It was a Sunday night in October of 1871 that Dwight Moody or D.L. Moody got up to preach in front of the largest crowd he had ever preached to at that time. He was preaching in Chicago and he was addressing them that evening with a sermon titled, What Will You Do With Jesus Who Is Called The Christ? As he preached this sermon, he went through the gospel and explained Christ. And in the end, he finished his sermon by addressing the crowd and said, when we come together again next week, you'll have an opportunity to respond. So take a week and think it over and come back ready next week. Around the time that his sermon was winding down, the great Chicago fire broke out. It was a fire that burned from that Sunday night all the way through that Tuesday. 100,000 left homeless, hundreds killed in the fire, and even some who died had been in Moody's meeting that night. When asked in the aftermath about his thoughts, Moody regretted saying, I would give my right arm before I would ever give an audience another week to think over the message of the gospel. Friends, you and I have been armed with the gospel. We've been given a message and the time to call for a verdict on souls and the time to live it out and the time to be bold and live unashamed in your life for the gospel is not then, it's now. The time for our churches and pulpits and for us as the hands and feet of Christ to go out calling for a verdict on souls is not some time in the distant future. The gospel is not a footnote to our ministry. It is our ministry. The programmatic elements of the church may be beneficial in some way, shape, or form, but if they aren't furthering the mission of the gospel, then you might as well let them die because we're not fulfilling our mission. We are here. And Paul was on earth and made his mission the gospel. That is the central message. That is the thesis statement here of the entire letter of Romans. Paul gives it right there. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Here it is. I want to preach to you who are in Rome. Let's get this message out there. I want to bear fruit. I want to see God use me. I want to see him use you. And then he goes on to expand on that statement for the rest of the letter of Romans. Proposition number one in the three weeks is this. The first one today is that the gospel deserves unashamed proclamation. My goal each and every week will be to prove to you the proposition. And this week, by the end of the sermon, I promise to prove to you why the gospel deserves yours and mine, unashamed proclamation. But we need to understand some prerequisites here. And so again, this week will be just a touch longer than other sermons. We're gonna take a running start at it. Three keys that you need to understand before we dig in, don't tune me out, stick with it. Number one, God's mission is making himself known. You have to understand that if we're gonna live unashamed of the gospel and even understand the purpose of the gospel. God's mission is making himself known. When you do a tour throughout the Bible, Genesis 17, one, he tells Abraham, I am the Lord almighty. In Exodus chapters five and six, he proves to both Moses, Pharaoh, and all of Egypt that he is the Lord. When you see in prophetic literature, in the book of Isaiah, by the time you're at chapter 45 and verse 23, God speaking through Isaiah says this, my word has gone out of my mouth unto me every knee will bow and tongue will confess. And by the time you get to the book of Ezekiel, if you wanna do a great study this week, just flip page after page, grab a highlighter, and start looking for every single statement where God says, so then they will know that I am the Lord. You'll find many. through the signs and wonders that happened through Ezekiel, through the word of the Lord going out, God's mission was nothing more and nothing less than that he would be known as God. Now in the New Testament, Hebrews 1, the author reminds us after God spoke long ago to the fathers and through the prophets in many portions in many ways in these last days, he has spoken through his son, Jesus Christ. You go all the way to the book of Revelation and find in chapter 22, what does Jesus say when he returns? I am the alpha, I am the omega, the beginning and the end, I'm it. I'm everything, Christ is all. God's mission is not your comfort, it's not your opinion or mine, it's not church programming, it's not idealistic things, it's not even your best idea on your best day about what you think the church should really do. God's mission is set. He exists and the church is here to make Him known. And so, what of us? Key number two, God's mission is our mandate. It's our mandate. You think of the Great Commission. Some of you know this passage very well. You've heard it in church many different times. Look at the imperatives. Go, make, teach, baptize. Jesus says, all that I commanded you. So there's some clear authority there with that statement. And let's get really honest for a second. You and I don't like authority unless we're getting a paycheck to submit. Nobody really likes to do what they're told. If someone says, this is a command, do it. What's the little voice inside you sometimes? I'll do what I want when I want. But here, the reason it's commanded is because God has no plan B until Christ returns. He gives a command because you, the church, are plan