Romans 10 | Clayton Hentzel

What up, Crossing family? It is so good to be with you.

You may remember back in April, Ken Ham came and visited our

church. Well, last week I was able to

take my family to Ohio and while we were there, we swung by the

Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum.

And I am here to tell you it is awesome.

You should make it a high priority for you and your family

over 7th grade. Anything below that, you're not

going to get the full meal deal because it's a lot of reading.

But what I will tell you is it is a great spiritual and

educational experience for your family.

When you go to the Arc encounter, first thing you need

to do is go to the left and you go do the the virtual reality

thing that they do off the charts, right, Doug Dog it was,

yeah, it was that good. I actually got to meet some

other people from our church that were there at the same time

we were there. It was like, this is what

happens. Can be like, like, hey, we both

showed up at the same place. Hey, you're here, I'm here.

I didn't think you were coming. Okay, It's going to be one of

those things. I promise you, we're going to

try and do a trip like this in the fall of next year.

So if you don't want to go by yourself and you want to go with

other people. But I'm just telling you it is a

it's just something when you see the arc in all of its glory and

you get an opportunity to go to the Creation Science Museum and

see our world through a Christian, biblical, God shaped

vision and it's it was just incredibly nourishing.

Then on that Sunday, I had the opportunity to go and preach at

River Hills Christian Church and preach the opening sermon to

their sermon series called Weeds in My Garden.

In fact, churches across the country are preaching this

series and getting people to help and the hope that they

desperately need. Because of that, in September,

I'm getting an opportunity to share what God has been doing

through that series at a pastor's conference in Nashville

with over 1000 pastors. And that is all possible because

of you guys being willing to go on that faith journey with us.

So I just want to tell you a huge thank you for letting us do

that series and you inviting people because you're giving

pastors across the country the confidence to step into that

space. Then next weekend, like 7 days

from now. Oh no, 5-6 days from now we will

be having our Uncommon Conference, our men's conference

here at our 48th St. location and we have 9 partner churches

in eight different states that are going to be hosting the

exact same conference over the next seven months.

In fact, many of those churches are going to be coming here to

be a part of ours. I heard from Zach Campbell right

before the service started that we just crossed the 800 mark of

men who will be attending that. Super excited fellas.

There is room for 200 more people, so if you haven't signed

up, sign up. I promise you it'll help you be

the spiritual leader of your home.

It'll help you love your wife better, lead your kids better,

and you will not regret it. I want to welcome you joining

from all of our different locations, those of you watching

online and inside, and a special shout out to those of you who

are joining us for the first time or the first time in a long

time as a church. We are in a sermon series going

through the book of Romans, and if you haven't been here a while

or you haven't been here at all, let me catch you up.

Romans can be broken down into three big chunks.

The first one these chapters one through 8, and what we learned

in those chapters is I can trust God.

In chapters 9 through 11, we're navigating trust in God when

others don't. It's one thing to trust God when

you have a bunch of people around you doing the same thing,

but what do you do when you're trusting God and the people

around you aren't? And then the third thing we're

going to navigate when we get into chapters 12 through 16 are

noticeable neighbors that when you place your faith in Jesus,

it should be noticeable to the people around you.

In chapter one, we learned that we could trust God because of

the goodness of his gospel, and his gospel is true, that we are

saved not because of what we've done, but because of what Jesus

has done on our behalf. In chapter two, we learned that

I can trust God because he is patient and kind in an effort to

lead us to repentance. How many of you?

God has been patient with you. So that means that we should be

patient with other people on their spiritual journey.

We shouldn't get mean, hateful, hurtful.

We should give them the same amount of patience that God has

given us. In chapter three, we learned

that I can trust God or you can trust God because he made a way

when there was no way he did what nobody else could do.

In fact, Romans 322 says righteousness is given to all

through faith in Christ Jesus, to all who believe.

So when you place your faith in Jesus, you are made right with

God because of what Jesus has done on your behalf.

And chapter four, we learned something that's really hard for

us to understand and that is that we can trust God because

through faith in Jesus he covers forgives our sins and he does

not count them against us. How many of you have something

in your life who is still counting your sins against you?

Yeah, nobody has more of a right to do that than God, but he

chooses not to. He chooses not to count your

sins against you. In chapter 5, I kind of gave you

a tattoo verse if you're the kind of person who wants to get

scriptures tattooed. Romans chapter 5, verse eight,

Romans 5 · chapter mention

we learned that I can trust God because through Jesus he's

justified us, made it as if we've never sinned.

