SPEAKER_03: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_03: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Father, when we sing a simple chorus like that, we are acknowledging the way you created the world to be.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're really saying, God, is we we want you to be like the sun at the center of our solar system.
SPEAKER_00: Exertation gravitational influence and authority over everything that's orbiting our life.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, the planets of our life are going to begin to collide into each other and we're going to have global cosmic chaos.
SPEAKER_00: That's when we say something simple like Jesus be the center.
SPEAKER_00: We're saying that the weighty mass at the center of everything is God and the nature thereof.
SPEAKER_00: Not religion, not a man, not a woman, not money, not stuff, not a vacation, as good as all those things are, and they're all gifts from you.
SPEAKER_00: We don't disparage those.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be famous for what we don't have or what we're against.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be famous.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be known for the God and gospel that's included in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Holy Spirit, as we open up your word today, illuminate the scripture, and cause it to spark our intellect and stir our emotions.
SPEAKER_00: So we just say, Jesus, be at the center.
SPEAKER_00: Take your rightful place.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians says that in you all things are held together.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we say you're at the center.
SPEAKER_00: Exert, increase your gravity, gravitational authority and influence over us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: If you got a Bible, I invite you to take and open up to Romans chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, don't sweat it.
SPEAKER_00: Everything I say will come up on the screen up here.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me pause and introduce myself.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Neil, and I am your pastor.
SPEAKER_00: If you I haven't been here, I haven't been here since May because I've been on what's called the sabbatical, which is a religious word for vacation.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, uh it's part of our church policy, our full-time pastoral staff every seven years.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, they let the ground lie fallow, they wouldn't plant anything.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to burn our pastors up, and so we give them a little bit of a break.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what it was.
SPEAKER_00: So I haven't been here since May the 9th.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, What did you do?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I did.
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And I felt great about it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh somebody said, one of the God's workshops said, I think it's gonna be hard for you to disconnect from this place.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Watch me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I walked in Monday and he's like, I ain't seen you all summer.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Told you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so anyway, I am back.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad to be back.
SPEAKER_00: And we're today we're gonna start a four-part series uh that I'll be I'll be teaching on on our core values.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we have four core values, and they are sequential, they're in order, and they are simply this.
SPEAKER_00: When I say core values, these are the things, this is kind of the lens through which we look at things here at Grand Park Way, and we make decisions based on these things: gospel, community, mission, and blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say them again: gospel, community, mission, and blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And we what do you mean they're sequential?
SPEAKER_00: We believe that the gospel produces this community of people that are on the shared mission, and central to that mission is to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to talk today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take the core value of gospel, and I want to talk to you today about gospel eagerness.
SPEAKER_00: Gospel eagerness.
SPEAKER_00: You say, what do I mean by gospel eagerness?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read in Romans chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading verse eight, I'll read down to verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and Paul is in a city called Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, Rome at the time of the first century, politically corrupt, morally bankrupt, full of wickedness, no regard for human life.
SPEAKER_00: And it was known for its political, diabolical nature.
SPEAKER_00: Does it sound like any country you're familiar with?
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's gonna say, look at me, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Paul's going to say to his friends, he said, Hey, I am eager to preach the gospel to those of you who are in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And then he's gonna explain, give three reasons why, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end, if you're visiting today, relax.
SPEAKER_00: No, we do not believe in guilt and manipulation.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't grow up in church.
SPEAKER_00: So a few times I went as a kid, I just felt terrible.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember walking out just thinking, hey, I was really depressed about my life.
SPEAKER_00: All you've done was increase my depression.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I want to come back.
SPEAKER_00: And so I didn't.
SPEAKER_00: And so we won't do that today, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We don't apologize for what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna try to explain it to you in a very simple way.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end, some questions come up on the screen, and I'll say, Hey, let's just think about this for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: And then we'll be dismissed, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You down for that?
SPEAKER_00: Say amen.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading verse eight.
