WHEN IN ROMANS | Part 1 | The Romans Road

[Music]

Oh,

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hey.

[Music]

Good morning, GSC. How y'all doing?

>> Doing good. Um, I am Pastor Dan. If you

don't know me, I get to serve as the

executive pastor here at Grace Summit

Church. And uh Pastor Ben is actually

6,000 miles away in Israel. And I

understand we have a video greeting from

him that he just sent us maybe an hour

ago. So, let's go ahead and watch that.

>> Hey, hey, Grace Summit Church. This is

Pastor Ben. Hey, I am standing in Israel

down by the Gaza Strip. Um, yesterday

was uh in Old Jerusalem, able to hit all

the uh major sites of where Jesus walked

uh to be able to touch it and see it and

feel it. Um, I'm missing you guys. Still

have a little bit of uh time left here

in Israel. Um, but I wanted to greet

you, tell you that I love you. I miss

you and uh excited to bring a little

piece of Israel uh back home with you.

Hope today's service is amazing. Love

you guys. God bless.

>> Awesome.

Gotta love technology. That is awesome.

And uh so while he's walking the via

delar ro

series called when in Romans and we're

going to take a little journey through

the book of Romans today and I want to

share with you uh about the Romans road.

It may be a term or a phrase you've

heard before or maybe not. But either

way, it is really probably one of the

clearest instructions on how we get from

uh the dilemma of humanity which is

steeped in sin to God. And it teaches us

about justification by faith and and how

to get saved. And we'll talk about even

what that word means a little later on.

And so I'd like you to turn in your

Bible if you have one or it should be up

on the screen for you to Romans 3:23.

Romans 3:23

And I'm going to share with you three

milestones. Now the reason I use the

word milestone is because that is a word

we use a lot but it actually has its

history in mile markers that they used

to set up along the Romans roads uh

Roman roads. And so around the Roman

Empire there was a vast uh road system

of thousands of miles and they would put

these milestones. That's where the word

was actually uh first used and it would

tell you where you were and how far it

was to the next major city or to Rome

itself. And there was a golden milestone

right in the center of Rome which was

the center of the empire and it was a

very special one because it was gold.

None of some of those still stand today.

The golden one is missing I found out

but some of those Roman milestones are

still there. And so we're going to stop

at three places along the way in the

book of Romans as we talk about the

Romans road. Uh I'll give you those

right out of the gate. It's Romans 3:23,

Romans 3:23

Romans 6:23, and Romans 10:13.

Romans 6:23 Romans 10:13

And Paul, of course, wrote the book. And

Paul was a radical testimony. Paul was a

Jew. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was

an educated man, but his theology was

all wrong. In fact, he was a persecutor

of the early believers. He was he was on

a mission to drag them away to prison

and even to see some of them killed.

Stephen, one of the the seven first

deacons, was preaching a message and the

text tells us that they laid the clothes

of the people that were stoning Steven

at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And Saul was consenting to their death.

And Saul was on a mission to persecute

Christians. But he met Jesus along a

road called the Damascus road. and he

had a revelation of Jesus Christ, an

encounter with him, and it changed his

life forever. And he he takes all of

that Jewish and Hebrew thinking and

teaching. And he gives us an

understanding about justification by

faith, that you're not saved by how good

you are, that you're not saved by your

works, but that but that it's through

faith alone in Jesus Christ. And so,

this is one of the best books. If you're

if you only had one book that you could

read in the Bible, I might I recommend

Romans because it lays out the plan of

salvation, which applies to all of us

that this may be instructional to some

of you. Uh it can be a great tool for

you to present the gospel to other

people or just to understand the gospel

better or it may be an invitation to

you. Maybe you haven't come to Christ

yet. And hopefully this will help you

understand who he is and how to get to

him. Are you with me so far? And so Paul

writes this letter and we we'll pick it

up at the milestone 3 23. And he he

makes an argument that all have sinned

and fall short of the glory of God.

