Well, good morning, Englewood. So take your Bibles this
morning. Turn to Romans chapter 5.
I know we have several folks who are on holiday this misty
weekend. So thank you all so much for
being here. And if you're listening online,
thank you for tuning in with us. Maybe some of you just got done
building this hand castle. Appreciate you all being here.
So a few days ago a guy was serving me Gelato which I'm not
supposed to eat and he told me this story.
He goes one Sunday morning a little boy walked up to the
preacher, had this real sad look on his face and the preacher
says what? What are you?
What are you so sad about, son? He goes, well I'm worried about
you, preacher. He goes, I know that you need
money and I want you to take my last dollar out of my Piggy
Bank. Preacher looks down at him and
says, well, well, that's very kind of you, but why do you
think I need money so much? He says, well, preacher, my
daddy says that you're the poorest preacher in town.
It wasn't very good Gelato either.
But listen, I want you to here's what I want you to do.
I want you to refrain. I want you to hang on to your
dollar donations. And let's just see how this
sermon goes first, OK, We'll do that.
Listen, I want to thank Pastor Dylan and Pastor Jordan for
filling in for me when we were off.
I was doing some writing. We're also getting away together
a little bit in the mountains, so appreciate that.
You know, Romans 4 on senior Sunday.
There's your challenge. That was funny because every
verse, almost every word is a sermon in the book of Romans.
I'm telling you, it's so rich. In fact, it's so rich.
We're only going to try to tackle 11 verses this morning as
we continue in our series justified, a study of Romans.
If you've been with us week to week, then you know that we're
walking through this book verse by verse and and you're also
going to notice that Paul switches gears in chapter 5.
And I'll talk about this more in a moment.
He he's been talking about how to be saved and that and he'll
still talk about that some, but now he's going to talk about how
to live also now that you are justified.
So we'll talk about that in a minute.
Tony Morita, who wrote a great commentary on the book of
Romans, said this. He says Paul Paul style shifts
from argumentation to adoration. The overall tone is celebratory,
triumph and jubilant. In other words, Paul is helping
us enjoy God here. There's a difference in saying
I'm a Christian and actually enjoying God.
It's one thing to be legally married, but it's another thing
to actually enjoy your spouse. Paul's radiating a contagious
Christian joy and excitement because of what God has done for
us in Christ. So that kind of sets the stage
because what Paul's going to do is he's going to share multiple
blessings to us in this passage about being justified by faith.
In other words, now that you're saved, So what then?
And these blessings ought to 'cause this great joy, because
now that you're justified, life only gets better and better and
better is what Paul's going to say.
And he's going to reveal to us in this passage the real path to
peace. Now listen, this becomes
important because the things that I'm going to share, very
simple outline, these are the kinds of things that I use when
I share the gospel with people. I was meeting with the team
going to New York last Wednesday night before our study in here.
And when we were talking some about evangelism in that part of
the world. And, and I was just sharing some
of the things. And, and I've shared this with
some of you before, but every religion has three parts.
And I won't go into all that, but one of those parts is just
called the functional part. In other words, what does this
thing produce in your life? Does it actually produce
anything? Does it produce anything that's
worthwhile? So, so more than the form, more
than just the content, what is this thing actually doing for
you? And, and, and, and, and, and
what do we now possess that we didn't possess before Jesus
Christ? And that's exactly what Paul's
going to talk about. And every single verse that
we're going to look at could be a sermon series.
So look at verse one with me, he says in verse one, therefore,
and that's an important word in the book of Romans because of
everything else that we've heard, because of all these
things, including the examples we heard last week from Pastor
Dylan. Therefore, since we have been
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. So the very first thing, if you
look into the outline, it just simply says that we have peace.
It says listen, because of what we have already experienced.
Since you have believed or make a verb out of it, since you have
faith, you are justified and you now have peace with God through
Jesus. This is the kind of thing I
share with lost people. I don't just talk about I and I
do. I talk about the cross, I talk
about the resurrection, but I also want to talk about So what?
So what? What difference does that make
in my life today? Do I really have peace?
Do I know what that means? Don't pass by this too quickly.
Don't treat this with some passive attitude if you're a
believer. I've been a believer so long,
you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is huge news. This is like saying you are now
cured to a person with a terminal disease.
This is like saying you are now free to a condemned criminal.
This is huge news for these people.
We are no longer subject to God's wrath for our sin.
