October 5, 2025 - Ministry Partners Conference - Session 3 - Dennis Bailey, Retired CEF Camp Good News (Asheville, NC) - Romans 1:1-17

Before I ask Dennis to come up, I just need to

say, and it happens frequently when we take requests,

we realize that we are praying for a lot of people

that have serious illnesses. We attend a Bible

study over in the Ramble, and I would say that

everybody there that attends... is financially

independent, that they are not ready to go on

skid row, that they have their needs met, and

yet they're continually finding tumors or things

that are very serious. And it just makes us all

realize how vulnerable we are. And I think it's

a word of... Maybe of caution or warning to us

scripture says seek the Lord while he may be

found call upon him while he is near It is easy

to get so involved in making money or doing our

little things that we ignore the priorities and

so I encourage you to put the Lord first in your

life and To make sure that you're spending time

with him investing time with him every day Looking

at God's Word and letting God's Word look at

you because it's just really important. Now Dennis'

dear brother, I first knew his brother Harold

in Raleigh and Harold and I used to have a lot

of fun. I loved Harold's laughter. He liked to

laugh and he was a lot of fun to be with. I have

lots of memories that I'm not going to share

because I'd rather hear from my brother Dennis.

But Dennis, I appreciate you coming. I appreciate

your heart. I appreciate your message. The clock

says you got all the time you need, so you just

come on up. Thank you, brother. Oh, yeah, that's

right, children's church. Well, Peter was keeping

up with me while I was over. in Europe and he

was checking to see if there were any barbecue

places over there. And there weren't. But they

do love cheese and bread. They eat a lot of cheese

and bread. It's quite a privilege to be with

you all again this morning and I have a one string

banjo. My one string banjo is always the gospel

of Jesus Christ the gift God has given me is

the gift of evangelism So I'm not a great Bible

teacher. I'm not going to teach you anything.

You've never heard from the Bible this morning

But I will tell you how to get to heaven from

Fletcher, North Carolina If you would if you

got your Bible with you this morning open it

up to the book of Romans And I want to begin

by reading the first 17 verses of chapter 1 for

our main text this morning. Really, the Word

of God is the most important thing that we'll

hear right now. It is the Spirit of God that

can take the Word of God and do stuff with it

in our hearts. And what I'm going to say is probably

going to mess up what you hear as we read these

17 verses. Let's begin by Romans chapter 1 verse

Romans 1:1

1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to

be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

parentheses, which he had promised afore by his

prophets in the holy scriptures, closed parentheses,

concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which

was made of the seed of David according to the

flesh. and declared to be the Son of God with

power according to the Spirit of Holiness by

the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have

received grace and apostleship for obedience

to the faith among all nations for His name,

among whom are ye also the call of Jesus Christ.

To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called

to be saints, grace to you and peace from God

our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." That's

a long sentence, isn't it? You'd probably get

marks off in English class if you wrote a sentence

that long. But you can do that when you're writing

the Bible. Verse 8. First, I thank my God through

Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken

of throughout the whole world. For God is my

witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel

of his Son that Without ceasing, I make mention

of you always in my prayers, make and request,

if by any means, now at length, I might have

a prosperous journey by the will of God to come

unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart

unto you some spiritual gift to the end you may

be established. That is, that I may be comforted

together with you by the mutual faith, both of

you and me. Now, I would not have you ignorant,

brethren, that often times I purposed to come

unto you, but was let hither to, that I might

have some fruit among you also, even as among

other Gentiles. I am a debtor, both to the Greeks

and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to

the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready

to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome

also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

For it is the power of God and the salvation

to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first

and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness

of God revealed from faith to faith as it is

written. The just shall live by faith. Our Father,

this morning as we have read these 17 verses,

I pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit,

you would take these truths that are in this

little bit of Scripture here and speak to our

hearts and do what needs to be done to encourage,

to exhort, to convict whatever it is, Father,

I ask in Jesus' name, Amen. On July 29th, Beth

and I left to go to Europe for four weeks. And

we came back on August the 29th. And before I

married Beth, I'd never even been on a commercial

airplane. And so she started me off with a 10

-hour flight to Hawaii. But since then, I've

been on a few commercial airplanes. And so we

flew all the way over to Geneva, Switzerland.

And there in Geneva, Switzerland, We spent the

night and went to St. Peter's Basilica where

John Knox, not John Knox, John Calvin preached

six days a week. One of the fathers of the Reformation.

