The Burden and Responsibility of the Gospel

Well, great morning. Okay. You guys are funny. Pastor Daniel's awesome. I told him I said, way to way overdue it. I promise I'm gonna return the favor when he comes over this fall and and and speaks at Belton. But my name is Keegan. If we haven't met, I am the lead pastor at our Belton location. It is exciting to be with you this morning. This is my first time being here on a Sunday. Usually, I'm busy on Sundays as you can probably imagine over at our location, but our location is booming. I will tell you, I won't be able to stay after, this particular service because I got a high tail. We have over 50 new adults signed up for our membership you. And, so we're gonna go and connect with those folks, introduce them to the church. That is so awesome. I love I know y'all do membership you, about every six weeks here, and it's always an exciting moment to be able to help people get connected into spiritual family. We don't believe that church should just be a weekend experience where you just kinda come and go. This is truly a spiritual family that you can be a part of. And so if you've been looking for that, let me just help you out. Your search is over. This can be your home. And if you really want connection and great relationships to help you go in Christ, this is the place you can do that. And so I'm excited this morning. How many of you brought your Bibles? Come on, wave it at me. If you have you have real Bibles, I like to tell the folks that Bellton, real Christians have real Bibles. Listen, get yourself a real copy of God's word so you don't always have to rely on the digital. Digital technology is great. Literally second service, my iPad failed me, but I have analog notes, so I was able to keep going. But I'm telling you, when you are going to spend time with God, you don't wanna have to worry about the rings and pings and dings and all the things that come with your phone or your technology. Get along with God in a quiet place, have your word with you, and then you won't be distracted. You'll be able to truly enjoy that time. And we have Bibles here, by the way, if you need one. So you don't have any excuse, you can leave here today with God's word in your hand. Well, I'm excited to get going. How many of you have enjoyed grace and glory? A few of you. Okay. Good. Hopefully, the rest of you after today will say yes. Well, I know we've kind of been in it, and then we were out of it, and then back into it, and then and and now we're getting back in for the last two weeks starting today. So I'm gonna give you a little bit of a recap as we get going. First of all, in week one, we talked about from Romans six how you died with Christ, sin lost its ownership of you, and you came alive to a brand new life. Are you glad that God has given you a brand new life? Come on. This is exciting. You know, when we talk about God saving us and even people getting baptized, God doesn't dip us in the water just so we can come out a little bit better version of ourselves. No. He offers us a transformational brand new life, and we're to live from that place. Then in week seven or week two, Romans seven, we talked about the war with sin is real. How many of you have dealt with sin in your life? Come on. The war is real. We talked about how trying harder can't win it. You can't out discipline a desire. You can only out love it. What does that mean? That means until your passion and your love for God outweighs your passion and love for anything else, you'll never be able to let go of those lesser things. You have to care more about your walk with Christ. He has to matter to you more than those addictions, more than those habits, more than those sinful things, or you won't let them go. Then in week three, we got into Romans eight. The first 17 verses talked about how there's no condemnation for those in Christ. Aren't you glad? Nobody's glad. Come on. I'm a very interactive person. You can talk at me. I don't ask you questions to to not actually have you answer them, but I'm glad there's no condemnation. You know what this means? You can come to Jesus just as you are. You don't have to do, some elaborate stuff to try and get yourself presentable to God. You know, I'm I'm just doing all these works, and then maybe God will accept me. No. He says, come just as you are. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. It's a powerful thing. The spirit lives in you and you've been adopted as God's own child. And then in week four, moved on to present suffering is outweighed by the glory coming. How many of you have had to deal with some struggles or some trials or some tribulations, some challenges? Come on. Every room every hand in this room ought to go up. All of us deal with that. But, you know, what god has coming for us far outweighs it. There is an eternity that we look forward to that gives us a hope and encourages us even in the darkest times that we face this side of heaven. And then in week five, two weeks ago, we looked at Romans nine. God's word has never failed. Say never. Never failed. Not one time. The covenant called Israel to a purpose, and a believing remnant proves he never quit on his people. So what does Paul do about that? That's what we're gonna get into today. He prays. And in the middle of that prayer, he hands us the clearest picture of salvation. These 17 verses are the gospel packed in one place. And I just tell you, if you are a disciple, if you are a follower of