SPEAKER_00: He says, First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
SPEAKER_00: For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son.
SPEAKER_00: That without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you.
SPEAKER_00: That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pause right there.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul, the guy that wrote 13 books of the New Testament, says, Hey, I want to come to your house for dinner on Tuesday, and I want to be encouraged by your faith.
SPEAKER_00: No, nothing.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't feel pressure, you wouldn't like lay out religious books, open a Bible on the coffee table.
SPEAKER_00: We read this every night.
SPEAKER_00: See, here's why I stop and say that.
SPEAKER_00: You should have people in your life who encourage your faith.
SPEAKER_00: When they leave, you you close the front door and you look at your wife and say, Man, I'm glad we're friends with them.
SPEAKER_00: My faith is kind of buoyed and bolstered by them.
SPEAKER_00: He says, but he goes on, he said, by each other's faith, both yours and mine.
SPEAKER_00: I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far I've been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: I am under obligation to both Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
SPEAKER_00: So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 16, he gives three reasons why.
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 in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith, and it says written, the righteous shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Now he says, I'm ver in verse 15, I'm eager to preach the gospel to you guys who are in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: It is a target-rich environment.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to get there.
SPEAKER_00: And then he gives three reasons why.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what I want to point to, because this is where gospel eagerness comes from.
SPEAKER_00: When I say gospel eagerness, I am not saying being some rude, obnoxious, religious person that condemns people, makes them feel guilty.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: Gospel eagerness is about bringing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Gospel just means good news.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of Christianity to bear on every circumstance and situation in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So where does Paul get this eagerness?
SPEAKER_00: The first place is simply this.
SPEAKER_00: He associates well with the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I say that he associates well with the gospel, but what we see in America today is that people are disassociating from the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: They're kind of backing up and kind of saying, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: There's things about this I don't think I'm down with.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just say this: when you disassociate from the gospel, you also separate yourself from the power and the authority of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And what you're left with is your intellect or personality or whatever vain hope of deliverance you want to trust in.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's very uh sexy these days to say, well, you know, I'm just kind of taking a break.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about this uh Christianity thing.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is over time the gospel begins to feel more foreign than familiar.
SPEAKER_00: And your soul and psyche can only take so much hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say the last part again.
SPEAKER_00: What happens when you disassociate?
SPEAKER_00: Because where do you stop backpedaling and backing up from the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not careful, pretty soon you wake up and you're like, oh, you're like a little league parent sitting in the stands at church, clapping for your kids, because you know deep inside you are no longer moved by the reality of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Because you just disassociated.
SPEAKER_00: Somewhere along the line, you step back and you found more pleasure in a glass of Merlot than you do the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We're so I can see your faces.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, where's the love, sex, and dating guy that's been here?
SPEAKER_00: Can we go back to talking about palm trees and women and yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And then now, just to be frank, I ain't I ain't down on a glass of Merlot.
SPEAKER_00: Knock yourself out.
SPEAKER_00: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: God created that too.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying, when we disassociate, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: I brought you a little three-step process.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's happening in our country, whether you realize it or not.
SPEAKER_00: First, it begins with disassociation.
SPEAKER_00: He says, for Paul says, I associate well with the God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Whether I'm in the boardroom or the bedroom, or I'm in a restaurant, or I'm at a local table out here in Folkshire, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: There's no circumstance, there's no topic anybody can bring up that I'm gonna go, oh man, I don't know what to say now.
SPEAKER_00: You've asked this question and it rattled my worldview.
SPEAKER_00: No, the gospel says, El champion del mundo.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel says, bring it on, boys and girls.
SPEAKER_00: You're bringing Kool-Aid to a gym party.
SPEAKER_00: Just bring it.
SPEAKER_00: What happens is we disassociate, we practice disassociation.
SPEAKER_00: And then the second step is deconstruction, deconstruction.
SPEAKER_00: Very popular now, the deconstructionist podcast.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone's deconstructing their faith.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is, and by the way, it's exactly what it sounds like.