And they showed me the chair where John Calvin

would sit and the platform that he would preach

from and his beautiful cathedral. With these

beautiful stained glass windows and a ceiling

so high you'd hurt your neck looking up to see

it. A church today that stays empty all the time.

It's just a museum. It's just a place for come

to come and look. And I sent a text to my son

-in -law AJ and Raleigh, who's with Child Evangelism

Fellowship, and I said, this is the chair that

John Calvin sat in. And he sent back and said

it was predestined that he would sit there. And

I text him back, I said, or did he choose that

seat? So we still didn't figure that out. And

for those of you that didn't find that funny,

John Calvin is the one who promotes predestination

the most with the tulips and all that stuff.

But anyway, it was wonderful to be there in that

church that has such a history of people coming

to faith alone in the person and work of the

Lord Jesus Christ in Geneva. We paid a little

bit extra to go up in the bell tower of that

church. And we walked and we walked and we walked

on this circular staircase up into the bell tower

that has these gigantic beautiful bells up in

it. And when we finally got up there to the top

of the bell tower we could look out over Geneva

and see all the way to that beautiful lake that's

right there and the top of those buildings. And

this stuff has been there for thousands of years.

That stuff's been there longer than the United

States has been a country. When they built things

over there, they built them out of rock and brick

and mortar. They didn't build it out of wood.

And so it was neat to look out over history.

And there was a young couple, the only other

people that had too little sense to go up in

that bell tower. There was a young couple there

from Brussels and so we engaged them in conversation.

Well my wife was in Brussels for three years

working for NATO when she was in the army and

so she knew a lot of the same cities around where

they lived and so we had a little report there

and they were interested in that she knew where

they lived and stuff and after a few minutes

of small talk I asked the man, I said, well,

do you have a faith? And he said, no, and I don't

want one. So I whipped out my wordless book.

And I said, well, I used to run a children's

camp and tell boys and girls about God using

this. Let me show you what I would tell them.

And I went through the colors of the wordless

book and talked about the streets of gold being

the gold page and sin that we've all sinned.

Nobody had to teach us out of the lie, cheat

or steal. And then I showed him the red page

and talked about the blood of Christ that flowed

from the cross of Calvary. And then I showed

him the clean page and told him how his sins

could be forgiven if he put his faith and trust

in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then I showed him

the gold page again and I said, so one day you

can live with God in heaven. Well, they were

ready to go. They were polite, but they heard

the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I said, God took

this old farm boy from the tobacco fields of

Wake County all the way to Geneva, Switzerland,

to the bell tower in St. Peter's Cathedral to

tell two people from Brussels about Jesus. You

know why I had a wordless book in my pocket?

It's because when Beth and I decided to go for

four weeks to Europe. I was asking God, God use

me. God speak to me. God show me. And we have

some plans for our future and we're not sure

what to do yet. We want to be used by God. Beth

just turned 70 and I'm 72. We don't have too

many more years left. But we want, we have reasonable

health. So we want to be used by God in some

way. And so I was seeking God's face while we

were there in Europe. What would you have me

do? Show me something from being around these

people that don't speak English much. And so

God spoke to our hearts and he used us. That

same day we caught a taxi cab driven by a Somalian.

And we engaged him in conversation and asked

him if he had a faith. And he said, oh, yes,

I'm Muslim. And so Beth told him about the Lord

Jesus Christ. And he believed in Abraham, of

course, because Muslims revere Abraham. But anyway,

again, we were able to talk to somebody from

Somalia in Geneva about a man who died for them

in Israel. outside of Jerusalem. And that was

our theme the whole time that we were there.

One of the parts of our trip was a trip down

to Rome. I much, very much wanted to go to Rome.

Rome is a city of thieves today. It's a city

of graffiti. Every building is painted with spray

paint. except the ones that are protected by

fences and men with guns and police and private

security. But every public building is covered

in Rome with graffiti, trash in the streets.

It's an ugly city outside of the tourist park.

But as we were heading to Rome, we were going

down this... where everybody drives wide open

over there. And the speedometer on this rental

car we're riding in shows 130 kilometers, whatever

that is. And I'm saying, Lord, it's been a nice

72 years. If this is it, Lord, it's all right.