So there's no more. I hope so.
We're now in a position of I know.
So we're now in a position of assurance.
This word peace means to bind together that which was
separated. The things that were separated
are now brought together. We are now stuck to God.
This is supernatural, theological, spiritual super
glue and we're stuck to him and Jesus permanently bound God and
man together by his blood on the cross.
In fact, Paul wrote about this in other places in Colossians 1.
He wrote this, he says, and through him to reconcile to
himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace
by the blood of his cross. Now, as Pastor Jean mentioned,
we're celebrating Memorial Day weekend this weekend.
Tomorrow's a national holiday. Many of you will be off work if
you're still working and, and, and the main purpose.
Now, we use Memorial Day for a lot of things in our society
today. Sometimes we use it to go to the
cemetery to remember loved ones and things like that, or we use
it as a family holiday. But the real purpose started
many many years ago for Memorial Day was to remember those people
specifically who died in the service of our nation while they
served for our armed force, our armed forces throughout history.
And So what better weekend to remember what Christ did for us
through his death in the war against sin and lostness because
of his death. I want you to see these things
because of his death we have notice the the verb tense there
we have peace. It's present tense.
We have peace with God if we faith in Him.
Now that's a big if. It's the whole point.
We're no longer in danger of God's wrath and being separated
from Him forever. But Christ is the only real path
to this peace. To be bound, the to be bound
tightly together with God. The only way that works is
through Christ. That which was separated has
been eternally connected, and we have freedom from eternal death
due to Him. But that's not all.
It keeps getting better and better and better.
Look at verse 2. Through whom?
Through him, excuse me. We have also obtained access by
faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. There's about a six week sermon
series in this one verse. Listen, we not only have peace,
we now have access and this is huge.
Now have in verse one and have in verse 2 are both in a verb
form to mean that we have and we still have and we keep on
having. We don't not ever have.
We will always have. We have and we have and we will
have. We will always have proso proso
go gay. We will always have access.
This describes this word is used in in.
In other terms, it's used when somebody is ushered into the
royal presence of the king and they are announced to the king.
In other words, the king knows you, he knows your name, he
knows who you are. And this word comes from two
different words brought together.
It means to bring face to face. And so we are brought face to
face with God. And it implies not only the
right to be there in the presence of the king, but it
also implies the right to actually address or speak to the
king. What a powerful thing.
Ephesians 3 says this. Paul wrote about this.
He says this was according to the eternal purpose that he has
realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness
and access with confidence through our faith in Him, faith
obtains access into grace. This free gift is offered to us.
We believe in that. We receive that gift and, and
Jesus does this for the believing Sinner because we're
now, when we do this, we're now clothed in his righteousness.
We're cleansed and we're covered by the blood of Christ and
clothed with his righteousness. And so the Sinner has now able
to have bold and confident access to God's full flavor of
grace through faith. Now you got to think about how
significant this was to the original readers in Rome.
To these Jewish readers, this was this was mind boggling
because in their whole experience with the law, in
their whole experience with the Tabernacle, in their whole
experience with the temple, they never had this kind of access to
God. They couldn't just March into
the Holy of Holies only one day a year during the Day of
Atonement on Yom Kippur, would even the high priest dare to go
into the holy of Holies. And yet now Paul is saying you
now have direct access because of what Christ has done for you.
You think about these Gentile Pagan background believers who
never had this kind of relationship with the Pagan
gods. It was fear based.
It was works righteousness. And now they have they're not
being able to to be ushered into the very presence of grace
because of Christ. I mean, this is, this is huge.
And, and it also means for us that we now have the right and
the opportunity to speak with God, but not only just to
believe in him. And this is what Paul's going to
do. Paul's shifting gears here.
This isn't just about being saved anymore.
He's, he's still always going to talk about that.
But now he's going to say that because you're saved, you ought
to live differently. This ought to affect who you
are. So what this is a So what
passage? And in other words, what
difference does this make? And so, so not only do we have
access to God, but now we have the ability and the opportunity
to live differently because of this.
So, so this new life under grace operates under completely new
standards, under completely new methods, under completely new
rules. Faith into this grace in which
we stand. You'll start seeing these active
verbs. So faith in his grace.
Notice what we're believing in. We're believing in this
incredible grace that has been extended to us.
So we not only obtain grace, we also have the ability to stand
firm in that grace. So listen, that word stand is
written in a tent where it means permanent access.