Romans 5/8 says but God demonstrates his own love for us

in this that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We serve a God who made the first move.

He did it before, not after. Some of you are thinking God

will love you after you get your life together.

Nope. God made-up his mind to love you

before you could do anything right or wrong.

That's how good our God is. In chapters 8 we learn that I

can trust God because he defeated the enemy of sin and

death that you and I could not defeat.

In chapter 8 I learn or in Chapter 7 I learned that I can

trust God because he gives us the Spirit that enables us to

bear good fruit. There is a me that I want to be

that I cannot be on my own. It is only through the Holy

Spirit working in my life that produces that kind of fruit.

In chapter 8, I learned that we can trust God because He's our

conqueror. And check this out, Nothing can

separate us from the love of God.

Nothing can stop God from loving you.

Last week, Jerry preached an incredible sermon on Romans

Romans 9 · chapter mention

Chapter 9, and we learned that God is both great and our God is

good. And then you have to navigate

What does it mean to trust God when others don't?

That's kind of where we're at in chapters 910 and 11.

Trust in God when other people don't.

On some level, it would be great if there we were always

surrounded by other Christians who are committed to their faith

in Jesus. That's the hardship of summer

camp and the burden of this gin ministry teams here at The

Crossing and around the world. When kids are surrounded by

other kids who are growing in their spiritual walk, they

behave like spiritual beings. It's when you find yourself

around friends and around sport teams that don't have the same

priorities. It's one thing to be serious

about your faith when you're here at church and surrounded by

other people who are church folk, but it's another thing

when you have to go home and navigate relationships that

aren't the same, aren't as supportive, don't have the same

values. There's some of you.

You come to our church each week without your spouse or without

your children. You attend each service with a

sense of hope and excitement, and then you have pain envelope

you as you leave, knowing that you're going home to a place

where there's not the same level of encouragement, not the same

level of support on your spiritual journey.

Recently I was talking to a guy at our church who's both

successful in his walk with the Lord and in the business world,

and he was relating to me that the pain of his boss in a heated

moment, asking him to do something illegal.

He fortunately had the courage to push back and say that he

wouldn't do it, but that's not how work environments are

supposed to be. Here's a guy who's trying to

provide for his family, take care of the people that God has

entrusted him to, and now his boss has asked him to do

something in a heated moment that's out of bounds and he's

having to figure out, do I say Nope, My integrity is too

important. I can't do that and risk his

ability to provide for his family, trusting that God will

take care of him. Even if things go South.

That's not how it's to be. And if we're going to live this

kind of life where we're going to trust God when other people

don't, it's going to make us noticeable.

People are going to see our faith.

It's going to be like a refrigerator light in the middle

of the night. When you open it up, you want

what's all in there, but the light hits you.

I mean, I've heard stories. I've never eaten late at night,

but I've heard stories of people who do.

So I hope that makes sense. The idea that you can be an

undercover Christian is a lie from hell.

When you come into a relationship with Jesus Christ,

it transforms you. It changes you.

Jesus calls us as Christians to be a light to the world.

That's why we call our men's conference uncommon.

Because ordinary isn't working. The world does not need ordinary

men. It needs uncommon men who've

been set apart for the glory and the purposes of God.

If you're CrossFit friends, golf buddies, card club, poker

buddies, coworkers were to read your obituary, they should not

be surprised about your faith, your commitment to Christ, your

commitment to His church. Our faith should be noticeable,

which leads us to Romans chapter 10, verses one through four

Romans 10 · chapter mention

brothers and sisters, Paul writes.

My heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that

they may be saved, for I can testify about them.

That's the Israelites, that they are zealous for God, but their

zeal is not based on knowledge. Do you guys know that it's

possible to be zealous and ignorant, excited and dumb?

Yeah. One time I was super excited

about going to diet. I was like, man, I'm going to

get in great shape and I'm going to just eat one thing over and

over and over and over again. I just chose bratwursts.

And I did. I was like, this is the.

I mean, this will be cake. I mean, I'll just eat like 5

each meal, 15 brats a day. I mean, it's just going to melt

off of me. And it didn't.

Yeah, maybe that's why I have cholesterol medication today.

Okay. All right.

Have you ever watched like YouTube videos of workout fails?

Like people on gym equipment just getting beat to death

because they're excited? Lots of they have a lot of zeal,

but they're uninformed. This way, saying you can have a

zeal for God but be ignorant about God, let's keep going.

