The Gospel - Week 1

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Well, today we are starting a brand new sermon series, and we're gonna be going through the Book of Romans, which is one of my favorite books in all the Bible. And I know, like every week I. [00:00:16] Speaker B: Say, this is my favorite one, but. [00:00:18] Speaker A: You know, I really, I really mean it. What one preacher said, they said, what's your favorite verse? [00:00:22] Speaker B: He's like, the one that I'm preaching on that week. [00:00:24] Speaker A: And that's kind of how I feel. But I do love Romans. And we're going to be going through it for the next six weeks, and we're going to be talking about the gospel, what it means, and why this is everything and has to be central to our understanding and our relationship with God. And along with this series, I want to recommend this book to you. Some of our groups will be going through it. Some of our life groups, some of them will just kind of be going through Romans. But this is a book all about the gospel and what it means and how it changes our lives. And I've just found it to be a really helpful read. Good reminder, very clear. And so if you want to dig more into that, check it out. We actually have some copies you can buy here or go on Amazon. You can get them there too. And it's a great resource as we go through this series. Now, as I was thinking about this, I was reminded about several years ago, me and a buddy, we weren't married, we didn't have kids, and so we bought a boat together. Once you're married and have kids, that's no more, you know, but that little, like, window. And it was a total beater. And it was one we were gonna fix up and get going. So when we bought it, nothing ran on it, nothing worked. It needed a lot of different stuff. And you know that I'm a very handy guy. [00:01:54] Speaker B: I don't know what's funny about that. [00:01:56] Speaker A: No, I'm not. But my friend is. And so I was his wingman. And so we started working on this boat, you know, trying to fix it up and ultimately trying to get it running. And, like, no matter what we were doing, we couldn't get it started, you know, so, like, the engine couldn't get it going. And we, like, checked all, you know, the basics, you know, the first kind of steps. And, like, nothing was seeming to be the problem. And so one night after work, we were working on it, and it was like 1am and my buddy realized that there was a wire that was disconnected, but it was, like, kind of buried deep in there. And so he found it and it was from the ignition to wherever it goes from there, you know. And he's like, dude, I think, I. [00:02:46] Speaker B: Think this is the issue right here. [00:02:48] Speaker A: And he reconnected it and we turned the key and sure enough, that thing fired up. And we were so excited because we'd been at this for a few days and we were like hooting and hollering. We were revving the engine, it was really loud. And by the way, we were in my parents driveway and it was 1am you ever have those moments where you. [00:03:14] Speaker B: Look back and you're like, man, that was really obnoxious. [00:03:18] Speaker A: And that was, that was. So I apologize to my parents, they're not here today. But I am sorry that was obnoxious. And so we, you know, we made all this noise. But the boat is only good if it's connected to a power source, right? It can have the coolest engine, it could be the coolest boat. Everything else can be fixed. But it's. If there's no power source, there is no fun. You're not going anywhere. You're not doing anything. It's not leaving the driveway. And today I want to talk to you about the power source of the Christian life. What is the engine of the Christian life? What is it that produces change in transformation in us? What is it that that frees us from the pain and the bondage in. [00:04:13] Speaker B: The shame of sin? [00:04:15] Speaker A: What is it that gives us endurance when life is really painful and really confusing and we feel uncertain about the future? And today what I want to show you is the power source of the. [00:04:29] Speaker B: Christian life is the Gospel. [00:04:32] Speaker A: Now you might say, well, what is that? What exactly does that mean? Well, don't worry, we're going to get into that. But I want you to see today that this is the engine of the Christian life. This is the power source of the Christian life. And what the apostle Paul, who's going. [00:04:48] Speaker B: To show us today, he's going to. [00:04:50] Speaker A: Say that we need to remain connected to it at all times. Because as soon as is we lose connection, we lose the power that is. [00:05:03] Speaker B: Needed in our lives. [00:05:04] Speaker C: You with me on this? [00:05:05] Speaker A: And so let's look today at Romans, chapter one. And we're going to begin at, at verse 14 here. And these verses