Every single one of us, no matter your

upbringing, no matter if you have been

in church all of your life or you think

you're a good person and a lot of people

think that that's all that matters.

There's good people and bad people. But

that is not what the Bible teaches. The

Bible teaches that all of us have

sinned. In fact, the Bible says all of

your righteousness is like filthy rags

to God. That there is none righteous

among us. Not even one. So, we have to

come to that conclusion if we're going

to get to God. If we're going to get

saved, if we're going to understand the

gospel message, we have to understand we

are sinful people. David said, "In sin,

my mother conceived me." We we're born

into a sinful situation and it doesn't

take long for us uh to to really go down

that path and to get more and more lost

and away from God as we go. Let's define

the word sin. Sin is a conscious choice

measured against a known divine

standard. It denotes a particular

relationship between the created and the

creator. Sin is thus a relational

reality. It it very much is just about

where you stand before God.

And when you sin, you separate yourself

from him. You cause distance between

yourself and your creator. And it's all

about relationship. That's what it's all

about. It's not a list of of rules. It's

it's a it's a choice that you make. And

it separates you from the one who

created you, who wants so desperately to

have fellowship with you. And so I want

to back up a little bit just to to kind

of highlight something that Paul was

doing here in the earlier part of Romans

is he was building an argument that all

of us have sinned and he was helping

people understand what sin looks like.

So I'd like to pick it up in chapter 1

and verse 20.

And it says since the creation of the

world his invisible attributes are

clearly seen.

nature itself. The heavens declare the

glory of God being understood by the

things that are made even as eternal

power and godhead so that they are

without excuse. We are without excuse

because although they knew God, they did

not glorify him as God, nor were

thankful, but became futile in their

thoughts and their foolish hearts were

darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools

and changed the glory of the

incorruptible God into an image made

like corruptible man and birds and

for-footed animals and creeping things.

Therefore, God also gave them up to

uncleanness

and the lusts of their hearts,

to dishonor their bodies

among themselves, who exchanged the

truth of God for the lie, and worshiped

and served the creature rather than the

creator who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason, God gave them up to

vile passions.

For even their women exchange the

natural use for what is against nature.

Likewise also the men leaving the

natural use of the woman burned in their

lust for one another. Men with men

committing what is shameful and

receiving in themselves the penalty of

their error which was due. And even as

they did not like to retain God in their

knowledge, God gave them over to a

debased mind, a mind that is unable to

discern between right and wrong

to do those things which are not

fitting.

Being filled with all unrighteousness,

sexual immorality, wickedness,

covetousness, maliciousness, full of

envy, murder, strife, deceit,

evilmindedness. They're whisperers,

backbiters, haters of God, violent,

proud, boasters, inventors of evil

things, disobedient to parents,

undeserving, untrustworthy, unloving,

unforgiving, unmerciful,

who, knowing, there's that word again,

they knew the righteous judgment of God,

that those who practice such things are

deserving of death, not only do the

same, but also approve of those who

practice them. Sinners love to draw

other people into sin. That is why the

Bible tells us, "Blessed is the man who

walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

nor stands in the way of sinners, nor

sits in the seat of the scornful,

because people will draw you in to

sinful things because they love to have

company." Misery loves company.

and sin. I I read a very lengthy portion

of scripture, but it it describes very

much what sin looks like, what's

happening. And can you see our culture

and our country and our communities in

that text?

Men with men and women with women and

men who want to be women and think

they're women and women who want to be

men and think they're men.

I know I'm meddling,

>> but I'm just reading the book.

>> And somebody needs somebody needs to

speak the truth in love. I love people,

>> but the truth is what sets us free. And

as long as we shy away from that

discussion, people don't know the truth

because they've traded the truth for a

lie and now they're deceived.

>> And I love that. I don't need to judge

you. That's not my job. The church

doesn't need to judge you. The Holy

Spirit does a really good job at

convicting people.

