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Do you know what I mean? So that timeliness is a beautiful thing. And the idea that God is orchestrating the events of time to bring things together in a beautiful way.
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That's the idea of beautiful feet, timely feet. You could be used this week to be a beautiful messenger, proclaiming the good news at just the right time to someone who needs him and is ready for him.
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That could be you. Anyone in this room. It could be you that have the timely feet to show up at just the time that somebody needs to hear the words of truth, the words of life, the gospel from you.
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This is, this faith -based righteousness needs to be communicated. Can't pantomime it.
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Can't get to the gospel by being a really good employer. Can't get to the gospel by being a really good employee.
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It's too easy. We have to speak it. Too often
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I'm afraid that what we do in evangelical circles out of fear is we proclaim the gospel of ourselves. I'm a really good person.
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I just really work really good for my employer, and therefore, all that people know about me is that I'm a fairly good guy.
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You're a fairly nice lady, and you do your job. You do your job with excellence. You do it well. Boy, you're a person to emulate.
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We should be more like that person. We should be more like you. Is that the gospel?
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Now, it can provide some opportunities, but you have to proclaim it. You don't ever get to the guy on the cross without words.
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Do you know what I'm saying? You never get all the way to the gospel. You never get a crucified, buried, and risen savior by doing a really good job at work.
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Now, don't hear me say, do a good job at work. I'm saying that those two things are related, but they're not the same thing.
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Obviously, the flip side of it is to say the words without the behavior, and that's terrible too.
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Just gospel Joe who's just boom, boom, boom, just shooting gospel verses all over the place and is a slouch at work and a jerk to be around.
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You don't want to do that either, but you put those two things together. You have to have words. You have to have proclamation. So the faith -based righteousness needs to be communicated, has to be proclaimed, has to be with words.
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And then the fourth thing, in this quest for righteousness, we know the last point to be so very true, that is that not all will obey this faith -based righteousness.
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In verse 16, we see an ironic turn of phrase given by Paul here. He phrases it this way, and he does it intentionally, and he does it cheeky, and there's a little bit of sarcasm in it.
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He says, they refuse to obey the gospel. To obey the gospel? Wait a minute.
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I didn't think it was by rules or regulations or any of that. How do you obey the gospel? Well, in appealing to those who think of themselves as law -abiding, good and pious people.
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Remember who he's talking to. He's talking to Jews. He's talking to people. He's talking about people who think that they can earn their righteousness and they're all upstanding and they cross all the
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T's and dot all the I's and they follow all the rules. Exactly, Paul calls them disobedient to the one thing that matters most.
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They have disobeyed the good news by not coming to God through his chosen message and through his chosen means of salvation.
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So why didn't the majority of the Jews believe and embrace the simple message? And further, why do some people around us, you've experienced it, you've seen it around you, why do some people reject the gospel that live around us?
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If faith indeed comes out of hearing the word about Christ, then maybe the problem is they haven't heard,
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Paul says. So Paul quotes Psalm 19 verse 4, appealing to the general revelation that's found in creation to show that all have some knowledge of God to act upon.
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He mentioned this way back in chapter 1 verse 19 through 20 where he said that God's attributes can be seen in what is created around us so that people are without excuse.
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You can't say, I didn't have enough information, God. You can look at the world around you and you can discern that there is a
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God and move forward. Now you can't get to the gospel, again, you can't get to the guy on the cross just by looking at a sunset, but you can begin to see that there's order, there's created order, so who is this creator?
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And it can set your feet on the pathway of discovery to find out who he is. And I believe that God will be faithful if you respond to, even with the smallest faith, to the information that you've been given about him.
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But for the Jews and for many around us, that's not even the issue anyways. Hearing isn't the issue. They've heard about Jesus just fine.
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Maybe they didn't respond because they didn't get it. Maybe they didn't understand it, he goes on to say. Maybe the message hasn't been clear enough.
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But Paul, quoting Deuteronomy in verse 19, and he does so with the effect of proving that the
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Jews, at least, did understand. The Jews' problem was one of jealousy, and jealousy presupposes understanding.
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In their rejection of God's way of salvation through Jesus, God has given them over to jealousy, the text says.
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He is saving the foolish to confound the wise. Those who were in and trying to obey all the laws and rules and regulations, as opposed to the younger brother who was out living a wild life and thinking about the
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Gentiles and the way that they lived and the way that they worshiped all kinds of pagan deities and they had all kinds of licentiousness and wickedness involved in their worship practices of the pagan gods and all of that.
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And it reminds me of throwing a banquet for the sinful younger brother, the prodigal son.
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The father provokes the diligent older brother who has been there with his dad all along, but thinks he deserves more because he's been a good boy.