SPEAKER_00: You're basically you're tearing apart Christianity until what you all you have left is what you can agree with.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: That's Tom or Susie or Mary or whatever your name is.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no hope in that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because here's why deconstructionism is so popular.
SPEAKER_00: It's like among students.
SPEAKER_00: Parents, you should not ask your kids what music are you listening to?
SPEAKER_00: Who you're hanging out with.
SPEAKER_00: Ask your kids what podcast are you binging on these days?
SPEAKER_00: Because they sit in that bedroom upstairs and they just fill their head with stuff that's from a uh uh it's all moral, uh, if not immoral.
SPEAKER_00: They pass immorality, it's just amoral, it has no moral bearing.
SPEAKER_00: It just teaches that all of life is nothingness, nihilism.
SPEAKER_00: So just live for yourself, be all about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And so you did you disassociate, and then you begin this process of deconstructing your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is you have to kill God to give yourself permission to do what you really want to do.
SPEAKER_00: It sounds like this.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, I I just want to announce to everybody that I no longer identify as a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a hero, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You're not some moral, spiritual, intellectual giant, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want to say to you, okay?
SPEAKER_00: If you're really brave, then just let it be all about you, okay?
SPEAKER_00: What what why do you have to give us some big pseudo-intellectual speech where you rip some podcast take on science and morality and human sexuality to explain your life?
SPEAKER_00: To all the deconstructionists in the world who may be in this room right now or may be listening via the podcast, just have the courage to say this, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's not Christianity, it's not God, it's not the church, it's not my parents, it's me.
SPEAKER_00: My sinful desires have gotten the better of me.
SPEAKER_00: And what was once a long time ago, the enemy got a foothold in my life, is now a stronghold.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not blaming anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not here to make a statement on I don't want anybody else at the Olympics talking about intersectionality and all your fans.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have any fans.
SPEAKER_00: Put your arms down.
SPEAKER_00: Why does everybody have a cause but no common sense these days?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm just looking around, I'm like, this is lonely.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, which one of these things do you speak to first?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you're gonna deconstruct, because here's the thing this is the indestructible gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're not gonna change it one iota, and neither am I.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on you.
SPEAKER_00: And so I don't know why there's all well, uh, yeah, just have the courage, just let this phrase hang in the air for a moment this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I am not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means that I associate freely and with joy with the gospel and all of its ramifications for my life and the life of everyone in this world.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna distance myself from it, regardless of what my friends say in the name of finding themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, I just, you know, I'm just done with that.
SPEAKER_00: That's old and archaic.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said to me this summer, because though I didn't preach, so my wife's like, could you go preach to somebody?
SPEAKER_00: Could you go to the mall and just hijack people and talk to them?
SPEAKER_00: Uh by the way, people in the Apple store at first colony mall, they don't want to have spiritual dialogue.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, they're down, they're gonna slap a mask on you and go, I'm like, why do I gotta wear a mask?
SPEAKER_00: I'm vaccinated.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all have faith in science?
SPEAKER_00: You say, trust the science.
SPEAKER_00: Do we trust the science?
SPEAKER_00: Why do I gotta wear a mask?
SPEAKER_00: Sir, to come in the store, you have to wear a mask.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just asking, why do I have to wear a mask?
SPEAKER_00: Because either science works or it doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not even caring about that.
SPEAKER_00: I just like I'm like Gus from Loneson Dove.
SPEAKER_00: I like to kick a pig every here and again.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd like to get the conversation going.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm sitting there, and the guy's like, sir, I appreciate your patience.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, that's running out.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's no chairs in the Apple store anymore.
SPEAKER_00: They make you stand around these tables.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What's the sense in having an appointment?
SPEAKER_00: I've been here, these people just walked in and they got and I ain't hating on them.
SPEAKER_00: I might be hating on you.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy said, You're really funny.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm not being funny.