Since they did not know the righteousness of God, they

sought to establish their own. They did not submit to God's

righteousness. Christ is the culmination or

another word. For there would be the goal of

the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who

believes. Here's the deal.

This righteousness of their own is still our struggle today.

For the Jews, it was using the Old Testament and finding their

righteousness there. However, the law did not make

them righteous. The law showed them how

unrighteous they really were and how great and holy and perfect

God really is. Now we do similar things, don't

we? We can be zealous without

knowledge, and we can try to come up with our own way of

making ourselves look good and trying to have a righteousness

of our own. Because what we try to do is we

go into the world of comparison. All of you, if you want to feel

better about how your body looks, you just look at somebody

who has a worse body than you. If you, you know, for me, I

can't find anybody. But I mean for you guys, you can

look at me, okay. Like you can find somebody to

go, well, at least I'm not ass. But if I were to go to a

CrossFit gym and compare myself to the people to CrossFit gym,

I'm like, ooh, I guess I could probably, you know, lose an inch

or 12, right? I could make some adjustments.

And that's how we sometimes do our morality.

Well, at least I'm better than. But salvation is not based on

are you better than other people.

Salvation is based upon whether or not you meet the perfect law

of Christ, and we don't. So how do imperfect people get

into the the presence of a perfect God?

We get there through a right relationship with Jesus where he

does on our behalf what we could never do.

We end up comparing ourselves, the people we'll win against,

instead of the standard that we will be measured against, which

is why he goes like this. In Romans chapter 10 versus 5

Romans 10 · chapter mention

through 8, Moses writes about this righteousness that is by

the law. He says the person who does

these things will live by them, but the righteousness that is by

faith says do not say in your heart who will ascend to heaven.

That is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the deep,

and that is to bring Christ up from the dead.

But what does it say? He says the word is near you.

It is in your mouth and in your heart.

That is the message concerning faith that we proclaim.

What he's saying is the path forward for you Christians is

not so high that you have to bring it down.

It's not so far down that you have to bring it up.

It's no so it's not so far away that you have to bring it near

because it's available right here, right now, the moment you

want it. And we see evidence of that

every single week here at the crossing when people start an

intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the path to

salvation is here, and it's through an intimate, personal

relationship with him, Which is why he says this in Romans

Romans 10:9–13

chapter 10, verses 9 through 13. If you declare with your mouth

Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him

from the dead, you will be everybody say that word saved,

for it is with your heart that you believe and are justified,

and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are

saved, as Scripture says. Anyone who believes in him,

that's Jesus, will never be put to shame.

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.

The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses.

We're going to circle back to that all who call on him, for

everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

I have good news. If you're in everyone, you can

be saved when you come into a right relationship with Jesus.

Now, the Jews and the Gentiles here, they've been having a

problem. If you've been here for a while,

you've been hearing me navigate this.

You have these Jewish people who've been committed to the

law, and then you have these Gentile believers who are going,

well, we don't have to file the law because Jesus came and

they're trying to navigate that tension.

And what Jesus is trying to explain to them is that

salvation has always been through faith.

The dividing line of who is in and who is out in the family of

God has always been belief. If you believe, you are saved.

If you do not believe you're not, and you get to make the

choice about whether or not you want to stand before God on your

own or you want to stand before God with Jesus and the Jews are

going well, When did God change His mind?

How did this happen? Because the Old Testament was

leading us all the way to here and now.

All of a sudden, it looks like God's changed his mind,

abandoned his plan. And that's a fair assumption for

them and in their right to be frustrated.

But that's not what's been happening.

That's why Paul says that Jesus is the goal of the law.

What he's saying is the law was always pointing to Jesus, that

it was always looking to Jesus. Imagine my family were going on

a walk and because I'm a superior athlete, I'm way in

front of them and we come to the edge of a street and I go on

before them and my family is back on the other side of the

road and I turn around and I say stop, don't walk.

And so they stop and they don't walk.

And then I say go ahead and walk.

Did my 2 decrees to my family? Did my 2 commands contradict one

another or were they in order of one another?

I turned around and I told my family, stop, don't walk.

And the car passes by and then I say go ahead and walk.

The first command was designed to get us safely to the second

command. The Old Testament law was

designed to get us to Jesus. And now that we are in Jesus, we

take hold of him by faith through grace.