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Verses 19 through 21. As confusing as they may be, can be cleared up by thinking through them one verse at a time, a statement for each verse.
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The reason the Jews have rejected the simple and close offer of salvation through faith in Jesus is because they thought they deserved better than everyone else, verse 19.
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And that jealousy came about because God has opened up salvation to even those who were not seeking after him, were not even asking for him, verse 20.
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And all of that culminates in a final indictment of those who reject salvation by faith.
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Verse 21, God is shown to be a father, a creator, the almighty, holding his hands out all day long to a disobedient and contrary people.
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Holding his arms out, saying, come back to me. Here is all that I have, here is all that I am, come to me.
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And instead they remain in their disobedience, contrary to him. We contend, by the way, as we think about the
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Jews, because the Jews are the illustration all throughout this, so we can use their history as a little bit of an understanding of what is this holding arms out and disobedience and contrary.
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I have a tendency, at least myself, to read back into history and assume a better Israel than we have, especially when
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I'm talking about laws, when I'm talking about these things. I afford them credit for trying to keep the law, as if there were upstanding
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Jews who in their heart really believed that they were doing it all. But the
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Old Testament routinely calls them stubborn, disobedient, and as the text is here, contrary, opposed to God.
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They did all the same things that the Gentiles did, all while having specific laws prohibiting those things.
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So how do we apply this text that kind of rambles its way through a contrast of self -righteousness and a faith -based righteousness?
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Well, I've got three final applications as we close our time together. The first is, I would just encourage you all to just think it, and just even now in just a moment, just pray right now that the
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Spirit would press on you what He desires to communicate to you through this, and maybe one of these applications is for you.
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But the first, take an honest assessment of how much you are trusting in your own goodness to save you.
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If you choose to go the way of self -effort, if you choose to go the way of law -keeping, according to verse 5, you have chosen a really tough road, a tough road that will not end well for you.
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Keep all the law perfectly, or accept the grace that is available in Christ.
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Keep coming back to that grace. Second, consider the simplicity and proximity of salvation, according to this text.
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Let me be clear that if you do not have a relationship with Jesus, salvation is simple, and it is close to you, even this morning.
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With your mouth, confess that Jesus is Lord and King, and in your heart, believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised again victorious over sin and death, and you will be saved.
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It's a simple action. Trust in the hero who came to rescue you from your own sins.
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The third thing that I can see from this text, and maybe the one that probably applies to the majority of us here,
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I hope every single person who has been saved in this room is moved by the plight of those who do not have this message.
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This text is supposed to do that. It's supposed to make you think, when is the last time I shared the gospel with anyone?
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Have I ever? How will they hear? Unless someone speaks.
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How can they call out? How can they cry out for help to the name of Jesus if they've never heard it?
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I believe that he's calling us, church, to step up and to share that with others.
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And as far as applications go, let's have none of that hogwash of preach the word and use words if necessary. It's quoted by people who are too scared to speak of Christ.
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The call throughout this text is to proclaim, proclaim, proclaim, proclaim the word of faith, proclaim the good news, proclaim the word about Christ.
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And the fundamental question underlying this application is just to ask yourself this morning, who are you gonna bring with you?
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Who's gonna be by your side as you go through that judgment that is going to be there unscathed and unashamed because of you?
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Who's gonna be there because your feet were timely? You proclaimed at the potential of loss, at the potential of loss of relationship, at the potential of awkwardness.
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I don't think a single one of us in this room runs the risk of suffering martyrdom this week because we took this text seriously.
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Nobody's gonna pull out a gun and shoot you in the head because you shared the gospel with them. They might, you know, cast some daggers with their eyes at you.
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They might mock you or something like that. But wow, people in history have gone through a lot worse.
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And yeah, this is serious stuff. I can see it on your faces. It's pretty serious.
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Who's it gonna be? And God forbid that the answer on that day to the question, who will it be?
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God forbid that that answer is no one. Statistics bear out that the majority of you in your life, the vast majority, over 70 % of you will never lead.
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That's what they tell me in research and studies that I've read, that 70 % of you will never lead someone to faith in Christ.
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Vast majority of you will never, ever speak and proclaim the gospel to someone.
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God forbid that that's true of our church. And this is not gonna change unless you make an action plan, unless you actually plan to do something different as a result of this.
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Because you see, what Satan wants to do right now, what he's trying to do in your heart is to make you feel guilty.
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He would be successful if you walk out of this room with nothing but guilt. If you walk out of here and you say, you know what?
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I am a terrible person and I've never shared my faith with anybody. He will have won. You know why? Because you're thinking about back there and you're not thinking about forward.