>> A and he's there's no one looking to uh

replace him. He does a really good job.

I remember years ago in our church,

there was a young couple that were

driving in from a neighboring town. They

were driving quite a distance to be in

our church. And week after week after

week, the young woman in particular

would just cry while I was preaching.

Just weep, just tears. And you know, the

preacher has a different perspective.

You can see people. You can see when

they're sleeping.

You can see when they're distracted. You

can It's It's interesting. It's an

entirely different perspective. I can

tell when you're checking your your

socials. And

but this this young woman would just

cry. And I noticed her. And the next

week the same thing and again and again

and finally uh she called a a meeting

with me and I sat down with them after a

service on Sunday

and they were sitting across the desk

from me and I just was so interested in

what they had to say because I knew God

had been dealing with them and she said,

"Pastor, this is my fiance and we're

engaged to be married and they had a

date set and everything, but um she

said, "God's been really dealing with me

about some things and and I want to

become a member and I want to start

tithing and and uh my my fiance and I

aren't going to have sex anymore.

And now apparently they hadn't had this

discussion before they were in my office

because

he looked over at her like

>> what

>> in terror.

True story. And I just sat back. I was

like, "This is awesome."

But she said, "We're not we're not going

to do that anymore. I know it's wrong

and God's going to help us to do it

right." And they did.

They they had already purchased a house

together, but they stayed in separate

rooms until their wedding day just from

sheer conviction.

Because when you're in sin, when you're

when you're practicing those kinds of

things,

God is not as attuned to you because you

know, and you're choosing that thing or

that relationship or that vice over him.

And so Isaiah says in Isaiah 59:2,

Isaiah 59:2

he said, "The Lord's hand is not

shortened that it cannot save, nor his

ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your

iniquities have separated you from your

God. Your sins have hidden his face from

you so that he will not hear."

God's like, "I'd love to save you in

your in your trouble. I'd love to help

you. I'd love to show you my goodness,

but your sin has put me at a distance.

All God wants is to be in a relationship

with us.

Early in the morning in the garden, the

original design was Adam and Eve would

walk with God in the cool of the day and

have fellowship with him.

They had one rule to follow,

not to eat of a particular tree in the

midst of the garden. And what did they

do?

>> Ate the tree. Ate from the tree in the

midst of the garden.

And God had told them, "The day you do

that, you'll surely die."

Now, if you read the text, you don't see

that they dropped dead on the spot, but

they did indeed die.

a little piece, a little part of their

relationship with God

had diminished.

And when you're diminished in your

relationship with God, you start doing

crazy things like trying to sew fig

leaves together to cover your shame and

hiding from God. And God now comes along

and is like, "Adam, where are you?"

Because they were hiding. And then they

were pushed out of the garden. All of

that as a result of that choice they

made is separation from God. That was in

Genesis chapter 3. By Genesis chapter 4,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention Genesis 4 · chapter mention

we had the first murder

involved church people.

>> It was an argument over worship. Look it

up.

And so

there's a murder and there's envy and

there's all of that going on. And by the

end of chapter 4, the very last verse

says, "Then men begin to call on the

name of the Lord." Because sin, when you

get distanced from God by it, you become

acutely aware.

I'm not supposed to be here. It's not

supposed to be like this.

And God has a way out.

But before we talk about that in too

much detail, let me leave you with one

thought on the fact that all of us have

sinned. and that is you can be sure

your sin will find you out.

It'll catch up to you. It's not a matter

of if, it's a matter of when.

>> Amen.

>> Sin has its consequences.

And so we turn to the second milestone

in Romans 6:23.

Romans 6:23

Now Paul had laid the foundation that

all have sinned. And in between the

first milestone and the second milestone

that we're discussing today, he had

begun to deal with people who boasted in

the law and thought, "Well, I go to

church. I know the Bible. I'm I'm good."