And now that we are in this kind of relationship, the Jews are

going, yeah, but this is not what we thought was going to

happen. This salvation through Jesus is

not what we saw coming. The easiest way for me to

describe this is through a marriage illustration.

Imagine this. A husband and wife who are

struggling. I know.

Try hard to imagine it. The husband has promised the

wife that he will do something to work on their marriage to

save it before it falls apart. The wife is constantly giving

him subjections. Typical.

We need to go to this conference.

Look at this retreat. We need to read this book

eventually, she starts being very specific.

Hey sweetie, there's a convention planned for the last

week in September. I want us to go to it.

I think it's what we need. And she believes deep in her

heart, that this conference at the end of September is what

they need to save their marriage.

She goes on and on and on, as women sometimes do, about the

conference. Finally, but just let me pause

before you guys send me hate mail.

This is not this is just an illustration.

I borrowed it from Michael de Fazio.

This is not me and Jennifer cuz I'd had to go on and on and on.

OK, I'm leaving her alone this week.

OK, Finally he comes home one day and he says clear your

calendar for that week in September.

I've made plans for us to do what is necessary to heal our

home. She is obviously delighted.

The day comes, her bags are packed, they hop in the car and

they are on the road. But along the way she seems a

little confused because he seems lost.

She thinks about correcting him and asking Are you sure you know

the way? But she doesn't want to ruin the

weekend before it starts, so she just stays quiet and she just

trusts. Then he veers off on some weird

Rd., leading to what seems like nowhere.

We're basically off roading at this point.

She's getting tossed around in the car, and eventually she

screams out. Where are we going?

He says. Trust me.

And then he pulls up to a solitary cabin in the woods.

He stops the car. He puts it in park.

He goes, we're going to work on our marriage here, And he

smiles. She looks around.

Lonely cabin in the woods and starts to get a little angry and

spouts off. I know what you're thinking and

that is not the answer to our problems.

We don't need a romantic getaway, we need a solution.

He says relax and he leads her inside.

They go inside the cabin and he explains to her that he has

downloaded some videos from the conference that she was so

excited about. He has purchased the books that

were on her marriage reading list, and then he opens up a

schedule that he is printed off with her that he is prepared

for. Their weekend romance is not

excluded, but the bulk of their time is about patiently and

intentionally talking through the issues that have gotten them

off track. She wants to be angry because

she feels betrayed, because they're not at the conference

that he thought that they were going to.

But then she realizes that he hasn't broken his promise or

commitment to her at all. In fact, he's done more than she

ever expected. It doesn't look quite like what

she expected, what she thought she wanted.

But the more she thinks about it, the more she realizes this

is exactly what she has been asking for.

Hoping for, praying for. He has indeed kept his word in a

way that is surprising, in a way that is magnificent.

In the end, it's perfect. This is what Paul is trying to

convey to the Jewish believers. Jesus coming and being the

righteousness on our own behalf is better than we can expect it,

although we didn't expect it. Second thing that gets brought

up inside of this passage is they start talking about Jesus

as Lord. When you talk about Jesus, Lord,

there's two realities. One is that of ownership and the

other one is that of deity. I got to.

I got to get in your grill for just a little bit because I had

to get my own. When when you're talking about

ownership, it means that Jesus is the landlord.

We're simply the stewards, the tenants.

If Jesus is Lord, he's in control.

Not you, not me. It's his, not ours.

Your life, your marriage, your family belonged to him.

The second thing is that of Deity.

That Jesus is Lord. He's in control.

Whether you acknowledge it or not does not change whether or

not he is indeed Lord. It's kind of like no matter how

stupid somebody acts this week, it doesn't change my name.

My name is what it is and your behavior doesn't change who I

am. In fact, you can be a real Jack

wagon all week and it doesn't change my position.

I'm still a pastor. No matter how messed up you

might be, I'm still a pastor. Whether you acknowledge Jesus's

Lord or not does not change whether Jesus is Lord or not.

And this is where we have to get into a a pretty tough area.

Look what it says in Philippines chapter 2, verse 9 through 12.

Therefore, God exalted him. That's Jesus to the highest

place and gave him Jesus the name that is above every name.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on

earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledged that

Jesus Christ is everybody. Say that word, Lord, to the

glory of God the Father. There is no more significant

claim in the New Testament than Jesus is Lord.

You're like Okay Clayton. We get it.

But Nope. Nope.

Come here. Let me Let me take you on a

little journey here. It's awesome when you say Jesus

is the Christ, and it's wonderful when you say that he's

the son of the living God. It's accurate.

