Podcasts about that's romans

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” That's Romans eight, thirty-seven, and this is Something Good. Back in the Sixth Century, Pope Gregory the First came up with a list of seven deadly sins. Pride, anger, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy, and greed. For the next couple of weeks Ron will take you through each of them, as he shares his teaching series, “Undefeated: Overcoming the Deadly Sins that Drag You Down.”  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/something-good-radio/support

Today's topic is Semaje “I Rely”. Semaje has a ballot titled I Rely. It seems to be a popular gospel song. I love the song I rely by Semaje because that's what God has been telling me to do. Rely on him .Semaje's song is a true gospel song because we must rely on God. I don't know much about Semaje, but I know he must have realized something about relying on God to make this song I Rely. The song must have touched others for the fact that the song has received attention. I don't think relying on God is something easy for the world. We are used to doing things on our own and that's the world's way. When you try to rely on God, it may not make sense to the world. But the Bible say be not conformed to this world. That's Romans 12:2. Semaje _I Rely caught my attention the minute I heard the music. It's a very inspiring gospel ballad that could last into the future. I'm Gail nobles, and you're listening to a podcast about the Gospel greats. Today's topic: Semaje _ I Rely.

It is important to ask for great things from God, seeking by faith to perceive what God wills to do and by prayers to be involved in his work. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to Mark 11. We resume a series now in the Gospel of Mark, and the focus, as you heard in my prayer today, is Mountain-Moving Prayer. On Wednesday, May 30th, 1792, at Friar Lane Baptist Chapel in Nottingham, England, a simple cobbler named William Carey preached one of the greatest sermons in church history. It was later called the Deathless Sermon. It was a call for Christians to make every effort to take the gospel to unreached peoples to the ends of the earth and to the end of time. Up to that point in history, missionaries had usually been Roman Catholic, often Jesuits who are taking Roman power to distant lands, but not the pure gospel. Christians who had rediscovered the gospel through the reformation led by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others had, up to that point, not really gotten that involved in foreign missions. William Carey would be a pivotal leader in the history of Protestant missions and would himself be part of the solution when he boarded a ship and went to Kolkata, India. William Carey's deathless sermon was broken into two main headings. Number one, expect great things from God, and number two, attempt great things for God. Since that time, at the close of the 18th century, the true gospel has spread to every political nation on earth and the number of genuine Christians all over the world has exploded beyond all boundaries. We don't know how can we know how many are truly born again, but the number may be 500 million, 700 million, a billion, 1.5 billion. We don't know, but it's astonishing. Compared to that, the moving of a physical mountain into the depths of the sea is as nothing. I'm going to take liberties with our brother, William Carey. I don't think he'll mind me adding a third heading to the sermon. I'm not trying to improve on a deathless sermon. How could I? Certainly, we should expect great things from God, but before we can attempt great things for God, I think, based on the text I'm going to preach today, we should ask great things of God. That links the two. Expecting great things, asking great things, attempting great things. I don't think William Carey would mine. Mountain-moving prayer links our expectations, great expectations with great actions. Look at the text, “'Have faith in God.’ Jesus answered. ‘I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he has said will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.’” The passage is stunning. Jesus uses lavish language to charge his people to ask God to do mighty things and answer to prayer. So let's set the context. I. From a Withered Fig Tree to a Fruitful Church We're moving from a withered fig tree to a fruitful church. It is the last week of Jesus's life. Lots of dramatic moments are happening, beginning with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. “Hosanna! Hallelujah to the son of David. Blessed it is the coming kingdom of our father, David,” all of that. He goes to the temple, scouts it out. But because it's so late, He goes out of the city to Bethany. The next morning, He goes back in to cleanse the temple, to purify the temple of all that wickedness. En route, He sees this fig tree. Look at verses 12 -14. "The next day, as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry, seeing in the distance of fig tree and leaf. He went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again,’ and his disciples heard him say it.” Now, Jesus' hunger was both physical and prophetical. Jesus represented his father, and this fig tree symbolized Israel. God wanted fruit from Israel from centuries of him pouring out blessings on that nation. But the tree had only leaves, just as Israel had only an appearance of spiritual vitality, but without any genuine fruit in the sight of God. It represented essentially a spiritually dead Israel. So Jesus cursed the tree in a massively significant prophetical action. Prophets did this kind of thing, these kind of symbolic actions. The cursed fig tree died instantly, but not apparently so, not in appearance. Moments after Jesus cursed it, it looked the same. Just like the nation of Israel had leaves and would continue seemingly apparently alive for decades before God finally brought the hammer blow down through the Romans in A.D. 70, destroying the temple. So, immediately after the cursing, it looks fine, but the next morning radically different. The moment Jesus cursed it, it died. But the next morning, it became apparent that that's what had happened. The following morning, Peter noticed and remembered, look at verse 20-21, "In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, look the fig tree, you cursed is withered.’" There's nothing miraculous about a fig tree withering, but there is something miraculous about that happening after powerful words spoken by the son of God, and hours later it looks like it's been dead for years. Now that's a miracle, and the disciples wanted to understand it. In Matthew's Gospel, they asked the question, how did the fig tree wither so quickly? That's the issue. So Jesus at that moment pivots to teach about faith-filled prayer. On the surface, this may seem a bit strange. How did the fig tree wither so quickly? Have faith in God and ask great things in prayer. What's the connection? How do we understand why that lesson at that moment? I think the connection, the link, is fruit. The reason that the fig tree was cursed was fruitlessness. The reason that God would judge Israel was the same fruitlessness. He's about to tell a parable of a vineyard that He's going to give this same lesson on the issue of fruit. In that parable, Jesus speaks of a vineyard planted by an owner. The owner works the soil thoroughly, plants the vines, puts a wall around it, digs out a wine press, and builds a watchtower. Then he rents out the vineyard to some tenant farmers and leaves. But when he sends messengers to collect his share of the fruit, they beat one, kill another, stone a third. Last of all, he sends a son, and they kill him too. In Matthew's telling of that parable, Jesus sums it all up. Matthew 21:43, "Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you." He says to his enemies, "And given to a people who will produce its fruit." Friends, that's us. That's our job. It's given to the church, both Jews and Gentiles, believers in Christ. It's given to us to produce the fruit of the kingdom, and that fruit will only come about by the power of Almighty God, and that expressed in prayer as we pray. I want you to take a minute, put your finger here in Mark, and go over to John 15, and we're going to look at verses 5-8. This is a phenomenal cross-reference. Usually, cross-references are okay, give them a B+ for connection. But this is a top to bottom cross-reference connection here. The lesson of the withered fig tree and the issue of fruitfulness is overtly and clearly taught in John 15:5-8. Look what it says. Jesus said, "I am the vine. You are the branches. If anyone remains in me, and I in him, he'll bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he's like a branch that is thrown away and what withers. Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire, and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." Surely you must see the points of connection here. It's an agricultural image, that's true, not a fig tree in this case, but a vine with branches. But this goal is the same. It's fruit. A fruitless branch is severed from the vine, thrown to the ground. It withers, and it's thrown to the fire and burned, judgment. Branches that remain in Jesus, people like you and me that stay close to Jesus are intimately connected with him through repentance and faith and are alive in him and stay connected with him. We abide in him. We can pray. If we have God's word saturating our minds, we will know what to pray for. We're not guessing here. God will tell us in his word, what we should pray for, and as we are saturating God's Word, if we remain in him and his words dwell, or abide, or remain in us, then we will ask according to his will, we'll ask whatever we wish, and it will be done for us. In this way, we'll bear the fruit of the kingdom that He talked about. Go back to Mark now, and you see those same lessons. This is a new lesson for his apostles, they were not prayer warriors up to this point. They were not men of prayer. He says in John 16:24, "Until now, you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you'll receive, and your joy will be complete." You've not learned this lesson to pray. They're about to be commissioned to go into all the world and be fishers of men, and build the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth. They've got to be men of prayer. So He says in John 14:12-14, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father, and I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the son may bring glory to the Father." You may ask me for anything in my name, and I'll do it. It's prayer. It's prayer. Again and again, it's prayer. There are lots of mountains to be moved from Jerusalem through Judea, and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Lots of mountains had to be moved. People's hearts would have to be changed. The heart of stone removed, the heart of flesh given. People would have to cross over from death to life, and there'd be practical aspects of the spread of the gospel, obstacles that would have to be overcome or moved out of the way. Lots of mountains would have to be moved, and only the Holy Spirit could move them, and He would do it in answer to faith-filled prayer, Mountain-Moving Prayer. That's why Jesus went from the dead fig tree to a lesson on prayer. II. Walking Through Jesus’ Words So let's walk through it now. Let's look at the words. Let's just go step by step through what He says. I'll read them again, beginning at verse 22. "Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he has said will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Just walk through it, it begins with the statement, “have faith in God.” Jesus points his disciples to Almighty God as the focus of their lives and especially the focus of their prayer. Focus on God. Faith is the eyesight of the soul, by which you see the invisible God on his throne. Focus on that. Have faith in him. Everything comes from God. For him and through him and to him are all things in his hand is every blessing you want. He opens his hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing. Have faith in the God who can give you what you want, what you need. Have faith in God. Then He says, "Truly, I say to you." Jesus says this from time to time. Everything Jesus said was true, but when he says, “truly, I say to you” or something like that, He's saying, pay attention. Take notice. This is a very important thing I'm about to say to you. Unusually significant, a solemn assertion. Then Jesus says, "If anyone says..." The doctrine He's about to give about prayer is universal; it's for all his followers, not just for the apostles, or for the super spiritual ones, or for the real super leaders, the great William Carey. It's for anyone and everyone. “If anyone says,” basically, in these words, He's going to give three universals. “If anyone says”... so it's any person and then, anything. Whatever you ask in prayer, you'll receive it. Amazing. And then, any unforgiven sin. If you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, these are universals. Sweeping statements “If anyone says.. .” Jesus is expanding our conception of prayer. God is able to immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. "God is able to immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. " Then He says, "If anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea." Now this should not be taken literally. Some of you have literalistic minds, right? It's like, well, that's it. We believe in errancy, pastor. I do believe in errancy, but I also believe in figures of speech. This is a figure of speech. Jesus did this. He said to the Pharisees, “you strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.” I'm going to stop you right there, you literalist. That never happened. It's a metaphor. You're focused on tiny details, and you're missing the big picture. The mountain represents some massive obstacle to the plan of God. That's what the mountain represents. This mountain, was almost certainly the Mount of Olives, and just so you know from Zechariah 14, God has plans for the Mount of Olives, He doesn't want it moved and thrown into the sea. It's going to be the very place where Jesus will return at the second coming, so let's just leave that mountain right there. In any case, it's a metaphor, and it represents massive obstacles to the plan of God. Then He says, "and does not doubt." Now we get to the issue of doubt. The enemy of faith is doubt. The essence of doubt is questioning God, questioning his existence. Is God even with us? Questioning his nature, questioning his word, did God really say this or that? Questioning his truthfulness to his promises, questioning his faithfulness, questioning his power, his goodness, his love, quavering, wavering on it, going back and forth. It's an essential instability, a rootless instability. James gives us this picture in James chapter 1:5, “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind, that man should not think he'll receive anything from the Lord. He's a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." That's the picture of doubt, isn't it? It's instability. It's like, I don't know, Will he? Won't he? Will it happen? I don't know. That's doubt. Paul, the apostle, cites Abraham, our father in faith, as a powerful example of faith despite all obstacles. Romans 4:19-21, talking about how he was going to have a son in his old age and his wife, his barren wife, would have a son in her old age, and he's dealing with that promise, the promise from God. Paul writes this about Abraham, "Without weakening in his faith, Abraham faced the fact that his body was as good as dead. Since he was about a hundred years old and that Sarah's womb was also dead." That's scoping the mountain. Well, it's a big mountain. He's looking at it. He's facing the fact that's going to be, it's impossible actually if God doesn't work. "Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God." That's Romans 4:20. That's a clear description of doubt, wavering through unbelief like a flickering light bulb, "But was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." That's the essence of faith-filled prayer. God has power to do what He has promised He will do. So Jesus says, If anyone has faith and does not doubt but believes that what he has said will happen, that he has said in prayer, you going to speak prayer, and it's going to happen. Instead of doubting, this prayer warrior really believes a mountain's going to be lifted up and thrown into the sea. God has the power to do anything. And he reasons, which is harder for God to make the mountain out of nothing or to move it from one place to the other? You think about that, if God can make a mountain out of nothing, He can move it from one place to the other, and every mountain that exists on planet Earth, God made out of nothing. The prayer warrior believes that God has told him to pray for this. This mountain must move, and God has laid this burden on my heart. It is essential for this mountain to move for the kingdom of God to advance in this specific way that mountain's going to move. That's what faith and prayer is, is being a human channel of God's awesome power to do amazing things. The nature of faith therefore is perceiving and then receiving, perceiving then receiving. Perceiving the will of God as He has revealed it in scripture and in providence, and then receiving the will of God as He delivers it by his power and Jesus says, "It will be done for him." Prayer accomplishes amazing things, mighty things, but it doesn't in and of itself accomplish anything. It's always God that does things through prayer. It's God that moves the mountain. Your prayer didn't move anything. John Piper speaks of prayer in this way. "Prayer is the splicing of our limp wire to the lightning bolt of heaven." Isn't that a great image? Splicing your limp wires. Is your wire limp? Mine feels limp a lot. Splice that thing to the lightning of heaven and see what God will do. There's nothing mighty in prayer in and of itself. It's that God is mighty, and He answers prayer. Then Jesus gives a universal application in verse 24, "Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." It's awesome. Then He goes to another topic, it seems, look at verse 25, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” When I was memorizing the Gospel of Mark, this one verse stuck out to me more than any other of the 876 verses, or 676 verses, in this Gospel, this one verse. Let me be honest, just like any sinner, I can easily hold things against people. It's easy to be bitter. It's easy to remember the hurts that people have done in your life. Any of you like that? Any of you specifically know right now that this person, that person or the other person has hurt you and you're holding something against them? It's really very remarkable here. Jesus is here, giving you effectively emancipation proclamation of your own slavery to bitterness. He's telling you, let it go. Just like the parable of the 10,000 talents, you've been forgiven much. You must forgive. And look at how sweeping it is, "Whenever you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him." In other words, every time you pray, it's an opportunity to do that. “Search me, oh, God, and know my heart. Show me if I'm bitter against somebody. Show me if I'm upset at my mom or dad or my son or daughter or my brother, my sister, a fellow church member, a pastor, a spouse, a husband, a wife, a neighbor, a roommate, a person from my past.” You know the person. You know the group of people. Maybe you have a lot of them. Anytime you pray, it's an opportunity to obey this verse and be set free. Set free. Stop drinking the poison. You're just set free from bitterness. Now you may wonder, what does it have to do with mountain moving, faith-filled prayer? It seems like an odd thing to go from verse 24 to 25, but not so much. Just keep in mind what is happening. The faith-filled, mountain-moving prayer is all about the building of the kingdom of God. How important would you say the forgiveness of sins will be in the kingdom of God? And is not that forgiveness going to be both vertical and horizontal? Are we not going to spend eternity in heaven with other sinners, some of whom we knew in life, and we'll be free, and there'll be no bitterness, there'll be nothing but sweet fellowship? So that's the kingdom Jesus is building, and He wants us to be set free and not harbor sin. An image on this came to me, I love Hebrews 4:16, it’s a great verse. It says, "Let us draw near to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Isn't that a great verse? The curtain and the temple, torn in two from top to bottom, is open. We have access to the throne of God. We're invited in this text to draw near to the throne of God, but before you enter the throne room of God, you got to give up your weapons. I watch the “Lord of the Rings” movies, some of you have as well. And in movie number two, a bunch of warriors are trying to get into the Hall of the King, Théoden, but they can't go in with their weapons. They have to leave their weapons at the door. That's the image I have here. You can't bring bitterness and unforgiveness to the throne of grace and expect to get anything from God. You got to let your weapons go. Now let me extend the image. I find it may be one of the hardest things there is to do in life. It's easy to hold onto bitterness. Have you ever heard of the expression nursing a grudge? What a weird thing to do to a grudge. I would kill the grudge, but instead we nurse it. Why? Because it puts us in a position of power. We can hold it over that person and be bitter toward them, and they can maybe walk on eggshells toward us and all that. Let it go. What's so beautiful is the one seated on the throne of grace, if we're having a problem, will come out to the doorway where we're having trouble giving up our weapons and say, “what's the problem here?" “Well, I want to come in, but they won't let me. I can see why they won’t.” “Can I help you with that? Can I help you get rid of that bitterness? Can I remind you that I forgave you all of that sin because you begged me to? Let it go. Let it go.” So that's walking through. III. Elements of Mountain-Moving Prayer Now, let's draw out elements of mountain-moving prayer. First of all, faith in God. Have faith in God. That has to do with history and theology. First of all, remember what God has done. Remember how Peter looked back and remembered that Jesus had cursed the fig tree? That's an issue of remembrance. Remember what God has done. Psalm 77:11-12, "I'll remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I'll remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.” Think of God, the God of the Bible. Is there anything He cannot do? Think of the Red Sea crossing. Before that, think of creation. "In the beginning, God created heaven and earth." God can do anything. Look at his track record again and again and not just in the Bible, but look at his track record with you. How many of your prayers has He answered? George Mueller kept a record, a record book, 50,000 answers to prayer in connection with his care for 10,000 orphans over his life, 50,000 answers to prayer. He wrote them down, and that built and built and built his confidence in prayer, the specificity of it. So have faith in God, remember his mighty deeds, and think who God is. What should you consider when you have faith in God? I would say these elements, first of all, God's glory. Pray in reference to God's glory. God does everything for his glory. Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. What is that? The manifestation of the perfections of God. Pray that in this moving of this mountain that God may be displayed as a great, loving, kind, powerful God. That God may be put on display, the glory of God. Secondly, God's omniscience. Keep in mind, God has already thoroughly studied the problem. He has all wisdom and knows exactly what to do. “Your father knows what you need before you ask him." [Matthew 6:8], or this Romans 11:33-34, "Oh, the depths of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" I'm going to say something in a minute about this, but let me tell you something. In prayer, you're not God's counselor. You do know that, don't you? It's not like, “God, let me tell you what I think you should do here.” We'll get to all that. Next, God's sovereignty. God is sovereign and has meticulously crafted a plan that goes down to the tiniest detail of every day of redemptive history. He's already sovereignly, decreed his will. Ephesians 1:11 says, "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." That's everything. God is sovereign. God's omnipotence. There is nothing that God cannot do. Is anything too hard for God? Isaiah 40:26:"Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." The power of God. And then think of the goodness of God. God wants to do good things for his people. He wants that more than you do. Matthew 7:9-11 "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" God wants to give good gifts to us, and again, Romans 8:28, "We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose." I've struggled my whole Christian life to understand the effectiveness of prayer. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective, I'm told in James. I'm an engineer. I know what power and effect is. It means that I am a change agent. I'm a catalyst. I'm an earth mover, I guess, if I'm effective. That's not what effective prayer is. Prayer is not us, number one, teaching God a solution He hadn't thought of, or number two, persuading him to do something He didn't want to do before He talked to you. I know that that logically seems like effective prayer. It's like, it made a difference because I told God something He didn't know or I persuaded him to do something He wasn't going to do. That is not what powerful, effective prayer is all about. Rather, effective prayer is discerning what God has already determined to do and asking him to do it for His glory by his power. That's what effective prayer is. So putting it all together, whatever we pray, we do so mindful of God's glory and that is our top priority. God's omniscience in that God's already figured out what's best to do. God's plan, He's already decreed based on his wise plan. God's power, there's nothing He cannot do and God's goodness is in his desire to bless his people. We pray like that. He will give us anything we ask for. "Effective prayer is discerning what God has already determined to do and asking him to do it for His glory by his power." Now, what is the mountain that needs to be moved? Seeing the mountain that needs to be moved. “If you say to this mountain, go throw yourself in the sea, it will be done for you.” I said it's a specific obstacle to the spread of the gospel, a specific obstacle to the growth of the kingdom of God. That's what it is. So you could see that there's a specific government official somewhere withholding a visa, and he won't let some critical workers into a country because he is withholding a visa. It's a mountain that needs to be moved. Some prayer warrior praises until that individual, for some strange reason, changes his mind. That kind of stuff's happened again and again and again. Or a pastor being held at a restrictive nation, and the people of God pray, and he's released. That happened in the Bible with Peter. They prayed, the people of God, were praying even after James had been executed. They kept praying for Peter, and he was released, an answer to prayer. Or with George Muller's specific physical needs for hundreds and hundreds of orphans. They need to eat today, give them this day their daily bread, and then stuff happens. Amazing. You don't want to be driving a bread truck by the orphanage when there's a need. Your truck's going to break down, and you'll have nowhere else to go with that bread except the orphanage, and God answers those prayers. Now, what does it mean for us? What is our field? We are in the Raleigh/ Durham/ Chapel Hill area. We are positioned here by the wise plan of God. We're positioned here for the kingdom of God. We're positioned right here in Durham, this triangle area with the RTP and all that is attractive to people. People are moving in here in large numbers. Last night I went walking around all the restaurant areas. I walked all the way down to the Insomnia coffee or cookie place, I walked in there. There was no one there. I said, what time do you close? "3:00 AM.” Anyway, but there was no one working. That was interesting. Then I walked back, and as I was walking, I was thinking and praying. I was like, I wonder how many of these people are lost? They're pouring in here. They're living in all those condos and houses and all that that are being built, and the overwhelming majority of them are unchurched. They're lost. Our mountain to be moved is within their hearts, their hatred for Christ, their opposition to God. They're thinking they don't need any of this. That's our field, that's our mountain. That we would see baptisms in numbers like we have never seen before, that people would be brought from death to life because we boldly attempted great things for God after the first two things happen, expected great things, and ask great things. That's our mountain to be moved. We ask God to do it. We keep on asking and it will be given to us. We keep on seeking, and we'll find. We keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. As Jesus said, He told the parable of the persistent widow that they should always pray and never give up. I'm not a big fan of church sign ministry. Some of them are just cheesy. You know what I'm talking about. I mean, really bad, but I saw one that stuck with me. I really like it, “Pray until something happens." I love that. Doesn't it line up with this text? Pray until something happens. Keep praying until you see that mountain move. We expect God to answer. Mark 11:24, "I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Charles Spurgeon was talking to a young preacher about his lack of fruit and street evangelism. He preached again and again without seeing any converts at all. Spurgeon asked him, "Do you expect people to be converted every time you preach?" "No, sir." He said, "Well, that's the reason you don't succeed because you do not expect to do so. According to your faith, it will be done to you." Wow, Spurgeon's tough. Imagine him as your mentor. But what's our level of expectation? Do we expect to see people converted because of the witness of us? Expect it, and then be humble about sin. The next time you go to pray, ask the Lord to show you. Are you holding anything against anyone? Are you bitter toward anyone? Ask the Lord to help you forgive and to release. IV. Warnings Against Misunderstandings I have a section of my sermon here on warnings against misunderstandings about the “name it and claim it” thing and all that. I'm not going to say any of it. You want to know, come and ask, and I'll tell you about Creflo Dollar and all those guys, but I just don't think that's our problem. I don't think we're “name it and claim it” people. We're under-utilizers of the promises in this text. That's the problem. We're erring on the side of not asking enough. So let's ask and see what God can do. V. Lessons Applied to Us So applications, first of all, to any that are here that are lost, you're on the outside looking in. You don't know this, not like you should, but your sins are like a mountain that has to be moved. Your sins are like a mountain between you and friendship with God, adoption into God's family. That mountain has to be moved, and if it's not moved, you cannot come into sweet fellowship with God. In Micah chapter 7, He has promised that He will take our sins and throw them into the depths of the sea, and you'll see them no more. All you have to do is call in the name of the Lord Jesus, know that He shed his blood to provide that ocean of grace, and trust in him. Call on the name of the Lord, and He'll move that mountain of your sins and throw it in the depths of the sea, and you'll see it no more. For us as Christians, there's two applications: pray that we would pray. Let's start there. Pray that we'll become a praying church. That the obstacles to us praying like this would be removed, and that we pray as we have never prayed before, and that we would pray to fulfill the mission for which we have been positioned here in the Raleigh/ Durham/ Chapel Hill area, and that is the winning of lost people. Pray for that, and pray that we would be a sweet, gracious, and forgiving church. That whatever grievances we may have against each other, against anyone that we would readily, quickly forgive. We're going to go now to a time of the Lord's Supper, so I'm going to close the sermon in prayer. Father, thank you for the things we've learned in Mark's Gospel about mountain-moving, faith-filled prayer. We thank you for that, and we pray now that as we experience the Lord's Supper, that you would be mighty in this place, giving us an encounter with God, the living God, through the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper. In Jesus' name, Amen.

If God is for us, who can be against us? That's Romans eight, thirty-one, and this is Something Good. Well, that's a rhetorical question. If God is for us, and He is, then no one can be against us. But that doesn't stop the Devil from trying everything he can to steal, kill and destroy. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/something-good-radio/support

Would you say you're devoted to others in brotherly love?   Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr., with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast, I've often spoken about verses from Romans 11, and there's a section of verses in Romans 11 that I've not talked about before and that's verses 10 through 15.   So I want to do a few part series on these verses because they're right in the middle of a really cool section of this chapter where we are directed on how we interact with one another. And I believe it begins by talking to Christians about how we interact with other believers.   And that's what I think this verse is about. But I do believe that the apostle Paul applies this to our relationships with other people as well. And we'll talk about that in some of the later chapters and the later verses. Today's verse is "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor." That's Romans 12:10 and that was from the New American Standard. In the English Standard Version it says, "Love one another with brotherly affection outdo one another in showing honor."   We are called to love other people like they're are brothers, especially those inside the church. And do we do that? Do you catch yourself doing that? This one of the summary verses of this section. It actually talks about our humility and how we're to be humble in verse 16.   And I've spoken about that before in episode 33. It was a long time ago in our podcast, so it was one of the very early episodes. But humility's one of those things that I want to talk about every 10 years or so. Actually, no - I need to talk about it more than that. I have a problem with arrogance.   And so that's one of those things I'm constantly on myself about. That's part of the reason why I keep coming back to this section of scripture. When I can put others ahead of myself, when I can be devoted to them in brotherly love, when I can give preference to them in honor, I can try and outdo each other by showing honor to others.   When I am able to love them and out do them and showing honor to them, this is a challenge. It's a practical challenge for us as marketplace Christians. Every day as we go into our workplace, this one verse is plenty to do.   We can be devoted to one another in brotherly love. We can show mutual love, It says in the net Bible. Or brotherly affection as it says in the ESV, or brotherly love in the other chapters. It's talking about phileo. It's talking about this mutual affection that we have for others. It requires us to give it first. As Christ followers we give that love first. Almost always we respond to people loving us with love.   But almost never do we give it first. And Christians, I believe, are called to give that love first. That way we get to go into our workplaces today and look for opportunities to give away the love of Christ, to appreciate people and show them that we appreciate them. Help them feel appreciated. It's not how we act as much as it is how they feel.   And so that's our challenge for today. Today. I want to challenge us as marketplace Christians: Let's go into our workplaces today and if we know other Christ followers in the workplace, then let's especially be preferential towards them. Let's do things to show this honor and brotherly love towards believers. But, let's also do that with our coworkers.   These people are giving away their lives in their job at the same rate we are giving away our life in our jobs. So let's go invest our lives because our lives as Christ followers will last forever. So we can give away what we have now, so that these other people that we know might move a little closer to Jesus.   That's our goal. That's our ministry - to help other people move one notch closer to Jesus. So today please be devoted to one another in brotherly love and watch what God does in your workplace. Thank you for being a marketplace minister, and thank you for making a difference with your faith. Share this podcast with a friend and remember we're a donor supported podcast.   So you can go to follower of FollowerOfOne.org and make a contribution to help us grow this podcast. Thanks very much.   Connect With Follower Of One. Get social with us; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Listen to our podcast on your way to work and subscribe using your favorite podcast app. Join us on our next Marketplace Mission Trip.  

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” That's Romans eight, thirty-seven, and this is Something Good. Back in the Sixth Century, Pope Gregory the First came up with a list of seven deadly sins. Pride, anger, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy, and greed. For the next couple of weeks Ron will take you through each of them, as he shares his teaching series, “Undefeated: Overcoming the Deadly Sins that Drag You Down.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/something-good-radio/support

Today's Voice of Truth reading is titled: Gospel Grace by Best selling Author Lillian Cucuzza.   Please listen and be inspired to fully surrender your life to the Savior of this world and all mankind; Jesus Christ.   ****** Welcome to Celebrating God's Grace, a Women World Leaders Podcast. I'm Kimberly Hobbs, I'm the founder of Women World Leaders. And it is my honor to bring to you today, a reading from Voice of Truth magazine. God has called Women World Leaders to produce this publication throughout each year. And I'm excited to share that this is our second year of publishing. We work with artists and writers, authors and helpers to showcase God's glory. Please visit womenworldleaders.com where you can read every edition that has come out since day one, we are certain it will encourage you and empower you to a closer walk with Jesus Christ. Please register for a free digital subscription going forward. And if you become a monthly contributor of any size donation, we will make certain you receive a beautiful magazine coffee table quality sent to your mailbox. We are a 501 C three and all donations are tax-deductible. Maybe you'd like to pay it forward and provide the printed copies as gifts to someone who could use the encouragement and the word of God through messages and stories. Whatever way you choose, it is our heart that you will be blessed by hearing and reading Voice of Truth. Today's reading is from our fifth edition, September October of 2021. The article is gospel grace and it was written by Best Selling Author Lillian Cuzuzza. Lillian is a leader in women world leaders and she's the founder of his creations. She is a professional photographer, and some of her spectacular artistry work is found in every edition of voice of truth magazine with a story that goes with her work and it relates from God's Word. Lillian is an encourager, and lover of Jesus and His creations, and she uses her gifts and talents to serve him. Please enjoy today's message nestled in Gospel grace. I spell grace by Lillian Kusa. I grew up in a family that attended church regularly. I did the readings during church services when I was 14 years old. I was raised to believe there was a God and a heaven. But I did not know God personally. Even though I was involved in a church, I worried about dying, because I did not know if I would qualify for heaven. I felt a heavy weight on my shoulders, that all the activities I was doing are just never enough. Secretly, my big question was, how would I know if I had done enough or was good enough to get into heaven? I avoided conversations with others about religion and church. I did not own and had never read the Bible. So I did not have enough information to know whether someone was telling me the truth, or just giving me their opinion. I certainly did not want to come across as ignorant. So I just avoided those conversations as much as possible. Does this sound familiar? One day, I was sent a, an accompany business trip to Minnesota. Since my new brother in law, Tom and his family lived in Minnesota. I decided to go a few days early to get to know them better. He was a Bible teaching pastor. And I knew I would not be able to avoid that dreaded conversation much longer. However, I knew I could trust and learn from him. Tom picked me up at the airport. And it wasn't long before we got into the conversation, the conversation. He asked me two questions. If you were to die tonight, do you know for certain you are going to heaven? Well, my immediate response was No. His second question was, if you did die tonight, and you are standing before God at the gates of heaven, and he were to ask you, why should I let you into heaven? What would you say? And I answered, well, I've tried to be a good person. Do all the right things, go to church, be active in the church, but I don't know if that's good enough. Then Tom gave me a little checklist to find out what I thought was necessary to get into heaven. The list included things like obey God's laws. Try to do your best. Give money to the church, do good deeds. and receive water baptism and Holy Communion. Wow. After I checked off most of the list, he explained that none of these things can help you get to heaven. There is nothing you can do to earn eternal life. The Bible says there's only one way to enter heaven. Jesus answered, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14, six, Tom shared that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's Romans 323 in the NIV. And the payment for sin is death. Romans 623. feeling queasy? I told Tom, I always thought the death penalty was for the worst of criminal criminals. And I was not a criminal. I never broke the law. He asked me if I had ever lied to anyone. Sure, I answered. But they were just little white lies. He replied that it does not matter how big or small the lie or the sin. God counts it all is sin. He continued to explain that because heaven is a perfect place. Nothing impure or imperfect will ever enter it. Revelation 2127. If we sinned, just once in our life, no matter how small we think that sin is, it corrupts in defiles us making us impure and unable to enter heaven. So far, it sounded quite bad and hopeless. We are all sinners, and we deserve to go to hell. Heaven is a perfect place. And nothing we can do makes us perfect. I was getting depressed. All my life I heard how God is love. Now I was wondering how a loving God can be so cruel, and send us to hell for being a sinner. Then Tom shared the good news. God is love and he loves us. The Bible says For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that who so ever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. That's John 316. God sent His Son Jesus Christ, to shed his blood and die in the cross to pay for all of our sins. And three days later, he rose from the dead. He died for us. By trusting in Jesus Christ as the one who died for our sins, we can have eternal life. That is a loving God. Nothing we do can make us perfect or sinless. No deeds, charity, contribution, contribution to churches, going to church, being baptized, taking Holy Communion, trying to obey God's laws, nor any good work can take away our sins or save us. Heaven is a free gift, we do not deserve it, and we cannot earn it. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast Ephesians two, eight and nine in the NIV He saved us not because of the righteous things we have done. But because of His mercy. Titus three, five NIV mercy means not getting what we deserve death and separation from God for ever, as the penalty for our sins. Grace is getting what we do not deserve total forgiveness for our sins, making us perfect in God's eyes, and allowing us to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. Grace is an acronym for God's riches at Christ's expense. Because Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins by shedding His blood and dying on the cross. We get to partake in God's riches for eternity. Wow. That is grace. Tom told me that moment I trust Jesus as my Lord and Savior, my sins would be forgiven, and I would receive God's righteousness perfection. As it says in Romans 10 Nine, if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. This righteousness allows me to enter into heaven. I finally had the answer to my big question. How would I know I did enough or was good enough to get into heaven? It was not because of anything I did. It was because of what Jesus did for me. I also learned that you can do nothing more to add to the finished work of Christ. It is not trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior. plus.dot.it is putting your trust only in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. And it is a one time decision in your life. You can never lose it, nor can you forfeit it. God's unconditional promise is that he will never take it away from you. Jesus said, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand, John 1028 NIV. I was so excited to learn this good news. Then I made the decision right there to to trust Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. At that very moment, the burden was totally lifted off my shoulders, and whether I could do enough or be good enough to enter heaven. It was because of Jesus. And I knew that I now have eternal security. Friend, I cannot make you believe in heaven or hell. You may not believe in it because you cannot see it. But you cannot see the air you breathe either. Yet without it, you would die. Heaven and hell are real. If you have not yet trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You can do it right now with a simple prayer, and he will save you from all eternity. The prayer is Dear God, thank you for loving me. I admit that I'm a sinner and in need of a Savior. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died on the cross as payment for all of my sins and was buried and raised from the dead, and is now in heaven. I understand that the good deeds I do will not help me get to heaven. Right now I confess that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him as my Savior. Thank you, Jesus for saving me so that I can live forever with you. Help me to live a life that is pleasing to You, Lord, in Jesus name, amen. If this is your prayer today, welcome to the family of God. Let us know about your decision so that we can encourage you and help you on your journey of faith and to Jesus Christ. You can contact us at voice of truth by reaching out to info at women world leaders.com You can find a list of churches in your area we will reach out to you. There are also many learning opportunities available at www dot women world leaders.com. To help you grow in your faith, knowledge and relationship with Jesus Christ. You can have the assurance that your sins are forgiven, past, present and future. God has said it and he cannot lie. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. First John 513 NIV. hallelujah and Amen. One final thought. As we remember the victims of 911 in 2001. I cannot help but think of what their last thoughts words, or even prayers were besides agonizing about their predicament. And if they would ever see their loved ones again. I wonder how many cried and prayed to God to save them in that very moment. I also wonder how many did not have the opportunity to pray. Because the end came with no warning. We cannot change what has happened to them. But we can change what happens to us and where we will spend eternity. If we pray for salvation now. Before we don't get another chance. The choice is spending eternity in heaven with God or in hell separated forever from God. The choice is yours. I say this with nothing but a heart full of love. Please choose widely As we close out today, I will reinstate what Lillian just wrote. The Bible teaches us that heaven and hell are real. If you'd like to pray right now, I can lead you in that same prayer that Lillian wrote. And all you have to do is just say this in your own heart to God. Just follow after what I say, and mean it with all of your being. Let's pray it again together. Dear God, thank you for loving me. I admit that I'm in sinner, and I'm in need of You as my Savior. I believe Jesus, that you are the Son of God, that You died on the cross as a payment for my sin. And I believe that you were buried and raised from the dead. And now you're in heaven, and I want to live in heaven with you. I understand that the good deeds that I do here on earth aren't what's going to get me to heaven. I believe it's you God in the blood that Jesus shed for my sins. So right now, I confess Jesus as Lord, and I receive Him as my own personal Savior. Thank you, Jesus for saving me so that I can live forever with you. Please help me to live a life that is pleasing to You, Lord, in Jesus name, I pray this. Amen. Dear ladies, dear listeners, we would love for you to contact us at women world leaders.com. If you have made a decision to follow Jesus today, we are here to help you with many ways we have daily devotions on the website. And we have many tools that can help you in your walk and coming closer to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening to women world leaders podcast. Please join us each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. As we explore together God's extravagant love and your courageous purpose. Visit our website at w w w. Dot women world leaders.com And submit a prayer request, read a devotion or make a donation in the name of Jesus. today's podcast is copyrighted and cannot be used without expressed written consent. Thank you for joining us and have a blessed day.  