that I'm going to read to you today, I would say these are the, the thesis or the main idea of this whole book. So if you have a Bible, you can kind of underline them and, and put a star by it. Because understanding these sentences is what the rest of this whole book of Romans is going to be about. And it's a decent length to it, there's 16 chapters. So a lot of it is just explaining these sentences that we're going to read today. So let me read them to you. The Apostle Paul writes this. I am under obligation. Or it's really better translated, I am in debt. So obligation kind of, you know, sounds a little bit softer to me than being in debt. But what Paul's literally saying there is I am in debt both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. And so ultimately what Paul is saying here is saying I am in debt. [00:06:11] Speaker B: To everyone, which is not a good place to be. [00:06:15] Speaker A: You don't wanna owe everybody money. But Paul doesn't mean it in a negative way. He's saying I am in debt to give to everyone that I can this amazing thing called the Gospel. He goes on, so I'm eager to preach, this isn't a bad debt, but this is something I'm eager to do, I'm excited to do, to preach to. [00:06:38] Speaker B: You also who are in Rome. [00:06:39] Speaker A: He says this, for I am not. [00:06:42] Speaker B: Ashamed of the Gospel. [00:06:46] Speaker A: And if you just notice real quick in these verses there's three I am statements right after each other. I am in debt, I am eager. [00:06:56] Speaker B: And I am not ashamed. See those there? [00:06:58] Speaker A: It says I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to. [00:07:06] Speaker B: The Jew first and also to the Greek. [00:07:08] Speaker A: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as. [00:07:12] Speaker B: It is written, the righteous shall live by faith. [00:07:18] Speaker A: Now let's, let's unpack this. [00:07:20] Speaker B: This is, I love these verses and. [00:07:22] Speaker A: I so desperately want us to, to just sit in these and to understand. [00:07:28] Speaker B: These and to receive them into our hearts. [00:07:31] Speaker A: Now we're going to be going through this book of Romans. And what I would say is Romans is the clearest explanation in all of. [00:07:41] Speaker B: The scripture of the Gospel. [00:07:45] Speaker A: In other words, as we go through this book, we're gonna see this, the power of God and the Gospel explained in a really in depth way. And what Paul wants us to see is how what this means, what the content of the Gospel is, but then how it changes us, how it shapes us, what it means for how we deal with our struggles in life and what it means for how we treat each other. And all the rest of this book is going to be an explanation of. [00:08:15] Speaker B: These verses and of these ideas. [00:08:18] Speaker A: And what's so powerful about Romans is that this book has changed the world again and again by changing Those who read it. And when you look at history, you will see that so many really huge turning points were when someone read this book and they understand it and it changed them. [00:08:43] Speaker B: And then they went out to change things around them. [00:08:45] Speaker A: Like, one great example of this is Martin Luther. That name might ring a bell, but he was a medieval monk, and he was struggling so bad with his sense of trying to be right before God. And he would try to do all the right things, all the good things, but what he realized is he could. [00:09:06] Speaker B: Never be good enough. [00:09:09] Speaker A: And he was a monk and he was. You know, he's doing all this good stuff, but he's like, but. But I still recognize it's not near enough. And he was crushed and devastated by it. And then one day he read these verses and they clicked. And he realized that the righteousness that he was looking for doesn't come from. [00:09:32] Speaker B: Him, but it comes from God to him and it. [00:09:37] Speaker A: And it set him free and it changed him. And then he went on to be the catalyst for today what we call the Protestant Reformation, which literally changed Romans. So my hope and prayer through this series is that God would change us as we read it, that what we know about this and what we live out, that it would just gain even. [00:09:59] Speaker B: More traction in our soul, that maybe. [00:10:02] Speaker A: Things we don't know about it would make more sense and God would transform us through it, because the power is in it. Here's what one theologian says about this book. He says it's an entrance to all the most hidden treasures of Scripture. I love that we're walking through a. [00:10:24] Speaker B: Door today into the treasures of scripture. [00:10:29] Speaker A: You're not excited about that, but I am. I think that's really, really awesome. He goes on to say, the subject of these chapters