It's appropriate. It's fitting.

It's biblical. But if you omit the central

confession that Jesus is Lord, you ignore the central claim of

New Testament Christianity. Here's what I mean when I'm

talking about that. If you were to go through the

book of Acts, Jesus is referred to twice as Savior and 92 times

as Lord. If you're to go home, read the

entire New Testament and you're to make tally marks on the left

hand page every time it talks about Jesus as a savior and

you're to make tally marks on the right hand side of the page

every time it talks about Him, that's Lord.

You would have 10 times mention him as Savior and 700 times him

mentioned as Lord. And anytime they're mentioned

together, Lord always precedes Savior.

Here's what I'm saying. And everybody wants Jesus to

save them and clean up the mess on aisle three of their life.

But not everybody wants to turn their life over to him.

Jesus, who I am, all that I am, it belongs to you now.

You're in charge. My marriage, my family, my

ethics, my money, how I navigate things.

It gets filtered by you. Now I'm not in control.

You're driving Now. I'm in the back seat.

Here's what we want. Hey, Jesus, I screwed up again.

Will you clean it up? I'm not going to make you the

Lord of my life. I'm actually just going to keep

letting you be my savior. And what we think is, is that

this is a better alternative to this.

I don't want to turn all these things over to God, because what

if, just so you know, God's not saving you from the things that

He's done on your behalf. He's saving you from the things

that you've done on your behalf. The areas of my biggest regret

are in the areas where I haven't had Lordship turned over to him.

The things he's saving me from are the things that I did, not

the things that he prescribed me to do.

If you're going to come to faith in Jesus Christ, you are not

just making him your Savior, you are making him your Lord.

You're turning your life over to him, believing and knowing that

life in his hands is better than life in your own hands.

And when Paul is talking to him, he's saying Jesus is Lord.

Those who belong to God have made him the Lord of their

lives. And then he says, when you make

Jesus your Lord, you will never be put to shame.

That means that on the day of Judgment, you and I will be

wearing the gift of the robe of Christ's righteousness and not

be ashamed of who we are or what we've done.

We will be bragging about what God did.

In other words, you have two choices on Judgment Day.

You can show up with a righteousness of your own, or

you can show up in the righteousness of Christ.

Look what it says in Isaiah chapter 61.

Isaiah 61 · chapter mention

I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God, for

he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a

robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like

a priest, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Look what it says in 2nd Corinthians 521.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we

might become the righteousness of God.

Look what it says in Isaiah 64. All of us have become like one

who is unclean, and all of our righteous acts are like filthy

rags. Here's what they're saying.

You have a choice. Here are your righteousness.

And you know what they are? They're filthy rags.

They're not enough. Here's what Christ offers.

When you stand before God, do you want to be wearing your own

righteousness, or do you want to take what Jesus has done on your

behalf? And here's what happens.

Jesus takes our filthy rags and put it on himself, and he takes

all of his righteousness and he puts it on us.

So you can stand there on Judgment Day and God can see

your sin, your righteousness. Or on Judgment Day, He instead

of seeing your sin, he could see his Son that you are covered in

the blood, in the sacrifice of what Jesus Christ did for you

and in you and through you. You can show up on judgment day

wearing your righteousness or Jesus's.

But the only one that gets you into heaven is belief that what

Jesus did on the cross has been applied to your life.

That's why Paul says my righteous acts.

I consider them as garbage in Philippines 3.

That I may gain Christ and be found in him wearing his

righteousness, not having a righteousness of my own that

comes from the law, but that which is through faith in

Christ, the righteousness that comes from God.

On the basis of faith, we receive what Jesus did by faith

in our lives, and we stand before God covering the blood of

Jesus. That is how we get in.

And some of you might be going, well, that's fantastic, but I

mean, who is this for? Well, this is for everyone.

He richly blesses all of us because all of this belongs to

him. And some of you might be going,

Well, we got to be careful. But how much grace we give out

because we don't want God to run out of it.

God has an awful lot in common with a grandma at Thanksgiving.

No matter how many people show up, more food keeps coming out

of the kitchen. No matter what you do, God will

never run out of grace for people who want to turn to him,

He is fully able to bless all the more that come to faith and

salvation. Grace will abound.

No need to worry about over promising, No need to keep the

guest list short. So who is this for?

It's to everybody who calls on the name of the Lord.