Eating disorders and self harm are struggles of the flesh that many in this world deal with. Today's guest, our sister Woman World Leader Donna Clare from the UK, shares her personal testimony about battling a dependency, which God has so graciously freed her from.   May Donna's spoken testimony be an inspiration of hope and encouragement to others who face life's challenges and who are looking for a way to overcome. With God all things are possible!   ***   Kimberly Hobbs   Welcome to Empowering Lives with Purpose, and I am your host, Kimberly Hobbs. I'm the founder of Women World Leaders. Ladies, we are so happy that you decided to join us today. And I'd like to welcome our guest today. Donna Claire. Donna Clare   Hi. Good to be with you all. Kimberly Hobbs   Hi, Donna, we are so glad that you've joined us all the way from the UK, the United Kingdom. Ooh. So, ladies, what we like to do here and empowering lives with purpose is just that we are here to strengthen, inspire and encourage you and your walked with with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are here to help with stories and different things that some of the guests come on and share. God says every believer has received grace gifts. So use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many color tapestry of God's grace. That's First Peter 4:10. And I thought that was such a beautiful verse to share that we all have different gifts, and we're encouraged by the Lord to share those grace gifts that he has so graciously given. So ladies, you have a purpose. God has a purpose and a plan for your life. We are glad you're here. And we're hoping that through sharing, sharing different stories from different women around the world, that you can be sparked into thinking about what it is that God has ordained for your life. So I want to share a little bit about our guest today, Donna, she's single, she works as a teaching and learning assistant in a primary school. And her degree is in theatre studies and writing performances, which is super exciting. Her passion is to write plays and scripts and bring glory to God. I admire that that's beautiful. We can do it for all other reasons. But you do it to bring glory to God, Donna, she sings in the worship team and is in Gospel Choir. She loves nature. And when she isn't singing, acting and dancing, she loves walking in nature. So ladies, before we begin, please remember that we're all women who are known by our Creator, God knows each of us in our own beautiful way because He created us or his masterpiece. And some of us have overcome tremendous challenges, heavy struggles, and some of us are still in the midst of pain and struggling and suffering. And then there are those of us who will speak life into others and empower them. We are all just ordinary women. And we are called by God to do extraordinary things. And each of us has the ability to do extraordinary things. So our guest today from the UK is a woman world leader. In fact, she is part of her women World Leaders Group. And God put a nudge in Donna's heart to share with us so she reached out to me and asking if it would be possible to share her story. So as I got to know Donna a little bit, I felt God's prompting to allow her to share her story today. And Donald's Dona has struggled with eating disorder with an eating disorder and also self harm. And God says Colin, me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory that song 5015 And you know what, as I got to know Donna, I thought wow, God, this verse is amazing because you rescue Donna from self harm you rescue Donna from this eating disorder. And now she wants to declare that she wants to give God the glory. And I said yes, please come on and share. Let's talk about this. So I'm Donna, can you share a bit about you and who you are and your story with the ladies? Donna Clare   Yes, of course. So I from a very young age, I was bullied at school and at primary school and then when I went to secondary school, I was also bullied. And then when I got to secondary school, it was more than one person. So I started to think well There's got to be something wrong with me. Because all these people can't be wrong. And there's something wrong with me there's got to be an I just started to really hate who I was, I hated everything about myself. I, I really just, I was feeling sad, I didn't share a lot of the time with anyone that I was being bullied, I kept it all inside. And I, I then it was, I think I was in about year eight, which is like 12 year olds 12 to 13 year olds, and my friend lent me a pair of her jeans to go to a disco with, but they didn't fit me. And in my head, that was I'm fat, I need to lose weight, not I'm a different body shape to her, which now in hindsight, I can see we were just different body shapes, I wasn't going to fit in those jeans. But in my head, it was I'm fat, I need to lose weight. So and at the roundabout at the same time, I had some family issues going on. And there was like family arguments. And I blame myself and I know that was one of the triggers to get in the eating disorder. So I then started to cut out things like chocolate crisps, chips, the things that you know, like with fattening and then gradually, I started to skip meals, so I became anorexic, I will try and avoid food as much as, excuse me as much as I could. I, I just I had this relationship with food that I didn't deserve it I didn't deserve to eat, I wasn't good enough, I was a waste of space, what was the point of me being on this planet, I, I had all these thoughts swirling around in my head that I shouldn't eat, I didn't deserve it, I was bad. And then some people started to see that I was not eating as much. So they decided that they would try and help me by force feeding me, which was one of the worst things they could have done because then I started to make myself sick. So because they were making me when I didn't want to because they were controlling me and my eating disorder, the eating disorder was about control. So I wanted to control something because everything, I couldn't control the bullies, I couldn't control what was happening in my family. I couldn't control anything else, but I could control what I ate. So I decided that I would control my food. So when these people they were trying to help. And I don't begrudge them that they were worried about me, but they sort of made it worse because they made I didn't have the control anymore. And I really couldn't handle having food. If I felt full I couldn't handle it. I just felt disgusting inside. So I then started to make myself sick. And then yeah, I just felt like I needed punishment that I was wrong. There's got to be something wrong with me if I lose weight, maybe people are like me more. And and also I did like not just the the the eating disorder it was I would cut myself I would pull my hair, I would hit myself, I would bite myself, I would take my nails and anything I could do to hurt me. And I would do like I really, I was hurting inside had so much pain inside. I didn't know how to express that. And the only thing I could do was to hurt myself. And when I hurt myself, like all the frustration and anger went away, he sort of helped me to Yeah, just helped me to get all the feelings inside because I just used to stuff all the feelings inside. And so that's why I used to hurt myself as well. And yeah, I just I tried to avoid food whenever I could, I'd say oh, I've eaten I don't need to have dinner, I've already had something to eat. I would go in even going out for me it was traumatic because I felt like everyone was looking at me. So I would think everyone was looking at me saying why is she eating she's big enough. She doesn't need to eat. And, and I wasn't I obviously wasn't big at all. But in my head I was so it's like a distorted image. What Pete other people would see and what is in the mirror is not what I see, or what I saw. I just saw this really massive person. So yeah, I just I really hated myself. That's all I can say. I just felt disgusting. I didn't feel like I was loved. I didn't feel like I felt like if I wasn't here nor there. It wouldn't matter to anyone. They wouldn't care if I wasn't here. And I just felt really like alone. And on my own and like I couldn't share it with only one and and like, like the voices in my head would tell me I wasn't good enough. And then they would say oh, you can't eat so like for an example it would be like oh, you can't eat that food if you eat that you need to get rid of it. And then when when I did if I did get rid of it by making myself sick, the voice would then say You're disgusting. You can't show anyone with that. Look at you now you're even worse than you were before. And it was just like these tormenting thoughts all the time that would like invade my mind and would really Yeah, just make me feel really horrible. I just hated everything about myself. Every single thing I couldn't give you a positive at that point in my life. Because it just felt I was so wrong and like I needed punishment. So yeah, Kimberly Hobbs   This was through your childhood years into your teen years. Donna Clare   Yeah, to and then to my early 20s. So when I was at university as well, so it was So, yeah, it was from about, I started with the eating disorder when I was about 13. And but the other sort of self harm stuff I'd been doing from probably the age of 910. Just because I just, I felt shame, I felt disgusting. And I was abused as a child by other children as well. So that's a factor. So I was I had, I didn't know it was shame at the time, as a child, I just had this just felt wrong. I just felt like, everything was everything was wrong about me, and I was hideous, is the way I can describe it. If I just hated everything about myself, I had no self worth, or anything, I just hated who I was. And I controlled everything by my food, because I wanted control because I felt everything. And everyone was controlling me. And I needed control. So I will say when I when I won't eat, and no one can take that control away from me. So that was yeah, that was that was that was my, my childhood. But in another sense, it sounds really, really bad. All of that. But in another sense, I had, like, I did have friends who were good friends. And then you know, there's some of my childhood was good in the sense. But inside, I just hated myself, I was good at wearing a mask. So a lot of people wouldn't know, there was anything wrong, because I could I could turn it on if that makes sense. I could. Yes, yeah. I'm fine. Nothing wrong with me. I'm fine. Kimberly Hobbs   The counterfeit Donna.  Yes, you're pleasing everyone else. And but inside, this was your way of controlling what what happened with you and what you did and what you allowed and not allowed in those quiet places. So, you know, I I know your story. And I just want you to share with the listeners how, as you developed into, you know, a teenager and then into your young 20s This had such a clench on you this this horrible addiction, you know, like, we're gonna call that that addiction where your mind you know, you you were controlled in your mind by something else other than the Spirit of the Lord, and letting our sinful nature control our mind leads to death, and you are on that path to death. But letting the spirit control your mind leads to life in peace. That's Romans eight, verse six. So let loose and let us know how God freed you. Because the Lord says, Who the sun sets free is free indeed, if you if the sun sets you free, you are truly free. That's John 836. Donna, I know dear that you are free. Let's hear how that happened. Donna Clare   So in my final year at university, I met a lady who was on a teacher training for the theater course. And I would choose to ask him to get poorly. So she got ill. And so she took over and invited me on a holiday. So I went to Italy with 30 people I didn't know. And I said yes, because I've never flown on a plane before at this point. And I just thought this would be my graduation presents for myself. And unbeknown to me at the time, probably about 70% of those people were Christians. And I didn't know. And so I was on the holiday, everything was fine. Then when we came back, we had a post holiday get together. And it was on a Sunday. And the couple he was driving, we said you don't have to come to church, you know, we're not gonna force you to come to church, you can sit in Barbara's house, if you like. And I was like, Barbara had a lot of animals at the time. So I said, No, I'll come to church. It's okay. So the only way I can describe it is the moment I walked through the doors of the church, I felt like I've gone home. And I, to this day, I don't know what the people just loved me. People were hugging me, which I was like, Who are these people? And they will they loved me and accepted me. So I went on a journey of asking questions. And then in the February 2003, I remember it very well. I decided that I believe this Jesus is real. So I took communion for the first time. And then in the June 2003, I got baptized, first of June 2003. That will be 18 years ago, in June this year, best decision I ever made in my whole life. So I was still struggling. And some of the people because on the holiday I'd actually collapsed twice. I'd collapsed on the holiday twice as some of them had an idea because one of them was a nurse and she was like you need to get help. And I was like, I'm fine. But then so I started my journey and God took me out of my church actually in the September and I got a job with a Christian Theatre Company. Wow. And I told primary schools around the country and I I remember this well, we will perform and part of the show in the church service. And they had to in the morning because it was a big church. And in the second in the first service, the agenda, the pastor said, there are people in this room with strongholds in their life. And God is saying to you that today, you need to give him those strongholds. And I just went back to me, I need to give the eating disorder to God and said, You need to clench your fist. And when you let go, you've given the stronghold to God. So I did. And I clench my fist, and I went, you can have it and I had, I was running up and down the aisles, because I just felt this weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Yeah, it was amazing. And then some of my church family have come to support me in the second one. So I was like, I've given the eating disorder to God, I've given the eating disorder to God, and they were like, hallelujah, we've been praying for this is so good. And then obviously, it was a journey. So it took, it was a long journey took probably about 655, or six years for me to be completely free. And maybe maybe less than that, actually. But I went on a journey. And I had to trust God. So one of the scriptures, one of one of the psalms that really helped me was Psalm 139. That wherever I go, whatever I'm doing, God is with me, that even when I go like into when I feel like I'm in the darkness, darkness isn't dark to God, it's still light. And I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. And God knows when I stand when I sit is fashion to me in my mother's womb, He knows every detail of my life. And it really helped me to know actually, God sees me, God knows me, I do matter. Because obviously, at that point, I felt like I was worthless. And these people in my church family are so loving and caring, I just felt so accepted by them, which was unknown to me before then, because I've been rejected so many times and bullied, I just, that's what drew me to the church because they loved me and accepting me for who I was. And then obviously, Jesus because He saved me, He died for me. Yeah, and I was journeying through, and I it was, it was difficult. It helped to actually been away from home because I was away from home initially, because I was with the theater company for a couple of months. And my church when they were praying for me at home, I, it was like, once, one step forward, two steps back, because I just started the journey. And there were good days and bad days, but I kept focusing on God, I kept crying out to him praying and spending time with him, you know, worshipping Him because there's power in worship because I felt bad and worship. And, and then I remember, I was just so struggling. And I had fear in my life as well, because I was afraid to eat, you know, I had all this fear. And I remember my one of my friends speaking down the phone to me, Joshua one, verse nine, have I not commanded you? Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged for the Lord, your God will be with you wherever you go. And I was like, okay, where I need to be. Unknown Speaker   So we do not need to fear. So yeah, I did. I did. It was it was it was crazy. It was like a crazy time, but it was a good time. And I was so like, on fire for God. So I wanted to share and I wanted to help everybody. But I wasn't at that point, I realized I wasn't ready. So I, I worked with another group in the theatre company the next year. So in 2004, and it was, there was another girl who was in my team, and she was actually struggling to she had an eating disorder. And she was talking to me and I was trying to help her. And the family I live with actually said to me, I don't know, I've never seen you so stressed before. And I went backwards. It was dragging me back because I was only on my recovery journey. Like knew it was only six months, so I wasn't ready to help someone else I needed to get me Well, first I needed to be healed work fully for like healed and restored before I could help someone else and that and that was hard. That was one of the hardest times it was like God, have you left? And he's like, No, I told you I would never leave you and one of the verses, a key verse that I still have uneasy, particularly in the Amplified Version I love it is Hebrews 13 Verse five, and it's the second part and I will not in any way fail, you know, give up on you know, I'll leave you without support I will not and he says this three times, I will not I will not in any degree leave you without help, or forsake, you know, let you down or release my hold on you. And that's been one of the key verses as well, like God is not going to fail me. It's okay that if I make mistakes, or something else I've learned it's okay to make mistakes. It's okay to have blips as long as I run to God, and not anybody else. I run away from him, but run to him and just calmly say, God, I'm sorry, please help me. Help me cope. I know. Oh, yeah. So that was a tough section. But then I just I just kept going. We've got I just I had to trust I had to learn to trust God and another verse that has come that has been a key was proverbs three verse five, trusting the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him, He will make your paths straight. I took I took deep into into God and I, yeah, he freed me freed me. You freed me from some of the self harm was straight away, like I stopped cutting myself straight away when I became a Christian because I felt like I was quoting Jesus. Yeah, the other stuff like that hurt to myself by hitting myself. I, because it was a habit, because I've done it for so long. It took it took years to like, become free from that. God did it in layers. And this is this is something God had to do it in layers. God couldn't take the eating disorder and the self harm away from me, just like that. He had to do it. Layer by layer, like an onion is a layer like layer by layer, because it was my whole identity was on centered around the anorexia and the self harm. So we had to do it layer by layer. So we do a layer, I'd become free and it was amazing. And then when I was ready, and strongly go right now we need to deal with this. It'll be like once I thought we've done everything. He's like, No, we've got you've got to go deeper. So we eat just he's been doing it layer by layer by layer, and I can honestly tell you today, I love who God's made me. I'm free, completely free. And God did it. Oh, it was nothing to do with me. He did it all. And I'm free. I love him. He's made me to be I'm not a people pleaser anymore. I please God and God alone, I've learned. I've learned to not be a perfectionist, because of part of the journey. I was a perfectionist. And if it wasn't the best, it was not good enough. And so God has taught me that actually, my best is good enough if I do my best for him. And if I give everything is good, you know, and it doesn't have to be perfect, because Jesus is the only one who's perfect. So I don't need Yeah, I don't. I don't need. Kimberly Hobbs   Then I love I love how you're testifying. And one of those verses that you when you were sharing, and Hebrews, I wanted to just tagline on that. Ladies, when you are afraid when you are struggling, and you're so intense in the midst of that struggle, and fear takes over. God says don't be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you, he will neither fail you or abandon you. And just like you said, Donna, and your scripture, he said it three times that he's never going to leave you. So ladies, you are never alone through your struggle, you have to understand that and the way that you will is by getting in the Word of God and reading his truth in that word. Donna, one thing that you shared with me in one of our other conversations prior to today was you said that, you know, when people think that they're trying to help you by trying to force you to eat, you know, like, they're, they want to help, they just want to help, but they don't necessarily know what the best help is. Can you talk about some of your feelings during that time when people were saying, you know, trying to force food on you? And what were you going through then? Donna Clare   What was happening was that what are you doing, you shouldn't be eating this is I've told you, it's better not to eat. Otherwise, you've got consequences that you'll have to pay. So I just I felt I felt disgusting. I felt like they were trying to hurt me in a way because they were taking the control away from me. So I felt like I felt like in despair like you, you don't understand what's going on. In my mind. You can't hear what's going on in my mind. If I if I eat, I'm gonna have to punish myself later. That's basically what was going to happen. So it was just a complete despair. It was complete. I was like, screaming inside. But for me, because I was before I was a Christian. I was quite shy and timid as well. So I wouldn't really speak up for myself in certain situations, I would just accept what was going on and be quiet because I felt that was better because if I spoke I didn't feel like my words. Were good enough. You know, I mean, so I so I just I just accepted, but I was screaming inside I tried to run away. And I couldn't do that. So the only way you think I could do was like, go off and make myself sick. Oh, like I probably wouldn't. I think I would have hurt myself later on. Like, because I had all the feelings inside. Like, I was angry because they were taking control away from me. I felt hurt because they didn't understand me. It was just really emphasizing that actually. Nobody gets me nobody understands me. I am on my own. I'm all alone, and no one's gonna help me. But that's what I was feeling. Right. Kimberly Hobbs   So those that are listening may you know that because they're they're feeling sympathetic right now. And of course, you know those that loved you, Donna, they just wanted to get you to eat because they they felt you needed that nutrition that would help you that you know, but they weren't being sensitive to what you were going through. But the Bible just tells us, you know what we need to do. When we sense there's a problem. You know, the apostle Paul says, I urge you, first of all, to pray, to pray for all people, and to ask God to help them and intercede on their behalf and give thanks for them. The power of prayer is huge. And so when we see these issues, yes, you know, we need to be aware of them. And we need to know that there are places to go for help. But start praying, asking God for wisdom to point them in the right direction for help. Don't necessarily try to take the bull by the horns and do it yourself, you know, do what God tells us to do, do our part and pray for that person, and start looking for places that they can get help. Donna Clare   Definitely power of prayer. People were praying for me even I didn't know at the time because I've just become a Christian, but people were praying for me. So yeah, it's something I just want to say as well. an eating disorder is not about food. That's a symptom. There's lots of root issues and causes why someone has an eating disorder. So trying to make the me interested, always eat that you only have to wait. And that's fine, because that's not the main issue. Really, there's other underlying issues that may be going on for you. Just to get them help and pray what they need, and you can't help someone with an eating disorder until they accept that they need help themselves as well. So that's where you need to pray. Because when you pray, finally, they will see that and God will help them to see that. That's right. Kimberly Hobbs   That's right. And if you are one that is struggling in this area, it is so important to stay in the presence of God because He tells us in His Word, he's never going to leave you or forsake you. We share those Scriptures with you. But he says that, remember, I will be your God throughout your lifetime. He's, he's there for you all the time. You want to keep him in your presence. You want to talk to him. And don't ever question His promises to you. Because God's ways are perfect. All the Lord's promises are true. And he is a shield for all who looked to him for protection. So when you are afraid, you look to the Lord for your protection and know that he's there searching the scriptures. Ask him for scriptures that's going to help you right just like you did, Donna, he gave you tremendous scriptures that you can, that you can rely on the Word of God is alive and powerful. It's sharper than any two edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit between joint and Morrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and dreams. That's Hebrews 412. The word of God is powerful ladies, it is so important. And I know that Donna through talking with her, she has relied on so many scriptures. And can you share your very special verse with us the one that you relied on most through your struggles? Donna? Donna Clare   I think well what I shared earlier, Hebrews 13, verse five is one. But then the other one is two Timothy one, verse seven, For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. And that was another one that was given to me. And I was like, Yes, God didn't give me a spirit of prayer. I can do this. Be confident in the Lord. Kimberly Hobbs   Amen. So ladies, God knows your name. He's never gonna abandon those who search for him. And he understands your pain. So just as Donna has expressed a desire to come on and share her story and bring it out in the open, a revelation 1211 says that they have defeated him, defeated him which is the enemy by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony. And so Donna is here to testify of what the Lord has done in her life and know that the enemy is defeated. He sent back to the pit of hell where he belongs. And she can share this and declare this by the word of her testimony and we are so grateful that you have decided to come on share today about your testimony Donna which is fabulous and God is using you exceedingly abundantly beyond And I know and what you're doing right now in you're acting, and you're writing, and you're performing. And I know you're doing some videos on, on Facebook. And you can find Donna and Donna Claire. And that's clear C L A. R E, and she talks about this on her Facebook page, she's creating awareness, and she's pushing people to the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, because that is where our true help is going to come from. And Don, I know you wanted to leave the ladies, just with that just shot in the arm, that encouragement of what they can do, you know? So what is that that one, as we close up here that one? Helpful, you know, leave them with this memory is going to be Donna Clare   That you're fearfully and wonderfully made. You're not a mistake, you were fashioned by God just to be who you are. So embrace who you are, love yourself for who God has made you. And know that he doesn't make mistakes that he's fashioned you perfectly of how he wanted to make you. So love yourself and know that you are not wrong, that you are right, and just embrace who you are, and go and glorify God and be who was created because Kimberly Hobbs   That's beautiful. Amen. And you are doing just that. And we are just so proud of you. We are so thankful that we have done a Claire's in this world that could share openly sometimes it's difficult, you know, to be transparent about the things that you deal with in your life. But there's others out there that will relate that well know that you know, wow, somebody else is going through something I'm going through or has been through something I've been through, and how important it is to verbalize God tells us to do that. You know that we defeat the enemy, by the blood of the lamb which Donna has accepted Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior. Amen. And by the word of her testimony, she is sharing loud and clear that it wasn't anything of her control that allowed her to get better. It was releasing and surrendering all to Jesus. And by doing that, and allowing him to come in, through all the ways that God will come to your rescue if we allow him if we allow him entrance, he comes in. So I am just feeling that at this moment that if there is anybody out there that's listening, that doesn't have a personal relationship with Jesus, Donna and I, we just encourage you to surrender it all to him. Give your your hearts give your pain, give it all to Jesus. And the way you can ask Him into your heart is through confessing with your mouth that says, confession is made unto salvation. So if you confess the Lord Jesus and believe in his heart, your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. So I'd like to just pray really quick. And if you would like to pray along with Donna and I, and accept Jesus into your heart, that would be wonderful. That's where it starts. And then you're gonna just start reading the Word of God because there is power, transforming power in the Word. So let's pray. Ladies, Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. And I know that there is no other way to heaven, but by the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross for my sins. Lord, I believe that I can't do anything by my own power God, but it's going to be by the power of the blood of the lamb that saves my soul. So right now, I confess my sins to you, Lord Jesus, and I know I'm not perfect and I know I fall short. Please, God, forgive my sins, cleanse me from all of my unrighteous behavior, Lord, come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. I trust you, God, I release all other control over my life. Any chains that have held me down God, anything that has bound me, I release it all by the blood of Jesus Christ who died for my sins. Please come into my heart. Please be my Lord and Savior. Please show me scriptures God that will help me that will put me on the right path to follow you and surrender my life. Thank you, Lord Jesus. I trust in you right now with all my heart in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. If you have prayed that prayer ladies along with us for the first time, we want to hear from you too. We want to encourage you and I know Donna is available her. Her Facebook page is Donna Claire CLA R E. Or you can go to our website, women world leaders.com. We have areas there where you can pray, submit a prayer request, and we'll pray with you. We have all kinds of helpful tools at women world leaders where we would love to share them with you. One of them is courageous steps of faith. Ladies, this book is phenomenal. It is so many women that have taken those courageous steps of faith, to walk away from something like addiction or unforgiveness or there's so many things in this book, and they have walked toward the Lord Jesus Christ by those courageous steps of faith similar to Diana's story. And so ladies, you can get this courageous steps of faith on our women world leaders website or on Amazon. It's available Barnes and Noble. Another tool that we have to encourage you, strengthen you and your walk is voice of truth magazine, ladies, it's a free magazine that comes out every other month. It's amazing what God is doing. Women are sharing their stories, women are encouraging you and empowering you to walk in the name of Jesus, walk with us ladies, if you want your free copy of voice of truth magazine, go to info at women world leaders info at women world leaders.com And leave us your name, your address and your email address because we send it out digitally. And we send it out printed copy in the United States. So if you're outside the US, it's going to be digital only. So be sure to leave us your email info at women world leaders.com. And ladies take advantage please have the the tools that we have at women world leaders visit our website women world leaders.com And just skim through that and see all that's available to you know that we have podcasts Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. And you can get those access them by women world leaders podcast, women world leaders podcast. So Donna, thank you so much honey for sharing, saying hello to the ladies and sharing your story. Ladies, we have to close right now. So from his heart to yours. We are women world leaders. All content is copyrighted and cannot be used without expressed written consent. God bless you all and have a wonderful day.  