SPEAKER_00: I'm fantasizing about harming you in my head.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Really?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah, I'm not going to.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Why not?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Because I'm a man of faith.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, you ever burp and you didn't mean to?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Oh, I'm sorry, that just came right out.
SPEAKER_00: He was like, I said, You don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: I just made it awkward.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Do I make it awkward?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, kinda.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'll be right here.
SPEAKER_00: Come back to me when you wait on everybody else in the store.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be right here, holding this table up.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, I got my hip replaced a couple months ago.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I don't know what to say.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Walk off.
SPEAKER_00: Save yourself now.
SPEAKER_00: No, I just he says, I'm not, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna back it up.
SPEAKER_00: But somebody chatted me up.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Whoa, you're a man of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I am.
SPEAKER_00: I'm Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I tell you what, my problem with Christianity is you want to know?
SPEAKER_00: Ah man, I came here today to the mall hoping you'd tell me.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Yeah, that you guys are so exclusive.
SPEAKER_00: You're so narrow-minded and exclusive.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, when you're not ashamed of the gospel, people say stuff it doesn't dysregulate you, like, oh my gosh, let me get my manual out.
SPEAKER_00: How to have a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: I went to a Christian bookstore, I wanted to burn the thing down.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, have you noticed Christian bookstores are disappearing?
SPEAKER_00: No one wants those testaments, huh?
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that Jesus junk you sell?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're just we're just getting a bunch of decorations for Christmas, but we're not getting a God-informed worldview.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a good thing that Christian bookstores go out of business because they don't sell books.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, it just happened.
SPEAKER_00: Where's the other guy?
SPEAKER_00: Where's where's the sex guy?
SPEAKER_00: I passed someone in the parking lot walking in this morning, he goes, anything but sex.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to hear more about it.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Never mind.
SPEAKER_00: So the lady says, Hey, you know, I just have a problem with Christians, you're exclusive.
SPEAKER_00: I said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: You're half right.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Excuse me?
SPEAKER_00: You should say things in spiritual conversations people aren't prepared to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying be shocking, I'm saying be intentional.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Christianity, wait for this, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is simultaneously exclusive and universal.
SPEAKER_00: People all around my table are like, what'd you say?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's exclusive, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And it's universal.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take them in reverse order.
SPEAKER_00: It's universal in that the gospel is whosoever will.
SPEAKER_00: Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Universal, whosoever, but the Lord, exclusive.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one way.
SPEAKER_00: So you're half right.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, No one's ever told me that.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, I think that's why I came here to the Apple store and to wait 41 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Because I hate injustice.
SPEAKER_00: You roll up on me and steal time for me, I got to take her going.
SPEAKER_00: My wife's like, Is the stopwatch on your phone going?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_00: Just so I can see how much injustice I'm absorbing today.
SPEAKER_00: Not everyone's out to get you, Neil.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they are.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they are.
SPEAKER_00: That's a running joke in our family.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a joke.
SPEAKER_00: See, Paul says, I this gospel eager, where does it come from?
SPEAKER_00: Because he associates well with the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You got to ask yourself, where are you in relation to the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Are you disassociating?
SPEAKER_00: Are you kind of deconstructing?
SPEAKER_00: Because the third phase is just flat out denial.
SPEAKER_00: I just I'm not down with that.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing that this gospel eagerness, second place it comes from, is that he understands the capacity of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He says, for in it the power of God is the power, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, but also to the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Hear it again, in sequential order.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For I'm not, I'm eager to preach the gospel to those of you who are in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, verse 16, for it is uh for I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you not ashamed of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: For it is the power of God unto salvation to anyone, universal appeal who believes.
SPEAKER_00: To the Jew first, the religious person.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can be religious and never have a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: Religion will not change your status or your standing before God, one iota.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said to me in the album saw, so you're saying you're a religious person.
SPEAKER_00: I said, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: That sounds pathetically horrible to me to go through life and be labeled a religious person.
SPEAKER_00: I am a person that has a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're all God's children.