Confessing His Lordship is what sets us apart and what puts us

in a right relationship. Our appeal to our salvation is

not our own righteousness, it's the righteousness of Jesus which

leads to chapter 10, verse 14. In light of all this, how can

they call on Jesus on the 1:00 they have not believed in?

And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard?

And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

And how can they preach unless they are sent as it is written?

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?

The only way anyone can accept be accepted by God is through

the gift of God's own righteousness found and the

basis of Jesus Christ. And the only way to receive it

is by faith in Christ Jesus. But in order for them to

believe, they have to have first heard or hear.

And they cannot hear unless someone speaks.

And unless someone goes, no one will ever tell them.

Here is something that you and I have to wrestle with God of the

universe, allowing you and I to be part of his salvation

mission. What an incredible

responsibility. And what a privilege some of you

might be going. I don't know enough.

You know more than you think, and I'll tell you this much.

If you get passionate of about something, you will learn about

something. I'm a horrible baseball player,

but my boys want to play baseball and I want to be their

coach. So I found the time in my

schedule to learn how to coach baseball, because if it matters

to you, you will Orient your life around it for some of you.

You've been saying I don't know enough for a decade, and if

you'd have taken as much time as you did saying you don't know

enough to actually learn something, you'd have been just

fine. Some of us, we don't like the

world that we're seeing and we don't like where the world is

headed. But if I were to ask you, who

have you baptized recently, who are you investing in

spiritually? I'm guessing it would be a goose

egg. So we can't get frustrated at a

world that we're not investing in.

Recently I picked up the game of golf, and here's what I've

learned. People want me to get better

because I'm God awful. I'm so bad at golf.

Other people cuss. OK, that's it's just bad.

I mean, it's so bad. But here's what's happening.

The more people see me trying to get better and struggling, the

more people come around me to help me get better.

I got a putter and I got a wedge from Lucas.

I got a driver from Mike, I got shoes from Ben, I got golf balls

from Craig, and I got a bag from Connie and I got clubs from Pat.

There's not a single thing I have other than my underwear

when I show up to golf that I purchased and it's because

everybody goes golfing with me and they go you.

This has got to change, but they see me wanting to get better and

they want to come alongside of me and resource me in the

journey and what I can tell you. You raise your hand up and say I

want to learn more about God. Someone will meet you, resource

you and go on the journey with you.

Some of us pride is keeping us from raising our hand and saying

I want to know more. I want to be a better leader in

my home. I want to be able to be better

able to articulate the gospel. I want to know how to read my

Bible. Just raise your hand around

somebody around here and they'll come alongside of you and go on

the journey. And when you go on the journey

to start telling people around you, when you step into these

moments when you choose to be a light and a dark place, you get

beautiful feet. And the reason why he says

beautiful feet is he's hearkening him all the way back

to the book of Isaiah when a messenger came delivering this

message that the Babylonian captivity was over.

When they had walked along the mountain ridges, they had

traversed muddy and dusty and windy and rainy terrain, and so

when they showed up, their feet would have been the most

disgusting part of them. But the good news that they

brought was so good that even their ugly feet looked

beautiful. And when you and I carry the

gospel message to those in need, we receive beautiful feet.

When you and I carry the gospel message to those who don't know

about God's loving and redeeming work, we get some beautiful

feet. Teachers, I have a special word

for you. This month, my kids will join

millions of other kids across the country and starting back to

school. And I want to tell you before it

all starts. Thank you.

I know there will be long days. Angry parents, challenging

expectations, limited resources, and heartbreaking stories.

Thanks for reenlisting to serve on the front lines of our

society. Thanks for shaping and guiding

and directing the minds and imaginations of those who will

come after us. Thank you for pushing through

your own pain to minister to the pains of others.

Thank you for being kind even when you're hurt.

Thanks for being generous, even when things are tight.

I just want you to know that this church, 11 campuses, 10,000

square miles wide, is in your corner.

But more than that, God is with you.

He will be your strength, your patience, and your kindness.

You are the pastor of your classroom, and with all of this

in your favor, you should be the very best teacher, the one with

the waiting lines around the block to be in your class, the

ones that everyone wants to be on their team.

And when you go out and you love people like this and you show

them a better way when you preach Jesus in those moments,

you have beautiful feet and nobody can take that from you.

But furthermore, this is not just for teachers, this is for

everyone. No matter what your profession

is, you can have beautiful feet when you choose to leverage your

profession to point people to Jesus.

If you're a farmer, I just let you know.