We're sitting in one of these little compact

cars. That's all they have in Europe. They're

about this wide and about that long. and there's

four of us in this thing and I'm sitting on the

back wheel hitting every bump going down this

road going wide open and all of a sudden we come

to a stop and traffic's backed up all four lanes

and we find out that a tanker truck has exploded

and is on fire down the road and so we sit there

for three hours And the minutes just keep dragging

by, you know. So we start looking up jokes on

our cell phones and start telling each other

jokes just to pass the time. And do you know

that a man said that it's been determined that

people eat more bananas than monkeys? I've never

eaten a monkey. And so they would just tell jokes

to each other and a little while some officials

came. and started turning all the cars around

and we were going back on the edge of the road

back to the next exit two miles back and going

back through the woods. There used to be a saying

in the time of Paul, and that saying was, all

roads lead to Rome. Well guess what? If you're

going south, they do. So we got off in the woods

and we would get to these little circles They

don't turn right or left over there in Europe

and you know a lot of ours are starting to get

that way You go around a circle and as we go

around the circle to be a sign R -O -M -A they

don't know how to spell Rome over there Roma

this way or if you go a little further another

sign Roma this way and I'm like I Guess all roads

do lead to Rome but finally we got there. And

as we were there in the city of Rome, we got

to go see the Forum, and we got to go see the

Circus Maximus, and we got to see the Colosseum,

but the thing I wanted to see the most was the

Arch of Titus. There is preserved something that's

been there since 72 A .D., the Arch of Titus.

this great marble archway that was built by Deccletian,

which was Titus' son, to celebrate him conquering

the Jews and destroying Jerusalem. And all that

arch is a relief of them bringing out the furniture

that was in the temple, carrying the Ark of the

Covenant and the menorah, and all of that is

a relief in that arch. And as I stood there looking

at this plaque in front of that arch that was

explaining how this was built and who it was

built for and how this great procession of army

officers would ride through this arch as they

have conquered the Jewish people. There was a

Japanese fellow that came up and was reading

the plaque. And I turned to him and I said, can

you speak English? He said, oh yes, and he could

talk just as good as I could. I said, do you

know that this arch that we're looking at verifies

the Bible? Do you know that this arch right here

fulfills prophecy that was spoken by Jesus Christ

our Lord? He said, no, what do you mean? And

I said well in Matthew chapter 24 as the Lord

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

Jesus and his disciples are coming out of the

temple His disciples are like wow Looking at

this building if you've ever been to the Grand

Canyon, that's a wow Pictures never make Show

you what that looks like the first time the only

time I ever went to the Grand Canyon as I walked

up to that giant chasm in the earth I said, wow.

It just come out. And after I'd been there a

while, I got to thinking and I walked over to

the side and watched other people as for the

first time they would get there and they would

go, wow. The Grand Canyon is a wow place. I remember

the arch in St. Louis, going up to that giant

arch and looking up at it. And I remember saying

the same thing. I felt like I was going to fall.

I was going, wow. Well, that's what the disciples

were doing with Jesus when they came out of Herod's

temple It wasn't as glorious as the first temple

that Solomon built but by now it was still a

beautiful temple It was one of the wonders of

the ancient world Covered in gold and silver

and marble and the disciples turned to the Lord

Jesus and saying Lord look at this building And

Jesus said One stone will not be left upon another.

This building is going to be completely torn

down. Don't be enamored with this building. Do

you think the God of the universe is impressed

with any building on this planet? When you're

flying at 37 ,000 feet in an airplane and you

look down, everything looks like a grain of sand.

Imagine God from heaven. He's not enamored with

any building and the Lord Jesus Christ was not

enamored with a temple and he predicted that

one day every single stone of that temple would

be leveled. Well that arch of Titus that I was

standing in front of I was explaining to this

Japanese guy Jesus said that this temple would

be destroyed and they did take all the furniture

out of the temple and they tore down that temple

and there was not one stone left upon another

and that Japanese fellow looks at me and says

Are you a Christian? I said, yes, sir. I am And

he said, I've never talked to a Christian before.