may be stated thus. Man's only righteousness is through the mercy of God in Christ, which being offered. [00:10:43] Speaker B: By the gospel, is apprehended by faith. [00:10:48] Speaker A: Now, here's what I'm saying today. I'm saying that this book, as we go through it, let's ask God to. [00:10:56] Speaker B: Meet our hearts in it. [00:10:57] Speaker A: Will you do that with me, Church? There is so much in this for us today. And so I pray you would have an open heart. I would have an open heart. And we would invite God's help to make these powerful ideas real to us. So let's now get into it. Now, Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And first I just want to ask this simple question. What is the gospel? Now, when you just literally look at the word gospel, it means good News. That's a literal translation of it, good news. And the way this word was used in the ancient world is that Roman emperors would win some great battle, win some victory in some part of their empire, and then they would send a messenger with a gospel in other parts of their empire to go and share this victory and say, hey, we won this great victory. We have good news. And what the apostles did, like the apostle Paul, is they took that word. [00:12:07] Speaker B: And they said, we have the ultimate good news. [00:12:13] Speaker A: We have the gospel of all gospels. And it's about a victory that Jesus Christ has won. And so they took this word and they said, we're going to Christianize it. We're going to. We're going to use it, and we are going to share this good news with the world. [00:12:35] Speaker B: Because everyone needs to know this victory, that was one. [00:12:39] Speaker A: And that's. That's the gospel. Now, I just want to stop for a second and just point something out that at the center of Christianity is. [00:12:48] Speaker B: Good news, not good advice. [00:12:53] Speaker A: See, so many people think that what Christianity is, is good advice. And look, I'm all for good advice, right? Do this, don't do that. And so many times we look on the outside of Christianity and we think that's what it is like, okay, you should live in these ways and you should do these things, and if you do them, it will go well for you. But I want to show you, at the center of Christianity is not good advice. It's good news. It's not what you have done or will do. It's what has been done for you by Jesus Christ. [00:13:30] Speaker C: You with me on this? [00:13:32] Speaker A: And understanding that church is so incredibly important. And Paul says, as we understand that good news, we will experience God's power in our lives. See, in good advice, there's not the power of God in the good news. [00:13:52] Speaker B: Of the gospel, there is the power of God. [00:13:55] Speaker C: You with me on this? [00:13:56] Speaker A: Now, one person defines gospel this way, and I think it's helpful. He said the gospel is the announcement that God has reconciled us to himself by sending his son Jesus to die. [00:14:12] Speaker B: As a substitute for our sins, that all who repent believe have eternal life in him. [00:14:18] Speaker A: So here's what he's saying. Here's what the good news is. God has reconciled us to him, and he's done it by sending Jesus as. [00:14:32] Speaker B: The substitute for our sins in our place. [00:14:35] Speaker A: Here's what that means. Here's the unfortunate truth about being a human being. We are all broken and sinful. And even on our best days and our best efforts, we fall Short of the glory of God, we can't reconcile ourselves to him. But what Paul says is that Jesus. [00:15:03] Speaker B: Christ stands in our place. [00:15:06] Speaker A: When Christ is on the cross, he is bearing divine justice for every sin. [00:15:14] Speaker B: In your life and my life, past, present, and future. [00:15:18] Speaker A: So what he's saying is, Christ stands in our place. That should be us. [00:15:24] Speaker B: But Christ takes our place. [00:15:26] Speaker A: Christ takes justice so we can have God's love on our life. Christ takes rejection so we can have full acceptance. And so at the heart of all. [00:15:40] Speaker B: This is what Christ has done for us in our place. [00:15:46] Speaker A: So you think about it this way. [00:15:47] Speaker B: When. When we stand before God and the Lord says, why should you come into my presence? There's only one answer. Jesus. [00:16:01] Speaker A: Jesus. That's it. It's not all right, Lord, I've done these really good things. Like, no, no, it's not. Here's my resume. Here's all the. But it's looking to Jesus and saying, God. That's it. It's him or nothing. It's what he's done. I have no standing on my own. I stand in him. And that's why it's good news. It's good news because it doesn't rest on you, Church, if it rests on you. Here's what I know. We'd all mess it up. Amen. Hey, here's one thing I know in