Jesus, God has called you to also go and make disciples. I would ask you, just like I asked my location, how many of you right now could open up your bible and lead somebody to Jesus? Thank you for your honesty. Not many hands go up. You know what that tells me? We've gotta do a better job helping disciples make disciples, because it's not just my job or pastor Steven or pastor Nate or pastor Daniel or pastor Lindsey, pastor Joshua. It's not anybody on staff. It's not Jacob Powell's job only. It's everyone who says, I'm following Jesus. You should be able to lead somebody else into a relationship with Jesus. You should be able to open up your Bible. I'll tell you, if you if you don't know how to do that, I'll give you a cheat code. You can go look up the Romans Road, study it. We even have little cards that we hand out. If you want one of those, you can come over to Belton to get one. You can miss one service. It's okay. Just make sure you come back. Amen. But you should be able to sit down and help somebody see their state that that their sin separates them from God, but that he has made a way to bridge that gap so that they can be in relationship with him. Do you know that's why you were made? This whole Bible, God's word is to tell us about how we can get back to the one who made us, what he's done for us. It's powerful. So let's dive in. I want you to understand first that the gospel comes with two weights. The gospel comes with two weights. First, there's a burden, the same that Paul had for people who don't yet know Jesus. Do you have a burden for that? Let's think about that for a second. Do you do you actually ever does it cross your mind that the people that are around you, maybe in your workplace, maybe co in your school, that they don't know Jesus, and if they were to take their last breath, they would spend eternity without him. That should burden us as believers. You know that Jesus came because he had compassion for us? We're gonna look at this in just a moment. Jesus did not come to save us because he had to. He came because he wanted to. We should carry that same compassion. And there's a responsibility that we have because faith comes by hearing. Well, how can someone hear unless somebody else opens up their mouth? Have you ever heard the the saying, well, I'm gonna preach the gospel, and if necessary, I'll use words? First of all, that's not actually, a thing. Yes. Your lifestyle should have integrity that aligns with what you are saying, but you have to open up your mouth and share the good news or people will not just get it by osmosis. You can't just, like, get them close to your Bible or hit them with your Bible and think it's it's gonna take. No, it's not. Every one of us are called to communicate the good news, the gospel to those around us. Here's the big idea for this morning. Everyone, say everyone, who calls on the name of the Lord will be what? Saved. Come on. And everyone he saves, he sends to go and tell. Do you know you don't get saved just so you can, like, move on and do you and whatever? No. You're saved for a purpose. You're saved so that you can now join God in his work of bringing reconciliation to the rest of creation to others around you. You're saved for a purpose. We're gonna talk about that. So Paul packs the whole gospel into these 17 verses. Let's get started. Number one, compassion is what drives Paul's prayer for Israel. Look at Romans ten one through four. Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don't understand God's way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God's way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. What are we seeing here? Paul says, as a Jewish believer who's now put their faith in Jesus, he's saying, I long for the rest of my Jewish brothers and sisters to recognize that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He's not just another great rabbi or great teacher, great philosopher. No. He is the son of God. He is the Messiah. He longs for them to see this. But God has called him to preach the good news to the Gentiles because the Jewish people rejected him. God said, I'm gonna now allow Gentiles to be grafted in. Let me just help you in case you didn't grow up in church. If you're not Jewish this morning, guess what category you're in? Gentile. I know some of you, you're like, well, I'm an American. Okay. You're a Gentile American. Well, wait there, preacher. I'm a Texan. Okay. You're a Gentile American Texan, but you're in this category, and this is good news. Why? Because we're gonna see that he's lord of both, and he offers salvation to everyone. Did many of the Jews miss him? Yes. But look how Paul responds to people who rejected their own messiah. He doesn't respond with contempt or distance, but with compassion. This is the same heart, church, that we need to have towards the Jewish people and towards Israel. You're like, okay. Don't get into all that. No. I'm gonna get into it. And matter of fact, we're gonna have a midweek, series coming up where we're gonna help you understand biblically, about God's covenant with Israel and all that that means. It's gonna be awesome. And by the way, I I've come to a lot of midweeks, and I don't I don't see most of you there. So I'm just gonna say, get to midweek. Come on. It'll be a blessing for you. I promise. But show up, and I'll see you and you can wave at me. But we should have the same heart that God has for the Jewish people as well as Paul had. Why? Because