Paul wrote a letter here and said to the saints

at Rome that your faith is known throughout the

world. Well, guess what? It ain't anymore. As

a matter of fact, the tourist guides had gathered

around with their little groups and they were

listening to me tell them what this arch of Titus

was all about and one of the tourist guides says

I never knew that and later another group come

by and I said can you speak English and I would

tell them the same thing I said this is a dream

come true for an evangelist to just stand here

in front of this object lesson and tell people

about Jesus and we did stay there a long time

It was proof of the scriptures that said in Matthew

24 that that temple would be destroyed. And they

put up an arch in Rome depicting that. And yet

people won't believe this book. We were at a

missionary conference in France for a week. And

one of the missionaries there is a missionary

to Muslims and he said, don't believe that you've

got to know everything about Islam to tell people

about Jesus. And he made, it was a woman actually,

she made the statement, she said, we have a silver

bullet. I thought, what does she mean? She said,

we have the gospel. You don't have to know about

Muhammad, just tell them about Jesus. And so

that's what we did. Paul says here in this first

chapter, to the saints that be in Rome. As I

read that while I was in Rome, matter of fact,

I wrote down the date so I wouldn't forget it.

It was the 13th. I said, Paul's writing this

to me today. It meant something special to me

as I was reading through that chapter that day,

to the saints that be in Rome. Beth and I stayed

in a special place because she's a retired army

colonel. We were able to stay in this officers

club, French officers club. And outside of this

beautiful five -star hotel that we get to stay

in pretty cheap since she's a retired Army Colonel,

there is something called St. Augustine's Cathedral,

another one of these giant, beautiful places.

And this was in Paris. And so we go on Sunday

before last. And we're the only two people sitting

down in this beautiful cathedral. And I said,

well, let's pray. Beautiful cathedral, which

is now just a museum that they open on Sundays,

let people come in. There was a man out in front

of St. Augustine's Cathedral pulling grass out

of the cracks on his hands and knees. And I thought,

Faith is not known all over the world like it

was in the first century when Paul wrote this

letter. Their faith is not known here in Paris.

People are going about on Sunday mornings business

as usual. No thought of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And out in front of St. Augustine's Cathedral

is this giant statue of a horse with a woman

on it. And I said, well, let's go around. see

what this is about. So we go to the front of

that giant statue there in front of St. Augustine's

Cathedral and it says, to St. Joan of Arc. And

it tells about her. As our brother said this

morning at Sunday School, the Roman Catholic

Church could not make her a saint. As a matter

of fact, the Roman Catholic Church burned her

at the stake and a few hundred years later then

made her a saint because they said, oh, I think

we made a mistake. And so now there's this giant

monument to this 17 -year -old girl called Saint

Joan of Arc. And I thought to myself, I'm a saint,

but not because of the Vatican. We went over

to the Vatican and right outside of the Vatican

is a Burger King. And I said, that's appropriate.

You can have it your way. You can have religion

your way. As we go into the Vatican, around the

Vatican is this giant wall. And in every little

concave of this wall is a king or a pope or somebody.

I don't know. Idols everywhere, and if it's not

people, it's animals. And if it's not animals,

it's birds. Idolatry run rampant. As we were

on a bus going back to our apartment one day

in Rome, there was a young man who looked like

he was from Nigeria. And I asked him about his

faith and he said, oh, I'm Catholic. My dad works

at the Vatican. But he said, don't believe the

Pope or anything that comes out of the Vatican

because none of it is about Jesus. And I said,

what a testimony. He said it's all lies if it

ain't about Jesus. It's not the truth So this

bus full of people is listening his conversation

We're having about the Vatican and the Pope and

the Roman Catholic Church and I'm like, yes Jesus

It was good But Rome's full of thieves we had

two cell phones stolen from our party while we

were on the bus shoplifters apart pick Pickpockets.

Got her brother -in -law's and her nephew or

niece's cell phones. They're just really good

at it. The buses are crowded and they bump against

you, you know, and before you know it, you've

lost your wallet or your cell phone. And they

even have signs in all the restaurants. Protect

your valuables. Thieves are about. Well, Paul

said, I want to get to Rome by any way possible.

Back to our text it says In verse 3 concerning

his son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made

of the seed of David according to the flesh Matthew

1 1 records Jesus as the seed of David Revelation

22 16 records Jesus as the son of David. From

the first book of the New Testament to the last

book of the New Testament, Jesus is referred

to as the son of David according to the flesh.

But he's regarded as the son of God by the spirit

of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

You see, the very fact that Jesus rose from the

dead is what our faith is all about. lived a

complete life of victory, a complete life of

power over sin. He was perfectly holy. He never

looked with lust. He never uttered a hasty word.