A. There's no backup. There's no safety net. Christ is gonna return. Until then, what has he done? He's put a bunch of you and me, which isn't much, bunch of sinful, messed up, broken sinners. He says, I'm gonna redeem them, turn them into something, give them spiritual gifts, and I'm gonna unleash them on the world. His mission is our mandate. We exist to fulfill that. If we fail at God's mission, we have failed ours. I'll say that again. If we have failed at God's mission, our task to make him known, we failed our mission. There's no point in being on earth. Jesus might as well have died on the cross, saved us all, just pulled us up, take us to heaven, let the world go to hell in a handbasket, and we're good. Mission accomplished, but he didn't do that. He left incredibly gifted people with spheres of influence inside the church and outside the church in Gilbert Mesa, Chandler, Queen Creek, and everywhere else, I don't know, because I'm new to the Phoenix area, and he said, you are going to be my witnesses. Next, third key, God's mission is our motivation. You don't do it with an eye roll because you loathe it and you go, oh, I gotta go take the gospel to someone. You, like Paul and the image and example he gives, you gotta be eager. It's a motivation. You know what it feels like? It's like being a kid in the back of the car and you don't gotta worry about Google Maps. You don't have to worry about where we're going or when we're gonna get there, although every kid worries about that. You ultimately just get to sit in the back and dad's driving and he knows where we're heading. Isn't that a great feeling? Same thing with God. The mission is set. The destination is set. All you got to do is sit in the back and do your part. It's a motivation. You get to wake up as an ambassador of the King. It's his message, not yours. You don't alter it, because it's not your message. You don't change what the King said to say, and you go out motivated like Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, 14 through 16, where he says, the love of Christ controls me. He's literally seeing with eyes of love, wet, teary eyes, looking through, blurry vision at people going, God, I want you to save them. That's what's controlling you every single day. Paul's saying that's what needs to be. Why? Because he died for them. He bought them. Go out and reach them. That's the motivation. And so with that foundation set, look at verse 15 where Paul says, thus for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome for I am not ashamed of the gospel. There's an eagerness here because his gospel in verse one, he says is from God. How many are excited that your message is not from you? You couldn't come up with a better message than God. It's from God, and he wants to obtain fruit. He's under obligation, and so he's eager to preach the gospel. And he uses this statement, I'm not ashamed. In other words, I'm not disgraced. I'm not pushed off by it. I'm not thinking, I hope people don't see this. Like a car that you use to go pick a friend or a special person up from the airport. And anybody ever pick up your boss or some really big time guest of honor and you're rolling and there's just been a monsoon and a dust storm. And so your car is browner than brown and you roll up and you're embarrassed, right? You're ashamed. You should have went and got a wash. It would have just taken a few minutes. You didn't because you were running late to the airport. You'll pull up and what do you do? I'm sorry about the dirty car. We get monsoons. You open it up, throw the luggage in. And then you forgot there's not a bottle of water in the front seat for them. And the car's all stuffy. And what do you feel? You feel a little bit of shame. You didn't take care of things. You're a little embarrassed of what you got. Paul's saying, not the gospel. I'm not worried if you see that. I know you might laugh at it. I know it looks like the foolish things to the world, but I'm proud of it. And he uses the same word when he describes to Timothy what he should not be. He says, don't be ashamed. And listen to what he says in 2 Timothy 1.8. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner. Join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. Now, why would Paul say, don't be ashamed of our Lord or my imprisonment? because in Rome at that time, it was the center of the world. There were a melting pot of philosophies, ideologies, different religions, paganism. It was a humanistic culture. Everything's about me, very man-centered. And they would have thought the gospel, this message is ludicrous, that this guy comes down, becomes man, lets everyone kill him. What kind of God is that? Then he raises from the dead apparently, but disappears on them. I can't even see him. And then all these people following him keep getting beaten, imprisoned. They keep getting dragged along here and there. Some people don't even listen to the preaching of this guy's message. By what cosmic mechanism did a man come and die and then suddenly all sin is gone? Trade it in, Paul. You'll stop being put in prison. You'll stop getting beat. Paul, you're a Roman citizen. You could live a great life. Why are you giving that up to go do this? Shame, Paul, shame. And Paul is pushing back against that idea, saying, no, this is worth it. And some people today are so ashamed of the gospel. They