God's not done with them, and God has a purpose. And even as Gentiles, we're part of his purpose. The Bible says that our lives, our relationship with Jesus, the Messiah, should actually make them jealous to the point where they would say, you know what? I wanna accept him as Messiah. I wanna put my faith in him and get saved. And I would just tell you, I know there's a lot of stuff that gets thrown out in social media and and all that stuff and but here's the thing. We don't we don't stand with Israel just because we think everything they do is right and good. Right? No nation is is perfect in that, any more than we we are proud to be Americans even knowing we have flaws. Are you getting what I'm putting down? Smelling what I'm selling. Here's the thing. There's no room. You're like, why are you driving this? Because there's no room for antisemitism among God's people. Not at all. And I'll tell you, even we're gonna go through it, like I said, the covenantal theology and help you understand all that. But even putting that aside, did we not just read that he said that everyone who calls on him, that he died for everyone shall be saved? There's not a reason any believer, any follower of Christ should have any animosity towards any people group. No. We should be burdened about their souls in the condition of where they're gonna spend eternity. Alright. Let's keep going. The burden of the gospel should begin should begin with compassion for people who don't know Jesus. And I would just say this, if you don't wake up and and all of us are in this. I wanna have a greater compassion for the lost. I wanna see people and think about where they're gonna spend eternity more often than I do. All of us can have more of that. I would ask you to pray and ask God to give you his heart towards the lost. Why is that important? Aren't you glad his heart was for the lost and you got found? Come on. He said, I came to seek and save those who are lost. Matthew nine thirty six. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Scripture also tells us that all of us, say all. I know you know what that means. Pastor Steven has already schooled you on that. All means all in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, everything. It says all of us, like sheep, have turned away, each to our own way. But Jesus loves us so much that he calls us back. And what does Paul want them to see? He wants them to see that the salvation that they're looking for has been there the whole time. Saving faith is open to all who confess and believe. Look at verse eight through 10. In fact, it says the message is very close at hand. It is on your lips and in your heart. And that message is the very message about faith that we preach. If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. Notice what Paul is dealing with first. He's dealing with the fact that you can't earn salvation. Tell your neighbor, I can't earn it. I couldn't earn it. I don't deserve it. Great line in a song, but it's so true. There's nothing you can do to earn salvation, to earn your way to God. He has done the work, and he has made a way, and he asks us to simply put our faith in him, to believe that he is who he says he is and that he's done what he's done. The next thing he says is that salvation is not far away and it's not complicated, But you have to believe it in your heart, and you have to declare it with your mouth. You have to confess it. Believe it in your heart is one thing, but you should be able to confess. You shouldn't shy away when someone says, hey. Are you one of those Christians? Yes. I am. I got a great testimony. I didn't share this in the first two services, so maybe y'all are getting the best the best last here. Come on now. And this is great practice for me, by the way, because Belton is growing. And we're not quite to three services, but I can tell you, it's coming. It's gonna be exciting. But I had come on. I love that. But we had a gentleman came up to me. He's been going through our, eight arenas. Men's Discipleship, of course, have been doing that for the last seven weeks. We're gonna wrap it up tomorrow at our location. And he came up to me and he shared or emailed me and sent me this testimony. He was applying for a job. He's a a business owner himself, but his business was kind of, low a little bit, and so he needed to subsidize that and and find some other work additionally to fill in that gap. And he said he went to this one place, and he applied and passed their test and all of these things. And and he said and they never called me back. He said, and I really, you know, thought, man, that would have been a great job. That would have been a great fit. He said, but then I went to this next place. He said, and before I sat down in the interview, I thought about something you had said about how our identity should first be and who we are as a child of God. And he said, I sat down, and when the the gentleman interviewing him began to ask him, he said, tell me about yourself. The first thing he said was I just I wanna start with letting you know that I'm a man of God. And then he went on from there and answered the questions and did the interview. Do you know they called him back immediately? He got that job. It was better paid than the other one was gonna be. More flexibility in the hours, and he's like, I know that was the Lord. That was the Lord saying, hey. You be bold for me, and I will open up doors for you. It's powerful. That's how it should