SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Brother Grant.
SPEAKER_00: Good afternoon, evening.
SPEAKER_00: After evening.
SPEAKER_00: We thank God for giving us this opportunity to worship Him together and to share His word together.
SPEAKER_00: Today I'm going to be talking about the cause of the gospel and the lostness of men.
SPEAKER_00: We see in this world, especially in 2026, especially among the young generation, they call them Gen Z or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: There is this movement of like everywhere you go, when you go to Facebook or you go to Texas Tech Free Speech Area, what you are going to see is everyone has a cause that they are passionate about in the world, something that they want to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And it is good and it is important because it shows that we care about justice, we care about the people who are around us.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we should stand up for good causes and pursue good causes.
SPEAKER_00: And my submission to you today is that for us as Christians, the principal cause or the most important cause we should pursue above everything else is the cause of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to give two reasons uh for this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the first reason, let's go to the book of Matthew, chapter 28, verse 18 to uh 20.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Matthew chapter 28 from verse 18 says, and Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_00: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: And in the book of Mark, chapter 16, from verse 15, and he said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
SPEAKER_00: So the first reason is that here we see the head of the church, our master, the supreme being of the universe, one of his last commands to his people, to his disciples, is for us to go into the world and preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And that alone should be enough for us to pursue this cause of the gospel just because of who it comes from, that command.
SPEAKER_00: So it's something that we should be intentional about and something that we should seriously pursue because our master, our head, Jesus Christ, taught us to do that.
SPEAKER_00: The second reason why the cause of gospel should be something that is important for a Christian and something that everyone should pursue is that above everything else, my dear brothers and sisters, above justice, above uh, you know, uh, above anything that we may think is important in this world, what the world needs the most is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And this is because the problem with humanity is not outside the humans, the problem is something that is deep within the heart.
SPEAKER_00: There's something wrong within the heart that has corrupted the human heart, and that is sin.
SPEAKER_00: And at the core of the gospel, at the core of salvation is salvation from sin.
SPEAKER_00: And above everything else, this world needs salvation from sin.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the book of uh Romans chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: This is going to be my main uh my main chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Romans chapter 1, uh, from verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: For indeed the righteousness of God is revealed, uh, from faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: So we see the gospel being referred here as to the power of God unto salvation, and above everything that we might pursue, above everything that the world needs, what they need the most is salvation, and that comes from us preaching the word of the gospel because the Bible tells us, Romans chapter 3, verse 23 says, uh, Romans chapter 3, verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: So everyone has sinned, everyone has fallen short of the glory of God, and what they need the most is that salvation, is something that deals with that fundamental thing that is wrong, which is sin.
SPEAKER_00: And that comes from us preaching the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you might think, you know, we have this mindset where we are pursuing these utopias.
SPEAKER_00: We think like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: If we just give everyone economic freedom, if everyone can live a soft, comfortable life, everything in the world will be okay.
SPEAKER_00: Let me remind you one thing.
SPEAKER_00: You uh in the audience, as Americans, I want you to realize that the life that you are living here is the utopia for some people.
SPEAKER_00: Like the life that you are living is the dream.
SPEAKER_00: Some people actually say, like, you know, I wonder why Americans are stressed, because you know, they can eat what they want, they they they they they can go where they want, when they want, they have air conditioning.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, other places in Southeast Asia or Africa, they have a problem of malnutrition.
SPEAKER_00: In America, people have a problem of overnutrition.
SPEAKER_00: So you live the utopia, but still there's injustice, but still you are not fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: There's still something that is amiss.
SPEAKER_00: So the problem is clearly not, you know, people not being rich.
SPEAKER_00: Because you are rich.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just tell you that.
SPEAKER_00: You are rich.
SPEAKER_00: The life you're living is the ultimate dream, and yet it's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: Because you need something else, you need something that transforms the heart.
SPEAKER_00: We have pursued as humanity.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we have pursued our civilization.
SPEAKER_00: We think that you know what?
SPEAKER_00: This world will be correct if we just pursue and pursue civilization.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be civilized.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about this.
SPEAKER_00: We are in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: We have information at our fingertips.
SPEAKER_00: We are at the top of our scientific revolutions, we're at the top of our advancement in philosophy and everything.
SPEAKER_00: Yet, there are over 65 wars happening right now.
SPEAKER_00: We're still spilling each other's blood.
SPEAKER_00: Yet, in the from 2000 alone, like, you know, we look at our ancestors and we're like, our ancestors were barbarians.
SPEAKER_00: They were raiding each other.
SPEAKER_00: We're still doing the same, maybe under different names.
SPEAKER_00: We say, like, oh, our ancestors, they did human sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: Since the year 2000, about 1.4 billion babies had never had the chance to even come out of the womb.