He never said anything that was untrue. He never

entertained an impure thought. He was never accused

by his conscience. He was never inflamed by unlawful

or wrongful passions. He was never out of the

will of God. He never wasted one minute of his

life and his power was never used for his own

selfish ends. His judgment was never wrong. He

never apologized and he never said oops. He lived

a completely sinless life by the spirit of holiness.

He is the perfect son of God that lived a perfect

life so that he could die on the cross for a

man who has never lived anything perfect. God

punished Jesus as if he had broken all the commandments

and he hadn't broken none of them, but I have.

And so he could take my punishment because he

had never sinned and he can give me his righteousness

by the spirit of holiness. When I put my faith

in the finished work of Jesus dying on the cross,

God sent His Holy Spirit to come live inside

of me and made me a saint. I haven't been declared

a saint by some pope over there in Rome. As a

matter of fact, they got it all mixed up. It's

idolatry. It's messed up. Ever since Constantine

made Christianity the world religion, it's never

recovered. Because they took pagan people and

put them in charge. of what they thought was

a Christian religion and it went way off the

rails. Now I don't have any beef with Catholic

people, but I have a big beef with the Roman

Catholic Church. There are some people who do

come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ

who have grown up in the Catholic Church. Not

because of the Catholic Church, but because of

the Word of God. And so it's sad. to stand there

in all that pomp and glory at the Vatican and

see all these glorious buildings and all of this

stuff that has nothing to do with God. Paul says

in Romans chapter 1, verse 8, I thank my God

Romans 1:8

through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith

is spoken of throughout the whole world. And

a guy from Japan says, are you a Christian? I've

never met a Christian. What an indictment against

the church. Now I don't know where he was from.

He was Japanese. He was a tourist like I was.

But he said he never talked to a Christian. The

church has failed. The church is failing. People

are not going out and giving their lives. They're

going out and giving their weekends. I remember

when God impressed on my heart to quit my job

with the Raleigh Police Department and move to

Asheville and start a children's camp. I never

intended to give a weekend. I intended to give

the rest of my life. That's what God calls us

to do, for the cause of His Son, the Lord Jesus.

Paul says, for God is my witness whom I serve

with my spirit, verse nine. in the gospel of

his son and without ceasing I make mention of

you in my prayers making requests by any means

now at length I might have a prosperous journey

by the will of God to come to you." Paul wrote

this letter to the Romans. He found out that

Phoebe was going to Rome. We find out from the

last chapter. And he said, let me write you a

letter of introduction. Take this letter with

you when you go to Rome. I'm going to give you

this letter to take to the saints at Rome, Phoebe,

and make sure they read it. And so in the folds

of her gown, when she went to Rome, she was carrying

this treatise that has been so great for the

Church of Jesus Christ, that so clearly spells

out the gospel of Jesus Christ. She had no idea

the powerful document that she was carrying to

Rome. And Paul says, tell them I'm wanting to

come. I'm going to come one day, and God's going

to give me a prosperous journey somehow to Rome.

And when Paul was in the temple in Jerusalem

praying, the Jews thought that Timothy, a Greek,

was in there with him, and they came and arrested

him and would have killed him, but he was rescued

by some Romans soldiers. And they didn't know

what to do with him. And Paul ended up saying,

I appeal to Caesar. I haven't done anything wrong.

You appeal to Caesar? Well, we'll send you to

Caesar. And so Paul got a free trip to Rome,

Jerusalem, by the Roman Empire. Now, you almost

drown going. On the way, they have a shipwreck

and get washed up on a shore and there on that

island where he's at. the king of that island

is sick and so Paul goes and heals the guy and

his Roman guards like who in the world do I have

under arrest here and so when they get to Rome

they just said he puts a guard with him it says

stay with Paul but let his friends come to him

all they want to and so Paul is in Rome sharing

the Lord Jesus Christ with Caesar's household

Only God can do that. That's right. One of the

places, another place that I wanted to go to

in Rome was the maritime prison. Mamertine prison.

You might never heard of it, but it was a place

where they would put political prisoners and

slaves when they were under arrest. It's right

there near the forum. It's right near the Arch

of Titus. You can see it from the Arch of Titus.

And as you stand there at the maritime prison,

you can look over the hill and there's this giant

coliseum that was built where they would take

the Christians and feed them to lions. While

we were in the coliseum, I asked some of the

young people that were there as tourists, I said,

isn't it terrible that they fed Christians to

the lions right there? And they looked at me

and Beth and said, really? We didn't know that.

