Beautiful Feet Romans 10:13-21 (ESV) Dr. Ritch Boerckel August 6, 2017

Beautiful Feet Romans 10:13-21 (ESV) Dr. Ritch Boerckel August 6, 2017 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. 18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. 19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry. 20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. 21 But of Israel he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Space travel and scientific investigation has sought to answer the question: Is there life on other planets? I was reading a news article just a few weeks ago from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. They discovered a lake that once existed on the planet Mars. The researchers were really excited because in that lake, they found that at various portions, there were different levels of oxygen depending upon the time, the depth, and upon the location that they were examining on parts of that planet. And so they concluded that as a result of these various oxygen levels throughout various parts of this lake, that s it s very possible that at one time at least, Mars supported life. So it got me to thinking. What does a planet need in order to support life? I came across an article by a person who gave seven elements that are necessary for a planet to support life. 1. A solar system with a single massive sun to serve as a stable source of energy. 2. A terrestrial planet with both land and water. 3. A planet just the right distance from the sun and from other neighboring stars. 4. A moon of sufficient mass to stabilize the tilt of the planet s rotation. 5. An oxygen rich atmosphere. 6. Nutrients of various kinds. 7. Gravity to hold it all together. God, in His infinite wisdom, spoke and the worlds came into being. And He put life here on this little planet called Earth. And He did that all out of nothing. He just simply spoke and the worlds came into being. And now, all creation proclaims His glory. So the big question is not whether life exists on other planets. But the huge question, the really important question for us is, What is life? It s remarkable how God designed physical life, life within organic cells. But life is much more than a bunch of physical cells that grow and reproduce and that function in active ways. Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone In other words, it s not just feeding the

cells in your body that causes you to live. But man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4) In order for us to have true life, in order for true life to exist on this planet, there must be much more than biological processes at work. Now, we intrinsically know this because we re created in God s image. And every person that walks the planet has in some sense, in some way, a sense that there must be something more. God has placed a God-shaped vacuum in each one of our hearts that only He can fill. He created us in His image so that we would yearn for life in Him. Life in Him means that we connect with Him in a very real, relational way. That we enjoy Him, and that we in some way reflect His glory, reflect His Person. Jesus clarifies the meaning of life when He prayed in John 17: John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. This is really what life is. This is the definition. It is that people created in God s image would know the Father and would also know Jesus Christ. That word know is a relational knowledge. It s not simply knowing about, but it s truly knowing personally; being in relationship, fellowship, friendship. Jesus didn t merely define life for us, but He also said that He came to bring it to us. He says this in John chapter 10: John 10:10b I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. So, what is necessary for there to be life on our planet? Paul answers that question for us in Romans 10:13-21. He outlines four necessities required for life to exist on our planet, indeed, for life to exist in our soul. Before looking at these four necessities, let s remember that God created this world full of life. When He created man in His image, He created Him with this very intense, very personal, very devoted, loving relationship with Himself. So man, Adam and Eve, walked with God in the cool of the day, in joyful communion. But then sin entered the world and it broke that relationship so that death passed upon mankind. Our natural state is not a state of life anymore because Adam and Eve sinned and passed sin onto us. And then we willfully participated in that sin by disobeying God as well and moving away from the worship and acknowledgement and submission of the true God. And so, death is our natural state. That is how we are born. That is how we will live unless something changes; unless life is given to us. Paul has written already in Romans 5 of this. Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned So, this is a huge problem. We re created for life, but we have a natural state now that is unnatural to God s created design. That is the state of death; the state of separation from God. So what s necessary in order for us to experience life? The Apostle Paul again answers that wonderfully for us here. Necessity #1: Believing in Jesus as Savior and Lord.