If God is for us, who can be against us? That's Romans eight, thirty-one, and this is Something Good. Well, that's a rhetorical question. If God is for us, and He is, then no one can be against us. But that doesn't stop the Devil from trying everything he can to steal, kill and destroy. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/something-good-radio/support

Speaker, Author, and Podcast Host of the "Connection Show," Jill Reynolds, shares 4 parts of her story with us in today's Podcast.   From a traumatic upbringing, which led her into a tumultuous lifestyle of drugs and alcohol, God never let her go. He brought her into the saving arms of Jesus. Through resilience and not letting go or giving up on living, God is now using her life for His glory.   ******* Kimberly Hobbs   Welcome to empowering lives with purpose. And I'm your host, Kimberly Hobbs. I'm the founder of Women world leaders. And we are so happy that you decided to join in with us today. And I would like to welcome our guest, Jill Reynolds. Jill, thank you for coming on with us today. Jill Reynolds   Oh, it's my privilege. I'm so grateful to be here with you, Kimberly. Kimberly Hobbs   Jill is an awesome woman of God. And I had the privilege of being interviewed on her show. And so we are so happy to have you. And what you're gonna share with us today are our word is resilience, ladies. So God says in His Word that every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many color tapestries of God's grace. First Peter 410. And one of the things we like to do here at empowering lives with purpose is use the gifts that God has given us. And we all have different gifts and different ways to share and encourage one another. And Jill is going to share with one to share with the stories in her life that have allowed her to have victory in Jesus and hoping that this will inspire you as well, if you can relate to some of the things in her story that that have helped her overcome. Jill, I want to share a little bit about our guest, Jill Reynolds is the host of the connection show, where she is known for inspiring hope, health and healing and moving guest stories from victim to victory. Jill also uses her background in meeting and event planning to create amazing conferences, weaving authentic up close stories. She's a number one best selling author, and fiercely faithful, where she shares her story called The essence of humility. And at 28 Joe's life was a train wreck. She was addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol. And she was down to 97 pounds. She knew her life was hopeless. Her health was a disaster. Everything felt impossible to her. And she prayed and asked God to give her the resiliency to recover. Believing doing the hard work and connecting the dots is what helped her get through her traumatic childhood. And it brought her hope, health and healing her hard work had paid off. Never give up ladies, connect the dots in your story that will move you from being a victim to having victory in your life through Jesus. And that's one of the things that Joe would like to share with you today. She's from Branson, Missouri. She is a survivor with multiple spiritual awakenings. And today she has decided to share four of those with you in hopes that it is going to encourage you and inspire you as well. So some of those four stories that she's going to share. One of them is called her wanted story. And I just want to share a Scripture before we start out. And that says for you created my inmost Being You knit me together in my mother's womb, Psalm 139 13. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Jill, can you share your wanted story with us today? Jill Reynolds   I'd be grateful to do that. Thank you so much for the introduction. And so I want to begin because I really truly believe that when God created us, He created us in His image. And so my story begins I have to share first on my mom. My mother was raised in a really sad environment. Her parents divorced when she was little. And she went to visit her mom at the home she lived at that had an elevator building. And as my mom was there she was in the elevator kicking her foot at the elevator and her toes got caught in the gate and got cut off. So she was in a wheelchair at only seven years old. And my grandfather owned a restaurant so they hurt my mom lived in a boarding home with my uncle. And the man in the boarding home picked her up out of the wheelchair. And he raped her at seven and told her never to tell anyone. So my mom grew up with very much disassociation, PTSD, and borderline personality disorder. And so she went off and married my dad had my sister right away, and within six months was pregnant with me. It was just too much for her to bear and so from the moment of conception, my mother did not want me she did not want this baby. And so from the moment I was born, I have memories of her never picking me up, even holding the bottle out on the bed just to feed me, and being in the crib for hours crying that ever been held, or picked up or loved or unwanted. And so as I continued to grow up, my mom and I ended, it caused me Kimberly to be nonverbal. And I was really shy and quiet. And my mom would yell at me and say, Would you talk and I look at her petrified. And she would just say, There's nothing good about you who would ever want you, you're so ugly. The only thing good about you is you ever cute nose. And that's all she would say. And so I grew up with this horrific feeling that I just should never ever have been born. And so that permeated through most of my childhood, all of my childhood and into my adult life. And so after becoming a Christian, and I would go to get some body work, occasionally I was getting a massage. And I'd always pray that the hands of the massage therapist would be the hands of guide. So as she she was working on me in this room that just was It was dark, who was candles in the room, she was not a Christian, she even had a Buddha in the room. As she worked on me, all of a sudden my body turned to the left. And I got into a fetal position and started to suck my thumb. And all of a sudden, in my mind's eye, Kimberly, I could see the sperm and the egg going to meet. And at that moment, the entire room turned bright white is white as you can imagine. And then the corner of the room I could see the essence of God. And he put his hands out. And as he put his hands out, he picked up the sperm, he picked up the egg, and he began forming it. And he said I am the great I Am I am forming you in your mother's womb. And I'm breathing life into you because you are wanted and all of a sudden he just went like this. And the biggest breath of air permeate permeated the massage room. And I could just feel him forming the in my mother's womb in this divine light coming in. Well, the amazing part of the story is again, the massage therapist was not a Christian. And at that moment, she turned on the light saying that the therapy session was over. And she looked at me and said, What just happened in here. I've never seen anything like this. And then the guy that worked in her building, he was getting on the elevator. And he looked at me and said, Jill, you must have had the best session ever. You look divine. And it was amazing. It was just so amazing. And so from that moment on, I could really feel in my heart that I was wanted. And another piece of the story that I never knew is that when a baby is born, the moment it comes out of the womb, the doctors have to cut the umbilical cord. Because if they don't, a baby living on the outside of the womb with the umbilical cord will die because it needs to take its first breath of life. So if you envision cutting an umbilical cord away from your mother, it's because at that moment, you need your own breath of life. Kimberly Hobbs   Wow. And so God gave you in that massage room, a breath of life. And maybe in your life you had heard that Scripture somewhere for you created me and my inmost being and you knit me together in my mother's womb. God was allowing you to get a vision in that room that he was your daddy, he was your father. He wanted you and he loved you. And he totally breathed that life into you that new life that breath of fresh air that he was your dad and he was never going to leave you. Jill Reynolds   And for the audience to if you've ever experienced a feeling of napping wanted you know sit quietly and envision Jesus or God breathing life into you, informing you and telling you how much you're loved and wanted because everyone that's listening could do this exercise themselves and just envision guide breathing life into you. Kimberly Hobbs   Amen. And I know that there's a lot of people that struggle with issues of feeling unwanted and and all triggers from childhood when they feel you know that they have been left alone. They weren't a One two child. There's all different kinds of stories of why we feel that. But remember, please remember that our Father in Heaven loves you, and He will never leave you or forsake you and he will, he will get to you some way or another. And we'd like to know it's through the power of His word, just like he reached you that day in that massage room with that message, that you are fearfully and wonderfully, wonderfully made, and he knit you together, you will always be wanted in his eyes. And ladies, when you feel that God has left you alone, there's another scripture those who know your name trust in you for you, oh, Lord, do not abandon those who search for you. That's Psalm 910. Which brings us into our next story that you're going to share part of your life. Gel is your train Wilson's story can you share about that? And how the Scripture might come into the play there? Jill Reynolds   Yes, the train whistle story is a story that permeate it just fills my heart to this day. And so as I said, you know, my mother did not want me and so by the time my mom got pregnant, the third time with my brother, who's three years younger than me, she began having marital affairs. And she fell in love with a man who was married. And one day when my my lovely father, who was just the love of my life, who took me to church every Sunday, and he gave me hugs and tucked me in bed and read to me. One day, while my poor dad was at work, she packed up our stuff. And she abandoned my father and deserted him and moved us to in a little apartment, close to this man, she was having the affair with. Well, the apartment was next to the metro train. And so as I went to bed every night, as a little five year old, I'd lay in bed and she was crying because my dad's the one who typed me in bed and prayed with me, and I missed him so much. And at night, I hear that train go by and the whistle would blow and I'd be so mad, I'd say, I just want to go home to my daddy, I just want to go home to my daddy. And so you know, we eventually the funny part of the story, that funny part, but weird how the Lord works. The man she was cheating with my dad, he died of a heart attack five weeks later. And so the court ordered us to move back home, but my parents divorced. So I got to see my dad just on Sunday. And as I said, early, I was nonverbal. And the only day I would talk would be on Sundays when I'd be with my dad. So he had a big impact in my life. So fast forward the story. And what then developed is years later, I had to go into treatment for codependency. And I was at a codependent treatment center at a little Baptist Hospital in Oklahoma. And every day, I'd go to the prayer chapel and do my prayer and meditation before the day began. So this one day, I was in the prayer chapel praying. And at that moment, a train goes by and I hear a whistle. And I got really angry. And I, I put my hands up to the heavens, and I just said, God, I am so sick of feeling deserted and abandon, and I just can't handle those train whistles. And so it's so at that moment, right in the middle of the chapel, I could feel God's saying, you know, Jill, I know you invited me into your heart. But you, it's hard for you to turn your will over to me because you just don't trust that I'll stay with you. And so I kept struggling. And he said, By the way, I have never left you, I never will leave you and your dad never left you in he never will. He just couldn't be there because your mother left him. And so at that moment, right in the middle of the chapel, I put up my hands and said, I surrender all I'm turning my will over to you because I had invited in my heart. But I still wanted. I wanted the control. I needed the control. And so at that moment, I surrendered my will. And so from that point of my life, all the way to today, every step along the way when I've had to deal with trauma, or connecting the dots of my story in Christian therapy, a train has gone by so the first one was a treatment center from eating disorders in Arizona was in the desert, right in the middle of trauma therapy. The train would go by and here it's I'm in the desert in the middle of nowhere we're with this train come from and Then another treatment center I went to for an eating disorder was on 500 acres in the castle wood. Forest of St. Louis, right in the middle of trauma therapy, a train went by with the whistle. Then coming home from treatment, I went to a see a therapist I pulled up to her office is right on the corner of the metro train. Every time we press this trauma, the train would go by. And so then my husband and I needed to retire and we went and looked for homes in different cities couldn't find anything. So we decided to look for lots. We came to Branson, and we stepped onto this one lap, and the minute we stepped down to it and be at a sin like it's in a subdivision with 600, homes, condos, villas, lakes pools, we stepped foot and the minute we did a train whistle went by. And so we built our home here. And now, between one and 3am every day, the train goes by, and I smile. Now instead of getting angry, I says, I know you're trying to tell me something that you're here, what message do you want me to know? And believe it or not, that's the by when God gave me the vision, to tag by podcast show hope, health and healing. So he tells me prophetic things. That night when the train whistle goes by, Kimberly Hobbs   I love that. I will say to me, those are confirmations. You know, God speaks to all of us in different ways. And you took that as something that God was telling you to trust in Him, and that he was never going to leave you he was not going to abandon you. You searched for him and he was there. And that verse that scripture, Psalm 910, comes alive. And I think some women out there can relate to this when you know we have things in our life that we know are not a coincidence, that show up over and over. And God's trying to get our attention. He's speaking to us in different ways. Jill Reynolds   And if you and I want to share it for anyone out there who's ever felt abandoned by God, to remember that he's never abandon us, or left us we may have shifted and moved away from him. And sometimes if you can just connect the dots, many people don't realize that any issues around their dad, generally that are dealing with feeling abandoned, then permeate where you think that Gods abandon you too, because they're so closely aligned. And and I'm going to just help you out. Kimberly got this horrible cold. So I'm talking more than her even though she's the host, because this tickle keeps happening in her throat. So I don't want to cause you to Yeah, go ahead. Kimberly Hobbs   Thank you. No, I appreciate that. Thank you. And I'm so sorry. And we did try to start the podcast and stopped it one time because I had a coughing fit. So this is very unusual. So I do appreciate that. And I don't want to I don't want to stop. I just want to keep going and I feel like we just pushed through it. But I want you to take us into your your next part of your story, which is the lost innocence story. And when you have been harmed and I think a lot of women will be able to relate to this too. So you've been harmed at different times in our life, right? And God's Word says that we're hunted down but never abandoned by God. We're knocked down but we are not destroyed. And you're going to see this in that second Corinthians four nine and you're gonna see that in Jill's lost innocence part of her story. Jill Reynolds   Yeah, so again, I so again, when my mom divorced my dad, she ended up remarrying again, twice. The first stepfather She remarried, ended up being a bisexual, bigamous married to several different women, and then alcoholic. And so there was a lot of physical emotional sexual abuse going on in our home. And then they of course, and then I witness him trying to actually murder my mom. So he went to jail. And when she married the third time, this man turned out to be a passive aggressive alcoholic, and I got a pop up, I'll turn it off there and, and alcoholic, and he he would have rage fits. So anyway, our house was pretty insane. And so again, as I had mentioned earlier, as a result of my feelings of not being unwanted, and being nonverbal and being so quiet If I was the one who never got invited to prams or homecomings where my sister was homecoming queen, and she was really popular, and so I just didn't have boyfriends. So I had met a boy at a at a dance club, and he was 17. And I was 14. And they invited me one Saturday to his home, I was really excited. I don't remember how I got there. But I remember walking in and he had hardwood floors and a floor of floral couch that was under a window, we sat down, and we began to talk. And I was really excited. And as we began to talk, the next thing I knew, is he kind of pushed me down and started to kiss me. And it was like one of my first kisses from a boy. And as he did, and I laid there, and he laid on top of me, and he was pretty muscular. And I was only like, very little, like 97, 98 pounds, I didn't weigh much at all. He pulled my pants down, and he penetrated me and he raped me. And as he did this, afterwards, he pulled his pants up. And he said, I broke your cherry, I made you a woman, you can now leave. And I remember getting up completely and just totally traumatized. But I remember walking back home five miles on the side of the road, crying and bleeding. And it seems like it took forever to get home. And as I as I continue taking those steps, I remember turning on that last block to my home and the moment I got home running into my house, taking a shower and hiding. And I remembered after that sometimes I would sit on the couch with my legs up, and my mother would pull them down and say sit like a lady. And I remember just being so freaked out Kimberly because I needed to protect myself. But I never told a soul because I felt my mom would tell me if it was your fault. And I thought my dad would kill him. So I kept it a secret until I got into my 40s. So that was my lost innocence. And it really affected me and i i would say within within a month or so of that I started to take white and feta means so that I wouldn't eat. And I kept taking those by the handful. So I would starve because I thought the more I starved, I wouldn't form my body. And so I started to wear flannel shirts, blue jeans and chick kicker boots. And I tried to look as on feminine as I possibly could. And after that I kind of lost my body. I didn't even know it was part of me anymore. I felt like I was outside of it. And at 18 I had an opportunity to get an interview at the Chicago Playboy Club, I put on the bunny outfit get hired, took it home. And two days later, I returned it. Because I wasn't ready to be that feminine. I could wear the outfit, it was weird. But what I couldn't do is wear fake eyelashes or nails or stiletto heels, because it made me feel too much like a woman. And so I kept trying to mask my femininity. And later on in life when I was in treatment for my eating disorder. I asked the therapist I said I don't understand why all these girls have all these body image issues, what's with their body image issues. And the therapist looked at me and said, I said I have a problem with body image, I could put a bathing suit on and go swimming, and I'm overweight and it doesn't bother me at all. And the therapist goes, chill, that's because you don't even know you have a body. It's so severe. And I was like, really. And so that's where I started my healing of my body image issues. If any of you out there struggle from it, I was able to start doing work and healing from that lost image and the loss of my body. Kimberly Hobbs   So let's talk about that for a moment because there are women that are identifying with you that have been through similar situations. So in order to heal from that place of severe image issues. How did God come into the picture at that time? What was he doing that allowed you to know that he was trying to move you on a certain path? Jill Reynolds   Well, it took a while before that came in because I still I still and so I wouldn't say from the time I got raped, but when I started to go into treatment by that time when I got into treatment, I had already invited Jesus into my life so he was doing so work in me. So I would say the healing he started to do in me was to put me into the finest treatment centers in the country. And some of the exercises that we did in treatment was we'd say, we would sit in front of a mirror. And we'd look into and stare at ourselves and say, I love your eyes, because they help you to see, you know, and I could say, help me to see God's glory. They helped me to see God's beauty. They helped me to see others. I love my arms, because God's given me these amazing arms, so that I can touch things and hug others. And I love my legs, because God's given me these amazing legs, the legs that helped me to get from place to place, and I love my torso, because it holds my vital organs that keep me alive and give me the breath of life, my lungs and all these things. So he started to show me how I can manifest and see my body in a different light. Kimberly Hobbs   That's beautiful. That's beautiful, back to that verse at the beginning that you created me and my inmost beings and You knit me together in my mother's wombs with excellence, God created you in a beautiful way, and you had a thankful heart, to, to give back to him. And you said, how you loved all these different parts that God created. That was giving him that acknowledgement of how he created you and seeing you for his beautiful creation. God's Word says that, you know, we are our masterpiece, he created a masterpiece and all of us. And we are created in the new in Christ Jesus to do the very good things he planned for us long ago. And so that was part of your healing was to acknowledge, Jill Reynolds   One verse is He who began a good work and you will be faithful to completed until the return of Christ. And so he began this great work in me. And then, you know, I guess we'll lead it to my last story, because that kind of brings it home, which was in my book, fiercely faithful that I wrote, and that was the essence of humility. And so the spiritual awakening then that took place as I, as I progressed into heaven, from the time I got raped, and then left home at 18, I ended up becoming a crack cocaine addict and alcoholic, I became a sex addict sleeping with everyone that gave me cocaine. I, my eating disorder got crazy, I would just live on one bowl of cereal for seven years, I should have been dead. And so God took ahold of me in 1980, where I found him in San Diego, and invited him into my heart and I hit a spiritual awakening where he completely delivered me if my crack cocaine and alcoholism told me to move back to Chicago, I began going to a large church in Chicago. And I was involved in the single's ministry, and the desire to use drugs completely left me. The desire to sleep around completely left me I became celibate. And I was very active in my church, and then one day, but right before that I had had met a one guy slept with him one time. And one day, seven months later, he called me and said, Joe, I have some good coke. Can I come over? And I says, Well, Joey, I don't do drugs anymore. And I'm not sleeping around. He said, why? And I said, Because I found God. And so he said, Well, can I come over so you can tell me about God? So I let him come over that snowing it was Satan coming over. And within five minutes, he pulled out a violent Coke, and I got high. And my background was when people turned to me and I thought I had to give them sex. And so I said, Well, I can't have sex because I'm not on birth control. He said, Oh, don't worry, I've had a vasectomy. So I slept with them. And four weeks later was pregnant. And before I became a Christian, Kimberly, while I was very active in my addictions, I got pregnant with my boyfriend twice and had two abortions. So I tried to reason with God and said, God, there's only one sin that none of us can hide behind. And that's the sin of fornicating and getting pregnant outside of marriage, and then, and then the pregnancy the whole world knows because you're pregnant. And so I felt very embarrassed and very humiliated and ashamed that all my Christian friends would know. And I couldn't hide behind my sin. So I said to Catholic well help me just have one more abortion, just one more. And so I planned to have the abortion and three days before I felt God was telling me to take a hot bath. I always took showers so I I went into the bathroom, turned off the lights, put on some candles and I cried out to God, God, please forgive me. I gotta have this abortion. And as I did, I could see Jesus walking down the path here. During the cross, and as he was falling to the ground as he was being beaten, mocked, spat out and ridiculed. He looked at me and he said, looked up and said, Jill, why do you care what BAM thinks of you, when I suffered more embarrassment, humiliation and shame than any anyone in the world will ever face. And for that moment, he shared that with me, Kimberly, this feeling came over me that I shouldn't care what my friends at church thought about me, or with anyone ever thought about me there, that moment forward, and I cancelled my abortion. And my son, Jeremy is 39. And I have three grandkids and and that became my essence of humility. And so for the listeners, if any of you have ever felt embarrassed, humiliated, or shamed and felt like you couldn't face another day of what people would think of you, just close your eyes and see Jesus falling to the ground on the cross bleeding and suffering for you. Kimberly Hobbs   Amen, amen. We need to be aware that God is always moving. He's always moving in our life and moving us along the path. And I know, Jill, that you talked about resiliency when we talked about your life, in our conversation prior to this. And resiliency is important in recovering in the challenges that life throws our way. So another word for resilience in the Bible could be perseverance. And we need to develop that core of beliefs that nothing can shake us. It's so very important, the Bible says, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove that which is good and acceptable in the perfect will of God. That's Romans 12 to two and know that God has a plan for your life. Ladies, he has a plan, he had a plan for Jill's life. It's amazing how he brought her through all of these traumatic experiences in her life. And she was able to overcome and he was with her every step of the way. Can you leave a final word with the women that may be identifying with the four stories of you know, just what is your your word of encouragement when it comes to the word resiliency? Because you told me that was an important word for you? Jill Reynolds   Yeah, well, one of my life verses is no condemnation has seized you except with his common demand. And God is faithful, He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will provide a way out. And so that life first has to do with perseverance and resiliency, because temptation, and he says, In this world, there will be trouble. And so those people listening today in your life, there's going to be trouble, there's going to be temptation, and there's going to be testing. And so I pray that she'll turn to God, and have him hold you up, and give you the strength to persevere, and to have resiliency in your life. So that you can see the glory of God and what he's got for you ahead. When you just turned to him, instead of feeling like it's hopeless and that there's nothing and that life's not worth living. He's got a plan for you. Kimberly Hobbs   He does have a plan for each and every one of us that says, Call me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory. Psalm 50, verse five, and I know that is true of your life, Jill, and that God rescued you from each of those situations in your life. And now you are giving him glory and what you are doing with your life. And I am just so grateful to call you a sister in Christ. I'm grateful for what you're doing, sharing the stories and connecting the god dots with other women so that they can relate. Romans 828 says God causes everything to work together for good. So ladies, God gives us these stories. And, and he does work everything together for good. Jill Reynolds   I want to I want to leave this audience to if I could, if you don't mind, with two songs, two songs. The one song is by the Christian artist, Dara McLean, MC L E A N and she's got a song called wanted. Listen to that. It's amazing. The other one was Tommy Walker. He had a song years ago called he's turned my morning, M O U RN into dancing. And when I finally met my husband we dated seven years got married 21 years ago, that was the song I played as they pronounced as husband and wife, and we danced down the aisle, he's turned my mourning into dancing again. And it's like, you know, you can go through all this trauma. But he turns that morning into joy and dancing. So I'm the, the low note of all my pain and struggles, I had to end with a high note of turning your mourning into dancing. And I also wanted to end with letting the ladies know that we're going to be doing an Esther's rising conference in Branson, October 27, to 29. And for all of you to come and hear amazing stories of Esther's rising. Kimberly Hobbs   Oh, thank you for that invitation. So he, Jill and you can listen to Jill and her podcasts. How can they find you, Jill? Jill Reynolds   Well, the best way to find me is to go to my website, which is braveheartworkshops.com. And I'm there you can click on all my icons that have my links to my YouTube channel, my rumble channel, my tic tac, my Facebook, and it also has the event page. So you can register for the Esther's rising conference in Branson, and come be with us in Branson. Kimberly Hobbs   Amen. Amen. Well, thank you for that invitation again. And thank you for carrying some of the weight because my voice has gone and I didn't want to start coughing again. But I do appreciate you, Jill, and that you took some time to come on with us. And ladies, thank you for the time that you gave to share with us today. And I pray that God blesses each and every one of you through the stories that are shared, and that you can find something to take to heart that God would have just for you. So remember, ladies hat. We have so many things available women, world leaders. If you are looking to get involved in ministry or serve God where He has called you, we have a place for you here where you can use your gifts and talents for him. Or maybe you want to share your story so that others can be inspired with hope and healing and identify with what you've gone through. So just remember, we are here for you every Monday, Wednesday and Fridays with these podcasts. From his heart to yours. We are women world leaders. Thank you to our guests Joel Reynolds for joining us today. And remember all content is copyrighted and cannot be used without expressed written consent. God bless each and every one of you and have a wonderful day.  

Are you now, or have you ever been a slave? Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. Today, I wanted to talk about Romans 6:16, "do you not know that when you present yourself to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey. Either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness." That's Romans 6:16 from the New American Standard Bible.   Chances are when you came out of school and went to work, you submitted yourself to someone who was a boss, or it was yourself, or it was God. I don't think we do a good job of teaching Christian workers that we work for Jesus. I haven't done a comprehensive survey, but I see it happening, and it was that way in my career. I became a Christian after I had already entered the workforce. And it was a challenge for me to realize that my boss wasn't really my boss, Jesus was.   Jesus had assigned me to that particular workplace. This particular passage doesn't speak directly about bosses, but it is speaking about slaves. We can become slaves to ourselves, slaves to sin, slaves to our own choices. Either we're submitting to Jesus or we're submitting to ourself. We may have sold out and we're doing what a boss tells us to do and we're going through the motions of a job, or we could be totally locked in, pursuing our own goals and our own objectives and our own business.   Maybe it's the desire to pursue our own entrepreneurial efforts or to grow our own business. Maybe it's pursuit of hobbies. We can become a slave to our own wishes. That's who I was a slave to. And I still tend to become a slave to me, to my own comfort, to my own desires. I ask myself what I want, and then I go do that. But also I want us to think about something that happens when we leave school and go to work, because what we've done is we've left this world where we were being told what to do for the biggest chunk of what we did every day, now into a world where we're being told what to do in a work context.   But the rest of our life is ours. In some degree, we start training ourselves more and more and more to do what we want. We have more discretionary time than ever before. We also have more money and more obligations. As a result, I think many of us come out of school and we cement our own path towards satisfying ourselves. That we become our own God, if you will, because we now have more money than we ever had, but we have less time.   I was arrogant enough to know that I didn't want to become a slave of my bosses. I was in sales when I came right out of school and I started listening to myself and I wasn't a Christ follower, but after a short while, and we get in this habit of obeying ourselves, then we subject everything we know to what we think about it. I wonder the degree that figuring out work, and figuring out life by ourselves on our own, contributes to this sacred secular divide that we often see. So today I want to challenge us as Christians, as Christ followers, either we're listening to God with our whole life, or we're only listening to him in parts of it.   Who are we slaves to today? Are we slaves of sin, resulting in death? Or are we slaves of obedience, resulting in righteousness? Are we listening to Jesus or are we listening to the noise? Maybe it comes from inside us, maybe from our bosses, or from the world. That's our question today. Who are we listening to?   Thank you for being a marketplace minister, consider listening to the holy spirit as he guides you to interact with the lives and with the people that you work with. We can act in such a way that Jesus becomes visible in our work. All we have to do is begin with a little prayer, here I am. Why not pray that prayer today? Give yourself to Jesus and let him put you to work.   Thanks very much.  

So one of the things you want to be careful not to do is to overuse the word special — because if everything is special, then nothing is special, right? — and so you have to be choosy with the word. But then sometimes, when you have a lot of special things happening all at once, what do you with that? What do you call it?Well I think the worst thing to do is to just ignore it and call it nothing. I think it's important for us to stop every now and then and reflect on where we are as a church. The idea is the we want to have a kind of corporate self-awareness. We want to be deliberately mindful of and sensitive to what's going on around here. We want to ask the question: By the power of his Spirit, through the grace of the Lord Jesus, what is God doing in our church?That's the question to ask, and right now the short answer is: something special. And because there's a lot of special things happening all at once, I think it's fair to say that God is leading us into a special season in the life of our church, and therefore I want to preach a special sermon that talks about that.Now our normal practice, as you know, is that we preach through the Bible verse by verse, and the sermon emerges out of the passage. That's good and right and normal, but today, I'm gonna do it a little bit differently, because I want frame the next 25 minutes as a reflection on God's grace to our church past, present, and future. I'm gonna get to Romans 6 at the end, but the three parts of the sermon are on what God has done (and is doing) in our midst, past, present, and future.First, let's pray:Father in heaven, you tell us in your word that it is your will that we give thanks to you in all circumstances — and if that's the case in all circumstances, how much more thanks should we give you in times where you make your grace so clear to us? Father, you have been so good to our church, and we thank you. Guide us this morning to understand your goodness even more, for your glory, in Jesus's name, amen. Okay, first, we want to recognize God's grace to us in the past.PAST: God has made us a church planted.What do you think when you hear the words “church plant?” We all have to think something, and whatever that is, I just want to remind you that every church that there has ever been, at some point, was a church plant. Every church had to be started, which means once they were not, and then they were.And I think it's important to keep this in mind. For example, we have in the New Testament, several letters that the apostle Paul wrote to churches — and he calls them churches, we call them churches — but technically, they were all church plants. They were startups. We just read from Paul's letter to the Romans — well the church in Rome had not been there for multiple generations as an established staple in that city. It was brand new!Every church at some point started as a new gathering of men and women and boys and girls who have been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, and who come together to commit to help one another follow Jesus in this world. That's every church's story — and it's ours too! The one little difference for us, compared to many churches, is that for right now we can still remember when we started as a new church (because several of us were there). [Who was at the first church service that Cities ever had?]By God's grace, we started as a new church in 2015 …from a church that was started in 1871,from a church that was started in 1853,from a church that was started in 1849,from English-speaking missionaries who had traveled here from a very long ways away.And if we keep going back, like way back, eventually we end up in the year 33, when the risen and ascended Lord Jesus poured out his Holy Spirit on a church plant in Jerusalem. Acts Chapter 2 is where it really all started, and any historical account of our church that does not include Jerusalem is too shallow. The church as the mystery of God “hidden for ages” was first revealed in Jerusalem, and that church is part of our story, which means — and I want to be clear about this — we have the right and necessity to say that Jesus Christ himself is behind the existence of our local church. Jesus knows about us because Jesus made us happen.And whenever we think about our church having been a church planted, this is what I want us to think mainly: I want you to know that Jesus did this.Now there are particulars to our story. There are all kinds of means and ways that God used, there were people with agency who were involved — because that's how God works — but I really can't overemphasize to you the fact that God did this. God has made us a church planted, and so we should give God thanks. We are here because of God. Praise him!That's the past: God has made us a church planted. Now the present:PRESENT: God is making us a church rooted. Now you've heard me talk this way. Over the last 12 months especially, we've really tried to name this and mark this moment in the life of our church. At one point in our church's history, we did not know where we were going to gather on Sunday. The building where we met for worship was suddenly destroyed, and so, for a bit there, we bounced around Sunday to Sunday — and throughout the week I was on the phone trying to figure out what we were gonna do —and in God's kindness we found an interim space at Concordia University — [who in here was part of Cities Church when we were at Concordia?]The whole time we were there it felt like clock was ticking — we knew it couldn't last long, but we didn't know where else to go. But then, in God's kindness again, we found this building. And we started gathering here Easter 2018, and to be honest, it was a mess. There was a lot of clunkiness behind the scenes, and things were over-promised, and we had to get attorneys involved. And that's when I started getting gray hair. That's when Pastor Joe lost his hair! — but we knew that this building was meant for a church, and we knew its location was strategic for our church planting vision. And in an amazing turn of events, in Fall 2019 we had the opportunity to purchase this building, which we did, in January 2020.And then for several months in 2020, like every church, we just tried to hold on for dear life, which we did, by God's grace. And then, by God's grace, we came into last year determined to freshly embrace what we're all about as a church: We're here to make disciples of Jesus from all nations and to plant more churches like ours in the Twin Cities. We exist to multiply and mature worshipers, servants, and missionaries of Jesus who live faithfully in the home, the church, and the world, and we want to start new churches all throughout this metro who to do the same — — churches who are committed to the supremacy of Jesus and open-your-Bible relational discipleship, all so that, within the next thirty years, we do our part in making Jesus Christ impossible to ignore in these Twin Cities.. And toward that goal, toward that hope, we're now in this special season where we, as a church, are called by God to settle in and drive the roots down deep. Okay, we're here! We're in this place. God has given us this to steward for his glory — to deepen and expand our ministry. God has given us this so that we would have more of Jesus together so that these cities might have more of Jesus through us. We're all here. But the question is: Who's in? As we recognize God's grace to us in the past, and we're aware of this special season in the present, we wanna take stock and know: Who's in? Who are we doing this with? Almost exactly a year ago, we invited everyone to freshly embrace what we're all about, and to invest in our footprint here, and to commit to give toward this vision. And over the last year, God has given us amazing strides forward. Renovation plans are drawn up; construction contracts are signed; dates are in place — and we could have the entire project completed by December. The ball is rolling, okay!And also in the last year, God has sent us droves of new brothers and sisters! Lots of you here today were not here last April, and so I want to invite you: be part of this with us. Let's do this together. If you've been attending Cities Church for a while but haven't yet committed, I want to invite you to really consider being part of our church. Would you consider joining this family? Would you come be a help-needer and a help-giver with these people?Presently, God is making us a church rooted — we want us all to be all in. And I mean that in the deepest possible way. This whole ROOTED initiative, and your commitment to be part of it, it's really just the tip of the iceberg — because the deepest and truest prayer in this season goes way beyond the physical renovations to this building and the physical provisions needed to make it possible. The greatest prayer for this season is for an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The real prayer, the real hope, is that our church would know more of the power of God — because what good is anything without the power of God? Who cares about a building that is more accommodating to ministry if that ministry lacks the supernatural, life-changing work of God? I'm not interested! I don't want it. We don't want that. We want more of the power of God! And all of this — all of the ROOTED stuff — is meant to serve that!And so we should ask: what might that look like? If God were to give us an extraordinary outpouring of his Spirit — if he were to give us more of his power — how might that look?We've seen our church's past. We've seen our present. Now the future. FUTURE: God will empower us to continue becoming what we have become.We're getting to Romans 6, but here in this last part, we're going to divide it up into four questions. The first is:1. What is the power of God? Now when I talk about the “power of God” I don't want to leave any question in your minds about what I mean by that. I mean by the power of God what Paul means by it in Ephesians Chapter 3 when he tells the church that he prays for them: Paul says he prays for the church, that God, according to the riches of his glory, would grant the church to be strengthened with power by the Holy Spirit. That's the power of God — and what's the power for? It's power to know the love of Jesus. Paul prays that the church would have the power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge (see Ephesians 3:16–19).Hey, I know right now there's all kinds of stuff going on in our lives. We bring all kinds of things into this room. But no matter what that is for you — no matter what you have going on — the most important thing we all need is to be assured of God's love for us in Christ. More than anything, we need the power of God by his Spirit to know the love of God through his Son.2. Where do we mainly look to see God's love?Now I want you to see God's love for you everywhere … I want you to see God's love in the rising sun and singing birds and food on your table and in that great parking spot you found. I want you to know God's love for you in that, as Jonathan Edwards once said:“Every atom of the universe is so managed by Christ so as to be most to the advantage of the Christian … … Every particle of air and every ray of the sun” is for you so that you would enjoy God. I want us to know God's love like that. But where's the main place we look to see God's love? Where's the fountain from which everything else flows?It's the cross of Jesus Christ.We know the love of God, mainly, not by what he's doing, but by what he has done. Our assurance of his love is not invested in our positive circumstances, because they come and go. If you're basing your assurance of God's love on how well things are going for you, or how you feel in the moment, you're gonna be like this [up and down.] That's not where we look mainly.If we're talking mainly, our assurance of God's love is found in Jesus dying for us in our place. The cross is the definitive display of God's love for us that never changes.And that's the message of Romans 5, verses 1–11 (and I'm going to preach Romans 5 in a few weeks — verses 8: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us). That's the definitive, historical event. We look there to be assured of God's love. We look to the death and resurrection of Jesus.3. What effect does the death and resurrection of Jesus have on us at a personal, existential level?So if we're looking to the cross and resurrection to see God's love, what does that actually mean for us? What effect does that have?The short answer is that it makes us dead and alive. Finally, Romans 6, verse 3:Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Now when Paul talks about those who have been “baptized into Christ Jesus” he's talking about all Christians. To be baptized into Christ is synonymous to trusting Jesus. And that's because when we trust Jesus, when we put our faith in Jesus, we become united with Jesus. All throughout the New Testament, that's the primary metaphor of our salvation. To trust in Jesus is to be incorporated into him; it's to be united with him — which is precisely what baptism symbolizes.Baptism, which we're going to see here soon, is the visible expression of the spiritual reality that we have, by faith, been united with Jesus such that when Jesus died on the cross, we died too;when Jesus was buried, we were buried too; andwhen Jesus was raised from the dead, we were raised too!That's Romans 6:4, We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. So see, there's death and life. We were baptized with Jesus in his death, and then raised to life with Jesus in his resurrection. Then in verse 6 Paul explains that this death is of the old self, and this life is of the new self. Verse 6:We know that our old self was crucified with him [sounds like Galatians, right!?] our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.And then Paul goes on in verses 7–10 to basically restate what he has already said in verses 3–5, and he lands it all in verse 11 — and this is the fourth question.4. Because we have been united with Jesus in his death and resurrection, how should we think about ourselves?Verse 11 starts with “so” or “thus.” Which means what Paul is about to say is an inference. This is the conclusion Paul has reached based upon everything else he's been saying. Because we are united to Jesus — because when Jesus died and was raised, our old self died and our new self began — we must consider ourselves, right now, to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. And that word “consider” means to regard or to reckon. It's to think about something a certain way. Paul is talking about how we as Christians think of ourselves. Brothers and sisters, when you think about yourself, consider yourself, reckon yourself, dead to sin. Your old self was crucified. It's no more. It's over. It's dead. But now you are alive to God in Christ. Which means, the life of Christ, to whom you are united by faith, now lives in you as your life.This means that the power of God to know the love of Christ is not what leads to life-change, but it's the power to recognize that our lives have been changed in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Get this: Christian, the most defining moment of your life is when Jesus died for you and conquered death for you 1,989 yeas ago. What we're doing now, and tomorrow, and everyday into the future, is that we continue becoming who we have become in Christ. And that's why, honestly, we really can't be anything but hopeful about the future of our lives, and our church. Because the hardest work has been done. The impossible has already been accomplished. We live from a miracle. And that's why I can say with confidence that as we walk together in this newness of life that is the life of Jesus in us, we will be, Cities Church, a living, healthy, faithful church which is evidenced in a myriad of ways, such as:Each of us, at home and in the workplace and wherever we find ourselves, will follow Jesus like Jesus is a real person, because he is;We will build strong marriages, healed marriages, and we will have blessed children;We will establish happy homes and whole persons — which does not mean that any of us are free from suffering, but that in our suffering the all-satisfying worth of Jesus is radiant because he gives us a joy that is inexplicable to the world;We will fix our attention on the word of God, and we will be shaped by this Book,We will learn and grow together to more deeply understand and wisely apply and winsomely communicate the good news of what Jesus has done;We will have a high priority and capacity to multiply more churches like ours in these cities, and we're gonna GO. We're gonna send missionaries to the “all peoples” of this earth even as our church begins to reflect a little bit more the glorious multitude of Revelation 7;We as a church are going to witness to the wonder of Jesus. People are gonna walk by this building, and they're gonna see you throughout the week, and they're gonna know that those people know Jesus. And we're gonna say, Come on, we've found the bread.What I'm saying is that God will do something special.He's gonna make us to be like a big oak tree, with deep roots and wide branches, and we're gonna do our part to seek the good of these cities for the glory of God. We're going to have more of Jesus together, so that these cities will have more of Jesus through us.And we're going to celebrate the gospel of Jesus through baptisms, like we're about to do right now.Let's pray:Father, thank you. Thank you for your grace to our church — for your grace to us past, present, and future. We say: thank you, Father; amen, Father; more, Father. More we ask, for your great glory, in Jesus's name, amen.