You see history is lost as to the faith of the

Lord Jesus Christ over there. Right there in

Rome, where people gave their lives for Jesus

Christ, who would not bow the knee to Caesar,

who would die at the mouths of animals or gladiators

or whatever. And today young people have no idea.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not going out in

Rome like it was then. But there's the maritime

prison just from the Colosseum and the Arch of

Titus. There's this prison. And that's where

Paul ended up before he was executed. And they've

made a monument about it. It's all written in

Latin. Is that right? Italian and Latin but Beth

has this great app on her phone that she can

put over signs and it reads out in English which

really comes in handy when you're trying to get

out of parking decks because they're not they

don't put stuff in English over there in Italy

let me tell you it's not like America where you

got all these different You get stuff in the

maleness in every language you can ever imagine.

But there at the maritime prison, they have a

plaque honoring the apostle Paul. And when he

was sentenced to die, there's a hole in the floor

about this big around. And they let him down

in that hole into the dungeon underneath the

prison. And it's about the size of this right

here. just part of the room. And while I was

down there in that hole, I went around and touched

the walls and just closed my eyes and thought,

this is where the Apostle Paul spent his last

days. What a failure. What a failure. Today we're

reading this letter he wrote to the Romans. And

he will say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of

Christ. It is a power of God's salvation to everyone

that believeth, to the Jew first and also to

the Greek. And this letter goes on today and

will be read in churches all across America and

all across the world. And people that will can

learn how to be saved from their sins through

God's grace, through faith alone in the person

of the Lord Jesus Christ. because it is the power

of God and his salvation. When they cut Paul's

head off, he entered into the presence of his

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. His earthly work

was over. You see, the worst thing that can happen

to you is not that you die. The worst thing that

can happen to you is that you die without Jesus.

Beth and I talked to a lot of cab drivers. just

individuals about the Lord Jesus over there in

Europe. We didn't talk to anybody that said,

oh yeah, I'm a Christian, I believe in Jesus.

Except at the missionary conference. It's sad.

Jesus is coming back. I'm glad you're having

this mission conference. Pray for missionaries.

Pray for people that would give their lives for

Jesus Christ. Pray for Beth and I. We're kind

of leaning towards Samaritan's Purse, maybe working

with them more on a regular basis. We've worked

with them some. I've got too much help to waste

the rest of my life mowing grass and goofing

off. Verse 16 and 17 says, for I'm not ashamed

of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power

of God and a salvation to everyone that believeth.

That's the crux. When I finish today, some of

you will believe it, some of you won't. Some

believe, some don't. And that's the way it'll

always be. But to those that believe, It says

to the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein

is the righteousness of God revealed from Old

Testament faith to New Testament faith as It

is written the judge shall live by faith and

that's a quotation from Habakkuk chapter 2 in

Habakkuk 2 · chapter mention

verse 4 It's a verse that transformed a fellow

by the name of Luther. I said the judge shall

live by faith Yeah For by grace, God's grace,

are you saved through faith, and that not of

yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works,

lest any man should boast. There's nothing we

could ever do to deserve God's grace and forgiveness.

But if we believe that his son died on the cross,

was buried, and rose again the third day, and

that he's coming back, not believe about Jesus,

but believe in Jesus. God has promised that we'll

have everlasting life for God so loved the world

that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever

believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting

life. I have everlasting life and I don't deserve

it. And if you trusted in Jesus Christ, you too

not going to have but already have everlasting

life. Brother Peter, would you close us out?

But the question about do you know the Lord Jesus

have you believed in him is not just an intellectual

belief But it is a commitment Jesus says no man

can be my disciple Except that you follow me

deny himself take up his cross and follow me

That's a life verse for me. That is really really

important. He comes first Let me close you in

prayer Father, thank you for my brother And thank

you for the heart that you've given to Him and

the passion. And thank you for using Him to speak

to my life and to put me on the spot to be more

faithful, more obedient, more submissive to you.

We have such a great Savior and such a powerful

gospel. And I pray that you'll just continue

to help us be faithful with the treasure that

you've entrusted to us. Ask your blessing now.

the rest of this day. Pray for Dennis and Beth

and for their future and for what you're going

to do in them. Thank you for giving them the

health that they can serve you and the heart

and the passion to do that. Do that for all of

us. Do that for all of us, I pray in Jesus' name

with thanksgiving. Amen.