We're in a fixed state before God in this connectivity, in
this super glue being held together by him, that which was
separate, brought together. We're now in a fixed state in
God's grace through faith. What an amazing place to be.
And this is what strengthens us to thrive and to grow.
So, so he says, so then think about it.
Because of all this, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And this word, hope doesn't mean wishful thinking.
It it, it, it, this word means an an assured expectation.
I know this is going to happen. I'm expecting it.
I, I, I, I'm looking forward to it by faith.
I have an assured expectation that God will bring about his
great glory, which is why this is part of our mission statement
or his mission statement here at Inglewood.
We believe he's going to bring great glory to himself.
We buy into, we believe that with all our hearts because it's
here. And the word glory refers to a
state of things in this in this existence where where everything
is as God desires it to be one day.
Charles Wendell writes about it. He says good triumphs over evil,
justice prevails, sin has no place, and everything exists in
harmony with his holy character. So we can stand permanently
bound with him in his grace by faith, with his incredible
assured expectation of hope, knowing that one day God will
reveal his whole full glory and everything will be in order one
day. One day.
So we we rejoice. And that rejoicing hope isn't
just something we sit back and we think this rejoicing hope
empowers us to live in a different way.
So we live in a different way until that time comes and we
live with peace. We live with access to Him,
which helps us to live the way He wants us to live.
Look at verse three. He just keeps building.
We're done with that. We're done with that six week
sermon series and verse 2, sort of look at verse 3.
Not only that, I mean, if that wasn't enough, but we rejoice in
our sufferings. What?
That's counter intuitive, but we rejoice in our sufferings
knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces
character and character produces hope.
Now I just summarized this by saying we have strength.
Pick out any words you like there.
But I just, I just thought of this in the way this is what
strengthens us. So even though we have peace and
even though we have access leading to this hope, we still
live right here, don't we? And we still have suffering for
now. Our grace filled life is not
free of trouble. I don't know why we're surprised
by that. Jesus promised us that we would
still have trouble. Remember what he said in John
15? He said if the world hates you,
know that it has hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.
But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of
the world, therefore the world hates you.
So it's easy for us. It's easy for people to have
hope. It's easy for people to rejoice
in times of blessing. But it's much harder, much more
difficult to live with such joyful confidence in times of
suffering. And I want you to understand
this word suffering. This word suffering in a general
usage can just refer to pressure or distress.
Think of olives being pressed in the olive press.
That's what that word would be used for.
It's that idea of pressure. We all face pressure.
We all face distress in this life.
In fact, some of you here, some of you listening, you might, you
might feel the squeeze right now.
And it comes in many shapes and it comes in many sizes and it
comes at varying times and it comes up with varying degrees.
And it hits from all directions sometimes, often catching us off
guard. And it can feel overwhelming.
Life can feel overwhelming. It's too hard, it's too pressure
filled. But Paul's trying to help us
understand because we've been ushered into a completely new
manner of life and grace. We can still live with a joyful
confidence. We can still live with grace, we
can still live with joy, even during these times of great
pressure. Now, how in the world do we
obtain such supernatural ability?
Well, it's not simply going to come from our own manifestation
or from our fellow human beings. No power positive thinking
created by the human brain is going to muster this up.
No vision board, no dream catcher, no incantation or self
manifestation can ever achieve this.
No matter what this world tries to jam down your throat, it will
not happen that way. So Paul then describes a
powerful chain. It's like I said, a Domino's, a
powerful chain reaction, revealing how the process of
strength grows and eventually gives us the ability to
experience joy even in the midst of difficult circumstance.
So let's just look at them together.
Suffering produces endurance. When the pressure builds, we
seek to relieve the discomfort. That's what we're going to
naturally do. And sometimes we can't.
Sometimes we can't avoid it. Sometimes we can't escape it.
I've got a hole in this eardrum. Teresa was with me on this trip.
I think I'm always going to have a hole in this eardrum.
It never does heal. It's been some years now.
I, I was preaching overseas and I had a translator who was sick
and he was right here for, for all this time, right here
talking right next to me. And he was sick as a dog talking
to me. And, you know, as he's
translating everything I've got to say.
And by the time I got on the plane, I had an earache.
And in the middle of that flight, my eardrum burst.
