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Si è conclusa in questi giorni la selezione dei semifinalisti del concorso Miglior Enotecario Professionista d'Italia, individuando i sei concorrenti che si daranno appuntamento per la finale l'11 novembre a Roma. Sono Daniele Liurni (Roma), Diletta Landozzi (Siena), Mattia Manganaro (Brescia), per la categoria Bottiglierie, e Silvia Angelozzi (Teramo), Lorenzo Longhi (Milano) e Nicola Prestini (Brescia) per quella Enoteca con Mescita. Il concorso, organizzato da AEPI, nasce per promuovere la figura dell'Enotecario Professionista, un lavoro in crescita, che attrae anche i giovani, come dimostra l'età dei finalisti, per la maggior parte Under 30.
What have we learned after a year? Bad Jew, the podcast has produced content for over a year. 58 episodes later, the show has reached the top 10% of Jewish podcasts by being consistent in Jewish teachings. But has it been consistent in teaching the foundation it was built on? That there is no such thing as a Bad Jew? Igor Milgram, an entrepreneur from the Bay Area of Northern California, had a similar idea. Wanting to connect the forgotten members of the Jewish community, he put together his personal resources to spread the message that there truly is no such thing as a Bad Jew. He does this by creating spaces to welcome all members no matter what their background is. Milgram's events caught the eye of Bad Jew podcast host Chaz Volk. Chaz and Igor explore the meaning of Bad Jew, Jewish identity, and openly discuss the potential of their comprehensive partnership. About Igor Milgram: Igor Milgram – A Jewish Immigrant from Ukraine. Born during the Soviet Union and a Bay Area Resident since he was two years old. Igor has always broken the mold of what was expected of him. Whether it be working at NASA with no degree at 21, becoming Vice President of AEPI at SJSU at 23, starting a Cannabis Infused Beef Jerky Company, or helping run a high-end meat processing company before the age of 30, he has chosen to carve his own path instead of using one set out in front of him. Now a consultant in the cannabis industry, who helps take care of his mother and grandmother, and an active participant in the SF Bay Area Jewish scene, he has started a new project to foster a change in the Jewish Community. By creating SFBadJews he hopes to create a sense of home for all the Jewish People who have been left behind by the Jewish world as it exists currently, change the stereotypes of what society expects a Jewish person to be, and transform what the Jewish world thinks a Good Jew or Bad Jew looks like. Connect with Igor Milgram: IG @sfbadjews Connect with Bad Jew: BadJew.co https://linktr.ee/badjew BadJewPod@gmail.com Ig @BadJewPod TikTok @BadJewPod
Jackson Haber, the 2023 president of AEPi at Auburn University discusses with his chapter is one of the leading heroic fraternities on campus. From their website: "At Auburn University...Our goal is to ensure that every brother graduate a stronger person in mind and body, with potential for future development in every aspect of life they may encounter. Work ethic, selflessness, and teamwork are just a few of the values that we hold dear at AEPi Theta."
Jackson Haber, the 2023 president of AEPi at Auburn University discusses with his chapter is one of the leading heroic fraternities on campus. From their website: "At Auburn University...Our goal is to ensure that every brother graduate a stronger person in mind and body, with potential for future development in every aspect of life they may encounter. Work ethic, selflessness, and teamwork are just a few of the values that we hold dear at AEPi Theta."
"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast. It is hosted by ADL New York/New Jersey Director Scott Richman and focuses on ADL's efforts to fight antisemitism and all forms of hate. In this battle, our college campuses have unfortunately become breeding grounds. Antisemitism is not constant, but it is there and rising, and many Jewish students report that they have been a victim of antisemitism in the past year. In response, ADL has just formed a partnership with the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity to equip students to respond to antisemitism. Dovi Chein joined this show to tell us about the partnership. He is ADL's Associate Director of Campus Partnerships. To learn more about antisemitism on campus and ADL's response, visit https://www.adl.org/antisemitism-campus. This podcast originally aired as a radio show on August 22, 2023 on WVOX 1460 AM.
Elan Sherod Carr is an American attorney and politician who served as the Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating anti-Semitism under President Donald Trump from 2019 to 2021. Before that appointment, Carr was a deputy district attorney in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office. Additionally, Elan served as the international president of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity (AEPi).This conversation covers organizing yourself for a herculean task, going on the offense against anti-Semitism, bringing holiness and spirituality to challenging places, the crisis of Jewish education, importance of public safety and education in America, building and organizing a team in diplomacy, the psychological significance of the Bible, the power of gratitude and not taking things for granted, and much more. Connect with Elan Carr:→ Twitter: Elan Carr's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElanSCarr→ LinkedIn: Elan Carr's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elan-carr-4b0a41205/ Resources Mentioned in the Episode:→ Jewish Literacy: Jewish Literacy: https://a.co/d/3IiXQEF→ Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History: Rebbe: https://a.co/d/2AyIMNf Help The Louis and Kyle Show:→ If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or leave a review!→ Leave a review: Leave a Review: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1504333834→ Drop us an email: LouisandKyleShow@gmail.com→ Subscribe on YouTube: Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb6qBiV1HAYcep87nKJmGhA Follow The Show on Social Media:→ Twitter: The Louis and Kyle Show on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisKyleShow→ Instagram: The Louis and Kyle Show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiskyleshow/→ LinkedIn: The Louis and Kyle Show on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/65567567/ Connect with Louis and Kyle:→ Read Louis' Newsletter: Louis' Newsletter: https://louisshulman.substack.com/→ Louis' Twitter: Louis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisShulman→ Kyle's Twitter: Kyle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_kylebishop→ Louis LinkedIn: Louis' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisshulman/→ Kyle's LinkedIn: Kyle's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-bishop-7b790050/
This month we had the immense privilege to sit down with the mother of B+ Hero Caleb, who is paired with AEPi! We learned about the story of B+ Hero Caleb and his diagnosis, the bond he's been able to create with his AEPi brothers, and some silly stories about her son. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/udance-executive-board/message
Andy Borans is the CEO of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Foundation. In his career, he oversaw the growth of AEPi from 40,000 to 130,000 members. Chapters:[00:00:09] Mission of AEPi.[00:01:49] Role of the alumni that oversee college campuses in AEPi.[00:04:23] Andy's start, AEPi's structure. [00:06:23] AEPi's growth in numbers.[00:09:02] AEPi's growth strategy.[00:11:30] Advantage of AEPi's small numbers. [00:12:58] Spillover effects of AEPi on Jewish life on campus. [00:20:05] Why does AEPi produce leaders? [00:29:02] Should young entrepreneurs get involved in politics?[00:32:06] What does Andy look for in the young people he hires?[00:38:16] Leveling out maturity and beliefs.[00:41:55] Failure is not a bad thing. [00:46:13] Andy's subtle hacks. [00:57:39] Maintaining and growing network.[01:02:05] Making decisions for a happier adult life. Connect with Andy.LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andyborans Check out AEPi. Website: aepi.orgFacebook: facebook.com/AEPi.fraternity/Twitter: https://twitter.com/AEPiInstagram: instagram.com/alphaepsilonpiYouTube: youtube.com/@AlphaEpsilonPiHQResources Mentioned in The Episode:The 4-Hour Work Week (Book) - www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357Help The Louis and Kyle Show:If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or leave a review!Leave a review: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1504333834Drop us an email: LouisandKyleShow@gmail.comSubscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb6qBiV1HAYcep87nKJmGhAFollow The Show on Social Media:Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisKyleShowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiskyleshow/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/65567567/ Connect with Louis and Kyle:Read Louis' Newsletter: https://louisshulman.substack.com/Louis' Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisShulmanKyle's Twitter: https://twitter.com/_kylebishopLouis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisshulman/Kyle's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-bishop-7b790050/
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have brought us today into your house, the Father's House, the house of prayer for all nations. And I pray, Heavenly Father, focus our attention on Jesus Christ, God Incarnate. We thank you, Jesus, that you came and you lived a perfect moral life. You fulfilled the law. You didn't come to abolish it. You fulfilled it. And then you went to a cross to die for our breaking of the law. And we thank you that you didn't stay dead, but you rose from the dead. And you told your disciples, "Don't do anything until you get the Holy Spirit." And then you sent the Holy Spirit. And, Holy Spirit, it was you that stirred hearts. In the same way that you stirred hearts in the Day of Pentecost, so I pray that you stir our hearts like never before.Living in the city is hard, Lord. The demonic oppression is sometimes unbearable. So we ask for a breather. Lord, I do. I ask for eight days, it's my birthday, so I can ask whatever I want. I ask for a reprieve, a Sabbath from the demonic warfare for eight days, starting today, because it's my birthday. And help us this week live in the power of the Holy Spirit, as we minister to our neighbors, as we share the Gospel, as we invite people to Easter and Good Friday, our neighbors, our friends, people that we talk to about the weather, politics, the Red Sox. Pray that we have the boldness to speak about what matters, which is eternity. And we pray that Good Friday and Easter Sunday, that you save hundreds, hundreds of souls through this ministry. We pray all these in Jesus' name. Amen.The title of the sermon is A Tremendous Advantage. We're in Romans 3:1-8. Today, we continue our sermon series through Romans. Just a quick update, I'm still alive by God's grace. So thank you for your prayers and anyone that's been worried about me. Thank you so much. I am planning on taking time off this summer. I've never taken more than two weeks off, like vacation time, and we haven't taken a family vacation in years. So, this summer, I am taking significant time off and time away, because I got to get out of this city. I love this city, a love-hate relationship. I love this city, but I'm going to get away this summer. So, thank you for that.I also just want to thank the faithful brothers and sisters who've walked with me in this season, in particular, Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy and our particular staff. Our staff, we went to Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Pastor Andy's birthday this week, and because Cheesecake Factory has everything for everyone. And when we came out, always I'm the first one in, I'm the first one out, and then I just turned around. I was like, "Our staff are the Avengers. Our staff are the spiritual Avengers." So just be nice to them, and their time is limited too. But be nice to them. That's my birthday present.Okay. Romans. Let's not forget the goal of Romans. Paul wrote this. This is his thesis. This is the purpose. This is Romans 1:5. This is why he wrote the book. "Through whom we have received," through Jesus Christ we've received, "grace and apostleship to bring about the..." Say the next phrase with me, "obedience of faith." Let's say it again. Obedience of faith. "Obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations." So Paul is saying, "I'm writing this to stir your faith. And when your faith is truly stirred, you want to obey God." That's what he's trying to do. For whom is this Gospel? It's for all nations. It's for all people.Sometimes we forget that we're all just people, like we'd be with titles and just labels. We forget we're people. I'm just a guy. I'm just a guy. I'm just a dude. I love Jesus a lot. And I study God's word. I'm just a guy. You're just a person. People have been asking about vision. Has the vision of Mosaic shifted? It has not. It's crystallized. The... Pastor Andy forced me on a little break, respite, to catch my breath last week. He picked me up in his Honda Odyssey. And do not call it a minivan. There's nothing mini about that van. And, he picks me up and he's like, "We're going to Providence." I was like, "Why are we going to Providence?" He's like, so... I needed a reminder of what God called me to. Sometimes you forget.And God did not call me. I remember when I was in college, God did not call me to plant the church, just FYI. God called me to preach God's word. That's what I love above everything else. This is what gives me life is preaching God's word. And, the reason why I planted a church was because I was 26 and this is the reasoning. I was like, "No one is going to hire a 26 year old with zero ministry experience, and let him preach every Sunday." And I realized that the only way I can really get to preach every, because that's how you get good at doing something. You got to do 10,000 hours, right? Preach a thousand sermons.So I planted a church for the sole purpose of preaching God's word, so that people love Jesus. That's my only concern. That's why I get bogged down with church growth stuff and building campaign and all that. I'm like, "I don't want to do any of that." That's not for me. All I want to do is preach God's word. And whoever will listen, I'm going to preach God's word and I'm going to pray for you. That's what I'm doing the rest of my days. So, if you want a church building for Mosaic, you get it. I'm not doing it. And if you guys want an orphanage for Ukrainian orphans, I'm not doing it either. I'm going to preach the word. I'm going to pray. And I'm going to have fun. Because I met with a pastor this week and he is like, "Bro, you're not having fun. I can tell." So, he gave me a prophetic word and he's like, "You got to have fun." So, that's what I'm planning on doing.So, the point is, the vision is, love Jesus. Simple. It's just that simple. You love Jesus. I love Jesus. We all love Jesus. And then let's help people love Jesus. What kind of people? All people. All people. Everyone's welcome. People ask all the time, "Hey, what kind of church is Mosaic?" That's the wrong question. And I stop people there. I'm like, "That's the wrong question." "What kind of denomination is Mosaic?" "Whoa, wrong question." I've been asked this question way too often and I've found it's always intended as a swerving maneuver, where people understand, "Oh, you're going to talk about spiritual things. I don't want to talk about spiritual things. I don't want to talk about God. So, what denomination are you? Oh, you guys are Christian. I'm Jewish." "Oh, you guys are Christian. I'm Catholic." "Oh, you guys are evangelical. Yeah, I'm too liberal for that. Sorry. That's not for me." These are manmade categories intended to divide people. All nations, all nations, all people. Mosaic is a house of prayer for all nations.Every time you walk into the Temple Ohabei Shalom, at the very top, it says, house of prayer for whom? What's the full verse? It's the house of prayer for whom? It's for all nations. Isaiah 56:7, "For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." So do you want to pray? Then welcome. Do you want to know God? Then welcome. Do you need grace? Then welcome. We all need grace. Where can grace be found? Only in Jesus Christ. Your Jewish identity isn't your ultimate identity. Your Catholic identity isn't your ultimate identity. Your liberal identity isn't your ultimate identity. Your ultimate identity is you're a human being created in the image of God, with an eternal soul. And you are a moral being, and you have broken the commandments of God. Therefore, you are guilty before God who is Holy, and you will be judged. And Jesus Christ is the only hope for receiving grace and forgiveness and reconciliation, to be adopted in the family of God.My wife told me, "If there's mic issues, don't say it's the demonic." So if we have mic issues, we'll do the handheld. Yeah.We are all by ourselves. We're spiritual orphans. These last few weeks, I'm like, "Orphans. We got to take care of orphans." And then I look around the city, I'm like, "Everyone's a spiritual orphan." Statistically speaking, most people haven't grown up with a true father that loves them. And spiritually speaking, if you are not a child, if you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, you're not a child of God. You're a human being, but you are not adopted into the family of God the Father, unless you repent of your sins and turn to Christ. And then the Father adopts you into the family of God. God is Father. And whom does God delight in? In Jesus Christ. And when you delight in Jesus Christ, love Jesus Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit. And then you pray to God the Father in Jesus' name. That's the introduction of Romans 3:1-8.I'll show you how I got everything I just said from the text. Romans 3:1-8. No bookmark. Let's see if Pastor Jan knows his Bible. Yes, he does."Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, 'That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.' But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way. By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? Why not do evil that good may come? And as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just." This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, authoritative word. May He write these eternal truths on our hearts.Three points to frame up our time together. First, we'll look at The Jewish Advantage, it God's Holy Word. Second, The Jewish Advantage: God's Holy Law. And third, The Jewish Advantage: God's Holy Gospel.First, The Jewish Advantage: God's Holy Word. The context is, St. Paul has been rebuking Jews for hypocrisy. The Jewish people had had a special relationship with God in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew Scriptures, so much so they were considered God's chosen people. And despite a very special blessing, calling, relationship with God, they were living the same godless lives, as pagans who did not have God's word. The Jews were entrusted with the law of God, the glory of Israel. They were the only people on the planet given the clear manifestation of the moral law of God in the 10 Commandments, the Decalogue. I'm going to point to this all the time now, just to remind you, obedience of faith, that the law still matters.God doesn't measure a person's spirituality or faith through their DNA or through their observation of religious traditions, but according to obedience of faith. And a lot of Christians do not believe the way you're supposed to believe, because you are not faithful. You don't have the faith you're supposed to have because you're not faithful to the law of God. And this is why a lot of Christians do not have the Holy Spirit, because you have not put yourself in a position of obedience and then realize, "I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't fulfill the law. I can't do it."And that's when you cry out and you say, "God, I need your power. I need your spirit. I can't do it. I am helpless on my own. I need your power to do what you called me to do." This is why a lot of Christians... Christianity is boring to you. The Bible is boring, because you don't have the holy Spirit. You've been quenching it with your sin, because you think that Christianity is just, "Nah, I'm going to come to Jesus whenever I need my sins forgiven." You live a degenerate life all week, just degenerate.I'm working on the preaching. I've been told I've been doing too much teaching, so I'm working on the preaching. Just bear with me. I know it. I know it. I'm talking to Brookline. I'm preaching above you, okay? But, but if the shoe fits, man.We live in a city of virtue signaling, of moral degenerates. Love, love, love, love, love is all around, like the word love, and no one knows what it means. Because you, dear Brookline, Boston, I'm talking specifically younger people, you've been raised on porn. That's... Porn is just in you. It's in you. It's in you. It's in you. It's in you. And, it has a heart in your hearts. And your heart needs to be circumcised. That's what St. Paul is saying.So it doesn't matter if you go to church, like if you're Catholic and you get the... Mark Wahlberg does this thing where he gets the black cross on Ash Wednesday, I think. It doesn't matter if you do the traditions. If you're Catholic, if you're Jewish, if you're Christian, if you're a church member, if you've been baptized, none of that matters if you're not obedient to God and his word. And it doesn't matter what your DNA is. It doesn't matter if you grew up Jewish. It doesn't matter if, genetically, you have Christians or followers of God in your family. Because God isn't going to judge you on the faith of someone else. So don't put your faith in my faith in Jesus. Put your faith in Jesus. I'm just a guy. I'm just pointing everyone to Jesus Christ. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. So if a Jew does not have the spirit of God in their heart, their Jewish heritage will do nothing for their soul and their eternal destiny. The same goes for Christians and Catholic. It doesn't matter if you were outwardly baptized as a baby.Two weeks ago, I went to a Russian Orthodox Church, because Pastor Andy said I can do anything I want on Sunday and I don't have to come. I was like, "Tremendous." So I went to a Russian Orthodox Church in Roslindale. And it was awesome, because no one knew me. So no one talked to me. And, they don't let you move. And if you know me, that's painful for me. I can't stand in one spot. So I literally stood there for two hours. It's two hours of standing. It's like a standing plank for two hours. I was in better shape after that. And there's kneeling and standing and it... And I just prayed. There was chanting and stuff, and switching languages back and forth, a little Russian, a little English. There was incense. They didn't preach the word. And I was like, yeah. I was like, "Who are we praying to? No one knows the word."And then... I had my eyes closed and I'm praying. I've been studying Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, and like he prayed so intensely that capillaries in his face burst and he sweated blood. And I was like, "How intensely do you have to pray?" Have you ever prayed so hard that you sweat? Have you prayed so hard that you had to change your t-shirts every half hour? I have, this past week, the last two weeks. And then I turn around, this huge guy next to me. I'm kind of a big guy. This guy is massive. He's like 6'5, 300, just yoked, just scary looking. People think I'm scary. This guy is massive. And I look at him, I'm like, "I know you."Because I'd seen him. His name's... I know his name. And I look at him. I was like, "I know you. You're my neighbor." Because I seen him across the street. And he's like, "Yeah, I don't live there. That's where my girlfriend lives. One of them." And then Tanya told me that, on Valentine's Day, he brought her a lot of flowers and stuff and balloons. That's nice. And then he goes and buys the little candle and puts it in the thing. And then just walks out. That man does not have the Spirit of God. It doesn't matter if you go to a church service and you do the stuff. If you don't obey the commandments, if you have no desire to obey the commandments, you don't have the Spirit of God. Therefore, you're dead spiritually.This is what Paul said in Romans 2:28-29. "For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart." How? "By the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God." Prior to preaching the Gospel, Paul examines our condition under the law. The verdict is, we're all guilty. And most people are so hardened by their sin, they don't even consider that God has moral commandments that he imposes on us. Most people judge their goodness by comparing themselves to others, not measuring their moral performance according to the 10 commandments, the foundation for the rest of the law and the holiness code.2 Corinthians 10:12. "Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding." That's what a lot of religious people do. They just, "Yeah, I'm better than that guy. Better than that guy." This is literally what the Pharisee did. The Pharisee goes into the temple and he is like, "Lord, thank you I'm not like that loser. I fast twice a week, which is kind of big deal. I give 10% of my income, tremendous." And then the wicked tax collector is like, "Lord, I got nothing. I'm a moral failure. I got nothing. All I can do is beg for grace." And Jesus said that guy went home justified.As Paul puts in Galatians, "The law is a schoolmaster that drives us into the arms of Jesus Christ. Keeping the law doesn't save anyone, because no one has kept the law except for Jesus Christ. The law helps us feel the weight of our need for the Gospel. Christ is the only one, by the power of the Holy Spirit, who can circumcise our hardened hearts and turn us into lovers of God and people." And loving God and people is the point of the whole thing. It's the point. I think we complicate religion all the time. We complicate faith all the time. Just complicate it. That's why I love Jesus. It's simple, is so important. And the simplicity is like, let's simplify the complexity of the word. Because once you simplify the complexity, you realize it all distills down to love, loving God and loving people.This is what Jesus did in Matthew 22:34-40. "When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together." The Sadducees didn't believe that God was God. They don't believe in the power of God. And the Pharisees didn't either. "And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."Some of you are tremendous at loving God with your hands. Some of you are tremendous at loving God with your mind. Not enough of you love God with your heart. Because when you love God with all your heart, you think about him all the time. You want to know him. You want to know his word. You want to worship him. You want to obey him. Because if you love God, you fear him. There's a reverence that comes over you when you love God. And I can tell when people have that reverence and when they don't. When you don't have a fear of God in you, you don't love your neighbor as yourself. If you don't love God with all your heart, but you only love him with all your mind, you become a Pharisee, and you start judging people according to the letter of the law and not according to the spirit of it. And the only way that you can live according to the spirit of the law is if you have the spirit of God.Romans 3:1. "Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?" Well, circumcision was a sign of the covenant. It's a sign of both blessing and warning of curse. And the promise depicted in circumcision is that, through faith in the promise, the promise given to Abraham, "That through your seed, you will be a blessing to many nations." This is the vision that God put into Abraham's heart, that Jewish people, Abraham wasn't even a Jew. God made Abraham a Jew. And he said, "Abraham, through you, I'm going to bless all the nations." The whole vision for the Jewish people was to be a blessing for all nations. This is why I never get why Jewish people aren't evangelizing me. If you really believe your own word, you should be trying to evangelize me. And I'm waiting for the day that a Jew actually tries to do that. Because I'm going to say, "Tremendous. Let's have a Bible study. Where are we going first? Isaiah 53? Tremendous."Actually, one thing I was praying about was to have a buil... Yeah, I'll just share it. I can share my prayers, right? I was praying about challenging Temple Ohabei Shalom to a Bible study. And the winner gets the building. That's what I was praying. Because they don't know the word. That's where I'm going.So the circumcision. The promise depicted in circumcision is that, through faith in the promise, God will save his people through the shedding of blood. Circumcision, very graphic, foreskin needs to be cut off. There's shedding of blood. Every time circumcision happens, it was a depiction that blood was going to be shed, and the coming seed, the Messiah, is the mediator between God and man. Circumcision is also a sign of the curse, to all who take the sign, but do not believe the promise that God will send the Messiah. And it's a graphic depiction of an unbeliever being cut off from the people of God. So either you believe in the promise and you receive the blessing, or you reject the promise and you receive a curse.If getting circumcised, keeping the outward requirements of the law, does not guarantee someone a relationship with God and entrance into heaven, then what's the advantage? That's the line of thought. Is there value in being Jewish, in circumcision? If Paul wrote today, he'd include baptism. Is there value in baptism? Church attendance, church membership. These are all good things, but they don't guarantee salvation from the deserved wrath of God for our law-breaking. So when people become members, covenant members, of Mosaic, we take that very seriously. And our job as elders, Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy and myself, our job is to discern if the person is really a child of God. They have the Holy Spirit, if they've been saved by grace through faith, because we believe that a regenerated church membership is important. But I know people slip through the cracks.There are people that grew up in the church and they know the right things to say, the right things to write, how to say in a way that's convincing. And they've said it so many times, they've convinced themselves that they're believers. And then we ask them one question, "Do you love Jesus Christ? And tell us how much you love Jesus Christ." If you don't love of Jesus Christ, none of that stuff matters. Even making a verbal profession of faith in Jesus Christ doesn't guarantee salvation, since many people honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far from him. Since Paul has seemingly downplayed circumcision, the attentive reader is expecting him to say, "No, there's no advantage to being Jewish. There's no advantage to circumcision." That's not what he says. Is there an advantage to being Jewish?Verse two, he says, "Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God." What a great phrase. I love that phrase, because no one knows what it means. What's oracles of God? I don't know. It sounds awesome. Literally, in the Greek, it's the very words of God. The very words of God. God entrusted, first, to begin with. In the Greek, it's protos, same word that's used in Matthew 6:33, "Seek first the kingdom of God, and everything else shall be added on to you." It's a text about priorities. So here he says, "To begin with," or first, "the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God." The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God first. That's the advantage. They were given the word of God. It's a tremendous advantage.However, it's only an advantage if you read it, if you study it, if you meditate it, if you believe it and if you do it. The word of God, the sharpest sword, cuts through our debased minds and our hardened hearts, pierces our wretched souls, and brings us to Christ. By the way, the word Bible isn't in the Bible, so the word Bible isn't even biblical. I get what they're saying. If I had a publishing house, I would publish Bibles that say Oracles of God, because that's what it is, the very word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16-17. "All Scripture is breathed out by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." The Jews were entrusted with the very words of God, the oracles of God. Did they steward the word of God well? No. No.I grew up with a lot of Jews. My friends in high school were all Jews. And then in college, all my best friends were Jews. I lived in Jewish fraternity. It was called AEPi. And they all smoked weed all the time, so it was AEHigh. Everyone's high. By walking up to second floor, to my dorm room, I was like phheeeww, I got secondhand something. They don't know their word. I've been thinking about how to share the Gospel of Jews for a long time. They don't know their word. Jewish people, you don't know your own word. Oh, the Catholics don't know their own word either. Russian Orthodox don't know their own word. Southern Baptists do not know their own word. They don't. They do not. I went to seminary with these guys. They don't know the Bible. A lot of the Southern Baptist, I went to Southern Baptist Seminary, a lot of them view ministry as a career, because it's a job with no heavy lifting. And then, they encounter demonic attack one time, and then they're out. Because that's the heavy lifting of the job. No, they don't know the word.Most Jewish people have never read their own holy Scriptures, just even the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures. Not to mention, they haven't read the sequel. That's what my roommate in college, he was Jewish. He's like, "Yeah, yeah, I'm not reading the sequel." That's what he calls the New Testament. And my response to it is, "Why not? Aren't you Jewish? Wouldn't you want to read the Scriptures about the most important and influential Jew who ever lived? Wouldn't you want to know what his plan was to redeem the world? Why wouldn't you read it? Just for personal education, just read it. I dare you." And then for us, we've been entrusted with the oracles of God, Christians, do you steward the oracles of God well? Do you stand humbly under God's word? Do you stand in trepidation before God's word? Do you strive to know the Scriptures, believe them and do them? Take advantage of the tremendous advantage that God has entrusted you with.Second, The Jewish Advantage is God's Holy Law. Do you keep the commandments? 1 Corinthians 7:17-19. "Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. Was anyone, at the time of his call, already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone, at the time of his call, uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but..." Let's read that last part together, what counts, what matters, "But keeping the commandments of God." It's just that simple. The commandments of God.Paul's mission was to bring about the obedience of faith. Obedience of faith, to what? To God's will. Well, what is God's will? God's will is revealed, God's will for every single one of us human beings is revealed to the Jews with the 10 commandments. What commandments? The 10 commandments. And I'm going to read them in Exodus 20:1-21. It's that important. "And God spoke all these words, saying," God, he led Israel out of captivity, so now they're in freedom. And he says, "'Now that you're free, let me give you 10 laws to help you stay free.'" So the commandments aren't to enslave us or restrict us. They are to give us life, freedom, liberty of ... So he says, "I'm the Lord your God." There's a relationship. "I'm your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. I've saved you."Now listen, number one, "You shall have no other gods before me." Have you fulfilled this commandment? Have you ever, even once in your life, had a god before God? Of course, you have. Of course, you have. Guilty. So we're zero for one. Me too, zero for one.Number two, "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for the Lord your God, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." You shall not make for yourself a carved image of anything. Catholics, you've got carved images of Jesus Christ on the cross. Everywhere. Just everywhere. You broke the commandment. Every time I drive by a Catholic church, I'm like, "Broke the commandment." You broke the commandment. You broke the commandment. Zero for two.Verse seven. "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, who takes his name in vain." Oh my. We've all broken it. "Jesus Christ, Mary and Joseph." I hear that all the time. "Jesus." as a curse word. You don't say that with Muhammad. "Allah?" But you do with Jesus Christ. Zero for three."Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor," some of you need to read that part, because you don't work the way you should. You're supposed to work six days. Six days, you shall work. The weekend, that's not in the Bible. It's not in the Bible. "Six days you shall work, and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Our Sabbath is on a Sunday, because Jesus came back from the dead, the resurrection. I love how in Russian, the word Sunday is [foreign language 00:38:04] which means resurrection. Every Sunday is the resurrection day. Do you keep the Sabbath?Do you keep the Sabbath holy, where you do not work, you devote a full day to God? And I'm talking to parents too. Parents, parents, parents of middle schoolers and high schoolers. Do you lead your children in breaking the commandment? And this is a commandment I've broken. I haven't Sabbathed in like three years, because COVID, remember? And then COVID ended, Ukrainian war started. I have been repenting this week. I've wept. My wife said, "Can you make sure you don't cry today?" Because I've been... I'm 39. Can I be emotional please? 39. I got four daughters. I've been managing a lot of emotions in my house. Not my own. I have broken this commandment. I have repented. By the way, do you guys know I'm a sinner? St. Paul said that he is the chief of what? Sinners. So, I'm the CSO now at Mosaic. That's the title I gave myself. I still haven't cleared it with the pastors yet. I'm the CSO. I'm the chief sinning officer. But I also have to be the chief repenting officer. You got to repent. Sabbath.Verse 12. "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you." Do you know how many kids break this commandment all the time? Because I know my kids, my daughters' friends, I know them. They do not honor their parents. They talk trash about their parents. Like I got to teach them respect on my play. I'm like, "Whoa. Hold on. It's your mom and dad, you got to honor them. You're going to honor your father and your mother.""You shall not murder." That's obvious."You shall not commit adultery." Jesus said, "Whoever even looks lustfully upon another person has already committed adultery in their hearts." Guilty."You shall not steal," and, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." I know some of you have committed that sin this week. False witness. That's why gossip is so lethal. Gossip is demonic, when you talk about someone behind, you talk trash about someone behind their back. Matthew 18 says, "If someone sinned against you, you go and you speak to them to their face." Even if they look really scary, it doesn't matter. You say it to their face."And you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife." I love how he starts with the house before the wife. It's particularly relevant in Brookline. Do not covet. Don't covet. That's a sin. "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male servant, female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything else that is your neighbor's." How'd you do on that test? I'm talking about, not even your whole life. Like this week, how'd you do on that test? You get a 10? 20? 30? 40? If you got a hundred, you're a liar. We're all guilty."Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes and lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, 'You speak to us, and we will listen. Do not let God speak to us, lest we die.' Moses said to the people, 'Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him be before you, that you may not sin.' The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was." Oh, this is too weighty, Moses. We don't want to hear from God. We want to hear from you, because we're afraid of God that he might kill us because we've sinned." Yeah, good. Moses says, "Good, good, good, good, good. Don't fear. That's a bad fear, paralyzing fear, that keeps you away from God. Come close to God. And now fear in a good, healthy, reverend way."And it starts with the humility that we've broken the commandments of God. No one's kept the law perfectly, because to keep it perfectly, you need to keep it from the heart. Just possessing the law and the circumcision will not exempt you from the judgment of God. And this is point three of The Jewish Advantage is God's Holy Gospel. Verse three. "What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?" What if Jews do not believe the oracles of God? What if they are not faithful to God's holy word? Does their disbelief nullify the faithfulness of God? Of course not. If Jews are covenant breakers, that does not make God a covenant breaker. God has faithfully kept his part of the covenant. And in sending his son, Jesus Christ, to the cross, God provides a way for covenant breakers to be forgiven and for a relationship between you and God restored.Verse four. "By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, 'That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.'" Basically, Paul was saying this, "Do you have to believe in God's word for it to be true?" And this is Karl Barth. This is a Barthean understanding of holy scripture, that God's word, scripture, becomes God's word, when people believe that it's God's word. Well, Karl Barth, with all due respect, you're wrong. God's word is true, regardless of if you believe it. It doesn't matter. It's still true. Just like gravity.God's word is truth, regardless of your faith, because God is true, so everything he speaks is truth. And everyone is a liar. This is true. Have you lied? Be honest. So you're a liar. I've lied. We should all repent of that and beg for God's grace. Why? Because everything God says is true, because God is true. There aren't many things God can't do, but lying is one of the things God can't do. God can't lie. Everything he says is true. God says, anyone who breaks even one of the 10 commandments deserves eternal damnation, unless you repent and trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.And here, Paul cites a passage from Psalm 51. This is King David's greatest Psalm of repentance, which he wrote after being confronted by the Prophet Nathan for committing adultery and murder. Now, I challenge you to study the whole Psalm. Psalm 51, study this week. It's a Psalm of repentance, and this will prepare your heart for Good Friday, for Easter. Psalm 51, the first four verses, to give us context. "To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone into Bathsheba." Verse one. "Have mercy on me, oh God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment."In a sense, David's words in verse four are hyperbolic. Yes, he had sinned against his wives, his children, Bathsheba, her husband, Uriah. He's sinned against all his subjects in Israel. He's sinned against everyone who viewed him as a great moral exemplar. Of course, David knew all of this. But he's speaking in the ultimate sense. The most wicked aspect of our sin is what it does to God, what it does to God's holiness, his majesty, his glory. We see how deeply David repents when he says, "So that you may be..." He says, "God, please forgive me, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment." Justified in your words and blameless in your judgment? Well, hold on. God said, "Whoever breaks my law deserves death." So, David, what are you appealing to? What are you appealing to? And you want something to happen where God remains just.How can God give you mercy and remain just, justified in his words, blameless in his judgment? If you want God to be blameless in his judgment, he needs to kill you right now on the spot. But you're appealing to mercy. David knows he deserves God's full wrath. He's not rationalizing his sin. He's not minimizing his guilt. He's not turning to self-justification. David turns to his only real option. He throws himself at the mercy of God, begs God to deal with him according to his mercy, not according to his justice. But he knows something needs to happen, where... If God doesn't judge me, he's not just anymore. How can God forgive? So David begs God to deal with him according to his justice, according to his tender, loving kindness. This is our only hope before God. But how? How?Verse five. "But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way. By no means! For then how could God judge the world?" Our sin and unrighteousness indirectly testifies to the righteousness of God. Because our sin doesn't change the law of God. All our sin does is show how great and glorious God's holy law is. So Paul says, "Look, if our own righteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say?" And he's dealing with an argument that's just absolutely crazy.And the argument goes like this. "Well, if my sin forces God to be gracious, and when I sin, God gives me grace, then should I make it my job to sin more, so that I get more grace and then God gets more glory?" That's what he's getting at. And it's absolutely absurd to even think like that. It's absurd to even ask the question of, "Hey, isn't sinning a good thing?" It's absolutely asinine to think that our sin brings glory to God. God literally sent his son to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin. And we're just going to continue flippantly living in sin? That's absurd.Most modern Jews and Christians have attempted to delete any mention of God's wrath from their public teaching. Listen to any sermons of any liberal churches around us, or even synagogues, or Catholic churches. How often do they talk about the wrath of God? They do not. Therefore, the tremendous news of God's grace is lost on them. But wrath is coming and you will either face the judgment of God on your own, or with Jesus Christ having absorbed it for you on the cross. Also, everyone, deep inside, believes in the judgment of God. We know it. We know it. We just want judgment for Hitler and Putin, like the only ones. No, judgment's coming for every single one of us. The same sin that lurks in their heart, lurks in ours as well. So God is righteous, therefore, he is wrathful. God's wrath does not diminish his righteousness, but confirms it.Verse seven. "But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?" This will be the argument of every self-righteous person in hell. People like Judas, who traded Christ for earthly pleasures. Judas' cry on the last day will be the following. And I got this from R.C. Sproul, who is amazing. He's in heaven. Well, you should really get into R.C. Sproul. I think our church would really benefit if people listened to R.C. Sproul. This is what he writes. He's like, this is what Judas is probably going to say in hell, "Hey, guy, why are you picking on me? The best thing that ever happened to the world was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. If it were not for me, you would have no atonement. You people should be thanking me that I fulfilled the Scripture and delivered him into the hands of the Gentiles. Why am I being judged as a sinner?"And Paul concludes in verse eight. "And why not do evil that good may come? As some people slanderously charge us with saying their condemnation is true." The slander against Paul was, "Hey, Paul, you're just telling people that, no matter what they did, they can just ask for forgiveness and God forgives them?" Paul's like, "Yeah." And then, the objection is, "Well, then they're not going to be good people. They're just going to be evil people." And Paul's like, "What? Didn't you just hear what I said about the circumcision of the heart?" No. Grace is what changes your heart. Grace circumcises your heart, takes the foreskin of sin off of your heart. And then, you have a heart that wants to love God. And then if you love God, you're like, "God, what do you want me to do?"By the way, that's why a lot of you are living boring Christian lives. You haven't really asked, "Hey, God, what do you want me to do?" "Hey, God, what do you want me to do? What is your will for my..." I know a lot of you haven't answered God's call. God has placed calls in your life, and that you know exactly what God's calling you to do, but loans and job, and "I want to live in a comfortable house." Ask it. If you really love God, ask God, "What do you want me to do?"By preaching salvation from God's wrath, by grace through repentance and faith, Paul was accused of abolishing the law of God. Paul's not abolishing the word of God. He's saying "10 commandments. 10 commandments." We've all broken them. Jesus fulfilled it. Receive grace. Uncircumcised heart, get circumcised. You get filled with the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God, what does it do? It moves you to obey the commandments.And proper following of the law requires internal transformation. This is Jeremiah. This is in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jeremiah 31:31-34. "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more."Parallel passage in Ezekiel 36:24-29. "I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the spirit of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you. I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from your uncleanness. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you."The agency of the spirit is required for the acceptable observance of God's law. Therefore, being a Jewish person, or even religiously Jewish, and even trying to obey the law, you're not doing it, because you don't have the Spirit of God within you. And, dear Christians, if you don't have the Spirit of God within you, that's the reason why you don't care about the 10 commandments. I'm bringing the 10 commandments back. Ray Comfort, remember that guy? He used to share the Gospel to people on the streets of LA, by just going up to them and be like, "Hey, man, you break any commandments this week?" And people are like, "What are commandments?" And he's like, "Oh, no one even knows the commandment." And then his other thing was, "Hey, how many beers can you list?" And everyone's like, "Heineken, Coors Light, Bud Light, Miller, some IPA." They just go on these. And he's like, "You know more beers than commandments. Well, that's your problem." We're in the Temple Ohabei Shalom. I get the decalogue behind me. I'm just going to remind people of this commandments.Start of Holy Week, Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem, to the Jewish people, as a Jew. Now when they drew to Jerusalem, they came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, Mountain of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you'll find a donkey tied. And a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' and he will send them at once." This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on donkey, on a colt, the foal..."Foal? Foul? I'm a city boy.On a donkey. "The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!' And when he had entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, 'Who is this?' And the crowds said, 'This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.'" These people will welcome Jesus as their Messiah, on Palm Sunday. And then Jesus was crucified on Good Friday. It was all words. It was all words.It was all words. They didn't love him, before they crucified him. And he allowed them to crucify him. Because he loves the Jews. To the Jew first. And he loves us. And also to the Gentiles. He loves us. And on the cross, Jesus Christ died. He did not deserve to die. He was not guilty. You ever get punished for something you didn't even do. If you have brothers or sisters, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you're a loving brother and sister, you take it. You take it. "Yeah, it was my fault. It was my fault." That's Gospel. That's Gospel siblings.Here's the Gospel. He, Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin on the cross, so that we might become the righteousness of God. We are all moral failures. Jesus Christ came to take the test for us. My oldest daughter, Sophia, she likes going for walks. We've been going for walks lately. We went for a walk, and I was like, "Tell me about your week." She's like, "Ah." And then she talked for like an hour straight. Fast, she's a fast talker. I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." So she was telling me, in class, this week, they had a pop group quiz, where one person takes the pop quiz for the whole class. And this week it was Sophia's turn. And, she hated it, obviously, because it's hard to do the work for everybody. But they got a hundred. Praise God. That's a minuscule reflection of the tremendous news of Jesus Christ. We are all failures. God does not grade on a curve. So God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to take the test for us.He took the 10 commandment test for us. For 33 years, he did not sin once. Not once. Loved God perfectly. Loved people perfectly. And all that I really need to... Let Jesus take the test for you, because you're a failure. You're a terrible student of God's law. So am I. We're all failures. Can we just agree on that? You're all losers. Me too. We're all losers. We're all pathetic, degenerate, whatever word you want to use. Let Jesus take the test instead of you. He died too. So what do you need to do? This is like action step, action step. This is what you need to do. Write the name of Jesus Christ above your name on the test. Because the name of Jesus Christ is the name above all names. Write it above your name. If you're not a Christian today, fill out a connection. Put your name on, in all lower case. I don't even care if you give me your email, just so I can pray for you, in lower case, it's good for humility. And then in all caps, write Jesus Christ on top of it. Okay? Amen. Let's pray.Lord God, oh wow, that's a lot of time. That's why we need one service now.Lord, we thank you for the grace. We all need it to help us all receive it, and then extend it to others who also need it. In Jesus' name, amen.
This week we're joined by a trio of AEPi Buggy Chairs: Jay Kirschenbaum, Josh Schmieder, and Brian Humbarger as they discuss the ups and downs of AEPi's buggy legacy and the differences in the team and on the course between 1988, 2005, and 2013.
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Good morning, welcome to Mosaic. My name is Jan, one of the pastors, along pastor Shane and pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you, we do that through the connection card in the worship guide. If you fill it out legibly, you can redeem it at the welcome center for a gift and then we'll also send you another gift in the mail, just to say thank you for coming out. Today is a big Sunday at Mosaic, we have baptisms after this service, three baptisms. Praise God for that, we're excited. And then we have our first quarterly members meeting which is a potluck. Praise God. It's the first one in a long time and it's going to be delicious because you're bringing the food.And if you're not a member and you're like, "ohhh..." You can become a member just not today and no, you can't come. Don't even go downstairs, don't be tempted. But there's a membership class on March 20th which is the first step to becoming a member. So you can, in lieu of coming today, register for that. It's 1:00 to 3:00 PM with lunch provided, please do register, send an email to admin@mosaicboston.com. We love membership at Mosaic. It's important, it's biblical. It's crucial for the body to grow in holiness and righteousness together as we hold each other accountable and spur each other on to good works. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word.Heavenly father, we thank you so much that you though you are the great holy God of the universe and yes, we deserve your eternal wrath at the great judgment. We deserve eternal damnation for rebelling against a holy and just God. And you the holy and just God, you figured out a way to remain just and to justify sinners through the wonderful, powerful, tremendous news of the gospel which is the power of God and to salvation. For those of us who are Christians and saved from the judgment that is to come, we thank you, Lord. We had nothing to do with that, it was all by grace through faith. And make us an unabashed unashamed body, just members of God who proclaimed the gospel boldly and courageously because we know how powerful it is and as we do so, Lord, save many people. We pray for revival in the city and beyond in New England and we pray that you spark it through revival in the church.A revival where we love the gospel rooted in the gospel, proclaim the gospel and live in a manner worthy of the gospel as we live by faith because the righteous shall live by faith. We pray, holy God, be honored today, glorified through the proclamation of your word, through the hearing and listening and submission to your word. And empower us by the power of the holy spirit to share the gospel with anyone and everyone who would just listen. We pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen. We're in a sermon series through the book of Romans today, the sermon is on two verses. I was going to say just two verses but I'm not going to say that word just because these are some of the most powerful versus in all of scripture. They encapsulate in themselves the whole idea, the sweeping idea, the argument of the book of Romans and it also encapsulates Christianity in and of itself.The question before us today is how does a person become a Christian? I've been wrestling with this question for 20 plus years and in Boston for 12 plus years. What in the world could take a regular modern New Englander in 2022 who's just pagan. And when I use the word pagan, it's not derogatory. It's just, you don't know Jesus yet. Just pagan, godless world view, living for themselves. Maybe considers themselves a good person, like, "I'm a good person. I'm just not the religious type or I don't believe in organized religion." Or, "Christianity is just one of the many ways to God." How do you go from that to becoming a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, repenting and believing God. And not just believing in God but believing God, obeying God, getting baptized, joining a community group, becoming a member, serving at Mosaic Boston and tithing.What in the world could take a person from that? Where I want nothing to do with God to you're sharing the gospel with your pagan friends. What in the world would do it? And I particularly think about men, just Boston bros, just New England, Boston bros. They all get the same haircut, they're faded up on the sides. They all smoke Parliaments and go to the Dunkin' Donuts ones for extra sugar, extra cream. Just people like that, just salt of the earth, wearing Timberland to everything. You're wearing your favorite jerseys, Tom Brady Jersey and it's the new one. It's half Bucs, half Pats because you're a traitor just like he is and you're still heartbroken. So, a guy like that, works the job, lives for the weekend, no sexual ethics at all, sleeps around, hooks up, addicted to porn, just statistically speaking.What would it take for a guy like that who's only religion is the Red Sox and he goes there for the communion at Fenway Park, you get a hot dog and a beer and that's your tithe because it's $80. What would it take for that guy to get, say, radically saved? Committing himself to Christ, committing himself to sexual purity? Finding a woman of God, pursuing her, loving her, submitting to Christ, marrying her, loving and leading her as Christ told us, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." What would it take for the guy like that to get a Bible and walk around with it? Because this is how I judge your spirituality, by the size of your Bible. Because if your Bible is less than five pounds, are you even saved? I'm not sure.And then you work a job, you're faithful to your spouse, you raise some godly kids. You tie it to the church, you do everything you possibly can to build the kingdom of God. What would that take? What would it take for a young woman to go from feminism, anti patriarchy, and submit to a man named Jesus Christ? And then if she is to be pursued by a godly man and gets married and submits to her husband as the church submits to Christ and everything, what would it take for whole families to get converted and become Christians? What in the world could do that? What would it take? Well, it takes a powerful working of God, it takes the power of God. It takes a miracle, it's the only way. But what's our role, dear Christians? Our role, what must we do to unleash the power of God in this city?What must we do? Well, what we must do is we must unashamedly proclaim the gospel. Shamelessly, unabashedly, we must believe the gospel, receive God's righteousness as Christs righteousness and live by faith to grow in righteousness. And those are the points but I'll repeat them as we look at these two verses that changed the world, Romans 1:16 and 17, would you look at the text with me? 