13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That word saved is very important. Saved from what? Saved from spiritual death. It s saved from disconnection from God. It s saved from alienation or separation from Him. It s saved from a life without God, without joy in His Spirit, without connection to His glory. God in love gave His Son so that He might bring life to our dead souls. So God did something about this unnatural natural state. He sent His Son. Through Christ Jesus, God offers cleansing from the filth of sin, which keeps us from life. And He also brings us reconciliation from a broken relationship with Him. This is the Gospel. This is the great news! This is the loving Word or message that God has given to us all through His Word. It s the focal point of everything. So if God did this in love, sent us a Savior, sent us His very Son in order to bring us life, what must we do to obtain life from Him? The answer is very simple. It s that we must call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But then he asks this question. It s very important to observe this in verse 14. 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? It s very important for us to observe that calling upon the name of the Lord and believing in Jesus Christ are married. In fact, believing faith precedes calling. Did you notice that? You can t call on one if you haven t believed upon Him. Now, this is very important because there are many people growing up in Christian churches who call upon Jesus without believing. And that is an empty calling. So, you grow up in a church and then you or a family member gets very, very ill. And you in desperation call upon Jesus. Jesus, save this person from this sickness. You know that Jesus is all-powerful. You ve heard that. And you say, Save this person from physical illness, from physical death. And again, that s a good thing. It s not a bad thing. But it s not enough to bring salvation. That s not what calling upon the name of the Lord means there in verse 13. Believing precedes calling. Others for instance, might call upon Jesus when they re going through financial problems or going through job changes, or going through emotional difficulties, or through relational brokenness, problems in marriage, problems with kids. And they call upon the name of the Lord to rescue them from these troubles. And again, that s good, but it s not enough to bring salvation. Others call on Jesus by coming to church. And so, they would sing and they would pray and they would participate in the Lord s Supper. They would do good works, maybe serve in the nursery, which I commend to you. (Laughter!) But that s not what this means to call upon the name of the Lord. You see, believing precedes calling; the kind of calling that brings salvation. To call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and be saved, you must believe upon Him. Believe upon Him with your whole person. Believe that you need His sacrifice to rescue you from your sin. You need His resurrection to secure life for you. We talked about this last time we were in Romans. There are no verses that are more clear about what it means to believe in all of Scripture, than Romans 10:9-10. Let s look at that again. Romans 10:9-10 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your

heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. The location of our faith is upon Jesus as Lord, as God come in the flesh, as the One to whom we submit to, as the One to whom we follow, the One to whom we obey. You confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, not just as a title, but as the personal Lord of your life. This is what it means to believe. You rest upon Him. You trust in Him. That s what genuine faith is. Last time, we used this illustration of a person that rests upon a stool. Do you remember that? It s not enough to say, I believe that this stool will hold me up if I sit on it. In order to believe, we must commit ourselves fully to the structural soundness of this stool. We must be willing to put all our weight. That s what it would mean to believe. And that s what it means to believe in Christ Jesus. I m putting the weight of my entire life upon this one person. I believe He is the only source of life. If I don t have Him, I don t have life. I need life, and Jesus offers me life. That s what it means to believe. And so I would press again upon you: Do you believe? Have you committed your life to Him as Savior and Lord? Are you resting your soul upon His cleansing work through the sacrifice that He made upon the cross? I love the illustration as well of a nineteenth century acrobat. He was French. He went by the name of Blondin. He was very famous. He was born in 1824. He did all these amazing stunts, but none more amazing that putting an 1,100 foot tightwire across the Niagara Falls. And you can imagine again, with the technology of that day, how amazing of a feat just to string that wire, then that he would walk out upon that wire, some 160 feet above this churning water. And he did all kinds of fun things. One time, he went out in the middle and he cooked an omelet, and ate an omelet while out on the middle of that tightrope. Another time, he took a wheelbarrow and he ran it across. And then he had one of his assistants get in the wheelbarrow, and he ran it back. And after he got back, he looked at one of the guys. They were all cheering. You re amazing! He looked at one of the guys cheering him on and said, Do you believe that I could carry you across? The guy said, Well, yeah. I believe you could. Blondin said, Well, jump in. (Laughter!) The guy said, Not on your life! (Laughter!) There s no way I m getting in the wheelbarrow. Again, he believed in his head, but he wasn t willing to trust Blondin with his life. So let me ask you: Are you trusting the Lord Jesus with your life? Not just with the forgiveness of sins, either. It s with your life. In other words, you say, Jesus, I m trusting you to lead me every step of the way, more than I trust myself. You re my Lord. You tell me what to do. You tell me where to go. You tell me what my values are. You tell me what to believe. You direct my steps. I m just following You because I need You. And You alone know the path to life. And so I am resting, trusting wholly in You. Have you trusted in Jesus as your Lord, as your Savior, personally? Again, some people that I ve asked that question to say, I think so. To me, that s not a very encouraging answer. You see, genuine faith is conscious. You confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord. It s conscious and it s public. It would be a little bit like if you saw a couple and you met them and you talked to them and you enjoy them. You say, Are you guys married? One of them looks at you and says, Well, I think so. (Laughter!) What do you mean by that? I don t