life. [00:16:39] Speaker B: I know how to mess up a good thing. How about you? [00:16:42] Speaker A: We're awesome at that. But it rests on the finished work. [00:16:47] Speaker B: Of Christ, and that's why it's good news. [00:16:50] Speaker A: Now, many of us in this room. [00:16:52] Speaker B: Are like, yes, I know these things, and we do know them in our head. [00:16:59] Speaker A: But it's a different thing to know. [00:17:01] Speaker B: Them in our heart. [00:17:01] Speaker C: You with me? [00:17:03] Speaker A: See, as you grow in your Christian. [00:17:05] Speaker B: Life. [00:17:07] Speaker A: We can be tempted to think, okay, I know Jesus died for me. I know what this means. But now I've kind of. I'm into more advanced stuff now. Well, Church, if you think that, you're thinking wrong. We need this reality every day and through our whole life. We need it to command our hearts and to shape our hearts. Because as soon as we lose connection to it, we lose the power of. [00:17:35] Speaker B: God in our lives. [00:17:36] Speaker C: You with me on this? [00:17:37] Speaker A: And so we never outgrow. We just need to grow deeper into it. And I want to just do a little diagnosis today for our own hearts and to just ask ourselves some questions to determine, am I living from the power and truth of the Gospel? Or maybe I lost sight of it. [00:17:58] Speaker B: In my heart a little bit and. [00:17:59] Speaker A: Let Me just guide us through some. [00:18:00] Speaker B: Questions to think about this. [00:18:01] Speaker A: Number one, to just ask yourself, does God love me today? [00:18:07] Speaker B: And why. [00:18:10] Speaker A: Does God love me today? [00:18:11] Speaker B: And why? [00:18:11] Speaker A: And maybe some of us are like, well, I don't know. I kind of had a rough week. [00:18:18] Speaker B: So not super sure about it. [00:18:22] Speaker A: I think he loved me till Wednesday. And then this thing happened. And if, if we're not careful, we'll think about God's love that way and we'll think about that. It's something that, that we sort of. We kind of earn, we build up to, and then we have to sort of sustain it. But here's what the gospel says. In Christ, you are loved fully by God today. He could not love you anymore even if you had the worst week in history. That does not change his love for you, because why does he love you? Not because you're lovable. [00:19:07] Speaker B: Sorry. [00:19:10] Speaker A: But because you are in Christ. [00:19:13] Speaker C: You with me on this? [00:19:14] Speaker A: I think about this question. I remember when my daughter was born. [00:19:19] Speaker B: You know, my oldest. [00:19:20] Speaker A: And I remember, like, I didn't know. [00:19:22] Speaker B: What to expect with all that, you know. [00:19:25] Speaker A: And I remember when the doctor, you. [00:19:27] Speaker B: Know, brought her over to me and, like, I looked at her, I was like, I am a different man right. [00:19:32] Speaker A: Now because I just. This, this unbelievable, overwhelming love that I. [00:19:38] Speaker B: Was like, I, I. [00:19:39] Speaker A: This is just. [00:19:40] Speaker B: And it was such an awesome experience. [00:19:43] Speaker A: And I just, I just, in that moment, I was like, there's a love. [00:19:48] Speaker B: In me for this girl that is crazy. God loves you even more than that. [00:19:58] Speaker A: Do you hear that today? That's what the gospel says. [00:20:02] Speaker B: Does your heart know that? [00:20:04] Speaker A: Have we lost our grip? Here's another question. [00:20:08] Speaker B: What does service to God feel like? [00:20:11] Speaker A: See, when my heart is connecting to. [00:20:13] Speaker B: The Gospel, service to God is more joy and delight. [00:20:17] Speaker A: Now, I know many of us, we grew up in a way where service to God was about guilt and duty. And we were like, I gotta do this. But as the gospel is at work in our lives, service to God, it begins to feel like a privilege and an honor that this great God would invite us in to his eternal work. [00:20:46] Speaker B: What a privilege. Here's another question. [00:20:49] Speaker A: How do I interpret bad circumstances? Over the years, so many people have. [00:20:55] Speaker B: Come up to me and they said, chet, I think God is punishing me. Say, well, why do you think God's punishing you? They say, well, this terrible thing happened in my life. And this terrible thing happened in my life. And this really thing happened in my life. They said, chet, I just. I think God is punishing me. Here's what the gospel says all your sins fell on Christ, all the punishment for your brokenness and my brokenness fell on Christ. [00:21:29] Speaker A: So even in the hardest times in life, here's what you could be sure of you. [00:21:33] Speaker B: It is not God's punishment. [00:21:35] Speaker A: And even in the hardest times of life, you can know his love for