It doesn't matter how good your corn crop is, or how bad it is,

or how good the soybeans are, or how bad they are, or how good

the market is, or how bad it is, or how fantastic the the well,

the weather. I'm not going to talk about that

because you haven't had it this year.

It doesn't matter how good or bad of a farmer you are.

What matters is did you use your farming to point people to

Jesus? If you're a doctor, it doesn't

matter how good your diagnosis is, although it matters.

The most important thing about your job is pointing people to

Jesus. If you're a nurse or a blood

tech, I mean, yeah, be the very best you can possibly be at

getting the blood on the first poke.

By the love of God, be good at the first poke.

But what's more important, what's more important, is that

you have beautiful feet and you tell people and you point people

to Jesus. If you're an insurance agent, if

you're an Uber driver, I guess around here you're a Lyft

driver. No matter what it is that you

do, Your primary job is that beautiful feet.

And they carry a gospel message that people can be in the right

relationship with God if they believe in God.

And hear me when I say this, right now, our world needs some

people who will carry the gospel message and have beautiful feet.

Right now is when we need it. We need it now because right now

there's a man struggling with a porn addiction and he doesn't

know what to do or how to tell his wife.

And we have good news for that. If only we had some beautiful

feet to carry it. Right now there's a couple

struggling with sexual intimacy and growing more and more

resentful and distant, and we have good news for that.

If only we had some gospel feet, some beautiful feet to carry it.

Right now there are middleclass families navigating immense

financial pressure and wondering if the stress will destroy not

their dreams, but their present reality.

And we have a gospel message for that.

We have a beautiful message for that.

If only. If only we had somebody with

some beautiful feet to carry it to him.

Right now. Their parents are getting ready

to sign divorce papers. Right now there are spouses who

are filing papers for divorce, and their husband or wife

doesn't even know. Right now.

There are wives in the midst of emotional affairs, and we have

good news for that too. If only there were some

beautiful feet to carry the message.

Right now, there are addicts overcome by their addiction and

they don't know where to turn, but we know where to turn.

We know that you can turn to God who never gives up on you, who

never stops, who never sleeps, who never you never have to wake

him up. We have good news for a person

in a situation like that. If only there was someone who

has some beautiful feet who would take it.

Right now there's an addict who just broke a sobriety streak,

and the shame and the frustration is making them want

to give up and never try again. But we serve a God that it's

never over, that any moment he can step into the picture, then

he can turn things around that God's not afraid of failures.

God saves failures. We have a message for that.

If only we had some beautiful feet to take it to him.

Right now a man in our community is having suicidal thoughts and

we have a gospel message that it's not over as long as God's

in the picture. If only we had some beautiful

feet to take it to him. Right now there are kids getting

ready for school and they have mixed emotions.

At least they'll be fed regularly, but being but their

poverty is a lightning rod for getting bullied.

So they're going to have full stomachs but empty hearts for

the next nine months. And we have a message for that.

We have a message to teach the people around them, the kids

around them, that we should treat them that the way that we

would want to be treated, that they are worthy of dignity

because they have the image of God inside of them.

We have a good news for that, but we also have a good news for

the kid, good news for the kid in poverty, that what defines

your worth is not what is on you, but what is in you.

We have a gospel message for them.

If only we had beautiful feet. Right now there's a young girl

cutting and self harming and we have good news for that, that

she was known by God and loved by God and pursued by God before

she was ever even formed. We have a gospel message.

If only we had somebody, if only we had somebody who had some

beautiful feet. Right now there's a young girl

empty inside and getting ready to cross boundaries sexually in

the hope to find love and acceptance.

But what someone needs to tell her is the gospel messages that

she's already loved. She's already accepted.

If only we had beautiful feet. Right now, rich people who have

everything on the outside but are empty on the inside are

trying to figure out if this is all that life has to offer,

while on the outside they're trying to make sure that

everything looks OK and keep everything fine.

It's the fact that they've been trying to keep up their image

that's keeping them from being honest about where they're

really at. And we have good news for that

right now, a friend or a coworker, it's going through a

diagnosis and there's people around them that don't know how

to answer their questions. Right now, there's people who

are dealing with loss, and there's a gospel message for

that. If only.

If only there were some people with some beautiful feet who

would take it to him. And our world doesn't need this

answer. This church doesn't, or this

world doesn't need this solution.

Intend. Years it doesn't need it in five

years it doesn't need it. Next year it doesn't need it.

This year. It doesn't need it.