would rather church be about having fun. We want you to feel good. We want you to be comfortable. We will pitch church. And you and I both know this. I've done it. You've done it. So let's just all sit under the conviction together. How many times do we pitch church and go, you know, you're going to meet some great people there. It's such a great place for the family. We have an awesome kids thing. We don't even call it ministry because we don't want to weird them out. You know, our communicators are second to none. Don't call them preachers. You're going to get a great message. You're going to be encouraged and lifted up and sent out. And you're going to feel so much better about yourself. You need God, man. And we kind of go all mushy on them about it. We're ashamed to say, come and hear the truth. You need the truth. Why? Because then that means that we're saying they don't have the truth. And then that might cause some issues. you might be saying, no, I'm not ashamed. Who do you think you are? You come here, you stand up there. You tell me I'm ashamed of the gospel. You don't know me. It's my personality. I'm more introverted. I am a little bit withdrawn. I don't really, I'm waiting for the right time, preacher. I'll put it to you this way. What would you and I do if we were sitting in a room for a wedding and the doors burst open and the beautiful bride in her glowing white dress walked through and the man in the tuxedos standing up there with the preacher and he's waiting and the tears come and everyone gets excited about that. They all want to see the groom cry. Will he cry when she comes out? So the, Photos are going in the Instagramming and everyone's going, oh my gosh, he cried. Look at how beautiful she is. This is the moment, right? We're all excited. The only moment better is the part where they say, I do and I do, and then they get to kiss and we all go to eat the free food. That's the other best part. Now you and I imagine are sitting there. And the time comes for the man to publicly declare his love. It's time to say, I do. And he starts to shift his weight back and forth. And we're not really sure what's happening. And everyone's thinking the nightmare of what we see in the movies. And the preacher says, come on, son. It's I do. What are you waiting for? And the man says, I'm just waiting for the right moment. How many of you and I would accept that as a proper answer for the moment? And the preacher says, now, okay, everyone, we're going to take a break. We're going to go eat some food, have a good time. We'll come back next week and just hold on. Everyone relax. We'll see if Johnny's going to say I do. You and I would sit there, tears in our eyes, and say, that man is ashamed. That's not fear. It's not about the right opportunity. It's not about personality. It's not about anything. You put the tux on. You claim the title. You're supposed to be a groom. You're not saying it. You're ashamed to publicly declare your love for her. So it is for us as believers when we won't publicly live out what Christ has done for us. He is the groom. We are the bridegroom. He has bought us, loved us, redeemed us, poured out his blood for us and said, I'm buying you. You are mine. I love you. And that's why he said, if you deny him before man, he'll deny you before his father in heaven. Not because he's a mean cosmic abuser who wants to ruin your life and send you to hell, but because he is a loving God who laid down his life and said, here, the free gift, the thing we sing about, free gift of salvation to redeem you out of what you could never buy back for yourself. It's the gospel. And it deserves unashamed proclamation. And we need to answer a key question here. What is the gospel? What is it? First of all, it means good news. The gospel means good news. I wrote this out so it would be crystal clear for you. Here is the gospel. God is holy, just, and loving. All human beings are made in God's image, and we were originally made to enjoy fellowship with God as his children. At the beginning of creation, there was no death, no sickness, no pain. The world and the relationship between God and his creation was perfect, but Sin entered the world when the first man and the first woman disobeyed God. Because of them, all humanity is now under the curse of sin. The world is broken. We are born sinful, no matter how hard we try to be good. None of us are good. You don't come out of the womb good. You don't come out obedient and loving Jesus. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. There is no hope. But God. But God, the reason the gospel means good news is because there's bad news. The bad news is you're dead in sin, and I'm dead in sin. The good news is God, being loving, made a way for the problem of sin to be taken care of. Instead of paying the penalty of sin, which you most certainly deserve, and experiencing God's wrath and judgment in hell, deservedly so, as a sinner, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down to earth. He added humanity to his divinity, both truly God and truly man, miraculously born of aversion, lived the perfect and sinless life that you and I could never live, then died a horrific death as a sacrifice for our sins, then rose from the dead to conquer sin, death, and hell, and prove that he was God. He now says, here is salvation. If you believe that message and put your