From misplaced to placed in the hands of God. Our guest today comes to us from Australia. Danielle Gibbons speaks out about what led her to become an atheist - feeling she was misplaced in life and God was nowhere to be found.   Hear how God reached Danielle and loved her when she needed Him most. This story is powerful and will touch your heart.   ******* Kimberly Hobbs   Thank you Welcome to empowering lives with purpose. And I'm your host, Kimberly Hobbs. I am the founder of Women world leaders. We are so happy that you have decided to tune in today and listen to this podcast with our special guest today. Danielle Gibbons welcome, Danielle. Danielle Gibbons   Yes, thank you for having me. Thank you. Thank you. Kimberly Hobbs   We're so glad to have you sweetie. So our our purpose in being here and empowering lives with purpose is to do just what it says to empower you the listener to help strengthen you inspire you encourage you through some of the stories of some of the guests that we have on and Danielle has a very interesting story and it's going to be powerful at the end. And the title that we chose for it is misplaced to placed in the hands of God. Ladies, we feel that each and every one of us are a masterpiece because God's Word says that we are Ephesians 210 says For we are God's masterpiece created a new and Christ Jesus to do the very good things that he planned for us long ago. He has a plan for each and every one of our lives. We believe that wholeheartedly. And through hearing Danielle's story today, we're going to hear a little bit even though she felt misplaced. She was placed in the hands of God because he had a plan for her life. So I want to tell you a little bit about Danielle before we get started. Danielle is the owner of cherished and found which is an online mentoring practice that helps women overcome the negative beliefs that they tell themselves in order to take action on a god prompting in their life. With her background and customer service and film, and Assistant work. She's able to provide Christ like care for her following on social media and having her own past struggles of life chaos, and her hope found in Christ. It has shaped her passion for helping women that have been in broken situations to know that their identity is rooted in Christ alone and not their past or present circumstances. I love that Danielle. Danielle is an American and married to her wonderful husband Luke who is an Aussie and for five wonderful years. They currently both reside on the Gold Coast of Australia. And she is active in her local church. She enjoys bike rides to the beach and to catch sunrise. I love sunrises and I love God's creation so we share that commonality they're so misplaced to placed in the hands of God. What does that look like? Well, Danielle had a rough childhood and at the age of three, her parents were divorced. They are two completely different parents, a mom who struggled while her father drove fast cars and had access to money and both had influence on her life by Danielle felt felt misplaced because of such differences in their lives. Danielle, can you share a little bit about your story which led up to where you actually denounced Christ and became an atheist. Danielle Gibbons   Sure, thank you for letting me share. So when I was when I was three years old, my parents got divorced on the youngest of four and we moved to Michigan and into a trailer park. And growing up we were the Christian kids to the trailer park kids and the Christian church we were the trailer park kids in the church kids and I never felt I never felt connected to either so I had different personas different personalities for each the church kid and the trailer park kid and we had a movie theater nearby our home and back then I don't know if it's still the same now but back then you can go and collect bottles for 10 cents in Michigan and collect those and return them to get money so anytime life got hard and life did get hard i for any eviction notice that we got any power shut off because my mom couldn't keep up with a bill she was doing three or four jobs trying to take care of for kids. And we it seemed like we're always struggling always asking for the handout. Always that charity case. And I remember anytime things got rough Another eviction notice. Family disruptions, we would go my brother and I, my older brother than I would go around, collect bottles, go get money and go to the movies. Because that was our escape. We, I wanted so much to be in Fantasyland. Anytime things got tough, I needed an escape, I needed to be in someone else's story, because I didn't like mine. So I just remember, in my teens in my early teens, 13, is when I started experimenting with drugs and alcohol. And that really separated me more and more more from my church, friends from church and making me feel more of an outcast, because I practiced in a lot of sin. And I remember, I remember age 16, just, you know, from 13, to 16, my, my drinking got worse, the partying got worse, my older sister, she was in college. So I go to college parties with her as being a freshman in high school, I was going to college parties at age 14. And so I started to really hang around people that didn't believe in Christ. And I started to wonder if he's real, why do bad things happen? Why are we living the way we're living? Because I see my mother and her faith and her walk with Jesus. And yet she is tore down every single turn. She can't catch a break it just and as a child, I didn't know any different. That's that's the witness I saw. That's, I didn't see anything different. So I remember we're driving down the road, going 70 miles an hour, on the highway, my sister's driving and a friend of mine in the back who was an atheist and questioning my god, at the time. And her point seems so valid, why why do these? Why do bad things happen? If if we really were living for Christ? Wouldn't our situation be different? So at that moment, I said, you know, I don't believe in God. He doesn't exist, because if he did, he would bring me out of the situation. And I remember so well, because at that moment, one of our tires blew. And we had to pull over and from age 16 to 22. Did everything so Oh, oh, Kimberly Hobbs   that is I actually had chills when you said that. You know, it is such a scary time. But we know, so many young people face that, you know, they put there's questions constantly as they look around this world of Is God real? Is he really there? I mean, that movie they put out God's Not Dead. Oh, my goodness, you know, because so many struggle with this. So you denounce Christ. I mean, as shocking as that is, you know, you you said I'm going to become an atheist and you, you started walking down that road and things got worse. And, ladies, maybe you can relate to this. Maybe you were there at one point in your life. But the Bible tells us about whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. This is a serious situation here. But God was getting your attention even through that. Danielle you are his from the time you were born. Ladies, we are all we belong to God from the time we are born. And but we have choices to make, right? So you started to smoke, you started to drink. You tried to escape from movies, and you were living that masquerade life. You told me like in our private conversations, you you were all about the Masquerade. And then one day, you go to church in LA, and you start searching for God again. Can you talk about now like what that looked like? Because you were misplaced? You still weren't back but you started searching for God. And so let's talk about being misplaced and searching for God. Danielle Gibbons   Sure, so at this part of my story, I have to fast or rewind a bit. I had placed my hope and becoming big in Hollywood. I wanted to become a famous movie star. So I had the opportunity to move out to LA and do the starving artists life. I'd sold everything real big hippie, but my roommate. He was gonna do hair. I was gonna do makeup. He was highly against drugs. So I had to quit my drugs for a season. And in that season, coming off of drugs, moving and having nothing and starting over. That's a lot So I did whatever anyone growing up in church would do to go back to church. And so I, my roommate would take me to reality LA and I think it was Pastor Tim chaddock At the time, and he was preaching on a class, Ecclesiastes 217. And it says this. So I hated life. Because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless a chasing after the wind. And I just remember sitting there and worship started and I just sat there is, is my hope in becoming a makeup artists and making it big in Hollywood, Hollywood, is that chasing after the wind? Is this really meaningless? So really start to wonder, is this what I meant to be doing? And yeah, what a it's not very much hope in that passage. Is it chasing after the wind? But what it led me to was starting to question and starting to research starting to ask my mother who had been praying for me this whole time. Wow. And she was so excited anytime I called and said, I need prayer or because my mother's prayers worked. I didn't know how to pray myself. Yeah, I asked my mother to pray for me. And she would point me to Scripture, even though we're hard pressed on all the sides, you know, just all of the scripture that really spoke to me because it was I was in this I had finally gotten my dream. And it wasn't what I thought it was, because the hope was misplaced. Kimberly Hobbs   Wow. Wow. Ladies, those of you that are moms with maybe teen kids, or even young adults are those that have children wandering that are wayward? Did you hear Danielle's voice? I mean, she almost got choked up because she remembers the prayers of a mother's heart. And she knew that her mom was just so excited when she would call her back saying, you know, please pray for me, mom. So there's hope for your kids. If you're praying, God is not gonna let go of them. And even though Danielle again was denouncing the Lord, he was trying to get her attention. And your hope became restore Danielle, Romans 829, ladies and 30 says, For we, for those whom he for new, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son so that the firstborn among many brothers and sisters, and these whom He predestined, he also called he also justified and these whom He justified, he also glorified. God had you Danielle, from the beginning. ladies who are listening that are wandering God has you from the beginning before you even born and ladies, listen to this verse. As I described, God has you Jeremiah one five says, I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb, before you were born, I set you apart, I appointed you as a prophet to the nation's Danielle, here you are speaking sharing your testimony God appointed you. And hope is the most practical power in the world, and to be placed in the hands of Jesus through seeking Him gave you hope, Danielle? So you went from that misplace child back and forth from two different types of parents wondering where do I go? What am I running after? am I chasing the wind? God gave you hope. And knowing he forgives ladies, when we know the God of the universe will forgive you for everything. It gives us hope. And hope is found in true forgiveness. And you can overcome anything discouragement and depression and erodibility. And all the things that Danielle was facing, she was able to overcome with with that hope. So, Danielle, when you were alone and misplaced, and you were full of grief, let's go back to that moment. Okay, you felt oppression? And can you describe leaving the desert that you were wandering in for so long to the faith in Jesus that you now have as your Savior? Can you talk about that? Danielle Gibbons   Sure. So I immediately as soon as I went to LA it seemed like I immediately left LA and I moved back to Florida. And my hope was crushed because that is what I truly put my hope in was the the thought of of being making it big the big artist and in house Would, silly as it is, but that was the hope. So because I was shattered, I had moved in to a friend's house who she was helping her mother at the time. So I was completely alone. I was in a different part of the area, so I wasn't around any family. And it seemed like, I had taken five steps forward when I moved out to LA, and 20 steps backwards when I moved back to Florida. So I started picking up drugs again. And I'm going over the cycle and I, I'm feeling a lot of shame and grief, why can't I break this cycle? It seemed like everyone had their lives figured out. And here I am age 22. And I'm ready, I'm ready to, I'm ready to give up. The thought of going through another day seemed too hard. I was still paying rent in LA and trying to rebuild a life in Florida and I needed money. So I don't you probably don't know this. But a lot of times, it's courtesy to smoke out with your drug dealer as they deal to you. So the drug dealers over at my place, and we get high and I start just unloading all of my problems to him, like any good girl would. And I'm telling him how I just need money. And so he had a solution. He said, You know what, Daniel, I have a lot of girls working for me, you can be one of my girls, you can start dealing for me. And I said, That's a great idea. I need extra cash, I'm still paying rent in LA, I'm trying to, because I had sold everything. I went did the hippie thing. And I sold everything and I moved out there. And it was shattered. And so the drug dealer left, Unknown Speaker   and I just broke. I was broke. I remember going to the kitchen floor, Danielle Gibbons   in fetal position and just crying, the big, biggest ugliest cry, you can imagine I just start crying. I said God, I said God, or Jesus, I think as a Jesus, I obviously don't know what I'm doing with my life. Word obviously, I remember I obviously don't know what I'm doing with my life. So I surrender it. I give it all to you, whatever you want me to do, I will do it. And after I said those words, and I've heard this because I grew up in church, I've heard the testimony before I've heard it just clicked. Never, ever had it just click than it did in that moment. As soon as I said those words, it was like a head to toe piece of feeling a sensation. And that's when I truly felt like I was filled with the Holy Spirit. Because I stopped crying in that moment I got up I dusted myself off. And that's it was like a new purpose. A new mission was placed on mine heart, A New Hope. I no longer needed hope in what the world had to offer. I had the hope and Christ that no matter what I'm doing what he wants me to do. Kimberly Hobbs   Amen. Amen. And, and that is when you bowed your knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, and accepted him as your personal Lord and Savior. And wow, what a story and again, he knew you before you were born, and he was not letting go of you. And that moment, I mean, that gave me chills when it got so close to almost selling yourself to that drug dealer and just, you know, accepting that, but God said no. And at that moment, something happened that you cried out to Him praise God. And ladies out there listening, you may be reliving something in your life right now because you're identifying with Danielle and you know that again, is that purpose that we want to share and empower you don't give up. You know, God is getting your attention whether it be even listening to this podcast right now. He's getting your attention. Danielle, you are now healed and restored and renewed in Jesus Christ. And that is like the best news ever. And ladies out there, he wants you healed in his name. He wants you renewed in the name of Jesus. God is not going to let go of you ladies. And he tells us when we need help to come back to him. He is the only way. And Danielle you knew that from a praying mother's heart. And one that was taking you to church and Proverbs. What is it 22 Six that says Train up a child and the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. So those of you that have those children that are floundering guys It says train them up. Young women out there train your child up right now because he's gonna face she's gonna face things in this world. We don't know what, but God will bring them back just like he brought Danielle back. And he says come back to the place of safety, all you who still have hope. I promise this very day I pay two blessings for each of your troubles that Zechariah 912. He lifts you out of the pit of despair that Psalm 42 He lifted you out of that pit that you were in Danielle, Psalm 40 Verse two ladies as a good one. He set your feet on solid ground and studies at you as you walk along. And that's what Danielle is going through. Now he studies her she's surrendered her life to Jesus and He is studying her feet as she walks along. Does God say it's always going to be easy? No, we all face struggles. As we go through life, even those of us that know Jesus, because there's things in our path constantly that the devil is trying to trip us up with. But God is the source of your hope. Danielle, God is the source of your hope to your listener and will fill you with joy and peace as you complete. He will fill you with joy and peace completely as you trust in Him. That's Romans 1513. So Danielle, all these ladies that are listening right now they need hope they need that hope restored. So can you please leave these women with a word of encouragement when they're feeling misplaced? How they can be placed back in the hands of Jesus. Danielle Gibbons   Feeling very grateful right now. My encouragement to you is to continue to pray. Just continue to pray. He hears you. You are not too far from him. He hears you in your room crying at night, he hears you in the empty parking lot. The empty church parking lot. He hears you. He hears you every moment. Jeremiah 2920 13 says, then you will call on me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you. You will see. Find me when you seek me with all your heart. John 1027 through 28 says, My sheep, My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow Me. Verse 28 says, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. He was for 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time in time of need. He hears you. i If you're wondering right now, if you're praying empty prayers, if you're wondering right now will Will I ever see the fruit of my toil? What is this? Why am I feeling like this is meaningless. It's not meaning he hears you. And what you're going through right now, if it's a season of wandering, if it's dry, like the desert, he hears you, he's preparing you he's sending you out, you are called and he's sending you out. But you need that time of preparation. So I just want to encourage you continue to see Kim and continue to pray. Kimberly Hobbs   Amen. Oh, beautifully said Danielle and those scriptures that you chose to share. God says, When you seek me, with all your heart, you will find me. God is there. And he wants you to seek him out. And those scriptures again, I pray that if those touched your heart where you were listening, that you will replay this podcast again, listen to those scriptures and write them down. Put them up around your house so that you don't lose sight of what God's speaking to you right now. Because he won't let you go. If you're feeling misplaced. He will place you back in his arms of love. And he will hold you there. He's not going to let you go ladies. So oh my goodness, Danielle, that's powerful. And your story again, Praise God. Praise God that he took you where you were. And he brought you to where you are now and look at this lovely young woman that loves the Lord with all of her heart is sold out to serving Him. We are just so grateful that you would come and share your testimony with the world Danielle and I am just so thrilled that this young woman down in faith to write and share her story with the world and she is going to be writing in the book this year by women world leaders which is called surrendered, yielded with purpose and We are so grateful we are so grateful for testimonies like this. And ladies, God may you may be listening and you may be have gone through something like Danielle or something completely different. And you are sitting there just chomping at the bit to share your God's story. We want to hear from you. We need these stories to encourage others that are listening. Do you realize that women are listening to these podcasts around the world we are in over 60 countries we are listened to by over 55 platforms around the world. These podcasts are far reaching, and God may be tugging at your heart right now saying share my story with the world because, ladies, it isn't your story. It's a story God has given you. And He wants you to share it. So please pray about that. And reach out to us at women world leaders.com. Or info at women world leaders.com. And leave us your name and address and email address. And we'll get back to you for sure. We want to hear your story. We want you to be a part of what God is doing here. And again, I want to just say thank you to Danielle for sharing what God put on your heart today. And is there any final word you'd like to say to the ladies before we close out? Danielle Gibbons   Just approach. Write down everything that he's done for you thus far, and go back to the heroes of faith. And know you can be comforted that fellow Christians around the world are feeling or maybe feeling the same way you feel in this moment. And then we can look to the heroes of faith. So just continue, continue to have the faith and write down what he's done for you and just be gracious and have that heart of gratitude. Because that's how I feel almost every day. I'm just so grateful. Kimberly Hobbs   Amen, amen. And I want to just confirm that that is something that I do every day to even when I get tired and I start to grumble about things. I turn it into praise and gratitude. And God turns my day around, I thank him and think of all the things that you're thankful for. It will turn your day around your heart around. And just remember those words, have a grateful heart, praise him in the storm. Praise Him in the storm of your life. Ladies, one more thing I'd love to share with you is that those that may be watching or listening for the first time to this podcast. Women world leaders put out event a magazine every quarter called the voice of truth outside of the United States, it goes digitally but inside of the USA, you can get your printed copy. And it is beautiful. It's over 100 pages of encouragement to you written from other women around the world. There is scripture in here there are stories in here there is enough to read that will take you a quarter to read each. Each article that's in here, it's beautiful, but it is for free. If you want to go to our website, you can read it digitally at women world leaders.com voice of truth is the magazine. And then if you want to sign up if you're inside the United States, and you would like to receive this in your mailbox, we will send you the free copies by you leaving us your address, your email address, and your name. We do not share it with anybody. This is strictly for you and for us to send this to you. So ladies, we want to help you in whatever ways we can women, world leaders to come alongside you and encourage you and just walk with you. So there are many ways that you can get involved within this ministry please just reach out to us and we are grateful to have this time together and we're gonna close it out and I just again want to thank our guests Danielle Gibbons, and Danielle Do you want to share your Facebook group that people could find you? Danielle Gibbons   Sure sure. So you can find me at cherished and found on Instagram and Facebook. I mainly use my platform by Instagram and that ch e r i s h e d a n d f o u n d cherished and found because you are so cherished and you were found by him. Kimberly Hobbs   He man there you go. Thank you so much Danielle and we are so grateful that you are now part of women world leaders that you are joining the journey with us and look for her ladies. She is going to be in the next edition the second quarter of voice of truth. And we're excited about that and then look for the upcoming books around yielded yielded with purpose. God bless you all. Thank you for joining us. And just remember that women world leaders, podcasts are copyrighted. All the content is copyrighted by women, world leaders and cannot be used without expressed written consent. Have a nice day. God bless you and we will see you next Monday.    

PSALM 100 (A Psalm of Thanksgiving) 1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. —Psalm 100:1-5 (KJV) PSALM 100 In The New Living Translation it is titled…“A Psalm for Thanksgiving.” This is the only psalm with this title. “Thanksgiving” can also refer to a “thank offering.” The thank offering was for when someone was overwhelmed with the depth of gratitude to the LORD. So, if God does some amazing thing in your life, this is a psalm that could turn to. It will give you words for your overwhelming gratitude. 1 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. 2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. How can you joyfully serve the LORD? What you need is verse three. You need to …. Psalm 100:3 – Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Here is the Hebrew understanding, The “LORD” is in all capital letters and this is God's proper name. You must know that Yahweh Himself is God. He alone is the true and living God over all the earth. There is no one else. To joyfully serve, you need to know the LORD. Not only must you know that Yahweh is God, but also from verse 3, you must know that He is the One who made us, not we ourselves. He is our creator. Know that He has made us. Know that we are His people, His sheep (He is our sustainer) Not only is He our Creator, He is also our sustainer. IF WE REALLY KNOW THE LORD THEN WE SHOULD PRESENT ourselves gladly to the LORD for service and worship!! Same kind of command that Paul gives to the Romans in Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. “What does this spiritual service of worship looks like.” That's Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” In Psalm 100, we understand that these verses would apply to us in that we are to know the LORD and that as we increase in our intimate knowledge of who God is, we will serve Him with gladness and joy. We will know that we did not make ourselves, but that He made us that we are His people the sheep of His pasture. It works the same way with verses four and five. Verse four emphasizes the idea of Thanksgiving. Psalms 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. But how will you thankfully enter into His courts? By, verse five, knowing something. You must know the LORD. Thankfully serve Him … Psalm 100:5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth (loving-kindness in another translation) endureth to all generations. So, to serve the LORD thankfully or joyfully, you first must know Him. Psalm 100 The KEY to serving GOD with all your heart and being FILLED WITH JOY AND THANKSGIVING every day of the year doing it is very simple…you have got to KNOW GOD, and how good He is. Connect with Us: https://flow.page/thecrossrds Streaming License # CCLI: CSPL043706

God gave His best gift first. "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" That's Romans 8:32, one of the verses we'll look at today. We like to give the lesser gifts first, and build up to the Big One. God starts with His most precious Gift to show that He's keeping nothing back - it's all ours. Here's Part 1 of the sermon, Blessed Assurance. Jim will open with prayer. Listen to Right Start Radio every Monday through Friday on WCVX 1160AM (Cincinnati, OH) at 9:30am, WHKC 91.5FM (Columbus, OH) at 5:00pm, WRFD 880AM (Columbus, OH) at 9:00am. Right Start can also be heard on One Christian Radio 107.7FM & 87.6FM in New Plymouth, New Zealand. You can purchase a copy of this message, unsegmented for broadcasting and in its entirety, for $7 on a single CD by calling +1 (800) 984-2313, and of course you can always listen online or download the message for free. RS10132021_0.mp3Scripture References: Romans 8:31-39

The Daily Radio Bible Podcast takes listeners through the Bible in one year with Hunter Barnes. Listen on Spotify Google Podcast or Apple Podcasts become an ambassador for the podcast and share with your friends. Share with one person and I'll give you a shout out on the podcast, share with 10 and I'll send you a "You Are Loved" t-shirt! CLICK HERE TO SHARE or visit us at www.dailyradiobible.com Music provided by David Nevue find out more at www.davidnevue.com Transcription begins here: Paul is drawn to the comparison of Christ and Adam. Paul sees Christ as undoing all that was done in Adam. What Adam did lead to death and division. What Christ has done, leads to life and union with God. In chapter 5 of Romans, Paul says this. Adam is a symbol of representation of Christ, who is yet to come. But there's a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam brought death to many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness to many, through the other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of the one man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam caused death to rule over many, but even greater is God's wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness for all who receive it, we live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Yes, Adams. One sin brings condemnation to everyone. But Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. That's Romans 5:12- 18. Christ has undone, what Adam has done. And the news is really good. Amen. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hunter-barnes9/message

The Daily Radio Bible Podcast takes listeners through the Bible in one year with Hunter Barnes. Listen on Spotify  Google Podcast  or Apple Podcasts   become an ambassador for the podcast and share with your friends.  Share with one person and I'll give you a shout out on the podcast, share with 10 and I'll send you a "You Are Loved" t-shirt!  CLICK HERE TO SHARE  or visit us at www.dailyradiobible.comMusic provided by David Nevue find out more at www.davidnevue.com  Transcription begins here: Paul is drawn to the comparison of Christ and Adam. Paul sees Christ as undoing all that was done in Adam. What Adam did lead to death and division. What Christ has done, leads to life and union with God. In chapter 5 of Romans, Paul says this. Adam is a symbol of representation of Christ, who is yet to come. But there's a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam brought death to many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness to many, through the other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of the one man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam caused death to rule over many, but even greater is God's wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness for all who receive it, we live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Yes, Adams. One sin brings condemnation to everyone. But Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. That's Romans 5:12- 18. Christ has undone, what Adam has done. And the news is really good. Amen.