And and he begins to deal with them and

he says, "You're inexcusable, you who

judge another, because you who judge

them, you do the same stuff."

and and he's really getting into every

area. Church people, unchurched people,

all of us have sinned.

And sometimes church people, forgive me,

but sometimes church people are the most

blind to their sin.

>> We fall into this this thinking that our

works will save us

because we're good people and we we

don't do those bad things and we read

and we pray and and none of that is

going to save you. Only Jesus can save

you. That's why I'm not ashamed of the

gospel, Paul said, because it is the

power of God under salvation to those

who believe. It's the gospel. It's it's

what Jesus did, not what you can do.

>> Amen.

>> And this book is a book that that

changed Martin Luther's life back in the

1500s. He he read the book of Romans and

read the argument Paul laid out that

we're justified by faith. And it was so

contrary to what he had been brought up

under in the Catholic Church. And so he

began to have a revelation. I'm not

saved by my works. You can't pay for

indulgences and pay people out of

purgatory. And he wrote 95 thesis and

nailed it to the door at the church in

Whittindom, Ger Germany, and started the

Protestant Reformation. All because of

the argument Paul was laying out.

because sin has to be dealt with not our

way but God's way. And so in Romans

Romans 6:23

6:23, our second milestone,

Paul says, "The wages of sin, you can't

miss this, is death."

Just like Adam and Eve, if you sin,

there's death.

Death of a dream.

Death of innocence,

death of purity, of clear conscience.

Things die

when you engage in sin.

It's

not up for negotiation. You can't get

God to bend on this.

The wages, the bill is always death.

It's always the same. And so James says,

"Let no one say when he's tempted, I'm

tempted by God."

Because God is not tempted by sin, nor

does he himself tempt anyone. But

everyone is is tempted when he's drawn

away of his own desire.

And when his desire gives birth to sin

and sin gives birth to death,

that's the cycle of sin. It starts with

a temptation, a choice that we make. It

conceives

and it gives birth ultimately to death.

When David sinned with Basheba, a baby

died.

And when you sin,

something's going to die. It's not

negotiable. I'm just telling you the

truth. We can't patty cake around this.

We can't lighten it for you. We can't

have church light for you to be

comfortable. The truth is still the

truth.

>> And if they never have me back to

preach, well,

>> y'all are kind of stuck with me, though.

>> So, the wages of sin is death. But

the gift of God is eternal life. See,

God offers us a gift instead of a bill.

What if you went to Ruth Chris Stakhouse

and racked up a nice $200 $300 bill

having dinner and you were sweating

because that's half or most of your

paycheck,

but the waiter comes over and says, you

know, uh, we threw your bill away. You

don't have to pay it. In fact, here's a

gift for you.

Wouldn't that be awesome? That's what

God did

on a much greater scale. We had a bill

that we couldn't pay.

And not only did he pay it for us, but

he gave us a gift.

Where sin becomes death, where sin uh

its consequences are death, its results

are death,

God gives us not only life but eternal

life.

a gift that's unimaginable

that will be with him forever

for all of eternity.

So, I have a couple of gifts up here

that I want to give away.

See, I like this jerks. They give away

stuff.

First, I have some Starbucks cards.

Y'all like coffee?

Who would like a Starbucks card as a

gift?

Come get it. Come get it.

>> Thank you.

>> You're welcome.

And then uh

Chick-fil-A.

Now, they're closed today, so you're

going to have to wait.

They're honoring the Sabbath, but who

likes Chick-fil-A and would like

>> come get it.

>> They're like, "Is this a trick or

something?"

>> There you go. You're welcome. And I got

one more. This is the bonus tracks.

Smoothie King

>> for all you healthy people.

>> You want it?

peanut butter.

>> The point I want to make with that is

this. God offers us a gift.

But did you notice to get the gift, you

got to receive it.

>> You got to not only say, "I want that."

But be willing to really receive that.

I was in jail one time.

I say one time because it wasn't the

only time.