trust and faith and your whole life into me, then you don't have to worry about judgment. You don't have to have fear in death. I have bought and redeemed you. Eternal life and glory with me is what awaits. And guess what? I'm still gonna make your life have purpose while you're on earth. The gospel is there. People have to repent of their sin. They've got to believe in him by faith. He's the only way. And that's a binary message, right? He's not one of many ways. He's not a part of a pantheon of gods. The Jesus of Mormonism doesn't work. The Jesus of Islam doesn't work. The Jesus of, if you even believe this or see this, in Hinduism, they have a pantheon of gods. You want to really find Jesus in there. It doesn't work. Jesus said in John 14 6, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the father, but through me. So if you aren't and don't serve Christ and surrender to him as the only Lord and savior of your life, you have no hope for eternity. You will spend eternity in hell. That's the bad news. And everyone would agree, you have to have bad news for things to be good news. Are we agreed on that? Like nobody calls it good weather for no reason. It's called good weather because there's really bad weather. There is good news and that's the hard truth. And so if I'm gonna stand here and tell you that the gospel deserves unashamed proclamation, you got to go out unashamed and tell people that tough message. You need to be prepared for some things. So let's dig in together. The first thing, if you're going to live unashamed of the gospel is you need to be prepared for worldly opposition. People are gonna come against you. There's not a lot of traffic on the highway of gospel boldness. It's kinda like to me, Arizona. I came from California, that's traffic. Out here, it's like the narrow road. There's nobody on the freeway. You guys call it rush hour. That's not traffic. It's a narrow road. That's why Jesus called it that. Wide is the path that leads to destruction. So you and I, let's level here. If there's a whole bunch of people going down a path and they're like, yeah, we're getting saved, we got it, this is it, let's do it. It feels good, looks good, sounds good. If there's a whole bunch of traffic going one way on the freeway, I'm starting to think and go, well, Jesus said it was a narrow road. How can everybody be going to heaven? That's why universalism doesn't work. It's not, hey, just believe in a higher power and you're good. And so what will worldly opposition look like? Letter A there, sub point, first one, the world will hate you. How many of you woke up this morning, excited to come to church and hear that? I didn't say it, Jesus did. In John 15, he's telling his disciples, guys, get ready. If the world hates you, verse 18, you know that it hated me first before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you. Catch that for a moment. If you were of the world, the world would love you. If you're not having conflict in your life because the gospel, and I don't mean you're starting World War III at every Thanksgiving, I just mean that in general, There are some moments where you're rubbing some people the wrong way. You're having healthy discussion and not everyone agrees. If that's not happening, let me tell you, you are probably living a very comfortable, possibly even a superficial or false Christianity. Because Jesus told his disciples, you're gonna have some conflict. People are gonna hate you. And if we're the disciples of the disciples of the disciples and throughout history and everything's just peachy, start asking, am I kind of along for the ride with the world? Why is everything always okay? I'm not stirring it up. The hard truth of the gospel hits every heart. Don't ever think that the Holy Spirit doesn't convict the world and he just kind of goes into the believer's heart and kind of knocks or like a little prick. People say, I felt a little poke. No, John 16 is clear. The Holy Spirit barrels in and he convicts the whole world. of sin and of unrighteousness." So every single person, that's why Romans 1 later on, I won't get to preach it, it's down the road, read the rest of the chapter. When you hit verse 18 and beyond, Paul talks about people who suppress the truth, meaning God through the Holy Spirit presses it on their heart and goes, here, respond, here, here it is. And they go, no, get away. I don't like that. I don't believe that. That is so binary. That is so intolerant. That is so hateful. I don't want that message. And they push the truth down so they can go and live and do as they please. They don't want to be told that what they're doing is sin. They don't want to be told that there are only two genders. They don't want to be told marriage is between one man and one woman. They do not want to be told that Jesus is the only way. They suppress the truth. So get ready. You're going to be hated. Two, the world will persecute you. And now everyone, breathe a sigh of relief, because I'm living in reality too. I understand that's not really happening in America. I get it. You see the photos of ISIS, you see online, you see the Chinese church, you see everybody else going through it and wonder, well, if they only had an economy like ours, if they only had all that we have. No, a time is coming. when just like many times throughout scripture, places that were the center of the