understand. I don t have a category for that. Because either there was a day that you stood in front of either a pastor or a judge and you made some commitments that were public and conscious. You knew that it either happened or it didn t happen. Or, you didn t do that. So what do you mean by, I think I m married? There are a lot of folks that go to church every Sunday and if I press the question to you, Have you personally committed your life to Jesus as your Savior and Lord? Some will say, I think so. I tell you press deeper so that you know so. Confess with your mouth. Believe in your heart that you know so. Life stands in the balance of this thing. This isn t a matter of, are you Baptist or Presbyterian or Lutheran? This is a matter of whether you know God, whether you have life, whether you spend eternity with God forever, enjoying Him. Or whether you spend eternity separated from Him and everything happy and everything good. This is the most important matter of all life. Let us not be content with I think so. God gives us His Gospel. He s given us this book, this precious letter to the church at Rome so that we would not say, I think so. But we would say with confidence, Jesus is my Lord and Savior and He s sufficient for me. He s the one who has life, and I found life in Him. What s your plan for abundant life? Most people have a plan. The Jews plan was obedience to the Law and going through religious ceremony. That was their plan. They thought, If we tried to live according to God s commandments and then we did these ceremonies that God taught us to do, that s going to lead us to live. But Paul says Romans 10:1-2 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. The Gentiles also had a plan. Their plan was, Let s live it up! Let s eat, drink and be merry, and then let s scatter in some other gods and that will lead us to life. For the Christian, there is no fuzziness, no shadowy answer to this question, Is there only one way to life in God? For the Christian, we say, Of course there s only one way. Of course there is only one way! Who else possesses life in Himself? Who else is God of very God? Who else spoke and the worlds came into being? Who else took on human flesh and died as an atoning sacrifice for sin? Who lived a sinless life and then made Himself a sacrifice? Who else resurrected in glory and power from the grave? Who else? Of course there s only one way. I know the world is deeply confused about it, but this is the Gospel message. There is a way. That s the Gospel message. Don t be content with ways that claim to lead to life, but don t. It s the most loving thing in the world for the Christian to press into this world on this issue of the supremacy of Christ, the exclusive claims of Christ. It s not us wanting to get in an argument. It s not us wanting to be contrary. It s a recognition that there is a solution to this problem of sin and death. And that solution is Jesus Christ. And if you re trusting in something else, you re trusting in a stool that will collapse underneath you. And it s not just a matter of you falling to the floor. It s a matter of you living without life and that being your experience forever and ever and ever. Here s what Peter says in Acts 4: Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Here s what Paul says to this young pastor, Timothy. 1 Timothy 2:5-6a For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, So the first necessity for there being life on this planet is the necessity of believing in Jesus as the Savior and the Lord. Necessity #2: Hearing Jesus Christ speak to us. 14 And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? Now, I want to bring in a little bit of Greek New Testament. There are various ways to translate this. I like the way the New American Standard Bible translates this. Listen to this and see if you catch the difference. Romans 10:14 (NAS95) How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? What s the difference? The difference is that one translation has us needing to hear of Christ, about Christ. And this other translation, the New American Standard Bible, has us needing to hear Christ speak personally. And I think that s what it is. I think that s what the text reads. How are they to believe in Him whom they have never heard? Doesn t that make sense? So, if you re going to trust somebody, how can you trust them if you don t hear them speak to you, if you don t hear them give you promises, if you don t hear them bring in this message? You need to hear them. And this is again a very, I think, important distinction. In order for us to have life in our world, Jesus Christ must speak and we must hear Him. We can t be His disciples if we don t hear Him. Not just of Him. Because that s going to a nice sermon and saying, I hear a lot about Christ in there. That was good! No, that s not enough! If you re to believe in Him, you must hear Him speak to you. That s something I can t do. I can speak of Christ to you, but I cannot be Jesus and speak to you. That s something that must supernaturally happen between you and God when the Word of God is opened. And in order for you to believe, really believe, believe unto salvation, you must hear Christ. Not just a preacher. But you must hear Christ Jesus speak personally to you through His Word, by His Spirit. Here s what Jesus says in John 10. He makes it abundantly clear. John 10:2-5 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. He s talking about Himself being the Good Shepherd. Those who are following Christ, those who are disciples, those who are in Him, those who believe, the sheep hear His voice. Do you catch that? They don t just hear of the shepherd, with other sheep talking. Hey! Isn t our