SPEAKER_00: Being sacrificed to gods of comfort, gods of convenience, gods of you know, career and everything else.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we think we're civilized.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we want.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we need.
SPEAKER_00: What we need is something that addresses the problem within the heart, and that problem is sin.
SPEAKER_00: We as Christians we love standing up for the truth, we love standing up for laws that are right, that are correct, right?
SPEAKER_00: But that is good, by the way, and that is necessary.
SPEAKER_00: However, we must not just stop there because laws alone are not enough to change the heart of people.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just laws that change the heart of people, it's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: People need the transformation within their heart, and humanity plays this game of pretense from one ideology to another, thinking that you know it will save us.
SPEAKER_00: And uh there was this preacher who told this story.
SPEAKER_00: He said that there was this guy, uh, he was desperate and he was looking for a job.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he saw a poster that says, Oh, we're looking for somebody to work at the zoo, uh, and then he went, but to his utter horror, they said, Well, the only job we have for you is for you to play the role of a monkey, because we're out of monkeys.
SPEAKER_00: So, what he had to do, he had to go the next day, put in, uh put on a monkey costume, and then eat bananas and the kids throw at him and peanuts.
SPEAKER_00: So he went in the next day, early in the morning, he put on the monkey costume and he started acting like a monkey.
SPEAKER_00: And well, later in the day, the bananas got the better of him.
SPEAKER_00: So when he was trying to hop from one branch to another, he missed and fell into the lion's den.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, he was like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to uh I'm going I'm gonna need to cry for help here because I'm gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: So he started screaming, help, help.
SPEAKER_00: Then the lion leaned over and said, Shut up, you're gonna get both of us fired.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the thing is, we play this game of pretense, going from one ideology to another, thinking that, you know, this one will save us, this one is it, only to find out that, you know, our utopias are going to come crashing down.
SPEAKER_00: There's something that is going to always go wrong because people are still sinful.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't address that, every utopia that we can pursue is going to come crashing down.
SPEAKER_00: And when we scream help help, we find out that the next person is playing the same game that we're playing.
SPEAKER_00: So we need something more than that.
SPEAKER_00: We consume ourselves with this ideology, you know, uh, we need a communist revolution that will save us.
SPEAKER_00: We need a capitalist revolution, we need uh libertarian, uh, we need socialist, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, there are good and bad ideas of running a country depending on place and time and people, but that should not be our sole concern, that should not be our sole cause.
SPEAKER_00: The main problem is seen within the heart of mankind, and that's the problem that we should address.
SPEAKER_00: We look at the world as Christians, normally we are frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: We see immorality, we see like this move of, you know, think of the things that uh frustrate Christians.
SPEAKER_00: So instead of thinking that, you know what, uh, it's like we just need to vote for the right politicians, we just need to do this.
SPEAKER_00: All these wise decisions are good, but at the heart of it is that people need the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: If you read down uh in Romans chapter 1, what do we see?
SPEAKER_00: Uh it says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness uh and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.
SPEAKER_00: So they are without excuse, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
SPEAKER_00: Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of God, of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things.
SPEAKER_00: Then God gave them up in the last of their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And as we go down, we see things that you know uh Christians are frustrated about, right?
SPEAKER_00: We see gross immorality, we're like, oh no, we see homosexuality, we see uh people with a reprobate mind.
SPEAKER_00: So instead of just saying, like, oh no, it's the leftist, oh no, it's the rightist, is the frangist, back is upist, tonist, whatever it is, like the core of it, this like if you look here, the Bible clearly says that although they knew God, they did not acknowledge God, the core problem is separation from God.
SPEAKER_00: And what we should see is the need for the gospel, that this world is hungry for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: What this world needs the most is to be dubbed away from the slavery of sin.
SPEAKER_00: So behind everything else, beyond everything else, above everything else, let's bring the gospel to the people because that's what they need the most.
SPEAKER_00: And let me talk about what the gospel does when somebody is baptized into Christ, when somebody receives the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 36, verse 26 to 27.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel, we see the promise of God here, Ezekiel chapter 36.
SPEAKER_00: Uh verse 26 to 27.
SPEAKER_00: He says, and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I'll put within you, and I'll remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, 2nd Corinthians uh chapter 5 verse 17, it says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
SPEAKER_00: And then we go to Titus chapter 3 verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Titus chapter 3, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: It talks of he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So we see that when people receive Christ, there's this covenant that is promised all the way from the Old Testament where somebody can receive a new heart.
SPEAKER_00: So there's this transformation, not from outside, but from within, because you become a new creature, you get a new heart that is that that serves God and that is willing to save God.