Introduction Turn in your Bibles to James 2. we'll look this morning at verses 14-26. In many ways, this is the theological center of the Book of James. As James, I think, is very practical and throughout five chapters is giving us evidences, or perhaps tests of what genuine, saving faith looks like. Not just here in this one place, but throughout all five chapters. And so, it's vital for us to understand these verses, and they are not easy to understand. We need to be able to harmonize this text with Paul's teaching in Romans 3, we need to be able to see the scripture as what it is, the inerrant and the perfect word of God. I. On the Perfection of Scripture and Apparent Contradictions Our Entire Lives Are Founded on the Perfection of Scripture The salvation of our eternal souls depends on scripture. It depends on the written word of God, and the perfection of scripture. The Bible says very plainly that the word of God is flawless. In other words, that there are no errors in Scripture. It says in Psalm 18 in verse 30, "As for God, his way is perfect, the word of the Lord is flawless." And again, Psalm 12:6 says the same thing, "The words of the Lord are flawless, like silver, refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times over." Now why is this true? Why is the scripture perfect? Well, because all scripture is God-breathed, 2 Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is breathed out by God, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." Also the origin of Scripture is taught plainly in 2 Peter Chapter 1:21, it says, "Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." So the mind of God is perfect. As the text says that we just heard God is one. And what that means is there's no contradiction within the mind of God. He's never confused about anything, he is never at a loss for words, he never has no idea what to say. Once having said something he never has to double back and retract something that he said or add to it later because it was inadequate in any way. The word of God is perfect because the mind of God is perfect. And so, the doctrine of inerrancy is vital to the salvation of our souls. The Doctrine of Inerrancy is Vital If we knew that the Bible were, for example, 99% accurate what would you do with that knowledge? Would not your imagination be running amok? Would you not wonder constantly about that 1%? And wouldn’t it crop up every time the Scripture crossed you in some way? In some way taught you something you didn't quite understand or in some way got in your business, got in your grill and convicted you about something? Would you not wonder about that 1%? And pretty soon 1% might become 2%. And effectively 5% and then 10%, and after a while you're not sure about any of it at all. So inerrancy is vital. Now, the essence of liberal theology is to teach us that the Bible is essentially a human book. It's what people in the past thought about religion, what people in the past thought about God. It's kind of an evolutionary view as well as we're getting more and more evolved. We understand spirituality, we've gone beyond the archaic teachings of the Bible. You've heard this kind of thing. Well, in our denomination there was a battle fought for the Bible called the Battle of the Bible in the 1970s. And was specifically over what kinds of things would be taught in the seminaries. Would the seminaries teach liberal theology? That the Bible is essentially a human book and then get up on Sundays and preach like that, or would the seminaries train men to preach the word as inerrant as the word of God. And we praise God that despite the overall tendency of mainline denominations to slide toward liberalism, the Southern Baptist Convention was willing to turn back to the doctrine of inerrancy, and therefore we have to continue to be vigilant and to fight for it. The Complexity of Words However, words are complex, words are challenging. Paul himself said that we “see through a glass darkly.” That is, when we read scripture, it's not the same as seeing God face-to-face. We're going to have an infinitely clearer understanding of truth in heaven than we do right now, and words are part of the problem. It is by words that God saves us. “I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation.” And the Gospel is a set of words instead of doctrines about Jesus and about ourselves and about God, etcetera. But words can be difficult. They can challenge us. Married couples, you know very well what I'm talking about. Have you ever just talked past each other? And you have to go back and define terms? It's like, "No, no, no, you don't understand what I'm saying." Maybe that only happens with me and my wife, where you get just snared in your words, it's like, "Do we even understand what we're talking about?" Politicians do this, they just talk right by each other. And it's like, "Are we even operating from the same dictionary with the same definitions?" I mean, English is a strange language. It wasn't until I tried to teach it in Japan that I realized what a weird language we speak. And any of you who have done English as a second language, you've done some of this teaching, you realize how bizarre it is. Like the spelling rules are weird. But even some things like this, like complete and incomplete are opposites, right? But flammable and inflammable are synonyms. Figure that out. Give and take are opposites. But a caretaker, and a caregiver is the same person. I've never been able to figure that out, is a caregiver somebody who gives care or takes care? I don't know. Tell me afterwards what you think about that. Or this one, I could care less and I couldn't care less. Don't they mean the same thing? So, we're constantly struggling with this and it happens even theologically, even in the Book of James. He uses a word in one way, “peirazo,” the Greek word for “try” or “test” and says that God does do that, he tests us and tries us. But he uses the same word a little later, which means in that context tempt saying, "God never tempts us." Exact same Greek word. Or you could look at the word for lust, epithumia in the Greek. It also means strong desire, and so obviously, all of our temptations are based on lust but the same Greek word is used for the Holy Spirit's deep desire over our hearts, that he yearns for us deeply. Same Greek word. Or again, the word translated zeal or jealousy, “zelos” in the Greek. Sometimes it's the one, sometimes the other. We're told that we should not have a carnal jealousy for one another, but we should never be lacking in zeal toward God. Context is king. So this is the challenge of language and God has entrusted the salvation of our souls to the words of Scripture, but that doesn't mean that the words are easy to understand. And therefore, 2 Timothy 2:15 says, to Timothy, as a pastor, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved. A workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Cutting it straight, handling it properly. And so, we go to seminary, those that are set apart as preachers and we learn theology, we learn Church history, we learn exegesis, the original languages, so that we can rightly divide the word of truth. It's not always easy to understand. Now, the flaw is with us. There's nothing wrong with the scripture, it's not like God could have written it better. Jesus said to the Sadducees, who are basically the liberals of his day, "You are in error, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God." There's nothing wrong with the scripture, there's something wrong with us. And so we bring confusion, we bring double-mindedness to the scripture and that makes it hard for us to understand. The Apparent Contradiction So, what apparent contradiction are we talking about? Well, in Romans 3:28, Paul says these words, "We maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." A person is justified by faith, not works. But then look at verse 24 of our text today, James 2:24 says "You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone." So this is an apparent contradiction, and it's not insignificant, it's not like perhaps some difficulty with one genealogy and another genealogy, where a name seems to be skipped or something like that. This goes right to the heart of how it is that sinners are made right with God. Now because of this, Martin Luther, the great 16th century reformer had a very low view of the Book of James. He was constantly battling on the issue of justification by faith alone. When he realized that sinners are made right with God, forgiven of their sins by faith and not by works, he was liberated from that slavery that he was living under as a monk. He said, "If anyone could have ever won Heaven by monkery, it would have been me." You can picture him like in the recent Martin Luther movie, down on his hands and knees scrubbing a floor. And the floor is already clean, because he's already scrubbed it, but now he's scrubbing it some more. This is a man who spent constant hours confessing tiny sins of his mind and heart to his confessor, Father Staupitz. He was relentlessly afflicted by terror of Hell and by the fear of the Law. And then at last, he understood justification by faith alone. That simply by trusting in Christ and not by works are our sins forgiven. And he said, "It was like the gates of Heaven flew open and I walked in." But then he's got to debate on this with the Roman Catholic magisterium, with the Medieval Roman Catholic hierarchy and they're constantly battling and no doubt they threw James in his face. And so therefore, in 1522 when he wrote an introduction to the New Testament, he called the Book of James, "An epistle of straw." Because it has very little of the Gospel, about it. Well, the great man was wrong. So I know he's not here to defend himself, but he's fine, he's up in Heaven, he's not worried about what we think about him. But he was wrong. It's not an epistle of straw. Now, he did call him Saint James, and he didn't drop it out of the cannon. But I think he had a fundamental misunderstanding of these words. This is an apparent contradiction. There cannot be an actual contradiction in words spoken by God. And so we have to make an effort to harmonize what Paul says in Romans, and what James says here in chapter 2, because each of these scriptures are equally God-breathed. They're equally coming from the mind of God. Charles Spurgeon once, when he was talking about the debate on Calvinism, on divine sovereignty and human responsibility, he was asked, "How do you reconcile the doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty over salvation and the doctrine of human responsibility?" And Spurgeon said, "I would never try. I never have to reconcile friends. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility have never had an argument or falling out with one another. They're very good friends. So I wouldn't make any effort to try to reconcile them." End quote. So it is with this, there is an apparent contradiction and we don't need to reconcile them. They are teaching vital aspects of the salvation of our souls, and we need to try to harmonize them. II. The Crown Jewel of the Gospel: Justification by Faith Alone The Central Issue of Sinful Humanity is Salvation The second part of my outline says this, "The crown jewel of the Gospel is Justification by Faith Alone.” The central issue of human salvation is how sinners like us can stand righteous before God, on Judgment Day. And then for all eternity in heaven." How can we go to heaven? How can sinners like us stand before a God who, the Scripture says is a consuming fire? The angels, the holy angels cover their faces, and they cry, "Holy, holy, holy." Isaiah, a godly man and a prophet said, "Woe is me, I'm ruined. For I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord almighty." How can sinners like us be made right with God? "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23. God is perfectly holy, he has a perfect record of our actions and of the inclinations of our hearts. And how can we be made right in his sight? We could never save ourselves. And so God did it, by sending his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is begotten by the power of the Holy Spirit. Who is born fully God, fully man, who lived a sinless life, as recorded in the scriptures. Who did all these great teachings, who did all these incredible miracles but especially he was crucified on the cross as a substitutionary atonement for our sins. On the third day, God raised him from the dead. That is the Gospel. But how are we sinners to tap into that? How are we to connect with that work of Christ? And the Bible makes it very, very plain that we are justified by faith alone, apart from any works we could ever do. How Are Sinners Made Right With God? Listen to Romans Chapter 4:5, "To the one who does not work but trust him who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited to him as righteousness." That maybe, probably the clearest and most important verse on justification by faith apart from works in the Bible. Let me read it again. Romans 4:5, "To the one who does not work but trust him who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness." Or again, Galatians 2:16, "We know that a person is not justified by observing the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, so we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the Law, because by observing the Law, no one will be justified." And again, Ephesians 2, 8 to 9, it says, "For by grace, are you saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one can boast." There are many other verses like this. This is the center-piece of the Gospel, this is the crown jewel of the Christian religion. Every other religion in the world is a religion of human works. All of them. There are Islamic good works, so defined. There are Buddhist good works, so defined. Hinduistic good works, so defined. Even the cults have their own system of works, inevitably flogging their members with a pattern of morality that they have to keep, in order to go to Heaven. All of the cults do it. Every religion in the world is a religion of human works and human endeavor, except for this one, the religion of God's sovereign grace. Martin Luther put it this way, "The Law says, do this and it is never done." The Gospel says, "Believe this man, and it is done already." So we're actually trusting in Jesus' works, not in our own. We're trusting in his perfect obedience to the Law, not in our own. We're trusting in his death, his bloody death on the cross to atone for our sins and pay the death penalty we deserve. So that we don't have to die eternally in Hell. That's the Gospel and that's the center-piece of Christianity. John Calvin said this, "Wherever the knowledge of justification by faith is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished, religion is abolished, the Church is destroyed and the hope of salvation is utterly overthrown." So we believe that we are forgiven, made right in the sight of a Holy God by simple faith, not by good works. III. The Different Questions that Paul and James are Answering Outline point number three, “The Different Questions that Paul and James are Answering.” Now, Paul and James are seeking to answer different questions. Paul's question is, "How is a sinner made right with a Holy God? How can we be forgiven? How can we stand holy in his sight? How can we be welcomed into a perfect, holy heaven given that we have sinned?” And the answer is, by faith in Christ and not by works. But James' question is different. We could say two questions, first, "What kind of faith actually justifies?" And secondly, "How is that faith lived out or displayed in a genuinely saved person's life?" Those are the questions James is asking. Now Paul is also going to have to address those same questions. James and Paul are both true teachers of the true Gospel and they both had to address both sides of this equation. Paul’s Answers Now, Paul knew very well that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, apart from any works was open to misunderstanding and was open to slander and to being twisted. He knew that. Again and again in Romans, at least four times, he has to address slanderous accusations made against him and his doctrines. For example, he taught beautifully, and I love this verse, Romans 5:20, "Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more." Isn't that incredibly encouraging? You can't sin beyond God's provision of grace. So, I've pictured my sin as a fire. Sometimes like a match, sometimes like a torch, sometimes like a bonfire, sometimes like a raging inferno, and then God's provision of grace like the Pacific Ocean. And whether you take the match and put it in, or the torch, or the bonfire, or the raging inferno, and you drop it in the Pacific Ocean, God's grace is supra-abundant it's greater than all of our sins. And so where our sin abounds, grace abounds even more. Well, you know what's going to happen, as soon as you teach that, they're going to say, "Well then, why don't we just go on sinning, so that grace may abound?" Have you ever heard that before? That's Romans 6:1. Paul knew very well that that's what people would say. "Well, if that's true, then we can sin as much as we want. Sin to beat the band and then go to Heaven afterwards. Can live it up in sin, and then go to Heaven afterwards." And Paul has to say, "May it never be." And for three chapters, Romans 6, 7, and 8, he unfolds the doctrine of sanctification, of progressive holiness. Of what kind of life you should live if you are a genuinely justified person. And it's a life of holiness, it's a life of putting sin to death by the Spirit, it's a life of obedience. He teaches all that, Romans 6, 7, and 8. So he would not in any way disagree that not every kind of faith saves a sinner. There are different kinds of faith. Other religions have fanatically devoted adherence to their religion, and they have all kinds of faith that their religion is true. Jesus himself in his own day, had tons of people following him because they saw his miracles. But it says at the end of John 2, it said “many put their faith in Him because of the miracles, but Jesus would not entrust Himself to them because He knew all men and He did not need anyone's testimony about man because he knew what was in a man.” So just because it says someone believed, doesn't mean that it's a genuine saving faith. So James is getting at what kind of faith actually justifies. Obedience Does Not Add to Justification Now, Paul wants to be very, very clear, please don't misunderstand. It's not like you have faith as part one of your justification, and then you add good works as part two of your justification and those together are the way by which you are forgiven of your sins. That is a false doctrine. It's exactly what Paul is seeking to destroy concerning the Judaizers. The Judaizers said they believed in Jesus, they believed Jesus was the Son of God, they believed that Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead, they believed that forgiveness of sins was available in part by faith in Christ. But you had to add the Law of Moses, you had to add circumcision and all of the precepts of the Law of Moses, if you were going to be saved. Faith in Christ alone does not save you, it's faith plus works. That's the Gospel of the Judaizers. And he absolutely vigorously taught against that. You are fully, completely justified the moment you believe in Jesus. Justification is a perfected state from which you can never fall out. If you have been justified, genuinely justified, you're justified forever, forgiven forever, reconciled to God forever. God's at peace with you forever. That's the beauty of it. But now, you have a life to live. And what kind of life will you live and what kind of faith justifies? Now, I think Galatians 5:6 gives us a key harmonizing verse. We're going to come back to it, but I want to say it now and just get it in your mind. Galatians 5:6 says, "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only," listen to this, "faith working through love." Faith working through love. Hold on to that phrase. We're going to circle back and talk about it later. IV. Useless Faith, Dead Faith, Unproven Faith, and Demonic Faith Do Not Save a Soul Outline point number four, “Useless Faith, Dead Faith, Unproven Faith, and Demonic Faith Do Not Save a Soul.” So let's walk through each of these. The question James is addressing is, “What kind of faith saves a sinner?” Secondly, “How does that faith display itself in a person's actual life?” So the issue of what kind of faith comes up clearly in verse 14. Look at verse 14. "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?" That's one translation, or, "Can that faith save him?" Can that kind of faith that I'm about to describe or that I have described here, faith with no works, can that kind of faith save a soul? So we're dealing with the issue of what kind of faith do you have? All right, so James brings up four types of faith in James two: Useless faith, dead faith, unproven faith and demon faith. So let's walk through them. Useless Faith First, useless faith. Verse 14, "What good is it?" What good is it, what does it benefit, how does it profit, what difference does it make, that kind of thing? Does your faith do you or anyone else any good in this world? Is it good for anything? And if it's not, we would call it useless. Look at verses 15-16, the example he gives. "Suppose your brother or sister is without clothes and daily foods. If one of you says to him, 'Go. I wish you well. Keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?" What good is it? So, there's a practical need, you see the need, and you do literally nothing to meet it. What good is it if the person's trembling, shivering with cold, and they haven't eaten anything in a day, and you say, "Go, I wish you well," and you pat them on the back and send them on their way? James is ridiculing that. Their stomach is still growling and they're still trembling. They have interacted with you, a supposed believer in Christ, and nothing has changed at all. You have made no impact on the person's life, no impact on their experience. What good is it? He's going to say the same thing in verse 20. "You foolish man. Do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?" So the word there is “idol,” or “lazy,” or “unemployed.” Your faith is unemployed, it's an unemployed faith. As though I think your faith is the sluggard of the Book of Proverbs. You remember the character, the sluggard. What an interesting individual the sluggard is. "As a door turns on its hinges, so the sluggard turns in its bed." Or look at the sluggard, he dips his bread into the dish, but he will not bring it to his mouth. He needs his mommy to help him, help him to feed. “Just, would you please just lift this bread with the sop into my mouth? Thank you so much.” The sluggard makes excuses saying, "There's a lion out in the streets. Who knows, I might get mauled," and so he stays home for the day. And you look at his house and it's overgrown with weeds, and the roof is falling apart. It's the life of the sluggard. That's the word that's used here. Your faith is like that, it's a sluggard faith. It doesn't do anything in this world, it's useless. James does not want a congregation of so-called believers whose faith makes no difference in the world in which they live. Dead Faith Secondly, dead faith. Look at verse 17. "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." So James goes even further, he calls it a dead faith. There's no life there. And that's vital, isn't it? Because Jesus comes to give us eternal life. And if your faith is dead, it means you have no life. You're not alive in Jesus. You're actually dead in your transgressions and sins. You don't actually have spiritual life, it's a dead faith. Now, the key issue here has to do with fruit. If there's no fruit, there's no life. And so, what is fruit? And that's vital for us as we read the New Testament. What kind of fruit are we looking at? And I'll talk about it at the very end of the message here, but the Bible defines what good fruit is. One preacher said there's two main categories of fruit: Attitude fruit and action fruit. So attitude fruit would be the internal attitudes of your heart, the fruit of the Spirit. Those are demeanors and dispositions of your heart. But then there's action fruit, and that's what James is talking about here. It just rolls out into actual things that you've done. But if there's no fruit, there's no life. Jesus said, in Matthew 12:33, "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good. Make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad. For a tree is known by its fruit." Or, again, Jesus said in John 15, "I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." A few verses later, he says, "Such fruitless branches, that are on the ground, are collected, picked up and thrown into the fire and burned." So in other words, he's saying if there's a branch that's in Christ in some sense, they're not grafted in, but it's hanging on. Could imagine a vibrant vine and then a branch that's been cut off, it's not connected, and it's just laying on top of the grape vine. There's no genuine life, it little by little, starts to wither and it gets faded, it gets yellow, then it gets brown, then black. It's dead. And you can see it especially when the time comes for harvest. Spurgeon said, "The source of the apple tree's life is the root. Whether it has apples or not, the source of the tree’s life is the root. But, in the spring, if that tree has no little bud, and if that bud doesn't develop into a leafy cluster, and if that doesn't develop into a tiny little green hard apple, and if that doesn't develop into a rosy red or pink apple, then there's no life in the tree.” So you have to see the fruit in order to see the life. Now, the fruit does not create the life, it proves it, it gives evidence that there actually is life there. Dead faith produces no fruit because there's no life in it. Unproven Faith Thirdly, unproven faith. Verse 18. So this is kind of like Missouri, the “Show Me” state. I wonder, where did they get that name? I'm just curious. Were there a bunch of people that were like, "I don't believe it. I don't believe it. Show me." All right, so you got the Show Me state. So if any of you are from Missouri or know the answer, I would like to know the answer. All right, it's like, show me that you have faith. If you just tell me that you have faith, I have no way of knowing. Look in verse 18. "Someone will say you have faith, I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds and I'll show you my faith by what I do." So genuine, saving faith produces a transformed nature. Jesus called it being born again. So if you have a genuine faith in Christ, you're given a new nature. "If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is gone, everything becomes new," 2 Corinthians 5:17. You've become changed. There's a new nature. But that new nature has to show itself, it has to act out. It is a heart issue. It is a heart issue. You don't move a muscle to be justified. The thief on the cross didn't move a muscle to believe that Jesus was the coming king. But if he had never said anything, we would not have known that he was saved. Jesus would not have said, "Today, you'll be with me in paradise," just by reading his mind, though he could read it. It was the fact that he said something. He couldn't do anything, but he was speaking. So there has to be movement. It has to move a muscle. You have to talk a certain way, and then walk a certain way, and do certain things if you are genuinely a born again. And the cases of Abraham and Rahab, that James is going to bring up, show faith tested and proven is genuine, and that only happens with works. Now, I believe that James may be using the word "justified" differently than Paul. I think that's part of the problem here. I think Paul is, when he says that we are justified by faith apart from works, I think that means before God, vertically, in standing with God, as in a court of law, acquitted, declared righteous, legally by God the judge. That's how he means "justified by faith apart from works". I think with James, it's much more vindicated or proven. The individual is vindicated as a righteous person, vindicated or proven as having genuine faith. It has to be proven. We'll talk more about that in a moment. Demon Faith The fourth kind of defective faith, verse 19, is demon faith. Look at verse 19. It says, "You believe that there is one God. Good. Even the demons believe that and shutter." Now, this may be the key issue. On what basis do individuals, who are not genuinely born again, claim that they are Christians? Generally, it means that they assent to the Christian doctrines. They assent that those doctrines are true. And if asked by someone in a poll, "Are you a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etcetera?" They're going to say, "Christian." 65% of the American population claims to be Christian. But if you were to ask them on what basis, they'd say, "Well, I believe the things that the Christian Church teaches," things like that. What James is saying here is that assent, agreement, to orthodox doctrine is not enough to save your soul. It is necessary, but not sufficient. That's a logical term. You need it, without it you cannot be saved, but it's not enough. And why does he say that? He gives the example of demons. The demons have orthodox doctrine. They know the Ps and Qs, and all that. They can dot every I and cross every T. They know they know the Bible far better than anyone in this room. Satan knows the Bible far better than we do. So demons understand, for example that there is one God and only one God, the oneness of God. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." They know that there are not many gods and goddesses. They know that very well, they're the ones that concocted the gods and goddesses. They know that Jupiter and Venus and Aphrodite are not real. They're god and goddess impersonators. They know that there is one God. And so, James is saying, “if that's you, you believe that there is one God, good. That's a good thing, but the demons believe it too and they shudder.” The Demons Shudder Now, what does that mean, that they shudder? One of two possibilities. First and foremost, simply, they shudder in terror. They're terrified of the one God. They know that their time is short. Satan, in Revelation 12, knows that his time is short, that he's going to end up in the Lake of Fire. All of his angels, the devil and his angels, are in rebellion against Almighty God. And when Jesus came and started driving out demons, one of the demons said, "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time? I know who you are, the Holy One of God." They were terrified of Jesus. They knew that there's a time coming when they're going to be judged. And so, they believe that there is one God and they are terrified of him, they shudder. That's one way of understanding the shuttering. The other could be a shuddering of revulsion. They shudder at every true doctrine of the Bible because they hate them all. They hate God, the hate human beings, they hate righteousness, they hate everything pure and holy. And so, it's not enough to just believe that things are true. The question is, is your heart attracted to it, is it amiable to you, is it delightful to you? Do you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Do you love your neighbor as yourself? It's a matter of love and affection. And so the demons believe that there is one God. By the way, that's an interesting insight into the spiritual realm. What it means is they don't see God all the time, they have to believe in God like we do. It's not like God's in their face all the time, they have to kind of be brought into his presence, as in the Book of Job. And so they're just moving around in a spiritual realm like we are in a physical realm. They don't see the Holy God all the time, but they believe he's there, and they know what's going to happen. And some day, he's going to judge them and condemn them. So, in the end, it all boils down to two different issues. Useless faith, dead faith, and unproven faith all lack deeds. There are no corresponding works. But demon faith lacks loving relationship with God vertically, a loving connection or intimacy with God. And so let's go back to that harmonizing verse, Galatians 5:6, "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but only faith working through love." So what does that mean? True faith justifies the sinner, causes the righteousness of Christ to be imputed, credited, or reckoned to us, and then transforms the heart and gets it busy in work. It makes your heart healthy and active and energetic. It starts to work through love. Your heart now sees God vertically as beautiful, attractive, the loving Heavenly Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, it sees your neighbor as yourself and you start to move out in love. It starts to work in love. And so genuine, saving faith works. It energetically works in love. And so, the issue is clearly addressed. Verses 15-16, "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. Suppose one of you says to him, 'Go. I wish you well. Keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs. What good is it?" Well, saving faith would never do that. Saving faith is going to say, "What can I do to help this brother or sister without clothes or daily food?" Just like we saw with the talking about orphans and widows, to look after orphans and widows in their distress, to actually do something to care for them. Not just come and visit them, but to make certain that their needs are met. Just as we've been saying in the sheep and the goats, when the Son of Man comes, he's going to gather all of his sheep together and he's going to say to his sheep, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison, you came to visit me." Now, Jesus is not saying because or on the basis of those works, your sins were forgiven. That would be justification by works. But he's saying this is the evidence of the fact that you are in fact my sheep. V. Two Famous Case Studies: Abraham and Rahab Case #1: Abraham Well, he then gives us two case studies, Abraham and Rahab. And this is where the verbiage gets so difficult. Let's walk through these case studies. First, Abraham. Verses 21-24, "Was not Abraham, our ancestor, justified for what he did when he offered his son, Isaac, on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God and it was credited him as righteousness,' and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone." Well, James knows very well that this text in Genesis 15, where God says to Abraham, "Come out and look up at the starry sky, look at all those beautiful stars up there in the night sky.” And then He made him a promise, "So shall your offspring be." And he knows that Abraham believed that promise and right there and then, it was credited to him as righteousness. Romans 4 zeros in on that moment when Abraham, who Paul calls wicked in that he was an idolater, an unbeliever but a sinner, when he was made righteous, he was reckoned as righteous. James knows about that whole account. But he also knows, as do we, of the testing of Abraham's faith, which actually happened over years, but especially in Genesis 22. You remember Genesis 22, in verse 1, "Some time later, God tested Abraham, saying, 'take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and offer him up as a burnt offering in one of the mountains I'll tell you about.'" Now that is a severe test of faith. And what did he do? Well, he obeyed. He got up and obeyed. He saddled up his donkey the next morning, he and his son went, they got to Mount Moriah where God identified it, they started going up the mountain, he stretched out his son, he took the dagger and he was just about to plunge it into his son's breast. Genesis 22, verse 10-12, "Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son, but the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham, Abraham.' 'Here I am,' he replied. 'Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do nothing to him.'" Now, listen to these words. "Now, I know that you fear God." It's incredible. That's God saying that Abraham, "Now, I know that you fear God since you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Now, the Lord knows everything. He knew Abraham's heart. He knew the future, he knew what he would do. But he wanted it acted out in space and time. He wanted actual works of obedience. And when those actual works occurred, then he can say, "Now, I know that you believe in Jesus because you have obeyed Me." And so that's the case study here. And then, the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God and it was credited as righteousness." It was lived out, it was vindicated. It was proven in space and time. Every single day we have opportunities to obey. Faith is like a magnet seeking iron to be attracted to. We are, as believers, looking for a command to obey, and there are many of them. As Jesus said, "Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded." There are so many commands; commands about our marriages, parenting, commands about our prayer lives, our money. Our lives are filled with commands in the New Testament, and in the old, that are still binding on us. And faith, genuine faith, is just looking for a way to obey just as Abraham did. Case #2: Rahab Case number two is Rahab. Verse 25, "In the same way, was not even Rahab, the prostitute, considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a direction, in a different direction?" So, Rahab believed in her heart that the God of the Hebrews was the true God and that the Jews were going to inherit the Promised Land, she believed that. Listen to what it says in Joshua 2:9-11. "I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting and fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you", listen to this, "for the Lord your God is God in Heaven above and on the earth below." So she had this heart faith, but then she had an opportunity to act on it. When the two spies came to her house, she hid them from the officials there in Jericho, and then sent them off in a different direction so that they would not be captured. And in this way, she physically saved herself and her family from destruction when the walls of Jericho fell. But more than that, she gave a clear example that she had a saving faith in the living God, faith just like the Old Testament saints did, that God is the God of heaven above and the earth below. And God had a special place for Rahab. She ended up making it into Jesus' genealogy. Isn't that incredible? She was King David's great grandmother. And so, she married Boaz, and Boaz gave birth to Obed, and Obed gave birth to Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David. And so, Rahab was in the lineage, the physical lineage, of Jesus. And we're going to see her in Heaven. And so, a sinner is made right with a Holy God simply by believing the Gospel, simply by trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. VI. Application Has that happened to all of you? Do you know that your sins are forgiven by simply trusting Christ? If you're not trusting in Christ, you are certainly trusting in your own works. It's what people do, “I'm basically a good person and my good works are going to outweigh my bad.” I hear this all the time. I would say throw that away. None of our works is pure in the sight of God. None of us. None of our works are perfect. They cannot justify us. Trusting in Christ alone. But once you've done that, what kind of life are you going to live for the rest of your life? What kind of works are you going to display? I want to give you, just quickly, what kinds of works you should look for. First of all, works of repentance, where you realize you are grieved over your sin. You don't just accept the sin in your life, you're grieved over it, you hurt over it, you seek it out. You say, "Lord, show me the sins of my life. I'm not going to be complacent about the sins of my life." So, works of repentance, of confession of sin, of seeing it and fighting against it. Works of secret piety. Are you meeting with the Lord daily, taking in the word of God? Are you praying? Do you go into your prayer closet? It doesn't have to be a physical closet, but do you have a secret prayer life? Do you commune with God through the Holy Spirit throughout the day? Do you have a sense of intimacy with Christ, works of secret piety? Thirdly, works of obedience. I just said a moment ago, are you seeking out ways you can say to Jesus, "I will obey you"? Are you willing to sacrificially obey? Very few of us are going to be tested as much as Abraham was tested, but God does test us. Are you willing to do difficult things? Sacrificial obedience, patterns in your life. Works of separation from the world. In what way are you saying, "I don't want the world's stuff, I'm not interested in the world's lust. I'm not interested in the world's bag"? Are you actually turning away from the world's entertainment patterns and the world's values. Are you increasingly separated from this world? None of us is that perfectly, but if you recognize the corruption of the things in this world, and you hate it, and you don't want any part of it, you want to be pleasing to God and you want to go to Heaven when you die, you want to live a supernatural kind of life, works of separation. And then, finally, works of love. Certainly works of love to God, heartfelt worship, where it's not true of you when you come to corporate worship, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from [God]." You've got a heart filled with the desire to praise him. And then, you sing and you pray like somebody who genuinely loves God. But then, horizontally, you're loving your neighbors as yourself; could be orphan and widow care, it could be those administering to the poor and needy, it could be evangelism. You're seeking to alleviate suffering, whatever way you can make people suffering in this world, and even more importantly in the next, less so that they will not suffer eternally, but will have eternal life. But then, you can alleviate some physical suffering now. Are you doing those kinds of works? Prayer Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the clarity of the word of God. It is not easy always for us to understand it and how we can harmonize justification by faith alone and then that energetic life of good works. As you said to your disciples, "Anyone who believes in me will do the work that I've been doing, and greater works than these will he do." For 20 centuries, the church has been pouring out great works, works of faith. And so Lord, I pray for First Baptist Church. Help us to make a huge difference in this community, that it would make a difference whether this church is even here or not, that we would be evangelistically powerful, and that we would be mercy ministry powerful. That we would be the kind of church that's doing a river of good works for your glory, not to earn our place or to forgive our sins, but that we might shine as lights in a dark place. In Jesus' name, amen.