That's a joyful experience. And after that I had to go see a
doctor and he had to put a machine in there and do all
kinds of really gross things to get all kinds of gross stuff out
of my out of my head. But it left a messed up eardrum.
It broke because of the pressure.
It couldn't handle it. It burst and it's never grown
back. Sometimes the pressures a lot,
but in Christ, in Christ and his grace, the distress and the
pressure can actually help us build patient endurance that's
sometimes hard to understand. He he might even allow us to
walk through the storm and to walk through certain
circumstances purposely to do this in our lives, to help us
grow and to help us build. As one of our shut insurance,
and one of the great joys I have is every, every week I go out
with one of our deacons to see some of our folks.
And often some of our folks are shut insurance who can't
physically make it here. And I, I, I, I remember the sign
that she had. It's not original.
I've seen this saying before, but it simply said don't fear
the storm. Learn to dance in the rain in
him. We must choose to recognize the
temporary sufferings we endure here can actually be powerful
trainers to build up our strength of faith for what's
next. So suffering produces endurance
and endurance, Paul says, produces character.
So the ability to endure actually will develop.
And it's not just any character. The word, the word here is
actually talking about a tested or a proven character Dokieme.
It's talking about to be proven by testing.
So this could be like testing the purity of a metal or it
could it's also used in terms of soldiers or athletes who have
been proven and and their endurance has been proven by
combat or by competition. So this is a strengthening of
character. And this isn't pretending this
isn't denying this isn't coming up with some some false.
I'm just fine. I hope you are kind of moment.
This comes as the trials of life become instruments in the hands
of the Holy Spirit who crash within us, a proven character, a
strong character because who we are not, not just what we know,
not just what we do, but who we are actually becomes stronger.
But this demands faith in him. This isn't something we do on
our own. The Holy Spirit has to do this.
We have to faith in him and and then this character produces
hope. We almost come full circle here.
We see that that proven tested character will that will bring
about this sure expectant expectation and hope again.
So we can observe without anxiety.
We can endure without panic. We can hope without
disappointment. Because we know I don't have to
guess, because we know. We faith that we have an assured
outcome in the end. The fact that our guaranteed
victory is true and real provides me both destination and
direction so that I can live the life that I'm supposed to live.
Look at verse 5. And hope does not put us to
shame. Why?
Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through
the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
So the Holy Holy Spirit provides the power for this progressive
development. This is what we call spiritual
maturity, this progressive development.
He helps us this to occur. Our hope is in Him, not in US.
My hope's not in you. It's in Him.
It's not in this temporary place.
It's not in this world, it's in Him.
So when I'm free from that idolatry, we trust in and expect
Him to help us work through this life.
And He provides the strength in our weakness.
He provides wisdom in our foolishness.
He provides love in our doubt. He provides evidence in our
despair. As Swindell writes, the Holy
Spirit living within us is our ever present guarantee, a future
victory. So my strength is I believe in
him, not in me. Listen, our world pushes self
belief. Just pay attention for a second.
You can believe in yourself. You can achieve anything.
That's a lie. This world pushes self belief.
We're going to push Christ's belief because it's only in him
that you can do all things. So peace, access, strength, what
a valuable list, but he's not done.
Some of these verses are going to be more familiar to you.
You've probably heard sermons just out of these few verses.
Look at verse 6. For while we were, while we were
still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps
for a good person one would dare even to die.
But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. So we not only have peace, we
not only have access, we not only have strength, we have
love, a pure love, a God love. You go back to verse 5 just for
a second and just remember, because God's love has been
poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has
been given to us. Why does all this happen?
How does all this happen? Listen, don't, don't
misunderstand or try to define Christianity in some non
biblical way. We do not determine the
expectations. We do not determine the
standards. We do not determine the outcome.
Once we are saved, we are not on our own and we must not live by
our own strength. We're still helpless without the
forgiving grace of God. We never rise above our need for
Him. He's done everything.
He's done everything we need, even when we could not do it
ourselves. And so Paul stresses the fact
that nothing in US deserves saving.
Nothing in US deserves saving. Yet Christ died for us.
When we're sitting there in the gutter, Christ died for us, but
God shows his now I want you to say this big deal, but God shows
his love for us. I want you to notice this that
that verbs in the present tense. Now a lot of the other verbs
around it or not they're in the past tense is something God did
in the past, but God shows present tense.