world and thought they had it all and the Christians were doing just fine, eventually persecution comes and our time will come. It may not be now, it may be in the future for our children, but eventually the world will persecute. It's already happening in minor forms in our country where people are losing jobs, they're getting sued, some churches are getting shut down, the government beginning to impose certain things and different agendas of minority groups that really don't represent everybody. But like you might have the LGBTQ community would say, well, if churches don't do weddings for everybody, shut them down. It's already started. I'm no prophet, just watch it unfold. It's already happening in school systems, in different areas. You will see the world's agenda begin to impose. And don't you dare for a second think you can go in and go, well, my Bible says, and I'm a Christian, it won't work. The world will persecute you. And if the tough stuff ain't happening, then get ready for the easy stuff. The next point, the world will entice you. So it's not always gonna be the hard stuff, the persecution, the slander. Sometimes it's those little 1 John 2, 15 through 17 sins, the lust of the world, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life. Sometimes it's just the way of compromise. The world pulls you in and goes, listen, don't be so hardline. Don't be so dogmatic. You'll win more people. You'll influence more. And so I ask you, is sin putting you on the sidelines? Are you being sucked in by laziness and selfishness and the comforts and the fleeting pleasures of this world? Are you one of those who say, well, I'll get to that whole gospel living thing. I've just got a career to build. I've got some influence to have, not in the church, so much in the world. I've just got to build my savings to a certain point. I just got to make sure my kids are this. I've just got to hit that certain plateau. I just need the 401k to be at this amount. I'm really going to retire early. And then I'm going to go all in on this church thing and the Jesus thing. But right now I'm kind of the pray the sinner's prayer getting through right now. Pastor's got me on cruise control. He'll get me to heaven, but I'll figure this out before I retire." How many people wake up each and every day sitting in the back of the car thinking, Pastor, make sure the cruise control's on. It's your job to get me there. Brothers and sisters, it's you and it's I in our daily life. It's not just Sunday, it's Monday through Saturday. You need to push off selfishness. And selfishness has friends like comfort that say, take it easy. Laziness that say that's too much work. And then pride. And you and I both know if you haven't said it, you will. I said it back in the day. Pride says, that's not my job, pastor. Let's make sure we have this clear. You're the one getting paid, you do it. And we wanna push aside passages like Ephesians 4, 11 and 12, where God gives leaders to the church to equip the saints for the work of service, for the building up of the body of Christ. You know how church really supposed to work according to God? Not me, this is not Costi's word. Go read Ephesians 4. We equip you and you do the work. The work is to equip you. That's labor. Pastors should not be lazy. We ought to stay up late and rise early to make sure that people are being equipped. And then people of God ought to rise early and wake up and stay up late going out and unleashing the gospel on the valley. That's the contract. Now, if pastors aren't doing their part, we ought to let them know. But if people aren't doing their part, we ought to let them know. And we all just should sit in that ecosystem of conviction going, yep, I want this. I want this pressure, pastor. I want that conviction, because I don't want to be one of those Christians who gets to heaven one day and has the Matthew 7 moment where Jesus kind of goes, hey, who are you? And you're like, oh, I did this. I did this. I wore this t-shirt. I was part of this program and I was doing this. And then I casted out demons and I did miracles. And I went to these conferences and look at me, right? And he goes, depart from me. I never knew you. I don't know who you are. There will be people who are enticed by the world. Another one, two are bad, one is good. So get ready, we're gonna finish on a high note. Just stick with me through the desert here. Number two, be prepared for relational division. If you live unashamed, you're gonna have some issues relationally. Not everyone's gonna like you. Jesus is the dividing line. He doesn't come and try to just blow everything up, but it's like that because his message is so binary. The first thing that you might notice will happen is division with family members. Some of you I've already talked to in tears, you're already experiencing this. Husbands or wives in one church, a husband and wife in the other, split down the middle. Mormon converts now believing in the true gospel and the true Jesus Christ, weeping because they've been told, well, my family is gonna be eternally separate from me. I don't get them. And you're an outsider and you're here alone and you're just kind of showing up and you're thinking, oh man, what did I just do? I'm all in on this Jesus guy and now I'm all out of everything I knew in my life. That's going to happen. Jesus says, be prepared. In