be. Let's look at this next. Saving faith means Jesus is both savior and Lord. Tell your neighbor, you might have to buckle up for this. Come on. You can talk to him. It's alright. Romans ten:nine again. If you openly declare Jesus is Lord, these three words that will that will and should rearrange your entire life. Now I know we're in America. We all have rights. Come on. Do you not have rights? I got rights. Well, can I tell you? You surrendered those rights to Jesus when he became your lord. What does that mean? That means he's lord of all or he's not really lord at all. I know that's not the first time you've heard that being a vintage church, but it's true. Jesus must be lord of all. He should affect every aspect of your life. Every decision that you make, you should be consulting your lord. The LAB translation says it this way. For with the heart, one believes, resulting in in righteousness, and with the mouth, one confesses resulting in salvation. Righteousness is a result of heart that truly trusts Jesus. Do you truly trust him? Have you truly made him the lord of your life? Obedience, again, is not a means of salvation. We don't try and obey God so much that we'll hope he'll let us in to heaven. I know there's people that that it's crazy. They still, in some way, think, well, I gotta I gotta be so obedient. I gotta do this or do that. I gotta prove myself to god so that when I get there, maybe Peter will open up those gates and let me in, which part of me laughs because I'm thinking why who said Peter is gonna be at the gate? Who just dubbed him the gate guy? I mean, I can't find it in scripture. It says Peter's gonna be at the gates, and it's really funny. I mean, what if it's Enoch, or what if it's somebody you weren't expecting? What are you gonna do? I don't know what to do right now. I was expecting someone else. But, no, our obedience flows out of our love and our gratitude and our relationship with Jesus. We understand the magnitude of what he's done for us. We understand what it costs for us to be here and to know him. Total salvation, gratitude, and obedience run deep in the heart of a genuine believer. Do you know you can be a disingenuine believer? What does that mean? That means you mentally ascend to it and and you hope it'll be true and and all of these other things, but you don't actually you don't actually have a deep rooted conviction to follow Jesus. Philip Vitorious said this one time. He's a South African pastor. He said the strength of our church, the local church, every local church will only ever be as strong as the strength of the personal convictions of every member of the church. It's not good enough just for me to have rock solid faith in Jesus or pastor Steven or pastor Daniel. It takes all of us having a deep rooted conviction. This goes to the deepest part of our life. It affects our worldview, emotions, attitude, sexuality. There are people that the the world is telling them, just go ahead and make whatever decision about your body you want to because it's your body. No. It's not. God made that body, and God doesn't make mistakes. I like to tell people at Belton, listen. There's no conveyor belt up in heaven where they're just spitting out bodies, and then somebody's like, oh, great. We put Leroy's body in Larice's. Now I'm making a joke, but I honestly think this is one of the greatest insults to God, that God is so dumb that he put the wrong person in the wrong body. Are you kidding me? The one who holds the world, the universe in his hand, but he couldn't get your gender right? You know what that is? That's a lie straight from the pit of hell to rob somebody of the identity that God has given them, to be an incredible man of God or woman of God. God makes no mistakes. Even if you came into this earth by circumstances that were not the the best, can I tell you it's still God that caused that fertilization and caused you to live, that it caused the miracle of life? God makes no mistakes. Tell your neighbor, I'm not a mistake. I don't care what you said to me yesterday. I'm just kidding. Here's another one. It even reaches all the way to your finances. Uh-oh. Guess what? I can say this, and then I'm about to walk out the door so you can talk to pastor Daniel after it. But let's hit it. And I'll tell you, I love hitting the topic of money. Why? Because people get funny when you talk about their money. Don't talk to me about that. That's my business. No. God needs to be Lord over your finances as well. There's a reason we talk about tithing. And I gotta tell you, go read your Bible. There's nothing in scripture when God's talking about finances that He isn't telling you, Hey, there's a giant blessing if you'll do it my way. Nowhere in scripture does He say, If you follow me and you handle your finances the way I say to handle them, that you're gonna have less, and you're gonna struggle, and your life's gonna be terrible. No! Matter of fact, this is the only area for all the skeptics. This is the only area God says you could test me. It's like you could picture him up there daring you, like, I dare you to trust me in this because I am about to open up these windows of heaven and pour out blessings so much that you can't even contain it. But you have to trust him. Oh, there goes the church again. They just want my money. No. It's not about the church wanting your money because as you can see let me just tell you. Give me give me some statistics. The the national average is around 