Paul's trying to make a point. Holy Spirit's inspiring Paul to
remind us that we received what we did not deserve and we aren't
what we should be now. But God still faithfully
provided undeserved grace to save us from sin.
And He continues now to offer that same grace and love to help
us live for Him today. It's amazing.
We receive what we did not deserve, and we aren't what we
should be now. But God is still doing this.
So this act of grace, by the way, what we're talking about
right now, distinguishes biblical orthodox Christianity
from all the other world religions, from all the other
belief systems. This is why Christianity is the
only real path. Other beliefs are going to make
you earn it. Other belief systems are going
to make you work for it. But what we see here is that
while we were yet sinners, the sacrifice of Jesus granted
access to us into a completely new territory called grace.
Grace doesn't exist anywhere else in which we can thrive
according to a completely new perspective.
So our God don't ever take this lightly.
Our God lowered himself. We ought to spend a whole lot
more time on the doctrine of the incarnation.
We ought to spend a whole lot more time on the sacrifice of
the Incarnation. We focus a lot on the
crucifixion than the resurrection, rightly so.
But we ought to focus more on the incarnation.
God perfectly in a in an agape, a choice of the will to love us
no matter what. In fact, in spite of who we
were, he lowered himself to perfectly become one of us, to
be our perfect blim, blimless sacrifice, and to pay our price
for us. So he gives us peace, He gives
us access, He gives us strength, and he gives us this perfect
love that this world cannot offer.
Those are the kinds of things I mean, I'll share about.
I have to share about a cross. I have to share about an empty
grave. But in our world today, I also
share about those words when I'm talking to a lost person,
because I have those things and they don't.
The reason I have them isn't because of me.
I'm a gutter dweller, but I haven't because of Christ.
But we're not quite done. Look at verse 9.
Since therefore I'm telling you therefore is a big word in
Romans. We have now been justified by
His blood. Much more shall we be saved by
Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now
that you. Now that we are reconciled,
shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now
received reconciliation and point #5 I just said we have
relationship. If you like the word
reconciliation, put that in there.
We have reconciliation. I, I used the word relationship
because I felt like it was more relatable.
Perhaps. But if everything else, if
everything else we gained is not enough, there's, there's still
much more. He didn't just die for us, He
rose again. And because of his life, because
of his resurrection, we have a guarantee of eternal life and an
abundant eternal life with him, and we were reconciled to God.
Past tense and and the cost so the cost of reconciliation has
been completely paid and and so the bridge that connection that
binding that peace has been permanently fixed.
Our access to live connected to God has been obtained much more
now that we are reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
So I have been reconciled past, I'm being saved present, and I
will be saved future I'm covered.
Salvation includes all of that. Which also means, my friends,
that salvation includes any of our future sin that threatens to
keep us from enjoying our new life in the land of grace.
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
All this truth then, ought to lead us to a place of rejoicing.
That's what Paul's trying to get to.
Listen, I've been talking, he's been talking, he's been talking,
he's been talking. Both Jew and Gentile have the
opportunity to be saved. They have both acts, access to
salvation because of Christ. Now you've been saved.
You ought to be happy about that.
You ought to. The one translation you might
have, your translation might say exalt in God.
So live with a joyful confidence that despite the afflictions of
this fallen world, despite the consequences of past sin, and
even despite the failure to live as we ought to today and
tomorrow, we can still have forgiveness, we can still have
hope, we can still have grace, but only if we faith in Jesus
Christ. So things are not yet as they
should be. We still have a lot of the old
sinful nature in us. We're not perfect.
This church isn't perfect. It's made-up of us.
Nevertheless, we who have trusted in Jesus have been
declared just by faith by the Judge of heaven and the
universe, and we no longer have to fear his wrath.
We have peace with Him through our Lord and have been ushered
into a new existence with Him. So we ought to thrive.
We ought to rejoice with a sense of assured confidence, knowing
that one day, one day, all things will be made right, sin
will be removed, and everything will exist with God's holy
nature. But we also have to remember
that this joy, this peace, is not attained by natural means.
We can't muster this up ourselves.
The Holy Spirit has to work within us.
Justification, salvation, and reconciliation.
These big words are ours, but they're only ours through Jesus
Christ. So forgive the poor theology of
this story for just a moment, but I want to make a point.
A woman named Susan dies and goes to heaven and meets Peter
at the gate. And she says, what do I got to
do to get inside? And Peter says all you got to do
is spell the word love. So Susan spelled it right out
LOVE and goes right in. Well, some time passes and one
day Peter asked Susan if if she'd watched the gate for him
one day he had some other things to do.