me is still here. And you can trust that even though you don't understand it and even though you might be confused by it, you can trust that his goodness is somewhere in the mix and it will prevail. [00:21:53] Speaker B: At the end of the day. [00:21:56] Speaker A: But the bad experiences are not his. [00:21:59] Speaker B: Punishment because that all rested on Christ on the cross and it's done once and for all. You with me on this church? Here's one more question. How do I respond to criticism? [00:22:17] Speaker A: Does it just like wreck me? Does it ruin my whole week? Or can I, can I live with. [00:22:27] Speaker B: A sense of disapproval for others because I'm so secure in the approval of God in the gospel? [00:22:34] Speaker C: You with me on this? [00:22:37] Speaker A: When people criticize me, am I broken by it? Or do I say, well, if you really knew me, you'd have far worse things to say. If you really knew me, you'd have way better than that one. Because I. Look how much you want to talk about here? There's plenty. See, what the gospel does is it gives us this freedom to say, yeah, I know I am totally broken. I don't have an image to keep up. I know Christ had to die for my sins. That's how ugly they were. That's how ugly they are. I acknowledge that. But I also know this, that he did die for my sins because he loves me and he's forgiven me. So yeah, I might want your approval, but I don't live by that because. [00:23:29] Speaker B: I live by the approval of God. [00:23:31] Speaker A: And I have it in the gospel. You with me on this church? And so all I'm trying to say today is it's one thing to know. [00:23:40] Speaker B: It, it's another thing for it to command your life. [00:23:43] Speaker C: You with me on this? [00:23:45] Speaker A: It's one thing for us to yes, we know the answers, but are they the functional reality of our hearts? [00:23:52] Speaker C: You with me on this? [00:23:53] Speaker A: And that's what the goal is here. It's not just that we know some of the meaning of it. Yes, we need to know that. That's so important. But is it what commands our hearts and our lives and how we go. [00:24:08] Speaker B: Through what we go through? Because here's the other thing. [00:24:12] Speaker A: If we don't live by the power of the gospel, we will create some other self salvation project, we'll try to put something else in its place. And there's really usually two ways we do it. One is we try a religious approach. And what I mean by that is we get into this relationship with God where we think, all right, I'm going to do these things and then God. [00:24:38] Speaker B: Does these things for me. [00:24:40] Speaker A: It's like, I do these good and then God blesses me. But if we relate to God that. [00:24:46] Speaker B: Way, here's what it's gonna stir in you. [00:24:48] Speaker A: Pride. When you're doing good, like I'm doing great, there's all these other people around me. It'll make you self righteous and prideful, which how many of us have known a self righteous and prideful person and been like, oh, can't stand it? Amen. None of us like that. That's what it will do. Or the other thing it will do is it'll make you crushed. You'll be like Martin Luther. You'll be like, okay, this is the more self aware person. [00:25:14] Speaker B: They're like, I'm doing terrible at this game. [00:25:16] Speaker A: And you'll have no security, no sense of joy, and you'll be crushed by it. [00:25:24] Speaker B: Now that's the first way we can go. The second way we can go is. [00:25:28] Speaker A: That we can try to replace God. [00:25:31] Speaker B: With something else in our lives. And this is what the Bible calls idolatry. [00:25:37] Speaker A: Instead of living from the fullness of the gospel, we say, no, I think there's something else that can give me. [00:25:49] Speaker B: All these things only God could give me. [00:25:51] Speaker C: You with me on this? [00:25:53] Speaker A: And the tricky thing about idolatry is many times in our life, our idols. [00:26:00] Speaker B: Are not bad things, but they're good things that we make the ultimate thing. [00:26:08] Speaker C: You with me on this? [00:26:09] Speaker A: And so many times what idols are, is they're good gifts that God give us. But instead of being second or third or fourth or fifth place in our lives, we move them up to number one above God. And then we're looking to that thing or to that person to give us the things only God can. And guess what? [00:26:31] Speaker B: They can never deliver because the power of God isn't in them. [00:26:36] Speaker A: I think about my own life and this happened so subtly. Church, so subtly in my own life. When I started ministry after a couple. [00:26:45] Speaker B: Years, we did a Sunday night service. [00:26:48] Speaker A: And after a couple years, like every. [00:26:49] Speaker B: Sunday night I would come home and so