Matthew 10, 34 through 38, he said, don't come. Don't think I came to bring peace on earth. I didn't. I came to bring a sword. I have come and I set man against father, daughter against mother. Goes on to say, a man's enemies will be those in his own household even. Because it's a binary message. One person's gonna believe this about Jesus. Another person's gonna believe this about Jesus. It's gonna divide. Next, division with superficial followers. You know, Jesus did the very thing that every church growth expert says don't do. You read the books about church growth? They are not telling us this in these books. They're not telling John this, and Dale this, and I this, and other elders. They're not saying, hey, do this. They're saying do the opposite. The crowds come in Luke 14, 25 through 35. They're all coming. Jesus has fed them. He's doing signs and wonders. He's like the ultimate. It's like the Jesus from the movies. He's the blue-eyed blonde hair. He's doing kissing babies. I mean, this thing is awesome. And they're coming. And all of a sudden, Jesus says something that thins the crowd. Many people in the church today are like this. They're all in on church until they hear the hard truth and it rubs them the wrong way. But we have to ask, what kind of church do we want? What kind of Christian do you want to be? Would an athlete say, hey coach, you told me I'm slow or you made us run sprints. Why? He says, I'm trying to help you get faster, son. I love what I do. I think you got a lot of potential. You've been called good. You've been called talented. I want to help make you great. I got a better purpose in a better way. So it makes sense. Then kids go, I don't want to run no more. I don't want to be better. And just like the narrow road of successful professional athletes, so the narrow road of Christianity. So often people don't want the resistance, but resistance equals growth. Why in the world do people get up to do CrossFit? Some of you are crazy. You do it here in the gym. There's a CrossFit thing in the morning. I hear boom, boom, boom. The music's going. Norma's in there doing bench pressing and box jumps. And I'm going, what in the world? The administrative assistant is doing CrossFit. Why do you do that? Oh, I feel great. It's strengthening me. I'm getting better. My health. Why in the world do you want resistance? Because resistance equals growth. So must we want the resistance, the challenging hard truths. But so many people don't want it. Just like the people that hit snooze, snooze, snooze, just like I did last week, did not go to the gym, snooze, snooze, snooze. They're just hitting it on their spiritual life going, no, not that church. Jesus says to them, if anyone comes to me and doesn't hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, his own life, he can't be my disciple. The word hate there, literal translation in the Greek. He's saying a lesser love. You got to love them less. You got to love me more is what Jesus is saying. I got to be it for you. That's why Oprah and Brad Pitt and other celebrities have called our God egocentric. They say he's on a prideful power trip. That's why they dump it and they go kind of into new age-ism and all the secret and all this other stuff, because it's better. Our God, to the rest of the world, is just some egocentrical, power-tripping, universalistic being that's like, hey, it's all about me. The answer to that issue is yes, he is. He is all about His glory. He is all about His Son. He is all about His way, and He's all about His mission, and that is why we are here. There will be division with superficial followers. Yes, reach out. Yes, try to love them. Yes, try to walk with them, but some of us, you just gotta be okay with that. People are gonna come and go. Finally, in this section, division with false teachers. 2 John 9-11, John being very clear, anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ doesn't have God. The one who abides in the teaching has the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and doesn't bring this teaching, don't even receive him into your house, he says, and do not give him a greeting. Okay, back then, There weren't like, you know, Marriott and Howard Johnson and Holiday Inn. You didn't have points. You can just roll into town and stay in a hotel. You would be known in the community. These are smaller communities. And the Oikos, the house church, had a very small number of people. Everybody knew everybody. So when a false teacher would roll in, he would look for lodging. And you'd give them help. And you'd, hey, how you doing? Come on in, yeah, stay with us. We've got the guest room prepared for you. John is saying, listen, those guys that don't even tell you the same things that I've told you, the guy's not teaching right, the church is not doing it right, those houses, don't even say hi. Because you're acting like everything's okay and it's not. They're preaching a different Jesus. You need to go, probably call them out, talk with them, pray with them, cry with them, but don't have them over for dinner and go, yeah, we're all just kind of going the same direction. No, we're not. There will be division. And some of you, you know this, you've left other churches and we're not here to knock every church everywhere that doesn't do it just like us. It's not about methodology. This is about theology, the