shepherd a great person? That s great for the sheep to talk about the shepherd, but the sheep hear His voice. Why do they follow Him? Why do they believe upon Him? Because they know His voice. Jesus goes on to say in that passage: John 10:14-16 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. [He s speaking of us, the Gentiles.] I must bring them also, [That s what He s done. That s why we re here today.] and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. What Jesus is saying is that true disciples know and listen to Jesus voice. Now, to hear means more than our ears receiving auditory stimulus and then transmitting signals to our brain. That s necessary as well for us to hear physically, but really, He s speaking about spiritual hearing. Audiologists cannot help with the kind of hearing referenced here. God s sheep hear Jesus voice. That s the point. Only the Holy Spirit can open up our ears because we re deaf to the voice of God. We re deaf to the voice of Jesus. We need God desperately. That s why we pray and call out to Him to do a work in us. But hearing carries the idea of receiving and responding to what is heard. It s not just simply getting information. A sheep that hears the voice of the shepherd, what do they do? They follow him. That s what Jesus said. A sheep that does not hear doesn t mean that their ears aren t taking in the call of the shepherd. They re not hearing with the kind of hearing that responds, that submits, that follows. So hearing carries the idea of receiving and responding to what is heard. When I was a little boy, there was a littler boy across the street. Both of us had these real blond heads of hair, but he was about two years younger than me. His name...well, let s not use names. Because I have grown up in this same area and he might even be here today. Who knows? We ll say his name is Stevie. Stevie would come over to play, and around 7:00 or 7:30 at night, 8:00, Stevie s mom would call him to come home. And we d be sitting there playing in our back yard. She was out of sight, but you could hear her voice. Stevie! And Stevie would just continue playing. Whatever we were doing, he d just continue playing. I said, Hey, Stevie! Your mom is calling you. Yeah! And then we d keep playing. Then a few minutes later, it would be louder, Stevie!! I said, Boy! If my mom had that tone, it would be time to get going. Stevie, are you sure? Yeah, I m fine. We re cool! Stevie!!! And still, Stevie wouldn t budge. Finally, about the fourth or fifth time, it would be like filled with rage. I mean, it would get to this boiling point, just scaring every kid in the neighborhood. STEVIE!!!!! And then Stevie would say, Time for me to go home. (Laughter!) Let me ask you: When did Stevie hear his mom s voice? It wasn t until she got to the very end. And that s what it means to hear the voice of Jesus. How can you call on one whom you ve not believed? And how can you believe if you ve never heard, heard Jesus speak? What it means to hear, is to hear Christ say, Come to Me. If you re weary and heavy-laden, come to Me and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28) Have you heard the voice of Christ speak? There are two things Paul does here in speaking about how we hear the voice of Jesus. I think this is a daily hearing. Jesus is constantly saying, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. There are two trends in modern Christianity that concern me. First, it is Christians who frequently say, God told me this, or God told me that. Often, this word from the Lord has to do with some

great success that God has told them that they will have, or that God would reward some great desire of their heart that is going to be fulfilled. So the first trend concerns Christians who frequently say, God told me this. God told me that. But the second concern is Christians who never say, God told me this or God told me that. God does speak directly to His sheep. What means does Jesus use? I would say primarily, we see in Scripture primarily, God uses His Word, His written Word, to speak personally to His people. Paul models hearing Jesus speak to us in this chapter. Do you see how often Paul quotes from the Old Testament? He s hearing Jesus speak to him as he s writing this chapter. He is going to quote from eight different Scriptures in this one chapter alone. He s going to quote, and listen to this: Deuteronomy 30:12-14; Isaiah 28:16; Joel 2:32; Isaiah 52:7; Isaiah 53:1; Psalm 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:21; Isaiah 65:1-2. Let me ask you: Do you think Paul saturates his life with God s Word so that he hears Jesus speak? That s what he does. And if we want to hear Jesus speak, we have to be saturated with the Word of God. But also, more than that even, Paul urges us to listen to God through His written Word. Look what he says in verse 14. 14 And how are they to hear without someone preaching? Preaching in the New Testament is the preaching of God s authoritative word given through prophets and apostles. That s why in 2 Timothy 4:2 he says: 2 Timothy 4:2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. Don t just preach your own impressions. He says preach the Word, Timothy. 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. The other time in the New Testament that little phrase word of Christ is used, is in Colossians 3:16. Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly Again, I believe it s speaking of the written Word of God. So both by example as well as by precept, Paul is teaching us to listen to Jesus voice through the inspired written, living Word of God. Friends, what an infinite treasure God has given us to listen to Jesus every day and for Him to be our shepherd. Let s mine that rich resource. The more we hear Christ Jesus speak through God s Word to us, the more we will want to hear from Him. Through holy Scripture, Jesus personally guides, instructs, encourages, corrects, rebukes and strengthens us. He ll do that every morning and every evening and all throughout the day. He loves to speak to us. So when we open up God s Word, let us not go to God s Word to read a book, but let s go to God s Word to listen to a Person. There s a huge difference between those two. We don t go, Ah! It s time for me to get in the Book today. Let s see what the Book says. We say, It s time for me to hear my Savior and my Lord speak to me today. I need to hear Jesus direct my paths today. And He ll do that through His Holy Spirit.