10% of believers who say they're followers of Jesus in a local church that tithe. Around 10%. What are the other 90% doing? They're not giving. They're not honoring God with their finances. You know why we do campaigns? You know why we have For Our Kids and Build three sixty five and there is more and all that? Because we have to raise more money. Why? Because people don't tithe. Now I would tell you this. Our three locations, we're above the national average, which is awesome. But we're not, like, at 50%. Half the peep more than half the people that show up every week, oh, yeah. I just I love being able to experience all of this, but I'm not gonna put anything into it. Can I just tell you, if you say you're a follower of Jesus, you ought to be committing? Well, Jesus didn't talk about the tithe. Yes. He did. You can open up your Bible right now to Luke chapter 11 verse 42. When he's talking to the Pharisees and he says, hey. I know that you tithe and you should, but also don't forget these greater things. There are greater things than just money. But make no mistake, Jesus didn't say, I know that you tithe, then you don't really need to bother with that because that was an old testament thing. Now why? Because when we give, when when we live generously just like God, he not only blesses us, but look what he creates for other people to be able to come into a place and space to hear about the gospel. Come on. It takes money to keep the lights on. And I'll tell you, God look what God's already done with even 10 of of people giving. So he the the the mission of the church is not gonna stop or slow down. But here's the thing. If you give, you're gonna be blessed in being a part of it, and if you don't, you're not. But then I'll tell you right now, don't cry to God when you're having money trouble. Well, I just need God to come through for me. You don't honor him with a single dollar, but you now want him to bail you out? My bible says in Proverbs that people ruin their own lives by their own foolish decisions and then get angry with God. Guess what? That's in your Bible too. And I've never seen God come down physically, yank somebody's credit card out of their wallet and swipe it for them to buy something. I tell you, I love talking about money. And the reason is because it has such Jesus talked about it more than faith, love, and hope combined. Why? Because he knows the stronghold that it can have on people's life. And if the enemy can keep you bound into not relinquishing your finances to God, he'll he can keep you in poverty. He can continue to rob you. You know, the Bible says this is the last thing I'll say about it. But it says when you tithe, says that he will rebuke the devourer. Do you know he doesn't promise to rebuke the devourer off of your life until you tithe? Look. I didn't come to hear about this. Well, you came to hear about your Bible. This is what lordship looks like, and the American church needs to learn what lordship is. We're done just selling fire insurance. This is not Willy Wonka, the golden ticket where Jesus is my savior, but he can't be my lord. No such thing. He's your lord before he's your savior. Alright. Let's keep going. I know you wanna get to lunch. Proverbs three nine. Honor the lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Do you do that? Think through your life. Are you honoring God with your wealth and the best part of your life, or are you giving him with the leftovers? Next, the gospel is both radically inclusive and radically exclusive. Verses 11 through 13 says, as the scriptures tell us, anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced. Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same lord who gives, what? Generously to all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. What do we mean by the Christian faith? The gospel is radically inclusive. Here's what it means. It means what it says. Anyone who calls on him can be saved. Anyone. I don't care what nationality you are, what your socioeconomic status is, what side of the tracks you grew up on. None of that stuff matters. Anyone who calls on the name of Jesus, on the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's inclusive. When people say, well, the Christians Christians are they're not inclusive. Yes. We are. But here's the other thing. The way to come in to relationship with God is radically exclusive, meaning there's only one way. You cannot come to God. I cannot come to God and enter into right relationship with him any old way that I want to. No. He says, if you're gonna come to me, you gotta come through my son, Jesus Christ. You gotta put your faith in him. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes through the father but through him. I know Oprah years ago said, well, that, you know, there's just a big mountain, and there's all these different paths to get to God. Not true. Not true at all. You can't get to the father through Buddha. Certainly can't get to him through any other religion. There's only one way. Come on, somebody. Aren't you glad you know the one way? Acts four twelve says there is salvation in no one else. Is there an exclamation mark by that? There should be. There is in my Bible. There's salvation by no one else. God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Come on. You should be bold about that. When people say, well, I don't know why I can't just come to Jesus or come to God in some other way and just do my own thing, because he defines