And so Peter standing at the gate, when she notices her
husband in line, four or five folks down the line, when he
finally gets up to the gate, he greets her.
I mean, it's a, it's an, it's an incredible moment.
You know, how, how are you? You know, I've been missing you.
How are things up here? How are things down there?
How are things going? Everything's wonderful.
How in the world are you and how and, and how did you die?
Susan asked him. Well, you know that nurse that
took care of you toward the end? I I ended up marrying her and
then I won the lottery. And then I bought a Big Lake
house like we always wanted and a big boat.
But I wrecked that boat, and that's why I'm here.
So what do I got to do to get in?
And Susan looks at him and says, honey, all you got to do is
spell the word Czechoslovakia. Now aren't you glad it doesn't
work that way? It's not according to the work
on our part. Just listen.
You might even close your eyes. You don't have to, but I, I, I
took some portions of our passage today, nothing out of
context, but just took some phrases out of our verses and I
just want to put them together for you for a moment before we
close. Just listen to what God is
saying to us. We have also obtained access by
faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope
of the glory of God because God's love has been poured into
our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
God shows His love for us and that why we were still sinners.
Christ died for us. More than that, we also rejoice
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now
received reconciliation. My friends, the password for
access into eternal life is Jesus.
He's the only way and you have to faith in Him.
We must believe in Him. So we should rejoice.
We should exalt. That word literally means to
boast about Him. It means to, to to give a
massively high degree of confidence to God in grace.
We can live with this complete confidence and boast of our Lord
because we recognize that our confidence isn't in us.
Our confidence is in our faith in His free gift of grace that
He offers us, and we can grow even more because we know what's
ahead of us and we know who overseas it with complete,
assured expectation. Father, thank you for the hope
of your glory. Thank you, Father, that we do
not have to somehow figure this out on our own.
That Father, we cannot do that even if we tried.
The Father, you extend to us a gift of grace, that while we
were still sinners, Father, Jesus Christ died on the cross
to pay for our sins, and then he rose again because death could
not hold him in his perfection. And through Him we have
salvation and assurance. Now, Father, there might be
somebody here, I'm sure there is even listening online or here
live, who would have to admit I don't have that kind of peace.
I don't have that kind of hope. I don't have that kind of
strength. I, I don't know if I have access
to God or not. Well, Father, there's no reason
for them to leave this place without knowing.
You tell us in the Bible that we can know for certain that we
have eternal life if we believe in Jesus as your son.
And so Father, right now I pray that as our worship team leads
us in just a moment and we sing praises, we exalt you, we praise
you, we rejoice in you that Father, we recognize that only
in Christ alone can we find this answer.
And I pray that your Holy Spirit now would be be pouring into
their hearts, in their minds, no denying your presence, no
denying this truth and that right now, Father, they would
ask you to come into their heart and through life to forgive them
of their sin, that they would turn from their sin, that they
would commit themselves to live for you.
Father, there may be believers here who've just kind of been
passive. They take all this for granted.
And I pray that this morning will be a moment of recommitment
or rededication of renewal to recognize what an incredible
gift you've given us God. What an an amazing life you've
given us. God, Father, we have to, we have
to believe in you. We have to trust in you.
We have to walk with you. We have to take advantage of
that access with you, speak with you.
So Father, as we sing, I pray that people might come take a
pastor by the hand, Father, to ask what do I need to do to be
saved? What do I need to do to join the
church? What do I need to do to be
baptized? Or would you just pray with me
about this? Or maybe they just need to go
and talk to one of our trained volunteers in the Next Steps
room and have a private conversation about your Father.
Or maybe they just want to come and pray a prayer of praise, a
pray of forgiveness, of a pray for repentance, a pray for of
intercession for someone else. Help us to have the freedom to
respond. You've given us the grace.
Now help us to believe, help us to faith and to receive that
gift as your Holy Spirit helps us.
Thank you, Father in Christ's name, Amen.
Will you stand with me? We'll have pastors here.
The Next Steps room is open where people would love to just
pray with you and share with you in private.
Our ushers are going to come and take up the offering.
If you're a guest, put that Next Steps card in there for us.
Or you can just come and pray at this altar.
Whatever you want to do as the Lord leads you, you come right
now.