SPEAKER_00: No, we're all God's creation, but we're not all God's children.
SPEAKER_00: I have children.
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean all the kids running around this album?
SPEAKER_00: By the way, this is free.
SPEAKER_00: When you take your kids out in public, they're still your responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you have forgotten that.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm the old guy that shows up and I'm like, I want to whip your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Really, what I want to do is whip you, but that would look awkward, so I'm gonna whip your kids.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Look at these kids running around here.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I got kids.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just say, because I have kids, all these kids are mine?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, God's the same way.
SPEAKER_00: We all of us are God's creation, but we're not necessarily by nature his children.
SPEAKER_00: She said, You are actually fascinating to talk to.
SPEAKER_00: Hang on a second, let me call my wife.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to say that into this phone.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean it understands the capacity of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey, I know what the gospel is capable of.
SPEAKER_00: Do you still realize?
SPEAKER_00: Do you do you live in vital union with the capacity of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: He says, It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
SPEAKER_00: To the Jew first, that's the religious person, but also to the Greek, the smart person.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is not a feeling sport, it is an intellectual engagement, okay?
SPEAKER_00: He said the capacity to believe comes from our experience with the powerful gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And if we believe that this gospel is that powerful, would we talk differently in our conversations?
SPEAKER_00: It's not about being having a big personality or thing, it's about just understanding what is contained in the gospel, the capacity that comes with the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Paul says hey, I'm eager.
SPEAKER_00: I talk about gospel eagerly.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to get to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I understand what the gospel is capable of.
SPEAKER_00: And my concern is that we seem to have come to believe that culture and technology and cultural morality have all superseded the gospel in power.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to say, nothing, beloved, could be further from the truth.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the reality when you lose confidence in the gospel, you no longer have confidence in the capacity of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so we get quiet.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: When you lose confidence in the gospel, you no longer have confidence in the capacity of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so we just get quiet.
SPEAKER_00: And so you're at dinner and your friends say crazy things that are just, you know, my friend of mine, she says, we have a thing called Thirsty Thursdays.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, what's that?
SPEAKER_00: She's a friend of my wife and I said, Lady.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and she said, Well, I'm kind of embarrassed to tell you.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Okay, you ain't gotta tell.
SPEAKER_00: Well, me and my friends go to a wine bar every Thursday.
SPEAKER_00: Luscious.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, anyway, I said, No, I don't care, just practice moderation.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, Okay, well, and and and last week, last Thursday, I just felt bad.
SPEAKER_00: I wish you were there.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I could just pull you out of my pocket, let you talk to my friends.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, that's creepy, but go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Uh she said, Well, I mean, they start talking about religion and they're just dogging it.
SPEAKER_00: And I I didn't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: I said, So do you just sat there and sipped your wine?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, pretty much.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, When you walked away, how'd you feel?
SPEAKER_00: Stupid?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm so sorry you felt that way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it doesn't have to be that way.
SPEAKER_00: But what allows you now to practice gospel eagerness is that we we associate well with the gospel and then we understand the capacity of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself, what have you seen the gospel change lately?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, it's not about, she goes, you got any books?
SPEAKER_00: Because she wanted me to give her a bucks.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about, I said, just focus on the gospel, become gospel fluent so you can apply the gospel to all circumstances and situations.
SPEAKER_00: Because when I say gospel, that just means good news.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of Christianity, the gospel is not just a ticket to get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Through constant application to the gospel to your life, you bring heaven to earth.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, by the way, Thirsty Thursday, you and your friends at a wine bar is the native environment for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You should sit around, sip something you enjoy, and talk about the gospel fluently and with gusto and gravity and gladness.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, Oh my gosh, I wish you could have been there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna go to a wine bar and sit out with a bunch of women, okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's weird.
SPEAKER_00: But you're there, you be God's ambassador there.
SPEAKER_00: It's just about I say, it's just not reading books about spiritual conversations, it's about just just plunging on the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Third thing.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, How does this gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Where does this gospel eagerness come from?