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.” This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word, may he write these eternal truths upon our hearts.Four points. Number one, do not be ashamed of the gospel. Number two, believe the gospel. Number three, receive God's righteousness. And four, live by faith to grow in righteousness. First point, do not be ashamed of the gospel. The context for these verses begins with the stream of thought in verse 14 and 15 of chapter one, I am under obligation, Paul says 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. Paul's cradle, the motivation of his whole life, was Jesus paid it all. All to him, I owe. He knew because he was a student of the Hebrew scriptures, he knew what it would take for God to remain just and also justify people. He knew what it would take, he realized that it was Jesus Christ. He alone, it is finished. Jesus paid the whole price. So Paul, his whole life was driven by this indebtedness to God.I have an obligation to God to preach the gospel. God call told me, God commissioned me. It's my job to preach the gospel and he also felt the obligation to people. Greeks and non-Greek, just everybody, he felt the obligation that these people are headed toward eternal damnation. The justice of God is coming, the second coming of Christ is coming. The moment that you die, you stand before God and if you rejected Christ, if you didn't believe in Christ as the only way of salvation, you'll spend eternity in hell apart from God. That's what motivated Paul, He's like, "I owe it to people. I love God. I'm preaching in gospel. I love people. I want to preach the gospel." Because that's what love is, you want the best thing for people. That's why Paul's so eager to preach the gospel. He says, he's passionate, he's zealous, to preach the gospel.And that brings us to our text, verse 16, says for. I'm eager to preach at for because I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For context, Paul was murdered for preaching the gospel. That's how he died, he was executed, most likely beheaded. The founder of our faith was executed for proclaiming the truth to Pilate into the Sanhedrin. All of the apostles were executed for the faith except for the apostle Paul but basically he also was executed for the faith by being exiled to an island called Patmos. They were executed by a government for preaching the news that there's a Lord higher than Caesar. There's a kurios higher than Caesar. That there's only one way to God and then with that, they preached the biblical sexual ethic.Sex is only between a man and a woman in the context of marriage. That there's only two genders and the pure unadulterated gospel is always scandalous, it always has been scandalous to the world. Satan hates it, demons hate it and people rebelling against God who are just enjoying their sin, they hate it. But despite the deadly resistance, despite the venomous hatred, despite the steely cold indifference, mocking, dishonor, scoffing, reproach, Paul was not ashamed of the gospel, he gloried in it, he honored the gospel. He boasted in the Lord and he knew Jesus' warning and Jesus warned his followers. Mark 8:38, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words... Look at these, these are important words. In this adulterous and sinful generation.What's the connection there? The connection is people love their sin and to tell people about the good news, you first got to share the bad news. And people resist the bad news because people love their sin, they don't want to turn from their sin. No matter how great the implications of salvation are and this adulterous, sinful generation. Of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels. So you're a Christian, if Paul mentioned this and you got to ask, why is he bringing up shame? "Paul, we know you're not ashamed, you're the great apostle." Because even he struggled with the temptation, he struggled to shrink back.Even the great Paul, so if he struggled with this temptation of being ashamed of the gospel, how much more so are we? Quick question, are you even in the slightest embarrassed by the gospel? Are you even in the slightest embarrassed by the teachings of Christianity? Are you in the slightest embarrassed of Jesus Christ? That you are a follower of Christ? And if so, why? And the only reason that comes up is you're afraid of the fear of man. You esteem people's opinion of you more than you esteem the opinion of God. It's a desire to be liked and respected by the world and all of that ultimately is just meaningless. The word for ashamed here is to be or become characterized by the feelings of shame, guilt, embarrassment, disgrace, remorse. To experience a painful feeling or sense of loss of status because of some particular event, it's a loss of status."I didn't like that. I might get up and leave and I want everyone to notice. Pastor Jan notices when Pastor Jan is preaching and people get up." And sometimes I know when they're going to the bathroom because they go that way and most of the time they just go right down the middle. They got pissed off and I'm going to continue my sermon because I'm not ashamed of the gospel, what are you going to do? We shouldn't be ashamed of the gospel. We should be ashamed of sin, we should be. We should be ashamed of continuing to live in sin. Roman 6:20-21, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness but what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death but now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.Unfortunately in much of modern evangelicalism, it feels like Christians are ashamed of the gospel. It's like, "Yeah, the stuff in the old Testament, you don't really have to believe." "Yeah, God's holy but he's loving, just focus on that." "Yeah, God's not as bad as you think he is." And my personal pet peeve is, "Hey, just try Jesus. You got some problems in your life, just try Jesus. It's like sharing an ice cream flavor with someone there's mint and chocolate chip, there's Jesus. Just try Jesus." No, we don't preach try Jesus, we preach repent and believe in the gospel, it's the only hope. Paul wasn't ashamed in the gospel nor was he ashamed of the holy scriptures. Lots of Christians today are fine with the gospel and all of the attention is only on the gospel. That's all they talk about is the gospel. Repent and Jesus forgives you of all your sins and then you can live any way you want.They're ashamed of the holy scriptures. But if you're ashamed of the holy scriptures, there is no gospel apart from the holy scriptures. It's part and parcel, it's the whole cannon, it's the whole council of God, all 66 books. It's all one seamless teaching doctrinally about God, about salvation. There is no power onto salvation apart from God and apart from the scriptures, there is no gospel. That's why Paul says here, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed because this is power, that's why. And that's what a lot of churches do, that's what a lot of Christians do. They become ashamed, they shrink back from the gospel and they shrink back from the power source. A lot of churches, they milk things down, just milk toast, weak sauce, gospel, just not the gospel.And I think for some reason, God has a special calling on this church. Because in the nation, we are in arguably the hardest place to start a church, arguably the hardest place to proclaim the holy scriptures of God. And the harder it gets, I don't know if you noticed, the more high octane, holy scripture, pure unadulterated gospel we give you. The darker everything gets out there, the longer my sermons get, the fewer verses I got, it's just gospel because that's where the power is. The power to change absolutely everything. Mosaic, I've been praying and I said this to my newsletter, I've been praying for us to grow in depth of understanding the gospel, loving the gospel. And I've been praying for us to grow in becoming unashamed of the gospel, just preach it to everybody.Everybody, all your colleagues, just preach to the gospel. Just get to the point where you do get fired. Preach to your boss on the way out. HR, a little debrief, just preach the gospel and then start your own business so you can have freedom preach to gospel to everyone, just everyone. Everyone hates on a home service pros where they just put the gospel on their truck and they're like, "Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation." And, most of them, they're not Americans and they just don't care. They're just on a bash because everyone needs home service pros so you don't care what your plumber is going to say to you when he's saving your life so he just preaches the gospel. So, here's my specific prayer. I see the challenges long term of preaching the gospel here, I see it.You see it with Canada, you see it with freezing bank accounts, you just see it. There is a law now in Canada where if I preach the sermon, I'm going to preach in two weeks about biblical sexuality, I would be arrested for preaching that sermon in Canada. You don't think that's coming here? This is why I'm preaching this sermon at the second service because my wife's not here. If that comes, I don't care. What I do care about is us having a space to meet to continue ministry when we get booted from our lease. That's why my real prayer is for us to share the gospel with our landlords because scripture says to the Jew first and also to the Greek, we just share the gospel to them and then we don't have to pay them rent and all of a sudden we're one church, man, that's how we spark revival.So I have a specific prayer request. I am praying that we double this year. I'm praying that we, as a church, double this year, double in everything. Double the people attending, double people getting saved, double our community group attendants, double our community groups, double our membership, double our budget, double everything. And I think this is the year and you know why? Because it's 2022. And this Tuesday, which sometimes is pronounced two's day is 2/22 so you got a 2/22/22 and it's a Tuesday. So I think the stars are aligning. God's like, "I want the whole church to pray for us to double." I think so. Some people, when I say stuff like that, they're like, "I think he's nuts." I'm not nuts, I actually believe. And I read scripture and I see that they do stuff and I'm like, "I just want to do that."That's why I started at church, that's why we moved... So this year, the Lord led me to fast. I don't know if you've noticed, some people are like, "Pastor Jan's been shrinking. Well, what happened to the guy?" I was on a fast. I felt like the Lord said on January 19th, you got to fast. You got to pray and fast. I'm talking about biblical fast, I'm not talking about fasting from Facebook and Netflix. That's not fasting, that's abstaining. I'm talking about fasting which is abstaining from foods for 20 days and it ended last Monday. So the first Romans sermon, I was 19 days no food. I had my Pellegrino's for the electrolytes and I had water. The reason why is because I believed and I was praying, I had extra time, right?If you're not eating or cooking or cleaning up, it's basically two extra hours a day. So I'd wake up every morning. I got two extra hours. For some reason, I live on Pleasant Street on my roof, I see the temple. Literally, I see the temple. I look and the Temple's right there, the dome. And I just pray over the dome, my prophecy, I get all charismatic and I just pray for God to... I was there this morning. I saw the sunlight come up and I'm like, "Yeah, the Lord's with us." So I'm saying all that, I believe that God is going to spark revival in this nation. And I believe God is going to do it here because historically, he always starts in Boston. And I believe it's going to start with us because I know the other churches in the city... I pray for them to grow too in the gospel. But for some reason, we are positioned, I know. So that's why I ask on Tuesday that you pray and also don't be ashamed of gospel, preach it.Man, just preach it. Just everybody, every person you meet, just preach the gospel, just preach the gospel. You know why I say that? Because other parts of the nation, you study church growth and here's how most of it happens. It starts with a church that finds a guy who's really good looking and has a really good looking family and "All right, you're going to be the lead pastor." And it's very fashionable. He wears the skinny jeans, he wears expensive sneakers. He's got the watch. The watch game is nice, perfectly groomed beard, I don't know why. And he holds the mic and screams at people and you start a church. And all of a sudden people from other churches are showing up and you got transfer growth.Well in Boston, there's no such thing as transfer growth because we're one of the biggest churches. So, you want to transfer? What do you want? Park Street closed down and everyone come here. I wouldn't be against it but... Just kidding. What I'm saying is the only way we're going to grow if we were really serious about it is conversion growth. Where people are pagans and they hear the gospel from someone in our church and they get saved, radically saved. So for each of you, your homework assignment for this year is to convert at least one pagan, at least one, that's how we double. If every single one of us converts a... And you're like, "Pastor Jan, do you believe in converting people?" Yeah, that's the whole point of me being up here.If you are not a Christian, I want to convert. I want to proselytize, I want to evangelize. That's my job, that's all of our jobs because we're not ashamed of the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. There's a lot of Christians that are like, "Yeah, but we're not like those Christians. We're not the fundamentalist." I got nothing wrong about fundamentalists. I like that word, it's got the word fun in it. It's got the word dam in it which is cool because it helps you explain the gospel. Like apart from Jesus, you are going to be damned for eternity and it's got the word mental in it where you have to use your brain to actually learn the truth of the gospel, fundamentalist. And also it depends what your fundamental is, what's our fundamental? It's the gospel so we're not ashamed of the gospel. "What is the gospel?" You ask if you're not a believer. Well, the gospel in a nutshell is euangelion, just means good news but I think the word good is too weak.It's not even good news, it's not great news, it's tremendous news. It's the tremendous news that though we are in sin, we've transgressed the commandments of God, we've rebelled against the holy God, God, out of his great love for us sends his son, God incarnate, Jesus Christ who lives an absolute perfect life morally. Loves God with all of his heart, soul, strength and mind. Loves people as himself and then offers up his whole life as a sacrifice for our sin. On the cross, he atoned for our sin by paying the penalty for it. By absorbing the wrath of God that we deserve for our law break, that's why he cried out, "My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?" He was forsaken by God on the cross because he took our sin upon himself. He went through hell on behalf of us. He's buried, resurrects on the third day and he's ascended at the right hand of God, reigning and ruling.And when you repent and believe, that very second, all of your sins are forgiven. Every single one, every sin, every sin you will ever committed, you are forgiven and you become a child of God, your eternity is secure. You know how people say, "I just believe everything will work out." That's not true if you are not a Christian. It's not true. That's a lie. Everything will not work out for you if you rebel and if you reject Jesus Christ. You will spend eternity in hell so that's why my job is repent and believe. Please, just the whole city, just everybody. And share the gospel because how else are we going to fill Fenway Park? How are we going to do that for Easter one of these years? 2024, because I know that's going to be a crazy year so we should have a worship service in Fenway Park, that's my dream. I'll pray about that.Point two, believe the gospel, right? It's not power unless you believe. Romans 1:16. I'm 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. The gospel doesn't unleash the power of God, the gospel is the power of God. The more we unleash the gospel, the more the power of God is unleashed. The word for power here is God's power, supernatural power, his strength, his force, his might. Power for what? It's power for salvation. The most absolute, most important thing, any person needs is salvation. And the word for salvation usually in American churches, it's just a watered down understanding of salvation. People are like, "I got saved." Or like, "I walked down the aisle. I checked off a box of a card, I guess I'm saved. God's forgiven me all my sins. I'm chilling."Or like, "God saved me from an addiction or God saved me from a particular troubles." And usually what people mean is salvation from a temporal danger. That's not what Paul is talking about. The biblical doctrine of salvation is primarily eschatological, which just means end times. And what he means is judgment day is coming. God hates evil. God despise sin. He's angry about it. There's a wrath that he has and a lot of people are like, "I don't want to believe in God of Wrath." I do. There's so much evil and wickedness in this world, I pray for the second coming to come as quickly as possible. I do pray for that. I want God's wrath. I can't wait for God's wrath descend upon the world. That's because I'm a Christian and every Christian, if you are a Christian, if you have been saved from the wrath of God, we should be crying out, "Lord Jesus, come." The day of salvation, day of judgment, eschatologically speaking, is one and the same.When Paul thinks about salvation, he thinks about this kind of salvation. Romans 5:9, since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from what? From the wrath of God. It's coming. So this salvation includes deliverance from a final judgment and it includes a restoration of the glory which we once lost. There will be a glorification part of salvation. There's justification, sanctification, glorification, I'll get into that in a second. But we'll when the judgment comes, if you are in Christ, Jesus isn't coming to judge you, Jesus is coming as your merciful savior to redeem you from the corruption of this world. He's going to usher in the new heavens and new earth and by doing so, he's going to restore our bodies.So now our bodies will have no even ability to sin, glorified bodies, no sickness, no aging, just perfectly according to the image of God. You get that in Philippians 3:20 and 21, our citizenship is in heaven. From it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. So when Paul thinks about salvation, the doctrine is a threefold doctrine of salvation begins with justification. It continues as sanctification. It ends with glorification. Justification is, I have been saved. The very moment that you repent of your sins, all of your sins are forgiven. You are acquitted, not guilty.Now begins sanctification, and the sanctification process is you growing in sanctus from Latin but it's holiness. If you're growing in righteousness, just a practical righteousness, God gives you the imputed righteousness of Christ and basically, you live, you grow into that close by daily repenting of sin. So you're not earning your salvation, you're working out your salvation as Philippians 1 says. And then when we die or when Christ returns is glorification so there's a past tense, a present possession and a battle and a final salvation. For whom is the gospel? He says for the Jew first and also to the Greek. For Paul to describe this in this phrase, he's talking about the totality of all humanity. Every human being is a sinner and every sinner needs the gospel.It's not a different gospel for the Jew and for the Greek, it's the same gospel for everybody. And Jesus did start with the Jew first. Jesus Christ, I don't know if you know this, was Jewish. He was Jewish. Grew up in Jewish family, a Jewish little boy. Grew up going to the synagogue, grew up going to the temple. He knew the Hebrew scriptures and he was Jewish to fulfill all of the prophecies about the Messiah. Jesus came primarily to minister, to whom? To Jewish people. Jew first and also to the Greek. I find this verse very important and this is kind of how I understand things. I always look for God's fingerprints over our ministry and as he leads but don't you find a little serendipitous where we meet to worship Jesus Christ?I got a Hebrew scriptures behind me and I've got a reminder every single Sunday, the 10 commandments. And you should look at that 10 commandments and be like, "Well, how many commandments did I break this week?" And then repent of that. My third daughter, this week broke five commandments. I know that because my wife literally listed them out to her. You stole, you lied, you dishonored your mother and your father and you did that because you're an idolater, that's number one and you didn't worship Yahweh as God. We're all sinners. We've all transgressed the law of God, Jewish people are not saved any other way. It doesn't matter if you're born Jewish. It doesn't matter how religious you are in following the old Testament, there's no way you can get saved. Take your 10 commandments, Jewish people, look at how many of them you have broken and then ask, "Well, how can there be atonement for my sin?" And a day of atonement is not enough, of a holiday.There is no sacrificial system right now. Read the book of Hebrews, please. And I have a very soft spot in my heart for Jewish people because I grew up in kind of a Jewish town in Cranston, Rhode Island. A bunch of my friends growing up were Jewish. They were not Jewish, they were Jew-ish like Julian Edelman says. And then my roommate in college, freshman year, was Jewish and then he joined the Jewish fraternity called AEPi and I lived with him the second year. And the whole time, I'm trying to share the gospel just even in college, they don't know their own scriptures. Just read your own scriptures. They all point to Jesus Christ and then read the book of Hebrews and you see that all of us need Jesus Christ, it's the same gospel.The word for believes here is very important because in our modern understanding of faith, it doesn't matter if what you believe in is true as long as you hold that belief sincerely. It doesn't matter if you believe in Jesus, doesn't matter if you believe in Buddha, it doesn't matter if you believe in the flying spaghetti monster. It doesn't matter if it's true, that's just your belief. Well, that's not how scripture uses the word faith or belief, pisteuo here, belief is to consider something to be true and therefore worthy of one's trust. God is the object of faith so therefore God says, believe in the gospel. Believe God because it's true. So what do we believe in Jesus Christ? We believe in the historic fact that there was a man named Jesus Christ, that he lived a perfect life, that he was empowered by the spirit, that he died a literal death, that he rose on the third day, a literal resurrection.We believe all that. There were over 500 people that saw him resurrected and that's what explains the growth of the Christian movement so be careful of divorcing faith from truth. That's not saving faith, saving faith begins by saying, I believe God. I believe the gospel. I believe the holy scriptures. What's the connection between the gospel and faith? What releases the power from the gospel to get people to believe? What's that connection there? Well, I got to bring in Ephesians 2:1-5 to show you where people are apart from God. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which he once walked following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when you were dead in our trespass made us alive together with Christ, by grace, you have been saved.And later on, he goes on by grace through faith, you have been saved. But what he's saying is apart from Jesus Christ, apart from the sovereign work of God to save people, people are spiritually dead. A spiritually dead person has no faith to offer God. A spiritually dead person wants nothing to do with God. So Jesus Christ intervenes, God intervenes, when the person is still in a state of spiritual deadness and God gives salvation. God acts upon the sinner while the sinner is still dead and unable to believe. Therefore, the message of the gospel is also the means through which God creates faith, that's why the gospel was power. When the gospel is proclaimed, God isn't saying, "Hey, spiritually dead person. You need to find some faith in yourself to believe in the gospel."No, when the gospel is proclaimed, God uses the gospel to create faith, to summon the faith that's necessary for salvation to happen. God calls people through the gospel but people have to obey that call when they believe. Yes, the gospel summons faith and those who obey the call of God and believe are saved while those who are summoned and do not believe will indeed face the actual wrath of God and judgment. So those who reject the gospel, disobey God. I just broke your brain if you listened. And I'm going to try to fix it. This is the interplay between God's sovereignty and human responsibility. God is sovereign over salvation. We're dead, we can't do a thing but God calls us to repent and believe, huh? The only way this works is if you understand that faith is an act of the will.Faith is an act of the will, you must decide to obey the gospel. You must decide to believe in God. You must decide to repent of your sin, that's on you. And once you do that, we tell you the only way you decide was because God gave you the power to decide. Now, worship him the rest of your life. Incredible humility. Your job is to obey the summons of repent and believe and your job is by the will to say, "Yes, I will believe in God." So this is really important because a lot of people, they just think faith is... I hear this all the time, "You grew up in the faith. God gave you the gift of faith. It couldn't work for a person like me." Well that's if you believe the faith is some magical thing from the outside. Faith is an act of the will. You are to obey the gospel. And when you obey the gospel, faith is created and that's a gift from God.So yes, our responsibility is, we the gospel. God saves us and God gets all the glory. Romans 10:14-17 encapsulates this great. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent as is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news but they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ." People are to hear the gospel and what's the gospel that they're to hear? You have to obey the gospel, that's verse 16. It's right there.So in our presentation of the gospel, we don't do the walk down the aisle. We don't do the fill out a card and I don't say accept Jesus into your heart. I just tell everybody, obey God, believe God. Obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. The emphasis there is on the will. You have to activate the will. You have to say, "Yes, I choose God." "Yes, I submit to God." "Yes, I yield to God." "Yes, I believe God." "Yes, I want to obey God." And as you do all of that, God justifies you by grace through faith and you're not saved because of the act of the will, you're saved because God is the one that activated the will. Where do you get the power to believe in the gospel? You get it from the gospel. The gospel is what creates and awakens faith.The gospel is what gives the faith. Faith's not prior to the gospel and depending on the gospel, faith isn't our contribution to the gospel or salvation's a gift. So we have to receive the gift but yes, it starts with us activating the faith and that's all by grace as well. And I hear this all the time, people are like, "Preach the gospel." You want me to preach the gospel? I'm barely hanging on in my faith. Do you know how many problems I have? How much stress? How much work? Where do I get the power to preach the gospel? You get the power to preach the gospel from the gospel. So do you want to be more powerful spiritually? Love the gospel, believe in the gospel, meditate in the gospel, root yourself in the gospel, share the gospel and as you do, you get more powerful in sharing the gospel. That's why the gospel is at the heart of everything we do at Mosaic.Why? It's the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. And then third receive God's righteousness and this is verse 17. For in it, in the gospel, the righteous of God is revealed from faith, for faith. As it has written, the righteous shall live by faith. The word for righteousness here is the same word that's used in other places to talk about justification and it's used as the same word to talk about justice. So it's a status of legal rectitude that satisfies the moral requirements of God's character. And it includes sinners being put right, being put into an upright relationship with God and it includes that God remains just as he justifies the sinner. And this is a very important question, How can a just holy God forgive anybody? If you're standing before judge and you're clearly guilty and the judge is like, "Yeah, but I like you so not guilty." The judge is no longer just.So how's the holy God remain just and holy and yet forgive sinners? How? Well this is what Martin Luther wrestled with because the Catholic church up until the 16th century, what they taught was it's workspace salvation. The only way that you can be saved is by making yourself righteous, by you living a good and moral life and to pay off the debts of your sin. And the reason Martin Luther, the great reformer, who was a monk and he was also a doctor of the law of God. And because he knew God's law so well, he knew that God isn't going to judge him according to his own standards or according to standards of the culture and God's not going to judge him according to other people's standard. No, God is going to judge him according to God's perfect standard.So Luther, for years he wrestled with the fact. He's like, "How can I satisfy the law? I can't." And this is what he writes and put together a study guide that you can get online on the blog or it's in the newsletter in which there's a quote from his commentary. And he says that he hated this verse above any verse because he believed that the righteousness that God was talking about here is the righteousness that God demands from people for them to be saved and that's what the Catholic church taught. That's why in many parts of the world, that's what the Catholic still believes. And this is the difference between Christianity and every other religion, every single other religions workspace salvation's what you do to be made right before God.And then Martin Luther dawned on him as he kept studying this he read Augustine and he realized that the righteousness here is not the righteousness that God demands from people, it's the righteousness that God provides for people. It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that's why Luther, when it finally dawned on him when he was awakened and saved, he realized it's an alien righteousness, not his righteousness, That we are saved by grace through faith because of the perfect righteous record of Jesus Christ. And that's why he says that this is from faith for faith. The more you exercise your faith, the stronger it gets but it begins with believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The righteous status for this righteousness is not just acquittal from guilt but it's also the fact that the one acquitted is also regarded as being in full conformity to the moral law.So God doesn't just say not guilty, he also says holy. And that's what justification is, by grace through faith, yes, you're not guilty but God views you as righteous, views you as holy. That's the beauty of the gospel we're given in alien righteousness and this is all throughout the scriptures. I'll just give you a few here. Galatians 2:21, I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. So you can't fulfill the law to be pardoned by God. Romans 5:17 for if because of one man's righteousness, death reign through one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, man, Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:9, and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.Or second Corinthians 5:21, but double imputation. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. The very second you believe, this is why the gospel is so powerful. Why I'm not ashamed the gospel, it's the power of God and salvation for everyone who believes. The righteousness of God has revealed from heaven. We forget, the very second you believe God, believe the gospel, repent of sin, turn to... All of your sins, forgiven. God views you as not guilty. You are the child of God. And this is where a lot of people just stop and we're not going to do that, we preach the word. A lot of people stop here and they're like, "Now I don't need to live a righteous life, right? I got a get out of hell of free card. I don't have to do any..."No, that's not how it works. This is what Luther talked about. He's like "Simul justus et peccator" in Latin. He's like, "I'm justified, simultaneously justified," Simul justus... "I am still a sinner." And that's why Paul continues and this is point four that now that you've received the alien righteousness of Jesus Christ, now we are to grow into it. This is point four, live by faith to grow in righteousness. And this is verse 17, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. The righteous shall live by faith is from Habakkuk 2:4. And that verse is quoted three times in scripture here and it's quoted in Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38. And in original context, Habakkuk the prophet is dismayed that God would allow his people to suffer at the hands of pagans.And God comes to Habakkuk and says, you got to keep trusting the promise, keeping God, because the righteous shall live by faith. What unlocks life in your life? What creates flourishing of life in your life? It's the righteous living by faith. This is what true saving faith is. It's a faith that doesn't just save you from the penalty of sin. It saves you from sin, from patterns of sin and it creates in you a desire to be more righteous, true saving faith, changes your life. You believe God, you trust in his word so much that it becomes the most important thing to you. You get to the point where you realize God's word is more important than food. Where you want to study God's word, where you know that it gives you the paths of righteousness, it also gives the power to walk in paths of righteousness because the righteous shall live by faith. So you got to do everything you possibly can to strengthen your faith.The very second you sin, you are a none believer. The reason why you sin, you just forgot to believe in that moment. In that moment, you forgot to believe how holy God is, how much God hates sin. What the penalty sin is, what God did to save you from sin. This is why the gospel is the power of God and salvation. You meditate the gospel in these moments of weaknesses and the temptation where you want to walk away from the Lord. You got to fight for faith and you do that by activating your will and saying, God, I'm going to believe and I know that you're going to bless me and I know that when I honor you, you honor me and this is what changes. So I say that to say this, If we're going to ask God for revival while we're playing around with sin, don't even ask God for revival, don't even do it because you don't believe it.You don't believe it. Do you want the power of God unleashed in this church and in this city? It's going to come with God's holy spirit leading us in ways of righteousness. And if we are playing with sin, then do we even care about things of God? That's what I'm saying. And we're thwarting the power of God. Every single revival starts with a church that loves God's holiness, loves God's word, hungers and thirsts for... Jesus when he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Satan comes and he's like, "Look, you have an eaten for 40 days, you're probably kind of hungry. Turn these stones into bread." And Jesus says this, "Man shall now live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."You know what Jesus there is saying? He's not just saying people should believe in God, people say that all the time. No, Jesus is saying to true Christians believe God, believe every word that God has spoken as R.C. Sproul put it. He said, this doesn't require a leap of faith or crucifixion of the intellect, it requires a crucifixion of pride because no one is more trustworthy than God. Matthew 5:6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Is that you? Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do you want live a life of righteous? Roman 6:13, do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.Matthew 6:33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. And Hebrews 10:38 and this is important because this is the other time Habakkuk it's quoted, But my righteous one should live by faith if he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure. God is saying, if I've given you the righteousness of Jesus Christ, I've imputed it to you and if you shrink back, God has no pleasure in that. And if God has no pleasure in that, God is not going to release the power of the holy spirit through you. He's going to release his discipline and that's Hebrews 12. I say all this because I love you, I want the best thing for you and I want this church to grow and I want the gospel to be proclaimed in power.So final, quick encapsulation of the gospel and you're like, "Can I get a cheat sheet verse for the gospel?" I'll give you a verse, John 3:16. You know that one? For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God, he's the greatest lover. So loved, that's the degree. The world, that's the greatest company of people. That he gave, that's the greatest sacrificial act. His only begotten son, the greatest gift. That whosoever, the greatest opportunity. Believeth, the greatest simplicity. In him, the greatest attraction. Should not perish, the greatest promise. But the greatest difference, have the greatest certainty, ever lasting life, the greatest possession. If you're not a Christian today, obey God, believe God, believe in the gospel and Christians do so as well.And I pray that we become a people who are not ashamed of the gospel. Just to everybody, preach the gospel to everybody. Everybody, even the mayor. Preach the gospel, just everybody. Why? Because Romans 1:16 and 17, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believe, 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.Let us pray. Heavenly father, we are so thankful for the gospel. The tremendous news that because of your great love for us, though we were sinners, you sent your son, Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, you are our Lord and I pray that you make us a people that follow you, that walk in steps of righteousness. Make us a people that are righteous because of Christ and pursue righteousness by living lives of faith. And we do pray for revival in this church. We pray for revival amongst the members. We pray for revival for Eddie and everyone who listens. And we pray for revival in this church. We pray for conversions. We pray for people to be regenerated. We pray for eternities to be transformed and we do all this to give you all of the glory and as we receive joy, we pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Good morning, welcome to Mosaic. My name is Jan, one of the pastors, along pastor Shane and pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you, we do that through the connection card in the worship guide. If you fill it out legibly, you can redeem it at the welcome center for a gift and then we'll also send you another gift in the mail, just to say thank you for coming out. Today is a big Sunday at Mosaic, we have baptisms after this service, three baptisms. Praise God for that, we're excited. And then we have our first quarterly members meeting which is a potluck. Praise God. It's the first one in a long time and it's going to be delicious because you're bringing the food. And if you're not a member and you're like, "ohhh..." You can become a member just not today and no, you can't come. Don't even go downstairs, don't be tempted. But there's a membership class on March 20th which is the first step to becoming a member. So you can, in lieu of coming today, register for that. It's 1:00 to 3:00 PM with lunch provided, please do register, send an email to admin@mosaicboston.com. We love membership at Mosaic. It's important, it's biblical. It's crucial for the body to grow in holiness and righteousness together as we hold each other accountable and spur each other on to good works. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word. Heavenly father, we thank you so much that you though you are the great holy God of the universe and yes, we deserve your eternal wrath at the great judgment. We deserve eternal damnation for rebelling against a holy and just God. And you the holy and just God, you figured out a way to remain just and to justify sinners through the wonderful, powerful, tremendous news of the gospel which is the power of God and to salvation. For those of us who are Christians and saved from the judgment that is to come, we thank you, Lord. We had nothing to do with that, it was all by grace through faith. And make us an unabashed unashamed body, just members of God who proclaimed the gospel boldly and courageously because we know how powerful it is and as we do so, Lord, save many people. We pray for revival in the city and beyond in New England and we pray that you spark it through revival in the church. A revival where we love the gospel rooted in the gospel, proclaim the gospel and live in a manner worthy of the gospel as we live by faith because the righteous shall live by faith. We pray, holy God, be honored today, glorified through the proclamation of your word, through the hearing and listening and submission to your word. And empower us by the power of the holy spirit to share the gospel with anyone and everyone who would just listen. We pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen. We're in a sermon series through the book of Romans today, the sermon is on two verses. I was going to say just two verses but I'm not going to say that word just because these are some of the most powerful versus in all of scripture. They encapsulate in themselves the whole idea, the sweeping idea, the argument of the book of Romans and it also encapsulates Christianity in and of itself. The question before us today is how does a person become a Christian? I've been wrestling with this question for 20 plus years and in Boston for 12 plus years. What in the world could take a regular modern New Englander in 2022 who's just pagan. And when I use the word pagan, it's not derogatory. It's just, you don't know Jesus yet. Just pagan, godless world view, living for themselves. Maybe considers themselves a good person, like, "I'm a good person. I'm just not the religious type or I don't believe in organized religion." Or, "Christianity is just one of the many ways to God." How do you go from that to becoming a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, repenting and believing God. And not just believing in God but believing God, obeying God, getting baptized, joining a community group, becoming a member, serving at Mosaic Boston and tithing. What in the world could take a person from that? Where I want nothing to do with God to you're sharing the gospel with your pagan friends. What in the world would do it? And I particularly think about men, just Boston bros, just New England, Boston bros. They all get the same haircut, they're faded up on the sides. They all smoke Parliaments and go to the Dunkin' Donuts ones for extra sugar, extra cream. Just people like that, just salt of the earth, wearing Timberland to everything. You're wearing your favorite jerseys, Tom Brady Jersey and it's the new one. It's half Bucs, half Pats because you're a traitor just like he is and you're still heartbroken. So, a guy like that, works the job, lives for the weekend, no sexual ethics at all, sleeps around, hooks up, addicted to porn, just statistically speaking. What would it take for a guy like that who's only religion is the Red Sox and he goes there for the communion at Fenway Park, you get a hot dog and a beer and that's your tithe because it's $80. What would it take for that guy to get, say, radically saved? Committing himself to Christ, committing himself to sexual purity? Finding a woman of God, pursuing her, loving her, submitting to Christ, marrying her, loving and leading her as Christ told us, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." What would it take for the guy like that to get a Bible and walk around with it? Because this is how I judge your spirituality, by the size of your Bible. Because if your Bible is less than five pounds, are you even saved? I'm not sure. And then you work a job, you're faithful to your spouse, you raise some godly kids. You tie it to the church, you do everything you possibly can to build the kingdom of God. What would that take? What would it take for a young woman to go from feminism, anti patriarchy, and submit to a man named Jesus Christ? And then if she is to be pursued by a godly man and gets married and submits to her husband as the church submits to Christ and everything, what would it take for whole families to get converted and become Christians? What in the world could do that? What would it take? Well, it takes a powerful working of God, it takes the power of God. It takes a miracle, it's the only way. But what's our role, dear Christians? Our role, what must we do to unleash the power of God in this city? What must we do? Well, what we must do is we must unashamedly proclaim the gospel. Shamelessly, unabashedly, we must believe the gospel, receive God's righteousness as Christs righteousness and live by faith to grow in righteousness. And those are the points but I'll repeat them as we look at these two verses that changed the world, Romans 1:16 and 17, would you look at the text with me? 