Next month. It doesn't need it this month.

It needs it right now. It needs it right now.

It needs the good news of Jesus Christ carried by beautiful

feet. And how could we do anything

last? We're moving to a time of

decision. To those of you in this room and

to those of you watching online who have never started in a

relationship with Jesus Christ, hear me clearly.

Your right relationship with Jesus Christ is not going to be

based on you. It's based on Jesus.

And I keep using the same invitation every week.

I feel like in the Book of Romans, but it's because Book of

Romans keeps saying it over and over and over again.

Your salvation is not based on you, it's based on Him.

The only thing keeping you from being saved is you believing

that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, making

him your Lord and Savior, that if you believe in your heart and

confess with your mouth. And the Bible also talks about

being obedient in the area of baptism, that you can receive

not just the washing away of your sins, but you will model

the life, death and burial of Jesus Christ, but also his

resurrection into the newness of life.

And it is available to you right now.

You don't have to wait. And it's just a few moments.

If you're watching online, it probably has already happened.

Somebody's entered into the chat that if you want someone to pray

with you, they're willing to. And we have a team of people

here at this church and also around the nation who will take

you into a private prayer room and they will chat with you and

they'll help you navigate whatever it is you're

navigating. They'll help you get connected

to our church or a church in your area, because we don't want

you to live the Christian life alone.

But to those of you who are in this room, you can choose to get

right with Jesus today. And I'm telling you the only

thing keeping you from making that happen is you.

If you want it, you can have it right now.

To the rest of you in the room, the Christians, who in your life

needs the good news about Jesus. Who in your life needs you to

have beautiful feet? What we're going to do right now

is the church is we are going to bang on the door of heaven for

that. We're going to come up here on

the steps, we're going to get down on our knees and we are

going to bang on heaven's door for the good news to enter their

life. Now I want to give you some

prayer coaching. Let's say that the person you're

praying for is Bob. This is not what your prayer

should be. God, you know how bad Bob is.

Bob is bad. And I'm tired of Bob.

And when I married Bob, I was kind of tired of him, but I

married him anyway. And God, Bob never shows up for

church. And Bob's mean to me when I'm at

home. And then Bob isn't always

helpful when I need help around the house.

And Bob sometimes got a short temper.

And God, I just, I need you to change Bob or some of you.

Your problem's not a Bob, It's a Becky.

And if you're a Becky or a Bob, I just got to pick different

names each week. So just, you know, I'm not

pointing at you. You know, I'd be going, you

know, God, I'm tired of working for Becky.

Becky's mean and not considerate.

And God, I need you to change Becky's heart.

I need you to make Becky more like you.

Because that's what we want to do, isn't it?

We want to pray for other people to get their life right so we

can stay the same. It's a lot easier to pray over

the failures and the shortcomings of other people

than to pray about the failures and the shortcomings and us.

Here's a better prayer. God.

You know who Bob is and you know what it's like when I'm around

him. But God give me the strength to

be kind, even when He's not. Give me the courage to be

patient, even when He's rushed. Give me the courage to be sweet,

even when he's harsh. God, give me the courage to

stand for you. Be kind on your behalf.

Be loving God. Show me the things in my life

that are hurting, Bob. Show me the things in my life

that are keeping Becky from seeing and receiving and hearing

your good news. God, I know that they need a

gospel message and I don't know enough.

God. Convict me enough that I'll

start making moves to know more about you.

God, I'm claiming the promise and scripture that says you'll

give me the words that I need in the moment that I need him when

I decide to talk to him about him.

God, I'm not asking you to do work.

And Bob, I'm not asking you to work.

And Becky, I'm asking you to do a work in me.

Start the work in me. Do it here first before they

need it. Before they need it.

I need it. I need you to get my heart

right. I need you to set me right.

Set my heart aflame with what you want to do in this world

before you start lighting the flame and other people.

Start it right here. Start with me.

Start it now. I don't know what God could do

with the church to pray those kind of prayers.

But I'd like to be around to find out.

Would you stand with me? Do something right now.

Heavenly Father, I'm begging you, do something right now.

Got young and old in their faith.

Lot of flame. But God, don't you light a flame

there that you haven't started in here, Started in me.

Got to bring about a change, a commitment in me.

God make it all the way to the back of the room.

People who are far from you and people who've been close to you.

God, draw us all closer. Got started working here?

Send us out this week with a beautiful gospel message, a

message of hope, and help us to steward it well.

And your name, I pray. Amen.