Necessity #3: God s people preaching the Gospel. 14 And how are they to hear without someone preaching? God s design for His Gospel to reach the hearts of individuals and nations is preaching. Preaching is not just merely confined to what I am doing here this morning. It includes it. But preaching also is simply telling. It s opening our mouth and telling the story of Jesus to those who need to hear it. Many, many, many have never heard the story of Jesus. Many of your neighbors, many of your coworkers have never heard the Gospel message. I like the New Living Bible in verse 14. Romans 10:14 (NLT) But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard him? And how can they hear him unless someone tells them? God could have chosen to write His Gospel in the skies. He could have sent angels. He could have sent down an aerial supply of tracts from heaven. But here s what He did. He said, What I m going to do is I m going to call out My people from this world. I m going to have them hear the voice of Christ and I m going to have them follow Him. And then when they follow Him, here s what my Son does in their life. He makes them fishers of men. Jesus says, Follow me and I will make into a fisher of men. (Matthew 4:19) So what if you re a follower, but you re not a fisher of men? Then you re really not a follower. That s the issue. I m not trying to lay a load of guilt. I m trying to have a vision for what God has for your life if you re a disciple of Jesus. He says, This is the reason why I ve called you out. One of the purposes that you re still alive and not in heaven with Me rejoicing, is so that you would be a fisher of men. That s a primary, central aspect of your life. I was thinking about that this week. And I thought: I know that all through my neighborhood, I m sure when I go to the Y, I m sure when I go to these different places, you in your workplace, you have people if you ask them Are you a Christian? that would say, Yes. I m a Christian. Now if you ask them if they re a disciple of Jesus, there would be fewer, but there d still be a lot of them that would say, Yes. I m a disciple of Jesus. Let me ask you this question because I was thinking about this today. When was the last time I had a stranger come up to me and try to talk to me about Jesus? Over the last ten years, I can count on one hand how many times that s happened to me. I m thinking, well if all these people are fishers of men, why aren t more people trying to talk to me? I need to be saved, too. Now maybe they know that I m a pastor, but a lot of strangers don t. But I have had some that engaged me and I think, Wow! Isn t that fantastic?! This person gets it! I m always thrilled that they want to teach me the Gospel because I think that s so precious. That encourages me in my faith. But then let s flip around the question. How many times in this past week have I shared Jesus in some way with people around me? How many times have I gone fishing? How about the last month? And again, I don t do this to lay a big guilt because it s an easy thing to lay a lot of guilt on everybody, but to have a vision. Because here s the issue. If I haven t gone fishing for the last twenty years, can I still say I m a fisherman? The answer to that is no. I really can t. If I haven t

gone fishing for men can I still say I m a disciple of Jesus? Because that s what Jesus does. That s His process. That s His method. One of the necessities if there s going to be life, it s not through and we can fill in the blanks with a lot of things we re doing to try and amend our culture. It s not as though those things are wrong. But here s what is necessary for life. If there s not any oxygen in a room, why would you plant a seed? There has to be that in order to do all the other work. And I think what the Christian church is doing is they re going about in a lot of means to doing social issues; feeding the poor and helping those with job skills. All those are great! Those are all important things. But it s like putting a seed in a room where there is no oxygen, no water. What s going to come of that? Nothing! Because this is what s essential. This is central to God s design for bringing life into this world, into this planet. And it s not just the task of pastors and missionaries. It s the task of every one of us. God has given us all the Holy Spirit to be witnesses for Jesus. You know, it s amazing that God loves to use simple, untrained, unable instruments like us to magnify His glory! Do not believe Satan s lie that this privilege of leading others to Christ is for someone else. It s your calling! I encourage you to begin first by simply praying and asking God to fill you with a passion for His Gospel and a love for people. And then ask for God to open doors. And then ask for God to give you courage and boldness. And then walk out in faith. It s not that you re going to do it right. I hardly ever do it right. But it is that God uses our simple, sincere attempts to proclaim Jesus. The message of the Gospel is central to who we are. It s central to what we do. Necessity #4: God s church sending out messengers. 