knowledge of God, high doxology, a focus on his glory that impacts the way we live. That's who Redeemer Bible Church is. And there are going to be pastors and people in churches that just go, eh, not for me. Finally. Ready? This is the good stuff. Be prepared for spiritual revolution. Yes, three of the four soils are bad. The seed hits the one, it doesn't even take. It hits the rocks, it doesn't take deep, and it hits the other one, and then the thorns grow up and choke it all out. It just doesn't reap a harvest. But there is some good fruit, and you ought to be prepared for that. So here is Charles Spurgeon to you back from his day all the way to 2019. Listen to these words and let them hit your heart. I ask you, what was there in Paul by the grace of God that may not be in you? What did Jesus do for Paul more than he's done for you? This is to you people who are like, well, I'm not good, or I don't know, I'm not you, I'm not a preacher, I don't know my Bible, I don't know if I could do it, God won't use me, I'm too messed up, I'm too broken. He was divinely changed, so you have been changed. He had much forgiven him, so have you also been freely pardoned. He was redeemed by the blood of the Son of God, so have you been. He was filled with the Spirit of God, so are you. Why should you not bear the same fruit from the same sowing? Why not the same effect from the same cause? No one's asking you to be Paul. Just trying to help you understand that the same God that was in Paul is in you. Go out, be bold, take the message of the King to the people and trust his power to work through you just like he has throughout the ages. Here are a few applications with that and we're done. Pray with expectant faith. You got to pray, like you really got to believe that every single person who comes into your path that is not a believer is God's next great testimony. Do you live that way? Are there people too far gone? And I get it. There are some crazy people out there, and they've got big problems, and they're too big that you'll never solve them. But you've got a very big God and a much bigger message. The gospel can change anyone. Just the other day, I'm in my garage. This guy comes to do some work, and every part of me wanted to go and stay in the house and just not do small talk and all that. But I'm out there, I'm talking, and next thing you know, he lights the cigarette, and my garage fills with smoke. I'm like, whatever, let it go, Kosti. and then all of a sudden some language starts flying out, and I'm like, oh man. And you know, the little legalist in all of us is going, man, this guy's gonna ruin the sermon for Sunday, he's gonna stain me with his foul language, now the whole thing is gonna be blown, Redeemer's gonna miss it, oh my goodness. Way too much pride, way too much stock in ourselves. And so I'm so tempted to just go in, lock the door, do the job, give the guy the check, go, oh, God bless you, and just kind of wander off. And everything in me is like, no, everything else in me has gone, no, come on, man, you're gonna preach the gospel on Sunday and you're not gonna give our buddy the time of day, let's go. And so we're talking, and sure enough. Well, I used to be on drugs and now I'm not, but you know, my girlfriend is and she's on drugs and I just don't know, you know, what to do, but I'm trying to be there for her. And I, you know, trying to just do it. But sometimes I feel like I'm too weak or I can't do it. And she's crazy and drugs everywhere. And I just don't know what to do, man. And I said, well, brother, sometimes God puts people like you in the life of someone like that as kind of a rope to hold on. He kind of looked God. Man, I don't know about that. God, I don't think God's listening to me. Reality is, God can take the most messed up, addicted, broken, lost individual, just like he took a threat-breathing, murderous, wild man who hated the church like Paul, and turn him into a great vessel for gospel glory. How many of you have that testimony? How many of us are the such-were-some-of-you that the New Testament talks about? lost in sin, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a great God does a great miracle, and somehow we go and do a 180 from darkness to light. How in the world does that work? It's His work. So you gotta trust Him. Pray with faith, expecting God to do it. Next, pursue the lost with eternal perspective. Pursue the lost with eternal perspective. Here it is for you. Some questions. Are we going to sing better in heaven? Are we? The worship team's not gonna be offended. Answer the question. Are we going to sing better? The answer is yes. Doesn't matter how beautiful their voices are, and Sean's up here singing, and none of us can even sing that good, but we're trying, and all that stuff. Look, we're gonna sing better in heaven. as great as the preaching might be, and John's gonna come back and fire hose off with more wisdom, and he's just got, we're gonna have to call him Dr. John Benzinger now pretty soon, and he's gonna be bringing it, and we're all preaching our guts out. As great as the word might seem, are we going to have better preaching and a better word in heaven? Of course we are. We're gonna have the word himself, Christ. Are you gonna serve better? Are you gonna have better spiritual gifts? Yeah. Doesn't matter how good you are at children's ministry and how bright the