But this time I was in some real trouble

and I had a felony drug charge over me

and I got arrested in Austin, Texas. Uh

released on a PR bond because I didn't

have a huge history yet. And uh I

decided it'd be a good idea to leave the

state of Texas and go back to Michigan

and just not deal with it.

And I felt like America's most wanted.

Like every like I'm the I'm like every

cop I saw I was like they're after me.

I'm like the worst person in the world.

And so I got nervous and I went back to

Texas and turned myself in. Let me say

this to you.

The struggle often ends where surrender

begins.

>> In so many areas of our life. The

struggle ends where surrender begins.

And so I turned myself in

and they put me in jail and I couldn't

afford a lawyer so you know one will be

appointed to you. And I never met my

lawyer but I did go to court and they

had me in a little side room outside of

the courtroom and there was a glass wall

there and the attorneys would come over

and talk to the people that were in the

queue to go into the court. And so I sat

there sweating and worried because I was

like 20 years old and um

long blonde hair like way down my back

and I didn't think that I would fare too

well in Huntsville, Texas prison.

>> And so I was a little nervous.

Um and someone knocked on the window and

called me over and I picked up the phone

to talk to a man I'd never seen before

and he was my attorney.

And all he did is hold up a piece of

paper, a document to the window and and

said, "Do you know what this is?"

Said, "No."

And he said, "The state of Texas has

dropped all charges against you. You're

free to go.

I never set foot in the courtroom.

I know God did that looking back now

just so I would have a picture of what

he did for me." Jesus is our advocate.

He's our attorney. He's the one that

goes before the judge so you don't have

to.

>> But what would have happened if I would

have said, "No, I'm good.

I'll get myself out of this."

It's a gift and we have to take it.

And God offers that gift instead of a

bill. Which brings us to our third

milestone in Romans 10 and verse 13.

For whoever calls on the name of the

Lord

shall be saved.

I told you in the last verse of Genesis

4, then men begin to call on the name of

the Lord.

And we have a promise from God. In fact,

Paul is quoting an Old Testament

scripture that whoever calls on the name

of the Lord shall be saved.

God has set it up for us. so easily

that if we just call on him from a pure

heart,

he'll save us.

Let's define salvation.

Salvation is being delivered from the

penalty and the power of sin. We've

already talked about sin and its

consequences, its penalty

that it ultimately cost us life.

But now we see

that God is is able to save us just by

simply calling on him

and saved from the penalty of what the

bill was due. And not only that,

but he gives us the power to overcome

sin from that point on.

So being saved, you'll hear that word.

You'll see it in our lyrics and the

songs. You'll hear it in church a lot.

Being saved means that you're delivered

from not only the penalty, not only the

hell that we were heading towards, but

the power of sin. You see, sin shall not

have dominion over you. You're not under

the law. You're under God's grace.

God's unmmerited favor and his divine

enablement is on your life. So sin shall

not have dominion over you. It is

powerless over you. Somebody needs to

hear that. You're you're struggling and

fighting in your own strength, not

realizing God did everything that needs

to be done. Sin has no power over you

except what you're giving it by thinking

that somehow it has an advantage over

you. God gives you power over addiction.

He gives you power over the all the

various things that we face in life that

take us down and take us under. We have

power above all of that because it's

part of being in relationship with God.

It's part of being saved.

I called on the Lord a a lot of times in

my life, but a couple of times I want to

share with you. The first was before I

knew God, before I surrendered to God.

I was actually out in the in the desert

of West Texas, 40 miles outside of El

Paso. And I was dying

as a very young man. I was dying at my

own hand because I didn't want to live

anymore. And I intentionally went far

away from where anybody could help me.

And I hadn't told anybody. I didn't

leave any notes. I didn't give anybody

warning.

I really wanted to leave this life. And

I was dying. And I lost consciousness.

And I woke up saying, "God, why won't

you take me?"

Because I knew he had stopped what I was

attempting to do.