discouraged. [00:26:54] Speaker A: Like, my sermon was terrible. This was terrible. This was. Even if something good happened, I couldn't enjoy it because I would just think about, well, it could have been better, you know, and so I was in this place where I was constantly discouraged, I was constantly frustrated, and I was. [00:27:14] Speaker B: Even becoming resentful of God. [00:27:19] Speaker A: And what I began to realize in. [00:27:21] Speaker B: Time was that I had made my ministry an idol. [00:27:27] Speaker A: I was looking for it to give me what only God can. Now, here's the thing. Ministry is a good thing. Like, I love it. It should be really important in our lives. I believe that. [00:27:41] Speaker B: But should not be the most important thing. [00:27:42] Speaker C: You with me on this. [00:27:44] Speaker B: That spot's only reserved for God. [00:27:46] Speaker A: But what I did was I moved it up the order and I made it an idol. And you know what? It made me worse at it, and I couldn't enjoy it. And it took time to realize that. No, that only the gospel can give me those things. Because at the end of the day, I love being a pastor, and I'm honored that I get to do this. But this is not my identity. This is a role I get to serve God with. My identity is that I am God's Son in Christ. And at the end of the day, that is the most defining thing about me. [00:28:25] Speaker B: And the gospel helps me to live from there. [00:28:26] Speaker C: You with me on this? [00:28:28] Speaker A: And so an idol is when you take a good thing, and we can do it with our relationship. Some of us, maybe today, are at times in our life, like, we're looking at this person and we're expecting them to be our Savior. You're like, man, this relationship's not going good because they're not doing all these things. Well, guess what? [00:28:49] Speaker B: Only Christ can fill that place in your life. Church. Even the best relationship can't fulfill what Christ does for you and me. [00:28:59] Speaker A: It's like, hey, these are good things. These are important things. Yeah, two, three on the list is great, but not number one. That's only God. [00:29:08] Speaker C: You with me. [00:29:09] Speaker A: And so idolatry is so tricky because you and I, we will take good. [00:29:15] Speaker B: Things and make them into ultimate things. [00:29:17] Speaker A: And it will happen slowly and subtly in our hearts. And this is why we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every single day. Every single day, I need to remind myself my worth is not in what I do. It's in Christ's love for me as. [00:29:40] Speaker B: He poured out his blood on the cross. [00:29:42] Speaker C: You with me? [00:29:43] Speaker A: I need to know that every day, every day, I need to remind myself that. That I am secure in God's grace. And life's going to throw one, two punches. It's going to do hard things, but none of that is going to change. [00:29:58] Speaker B: My eternal future because of Christ. [00:30:01] Speaker C: You with me. [00:30:02] Speaker A: We need these things. All the time to go deeper and. [00:30:07] Speaker B: Deeper into our hearts. [00:30:08] Speaker A: And then Paul says this, and I. [00:30:10] Speaker B: Just love these I am statements in Romans. He says, the gospel has gripped my life, and that's what I want for all of us. Gospel has gripped my life, he says, because of that, I'm indebted to everyone to share it. [00:30:30] Speaker A: See, when the gospel begins to make. [00:30:32] Speaker B: Sense, we want to share Christ with others. [00:30:37] Speaker A: Not out of an obnoxious place, not out of a guilt place, but out of man. [00:30:44] Speaker B: This is too good to keep to myself. [00:30:48] Speaker A: Church, when we're understanding it, yes. It's like this incredible thing where you're like, I can't. I can't just keep this to myself. This is so good. I love church. [00:30:59] Speaker B: You are such a generous church. [00:31:01] Speaker A: And every Christmas, many of you will. [00:31:05] Speaker B: Come up to me and you're like, is there a family we can bless? You'll give me cash to bless a family. You're just such amazing, generous people. [00:31:15] Speaker A: And I love. [00:31:16] Speaker B: It's such a joyful thing to do. Do. [00:31:18] Speaker A: But when you give that to me, I cannot keep it. Amen. It's got to pass through. I am in debt to others. Paul says, that's how I feel about the gospel. [00:31:32] Speaker B: I've been given this incredible thing, but it's got to be passed on. He says, and I'm eager to do it. [00:31:39] Speaker A: I'm eager to do it. I want to do it. He says, and I'm bold. There's a bold, boldness in my life. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, so why would I be ashamed of one. [00:31:48] Speaker B: Who has been so good to me? So that doesn't even make sense in my mind. [00:31:53] Speaker A: And I find this so helpful because I think if you're a follower of. [00:31:57] Speaker B: Jesus today, probably many of us, maybe, we look at our life and we're like, I do want to be more bold with my faith, and I think that's a great desire. [00:32:08] Speaker A: And many of us, we might look at our lives and we're like, well, you know, I'm. I'm not a bold personality. I know other people, like, they seem much more bold, much more confident, and that's not me. But. But then there's something in you. But it's like. But I still. I want to be a little more bold with my faith. I want to be a little more courageous. And. And here's the good news. [00:32:27] Speaker B: I don't know that Paul was naturally a bold guy. [00:32:31] Speaker A: When we look at. And we really dig into it, I. I think he might be more relatable. [00:32:37] Speaker B: To us than we think. [00:32:39] Speaker A: But here's what I believe. [00:32:40] Speaker B: I believe boldness comes out of love. [00:32:45] Speaker A: Parents. Can I talk to you for a second? You ever find yourself, like, doing something. [00:32:49] Speaker B: For your kid you wouldn't normally do. [00:32:52] Speaker A: But because your love for them, it kind of takes you to a different place. This summer we were at a campground. [00:33:00] Speaker B: You know, we were invited to. [00:33:01] Speaker A: It wasn't our party. It was a friends and we were there and lots of people there. Some I knew, some I didn't. And my kids. And some of the other kids were playing, like, just right over to the. [00:33:10] Speaker B: To my right. [00:33:11] Speaker A: And this guy pulls up on like this huge motorcycle, you know, all bikered out, but he parks it right where, like, the kids were playing. And my. And I was like, oh, that's a. [00:33:26] Speaker B: Terrible place to park that. [00:33:27] Speaker A: Like, you know, if this falls over in full dad mode, you know, this thing tips over. Kids are curious. They want to touch everything. They're going to touch it, burn their hand. You know, I'm thinking all this stuff, then I'm like, this isn't. [00:33:40] Speaker B: This isn't like my party. [00:33:41] Speaker A: I don't even know this guy. [00:33:43] Speaker B: You know, what's. [00:33:44] Speaker A: But then I was like, no, I just can't do this. And so I just went up to the guy and I was very nice about it. I was like, hey man, can you move this bike out of here? All these kids are playing. This is a bad idea. And he like, kind of looked like. [00:34:00] Speaker B: A little surprised by it. [00:34:02] Speaker A: And again, I was very nice. So I don't know what the surprise was, but. But I was just like, hey, you know, just kind of get this out of here. And. And he did. And I was very thankful. But I would say normally, like, I'm pretty laid back, you know, easy going. I don't, I don't care about that. It's not. I'm not one to kind of take over someone else's party and start telling people where they can park where they're not. But you know what? If my kids are in the mix, I feel altogether different. Amen. I'm like, look, this bike's getting moved one way or the other, you know, just that it's getting out of here. But because. [00:34:44] Speaker B: Because of love church, Paul was driven by a love for Christ. [00:34:50] Speaker A: Christ. [00:34:52] Speaker B: And I care about people. I care about Christ. And I'm not ashamed. [00:35:01] Speaker A: See here if you want to be bold, don't worry about being bold. [00:35:05] Speaker B: Fan the flame of love in your heart for Christ. And boldness will come after. [00:35:11] Speaker A: Sit in the gospel and just remind yourself how great he's been to you. [00:35:18] Speaker B: Boldness will come out of that. [00:35:20] Speaker A: Receive his kindness and his goodness and just, just man. Give all the gratitude you can to it. And boldness will follow because the gospel is that good. [00:35:34] Speaker B: Let's pray. [00:35:35] Speaker A: Father, we love you. We thank you for your good work for us. Father, words just can't put. We can't put into words how great, how good you are in the gospel is. But Father, I pray you could just. [00:35:56] Speaker B: Make it real to each of our hearts today. [00:36:01] Speaker A: Father, I pray some of us, we could. [00:36:03] Speaker B: We could experience your power in these ideas. [00:36:07] Speaker A: They could go from our head to. [00:36:09] Speaker B: Our hearts and they could shape us. [00:36:15] Speaker A: And Father, I pray you would just. [00:36:17] Speaker B: Fan the flame of love in our hearts for you. Of joy in what you've done, of delight, of praise, of worship. [00:36:27] Speaker A: I pray we could just enter into the joy of it all. And I pray it would make our. [00:36:32] Speaker B: Lives more bold in all the right ways. [00:36:36] Speaker A: Help us in all this. In Jesus good name we pray. [00:36:39] Speaker B: Amen.