I. The Beauty of a Skilled Craftsman Amen. So turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12, we resume our study. As we move through this incredible epistle, we come to the beginning of an extensive study that we will do, if the Lord wills, on spiritual gifts. And I've got to tell you how excited I am just to be back here. I just love this church, I love being here and I missed you. I know it's hard to believe, I would rather be here than on vacation. And so at the end of vacation, I'm always excited to get back. But I'm especially excited to be able to begin teaching you on spiritual gifts. It's an incredibly important topic. My desire is to use the faithful unfolding of the Word of God to strengthen each of you to do your spiritual gift ministry. I fear that some of you are not doing any spiritual gift ministry at all. Others are being very faithful and energetic and diligent in it and everything in between, and I know therefore the Word of God can minister to make those that are already being fruitful and are serving faithfully even more energetic, even more skillful in their service. But also to call those that, up to this point, have not been using their spiritual gifts and not ministering into a pattern of faithful service. And you'll be delighted you did on Judgment Day. Now, as I'm thinking about the idea of spiritual gifts, so many analogies come into my mind. And this morning, I was thinking about how much my family has enjoyed traveling to Williamsburg in Virginia and to see skillful craftsmen who do different tasks. And I love all of the things that they do. I love the leather workers, the gunsmith, the potters, all that. But I especially love the joiners or the cabinet makers, those that work with wood, because I fancy myself a woodworker from time to time. They would laugh if they saw the things that I've made and especially my power tools, because they use just those hand-made tools, those hand tools. There were no power tools back in the Colonial Era. And so I remember standing, looking at the cabinet maker as he was working with a piece of walnut and he was shaping and carving a leg for, I think, a table, and it had some kind of a claw with a ball, and he was just using just different tools to shape the foot and the ball. And so he had saws, and he had chisels, and he had planes, and the chisels in particular, he had like 10 or 15 different sizes and shapes. The thing that I was really impressed with was how orderly they were. They were all laid out. I don't work like that. I have a very disorderly approach. As soon as I'm done with a tool, I kinda drop it and move to the next one and then, where's my screwdriver? I don't know where it is. But this individual, as soon as he used something, he would put it back in its place. And he had an array of files of different sizes and different coarseness or fineness, and just that skill to be able to pick up that tool and use it. So I want you to have that image in your mind, that the Lord has made each of us a tool for a specific purpose. That we are tools in the hands of a master craftsman, Almighty God. And that He picks up individuals and uses them in a very specific way to achieve a specific end, and He does that through them again and again. That you are tools in the hands of Almighty God, crafted and fitted for a specific purpose. Get that picture in your mind. And I also want you to step back and see how incredibly gracious this is of God, to use you this way. This is just part of the lavish grace of God in the Gospel, isn't it? How it says in Ephesians 2:8 and 9, "For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast." And so we have been justified. We've been forgiven of all of our sins by the sovereign grace of God contrary to what we deserve, as the psalmist says that truly he does not treat us as our sins deserve, Amen? And He has covered all of our sins by the blood of Christ, by simple faith, not by works. But then, Ephesians 2:10 goes on to say something very important for how we should live the rest of our lives once we've received the forgiveness of sins. Once we've been justified by faith, apart from works, we have a lifetime of good works to do. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that He has prepared in advance, that we should walk in them." So God. In an amazing, sovereign, complex, providential way, has a pathway of good works laying out in front of each of you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, in front of each of you, that He has prepared in advance and He wants you to walk in them. But the other side is true as well. He prepares you in advance to do them. And what you're going to find in that pathway of good works is that some of them are just general Christian good works, things that we're all called to do as Christians. They're not unique to any one class of Christian, all of us are to have quiet times, all of us are to read the Bible and pray. We're to speak biblical truth to one another, encourage one another. We are to offer hospitality, open our homes and have people in our homes. We are to give financially. We are to give our tithes and our offerings to the service of the Lord, all of us have those kinds of gifts, we are to share the Gospel, all of us have the responsibility of evangelism. And so, the just general good works that God prepares, but then what you're going to find with spiritual gifts is that God's going to organize a large percentage of your good works along a certain pattern. It's not going to be all of your good works, but a large percentage of them are going to be done in line... Lined up with your spiritual gift package, your spiritual gift, your special abilities, and He wants it that way. He wants you to specialize and focus and develop your abilities in that area. Long, long time ago in my Christian life, I learned that mine was to be teaching and preaching the Word, and so it took a lot of time to prepare for that, to go to seminary, to sit at the feet of great teachers in the past, living and dead, to learn from them their theology and their pattern of ministry and get myself ready for this calling, and I'm continuing to learn how to preach and teach. I'll never stop, there's no end. But so it is with other people, that they have the ability to discover their spiritual gifts, and then to develop them. To get better and better at them over time and then to deploy them, use them. And so that's the pattern that I want you to keep in mind over the next number of weeks as we study spiritual gifts. Now as we do, we need to see how gracious God is to us in this. He has delivered you from wasting your life. Isn't that marvelous? He has delivered you from spending the rest of your days here on Earth in futility. Doing things that will be dust in the wind, chaff on a threshing floor, steam or the early morning mist that blows away. He's delivered you from wasting your time. Think about how gracious that is. He did not have to do that. But unbelievers that we're surrounded with all the time, they are wasting their lives on things that will not matter, they have no eternal consequence. They are building careers and accumulating wealth, and they're advancing in secular patterns and paths that we know are going to be chaff on Judgment Day. The Scripture says in Isaiah 40, "All flesh is grass, and all their glory is like the flower of the field, the grass withers, and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever." We are delivered from being chaff, and being grass that will be burned up on Judgment Day. Also the Book of Ecclesiastes speaks of the vanity, the futility of people who live apart from God, who live a life as if there is no resurrection from the dead, as if this life is all there is, they're wasting their lives. As it says in Ecclesiastes 1:14, it says, "I have seen all things that are done under the sun, all of them are meaningless, a chasing after wind." But we have been delivered from that, we have been delivered from vanity, we have been delivered from a meaningless existence, a chasing after the wind. Instead, the Lord has prepared in advance a bunch of good works, a pattern of good works, and He wants you to walk in them, and you will be delighted on Judgment Day that you did them. And that's exciting, isn't it? It's exciting for me to look at your faces, to see you with the eyes of faith, and to see you not only what you will be, radiant and glorious, shining like the sun in the kingdom of your Father, that is what you will be, brothers and sisters, but also see you as what you are right now. Already redeemed, already adopted, and already tools or instruments in the hands of a sovereign God to be used, and that's exciting. So my task, my calling, is to get you ready for good works. And as you do those good works, the body of Christ will build up. We're going to talk more about that from Ephesians 4 next week. There's so much to say. II. What Are Spiritual Gifts? So let's begin and just say, "Alright, what are we talking about? What are spiritual gifts?" Look at verse 1, "Now, about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant." So Paul is zeroing in on the next issue, the next topic, the Greek word here is "spirituals," literally "spirituals" which in the Greek understanding of that word "that which has its origin in the spirit, those things that come from the spirit," that's what he's discussed. But he uses other words, in verse 4, he uses the word "charisma," which is related to the word for gift, like a gift. Grace, the word grace is related to that, we see that same word in Romans, Romans 12:6. Also verse 5, he uses the word "diakonon" or ministries. So, you have ministries, services, patterns of service. And then verse six has the word "energama," Greek word "energama," like for energetic. That would be translated "activities, workings, effects." So there's just a lot of different words to describe this issue, this idea of spiritual gifts. So let me give you a definition that I wrote, just something to try to pull together these various concepts. Spiritual gifts are special abilities given by the triune God to Christians to enable them to do specific spiritual ministries to build up the body of Christ, or the church of Christ. Let me read that again. Spiritual gifts are special abilities given by the triune God to Christians to enable them to do specific spiritual ministries to build up the church of Jesus Christ. So special abilities given for spiritual ministry, does that make sense? That's just keep it simple. So for me, in the 10 years I served as a mechanical engineer, my mechanical engineering was not a spiritual gift. It's the way I earned a living, etcetera, but it didn't build up the body of Christ. Instead, we see other words that are given that give us a sense of what they are. They are essentially spiritual and they're used for building other human beings up, winning them out of darkness into the light of Christ through evangelism, and then building them up in sanctification. That's what gifts are for, the spiritual gifts are all about. Essential to God’s Saving Purpose for His People Now, Paul's desire here in verse 1 is that they would not be ignorant about spiritual gifts. And so here again, we see the primacy of the teaching ministry in everything. Everything starts with the ministry of the Word of God. You need to know what spiritual gifts are in order to do them, in order to follow them, and so he doesn't want them to be ignorant. He wants to teach the Corinthian church about spiritual gifts. And this is essential to God's saving purpose for His people, spiritual gifts are essential to His plan of salvation. They're not tangential. He wants to include us, the redeemed, in His work of redemption. He has actual roles for us to play. Before the foundation of the world, God ordained that His elect would be saved from sin and brought into the perfect unity of the Body of Christ, eternally one with Him and with each other in heaven, that's His eternal saving plan. But He also ordained that that salvation should be a process, justification, sanctification, glorification. We talked about that many times, and that each Christian should play a vital role in other people being saved. God planned all of this out before the foundation of the world, it's very exciting. And so spiritual gifts are given to each and every Christian, and the working of these gifts is essential to His eternal plan to save, and ultimately glorify, the elect. So that's what spiritual gifts are all about, we have a role to play. Now, Paul's desire in writing these words centuries ago is that the Corinthian church should not be ignorant about spiritual gifts. It's essential that they understand these gifts properly and use them properly, and he's going to be teaching about spiritual gifts for three full chapters. So Paul doesn't do anything half-hearted or halfway. So we're going to get three chapters, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, 13 and 14 all have, as a centerpiece, the idea of the proper ministry of spiritual gifts, and it was the Holy Spirit's intention that Paul's letter to this one badly dysfunctional church, so long ago, should help us in so many ways. And so he wanted this instruction preserved through the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, and so every generation of churches, since that original first century, has been able to learn from what Paul said to the Corinthian church about spiritual gifts. So my desire, as I've said, is that each one of you members of First Baptist Church should have a spiritual gift ministry that you do consistently and regularly. That you're able to identify it, to articulate it, you know what it is, and you do it. That we would not have any come, listen and leave members at First Baptist Church, that's my desire. My desire is that we would blow apart the standard 80-20 split that you have in most local churches, where 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. And so instead, you have a bunch of people who really don't do anything to contribute to the spiritual vitality and growth of the church, and that is the tendency. So instead, we want to see the Lord use the ministry of the word, power of the Holy Spirit, to mobilize Christians to patterns of service. That's what we want to see. Now, when we talk about a spiritual gift, it's a bit of a misnomer. I think each of us have a spiritual gift package, a spiritual gift package. So, I don't know, it's... Different times, I've gone to speak at different gracious churches and they've left a package of gifts for me with fruit, and a jar of jelly, and crackers and all kinds of things, but I thought, "That's not a good image." So you're saying, "Well then, why did you mention it, pastor?" I don't know, but it's just this image that I have of a basket of good things. Another pastor used an analogy of a painter's palette, and I like that. You think about one of those Dutch masters, like Rembrandt, and you can picture him with a flat surface with this little thumb hole, I always picture his thumb up through the center. Maybe that's how... I don't know, I'm not a painter. But he's there in his painter's smock, with his cute painter's cap. I don't know if Rembrandt had all that going on. But as he was painting the painting, he would have an array of, not primary colors, but just initial colors, let's say eight or 10 of them. And then a central area where he would mix three or four of those together to get the skin color he was looking for, maybe the ruddy cheeks of a young girl, or maybe the more pallid, grayish expression of a man dying in bed, or the shiny silver of a sword, something like that, and he knew which colors to blend to get that... Get what he was looking for, that was part of the gift of being a painter. So in the same way, the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, arranges your personality and your experiences and what He put in you originally, and your experiences, all that together in a unique way to do a specific pattern of ministry that is recognizable, and there's a certain number of words that are given to those, such as administration, hospitality, evangelism, teaching, leadership, giving. There's a certain number of those and we know what those are. That makes sense, but how you do that is going to be unique to you. And so, I think of that in terms of a spiritual gift package. So for me, my calling is to be senior pastor of First Baptist Church here, and so my primary function is preaching the Word on Sunday mornings, but I also teach in other settings. In each of those settings, there's a different kind of dynamic, so it'll be a different way of preparing, but I also do counseling. I also do certain special functions like funerals, weddings. I also give visionary leadership to the elders along with others that have that kind of a gift, to see where, what direction we should be going in the next five or 10 years, and a variety of lesser functions that fit being a pastor. And so, for me, that's the array, and some of those gifts or abilities I have more pronounced than others, but there's this package or array for me. So it is for each one of you, you have an array of abilities that are going to fit into a pattern of ministry that God's going to use to build His church. Every Christian Has Spiritual Gifts Now, the key thing that we need to understand here, I think this is one of the things that prompted Paul to write, number of things that prompted him. We'll talk about the Corinthian context in a moment. But he wanted every one of the Christians in that church to know that he or she had a spiritual gift package, a spiritual gift ministry. Every single person. So look at verse 7, "Now to each one of you, to each one, the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good." So there is no one example, no one can say, "I don't have a spiritual gift ministry." Yes you do, if you're a Christian, you have a spiritual gift package and a ministry connected to that package that the Lord wants you to do. We see the same thing in Ephesians 4:7, "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. III. The Corinthian Context: Gifted and Dysfunctional Alright, let's talk now about the Corinthian context. And it wasn't good, friends, it was not good. What a mess. What a bunch of dysfunctional people coming together in complete mayhem. And that's about what was going on. And we see this in so many areas. They were very gifted. In 1 Corinthians 1:7 it says, "You do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed." Nothing was missing from that local church, everything they needed to do the mission and the ministry God wanted them to do there in Corinth was there. You do not lack any spiritual gift. But they were severely dysfunctional. And we've seen this at so many levels, remember in chapters 1 through 3, we have the discussion of their factions and divisions. And they're following the great leaders, "I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas..." And they had all that. There was carnality and immaturity, spiritual immaturity in them. There was worldliness that we see in Chapter 4 where they wanted to fit in with their pagan neighbors and to be esteemed by them, and treated like kings and to become wealthy in Corinthian society. They had those yearnings and those desires, there was a need for church discipline because there was sexual immorality, and they needed to do discipline but they weren't doing it, chapter 5. And then they were suing one another, there were lawsuits going on in the Corinthian church. And there was sexual immorality, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, different sexual sins that were going on, and there was all kind of sexual corruption in the Corinthian church, there were problems with marriage, misunderstandings about the gift of singleness, various issues he has to address in chapter 7. And then for three chapters, we walk through the problems with meat sacrificed to idols, paganism, idolatry, all of those things. And then Chapter 11, we talked about the issue of gender and authority, and there were women it seems, that were taking inappropriate leadership in their assembly together and not submitting to the male leadership in the church. And then there were massive problems with the Lord's Supper. They were getting drunk on communion wine, and gorging themselves, and others were getting nothing. And so there was all of this dysfunction, and man, you're going to see the same thing with spiritual gifts. There is disorder, there is pride, there is lack of love. So let's talk about pride first. They esteemed the showy gifts the most, the upfront gifts, the gift of prophecy, the gift of tongues, the upfront showy gifts. And they esteemed those that had those, and they did not esteem the more behind the scenes gifts like the gifts of service and helps. And so what that meant was there was this bifurcation, the haves and have-nots on spiritual gifts, where you have those that are the dramatic leaders, and they were going in for ecstasies, we'll get into all that in a moment, but they were very dramatic in their gifts, and everyone else was saying, "Well, I guess I don't have a role, I guess I don't belong to the body, I guess I don't fit in." And so there was for the have-nots, a feeling, "I didn't have a role to play." So there was that issue of pride, there was also a lack of love, they didn't seem to understand that gifts were to serve love horizontally, love from one to another. And so he talks about spiritual gift, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love…if I have the gift of prophecy… if I give all that I have to the poor… [all these are spiritual gifts] but if I have not love, I gain nothing." Spiritual gifts are temporary, all of them are temporary. In heaven, none of the gifts will be going on, you won't need them, you will see God face to face, and you won't need the working of the spiritual gifts. But we need them now. We need to understand in heaven there'll be love but in heaven there will not be spiritual gifts. And then there was just the problem with prophecy and tongues, and he devotes a whole chapter to that, because of the disorder. People were prophesying at the same time as each other. Cacophony, noise. And they were arrogant about it, belligerent. They were just... One prophet is speaking and the other one just starts speaking, and they would say, "I can't help it, the Spirit came upon me." Paul says, "You can help it." And so he's going to address all of that kind of mayhem, but look up at Chapter 14 for a minute and see the kind of disorder that's going on. Disorder in Public Worship One verse that... As I was saying about the disorder, because you had speaking in tongues languages, some of them they were claiming, I think, even heavenly tongues. But in any case, there wasn't translation going on and Paul addressed that from the perspective of the outsider coming in. Look at Verse 23, 14:23. He says, "If the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you're out of your minds?" That's a bad look for the church. You don't want unbelievers coming in from the outside saying, "You are all out of your minds." Or then, look a few verses later, verses 29 through 33, he gives rules about prophecy. "Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said, and if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop." Just basic manners here. "The first speaker should stop, for you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged." And then he says, "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the control of the prophets." In other words, I don't want to hear that you couldn't help yourself, the Spirit came upon you. The Spirit does not produce bad manners. And so if the prophecy comes to you, you're able to wait, wait your turn. But again, I'm just bringing this out to talk about the level of disorder. Again, Verse 33, "For God is not a God of disorder but of peace." And then again in Verse 40, "Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way." So you get the idea here, it's just mayhem, it's chaos, and that's a problem. Pagan Spirituality So let's go back now as we look at Chapter 12. And in verse 2 and 3, we have some verses that might be a little difficult for us to understand, what does it even mean? Why does he talk about that? I don't know why we go there. After talking about spiritual gifts we go to verse 2 and 3. But in order to understand verse 2 and 3, I think we need to understand the background of pagan spirituality that was going on there in Corinth. The Greek religions were based on supernatural experiences led by men and women, priests and prophetesses who were taken over or priestesses that were taken over by the deities, they believed in incarnations a lot, they believed that Zeus and Hera and other gods and goddesses could take over human bodies, they believed in this kind of thing. And they would manifest themselves by the bizarre behavior of the human vessel. These people would become temporarily insane. They would act in other worldly ways, they would act in ecstasies characterized by ecstatic utterances. This meant that they were spiritual, they were in spiritual union with the god or goddess that they were I guess channeling in some way. Take for example, the Oracle at Delphi, a woman that predicted the future, is well-known in Greek ancient history. She was a supernaturally gifted prophetess who would be inhabited by the deity and enabled to utter ecstatic phrases which people had to then unravel and figure out to understand the prediction about your life. Now, the wilder a person behaved, the more they seemed to have been touched by the deity, by the god or goddess. As a matter of fact, the absence of rational thought was a big part of this ecstasy, that their babbling and uttering and out of their minds actually was proof of their spirituality. Socrates in his work, Phaedrus, extols the blessing of divinely inspired mania. Listen to this, "The greatest of blessings comes to us through madness when it is sent as a gift of the gods." Madness, divine madness. So a man or woman could seek this mania by appealing to the gods and goddesses, by ritual prayers, by song, by dance, by frenzied music. And they would go into trances and other worldly mania by wild bizarre behavior. And these trances were essentially irrational, irrational utterances. Now, these views it seems have been brought into the church by some members of the church. Some of the Corinthian church were acting like this, it seems to explain the level of disorder and chaos that was happening in their corporate worship time. The wilder and more ecstatic the person was, the more spiritual they were. Paul has to reign all this in, pull it in. Because he believes that this kind of disorder is ultimately demonic. There's a demonic background to their pagan religion, their pagan idolatry, and these behaviors as well. If you were to go back to 1 Corinthians 10:20, remember he says, "The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons." Demonic Heresy So look at verse 2 and 3, it seems very plainly that some persons in the Corinthian assembly were being led astray in this pagan manner by demons to make demonic utterances. Verse 2 and 3. "You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus be cursed." So the term that Paul uses, "influenced or led astray" shows that old pattern of worship in which the mind is taken over, dominated by the demonic, and you're let astray almost like a captive, like you're a kidnapped captive. Say, look, that's not what the Holy Spirit does, Holy Spirit empowers and lifts up your personality in your mind and works within the good mind that God gave you or created, He's not overwhelming that but using it. But these individuals were led astray. And so they were enslaved, they were wrapped up in invisible spiritual chains by demons and let astray. So that's what you used to do in your old pagan worship, led astray to mute idols. But the demonic force behind this ecstatic pagan worship would actually make individuals say blasphemies, "Jesus be cursed," or "Jesus is accursed." It seems best to think that that actually happened in a Corinthian worship service. This is clearly a demonic utterance, this is not what spirituals is all about. It's not what should be going on. And so in this Corinthian horribly disordered worship service in which all of these spiritual things are going on, tongues that are not being translated, prophecies that are going one on top of the other, and it's all this chaos, someone up and says, "Jesus be cursed." And so Paul has to address it. He said, "Let's get this straight. All we want is spirit-led worship, and no one speaking by the Spirit can ever say, "Jesus be cursed." Let's just draw the line right there. Satan and his demons are infiltrating trying to get people to say things that are going to be confusing and destructive to the health of the church. The Confession "Jesus Is Lord" is From the Holy Spirit Conversely, when the Holy Spirit moves, He produces worship for Jesus as Lord of all. Look again at Verse 3. "Therefore I tell you, that no one who's speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus be cursed, and no one can say, Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit." Isn't that a marvelous verse? You realize that's required for you to be saved? You have to confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord." And believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. If you're a Christian, you've made that confession, you can make it right now, "Jesus is Lord." What Paul says, you cannot do that apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. So you owe your salvation as much to the third person of the Trinity as you do the second. You owe your salvation as much to the Holy Spirit as you do to Jesus who died for you, because you would not think anything of His blood, or Jesus or his resurrection, if the Spirit hadn't moved you to say, "Jesus is Lord." Hallelujah for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in each of us. But then in worship, as we come together, we're saying it again and again in a lot of different ways, "Jesus is Lord, He's Lord of all." We praise Him as the Lord, that means as God, we worship Him as God. And the Spirit's active and moving causing us to worship. Well, that's what's going on. But He does this not by ecstasies and bizarre chaotic behavior, He does it by working through our rational processes so we think right doctrine. But that's not enough, is it? It's not enough to think right thoughts. He then sends a heavenly fire, so that those thoughts become kindled in passionate worship. You remember the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and they were so depressed as they're walking with the resurrected Lord, and they didn't know it was Him. But they're so depressed and so discouraged. And so Jesus... They didn't know it was Him, but He began to open up the Scriptures and to show them and prove from the prophets and from the Psalms that the Christ had to suffer and after that go into His glory. And then He sat down and broke bread with them, and then their eyes were opened and He disappeared. And remember what they said, "Were not our hearts burning within us when He opened the word to us." That's good worship, isn't it? It's rational process and right doctrine, that then has a heavenly fire through the Holy Spirit. We are ignited. We come alive and our hearts are burning within us based on the truth. That's what Jesus told the Samaritan woman, was worship in spirit and truth, not Holy Spirit there, but your own spirit together moved by the Holy Spirit. Our spirits are kindled based on truth, that's good worship. So let me stop and ask each one of you, has this happened to you? Has your spirit been moved by the Holy Spirit to say Jesus is Lord? Do you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead? Do you know that you're a sinner, that without Jesus, you would have no hope of surviving Judgment Day, do you know that? And have you called on the name of the Lord for your own salvation? Have you asked Him to save you? Are you a Christian? That's what I'll ask. It's more important than anything I could ever teach you about spiritual gifts. And if so, I'm glad you're here today to come and hear the Gospel, and to know you don't have to know any advanced doctrine, you just have to know that God sent His Son for sinners like you and me, and He died in your place to take away your guilt, and all you have to do is call on Him. God raised Him from the dead and He will raise you up too. IV. The Biblical Context Alright, having said all that by way of introduction, let's talk about more teaching on spiritual gifts. And there are three key passages on spiritual gifts, and we don't have time to go through all of them, but I wanna give you another cross-reference today. Turn in your Bibles to Romans Chapter 12. We're going to look at verses 1 through 8 briefly. Try to understand there the teaching on spiritual gifts that Paul gives to the Roman Church. So I think 1 Corinthians 12 plus Romans 12, these are the two passages, you understand that, and Ephesians 4, which we'll look at next week. You get those three key passages I think you'll understand spiritual gifts. Alright, Romans 12:1-8, listen to the text, it says, "Therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given to me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to the faith, if it is serving, let him serve, if it is teaching, let him teach. If it is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously, if it is leadership, let him govern diligently, if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." It's a key text on spiritual gifts. We don't have time to go into all the details, but he says, "Therefore in view of God's mercies." Friends, that's 11 chapters of the Gospel. Romans 1 through 11. And in view of all of the sovereign grace of God in Christ in the Gospel, in view of all that, how then shall we live our lives? He gives them five chapters of application. And what's amazing about that? He basically begins with spiritual gifts. In view of God's mercies, what should you do? You should live a pattern of service to God with these spiritual gifts, that's Romans 12:1-8. But step by step, he tells you how to do it, it's just very beautiful just as he goes through it. So let's go step by step, first begin by presenting your body as a living sacrifice to God. What that means is, offer your physical self, your time, your energy here on earth to God every moment to serve Him. Begin that, consecration. "I am yours to command, I'm yours, I want to serve you." So present your body as a living sacrifice. Then it says, "Holy and pleasing to God." Make certain that there's no secret sin in your life that's going to twist your mind and skew your lifestyle. Holy and pleasing to God, present your body, make your body pleasing, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship, understand that. And do not be conformed to this world, don't think about your life in this world the way worldlings do, the way non-Christians do, don't think that your time and your energy and your money are yours to spend as you see fit. Think about your life in this world as a Christian person should, as a member of the body of Christ. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that is by the ministry of the Word, daily quiet times, Sunday morning worship, listening to good exposition of the Scripture, whatever other resources you want to use for Bible intake, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let God's Word come and flow through you, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And then in this translation I'm using, it says you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is for you, His good, pleasing and perfect will. You'll be able to find out what your spiritual gift package is, and then what your lifestyle ministry should be based on that. You'll be able to test and approve what God's will is for you, His good, pleasing and perfect will. "For," verse 3, "By the grace given to me," Paul is talking about his own spiritual gift, he's an apostle of the Gentiles, and a writer of Scripture. You aren't, just so you know. But he was a writer of Scripture, He's saying, "By the grace given to me by my gift, I want to talk to you about your gifts. And I want to begin by saying, Do not think too highly of yourself." That is so important, don't be arrogant. Don't think, "God is so lucky to have me." I said to a men's retreat I was just speaking at, I said, "You just need to understand God doesn't need you at all." I'm not trying to be insulting, but He does not need your service, He didn't need you to create the universe. Look what He did. Alright, did very well without you. He doesn't need you but He can use you. So don't think too highly of yourself. But on the other side, and I'm going to reach... Don't turn there, but in 1 Corinthians 12, he says to parts of the body, if the ear should say because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, don't do that either. Don't think too lowly of yourself say, If I'm not one of those up front leader types, if I don't have the gift of prophecy or tongues, I'm nothing." Don't think that either, don't think too lowly of yourself, not too highly not too lowly, but think about yourself with sober judgment. So evaluate yourself. Now this is the next step, think about yourself. You're like, "What? Pastor I thought we weren't supposed to think about... " You are supposed to think about yourself when it comes to spiritual gifts. Who are you? What do you like to do in service to Christ? What do you enjoy? Like Eric Liddell, he said, "When I run I feel this pleasure." When you do that spiritual ministry, what causes you to feel the pleasure of God like the wind blowing in your sails? What do you flourish at not merely function at? I like those words. Spiritual gift's about flourishing, not merely functioning. So what do you flourish at? Like a sail boat, and there's a prevailing wind, when you set the sails, and you go run before the wind, what is that for you? Is it hospitality? Is it giving? Is it administration or leadership? Is it prayer? Is it evangelism, what is it? Is it teaching the Word? So think about yourself with sober judgment. I want to bring in also in Hebrews 10, it said, "Get your brothers and sister to think about you too. Let them consider how they may spur you on toward love and good deeds." Many a person has been diverted early in their life, well diverted, from thinking they had the gift of preaching let's say when they didn't, thank God they were diverted early on. You don't want to waste the people's time if you think you have the gift of singing and you don't. I remember John MacArthur's worship leader said, "One of my task is to protect the congregation from bad singing." So throughout, they have a huge church out there and they do a lot of auditions. "I have the gift of... "Yeah, no you don't." Alright, but that's necessary, why? So you don't waste your time in that direction and you go instead in the direction God is gifted you, has gifted you to do. So think of yourself with sober judgment. And then for the rest of the section, he basically says, "Whatever your gift is, do it and do it a lot." Now, how you do it matters, that's what 1 Corinthians 13 is all about, it has to be done in love. But if your gift is serving, then do it cheerfully, if it's giving, then give generously, if it's leadership, do it diligently. There's different adverbs used, but it matters how you do it, but just do it, do it a lot. That's Romans 12:1-8. Now, next week we'll look at Ephesians 4:7-16, and we'll talk more about that. I want to say briefly about the Trinity, and we'll talk more about that next week, but look at verses 4-6, "There are different kinds of gifts but the same spirit, there are different kinds of service but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working but the same God works all of them in all people." Isn't that exciting? That's the Trinity, the Spirit, the Lord Jesus and God the Father together, give you your gift, that's exciting. The Triune God has considered you and has gifted you and prepared you. And why? V. The Purpose of the Gifts: The Common Good Well, it says in verse 7 plainly, for the common good. "To each one, the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good." So we'll continue our study in this next week. I would just urge, begin with Romans 12 and just walk through it, it's almost step-by-step guidance on how to do this. Pray, offer your body to God to serve Him and say, "Lord, I don't know what my spiritual gift ministry should be. I want to know what it is, lead me and guide me." Close with me in prayer.