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.” This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word, may he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Four points. Number one, do not be ashamed of the gospel. Number two, believe the gospel. Number three, receive God's righteousness. And four, live by faith to grow in righteousness. First point, do not be ashamed of the gospel. The context for these verses begins with the stream of thought in verse 14 and 15 of chapter one, I am under obligation, Paul says 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. Paul's cradle, the motivation of his whole life, was Jesus paid it all. All to him, I owe. He knew because he was a student of the Hebrew scriptures, he knew what it would take for God to remain just and also justify people. He knew what it would take, he realized that it was Jesus Christ. He alone, it is finished. Jesus paid the whole price. So Paul, his whole life was driven by this indebtedness to God. I have an obligation to God to preach the gospel. God call told me, God commissioned me. It's my job to preach the gospel and he also felt the obligation to people. Greeks and non-Greek, just everybody, he felt the obligation that these people are headed toward eternal damnation. The justice of God is coming, the second coming of Christ is coming. The moment that you die, you stand before God and if you rejected Christ, if you didn't believe in Christ as the only way of salvation, you'll spend eternity in hell apart from God. That's what motivated Paul, He's like, "I owe it to people. I love God. I'm preaching in gospel. I love people. I want to preach the gospel." Because that's what love is, you want the best thing for people. That's why Paul's so eager to preach the gospel. He says, he's passionate, he's zealous, to preach the gospel. And that brings us to our text, verse 16, says for. I'm eager to preach at for because I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For context, Paul was murdered for preaching the gospel. That's how he died, he was executed, most likely beheaded. The founder of our faith was executed for proclaiming the truth to Pilate into the Sanhedrin. All of the apostles were executed for the faith except for the apostle Paul but basically he also was executed for the faith by being exiled to an island called Patmos. They were executed by a government for preaching the news that there's a Lord higher than Caesar. There's a kurios higher than Caesar. That there's only one way to God and then with that, they preached the biblical sexual ethic. Sex is only between a man and a woman in the context of marriage. That there's only two genders and the pure unadulterated gospel is always scandalous, it always has been scandalous to the world. Satan hates it, demons hate it and people rebelling against God who are just enjoying their sin, they hate it. But despite the deadly resistance, despite the venomous hatred, despite the steely cold indifference, mocking, dishonor, scoffing, reproach, Paul was not ashamed of the gospel, he gloried in it, he honored the gospel. He boasted in the Lord and he knew Jesus' warning and Jesus warned his followers. Mark 8:38, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words... Look at these, these are important words. In this adulterous and sinful generation. What's the connection there? The connection is people love their sin and to tell people about the good news, you first got to share the bad news. And people resist the bad news because people love their sin, they don't want to turn from their sin. No matter how great the implications of salvation are and this adulterous, sinful generation. Of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels. So you're a Christian, if Paul mentioned this and you got to ask, why is he bringing up shame? "Paul, we know you're not ashamed, you're the great apostle." Because even he struggled with the temptation, he struggled to shrink back. Even the great Paul, so if he struggled with this temptation of being ashamed of the gospel, how much more so are we? Quick question, are you even in the slightest embarrassed by the gospel? Are you even in the slightest embarrassed by the teachings of Christianity? Are you in the slightest embarrassed of Jesus Christ? That you are a follower of Christ? And if so, why? And the only reason that comes up is you're afraid of the fear of man. You esteem people's opinion of you more than you esteem the opinion of God. It's a desire to be liked and respected by the world and all of that ultimately is just meaningless. The word for ashamed here is to be or become characterized by the feelings of shame, guilt, embarrassment, disgrace, remorse. To experience a painful feeling or sense of loss of status because of some particular event, it's a loss of status. "I didn't like that. I might get up and leave and I want everyone to notice. Pastor Jan notices when Pastor Jan is preaching and people get up." And sometimes I know when they're going to the bathroom because they go that way and most of the time they just go right down the middle. They got pissed off and I'm going to continue my sermon because I'm not ashamed of the gospel, what are you going to do? We shouldn't be ashamed of the gospel. We should be ashamed of sin, we should be. We should be ashamed of continuing to live in sin. Roman 6:20-21, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness but what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death but now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Unfortunately in much of modern evangelicalism, it feels like Christians are ashamed of the gospel. It's like, "Yeah, the stuff in the old Testament, you don't really have to believe." "Yeah, God's holy but he's loving, just focus on that." "Yeah, God's not as bad as you think he is." And my personal pet peeve is, "Hey, just try Jesus. You got some problems in your life, just try Jesus. It's like sharing an ice cream flavor with someone there's mint and chocolate chip, there's Jesus. Just try Jesus." No, we don't preach try Jesus, we preach repent and believe in the gospel, it's the only hope. Paul wasn't ashamed in the gospel nor was he ashamed of the holy scriptures. Lots of Christians today are fine with the gospel and all of the attention is only on the gospel. That's all they talk about is the gospel. Repent and Jesus forgives you of all your sins and then you can live any way you want. They're ashamed of the holy scriptures. But if you're ashamed of the holy scriptures, there is no gospel apart from the holy scriptures. It's part and parcel, it's the whole cannon, it's the whole council of God, all 66 books. It's all one seamless teaching doctrinally about God, about salvation. There is no power onto salvation apart from God and apart from the scriptures, there is no gospel. That's why Paul says here, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed because this is power, that's why. And that's what a lot of churches do, that's what a lot of Christians do. They become ashamed, they shrink back from the gospel and they shrink back from the power source. A lot of churches, they milk things down, just milk toast, weak sauce, gospel, just not the gospel. And I think for some reason, God has a special calling on this church. Because in the nation, we are in arguably the hardest place to start a church, arguably the hardest place to proclaim the holy scriptures of God. And the harder it gets, I don't know if you noticed, the more high octane, holy scripture, pure unadulterated gospel we give you. The darker everything gets out there, the longer my sermons get, the fewer verses I got, it's just gospel because that's where the power is. The power to change absolutely everything. Mosaic, I've been praying and I said this to my newsletter, I've been praying for us to grow in depth of understanding the gospel, loving the gospel. And I've been praying for us to grow in becoming unashamed of the gospel, just preach it to everybody. Everybody, all your colleagues, just preach to the gospel. Just get to the point where you do get fired. Preach to your boss on the way out. HR, a little debrief, just preach the gospel and then start your own business so you can have freedom preach to gospel to everyone, just everyone. Everyone hates on a home service pros where they just put the gospel on their truck and they're like, "Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation." And, most of them, they're not Americans and they just don't care. They're just on a bash because everyone needs home service pros so you don't care what your plumber is going to say to you when he's saving your life so he just preaches the gospel. So, here's my specific prayer. I see the challenges long term of preaching the gospel here, I see it. You see it with Canada, you see it with freezing bank accounts, you just see it. There is a law now in Canada where if I preach the sermon, I'm going to preach in two weeks about biblical sexuality, I would be arrested for preaching that sermon in Canada. You don't think that's coming here? This is why I'm preaching this sermon at the second service because my wife's not here. If that comes, I don't care. What I do care about is us having a space to meet to continue ministry when we get booted from our lease. That's why my real prayer is for us to share the gospel with our landlords because scripture says to the Jew first and also to the Greek, we just share the gospel to them and then we don't have to pay them rent and all of a sudden we're one church, man, that's how we spark revival. So I have a specific prayer request. I am praying that we double this year. I'm praying that we, as a church, double this year, double in everything. Double the people attending, double people getting saved, double our community group attendants, double our community groups, double our membership, double our budget, double everything. And I think this is the year and you know why? Because it's 2022. And this Tuesday, which sometimes is pronounced two's day is 2/22 so you got a 2/22/22 and it's a Tuesday. So I think the stars are aligning. God's like, "I want the whole church to pray for us to double." I think so. Some people, when I say stuff like that, they're like, "I think he's nuts." I'm not nuts, I actually believe. And I read scripture and I see that they do stuff and I'm like, "I just want to do that." That's why I started at church, that's why we moved... So this year, the Lord led me to fast. I don't know if you've noticed, some people are like, "Pastor Jan's been shrinking. Well, what happened to the guy?" I was on a fast. I felt like the Lord said on January 19th, you got to fast. You got to pray and fast. I'm talking about biblical fast, I'm not talking about fasting from Facebook and Netflix. That's not fasting, that's abstaining. I'm talking about fasting which is abstaining from foods for 20 days and it ended last Monday. So the first Romans sermon, I was 19 days no food. I had my Pellegrino's for the electrolytes and I had water. The reason why is because I believed and I was praying, I had extra time, right? If you're not eating or cooking or cleaning up, it's basically two extra hours a day. So I'd wake up every morning. I got two extra hours. For some reason, I live on Pleasant Street on my roof, I see the temple. Literally, I see the temple. I look and the Temple's right there, the dome. And I just pray over the dome, my prophecy, I get all charismatic and I just pray for God to... I was there this morning. I saw the sunlight come up and I'm like, "Yeah, the Lord's with us." So I'm saying all that, I believe that God is going to spark revival in this nation. And I believe God is going to do it here because historically, he always starts in Boston. And I believe it's going to start with us because I know the other churches in the city... I pray for them to grow too in the gospel. But for some reason, we are positioned, I know. So that's why I ask on Tuesday that you pray and also don't be ashamed of gospel, preach it. Man, just preach it. Just everybody, every person you meet, just preach the gospel, just preach the gospel. You know why I say that? Because other parts of the nation, you study church growth and here's how most of it happens. It starts with a church that finds a guy who's really good looking and has a really good looking family and "All right, you're going to be the lead pastor." And it's very fashionable. He wears the skinny jeans, he wears expensive sneakers. He's got the watch. The watch game is nice, perfectly groomed beard, I don't know why. And he holds the mic and screams at people and you start a church. And all of a sudden people from other churches are showing up and you got transfer growth. Well in Boston, there's no such thing as transfer growth because we're one of the biggest churches. So, you want to transfer? What do you want? Park Street closed down and everyone come here. I wouldn't be against it but... Just kidding. What I'm saying is the only way we're going to grow if we were really serious about it is conversion growth. Where people are pagans and they hear the gospel from someone in our church and they get saved, radically saved. So for each of you, your homework assignment for this year is to convert at least one pagan, at least one, that's how we double. If every single one of us converts a... And you're like, "Pastor Jan, do you believe in converting people?" Yeah, that's the whole point of me being up here. If you are not a Christian, I want to convert. I want to proselytize, I want to evangelize. That's my job, that's all of our jobs because we're not ashamed of the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. There's a lot of Christians that are like, "Yeah, but we're not like those Christians. We're not the fundamentalist." I got nothing wrong about fundamentalists. I like that word, it's got the word fun in it. It's got the word dam in it which is cool because it helps you explain the gospel. Like apart from Jesus, you are going to be damned for eternity and it's got the word mental in it where you have to use your brain to actually learn the truth of the gospel, fundamentalist. And also it depends what your fundamental is, what's our fundamental? It's the gospel so we're not ashamed of the gospel. "What is the gospel?" You ask if you're not a believer. Well, the gospel in a nutshell is euangelion, just means good news but I think the word good is too weak. It's not even good news, it's not great news, it's tremendous news. It's the tremendous news that though we are in sin, we've transgressed the commandments of God, we've rebelled against the holy God, God, out of his great love for us sends his son, God incarnate, Jesus Christ who lives an absolute perfect life morally. Loves God with all of his heart, soul, strength and mind. Loves people as himself and then offers up his whole life as a sacrifice for our sin. On the cross, he atoned for our sin by paying the penalty for it. By absorbing the wrath of God that we deserve for our law break, that's why he cried out, "My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?" He was forsaken by God on the cross because he took our sin upon himself. He went through hell on behalf of us. He's buried, resurrects on the third day and he's ascended at the right hand of God, reigning and ruling. And when you repent and believe, that very second, all of your sins are forgiven. Every single one, every sin, every sin you will ever committed, you are forgiven and you become a child of God, your eternity is secure. You know how people say, "I just believe everything will work out." That's not true if you are not a Christian. It's not true. That's a lie. Everything will not work out for you if you rebel and if you reject Jesus Christ. You will spend eternity in hell so that's why my job is repent and believe. Please, just the whole city, just everybody. And share the gospel because how else are we going to fill Fenway Park? How are we going to do that for Easter one of these years? 2024, because I know that's going to be a crazy year so we should have a worship service in Fenway Park, that's my dream. I'll pray about that. Point two, believe the gospel, right? It's not power unless you believe. Romans 1:16. I'm 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. The gospel doesn't unleash the power of God, the gospel is the power of God. The more we unleash the gospel, the more the power of God is unleashed. The word for power here is God's power, supernatural power, his strength, his force, his might. Power for what? It's power for salvation. The most absolute, most important thing, any person needs is salvation. And the word for salvation usually in American churches, it's just a watered down understanding of salvation. People are like, "I got saved." Or like, "I walked down the aisle. I checked off a box of a card, I guess I'm saved. God's forgiven me all my sins. I'm chilling." Or like, "God saved me from an addiction or God saved me from a particular troubles." And usually what people mean is salvation from a temporal danger. That's not what Paul is talking about. The biblical doctrine of salvation is primarily eschatological, which just means end times. And what he means is judgment day is coming. God hates evil. God despise sin. He's angry about it. There's a wrath that he has and a lot of people are like, "I don't want to believe in God of Wrath." I do. There's so much evil and wickedness in this world, I pray for the second coming to come as quickly as possible. I do pray for that. I want God's wrath. I can't wait for God's wrath descend upon the world. That's because I'm a Christian and every Christian, if you are a Christian, if you have been saved from the wrath of God, we should be crying out, "Lord Jesus, come." The day of salvation, day of judgment, eschatologically speaking, is one and the same. When Paul thinks about salvation, he thinks about this kind of salvation. Romans 5:9, since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from what? From the wrath of God. It's coming. So this salvation includes deliverance from a final judgment and it includes a restoration of the glory which we once lost. There will be a glorification part of salvation. There's justification, sanctification, glorification, I'll get into that in a second. But we'll when the judgment comes, if you are in Christ, Jesus isn't coming to judge you, Jesus is coming as your merciful savior to redeem you from the corruption of this world. He's going to usher in the new heavens and new earth and by doing so, he's going to restore our bodies. So now our bodies will have no even ability to sin, glorified bodies, no sickness, no aging, just perfectly according to the image of God. You get that in Philippians 3:20 and 21, our citizenship is in heaven. From it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. So when Paul thinks about salvation, the doctrine is a threefold doctrine of salvation begins with justification. It continues as sanctification. It ends with glorification. Justification is, I have been saved. The very moment that you repent of your sins, all of your sins are forgiven. You are acquitted, not guilty. Now begins sanctification, and the sanctification process is you growing in sanctus from Latin but it's holiness. If you're growing in righteousness, just a practical righteousness, God gives you the imputed righteousness of Christ and basically, you live, you grow into that close by daily repenting of sin. So you're not earning your salvation, you're working out your salvation as Philippians 1 says. And then when we die or when Christ returns is glorification so there's a past tense, a present possession and a battle and a final salvation. For whom is the gospel? He says for the Jew first and also to the Greek. For Paul to describe this in this phrase, he's talking about the totality of all humanity. Every human being is a sinner and every sinner needs the gospel. It's not a different gospel for the Jew and for the Greek, it's the same gospel for everybody. And Jesus did start with the Jew first. Jesus Christ, I don't know if you know this, was Jewish. He was Jewish. Grew up in Jewish family, a Jewish little boy. Grew up going to the synagogue, grew up going to the temple. He knew the Hebrew scriptures and he was Jewish to fulfill all of the prophecies about the Messiah. Jesus came primarily to minister, to whom? To Jewish people. Jew first and also to the Greek. I find this verse very important and this is kind of how I understand things. I always look for God's fingerprints over our ministry and as he leads but don't you find a little serendipitous where we meet to worship Jesus Christ? I got a Hebrew scriptures behind me and I've got a reminder every single Sunday, the 10 commandments. And you should look at that 10 commandments and be like, "Well, how many commandments did I break this week?" And then repent of that. My third daughter, this week broke five commandments. I know that because my wife literally listed them out to her. You stole, you lied, you dishonored your mother and your father and you did that because you're an idolater, that's number one and you didn't worship Yahweh as God. We're all sinners. We've all transgressed the law of God, Jewish people are not saved any other way. It doesn't matter if you're born Jewish. It doesn't matter how religious you are in following the old Testament, there's no way you can get saved. Take your 10 commandments, Jewish people, look at how many of them you have broken and then ask, "Well, how can there be atonement for my sin?" And a day of atonement is not enough, of a holiday. There is no sacrificial system right now. Read the book of Hebrews, please. And I have a very soft spot in my heart for Jewish people because I grew up in kind of a Jewish town in Cranston, Rhode Island. A bunch of my friends growing up were Jewish. They were not Jewish, they were Jew-ish like Julian Edelman says. And then my roommate in college, freshman year, was Jewish and then he joined the Jewish fraternity called AEPi and I lived with him the second year. And the whole time, I'm trying to share the gospel just even in college, they don't know their own scriptures. Just read your own scriptures. They all point to Jesus Christ and then read the book of Hebrews and you see that all of us need Jesus Christ, it's the same gospel. The word for believes here is very important because in our modern understanding of faith, it doesn't matter if what you believe in is true as long as you hold that belief sincerely. It doesn't matter if you believe in Jesus, doesn't matter if you believe in Buddha, it doesn't matter if you believe in the flying spaghetti monster. It doesn't matter if it's true, that's just your belief. Well, that's not how scripture uses the word faith or belief, pisteuo here, belief is to consider something to be true and therefore worthy of one's trust. God is the object of faith so therefore God says, believe in the gospel. Believe God because it's true. So what do we believe in Jesus Christ? We believe in the historic fact that there was a man named Jesus Christ, that he lived a perfect life, that he was empowered by the spirit, that he died a literal death, that he rose on the third day, a literal resurrection. We believe all that. There were over 500 people that saw him resurrected and that's what explains the growth of the Christian movement so be careful of divorcing faith from truth. That's not saving faith, saving faith begins by saying, I believe God. I believe the gospel. I believe the holy scriptures. What's the connection between the gospel and faith? What releases the power from the gospel to get people to believe? What's that connection there? Well, I got to bring in Ephesians 2:1-5 to show you where people are apart from God. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which he once walked following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when you were dead in our trespass made us alive together with Christ, by grace, you have been saved. And later on, he goes on by grace through faith, you have been saved. But what he's saying is apart from Jesus Christ, apart from the sovereign work of God to save people, people are spiritually dead. A spiritually dead person has no faith to offer God. A spiritually dead person wants nothing to do with God. So Jesus Christ intervenes, God intervenes, when the person is still in a state of spiritual deadness and God gives salvation. God acts upon the sinner while the sinner is still dead and unable to believe. Therefore, the message of the gospel is also the means through which God creates faith, that's why the gospel was power. When the gospel is proclaimed, God isn't saying, "Hey, spiritually dead person. You need to find some faith in yourself to believe in the gospel." No, when the gospel is proclaimed, God uses the gospel to create faith, to summon the faith that's necessary for salvation to happen. God calls people through the gospel but people have to obey that call when they believe. Yes, the gospel summons faith and those who obey the call of God and believe are saved while those who are summoned and do not believe will indeed face the actual wrath of God and judgment. So those who reject the gospel, disobey God. I just broke your brain if you listened. And I'm going to try to fix it. This is the interplay between God's sovereignty and human responsibility. God is sovereign over salvation. We're dead, we can't do a thing but God calls us to repent and believe, huh? The only way this works is if you understand that faith is an act of the will. Faith is an act of the will, you must decide to obey the gospel. You must decide to believe in God. You must decide to repent of your sin, that's on you. And once you do that, we tell you the only way you decide was because God gave you the power to decide. Now, worship him the rest of your life. Incredible humility. Your job is to obey the summons of repent and believe and your job is by the will to say, "Yes, I will believe in God." So this is really important because a lot of people, they just think faith is... I hear this all the time, "You grew up in the faith. God gave you the gift of faith. It couldn't work for a person like me." Well that's if you believe the faith is some magical thing from the outside. Faith is an act of the will. You are to obey the gospel. And when you obey the gospel, faith is created and that's a gift from God. So yes, our responsibility is, we the gospel. God saves us and God gets all the glory. Romans 10:14-17 encapsulates this great. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent as is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news but they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ." People are to hear the gospel and what's the gospel that they're to hear? You have to obey the gospel, that's verse 16. It's right there. So in our presentation of the gospel, we don't do the walk down the aisle. We don't do the fill out a card and I don't say accept Jesus into your heart. I just tell everybody, obey God, believe God. Obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. The emphasis there is on the will. You have to activate the will. You have to say, "Yes, I choose God." "Yes, I submit to God." "Yes, I yield to God." "Yes, I believe God." "Yes, I want to obey God." And as you do all of that, God justifies you by grace through faith and you're not saved because of the act of the will, you're saved because God is the one that activated the will. Where do you get the power to believe in the gospel? You get it from the gospel. The gospel is what creates and awakens faith. The gospel is what gives the faith. Faith's not prior to the gospel and depending on the gospel, faith isn't our contribution to the gospel or salvation's a gift. So we have to receive the gift but yes, it starts with us activating the faith and that's all by grace as well. And I hear this all the time, people are like, "Preach the gospel." You want me to preach the gospel? I'm barely hanging on in my faith. Do you know how many problems I have? How much stress? How much work? Where do I get the power to preach the gospel? You get the power to preach the gospel from the gospel. So do you want to be more powerful spiritually? Love the gospel, believe in the gospel, meditate in the gospel, root yourself in the gospel, share the gospel and as you do, you get more powerful in sharing the gospel. That's why the gospel is at the heart of everything we do at Mosaic. Why? It's the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. And then third receive God's righteousness and this is verse 17. For in it, in the gospel, the righteous of God is revealed from faith, for faith. As it has written, the righteous shall live by faith. The word for righteousness here is the same word that's used in other places to talk about justification and it's used as the same word to talk about justice. So it's a status of legal rectitude that satisfies the moral requirements of God's character. And it includes sinners being put right, being put into an upright relationship with God and it includes that God remains just as he justifies the sinner. And this is a very important question, How can a just holy God forgive anybody? If you're standing before judge and you're clearly guilty and the judge is like, "Yeah, but I like you so not guilty." The judge is no longer just. So how's the holy God remain just and holy and yet forgive sinners? How? Well this is what Martin Luther wrestled with because the Catholic church up until the 16th century, what they taught was it's workspace salvation. The only way that you can be saved is by making yourself righteous, by you living a good and moral life and to pay off the debts of your sin. And the reason Martin Luther, the great reformer, who was a monk and he was also a doctor of the law of God. And because he knew God's law so well, he knew that God isn't going to judge him according to his own standards or according to standards of the culture and God's not going to judge him according to other people's standard. No, God is going to judge him according to God's perfect standard. So Luther, for years he wrestled with the fact. He's like, "How can I satisfy the law? I can't." And this is what he writes and put together a study guide that you can get online on the blog or it's in the newsletter in which there's a quote from his commentary. And he says that he hated this verse above any verse because he believed that the righteousness that God was talking about here is the righteousness that God demands from people for them to be saved and that's what the Catholic church taught. That's why in many parts of the world, that's what the Catholic still believes. And this is the difference between Christianity and every other religion, every single other religions workspace salvation's what you do to be made right before God. And then Martin Luther dawned on him as he kept studying this he read Augustine and he realized that the righteousness here is not the righteousness that God demands from people, it's the righteousness that God provides for people. It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that's why Luther, when it finally dawned on him when he was awakened and saved, he realized it's an alien righteousness, not his righteousness, That we are saved by grace through faith because of the perfect righteous record of Jesus Christ. And that's why he says that this is from faith for faith. The more you exercise your faith, the stronger it gets but it begins with believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The righteous status for this righteousness is not just acquittal from guilt but it's also the fact that the one acquitted is also regarded as being in full conformity to the moral law. So God doesn't just say not guilty, he also says holy. And that's what justification is, by grace through faith, yes, you're not guilty but God views you as righteous, views you as holy. That's the beauty of the gospel we're given in alien righteousness and this is all throughout the scriptures. I'll just give you a few here. Galatians 2:21, I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. So you can't fulfill the law to be pardoned by God. Romans 5:17 for if because of one man's righteousness, death reign through one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, man, Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:9, and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. Or second Corinthians 5:21, but double imputation. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. The very second you believe, this is why the gospel is so powerful. Why I'm not ashamed the gospel, it's the power of God and salvation for everyone who believes. The righteousness of God has revealed from heaven. We forget, the very second you believe God, believe the gospel, repent of sin, turn to... All of your sins, forgiven. God views you as not guilty. You are the child of God. And this is where a lot of people just stop and we're not going to do that, we preach the word. A lot of people stop here and they're like, "Now I don't need to live a righteous life, right? I got a get out of hell of free card. I don't have to do any..." No, that's not how it works. This is what Luther talked about. He's like "Simul justus et peccator" in Latin. He's like, "I'm justified, simultaneously justified," Simul justus... "I am still a sinner." And that's why Paul continues and this is point four that now that you've received the alien righteousness of Jesus Christ, now we are to grow into it. This is point four, live by faith to grow in righteousness. And this is verse 17, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. The righteous shall live by faith is from Habakkuk 2:4. And that verse is quoted three times in scripture here and it's quoted in Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38. And in original context, Habakkuk the prophet is dismayed that God would allow his people to suffer at the hands of pagans. And God comes to Habakkuk and says, you got to keep trusting the promise, keeping God, because the righteous shall live by faith. What unlocks life in your life? What creates flourishing of life in your life? It's the righteous living by faith. This is what true saving faith is. It's a faith that doesn't just save you from the penalty of sin. It saves you from sin, from patterns of sin and it creates in you a desire to be more righteous, true saving faith, changes your life. You believe God, you trust in his word so much that it becomes the most important thing to you. You get to the point where you realize God's word is more important than food. Where you want to study God's word, where you know that it gives you the paths of righteousness, it also gives the power to walk in paths of righteousness because the righteous shall live by faith. So you got to do everything you possibly can to strengthen your faith. The very second you sin, you are a none believer. The reason why you sin, you just forgot to believe in that moment. In that moment, you forgot to believe how holy God is, how much God hates sin. What the penalty sin is, what God did to save you from sin. This is why the gospel is the power of God and salvation. You meditate the gospel in these moments of weaknesses and the temptation where you want to walk away from the Lord. You got to fight for faith and you do that by activating your will and saying, God, I'm going to believe and I know that you're going to bless me and I know that when I honor you, you honor me and this is what changes. So I say that to say this, If we're going to ask God for revival while we're playing around with sin, don't even ask God for revival, don't even do it because you don't believe it. You don't believe it. Do you want the power of God unleashed in this church and in this city? It's going to come with God's holy spirit leading us in ways of righteousness. And if we are playing with sin, then do we even care about things of God? That's what I'm saying. And we're thwarting the power of God. Every single revival starts with a church that loves God's holiness, loves God's word, hungers and thirsts for... Jesus when he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Satan comes and he's like, "Look, you have an eaten for 40 days, you're probably kind of hungry. Turn these stones into bread." And Jesus says this, "Man shall now live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." You know what Jesus there is saying? He's not just saying people should believe in God, people say that all the time. No, Jesus is saying to true Christians believe God, believe every word that God has spoken as R.C. Sproul put it. He said, this doesn't require a leap of faith or crucifixion of the intellect, it requires a crucifixion of pride because no one is more trustworthy than God. Matthew 5:6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Is that you? Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do you want live a life of righteous? Roman 6:13, do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Matthew 6:33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. And Hebrews 10:38 and this is important because this is the other time Habakkuk it's quoted, But my righteous one should live by faith if he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure. God is saying, if I've given you the righteousness of Jesus Christ, I've imputed it to you and if you shrink back, God has no pleasure in that. And if God has no pleasure in that, God is not going to release the power of the holy spirit through you. He's going to release his discipline and that's Hebrews 12. I say all this because I love you, I want the best thing for you and I want this church to grow and I want the gospel to be proclaimed in power. So final, quick encapsulation of the gospel and you're like, "Can I get a cheat sheet verse for the gospel?" I'll give you a verse, John 3:16. You know that one? For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God, he's the greatest lover. So loved, that's the degree. The world, that's the greatest company of people. That he gave, that's the greatest sacrificial act. His only begotten son, the greatest gift. That whosoever, the greatest opportunity. Believeth, the greatest simplicity. In him, the greatest attraction. Should not perish, the greatest promise. But the greatest difference, have the greatest certainty, ever lasting life, the greatest possession. If you're not a Christian today, obey God, believe God, believe in the gospel and Christians do so as well. And I pray that we become a people who are not ashamed of the gospel. Just to everybody, preach the gospel to everybody. Everybody, even the mayor. Preach the gospel, just everybody. Why? Because Romans 1:16 and 17, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believe, 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. Let us pray. Heavenly father, we are so thankful for the gospel. The tremendous news that because of your great love for us, though we were sinners, you sent your son, Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, you are our Lord and I pray that you make us a people that follow you, that walk in steps of righteousness. Make us a people that are righteous because of Christ and pursue righteousness by living lives of faith. And we do pray for revival in this church. We pray for revival amongst the members. We pray for revival for Eddie and everyone who listens. And we pray for revival in this church. We pray for conversions. We pray for people to be regenerated. We pray for eternities to be transformed and we do all this to give you all of the glory and as we receive joy, we pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.
After performing his first magic trick at the ripe-old age of two years old, Jake Schwartz was instantly hooked on magic. He never grew out of the magic within the tricks, and Jake is now one of the fastest-rising young stars of magic in the country. Jake is an international award-winning magician who has performed all over the world, including fortune-500 companies like CBRE Real Estate, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Philadelphia Union, the world famous Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City, and he was the youngest headliner to ever sell out the esteemed Smoke and Mirrors Magic Theater in Philadelphia. Outside of being a world-class magician, Jake is a huge Philadelphia Flyers and Penn State football fan, and an avid musician. We find out how Jake got hooked on magic as early as two years old, why Penn State University was the right place for him, why Alpha Epsilon Pi was the right fraternity, how magic helped him spend 46 straight hours without sitting or sleeping to raise money during THON, how magic helps you gain confidence, how magic can help with your anxiety, what keeps him in the magic world today, whether magic is real, and why we need magic now more than ever. Enjoy!
Justin was determined to keep discovering his best self everyday. The idea of staying stagnant just wasn't an option so he took matters into his own hands. Contact Justin at Justinhoch55@gmail.com
Dos horas de radio que se nos han hecho especialmente cortas. Demasiadas cosas que contar y sentimientos a flor de piel, han puesto la guinda de un pastel que ha tardado un año en cocinarse, pero que ha salido con mucho sabor del horno. Radio hecha con pasión e ilusión, que en el día de hoy, jueves 29 de julio, nos ha llevado a contactar y aprender junto a Paco Ángel González del SPPLB, el escritor Roberto Lapid y su nueva novela Pasión Imperfecta, el presidente nacional del nuevo sindicato auspiciado por VOX Rodrigo Alonso, el gastrónomo de cabecera en Radio 4G Juan Abril, el incombustible gerente de ROGISA Juan Ronda y la capacidad dialéctica de Guillermo del Pino hablándonos de la ciudad de Nueva York en la sección “Palabra o Cosa”. Lo dicho, escúchalo cuando puedas, tienes todo el tiempo del mundo. Humberto "HJ" Normey, del "Benidorm Gastro Business" podcast que dirige y produce junto con Ale Ronzani de "Parallel Studios". Humberto es también Responsable de Producción de Vocemmus SL, en Alicante - una de las productoras escénicas y audiovisuales más sobresalientes del panorama cultural local, y miembro de diversas asociaciones sectoriales y sin ánimo de lucro, donde sirve en la Punta Directiva de varios (AEPI, Lions, etc.)