green shirts are. Love those things. You're not going to come close to what you'll be doing in heaven with the king. What's the one thing that you and I can do better and we'll do better on earth than we will ever get to do in heaven? Reach the lost. You know, you'll never evangelize in heaven. This is it. The eternal perspective has to be there for all of us. And if we start to lose it, you got to invite the reminder going, yeah, tell me again, remind me again, brother, sister, there's one thing we won't do better in heaven. It is spread the gospel. So do it now. When the days are short, the time is evil, but there is still light to be had. Offer it to the world. Third and finally, persevere with excellent love. That 1 Corinthians 13 love, that everyone thinks Paul wrote so you could read it at weddings. No, this is Christian love for one another, for the world. It's an emanating love. It's an excellent love. You could have spiritual gifts. You could be doing miracles. You could be telling everybody the greatest things in the world. You could look good, smell great. You could have it all, preach good. If you don't have love, you're just noisy. If you don't love people and you don't persevere in love for them, we're just noisy Christians. And how many of us were feeling conviction even already now from the Holy Spirit? We're so noisy about our opinion and about programs and about this look and that look. We care about so many things that really don't matter. Do it or don't do it. It has no bearing on the gospel. We ought to be caring about people's hearts. That's what we're here to do. If we fail at that, we're failing our mission. We are plan A. And love hopes all things, believes all things, bears all things, endures all things, which means when people don't listen, when they're hard-hearted towards you, do you have the out clause? Do you give up? No. With wet eyes, heart full, you go again and again and again and again because you are throwing the rope of eternity to them and God has given that mandate to you and I until we do not breathe and we walk into glory. That is our mission. I have an amazing friend. He's an indigenous Indian pastor in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. and he is a second generation pastor. His father moved into that area many, many years ago to put a church in a Hindu village. And if you've ever heard of or been to India, you know that Hinduism runs India and India belongs to Hinduism. And so his father moves into town, and his goal, build bridges, form community relationships, and get the gospel into this community. Well, it's not long before these Hindus smell a rat, and they think, man, this guy is here to convert people. He's a Indian Christian. And so they ostracize him. He gets threatened with machetes. They don't let him into the inner circles of the community. They don't want him influencing anybody. And his father keeps plowing and plowing and plowing with a love for the lost and a heart on fire for the lost, plowing and plowing and sees nothing happen for his entire ministry. He would not reap a harvest. However, the sun grows up and the sun says, I'm going back. And he goes and moves his family into the village and begins to endure the same persecution, the same threats, the machetes, the threats, the siphoning off of resources and of community involvement. And you're thinking, here we go again. When are you gonna give this up? This is not gonna work. It didn't work for your dad. How is it gonna work for you? And then all of the sudden, because God was pleased to do it, and by the power of the gospel and the faithfulness of loving laborers for the gospel, one woman gets saved. And then two. And then the threats come. and then three, and then a baptism for a fourth, and then a little Bible study, and then more threats, and then local government, and then other people coming in saying, you get your Jesus out of this village, we'll kill you, we'll burn your house down, we'll murder your entire family, and then six, and then 20, and then 50, and then 75, and then I go preach there, and there's 88 people crammed in this little church. The music is blasting, and if you've ever heard Indian worship, it's louder than we ever have it here, and they are just loving Jesus. You think, how did this happen? Because two generations of faithful men decided to love people enough to stick it out. And they lived unashamed. And one man did not necessarily get to reap the harvest, but he got to plant and water, and God sees it all the same. And it's still going on today. And having just visited there, the Hindus stuck a big Hindu structure on the tip of the church's property, and then they dared the Christians to do anything about it. And so that's why there's all these lights. They put a bunch of floodlights on the church. So as you pull up, you see a Hindu temple, and then you hear loud worship music and giant lights behind it. You go around and there's crazy Christians everywhere worshiping Jesus. That's what happens when people live unashamed. And don't think for a second that it can't translate from little Indian villages to our valley here. God will use RBC and this region the same way. The same God can cause revival through people who are willing to live unashamed for the gospel. Amen. Amen. We'll dig into next week with unstoppable power and look at how God saves people.