Romans in Church History Some time ago, I received a tape, which I really enjoyed, from John MacArthur’s ministry called "Jet Tour Through the Book of Revelation." And he took the hearers through 22 chapters of Revelation in one hour. You're going to get a jet tour of the Book of Romans today. And I don't know how in the world I'm going to do it, but I've asked God for help and grace. The thing that's amazing is the Book of Romans is itself a synopsis of Paul's doctrine; that synopsis has unfolded now into this, the 120th sermon that I've preached on Romans. Far more could have been preached, have been preached in church history on Romans. It's rich, and now we're taking a synopsis and folding it back down into one sermon. But there's incredible value for all of us that our hearts would be kindled a fresh in the cross of Jesus Christ, that we would see the lavish promises that are ours in Christ, that we would be filled with joy and thankfulness at what God has done, that we would look again into the mirror of God's word and find out what we really were apart from Christ, just how bad it was. And having been reminded, we're not left to languish in there in despair, but rather are lifted up to the very heights, into the very presence of God by His promises and by His provision in Christ. That's what's in front of us today. Augustine and Romans John McArthur said that Romans has the ability to strip you bare and then clothe you in the finest robe. And so it's a very powerful book. Throughout Church history, this book, this letter, has transformed more lives than any other piece of writing in history. You think about Augustine who 16 centuries ago came to Carthage and to North Africa, burning with lust, struggling with sin, sexual sin, a conscience raging against him, afraid to die and go to hell, unable to free himself from it, threw himself down under a fig tree desperately crying out to God for something, hearing a children's rhyme, a bunch of children playing, and they're singing, "Tolle lege, Tolle lege." Take up and read, take up and read. And there was a copy of the book of Romans right near him, and it was open to Romans 13 where it says, "Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy, rather clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh." And at that moment, he understood that the very thing that God was commanding him, he was willing to give Him freely, namely righteousness, and at that moment, he was saved simply from reading a couple of verses in Romans 13. Luther and Romans Twelve centuries later, another desperate man a German monk named Martin Luther was trying to calm his terror of hell, a terror that had been kindled in him very powerfully by a lightning storm, and he threw himself down in the mud and bargained with God saying, "I'll become a monk if you just won't kill me." And that whole bargaining system of medieval Catholicism brought him no peace. He tried through monkery, through being the greatest monk in history, to calm his raging conscience, but he couldn't do it. A pilgrimage to Rome only made it worse. Going up the Holy Staircase on his knees and praying a paternoster on every stair, it did not calm his fears. What freed Martin Luther? A single verse from the Book of Romans, Romans 1-17: "For in the Gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed that is from faith to faith, just as it is written, the righteous or the just will live by faith." And he said, "When I read that, then the doors of paradise were flung open and at last I realized this righteousness of God is not that righteousness by which God sends us to hell, but he's talking here in context about a power of God for salvation, about living, about life itself. And it was just a gift." And he realized at last, God was willing to justify him by faith alone apart from works of the law. Wesley and Romans A couple of centuries later, a man named John Wesley, again a raging conscience, no piece before God, no sense of His salvation, been in a near shipwreck with a bunch of Moravians. They were at peace, ready to die, could take it either way, like Paul in Philippians 1. Wesley wasn't ready to die. And He went unwillingly, he said, to a meeting at Aldersgate Street, and May 24th, 1738, and he says at about a quarter to nine he heard someone reading from Luther's preface to the Book of Romans; hearing about the changes that God works in the heart through simple faith in Christ. And he said, "I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation, and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." He marked his salvation from that point forward. An anonymous poem captures the spirit and the message of the Book of Romans. This is what the poem says, "Along in dark the stairs I trod with trembling feet to find my God, gaining a foothold bit-by-bit, then slipping back and losing it. Never progressing, striving still with weakening grasp and faltering will, bleeding to climb to God while He serenely smiled not noting me. Then came a certain time when I loosened my hold and fell there by down to the lowest step my fall as if I had not climbed it all. Now when I lay despairing there, listen, a footfall on the stair. On that same stair where I, afraid, faltered and fell and lay dismayed, and low when hope had ceased to be, My God came down the stair to me." That's the Book of Romans. It's God bringing us a righteousness and giving it to us as a gift, which we could never have earned through our own labors of climbing the staircase to Heaven. I. The Message of Romans: God’s Gift of Righteousness by the Gospel The message of Romans is summed up in verses 16-17 of Chapter 1, and by the way, I urge you to follow along in Romans as we go through, see these words on the page. This will not be the last time you look at Romans. Maybe the last time I preach it from this pulpit, but it will not be the last time you read it, so let your eyes look at the words. Verses 16-17: "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, the righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith." The Primary Problem of the Human Race The primary problem of the human race is summed up in one statement, in Job 25 Verse 4: "How then can a man be righteous before God?" How can a man be righteous before God? Linked with that is an earlier verse in Job, "If a man dies will he live again?" That's what's facing us: Our unrighteousness and the death penalty that comes as a result; that's the problem for us. The Primary Problem of Almighty God As I read Romans, the primary problem for God was this: How could he be both just and the one who justifies wicked sinners and lets people like us into Heaven; that was the problem for God. If God allows sinful man into Heaven, what will that say about His perfect righteousness? What will it say about the laws that he gave and we flouted? Will he then be a just judge, or would he not rather be an unjust and weak judge? How is He going to let David into Heaven, that murder and adultery whose hands are stained with Uriah's blood? How is He going to let him into Heaven? What about the thief on the cross? How is Jesus going to pay for the statement, "Today you'll be with me in paradise"? What has that man done? He was an insurrectionist, a murder and a robber. What has He done? "Today you'll be with me in paradise." How can God be both just and the justifier of sinners like us? The Theme of Romans: Sinners Made Righteous by God That is the theme of Romans; it is sinners like you and me made righteous before the holy eyes of God. The Gospel is power, real power from God. Power to change a person's eternal destiny from hell to Heaven, power to change a person's heart from sin-loving and God-hating to sin-hating and God-loving. Power to change a person's body from a corrupted mass of decaying flesh to a resurrected body of eternal perfection. Power to even change our universe, which groans under the effect of our sin until it's liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into an eternal perfection that we can't even describe. That's the power of these words. The words of Romans, the words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just words. But they're not just words; they're God's words. He's speaking to us today. He's speaking to you today. He's spoken for 20 centuries through this book. He's speaking to you today. He's already spoken to me today, and He's telling us that we are righteous simply by faith in Christ. That's the message of Romans. But that's not all Roman says. Actually, Romans gets quite specific. It starts to talk to us about righteousness, and I want to follow that idea of righteousness right through the book. I want to start by talking about our own righteousness. It's rejected entirely. We have none. And that's the message of Romans 1-3. Then I want to talk about God's righteousness imputed or credited to our account simply by faith. That's Romans 3, 4 and 5. And then I want to talk about a righteousness that's actually imparted to us through sanctification by the power of the Spirit, worked out day-by-day, Romans 6, 7, and 8. Then I want to talk about how God's righteousness is vindicated in the case of the Jews who are almost universally rejecting the Gospel, how that does not impugn his righteousness. It does not make him a promise breaker. But rather His word is still upheld, so we have to see God's righteousness vindicated concerning the Jews; Romans 9-11. And then we're going to see God's righteousness applied to various aspects of daily life, Romans 12-16. That's the theme of Romans. It has to do with how the righteousness from God comes to us as sinners. II. The Universality of Sin: Man’s Righteousness Rejected (Romans 1-3) The Universal Sinfulness of Humanity (Romans 1:18-32) Let's start by talking painfully about our own righteousness. In one sense, you could call it a very short topic. We have none, naturally, but Paul is specific. He says in verse 18 of Chapter 1, "The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth in righteousness." That's true of all of us, the whole human race. Romans 1, some commentator say, speaks to the Gentile and Pagan world, but I really think it speaks to all of us. We suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness, hold it down, don't want to hear it. We "exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship created things more than the Creator who's forever praised. Amen." We exchange natural sexual relations with unnatural homosexual relations. We show the perversion of our minds and hearts by doing that. We are wicked as a race. Not righteous. And so the end of Chapter 1 culminates in the worst sin list in the entire Bible. Look at it, verse 28 and following: "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree, that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them." That's us; that's the race we belong to. That's our kith and kin. That's me and you. The Universal Sinfulness of Jews (Romans 2:1-29) And then in Chapter 2, he talks about the righteous self-righteous person, the religious person, the one who thinks that by following the law of God or by some moral standard or system, they can pull up out of that muck and be better than other people. And so these are the righteous ones, these are the virtuous ones, the religious ones who look around and compare themselves to others, and he deals with them right away in verse 1 of Chapter 2: "You therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else. For at the very point you judge others, you're condemning yourself because you who pass judgement, you do the very same things." He addresses the Jews very plainly in the second part of the Chapter in which he says, 2:23, "You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?" He's very plain in Chapter 2 and 3 that no one keeps the law. No one keeps it. It just stands over us and condemns us completely. And so, you can't earn your way to Heaven by obeying God's laws. What they do is they show you your sin. And so, there's a summary statement of all of this in Romans 3, 9-18, "What then shall we conclude? Are we any better?" That's a good question to ask yourself. I'm I any better? Am I any better than the homosexual? Am I any better than the abortionist? Am I any better than the terrorist? Am I any better than any of the wicked people that we think are so... Am I any better? No. "We've already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one." Find yourself there, or don't find yourself. You're not there. You're not righteous; neither am I. "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Ruin and misery. Mark their ways, and the way of peace, they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes." That is our race, brothers and sisters; that is us. It could just stop there. It could have. This could be God reading our sentence, "And therefore I hereby send you to hell." And that would be it, and what could we say? What could we say? God is not unjust in condemning us for these things. We've done them, but there's a second part. III. Justification by Faith: God’s Righteousness Imputed (Romans 3-5) "But now," it says, "a righteousness from God has been revealed." Oh, praise God for that "but now." We could have been sent to hell at that moment, but instead, God wants to save us. And so He says, "But now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance, He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished." Like David's: Unpunished. "He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time. So as to be just. And the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." The Glowing Heart of the Gospel: Romans 3:21-26) Here's where God solves His problem. He solves it at the cross. This is how he can be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. This, my friends, is the glowing heart of Christianity. Romans 3, 21-26, this is the heart of it all; this is my only hope on Judgment Day. All the rest of the book is an out-working of the truths that are here. First of all, a righteousness from God, this is a simple gift of righteousness imputed or credited to our account. Christ's perfect righteousness draped about us like an asbestos robe, pure and white, that will survive the fire of Judgment Day, and nothing else will. Your threadbare robes of self-righteousness will not survive the scrutiny of God's judgment. But Christ's righteousness will. It's perfect. And he was born of a virgin, protected from original sin; he walked moment by moment perfectly through this world, never stepped on a landmine of sin, never yielded to a single temptation, walked perfectly through this world, did the most difficult ministry in history perfectly, did everything his father wanted him to do right to dying on a cross. That righteousness, God is willing to drape about you from this point and forever, simply by faith. Oh, how sweet is that? Oh, how sweet is that perfect righteousness that he's offering to give you as a gift? And it's apart from law; you're not going to earn it, you can't weave it together with threads through your own fingers, you'll never be able to make a garment so fine. Apart from law. Now, the law and the prophets, they testify to it, it's not a whole new thing, like a new religion out of nowhere. God had set the table for it by making promises and having shadows and prophecies in the Old Testament, but Christ is the reality. He's the fulfillment. The law and the prophets, they testify to it, but Jesus fulfilled it. It is a righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Not by works; by faith. But not just any faith. Oh, some Muslims have faith; they'll strap bombs to their bodies and blow themselves up for Allah. They have faith. Some Hindus have faith; they're willing to bow down before idols. I've seen them do it. And make long pilgrimages into all kinds of little acts of Pooja, of worship, to earn their way up through to their view of Heaven. Oh, they have faith. The Buddhist, they'll be willing to sit there trying to gain enlightenment, meditating conundrums that can't be figured out, trying to come on the seven-fold path of enlightenment; oh, they have faith. None of those faiths saves anybody, and a thousand other pseudo-faiths. It is faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross that justifies. That's what justifies. And it says we're justified freely by His grace. It's a free gift. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, "I tell you, Sir, if you bring in any of your deservings, you shall never have it. God gives away his justification freely; if you bring anything to pay for it, he will throw it in your face, and will not give his justification to you. He gives it away freely. Old Rowland Hill once went preaching at a fair; he noticed the merchants selling their wares by auction; so Rowland said, “I am going to hold an auction too, to sell wine and milk, without money and without price. My friends over there,” said he “find a great difficulty to get you up to their price, my difficulty is to bring you down to mine.” So it is with men. If I could preach justification to be bought by you one gold piece each, who would go out of the place without being justified? If I could preach justification to you by walking a hundred miles, would we not be pilgrims to-morrow morning, every one of us? If I were to preach justification which would consist in whippings and torture, there are very few here who would not whip themselves, and that severely too. But when it is freely, freely, freely, men turn away. What! Am I to have it for nothing at all, without doing anything?” Yes, Sir, you are to have it for nothing, or else not at all; it is “freely.” It is freely given through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Oh, don't imagine, though, that it was absolutely free; it wasn't. It was extremely expensive, you just didn't pay the price. Somebody else paid it for you. The immensely valuable, immeasurably valuable, price of the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He paid the price, that's what redemption means. We were bought out of slavery at the payment of a price, whom God presented as a propitiation. Some translations say, "sacrifice of atonement," that's fine, but I like to keep propitiation in there so you stub your toe on it. So you stop and say, "What's that?" And so that somebody who knows can tell you that it's the turning away of the wrath of God by the payment of a blood sacrifice; that's what the whole animal sacrificial system was there to teach us what it was. Propitiation. Jesus is our propitiation, he turned away the wrath of God, and don't imagine for a moment that God has no wrath against sin. He is energetically, passionately wrath-filled about every sin, and there are two great expressions of that wrath. One of them is eternal hell, eternal burnings and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. That is the display of God's wrath against those who do not believe; those who will not repent. The second great display of His wrath is at the cross of Jesus Christ, where He tortured his only begotten son instead of us. And so we are free forever from condemnation. Free forever from the wrath of God. Free. Romans 8, 1: "There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." How sweet is that? Jesus is our lightning rod. He attracts the lightning strike and takes it safely away from us down to the very ground. Oh, praise God for that. God did it as a demonstration of His justice so that we couldn't stand or Satan couldn't accuse him of injustice in getting people like David and the thief on the cross, and you and me, into Heaven. He is just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus; that's the center of the Gospel. Now let me tell you something: If I went through every passage with that level of detail, we'd be here for the next two weeks. Amen, alright. Some of you say that; others are like, "I have a lunch date to make," or something like that. We're not going to do it, but I had to slow down because this was the heart of it all. If you don't understand this, you don't understand Christianity. This is it; this is the Gospel. Justification by Faith: The Law and the Prophets Testify (Romans 4) Now, he said, to which the law and the prophets testify, Romans 4 shows us that. What did we discover that Abraham found in this matter? What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham was justified by faith apart from works of the law. God took him out on a starry night, had him look up at the stars, made him a promise, words; it's just words, just words. He made him a promise. "So shall your offspring be." But they weren't just words to Abraham. He considered the source; he said, "This is God speaking it. It's going to happen." And that's the way we are with the Gospel, isn't it? If we're believers. Like God said it, then it's true. It's going to happen. I believe it, and God credits it to us, to our accounts, as righteousness. What did David discover? Well, we know all about David's nasty sin and how wretched it was. Psalm 32 talks about it, and David celebrates something. He celebrates that he's not going to hell, which he deserves. And he says, "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." Oh, how significant is that word 'covered'? David tried to cover up his own sin, just like Adam and Eve tried to cover it up. That's what we always try to do. God said, "Don't cover it up. Bring it to me, I'll cover it. I'll cover it with the blood of Christ. I'll cover it with an ocean of grace. Bring it to me and let me do it." And so David discovered the same thing. Romans 5 talks about assurance. How can I know? I don't get anything, do I, like a certificate? Like in Pilgrim's Progress, something I can hold in my hand. It's just words, isn't it? Is it true or not? I don't know, I've never seen Jesus. I don't know, am I justified? Do I get something? I mean, how do I know? Steps to Assurance: Romans 5:1-11 And so Romans 5, 1-11 are steps to assurance: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Already we're starting to rejoice in some things. And not only so but we rejoice in our sufferings because we see the transformed character that the suffering brings. We're reacting differently than we would have before. Things have changed for us. It's different now because God has come to us. And we can reason it out. If when we were wretched and awful, evil sinners, God gave his highest and greatest gift, his only begotten son, how much more now that we're adopted sons and daughters of the living God and Jesus isn't dead on the cross, he's alive at the right hand of God and interceding for us, how much more will this salvation journey definitely be finished? It's a done deal, friends. It just hasn't happened yet. It's going to happen, though. Absolute assurance; it's an unbreakable chain of assurance. Romans 5, 1-11. It's right there on the page. If you're struggling with am I a Christian, am I assured, whatever, look right there. It's assurance that's reasoned out in the mind by faith; it's assurance that's worked out in the life as you see changes happening in your life. It's an assurance that's poured out directly into the heart by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us. That's assurance. Original Sin He also reasons with us based on deep theology. Second half of chapter five, it's the doctrine of original sin. We learn just as the whole human race died in Adam, so also all of God's people, the righteous, all of us, the many will be saved through one man. It's the many and the one, the many and the one, God's done it twice now. He did it with Adam, and now he's doing it in Christ. The doctrine of original sin. IV. Sanctification by the Spirit: God’s Righteousness Imparted (Romans 6-8) The second major section in Romans is sanctification by the Spirit, God's righteousness imparted. So you mean I can sin as much as I want it, like I'm totally forgiven, right? Totally forgiven. I can sin, I can just do whatever I want? Romans 5 ends "where sins abounds, grace abounds all the more." Grace is an ocean, it'll extinguish any sin we put in it, right? Well, let's throw a bonfire in there. May it never be. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that you have been united with Christ? When he died, you died. When he rose, now you have risen with Him into a whole new life. And it's that new life that Paul talks about in Romans 6-8. Righteousness actually imparted to you so you become, practically speaking, righteous day-by-day. How does it happen? Well, step-by-step, moment by moment, growing into Christ's likeness. Yearning to be righteous, wanting to follow Christ, moment by moment, becoming more and more like Jesus. But the foundation of it is a fact, a spiritual fact that's true of you. It's based on our justification, that we have been moved from one country, in effect, to another. We have been moved from sin and law and death into the blessed kingdom of the son that He loves. We've been transferred. And that old regime has no power over us whatsoever. Oh, praise God for that, that means every temptation that will ever come to you the rest of your life has no authority whatsoever. You can tell it all, no, all of them, you never need to sin again, ever, the rest of your life. The Insanity of a Christian Who Persists in Sin Imagine... Here's an analogy. Imagine languishing in a communist country in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Imagine being arrested for agitating against the government; you're interrogated daily by the brutal secret police. Imagine being beaten everyday; you have open wounds that are untreated, rats in the cell that'll come after your wounds if you go to sleep, rancid food to eat, that makes you sick, screams of other prisoners being tortured. Imagine the smell of raw sewage, and the dark, wet dungeon feel of your cell. This represents life in slavery to sin; though you don't see it, that's what it is. Sin is a brutal master beating up its prisoners daily. Now, imagine a commando raid being sent by the government of a free country. They break in in the middle of the night and they rescue you. They run you through a hail of bullets to a waiting helicopter and fly you away to safety. Imagine you seek political asylum from the rescuing country, and it is granted. That free country has now become your new home and you are a citizen of that country. The old communist regime no longer has any power over you whatsoever. This represents the rescue of Christ and the transfer into his kingdom; the old domain of sin no longer has any power to command you. Now, imagine getting a summons from the old communist government; you're being drafted into their army. Why in the world would I want to go back there and serve that regime? I hated that regime. Why serve in their army? You look at it, laugh, and you rip it up. A week later, you get an invitation, like from a travel agency, to an all-expenses tour of your old prison, and you can tour the prison and meet the old guards, they'll even beat you up a little for old times' sake, and you get to eat that old food again. Two weeks, all expenses paid. Imagine going to your wife or husband and saying, "You know, I think I'm going to go just to feel what it feels like to be back in that prison again." That is what the sin of a Christian is like right there. Though you don't see it, that's what it is. Why in the world would you want to go back and do that when God is offering you immeasurable joy in obedience? And yet we do. It's insanity, but we do, and why do we? The Vicious Battle with the Flesh: Romans 7 Well, Romans 7 tells us why; it tells us that we have sin living in us, and as it is, a separation has been made between us and the sin. It's no longer I who do it, but it's sin living in me that does it. Some day it will be gone forever. Oh, I look forward to that, when this body of sin and death has been done away with. This body is trained and expert in sin. The mind, the body, this thing, it knows how to sin. Been doing it for years. And when new temptations and stuff come to me, it just knee-jerk reaction. That's what it does. The body of sin. And we want to be free from it, don't you? Who wants to be free from the body of sin and death? I want to be free. Oh, how I want to be free, but I'm not. And so, day after day, Romans 7, I have to face this indwelling monster, which actually responds to filth around me. It's unbelievable. I'm shocked by it. The very thing I hate, I do. And the very thing that I love and want to do, I somehow can't do. Romans 7; but even there, it ends in triumph. "What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And then in Romans 8, the Spirit filled life, the power of the indwelling Spirit. We don't just have sin living in us, we have the Holy Spirit of God. How strange is that? The Holy Spirit of God and indwelling sin in us. Oh, how strange. How strange is the sin of a Christian, how bizarre is it. But what does the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit basically dresses you for battle every day. It says, "Come on my child, get up, back at it again. Put on your armor, put on your helmet, put on your breast plate, pick up your sword, pick up your shield, and go fight." Romans 8, 13 and 14, it says it very plainly, "It says If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die, but if by the Spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live because those who are," look at that, 8, 14, "led by the spirit of God, those are the sons of God." You want to be a child of God, then follow the Holy Spirit. Where is he leading? Into battle every day. So no, I'm not a perfectionist. I know you never need to sin again, but I think because of the power of sin, we are going to face temptations and struggles everyday. And God has come to give us the Holy Spirit, to give us power, and He leads us every day into battle, every single day, and we won't be free of it until we are done with this world. But you know it's not going to go on forever. Thank God, thank God. It's not going to go on forever. We are going to be glorified, and frankly our present sufferings of which the worst is this battle against sin, the present sufferings are not even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. And not just in us, but in the physical creation, which is groaning to be released, yearning to be made more beautiful. It wants to; it yearns for it, to be the new earth and the new Heaven where we will dwell forever, and so we hope for it and wait for it patiently. And so what can we do but celebrate God's sovereignty and his great promise? What shall we say in response to this? "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called, and those He called, He also justified, and those He justified, He also glorified." No one gets lost; everyone that's foreknown is predestined. They're justified and they will, all of them, be glorified. He doesn't lose anybody. And so all of the stuff that happens to us, it's all part of His divine plan to get us there. A we have final confidence in the sovereign plan of God, at the end of Romans 8, in the total victory of God. "In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us in the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." Oh, what a triumph for the sovereignty of God over our wretched sinful selves. V. Israel and the Gospel: God’s Righteousness Vindicated (Romans 9-11) But Romans 9-11 brings up a problem. What about the Jews? They are almost universally rejecting the Gospel. Doesn't that prove that God's word fails? It's a great tragedy. Paul says, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish." So they're going to hell apart from Christ, the ones that are not believing in Christ like the rest, children of wrath. So it's a great sorrow, but even worse, does it mean that God is a promise breaker? If God's a promise breaker than we have wasted the whole first part of all that I've said. We wasted it. You understand that? Because God's made us all these promises, and He's not going to keep them. And so Paul has to vindicate the righteousness of God concerning the Jews. He says, "It is not as though God's word has failed." And he gives three answers concerning the problem: Answer #1: God’s Sovereign Election (Romans 9) First is that not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. There's an elect group within the larger group of the nation of Israel. And those people are the ones Paul was referring to in Romans 8, that none of them will be lost; they'll all be glorified. Basically, if you get saved, you get saved by God's mercy, and He gives it freely as he wills, as He chooses. It's His sovereign choice. He has that power, and so it says right there in Romans 9, 15 and 16, He says to Moses. "I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort but on God's mercy. Verse 18, "God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden." That's the first answer; God's word hasn't failed because God didn't promise that to every single, solitary, physical descendant of Abraham. Answer #2: The Need for Repentance and Faith (Romans 10) The second answer is in Romans 10. It's not like God's asking us to go to the moon, okay? It's not like he's asking us to go to the other side of the ocean or up to the heights or down to the depths. He's done it all. All you have to do is believe the word that is very near you. The very word that they have heard preached; all they have to do is repent and believe the Gospel. That's it. And they are not. "That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." That's it. "For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it's with the mouth that you confess and are saved." As it is written, 'anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.' There is no difference between Jew and Gentile; the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses anyone who calls on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Stop just a moment. Just a moment. I can't believe that everyone who's sitting and listening to me here today has been regenerated. I have to believe there at least some people that are brought by the sovereign hand of God here today who have not yet trusted in Christ. Come to Christ now. All you have to do is trust in Him, give your life to Him, look to the cross of Jesus and not to your own righteousness, trust in Him, repent, and turn from sin. I'm calling to you. I'm asking. It's a simple way of salvation, all you have to do is repent and believe the Gospel. And like Augustine, like Luther, like Wesley, you will find your soul satisfied with the richest of fair. You'll find forgiveness in Christ as a free gift. Oh, please do it. Don't walk out of this place unjustified. Call on the name of the Lord, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Be saved. Answer #3: God’s Future Mystery: Israel Will be Saved (Romans 11) The third answer that Paul gives concerning this terrible, difficult problem with the Jews is that the story isn't over yet; there's still more to come. In the future, he says, "I tell you a mystery. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved as it is written. The deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn Godless-ness away from Jacob." Do you see the sovereignty of God there? He turns it away. "And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins." God has absolute power, and in the future there'll be a mass revival in one generation of physical descendants of Abraham who will turn to their Messiah, and they will cry and mourn for Him as for an only son, and they will believe in him. They will look on the one that they have pierced, and they will love him and trust in him. And Paul finishes this doctrinal section of Romans with this incredible praise, "Oh the depth of the riches, the wisdom, and knowledge of God, how unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen." Thus ends the theology. VI. Living Daily as a Sacrifice: God’s Righteousness Applied (Romans 12-16) How then shall we live? How are you going to live your life? Sunday's going to be over pretty soon. Even this sermon will be over pretty soon, I promise. But then you're going to go into your everyday life; how are you going to live? How are you going to live your life? Well, you understand how closely we're connected, Chapter 12-16, to all we've just said. Justified by faith, totally forgiven, indwelt by the Spirit, a battle against sin, but you got to present your body, the parts of your body as said in Romans 6, "present your hands, your face, your eyes, your feet, every part of you. Present your body to God as one who has been brought from death to life. The instruments of your body as instruments of righteousness." He just says that same thing again here in Romans 12, 1 and 2. This is the most important practical application of any Christian sermon. Romans 12, 1 and 2 answers the question, how then shall we live? "I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and to prove what God's will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will." Get up in the morning and get down on your knees and say, "God, I'm yours. I'm yours. You bought me with the price, my body is yours, I want to serve you today. I want to put sin to death, I want to serve your people, I just want to serve you." That's the most important thing you can do; that's worship, that's true worship. Do that. But then immediately after that, he talks about spiritual gifts. And each one of you, if you're Christian, have been given spiritual gifts. You heard me earlier in the new member thing. Those folks are counting on us to give them our spiritual gifts that they might grow up in their salvation. Keep growing. We're counting on them to give their spiritual gifts; that we're banding together, and some teach, some pray, some give, some lead, some serve. There's all kinds of gifts. We need to do that; that's what we're going to do. Spiritual gift ministry. And then he talks about loving people inside the body of Christ. We're not always easy to love. I know you're always easy to love, but I'm not always easy to love. So we have to find a way to love each other deeply from the heart; be zealous for Christ, that's inside the body. Outside of the body, there's a bunch of enemies out there. Government, for example; submit to government, Romans 13. Do what it says. Even if your neighbor is a persecutor, don't seek revenge against him or her. Pray for them. Do good to them. Leave revenge to God. Some of them might end up being converted. And we live in a filthy, nasty, sick world filled with temptation. Just like Augustine found, don't get involved in that river of debauchery, but rather clothe yourself with Jesus Christ. Don't think about how to ratify the desires of the flesh, but be clothed with Jesus. Dealing with Disputable Matters in the Church (Romans 14-15) Romans 14 and 15, he talks about unity in the body, talking about debatable issues, well, we could spend the rest of the day on them. Let's debate about things. I'll roll out the top six most controversial topics. Let's debate them. Oh my goodness, Paul has three concerns in Romans 14 and 15: Gospel purity, Gospel love, unity and Gospel freedom. Those three. Freedom from legalism, but that shouldn't lead to sin, so Gospel purity, nor should it lead to judgmentalism. We should stay together and help each other. Don't judge each other, don't condemn each other. Let's stay together. Romans 14 and 15. Paul’s Example as a Missionary (Romans 15) Second half of Romans 15, Paul talks about his own life as a church planting, trail blazing apostle to the Gentiles. He's saying, "I wish I could stay with you, I love you guys, but I've got to go on through to Spain. Wouldn't mind, though, if you'd help me in my mission there because there's some unreached people there." "It's always been my ambition," Romans 15, 20 and 21, "to preach the Gospel where Christ was not named so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as is written, those who were not told will see, and those who have not heard, they will understand." So he's going as a frontier, trail blazing missionary, and so we as a local church, we should hold the rope for those that are going, or we should go ourselves to see the advance of the Gospel. Final Greetings and Encouragements (Romans 16) Romans 16 ends with a bunch of greetings to people you have never heard of in your life. That's alright. They hadn't heard of you either, but you know what? In the end, we're all going to be brought together. People from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. Don't think Romans 16 is insignificant. God knows your name, and some day we'll know each other's names. Now you know what you'll be doing for eternity, okay? Learning names, from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, a multitude greater than anyone could count, from all over the world. You've got a lot of learning to do. Lots of brothers and sisters. And we are together, and God has made us so. And he finishes the entire book with this doxology: "Now to him who is able to establish you by my Gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God so that all nations might believe and obey Him, to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen." VII. Final Applications Most important application, I gave you about five minutes ago: If you're not a Christian, come to Christ; that's it, come to Christ. Second most important, I got from CJ Mahaney's book "The Cross-Centered Life." Just ripped it right off. I spent with a group of young men studying that book, CJ Mahaney's "The Cross-Centered Life." He said the Cross-Centered Life is made up of a series of cross-centered days. Quoting John Stott he said, "The cross of Christ is like a bonfire that kindles our love for God, but you got to stand near enough so that the sparks fall on you." So how are you going to stand close to these truths? He gave five applications that I'll go through very quickly; get his book. It's very short, you can read it easily in an afternoon. First, memorize the Gospel. Choose some key passages from Romans and memorize them. William Tyndale said you should memorize all 432 verses. You think it's impossible, but it can be done. But start with this, just go through and choose some of the key passages and memorize them. Secondly, pray the Gospel. I would urge you in your Thanksgiving celebration, just take the truths of Romans and pray them up to God. Just go through, "Thank you, God, that though I was wicked and unrighteous, now you have accepted me with Christ's righteousness. Thank you, God, that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. Thank you, God, that having been justified by faith, I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that there's no condemnation waiting for me on Judgment Day. Thank you that I have a spiritual gift ministry. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." And then you can thank Him for the food. It'll be cold by then, but then you can thank him for the food. But rich thanks in prayer. Sing the Gospel. We're going to sing "How Deep The Father's Love For Us" in a moment. It's one of my favorite songs. Think about the words; sing them. Now, the young men that were there weren't thrilled about that idea. And I understand; when I was a young man, I wasn't much for singing. You don't have to sing, though, in front of other people. Some of you may be ought not to accept in large groups like this. That's me, okay? But sing because you're happy. Worship God. Make music in your hearts to God. Fourth, review your own history. I gave you Augustine's history. I gave you Luther's history. I gave you Wesley's history. What's your history with Romans or with the Gospel itself? What has God done in your life? Thank Him for it, but review it. Write your testimony. And then finally, study it. Don't stumble on words like propitiation or redemption or reconciliation, learn what they mean. Learn what they mean and enrich your heart and your soul. Close with me in prayer.

I. Review: Israel’s Stumbling Over Christ We continue to look in Romans 9-11, at one of the deepest and most perplexing problems connected with the gospel and that is the problem of the Jewish rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. We have seen that the Jews do not see in the prophecies of the Old Testament, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the way that we do, led by the Spirit. And we have seen that this spiritual blindness over the last two weeks that we've been studying was actually a judgment by God, it was given by God. God gave them a spirit of stupor, God gave them eyes that do not see. God gave them ears that do not hear to this very day. That's Romans 11:8-10. But what we haven't answered is why, why would he do such a thing? And that's what verse 11 till the end of the chapter, deals with. What are God's purposes in the hardening of the Jewish nation? Now, we've seen already that this blindness, this hardening, is not universal, that there are some Jews and that there will be in every generation, some Jews that believe in Jesus as their personal savior, the Apostle Paul was one. He said, "I am an Israelite myself, I am a believer in Jesus and I'm Jewish, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews," he called himself. And so the hardening, the blindness is not universal. There are some Jews in every generation, who are chosen by God to believe in Jesus. But it says very plainly in 11:7 that what the Israelites sought to establish through their own righteousness, they did not establish. The elect did, but the others were hardened. And so therefore, we have two categories of the Jews, those that are elect the chosen ones, who have come to faith in Christ. The rest are hardened. But what we haven't answered is, why that hardening has come. In verse 11:11, up through the end of the chapter is the answer. And what we're going to see is that this spiritual blindness that's come on the Jews is part of an incredible and complex plan of God, which will culminate at the end of the world in something glorious and majestic. All of it done to the glory of God. And we're going to see that something so devastating as the rejection of the Jews, of their own Messiah, is actually part of a glorious plan of God, that God has a plan for the Gentiles, God has a plan for the Jews, and overall God has a plan to display his own glory in all of it. And that's what Romans 11:11 is all about. Now, it's not easy, as some of you have told me. And we've been discussing how deep and complex Romans 9 through 11 is. Well, that means we're right where we need to be. Because the one who wrote it said that. "Oh, the depths of the rich is the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to him be glory forever and ever, amen." That's how we end in Romans 11. So we should not imagine as we travel through those verses that Paul was referring to when he talks about that that we're going to be sipping on milk. That we're going to be just tasting the light things of God, we are not. And here, as we go from 11, verse 11 on, we're trying to find out what God's purpose is concerning the nation of Israel. II. Paul’s Question: Have They Stumbled In Order to Fall? And the question that Paul asks here is what does the future hold, what does the future hold for the nation of Israel? Where are we going with the Jews, what does the future hold? Has Israel stumbled so as to fall beyond recovery the NIV gives it. New American Standard translates verse 11. "I say, then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they?" expecting the answer? No, and Paul answers it immediately. May it never be. We should not imagine that this stumbling, this blindness, this deafness, this stupor that's come over the Jews, their inability to see in Jesus, the fulfillment of all of their prophecies, we shouldn't imagine that this is going to go on forever, God is not through with the nation of Israel yet, he has yet more glorious plans. And so that's what we're looking at. Look at verse 28 and 29 at the end of the chapter toward the end, Israel is still special. Israel's still set apart in God's mind, Israel's still foremost in God's plans, as you look in verse 28 and 29, it says, "as far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account. But as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the Patriarchs. For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable." In other words, God has called the Jews to be His own nation, and in a mysterious way, is going to continue working in and through this nation to the end. Now, some of you have told me that your favorite verse in the Old Testament is Jeremiah 29:11, and you see Jeremiah 29-11, in many different places, put up on posters, little magnets on stationary all those kinds, not every verse in the Bible gets that kind of treatment, I've noticed, but there are some that are just cherished and they're special. And Jeremiah 29:11 says this. "I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Well, that is coming true here in Romans 11. God has great plans for the Jews. He's not finished with them, yet. And what is in the future? Well, it's a mystery. That's exactly what the Apostle Paul calls it. Look at verse 25-27 of chapter 11. "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceded. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved." That does not mean every individual Jew that has ever lived for 2000 years will end up in Heaven. That's not what he's saying, but I believe what he's saying is, at the end, at the end of the world, God will work a miracle of revival among the Jews, so that they will come to recognize Christ as their savior. III. God Has a Purpose in Israel’s Stumbling So therefore, the main idea we have here is that God has a purpose in Israel's stumbling. And that purpose is glorious. Now, this may be a troublesome thought to you, it may bother you as a matter of fact, that God has a good purpose in something so dreadful. Just to consider the good purpose of Israel stumbling out of fellowship with God, stumbling through not believing in Christ, means we must be talking about God. Does the devil, who does harden hearts and who does blind eyes, does the devil have any good purpose in doing that? He does not, for Jesus said in John 10, "The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." And so the devil can have no good purpose in the hardening of the Jews and the blinding of their eyes against Christ though he does that work. 2 Corinthians 4 says He's the God of this age and He's blinded their eyes. They themselves have no good purpose in turning away from Christ, they just don't believe in Him, they're not convinced. They're not persuaded, and so they harden their own hearts, and they blind their own eyes, but to no good purpose. But Romans 11 is talking about good purpose, glorious purpose in all of this, that must be God. For God alone can turn something glorious and bring something glorious out of this sin. Now, look at the layers of purpose in verse 11, He says this. "I ask them, did they, the Jews stumble in order that they might fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Rather because of their transgression. Salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious." Do you see the purpose? We've got levels of purpose. First of all, he says... Did they stumble, in order that... That's purpose? What is the purpose in their stumble? They stumble, so that they might fall beyond recovery may it never be. Well what is the purpose? Well, he gives us in verse 11 the initial purpose. They stumbled so that salvation could come to the Gentiles, they stumbled out of fellowship with God, they stumbled on the stumbling stone of Christ so that we Gentiles could receive the gospel. That's what Paul says. There's a second purpose, and you get it again with this language in verse 12. "Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?" And then he says, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. This is what we call an infinitive of purpose. Like I went to the store to buy some milk and some eggs. I came to Durham to study at Duke University. I came to Haiti, to work with Dr. Philippe. These are statements of purpose. Well, it says that salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. So there's a layer of purpose. First Israel stumbles so that the gentiles can believe the gospel, then the Gentiles believe in the Gospel makes Israel jealous so that they'll come back to Christ. Those are the levels and the layers of purpose. We also see it in the how much more language, in verse 12. Verse 12 says, "If their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring." In other words, look at what I've done with Israel's transgression. Look what I've done through Israel's sin, I've brought riches to the Gentiles, I've brought riches to the ends of the earth. But if I bring riches through their transgression, think what will happen when I bring their fullness. What will it be, but life from the dead. What a glorious thing that is. And so there is this complex level of purpose. We get these statements again and again. Look at verse 19. In verse 19-20, it says, "You will say 'branches were broken off, so that, that's purpose I might be grafted in.' That is true." In other words, unbelieving Jews who did not trust in Christ, were in some sense broken off from the continuing people of God, the olive tree, they were broken off so that the Gentiles could be grafted in, and Paul says that is true, that is exactly what has happened. Again you get it in verse 25. "Lest you be wise in your own conceits. I want you to understand this mystery brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." Again, there's a measuring out a purpose behind the Jews rejecting of Christ. And again, in verse 30-32, "just as you were at one time disobedient to God, have now received mercy because of their disobedience." That's purpose. Verse 31, "So they, too, have now become disobedient, in order that, that's purpose, by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy. Verse 32, "For God has consigned all to disobedience, in order that, that's purpose, He may have mercy on them all." Layer upon layer of purpose in the Jews rejecting Christ, and that purpose is God's. This leads us to a deep and a difficult concept and it is this: The God who hates evil, and who cannot even look upon sin for his pure and holy eyes, yet in a mysterious way ordains evil for His own glory, and for the joy of His people. That is the doctrine here, The God who hates evil, who cannot be tempted by evil. He actually ordains it for his own purposes. God Ordains Sin for Good Purposes: Two Clear Examples Joseph and his brothers Now, there are two clear examples of this in the Bible, you may stumble over this, you may say, "This is difficult." How could God ordain something evil, how could God establish something evil? Well, clear example of this is Joseph and his brothers, in the old testament. You remember the story, Joseph was one of Jacob's 12 sons, seemed to have gotten Jacob's heart. Jacob loved him because I think he was Rachel's son. Rachel had difficulty having children. Jacob loved Rachel and so, when Joseph was born Jacob chose him, it seems and gave him this coat of many colors, and his brothers hated him, they were jealous of him, they wanted to kill him. And they intended to kill him, but instead in the sovereignty of God, they decided to sell him as a slave to Egypt. And so he was sold as a slave into Egypt. Now, after Jacob had died, by this time Joseph was the second most powerful man of all of Egypt. He's in charge of everything, the lives of his brothers are in his hand, and they know it, they come groveling in front of Joseph and beg him. Oh, please don't kill us for what we did. Just before your father died, Jacob, he said, please be generous to your brothers. I don't know if he ever said that. The brothers were given to lying, but at any rate, they came and they were very worried about what Joseph would do now that Jacob was dead. But Joseph made this incredible statement, reverberates through time. In Genesis 50:20, he said this, "As for you, you meant it for evil, against me, but as for God, he meant it for good to bring it about, that many people should be kept alive as it is today." Now, that is profound and deep. You meant, God meant. You intended, God intended. You purposed, God purposed. Your intention, your meaning, your purpose is different than God's, but God had an intention, a meaning, a purpose in this wicked action. Now, it will not do to say, what you intended for evil, God turned and worked out for good. That's not what it says, it's the same word, both before and after. The same intention, the same meaning word. Now, some of you have heard the saying when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. I've seen it up on those inspirational posters. They never inspire me. I think of them as a little bit cliché. I look at them and say, "What am I getting out of this, when life hands you lemons... " What do we mean by that saying? Well it... Ultimately it's an admission that we don't control our own world, we don't get to choose the stuff that comes toward us. And so we have to have a basic optimism so that when life hands you something sour, and it seems useless that you actually know how to turn it around and do something good and make lemonade with it. Can I tell you something? Life doesn't hand God anything. Our God is a king, our God is a sovereign, He is an emperor, it doesn't hand him anything. He chooses, He decides, He is the king. And so, that's saying they work for us and you can get something good out of it, but it does not work for God because what they meant for evil, God meant for good. Now the highest example of this, we're going to find is in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is, in my opinion, the most purely wicked act that there has ever been in history. Why? Because Jesus was the only truly innocent man that there has ever been. He committed no sin, no deceit was found in His mouth, and yet they crucified him wickedly. It was a wicked act. It was a sin. It was a transgression and there were all kinds of people involved. Have you noticed? There was Judas. What did he mean? What did he intend? 30 pieces of silver, he was motivated by greed. What about Annas and Caiaphas the high priest? What did they mean what do they intend? Greed, Jesus was cutting in on their business by cleansing the temple, over turning the tables of the money changers. That bothered them. They were like mafioso and he was cutting in on their business and so they were motivated by greed, and by power and revenge. Annas and Caiaphas. What about king Herod who wanted to see a miracle, he was motivated by boredom and a desire for entertainment and then when he could get nothing out of Jesus, he sends him back to Pilate for political motivation. And the two of them from that day on, were friends. And what about Pilate, what did he intend? What did he mean in the death of Jesus? I believe he wanted nothing to do with Jesus. He would have loved nothing better than just send Jesus on his way because his wife had suffered a great deal in a dream, and he was afraid of Jesus, and he had heard about Jesus' Miracles and I think he thought Jesus was in some sense a God incarnate. Not "the" God, he didn't have the Jewish way of looking at things, but he thought that Jesus was deity when he asked him, "Where did you come from?" He's afraid of Jesus, but he's even more afraid of the Jews, because they were going to tell Caesar, so he's motivated by fear, he's motivated by convenience and he washes his hands of Jesus and out he goes. Those are their purposes and they have to stand accountable each one for their own intentions and purposes. But God had a higher purpose. And you know what God's purpose was? To save me from my sins and you too if you trust in Him. That our salvation might be worked there by the greatest wickedness and sin there has ever been in history, and God intended it. He meant it, he planned it for our salvation, before the foundation of the world. And so it is that God actually can ordain and establish sin and evil while himself not tempting or dragging anyone to do sin, and wickedness, and evil. But intending it for a glorious purpose. IV. God’s Purpose for Gentiles Now, what is God's good purpose in the hardening of the Jews? What good thing could come from it? Well, I've already mentioned one. And the first that Paul mentions is salvation for the Gentiles. Next week, God willing. I'll talk about the last two which is salvation for the Jews, and glory for God's name. We'll get to that next week. But God had a purpose for the Gentiles. Look at verse 12. "If their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring?" The transgression of the Jews and rejecting Christ has meant riches for Gentile believers around the world. We've gotten rich on it, friends. We've gotten rich on mercy, we've gotten rich on Grace, we've gotten rich on the wisdom of God's plan. And friends, we are standing to inherit an infinitely greater amount of wealth and riches than we have even at this present time for the Holy Spirit is merely a deposit guaranteeing our full inheritance. We're going to get still richer yet. The riches of glory in Christ Jesus are ours because of the transgression of the Jews, that's what Paul says, "We got rich on it." We got riches on reconciliation. Verse 15, "if the rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be, but life from the dead." Why did the Jews have to disbelieve so that the Gentiles could believe? Now you may ask at this point a deep question. Why did the Jews have to disbelieve so that the Gentiles could believe? I don't see the connection. Why couldn't God have worked out a plan so that both Jews and Gentiles together could believe? My answer is I don't know. I don't know. All I know is the purpose is given there and it says there's a connection, but I will speculate, I have two levels of speculation. First of all, Jesus would never have been crucified, and second of all, even if he had, the Gospel would never been preached to Gentiles. That's my guess. So, bear with a minute or two of speculation. First of all, Jesus would never have been crucified. Let me bring you to the moment where he is convicted by the Jewish authorities. Jesus stands in front of the high priest, the high priest represents the Jewish nation, the high priest says, "Enough of these false witnesses this isn't working. They can't get their stories together. Let's cut to the chase." He asked Jesus... Jesus directly. "I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One." Remember what Jesus said in Mark's gospel, "I am." That's God's name, that's the name that the angel of the Lord spoke to Moses out of the flames of the burning bush. "I am." But Jesus didn't just leave it to that, He said in the future, "you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." He quoted Daniel 7, to help the high priest see, how someone could be both son of man and son of God at the same time. I am. Now the high priest has been brought to a pass hasn't he? He's been brought to a fork in the road, he has one of two options. You know what they are? He can either fall down and worship Jesus at that moment, or he can kill him for blasphemy. There's no other option. Jesus left him none. If he, representing the Jewish nation, had embraced Jesus as the Messiah as the king, he would never have been crucified. You say Why? The Romans wanted nothing to do with him? Pilate said, "Am I a Jew? It was your own people who handed you over to me. What is it you've done?" He didn't want anything to do with Jesus. And yes, we gentiles through Pilate’s washing of His hands and His cowardice, we are culpable in the death of Christ. God ordained it that both Jew and Gentile worked together that Jesus be crucified. But I'm just saying the scripture says in John 18, Jesus would never have been crucified because Pilate would have dismissed him. So speculation one, we would not have even had to crucified Christ. Therefore we have atonement. But second of all, even if we had a gospel, would the Jews have preached it to Gentiles? Would they have gone out and sacrificed? And we've learned all you have to do is simply believe this gospel that Jesus dead on the cross is your salvation, Jesus risen from the grave is your eternal life. All you have to do is believe this, you don't have to do any great religious works, you just have to hear and believe this gospel. It's a Jewish message. Salvation is from the Jews. And so therefore it was going to be carried by Jews, and we learned in Romans 10 that beautiful feet were going to take it across mountain ridges, and across oceans and proclaim this message. Because faith comes from hearing. Would they have done it? I don't think so. I think there was so much hatred built up. A wall of division between Jew and Gentile. So much hostility that the Jews would have either been apathetic to gentile salvation or they would have desired like Jonah frankly, that the Gentiles go ahead and be destroyed. Why was Jonah so angry, why was he so upset? He didn't want Nineveh saved. So would the Jews have taken the gospel to the Gentiles? We were studying the book of Acts in Sunday school, and we're talking about how the Jewish apostles and the early church super saturated Jerusalem with the gospel. I mean they went house to house. Everybody heard many times, many times they heard, then they heard, and they heard they're not going anywhere, They're staying in Jerusalem until Stephen got martyred, and the Sanhedrin persecuted them because of they... The Sanhedrin, did not believe in Jesus, and they're scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, and began preaching like Philip did in various other places. Peter himself did, not want to go to Cornelius and preach them the gospel, remember? The Lord had to show him three times a vision of a sheet, let down with all kinds of filthy animals that represented the Gentiles, in my opinion. Get up Peter. Kill and eat. Three times, Peter says "No way." Well, he says, "No Lord I've never even anything impure and unclean." And then the Lord says to him three times, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." When he goes to Cornelius's house, and breaks Jewish law by entering that Gentile home, to preach in the Gospel, he says, "Now I know how clear it is, that God does not show favoritism but accept people from any nation who believe him and do what is, right." That's what it took to get Peter to go to a gentile. Chapter 11. A whole recounting of Chapter 10 is there for only one purpose, Acts 11, to teach us how hard it was for Jewish Christians to accept the idea of Gentile believers. Very tough. And then along come the Judaizers party, that said... No, no, this is too easy. The Gentiles have to become Jews, they got to be circumcised in order to be saved. Do you not see how difficult it would have been for the Jews to evangelize? Now, I told you that was just speculation. The Bible doesn't tell me, but it does say branches were broken off so that you, a wild olive shoot could be grafted in. That's what it says. And so God's initial level of purpose in all of this is so that the Gentiles might get rich on the Gospel. Now next Week, God willing, we're gonna see what his purpose is for the Jews and ultimately what his purpose is for the glory of His own name. V. Application What application can we take from this? Well, I want to bring you to Hurricane Katrina. Our church has voted to embrace an adoption relationship. Kind of a partnership will be a better word with Bayview Baptist Church in Gulfport. But after Hurricane Katrina left its track of devastation there was all kinds of theological speculation in its wake. Have you read any of it? Really fascinating. All the theology that's done on the wake of a hurricane. Most of it bad, I have to be honest with you. How could a good and loving God really be in charge of everything when this wreckage is left behind? How can it be? As a Matter of fact, John Piper writing an article talks about Daniel Shore, who is a National Public Radio senior news analyst. He linked the devastation of hurricane Katrina with the concept of intelligent design, which he disagrees with. He would like evolution and only evolution taught in schools. This is what Daniel Shore said, "If this, [the hurricane] was the result of intelligent design, then the designer has something to answer for." Oh, was that striking. It's like a cold slap in my face to read that. Can you imagine the designer God answering to Daniel Shore? Can you imagine the scene at the end of the book of Job, reversed? Where Job is answering the... Asking the questions, and God's got to answer Job. Oh no, God answers out of a whirlwind and we keep our mouth shut and we listen to what he has to say for He is mighty, and He is sovereign, and He is exalted. But you know what struck me? How prone I am to do the same thing that Daniel Shore does. I do it almost knee jerk reflexively. As soon as something happens that I don't like in my life, I begin to look upward and say why? As though he needs to tell me why. As though he needs to give me an answer of why this or that or the other happened, whether financially or in a medical situation, or an unanswered prayer or some disappointment in this disappointing life, we immediately look up to God. Big issue or small. And we say why. Give me an answer. You have something to answer for God. I think Romans 9 through 11 is a good corrective to that problem. Wouldn't it be better for us, who know so little about life in the world just to put ourselves humbly at the feet of God? Just humbly say, "Whatever you're doing, even if it's the deepest and the most complex plan and I can't figure it out, even if I can't trace out your hand through all of what you're doing in my life, I trust you, Lord. I trust what you're doing, I trust what you're doing in this medical situation, I love when you're not answering prayer. They may die, they do die. I still trust you, Lord, I trust what you're doing in my financial life, I trust what you're doing with my job, I trust what you're doing with my children, I trust what you're doing in the things that pertain to me. I'm not going to murmur against you, I'm not going to complain. I can't trace out your ways. They're too high for me, they're too complex for me. I just trust you." To me. I think that's a comprehensive application of Romans 11. Secondly, simply this, you've seen today, the testimony of four individuals who trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and have testified by baptism. Where are you with God? Someday, opposite from Daniel Shore, someday you will have to answer to the almighty, Someday you will have to give an account of your life to Him. Are you ready? Are you ready, for that searching penetrating questioning where you'll have to give an account for every careless word? Are you ready? Have you trusted in Christ, Do you believe in Him? Is He your savior? Close with me, if you would, in prayer.