how we come to him, and he can do that because he's the author of everything. Next, we see that faith comes by hearing, and we are the ones who must speak. Tell your neighbor, I gotta talk. If you're not good at presenting the gospel or sharing the gospel message, you need to start practicing. It's not good enough to just, well, if I can just get them to church and hope that the pastor's on fire that week, then maybe they'll get saved. No. That's the wrong thinking. Yes. We're always in every service at every location gonna give an invitation for somebody to put their faith in Jesus Christ for the first time or to rededicate. I'm gonna do that at the end of this message, but here's what would be really awesome, is if all of us who are sitting in these seats, who call ourselves disciples, we're actually making disciples. Imagine if we had a week where 17 people led three people each to the lord, Maybe on a lunchtime where they just got to pray with their coworker or maybe before or after school or maybe, you know, some other place they were out to dinner and they got into a conversation, and they were able to lead somebody to saving faith in Christ. And then they're bringing them to church on the weekend. Why? Not so they can get saved, but so they can meet the rest of the family. Imagine if we had 40 people show up and say, man, I got saved on Tuesday. I got saved on Thursday. I got saved at a small group on Wednesday night. Well, not Wednesday night. You should be here for midweek. Let's say, I got saved during the week and and so we gotta give out Start Here free devotionals for people who got saved during the week. You know what's crazy? Nobody's cheering for that. Why is that? Again, I get to go back to my location. But but think about this. Why are you not excited or more passionate about leading people to Christ? Can I tell you there's no other experience in life like it? For those that know me, I'm a huge sports fan, and I love when my teams win like anybody else. But can I tell you, championships and all these other things, none of that compares to the experience of being able to lead somebody into relationship with the one who made them? And I'm telling you, when you start talking about Jesus, something in your face ought to light up. People ought to be able to see that you get excited, that you actually have genuine passion for this. They can see your love for God. Can I tell you right now how you're living? All the people around you, they're gonna wanna know Jesus more or less based on how you're living. Which one is it in your life? Your coworkers wanna know less about Jesus because you're a terrible coworker? Or they wanna know more because they see you driven by something that that no other people are driven by? That you walk in and you change the atmosphere because you always bring joy and life and peace. That you're willing to help and go above and beyond? Or are you the slacker that comes in late and then, praise Jesus? It's like, no, bud. Get to work on time. Don't talk to me about Jesus. Get to work on time. Sorry. It's too practical for y'all. Romans ten fourteen through 15. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? How can they believe in him if they've never heard about him? How can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the scriptures say how beautiful are the feet of the messengers who bring good news. Paul was quoting, the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah fifty two seven, he says, how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns. Come on. In the ancient world, messengers would have to carry the news of a victory out to the people. And by the time they would get there, oftentimes, their feet would be mangled. They didn't have fancy shoes and hiking shoes and and all of those things, so their sandals could be all torn up and muddy and gross. But God calls that beautiful. Why? Because they're carrying good news. You're a messenger for the gospel. Let me bring this to a close. My last point, not everyone will believe, but we never stop telling. Romans sixteen, ten, sixteen, and seventeen. But not everyone welcomes the good news. For Isaiah the prophet said, lord, who has believed our message? So faith comes from hearing. That is hearing the good news about Christ. Here's what you do if they don't receive it. Luke ten and ten through 11, my last verse. But if a town refuses to welcome you, go out into its streets and say, we wipe even the dust of your town from our feet to show that we have abandoned you to your fate. And know this, the kingdom of God is near. Tell your neighbor tell your neighbor, I'm responsible to tell the good news. I'm not responsible for the results. We're not it's not up to us. We don't save anyone. We simply share the message. It is the work of the holy spirit. And those that were sharing the message, it's up to them to choose to receive the message. With Jesus, you only have two options: you receive Him or reject Him. That's it. You can't have a casual relationship. I just kick it with Jesus sometimes on the weekend, you know. And then I just, you know, don't even talk to him the rest of the week. No. It's all or nothing. He said, if you're lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth. Where are you at today? Have you made that decision to follow Jesus, to get right with him? The Bible says that all of us have fallen short of the gospel. All of us are sinners, and I'm gonna prove it to you. Even without