And instinctively, I was just talking to

a God that I didn't believe in.

And I called on him.

And it would be a few years later that I

would attempt to take my life yet again

for the third time. And I would actually

have my Damascus road experience and

encounter the living God.

And I called on him in a different way.

And I said, "God, if you're real, I

still don't really know who you are or

what this is all about, but I I know

that there's something beyond this.

There's got to be more than this. And I

feel like I can't live and I can't die.

So Jesus, God, whoever you are, if you

could

change my life,

I'm wide open."

That was September 19th, 1991. I have

never been the same.

That's why I'm not ashamed of the

gospel.

>> It's the power of God unto salvation. He

saved me that day. My name was written

in the lamb's book of life. There is a

book registering every name of every

person that accepts this plan of

salvation that God gives us through

Jesus.

We're all born, right?

Work with me here. We're all born once.

But if you're only born once, you'll die

twice.

>> There's a physical death where your body

and your spirit and soul are separated.

All of us have to face that unless we're

raptured out. But then if you haven't

accepted God's plan of salvation, there

is a second death at the great white

throne judgment.

So if you're born only once, you'll die

twice. But if you're born twice, you'll

only die once.

Because when we're born again, which is

equivalent to salvation, death has no

power of us over us anymore.

We only have to die the one time. Isn't

that cool?

That's why death ain't no big deal.

To be absent from the body, to be dead,

it's a nice way of saying it, is to be

present with the Lord. And Paul, the one

who wrote this letter, said, "You know,

I can't even decide what to do because I

know you need my help, but I'd just soon

be with him right now."

>> That's the PD paraphrase.

But to be absent from the body is just

to be present with the Lord. Death ain't

no big deal. If you're saved,

there's just an assurance. my dad uh

some years ago had had some kind of

medical condition and he felt like he

was dying and and he recovered from it

and he was talking to me about it and he

said, "You know what, Dan?" He said,

"Here's the funny thing." He said, "I

was not afraid.

There was no fear." Because he knew if

he died, he was going to be with Jesus.

Your last breath on this earth is your

first breath in heaven.

There was a ship that you may have heard

of called the Titanic.

It was known as the unsinkable ship.

It launched for its maiden voyage from

Southampton, England, April 10th, 1912.

They were sure this boat could never

sink.

But you know the story.

Late on April 14th, it hit iceberg and

she began to take on water.

And early morning on April 15th,

Titanic sunk.

And the headlines begin to pop up all

over the country like this one in the

St. Louis Post,

which simply said 132 lost,

868

saved.

That boat is kind of like humanity.

The boat had never sailed before.

We have never been this way before.

[Music]

You're born and you're journeying

through life. And I want you to be aware

that even though you may feel secure

like they did on Titanic, it's a sinking

boat.

Only on Christ the solid rock can we

stand. because all other ground is

sinking sand.

[Music]

And they were so confident that it was

unseeable, they only had a handful of

boats,

lifeboats to save people.

[Music]

So the distress call went out. The

nearest boat was Carpathia

and it began to motor towards the

wreckage. By the time they got there,

the boat was underwater, but there was a

handful of survivors

that they were able to scoop up and save

another boat.

Can I say to you, we need to get off the

Titanic and get onto the ark.

God has prepared for us another boat.

that when God destroyed the earth and

in Noah's time, Noah was safe because he

was on the boat. God had

had him prepare and the God actually

shut the door himself to that boat. When

it was time, it was time and there was

no changing it. This world without

Christ

is on a cra on a

crash course, a collision course for

destruction.

[Music]

I was thinking of the the movie Titanic

where you remember Rose and Jack

and and she's on a piece of wood or

something and he's kind of hanging in

the water holding her hand and there's

this wonderful love story and they're

never going to let each I'm not letting

go. I'm not letting go. Did you notice

that uh once he died

the the the boat that saved them came

along and she realized he's dead and he

was just like she was just like

have you did you notice that? Like they

were so in love and and when she

realized he was dead she was just like

and off he went.