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? Sent by whom? That s the big question. Of course the answer is, by God. He s the one who sends out laborers into His harvest. But how does God send out laborers to proclaim the Gospel? It s through the body of Christ. It s through churches like this one. This is why the church is so central to the life of a Christian, as well. Because it s the church that sends us out. And just briefly, the theology of church ministry. It seems like we ve gotten all confused and it s so simple and so beautiful, but it s so vital that we listen to what God is telling us to do and to be as a church. Here s how I read the New Testament, and I see the church doing this all through the ages. What happens is, God first calls individuals out of the world. So we re part of this vast world of darkness and sin. He calls us out of the world and He places us into a gathered community. That s what the church is. It s a people called out of the world and into a gathered community. That s why it s a complete misnomer in the New Testament to find a Christian who is not part of a gathered community. You re not called out of the world into nothing. You re called out of the world into a family. And that family becomes central to who we are. We re brothers and sisters united by one Father and one Spirit together, underneath the Lordship of Jesus. And then when we gather together, here s what we do. We worship God through prayer. We worship God through listening to His Word. We worship God through praising and singing. That s number one.

Number two is we get involved in discipleship. The church makes disciples. Let s teach God s Word. And let s teach not only just what, but also how. And let s walk together as disciples of Jesus, so that we re growing in discipleship. So, there s worship. There s discipleship. And then let s also love each other. Let s have fellowship. And that s what happens in the church. That s what the church is being about. And then that creates this new community that s strange from the world because the world doesn t have that kind of community centered around worship, discipleship in Jesus, and true fellowship, true Christian love empowered by God s Spirit. And then as we gather together experiencing that together, here s what happens. Then God says When you break apart, you go into the world and you re My witnesses. I grew up in a church that had on the door as you left, You are now entering your mission field. Because it s a recognition that here s what happens here. It s worship, it s discipleship and it s fellowship. That s what happens here. It s so vital to our work in this world and to our meaning of our life with God. But then, when you go, this is what you do. You go out into the world and you become light. So this is not a place where we say we re going to make this the place where evangelism happens; our gathered community. That can t happen because the world doesn t want to worship. They don t want discipleship. And they don t want to have Christian fellowship. So that s what this place is for. But then we go! But the whole thing breaks down if we re not experiencing true worship, true discipleship, true fellowship, and then if we don t go. And I believe the church of Jesus in America is so weak because we re just simply not listening to the voice of our Savior. So here s the applications I would have for you. 1. Are you saved? That s an old-fashioned question, but it s a biblical one. Are you saved? Have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ? That s the place to begin. The second word that I would ask you to think about is 2. Would you actively hear Jesus speak to you every day? Would you say, Here s what I m going to do. If I don t have anything else that happens today, I m going to hear my Shepherd speak to me so that He would guide me and I m not guiding myself. 3. Would you tell others who He is and what you ve heard Him say to you? It s that simple. You don t have to have been trained, although training is good. Discipleship is good. All you have to do is say, Here s who I know Jesus to be and here s what Jesus has said to me. Would you be willing to think about praying for God to open the door to one person this week where you would mention the name of Jesus and let them know that He is Lord and that He offers life to them? Would you be willing to do that? If God would begin to do that work in us, I believe we would experience His joy in unbounded ways. Pray for me as well for that. It s hard for a pastor as well. Let s pray for one another and encourage each other.