I. The Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation Good morning. Why don't you open your Bibles to Romans 1:16-17. Two weeks ago, we had a select group of people that, I think, walked here or came by dog sled and we looked at Romans 1:16. Today, what I would like to do is try to explain some of what we said that day, but I want to concentrate on Romans 1:17. "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith." After I graduated from college, I took a trip across the country with a friend of mine and we came to Yosemite National Park, spectacular place, and it's a favorite place for rock climbers. Now I would never involve myself in that kind of activity, especially after talking to one rock climber in particular who was a self-called free soloist. Now, I don't know if you know what free solo rock climbing is, but it involves climbing up rocks that sometimes might take two full days to get up to the top with no equipment at all. No ropes, nothing, just your hands and your feet, and your strength, and your skill. And if it takes two full days to climb up, you can imagine, after a couple of hours, you're high enough so that if you slip, no one will ever talk to you again. It's a very dangerous thing to do. And I thought to myself, "How foolish can that be? How foolish to risk your life for that kind of fun or entertainment, to risk your life for it?" But he claimed that he was good at what he did, he had a great deal of skill at it. And I would imagine so since I was talking to him and he was talking back, he was still alive. So apparently he had enough skill to survive one or two of those trips anyway. But is his foolhardiness any greater than that of somebody who walks around without the righteousness of God? Somebody who walks around apart from Jesus Christ? I would submit that that is far greater foolhardiness, and it's my goal today to explain that to you. I want you to understand the connection between Romans 1:16 and Romans 1:17. Just that simple, it's the only verses we're looking at today. I want you to understand the righteousness of God in verse 17. Now last time, we talked about the gospel. Now the gospel provides an occasion for shaming. Paul says, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel." And the reason it does is that the gospel brings out a shaming reaction in the people who hear it and don't want to hear its message. It makes you feel guilty. There's conviction, sin is discussed, judgement and the righteousness of God... And so, as a defense mechanism, an unbeliever is going to create a shaming opportunity and try to make you feel ashamed. We talked about that. But Paul says, "My freedom from shame comes from the gospel itself. I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because of the nature of the message I'm bringing. This is a glorious message, it's a great message I love this gospel message because it's the power of God for the salvation of the people who are trying to put me to shame. And so I'm not ashamed. As a matter of fact, just like Jesus Christ, I look beyond the shame to the goal, I look beyond the shame to what's on the other side." Jesus, in Hebrews 12, it says, "For the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God." "Despising" there, in Hebrews 12, means He thought little of it. It meant nothing to Him, the shame meant nothing to Him. And what shame it was to be beaten and mocked and rejected by His people, and walk through the streets, and nailed to the cross. There was a tremendous opportunity to feel ashamed, but Christ did not feel ashamed. He despised the shame, thought little of it because there was something on the other side. It was worth it to Him to pay the price, worth it to Him. And that's the way it was for Paul, he said, "I'm not ashamed. It doesn't matter if I'm beaten in the city square and dragged into the center of the jail to spend the night. It doesn't matter, I'm not ashamed. I love this gospel message. " So we discuss that. But the center of verse 16 is that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. And I ask, does salvation take power? Is there a power necessary for salvation? Well, there is if you understand it properly. According to Ephesians 2, all of us, apart from Christ, are dead in our transgressions and sins. Now you see the need for power. Who among us can raise ourselves from the dead? We need the supernatural power of God to raise us up, and the gospel is that power. It's power for spiritual resurrection and even more. He says, "It is the power of God for the salvation of those who believe." I did not say justification. Oh, that's part of it, yes, that's the beginning of the journey, complete forgiveness of all of your sins. What a blessed thought is that? How many are there? Do you really know how many sins you've committed in your life? You don't have the first idea. You do not know the measure of your salvation. You don't know how much God has forgiven or how much, when all is said and done, he will have forgiven you. But it's all forgiven, cleansed, if you believe this message. Power of God, for justification? No, for the whole journey, because it's the power of God also to take you from that first moment of faith when you're justified and move you along in that journey of sanctification, growing daily in holiness, moment by moment more like Jesus. It's a whole journey. It's not just the beginning. And it's the gospel that takes you there. It is powerful. It's not going to leave you the way it found you. It's transforming you. It's changing. It's the power of God for salvation. For everyone who believes, not just for the Jew, but also for the Gentile, for everybody. Let me discuss first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, and there is a certain order there, but ultimately, all of us are justified the same way by faith in Jesus Christ, Jew and Gentile. That's Romans 1:16. You got the sermon from two weeks ago in three minutes. Now some of you wonder why I can't do that every week, three minutes... But there is value to taking time, and I want to take time now in verse 17, because Paul explains in verse 17 what he meant in verse 16, why he is not ashamed and why the gospel is the power of God for salvation. He begins in verse 17 with the word "for" or "because." I'm not ashamed of the gospel because, in the gospel, the righteousness from God is revealed, the righteousness that is by faith or from faith to faith, just as it is written, and the righteous will live by faith. And so we have to ask our question. We talked about this earlier, but we have to understand it. verse 16 talks about power for salvation, the question is salvation from what? Salvation from what? II. Our Greatest Problem: The Righteousness of God Now we use a strong word like "salvation," we're talking about a great danger, aren't we? You don't use salvation for anything but a danger, and there is a great danger. Now what is the danger? And what I'm contending to you is that, interestingly enough, in one verse, we have contained both our greatest danger and our only hope, in one phrase, "The righteousness of God." It is both our greatest danger and our only hope. I'm going to explain that. One thing that I like, John Piper took this verse and rearranged it, and I like what he does. He's trying to explain to us here, in Romans 1:16-17, something we tend to miss when we think of the gospel. And he does it in an interesting way, clever way. He says, "What I'm going to do is I'm going to translate it wrongly. Actually it's not even a translation, I'm just going to put in a different word than Paul uses to try to underscore something that we need underscored." And his mistranslation reads like this, "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, for in the gospel the 'love' of God is revealed." The love of God is revealed. Is that what Paul says? No, it's not. Now, is the love of God revealed in the gospel? Oh, yes. I contend there's no greater demonstration of the love of God than in the gospel. Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates or displays His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us." You want to measure of the love of God, look at the cross, look at the cross. But Paul is not talking about love here, is he? And here's the point, we tend to think of the love of God wrongly, as though, in effect, God is saying, "I'm a loving God. I'm a kind God. I feel kind toward you, I want you to be with me, come and live with me forever in heaven." Is that the gospel message? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Does the love of God take all our unrighteousness, all our sin, and sweep it under the rug, and pretend it's not there? Is that what the gospel does? No, it does not. And therefore, this verse does not talk about the love of God. It talks about the righteousness, the righteousness of God. If it were like that, that God just says, "I'm a kind God. I'm a good God. I love you, come and be with me," this would have been a very short book. I don't just mean Romans, I mean the whole Bible. It'd be very short. Especially in Romans, you wouldn't need 16 chapters, and we certainly could skip the gruesome story of the death of the Son of God. Skip it. Wouldn't even have happened. God would just welcome all of us into heaven, everyone of us, because He's a loving God, a kind God. But there's a problem, isn't there? And the problem is the righteousness of God. He can't do that. He won't do it, because He is righteous. The Righteousness of God / The Holiness of God Now, when we are talking about the righteousness of God, there's another way to say it. We're talking about the holiness of God, His love for what is right, that righteousness is the scepter, the foundation of His throne, the holiness of God. And this is one of the major central things in the Bible, isn't it? God has to communicate to us His holiness. Does God ever tell us that He is love? Does He ever say, "God is love?" Yes, He does. Yes, He does. But He also says that He's holy. And He doesn't actually just say that He's holy, actually He says that He's holy, holy, holy. Now, is He any more holy than He is love? No. But we need to hear the "holy" three times because of who we are. We've got to hear it. We need to understand what it means. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke." And what did Isaiah say? "Woe is me." "Woe is me. I'm ruined! For I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." Do you think that Isaiah was thinking about the love of God at that point? I think he was thinking about the holiness, the purity, the righteousness of God. Now don't misunderstand me, the love and the holiness are not arguing with each other. Oh, no. They come together beautifully in the gospel. There's no conflict in God that He is righteous and He is holy. Now what is holiness? Holiness is separation. God is separate from His creation. He's utterly unlike His creation. There's nothing in His creation that you can use to compare to Him. He said that in Isaiah, He said, "What are you going to use to compare to me? What image will you make that looks like me?" Nothing. Separate and above. But that's not the holiness I have in mind. The separation here is separation from evil, separation from sin. He says in Habakkuk 1:13, "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong." He can't even look at evil, then how in the world is He going to let us into heaven? And if you're not sure what "us" we're talking about, we'll get to it the rest of Romans 1. You'll find yourself there. That's the "us" that He's going to let into heaven. Sinful, unrighteous, unholy, filled with all kinds of evil and greed, those are the people that get into heaven. Now my questions is, "How? How do they get there?" Romans 1:17 answers the question, it answers. And so the bottom line is we depend, don't we, we absolutely depend on God's hatred of evil. You may not even know it, but you do. Suppose God didn't hate evil, suppose He loved evil, what kind of world would this be? I can't even describe it to you. What kind of demonic place we would live in? Totally devoid of anything good. But our God hates evil, and we depend on it. We're glad that He hates evil. But the fact that God hates evil ends up threatening us eternally. Do you realize that? It threatens us. Because we don't think of ourselves properly, but if God hates evil, and if we're unrighteous, His hatred of evil threatens us eternally. There's a threat involved here. Now, we'll get to understand that more fully as we go through the rest of Romans 1. But Romans 1,2 and 3 unfolds the ungodliness that we're talking about. Romans 1:18 says, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness," or unrighteousness. And then Romans 3:10, "There is no one righteous, not even one." Do you find yourself there, in Romans 3:10? Do you see yourself there? "There is no one righteous, not even one?" "Well, except me though, Lord. I'm the one exception to Romans 3:10." No, you're not. There is no one righteous. Not the preacher, not the hearer. There is no one righteous, not even one. All right? But what does that mean? Well, according to the gospel that we're preaching here, it means that we're in trouble. It means that we're threatened, we're under wrath, we're under judgement. It's a dangerous situation. Romans 2:8, just look there "For those who are self-seeking, who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." That's a promise, that's a gospel promise. All right? How about Romans 2:5? "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed." There is a day coming. Romans 2:5 calls it "the day of God's wrath." It is the day when all accounts will be settled properly, everything done justly. God's kindness, tolerance and patience will end. It's over. It's the day of judgment. And that will be a day of trouble, distress, wrath and anger for everyone who is ungodly. It says in John 3:36, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." We're already there. We're already under the wrath of God. It's not like we're going to come into the wrath of God, we're already under the wrath of God. Already there. It's not a journey we make, we're there. We need to come out from under the wrath of God, we're already there. John 3:18, Jesus himself said this, Jesus himself. We should have no more authority than Paul saying it, but I'm saying it anyway. Jesus said this, He said, "Whoever does not believe in the Son stands condemned already." Already condemned. You're already under the wrath of God if you don't believe. Jesus gave us warning after warning about this. Matthew 10:28, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Be afraid of Him. Now, 21st Century Americans, and that's what we are, 21st Century Americans grossly underestimate judgment day. Grossly underestimate it. Christians and non-Christians alike, I'm only beginning to understand all the things that will happen that day. But I have preached the gospel before, and I have said this to somebody. I have explained to them the righteousness of God, I've explained to them the judgment to come, I've explained to them the forgiveness of sins available through faith in Christ, and they say, "I don't want to hear all that. I'm going to take my chances on judgment day." Now, I've set two images before you so far today, that of the free soloist rock climber and that of the man who says, "I'm going to take my chances on judgment day." Which of those two is more foolish? Do not be afraid of the one who can kill the body and after that can do nothing to you. Be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Free soloist slips and falls, he dies physically. Okay? But the other person who takes his chances on judgment day and has no interest in Jesus Christ, they fall eternally, eternally. III. Our Only Salvation: The Revealed Righteousness of God Martin Luther’s Salvation And so what I'm saying to you is simply this: Our greatest danger is the righteousness of God. Do you see it? Do you understand it? Our greatest danger is the righteousness of God. But the good news of the gospel is that our greatest hope, in fact, our only hope is the righteousness of God, in verse 17 of Romans Chapter 1. Isn't that incredible? The righteousness of God actually saves you in this verse. Now how in the world can that be? How can the righteousness, which was your greatest danger, suddenly become your only hope? Romans 1:17 explains it. This is exactly why the gospel was good news. Let's go back about 500 years. We've talked about Martin Luther before, but let's talk about him, because Martin Luther got saved on Romans 1:17. I prayed this morning openly that somebody here at First Baptist would also get saved on Romans 1:17. Can I ask the believers in the room to be praying silently that that would happen? Pray right now, that someone here would be saved by hearing and understanding the same message that saved Martin Luther 500 years ago, the righteousness of God. Pray with me. Pray silently in your heart, all you believers. But this is what happened to Martin Luther, struggling, wrestling, wrestling with his sinfulness, a sense of the judgment of God, the sentence against him, in his heart that he was under the wrath of God. And was he? Yes, he was. He wasn't wrong, but he was wrestling through his own good works. He was trying by his fasting, and by his prayer, and by going to Johann Staupitz who was his father confessor, confessing sin after sin until Staupitz didn't want to see him anymore. He said, "Bring something real to me. I don't want any more of these little sins. Bring the big ones." He was tired of seeing Luther. Luther had an overactive conscience, but he could not escape the sense of the judgment of God, and this is what he writes. This is his testimony. He says, "I greatly longed to understand Paul's Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but this one expression, the justice of God. It's the same thing, the righteousness of God, because I took it to mean that justice, whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust." He said, "I looked at it as judgment day justice, and I saw no hope for myself. I couldn't escape. There was no way out," said Martin Luther. "My situation was, that although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would take away my guilts." I am glad he had no confidence. He said, "I can't get rid of it. And therefore," listen to this, "I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him." He actually said to Staupitz, "I hate God," because he couldn't escape. He found no way out. Staupitz was scandalized, stunned, and didn't know what to say. "I hate God," he said. "And yet, I clung to that dear Paul because I thought that there was something in these verses for me, something here that would save me. I didn't know what. I clung to the dear Paul, and I had a great yearning to know what he meant by the statement. Night and day I pondered until at last, I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement the just shall live by his faith." It's the end of verse 17, "The just shall live by his faith." "Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness, by which through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. Thereupon, I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise, the whole of scripture took on a new meaning. And whereas before the justice of God had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This one passage of Paul became for me the gate to heaven." Isn't that incredible? Now what did he discover? He discovered that the very righteousness that God will require of every one of you and me, the very righteousness he requires on judgment day, he will give us as a free gift, if we receive it by faith. Do you see it? That's the gateway, this justice, this righteousness of God saves you. You put it on like a robe. It covers you. And it will cover you successfully on judgment day. It's incredible. I've just spoken the gospel to you. If you believe, you'll be covered with it, covered with it, just like Luther was. Augustine’s Struggle Saint Augustine made the same discovery hundreds of years before that. Remember Augustine, he was enslaved by passion, and lust, could not escape sexual immorality, couldn't get away from it. He knew he was under the judgment of God, he knew he was unrighteous, he could not break the power of sin in his life. And he made a startling discovery. God commands sexual purity, Romans 13:14, but in the command came something he had noticed, too. "Not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy, rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? "Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ." And this is what he wrote in his confessions. Great passage. Speaking directly, confessions. It's like one long prayer. He's just speaking to God, talking to God about his own conversion. This is his story, but he's speaking it to God. And this is what Augustine said to God, "And my only hope, my whole hope is only in your exceeding great mercy." Can all of you say that, by the way, "My only hope is in your exceeding great mercy?" If you can't, you're trusting your own righteousness. Don't cling to it, it will do you no good on judgement day. This is what Augustine said, "My only hope is in your exceeding great mercy." Now listen to this, "Give what you command and command whatever you will. You impose sexual purity on us, nevertheless when I perceived said someone that I could not otherwise obtain her except that God gave her to me, that was a point of wisdom also, to know whose gift she was." Sexual purity was going to be given to me as a gift by God. He commanded it, and then He's going to give it as a gift. "Oh, charity, my God, kindle me. You command sexual purity, give what you command, and command what you will." Do you understand that? God commands all kinds of things, doesn't he? More than you can count. Go through the Bible, 66 books, and count the commands from God. There's more than 10, lots more than 10. What did Augustine discover? Give what you command and command what you will. Righteousness of God comes as a gift. Here's a command from God, command right from the mouth of our Lord, "Be perfect therefore as your Heavenly Father is perfect." "Be perfect therefore as your Heavenly Father is perfect." Now, how are you going to work that one out? What labor, what struggle are you going to do to accomplish that command. "Give what you command, Lord, and command what you will." He will give you perfection in the gospel. Imputed Righteousness – Three Images That's what Romans 1:17 is all about. How does the gospel save believers? Romans 1:17 tells us, it's by imputed righteousness. Uh-oh, now we're into theology. This is serious. When we get into big words like imputed righteousness, it means it's given to you as a gift, that's all. The righteousness that God requires on judgment day, He simply gives you as a gift by faith. Now what is this righteousness? There's different possibilities. Could be the righteousness of God whereby He displays himself to be righteous and letting sinners like us into heaven by having Jesus die in the cross in our place. Do you see that? He's got to display His righteousness. That's Romans 3, we'll get to that. Or it could be the righteousness, whereby your sins are forgiven and you don't stand under the judgment of God, the righteousness of justification. Or it could be that righteousness that comes to you as you walk by faith and grow, and grow until at last you're glorified and become exactly like Jesus righteously speaking. Actually, the Gospel covers all of that. The righteousness of God is the whole thing. The whole thing is given to you as a gift by faith. Now, when we think about the righteousness of God, it's a moral quality or attribute of God, God is perfect, holy in all His ways. God is light and in Him there is, what, no darkness at all. Do you know that if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, someday that will be true of you? No darkness at all. None. Aren't you waiting for that day? Oh, I'm hungry for it. I want it. I want to be free from all darkness, within and without, too. All right? So, the righteous person, it says, is going to live by what? "The righteous will live by faith." But wait, wait, wait. I already quoted Romans 3:10, "There is no one righteous, not even one." And yet here's this righteous person in Romans 1:17. How do they get to be righteous? The righteousness of God comes. God makes them righteous and then they live by faith. It's the gospel. Now, I'm going to give you one clear verse that teaches this and three images from scripture, so you can hold on to this, so you can understand it. One clear verse, write this one down, it's probably in there, but I didn't put out the text. 2 Corinthians 5:21, you got to look it up. "God made Him, [Christ] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." It's the same righteousness of God. God made Christ who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. When did God make Christ sin for us? On the cross, on the cross, he took our sin. He didn't commit any sin Himself, no, morally pure, perfect. But God took our sin and put it on Jesus, and He extinguished the wrath of God when He died under the judgment of God for us, in our place. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become, what? Righteousness of God. There's an exchange. He takes your sin, your filth, your wickedness, your unrighteousness, 70, 80, 90 years of it, takes it all unto Himself. And what does He give you as an exchange? His own holiness, His own righteousness. That's the gospel. All right, that's one clear verse. What are the pictures? First one, Zechariah Chapter 3, just listen to these verses, Zechariah 3:1-5, "Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?'" "I saved him. You stop rebuking or you stop accusing." So God rebuked Satan, and then it says this, "Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, 'Take off those filthy clothes.' Then he said to Joshua, 'See, I've taken away your sin and I will put rich garments on you.'" Isn’t that beautiful? "I will clothe you richly, I'll put rich garments on you." "Then I said, 'Put a clean turban on his head.' So they put a clean turban on his head, and they clothe him while the angel of the Lord stood by." Those are sweet verses. It's a picture of judgment day, Satan there to accuse. And God shuts Satan up, shuts the accusation, takes the filth off, puts the rich robe on, picture number one. Picture number two, there was once a father who had two sons. One of the sons said, "Give me my share of the inheritance." And what does he do? Goes off and squanders it in loose living. You remember the story, "Prodigal Son." Now, what happened to the prodigal son? Well, he found himself at a very low point. You remember that? Very low point. There was a famine in the land, he couldn't get food, he couldn't do anything. And so he found himself feeding pigs, and he longed to feed himself on the food he was giving to the pigs. That is low. And that is what sin will do to you. You may already feel that, to some degree. You may see it, perhaps, in your life. Maybe not, but that's what sin does. It brings you very far from your father's house. And then suddenly, he came to himself and he said, "It's better in my father's house. I'm going to go and repent, and I'm going to ask not that I be a son but that I just be a servant in my father's house." And so he began and started on his way. I'm going to read, "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. And he ran to his son, and he threw his arms around him." What clothes do you think the son was wearing at that moment? Oh, my goodness. The clothes of a pig feeder. They must have stunk. And the father threw his arms around the son, and the son said to him, "'Father, I have sinned against heaven, against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to the servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet.'" That's image number two. Third image, another parable of Jesus, Matthew 22. There was a king who wanted to throw a wedding banquet for his son, and he went out and told those people who were invited to the banquet to come, but they said, "I'm too busy. I've got economic responsibilities. I'm not going to come to your banquet." And he was shocked, and well should he be shocked. That was going to be a great party. You don't want to miss it. It's going to be a great banquet, a great feast. Don't miss it. And so he said, "All right. Then go out in all the streets and gather everybody you can find. Just fill the place." But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. "'Friend," he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. And the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called but few are chosen.'" Now, I didn't make that parable up. I'm just explaining it to you. I think that that is talking about the righteousness of God. And if you're not clothed with it on judgment day, what is going to happen to you? "Tie him hand and foot and throw him outside in the darkness where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth." You need the righteousness of God on judgment day or you will not survive. You will not survive that day without the righteousness of God. I have given you one clear verse. Second Corinthians 5:21, I've given you three clear pictures. Zechariah 3, the high priest covered in filthy robes and God says, "Put a clean robe on him." Remember? And the prodigal son covered with pig stuff, covered with mess, and the father says, "Clothe him with the best, best robe." And the third picture, the wedding banquet in which someone didn't have the proper clothes and he's thrown outside. IV. From faith to faith Verse 17 of Romans 1 says that this righteousness is a revealed righteousness. "For in the gospel the righteousness from God is being revealed." the Greek tense is that it's continually presently being revealed. You know how it's being revealed? By people like me explaining it, preaching it, that's how it's being revealed. You start to understand. You can't see this righteousness in the rising sun. You can learn other things about God when the sun comes up, but you can't see the righteousness of God that way. You have to have it revealed to you by the preaching of the gospel. In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. Whenever the gospel is preached, the righteousness of God starts coming up in your mind and you start being hungry for it, you want it, you want to be clothed with God's righteousness, you know that your filthy rags will never do you on judgment day, and you would love an exchange. Oh, if you could just have an exchange. It's available. It's available simply by faith. Verse 17, it says, "In the gospel the righteousness from God is being revealed, the righteousness from faith to faith." This righteousness from God comes simply by faith, just believing. Faith. Romans 3:21-22, "But now righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to everyone who believes. There is no difference, for all have sinned and lacked the glory of God." There's no difference. You all get it by faith in Jesus Christ alone. It says the same thing in Philippians 3:9, talks about this, he says, "That I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own which comes from the law, but a righteousness which is through faith in Christ, a righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." Do you see the consistent lesson? It's a gift of righteousness. It comes by faith alone. Now, listen, if the righteousness comes from God as a gift to the helpless, and if the helpless must have faith to receive it, then faith is part of the gift. Do you understand that? Faith is part of the gift. Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and this not from yourselves." It is what? It's a gift of God. The faith that saves is a strong, powerful, enduring thing. It will survive anything. It cannot be extinguished by anything because it's from God. It's strong, it's powerful, and it saves. It comes through hearing the message, "Faith comes from hearing," Romans 10:17, but it's coming as a gift from God and it's strong. V. The Righteous Will Live by Faith And this message is for believers, too. I asked you earlier to pray, you believers, for someone who is not yet a believer, didn't I? Now pray for yourselves, because the Bible says that it's from faith to faith. In other words, step by step. By hearing this message, you grow in righteousness. By hearing this message, you grow up in your salvation. So pray for yourselves now, that you may have the faith to take the next step in your Christian life wherever you are. By faith, growing in holiness, more and more like Jesus. It says in Verse 17, "As it is written, the righteous will live by faith." Step by step, you're going to live by faith. Then pray for yourselves, "God give me faith. Strengthen my faith." And you know what he'll say? "Hear the word. Hear it again. Hear it again. Saturate your life, and your faith will grow and so will the holiness in your life. Hear this book. Hear this word. Understand and you'll grow." Ongoing faith is required. Not starting faith, but not finishing faith. The whole thing, a faith that is strong enough to survive the whole thing. It's a gift from God. First Corinthians 15:1-2, He says "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you have received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain." Oh, there's a vain belief. Oh, yes, of course, there's a vain belief. It's a counterfeit belief. But the faith that God gives, it's not counterfeit. It will survive and endure every trial, every temptation. And it says, "The righteous will live by faith." In Habakkuk's day... That was a quote from Habakkuk. In Habakkuk's day, the threat was judgment from God by an army. An army was going to come and break down Jerusalem's walls. The army was going to come and torch Jerusalem's homes. The army was going to kill and loot and plunder. But the righteous would survive that day by faith. So will you survive that coming day, coming day of judgement, coming day of wrath? By faith in Jesus, you will stand on that day. You will survive, and you will be clothed with righteousness. It's a righteousness that doesn't belong to you. It's Jesus's. He bought it with His own blood, and He wants to give it to you. Put it on. Despair in your own righteousness. Turn your back on your own good deeds. Stop saying, "I'm basically a good person." Turn away from all of that which will drag you to hell. Put on the robe of righteousness which will take you to heaven. It's a gift, a free gift, from Jesus Christ. VI. Review and Application We've seen that our greatest problem, our greatest danger, is the righteousness of God. We've seen also that our only solution is the righteousness of God. I just want to ask you, will you believe? Will you believe? I have some other applications, read them, take them home, enjoy them. That's why I give you these little slips, but I want to step aside from that, and I want to speak directly to you. Some day, maybe in some of your cases very soon, you're going to be laying in a hospital bed and the doctor is going to come in with a certain look on his face. It's not the look you were hoping for. Your test results are in. And actually, at that moment, you've decided you really don't want to hear what he has to say, so you just simply ask, "How long? How long do I have?" And he says, "I don't know. A week, a month, I don't know. It's not good." And when he walks out of the room, you'll put your head back on your pillow, and what will you cling to then? Very soon you will see the God that I've described, holy, pure and righteous. What are you going to cling to then? Now, I may be your pastor, and I may come and try to explain some things to you. Listen now. Listen now. It's coming sooner than you think. Cling to the righteousness from God, which he offers by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Will you pray with me?