Like there was no heartfelt talks or

anything. She's just like dude's dead.

But then do you remember when

the boat that was coming up looking for

survivors, she mustered the strength to

get a whistle and call and let them know

I'm here. Save me.

I don't know how much truth is in that.

Leonardo DiCaprio and it was a good

movie. But

what I'm saying is that like Titanic,

there is a rescue boat.

And if you simply call out to the Lord,

he'll save you.

He's no respector of persons. He'll save

you.

So, I'm going to ask if I could pray for

you in just a minute. And maybe you've

never really invited Christ into your

life, but you're realizing

there's got to be more than this.

And the Holy Spirit has made real to you

that the person of Jesus is the ark. He

is the way out of the mess that we're

all in.

And I'm going to ask you in a moment if

I can pray for you. But then there's

also people that have walked with the

Lord for a while. And like Peter,

they're already on the right boat.

But you know, Peter walked on the water,

right? He gets out of the boat and he's

walking on the water and and then the

waves and the wind start to freak him

out and he begins to sink. And you know

what he said? Lord, save me.

So maybe you've walked with the Lord for

a while and and you feel like you're

sinking. I want to pray for you, too.

We're going to just call on the name of

the Lord today. And I leave you with one

last scripture. Psalm 18:3. I will call

Psalms 18:3

on the Lord who's worthy to be praised.

So shall I be saved

from my enemies.

That's how I'm going to be saved from

the penalty and power of sin and from

the trials of life. I will call upon the

Lord.

That's our strategy.

And as I give you an invitation to come

to know Christ, I'm not promising you

that life is going to be so wonderful

from this point on that it'll just be

rainbows and butterflies from now on and

gold coming out of your hair and

no struggle, no trial. It's just not

reality.

The beauty of the Christian life isn't

that we don't have trials. It's that we

don't face them alone.

And where we're weak, he's strong. and

we can overcome things that we could

never do without him.

So all over this room, I just want to

give the invitation if you say, "Pastor,

pray for me. I want to know this Jesus.

I want to surrender myself to him. I

want to call on him. I want to be

saved."

If that's you all over this room, just

shoot your hand up. And I'm I'm not

going to embarrass you. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir. I just want to pray with

you.

Thank you so much.

If you're in the group that's already a

Christ follower, but you feel like

you're kind of sinking a little bit,

shoot your hand up. I want to pray for

you, too. Yeah.

Father, we come to you so grateful

for your plan of salvation.

We're so grateful, God, that you see our

dilemma. You remember our frame. You

know that we're dust. But as far as the

east is from the west, so far have you

removed our transgressions from us.

You've not dealt with us as our sins

deserved. You've given us a way out. And

we take that way today

by calling on the name of Jesus, the

name above all names, the author and the

salvation, the author and finisher of

our salvation, the first and the last,

the beginning and the end.

We call on his name. Would you just all

over this room just say his name? Jesus.

Jesus,

>> the name above every other name, the

name whereby we must be saved.

We confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus

and we believe in our heart that God has

raised him from the dead and we have

your promise, God,

that we are saved. I pray for my

brothers and sisters who are struggling

and hurting and feel like they're

sinking and like Peter, Lord, they've

been battered with storms and wind and

waves. But we too call on the name of

the Lord and we say, "Lord, save me.

Save me from my enemies. Save me from

the things that are trying to hurt me.

Save me from the pain and the sorrow and

the addiction and

all of it. Lord, pull me out of it and

pull me close to yourself.

Spirit of the living God, touch every

person in this room in a powerful way

for your glory, your honor, and your

praise. We call on you, Lord. You're

worthy to be praised.

Amen. I'm going to ask the praise team

to come up and lead us in another song.

And there will be a prayer team up here.

If you need prayer for anything at all,

feel free to come up at this time and

we'd love to just pray with you. God

bless you as you do.

[Music]