Today we have with us Zach Schleien, Co-founder of Filter Off. Zach has a passion for helping others achieve their goals in the personal branding and mental health space. His journey has been one of successes and failures. He has learned from working on his own side projects as well as working in a corporate setting, now at Johnson & Johnson. This unique mix of experience has given Zach the confidence to help others who are just starting out or looking to bring their business to the next level. In episode #156 of the Fraternity Foodie Podcast, we find out why Zach chose Syracuse University, what made Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity at Syracuse special, what he learned as Founder of Top Romp in 2014 and then later selling the company in 2018, what made him want to build 18percent (a free mental health online community), how COVID-19 impacted online dating, what makes Filter Off different from all the other online dating apps, what is the future of online dating, why swiping on dating apps is bad for your mental health, the challenges in building a startup, and how to balance life through all of it. Enjoy! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi1zVMb-LxA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi1zVMb-LxA
Welcome to Episode 69 of the Asian Hustle Network Podcast! We are very excited to have H Woo Lee on this week's episode. We interview Asian entrepreneurs around the world to amplify their voices and empower Asians to pursue their dreams and goals. We believe that each person has a message and a unique story from their entrepreneurial journey that they can share with all of us. Check us out on Anchor, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, TuneIn, Spotify, and more. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a positive 5-star review. This is our opportunity to use the voices of the Asian community and share these incredible stories with the world. We release a new episode every Wednesday, so stay tuned! H Woo Lee (AYch-wOO) is a rising food content creator, wedding planner, and founder of his underground fine-dining supper-club, Maru Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of Southern California in May 2019, and currently works for a celebrity wedding planner, Kevin Lee. In 2017, H Woo started his entrepreneurial journey as the president of his fraternity, AEPI, where he quickly learned the skills to operate a small business. A year later, he started his second venture, ONYX, which was a music events company that hosted silent disco concerts. In the summer of 2017, h woo taught himself how to cook, and this passion has only escalated ever since. During his senior year, he hosted weekly dinners out of his apartment for guests. In 2019, he officially founded Maru Los Angeles, which focused on Korean-Italian fine dining and the social experience of dining. In December 2020, H Woo began food content creation on TikTok. His high-intensity, quick-clip cooking videos showcase his culinary skills and personality and looks forward to expanding towards other digital media platforms and eventually re-opening his supper-club after COVID. Please check out our Patreon at @asianhustlenetwork. We want AHN to continue to be meaningful and give back to the Asian community. If you enjoy our podcast and would like to contribute to our future, we hope you’ll consider becoming a patron. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/asianhustlenetwork/support
Today we have with us Jay Shifman! For much of his early life, Jay was told that he was living with a debilitating issue of Mental Health. As his condition worsened, Jay was prescribed more drugs at ever higher doses until, in his early 20s, Jay was daily taking more than the estimated lethal dosage of one drug and misusing many others while living with a full-blown issue of Substance Misuse thanks to prescription pills. At 23, after two suicide attempts, an overdose, and time spent in an inpatient hospital and a rehab facility, he decided enough was enough and pledged himself to withdraw from all of the prescriptions. Over the next few years, many of his symptoms completely disappeared. Now he strives every day to end the stigma around the topics of Mental Health and Substance Misuse & Recovery by telling his story and helping others tell theirs. In episode #137, we find out about the four universities Jay has attended, what made AEPi Fraternity the right choice for him despite a legacy elsewhere, what mental health resources are available in college, warning signs of substance misuse with our fraternity brothers and sorority sisters, how we can develop open communications in our chapter for difficult discussions, ways we can achieve mindfulness without meditation, how students can meet their fundraising goals, the types of discussions Jay is having on his podcast called "Choose Your Struggle", and some of Jay's favorite restaurants in the country. Enjoy! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsJfnLwtjNg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsJfnLwtjNg
We bring on one of Daniel's Aepi brothers, Dustin Coren, where he talks about: The political landscape, the business of marijuana, Ghislene Maxwell, and Call of Duty. Dustin's Instagram is @corendustin .
Brothers fight—we know all about that from Toldot. But brotherhood is stronger than we may know, and Judaism doesn't always look like what you might think. Jon Bridge, Chief Programming Officer of Alpha Epsilon Pi, chats with us about how Jewish values follow him everywhere, how different types of people create stronger organizations, and about what it means to lead through struggles. We also welcome Jay Sirot, past President of Cornell University's Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter and Special Assistant in the Policy Office at the US Department of Labor. Continue the conversation by visiting: Website: https://AEPi.org Facebook: @AEPi.Fraternity Instagram: @AlphaEpsilonPi Email: JBridge@AEPi.org Interested in coming onto the podcast? Email drinkinganddrashing@gmail.com!
It's our last episode of season 1, just in time for Halloween shenanigans and spooky stories. Join us one last time for a little bit and hear about scary stories that have actually happened to us. Pictures falling, doors slamming, and even worse, waking up hungover at the AEPi house! Duh duh duh... Music: Fun Halloween - AShamaluevMusic. Music Link: ashamaluevmusic.fanlink.to/dVAG --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stephandracharentfunny/support
Welcome to episode # 84 of Fraternity Foodie! Today we have with us Rudy Rochman, a Jewish and Israel Rights Activist and Social Media influencer on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. He was born in Paris, moved to Israel at age 3, and then at age 7 he experienced Anti-Semitism after being removed from a bus in London. Since then, he has been focused on Jewish rights. Rudy is a brother of Alpha Epsilon Pi from Columbia University. We find out what it was like for him to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces as a sniper in the 101st Paratrooper Brigade, why he chose to attend college at Columbia University, how he was able to grow a grassroots Pro-Israel movement on campus to over 800 members, why he joined Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity, his thoughts on videos in the media today created to push certain agendas, the solution for Israelis and Palestinians to build one land together, how college students can combat anti-Semitism on their college campus, how he was able to build a huge social media following, his favorite middle eastern food, and how our listeners can support his work and projects. Enjoy! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QL1sXonkqs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QL1sXonkqs
Lance Graulich is the founder of Ion Franchising, which represents 600 Brands nationally. Ion Franchising is a consulting service & development firm that offers services to the Franchisee & Franchisor. Services include funding options networking opportunities, licensee and contract services, marketing, and many other options. In a world of continual growth Ion stands above the rest and can help you find the perfect franchise to own, or help you build out your next empire. Lance Graulich is originally from New York and moved out to the west coast when he realized the financial services industry was not for him. He began as a simple restaurant host and within a few years found himself at atop of the managerial totem pole. But this wasn't enough and he began to find himself in many purchasing and franchising opportunities. Lance has been in the industry for decades and brings a much needed presence of quality leadership and paramount potential. |LanceGraulich|-IonFranchising.com-@IonFranchising-Lance Graulich|JakeGallen | TheGuestListPod|-Instagram | -Instagram -Twitter | -Twitter -Facebook | -Facebook-Linkedin | -Youtube|FLOW OF THE SHOW|Introduction & Opening Conversation (0:00)Who is Lance Graulich? (10:07)Which came first, the Franchisee or the Franchisor? (23:22)Brick-and-Mortar Franchises are getting Hammered (33:44)No fresh capital? ION has you covered (43:20)What is your Secret Sauce? (48:23)Licensing, Profits, & Royalties (1:00:30)How to Prevent Dilution of the Brand (1:10:34)2 Questions & How to get Connected (1:18:38)|LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on the platform of your choice|-Apple Podcasts-Spotify-Google Podcasts-Youtube (VIDEO RECORDINGS)
Darren Rabinowitz is a Professional Poker Player who moved to Las Vegas in 2012, upon graduating from Arizona State University. From what had begun as a friendly game in high school quickly unraveled into a life-long profession post-college. Upon graduation, Darren decided to "make a pit stop" in Las Vegas and try out his luck in the Poker scene. After a successful rookie year, Darren capitalized on the opportunity and 8 years later is known player in the field. Every year Darren attends dozens of tournaments nationally, and even internationally. But where he spends the majority of his playing is online, and regularly plays 6-12 games at a time. |@DarrenRabinowitz|-Twitter|@JakeGallen | @TheGuestListPod|-Instagram | -Instagram -Twitter | -Twitter -Facebook | -Facebook-Linkedin | -Youtube|FLOW OF THE SHOW|THERE IS A LOSS IN SOUND QUALITY FROM (31:37-35:30) FAST FORWARD AT YOUR DISCRETIONIntroduction & Opening Conversation (0:00)Who is Darren Rabinowitz? (2:58)The Las Vegas Poker Community (9:58)Transitioning to Online Poker (21:32)How to Acquire Skills in the Field of Poker (37:40)Behind the Scenes (42:18)Poker Marketing, Media, & News (54:00)International Tours (1:02:07)2 Questions & How to get Connected (1:10:30)|Listen and subscribe on the platform of your choice|-Apple Podcasts-Spotify-Google Podcasts
President Higgins addressed the AEPI web-conference on the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Africa. See https://president.ie/en/diary/details/president-addresses-aepi-webconference-responding-to-covid-19-the-situation-in-africa
Daniel Hinden is a serial internet entrepreneur and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Ofixu.com which is like an Airbnb type platform for the working world and now serving 400+ cities globally with on-demand workspace rental. Prior to that, he served as Director for the EMEA region at Jumio, an anti-fraud biometric provider. In this role, he launched the Jumio UK and EU business in April 2012. Before that, he was Global Sales Director and Founder Member of the EMEA and US region implantation of Airbnb rival Wimdu GmbH (05/2011 - 05/2012). For this position, he was responsible for directing Sales, PR and Marketing initiatives globally (USA/UK & Middle East). In addition, he was Senior Sales Manager at Citation Professional Solutions where he secured Manchester united PLC's security & employment law provision (01/2009 - 04/2011). Daniel is also an honorary member of the international fraternity AEPi who's members include Mark Zuckerberg. Founders365 is hosted by Steven Haggerty where he shares 365 insights from 365 founders during 2020.
Takeaways – A podcast about learning from the wisdom of others
I am blessed to be around remarkable people. There are always Takeaways to learn. That is what I am sharing on this podcast. Takeaways – Life. Lessons. Learned. explores learning from the wisdom of others. This was a landmark episode for Takeaways! We recorded in front of a live audience, we recorded on video (currently in editing) and we had to get official approval from the U.S. State Department to sit down with our guest!! February 5, 2019 Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, appointed Elan S. Carr to be Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat anit-Semitism. This position was established in 2004 as part of the Office of Religion and Global Affairs at the United States Department of State. Rewind to the summer of 1999. I was a rising sophomore attending UNLV. My fraternity brothers put me forward to receive a full scholarship to attend the Alpha Epsilon Pi International Convention in Morristown, New Jersey. At one of the leadership breakout sessions was this guy with radiating enthusiasm. Whenever he saw someone he knew, he would let out this signature "dooooooooode" as the pitch in his voice raised, his arms would open wide in anticipation of a brotherly embrace. He would then say in perfect Hebrew, "brother how I missed you!" Elan was already a legend to droves of Alpha Epsilon Pi brothers around the world back then as a major volunteer. He joined AEPi as an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley where he earned a degree in Philosophy and Political Science. Then he went to Northwestern University to get his law degree. Operation Desert Storm occurred when he was a first year law student. That compelled Elan to join the U.S. Army. It was that decision which lead him to serve in the Iraqi War after the events of 9/11. The stories Elan shares in this episode about his experiences in Iraq are almost unbelievable. Elan's day job for 13 years was as a criminal prosecutor in Los Angeles Country. He focused both as a gang prosecutor and in the Special Victims Unit prosecuting child molesters, rapists, and domestic abusers. In 2014 Elan ran for Congress and lost. It was that election, however, that put him on the radar of the National Republican Party to be considered almost 5 years later for this current role. Politics aside what else can you learn from a person like Special Envoy Carr? Here are just a few of the Takeaways that we discussed on this episode. • When you have an opportunity to express yourself and your faith you do it. • How you define a problem determines how you solve it. • What is the state of anti-Semitism in the world today? I hope you enjoy! Thank you for listening! Please subscribe to “Takeaways”, rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. You can find Takeaways at any of the links below: • ApplePodcast • Stitcher • Google Play • SoundCloud
Check out my interview today with Sid Dunn, someone who worked for Alpha Epsilon Pi for 37 years and was the Executive Director of the Fraternity Executives Association (FEA). He shares with us details about his award from the White House, what we can do to combat Anti-Semitism in the United States, lifetime engagement of our fraternity/sorority alumni, and how we can solve some of the problems within Greek Life.
LISTEN TO THE DISTRICT LIVE ON WHIP | T/TR 7-8PM EST THURSDAY 11/29 | Join hosts Amarynth Ruch and Taylor Allen for the District, your one stop shop for state and local news and politics! Temple's Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter is removed from campus, Amazon stores are predicted to open in Philly within the next two years, Pennsylvania pushes for new voting systems, and more on this episode of the District. Skip to a topic: 5:25 - Temple's AEPi Chapter Removed From Campus https://temple-news.com/temples-aepi-chapter-removed-from-campus/?fbclid=IwAR2xmMp1DSrUdF0btTAcYRE1Gxikl8Jssc9PpDpa4aPsuifU-xJjC7SNuj4 13:57 - Ex-PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane Going To Jail https://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-nws-kathleen-kane-revoke-bail-request-20181127-story.html 20:33 - Amazon Physical Stores Likely Coming To Philadelphia Within Two Years, PREIT CEO Says http://www2.philly.com/philly/business/real_estate/commercial/amazon-physical-stores-likely-coming-to-philly-within-two-years-preit-ceo-says-20181129.html 26:34 - Johnny Bobbitt Heads to New Jersey To Face Trial In GoFundMe Scam http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/crime/johnny-bobbitt-gofundme-homeless-man-update-scam-new-jersey-parole-violatioin-hearings-20181129.html 34:49 - Pennsylvania Commits To New Voting Machines, Election Audit https://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/11/pennsylvania-commits-to-new-voting-machines-election-audit.html Live show edited to podcast format by EMELY MOREL
On this week's episode, Managing Editor Alexandra Schonfeld untangles the story of AEPi's attempt to get recognized, Elon's Health Director tells us about the dangers of the flu, and Victoria Traxler breaks down her conversation with members of a local Native American tribe. We'll be taking next week off for Thanksgiving break, but be back when classes resume. Music: autumn breeze - project royal
For our first guest, we bring on our suitemate from our freshman year, Nick Blenko. We re-live some highlights from our first few weeks at school, our first impressions of one another, and how we all got to know each other. Nick discusses joining an acapella group, a fraternity (which he is now president of), and the ups and downs of having a sibling on campus. Thanks to Nick for being our first guest on the pod.
Takeaways – A podcast about learning from the wisdom of others
The Hebrew phrase “L’dor Va’dor” literally means “from generation to generation”. Andrew S. Borans has worked for Alpha Epsilon Pi (the Jewish Fraternity) for nearly four decades. He is largely credited for the organizations growth from 2,000 undergrads to 12,000. Andy started with AEPi September 1980. I was 9 months old! Can you imagine being with the same organization for 38 years? L’dor Va’dor. From generation to generation. Andy has served AEPi as a Field Secretary, Director of Chapter Services, and Executive Director. Starting June 2018, he will become the CEO of the AEPi Foundation and will hawk me for gelt no doubt. Andy was also my very first boss out of college. From 2003 – 2004 I was an Educational & Leadership Consultant for Alpha Epsilon Pi. That year I visited 22 college campuses and drove about 70,000 miles. It was incredible! There is a great story Andy shares in the podcast about my “interview”. The truth is Andy told me for years leading up to the moment the job was mine if I wanted it. And I wanted it. What AEPi has done for me… giving me a family when mine was fracturing; giving me a platform to practice leadership; giving me Brothers that I still count as friends today… being a consultant for AEPi was a small way to pay it back. I have learned many things from Andy over the years. We revisit many of them on this episode. Things like how ‘the best years of your life are those when you decide your problems are your own’. I learned how to organize a sales process from Andy. We talk about that. We also talked about his perception of youth today vs. the last 10, 20, 30 years. What surprised me most about recording this episode though was how much chatting with Andy reminded me of the lil pischer I used to be. And how captivating the best of that naïve youthful bravado today could do me some good. That’s what catching up with old friends can do I suppose. Remind us of the very best that we can be!
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. The Latke-Hamantash Debate has been a University of Chicago tradition since 1946. UChicago faculty members apply the knowledge and tools of their disciplines to resolve this age-old question in an evening of fun and frivolity! Past participants have included Nobel Prize winners and University presidents. This year's debate is brought to you by the brothers of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. AEPi is the International Jewish fraternity with hundreds of chapters across five countries. The debate is supported by the Spiritual Life Office at Rockefeller Chapel and Campus and Student Life, along with Jewish community organizations on campus.
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