having a bunch of theology to to help you understand this. Is there anybody in this room who's lived a perfect life? Raise your hand if you have. You know, no one ever raises their hand. Why? Because we know it's true. The Bible is true that all of us have fallen short. All of us have sinned, and our sin separates us from God. And there's only one way to bridge that gap, and that is putting your faith in Jesus Christ. Doing what Romans ten nine and ten says, openly declaring that he is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead. It's that simple. So I'm gonna lead you in a moment to do that. Here's what I wanna ask you. I have a personal conviction. I I kind of do this invitation a little differently, and it doesn't make it better or or worse than how anybody else leads you into this moment. But I I had a a a revelation in a devotional time that I had with God, and he showed me, this openly declare thing really sticks out to me. He said, have you ever been to a wedding where when the bride and groom are about to make their commitment to one another, to exchange vows, to enter into this covenant relationship, which, by the way, that's what you're doing when you give your life to Christ. The church is the bride of Christ, and we're entering into covenant relationship with him. But god said, have you ever been to a wedding where when we get to that moment, he asks everybody to just close their eyes and and not look? I've never been to a wedding that's that's done that. Why? Because when people are making that decision, the others wanna be able to witness it and celebrate. And I just wanna tell you, this morning, we're gonna do a little different with every head up and every eye open. If you are bold, if you are ready to say, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God on the salvation. I recognize this morning I have a need for God, that my sin has separated me from Him, But I see what he's done in sending Jesus, his son, to die for me, to go down the Via Dolorosa like pastor Rob McCoy shared at at Forest. Have his body beaten and bloodied to where he was almost unrecognizable, and then to carry his cross, and then to be hung up on the cross, and to not fight at one moment. Why? Because the Bible says he despised the shame and for the joy set before him of knowing it would make a way for his creation to come back into relationship with him. He said, I'm happy to do it. And you know what? He didn't do that in some hidden alleyway. Jesus openly declared his love for you. And so how can we not respond in kind and openly declare our love for him? You're like, why are you yelling at me? Because, church, we have to get back to the passion of the gospel. This matters. You will breathe your last breath at some point this side of heaven, and where you go next is up to you. You're not promised tomorrow. Your life is but a vapor. And I'm not trying to scare you into heaven, but I am trying to keep you out of hell. And I believe if you can't be bold enough to raise your hand and declare that you wanna follow Jesus in a room full of people who've already done that, you won't last five seconds out these doors. And the stats show it. The stats show it. It's amazing how many people will raise their hand and still won't even come up at the end and get a start here free devotional, free resource to help them get started in their faith. It makes me wonder, did you really mean it? Don't worry. I'm leaving. I will be back for midweek, Wednesday, so you can come back. I'm telling you, I've been doing this a long time, and I'm more and more convinced that we need to have passion when we share the message. Come on. Are you gonna be like those those disciples where they said, I I know these people have been with Jesus. Is that gonna be said of you? So if you're here today and you're ready to make that decision to give your life to Jesus, to surrender to him for the first time, or you need to recommit your life because you made that decision, but you have not followed through on it and you know it and he knows it, today's your day for either one. On the count of three, if you're bold and ready, raise your hand. One, two, three. Thank you for that hand. Thank you for that hand. Thank you for that hand. Thank you for those hands. Keep them up. Keep them up. Come on. Keep them up. Look at this. That is the church. That is what it looks like. Would you bow your heads? We're gonna pray, and I'm gonna ask all of us just to pray this together. Something magic in the words, but it is simply you sincerely making the decision to put your faith in Jesus Christ. Just repeat after me. Say, dear heavenly father, thank you for this day, for showing me my need for you. I confess that I am a sinner, that I've messed up. But today, I see that even though my sin has separated me from You, You have made a way for me to be with You. I believe today that you sent your one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to live the life I couldn't live, to go to the cross. Your body being beaten and bruised, your blood being spilled. You hung on that cross, and you gave your life as a sacrifice, not for your own sin, but for mine. Today, I receive that free gift of salvation by faith. I know I can't earn it, but I don't have to. Today, I ask you to come into my life and from this moment on, be my savior, be my Lord, be my master, and be my king for the rest of my days. In Jesus' name. Come on. Can you cheer like you've never cheered before?