SPEAKER_00: For the Bible also says when it talks about working out your own salvation, it says, For it is God working in you to will and to do as well.
SPEAKER_00: So, what people need, what this world needs the most, the injustice, the violence, and all these frustrations that we see, the evil that we see in this world, these are symptoms of a heart that is broken.
SPEAKER_00: These are symptoms of a heart that is hardened by sin.
SPEAKER_00: And what people need the most is a new heart that comes from God.
SPEAKER_00: So when we seek things, let's go to uh this world tries to uh tries to look for everything, every other solution except for God.
SPEAKER_00: And God talks about it in the book of Jeremiah chapter 2, uh, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jeremiah chapter 2, uh, verse 13, he says, For my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out systems for themselves, broken systems that do not hold water.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes people lean to these ideologies, lean to these things, thinking that, oh no, this is the ultimate solution, only to find out that they do not hold water, only to find out that at some point it is going to get ruined.
SPEAKER_00: Because the only source of life, the only source of living water, the only true solution is found in God.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 55.
SPEAKER_00: We see this uh even in people's personal life, when people are struggling, they go into drugs, they go to find solution in alcohol, sometimes it's even like care pursuing careers, thinking, trying to fill that hole that was talked about this morning, trying to fill out that hole.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Isaiah 55, verse 2, it says, Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your uh and labor for that which does not satisfy?
SPEAKER_00: Listen diligently to me and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
SPEAKER_00: Incline your ear and come near to me, hear that your soul may live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast uh sure love for David.
SPEAKER_00: So we we spend our time, we spend our energy uh on these things that really do not help us.
SPEAKER_00: We spend yeah, immense amount of energy on things that really do not that are not really the solution, and God is saying, Come to me and I am the living water, come to me and I will give you life.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the effect of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: When you come to Christ, this world we see that it's enslaved in sin, and the problem is sin.
SPEAKER_00: But Romans chapter 6, it tells us that when you are baptized in Christ, you become a new creature, and it says, sin has no dominion over you.
SPEAKER_00: And my dear brothers and sisters, I know all of us we care about the world, we care about truth, we care about righteousness, and we love our neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: And if we really love them, the most important thing that we can give them is the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's one thing they need the most.
SPEAKER_00: We need to spread the message of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, other things they can help temporarily, other things can help advance, make their lives better.
SPEAKER_00: But the gospel does not only have promise for this world.
SPEAKER_00: You are giving them a permanent treasure because the Bible says, what does like you know, what gain do you get if you gain the whole world and you lose your soul?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You give them something that goes beyond what we have now, you give them something that is not just a tangible thing, but you give them a treasure that cannot rot, that cannot rust, and that comes through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So, above everything else, my dear brothers and sisters, my message for you tonight is for you to pursue the course of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And this should not be something that just happens to us, it is something that we should pursue intentionally.
SPEAKER_00: It's a clear command and something that we should do.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give you an assignment today.
SPEAKER_00: When you go home, I want you to study the word of God, I want you to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Look around what God has given you in your life and think of ways that you can help to pursue and further the cause of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We have different gifts and we can help in many different ways.
SPEAKER_00: Look out for your part, look for what your role is in the cause of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Because look around in the world, look at the violence, look at the injustice.
SPEAKER_00: The world is desperate for a savior.
SPEAKER_00: The world is desperate, the problem is sin, and until we take care of that problem of sin, nothing is going to really bring permanent change.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if there's uh somebody who has not received Christ among us, I just want to tell you this that uh look around the world, look at the cycles of violence, things come and go.
SPEAKER_00: We have never really reached a utopia because the problem is sin.
SPEAKER_00: However, God is calling you.
SPEAKER_00: He says in the book of Isaiah, chapter 1, that even if your sins are red as scarlet, I will make them white as snow.
SPEAKER_00: This gospel we see that the righteousness of God is revealed within this gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You might have things that you have done, you might have even participated in this injustice of the of this world.
SPEAKER_00: You might have things that have done that, you know, you can't even look at yourself in the mirror.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you that nothing is impossible for God.
SPEAKER_00: You can be called perfect, not because of what you did, but because of what was done on the cross through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so God is calling you to come.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you have been a victim of the injustice of this world.
SPEAKER_00: You've been a victim of many ills of this world.
SPEAKER_00: There's also hope for you within the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible promises that when Christ comes, the tears will be wiped away, and there's comfort and eternal rest.
SPEAKER_00: This world is not what all there is to existence.
SPEAKER_00: If it is, then it's a sorry existence.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm glad it's not.
SPEAKER_00: God is coming back and is coming back with rewards for you and rest for you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to become a child of Christ, uh, you can come up as we sing the invitation song.