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If he can get you to stop thinking about a plan and who is it gonna be and who are you gonna share the gospel with this week?
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And what changes are you gonna make in your life so that you actually free up some margins to get to know that neighbor that you've meant to get to know for the last decade?
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And you haven't taken the time. Or that person that you love.
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It's an aunt, it's an uncle, it's a brother, it's a sister, it's a parent. And you just haven't been able to pull the trigger yet.
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You're afraid of what they're gonna think of you. Or maybe you already know what they're gonna think of you because you've already had the conversation in your head so many times.
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This is not meant to make you feel guilty, church. Forget, forget what lies behind.
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Forget the mischances that lie behind and come up with a plan for specific action this week.
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And recognize from our final point that there are some, the final point in the text, there are some who will remain disobedient and contrary to the gospel.
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There are some who will not obey the gospel. And some of us in this room, if we obey this, we will be those who get to be on the receiving end of that.
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We'll get to share the gospel with somebody who will go, you're a kook. No way, are you serious?
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You're one of those people. They will not obey the righteousness that is based on faith.
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But our part, our part is to be faithful to bring a beautiful and hopefully a timely word to those around us.
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Satan would love for you, Satan would love for you to not think about who you will share the gospel with this week.
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But if you can't share the gospel, and I recognize that some of you, there might be all different kinds of ranges of emotions going on in you right now.
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All the way from, I've done it before and I'm gonna do it again, we're on this.
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Or I'm already sharing the gospel with people at my workplace. Or I'm already sharing, all the way down to, I don't even have a clue where to start.
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I don't even know how to do that. What do you mean share the gospel? What would that look like? And let me just say that if you're on that end of the spectrum where you just,
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I don't even know what to do. At least invite them to church and I'll share the gospel with them. There's some empty seats in here, bring them in here.
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That's my pledge to you. You bring them, I'll share the gospel with them. That's what
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I wanna do up here regularly. I wanna be proclaiming the good news that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone.
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That's one of the reasons we end in communion every week. So that everything always, every message, whether I'm preaching out of 1
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Samuel or I'm preaching out of John or wherever I'm preaching, every message drives toward the good news of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us.
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I need that reminder every week. I don't know about you guys. I need that. And it also just makes it an abundant opportunity to bring the gospel to bear every week.
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So let's all come to communion with this in mind. Our part in salvation, our part in our salvation was so simple.
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We believe and we confess. His part was a bit tougher and Dave alluded to that in a couple of his comments earlier.
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Our part, our part is the simple part. He had the tough part. Our hero came down out of heaven to suffer in this dirty, sin -cursed place.
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He didn't have to, but he chose to. And he humbled himself even to the point of death and not just any death, but in excruciating, terrible, torturous death on a cross.
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And he suffered for our sins and he died and he was buried. But praise
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God, he rose to new life victorious on that third day. And so if this story, if this message is more than fiction to you, if this is your hope,
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Christ crucified, buried and raised again for you. If this is your trust and you've confessed him to be your king and you believe in his victorious resurrection and come to one of the tables to remember his sacrifice for you.
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And do something bold and different as you take communion this morning. Awkward, especially if you're introverted. This is just going to weird you out.
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But before you eat the cracker and drink that juice, I'm going to ask you to audibly say, Jesus is
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Lord. You know, I'm not asking to shout it. I'm not asking for you to scream it. If you want to, that's up to you.
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Just say it so that the people around you can hear your voice testify that Jesus is your
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Lord, if you believe it. Let me take a chance to confess it this morning.
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But if you don't believe yet, then I'd encourage you to remain in your seats and contemplate what Christ has done to offer you righteousness this morning.
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Consider how close this morning salvation has come to you. It is as close as your mouth and as close as your heart to just confess and believe.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the simplicity of the gospel.
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I know that if it was much harder, I would be out. And so, Father, I just thank you that it is not based on our righteousness, our actions, our behaviors, our ability to conform to a code, our ability to climb the ladder of heaven to bring
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Christ down or to descend into the abyss to bring Christ up. But at the end of the day, you have done all of that on our behalf.
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And so, Father, I pray that you would make us ambassadors of that glorious and beautiful message. Father, that you would not allow shame to fill us in the name of our
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Lord and Savior, but that his name would be on our tongue. And the one who saves his people, we would testify of him boldly and regularly.
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And Father, I pray that we would see a harvest of fruit because this text has a way in our hearts that we don't allow
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Satan to pluck the fruit of this text and just cause us to just be ashamed this week or to feel guilty for past missed opportunities.
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But Father, that you would help us to forge ahead with a genuine plan of how we are going to go about sharing the good news and being the timely feet for those in need.