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're a thinking person right now, you just got excited.
SPEAKER_00: Because when I first got up, I said, What about gospel eagerness?
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I'm eager, and then he gives three reasons.
SPEAKER_00: And I just said the third thing.
SPEAKER_00: And your thought was, we are going to beat the Methodists to the golden corral.
SPEAKER_00: Pump the brakes, Kippy.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to plunge just for a minute and think a little bit, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You down with that?
SPEAKER_00: Say amen.
SPEAKER_00: You see, he said third thing, he says, he trusts in the where does this gospel eagerness come from?
SPEAKER_00: He trusts in the content of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He trusts the content of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And he says in verse 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, there's the power of God unto salvation to anyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the to the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says this, for in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is just a little sidebar.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just say this the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, either there's two kinds of people in this room right now, okay?
SPEAKER_00: There's people that trust in the righteousness of God, in other words, what God has done to make you right with God and your fellow man.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's people that trust in themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They're what's called self-righteous.
SPEAKER_00: That's the only two categories in this room.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're here and you're like, I don't believe in Christianity, I think this is cuckoo, then you are by nature a self-righteous person.
SPEAKER_00: You have to figure out how to get yourself right with God, but also right with other people.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: And so when he says, hey, I trust the content of the gospel, he says, For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: God kind of pulls back the curtain and reveals and says, Hey, there's a different way to relate to me and everybody else around you.
SPEAKER_00: Like when I asked the question, what have you seen the gospel change lately?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, like the summer I was on my sabbatical, my wife kept working.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and she was like, Man, I wish I could be on sabbatical with you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that good.
SPEAKER_00: Keep going to work.
SPEAKER_00: But one day I just realized I did the gospel, you what have I seen?
SPEAKER_00: The gospel change lately.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I found myself looking around, thinking, I should pick up the house without my wife asking me to.
SPEAKER_00: Shut up.
SPEAKER_00: You hear that?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because I was sitting there flipping channels, watching TV.
SPEAKER_00: If you're visiting, I shut up is a joke.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling that person to shut up.
SPEAKER_00: It's exactly right.
SPEAKER_00: My wife, she said, hey, I I noticed the kitchen is like spotless.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah, we have granite.
SPEAKER_00: Who knew?
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't funny.
SPEAKER_00: Don't say that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not funny.
SPEAKER_00: I think I was real funny.
SPEAKER_00: My wife will come home from work and she'd be like, man, meeting with people all day in counseling.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm just exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: You want to order pizza?
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean you don't want to cook?
SPEAKER_00: Is the stove broke?
SPEAKER_00: Not funny at all.
SPEAKER_00: No, but I just realized, hey, by the way, it doesn't just stop there.
SPEAKER_00: If you're over the age of eight and you're a Christian, boys and girls, your parents shouldn't have to tell you to clean your room.
SPEAKER_00: You should just look around and kind of go, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: The gospel compels me not to be a knucklehead, not to be selfish.
SPEAKER_00: I explained to my 17-year-old, hey, when I open the cabinet and all the glasses are gone, why is my first thought?
SPEAKER_00: Go to Sophie's room, because they're in there growing mold in the bottom of them.
SPEAKER_00: Or the cereal bowl where you left milk in a bottom and put it under your bed.
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: The guy that invented penicillin called.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I just don't think about it, Dad.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: So when I say, What have I seen the gospel change lately?
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Me.
SPEAKER_00: Here's one of the ways the gospel is changing me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to understand the difference in being critical and critiquing.
SPEAKER_00: And I just think about those things.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife's like, let me know.
SPEAKER_00: If you're running out of ideas, I've got a few things I'd put on your list.
SPEAKER_00: Real funny.
SPEAKER_00: Zip it.
SPEAKER_00: See, he trusts the content of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He says, for in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.
SPEAKER_00: And then he used these three little couplets of words.
SPEAKER_00: He says, from faith, for faith, by faith.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what I want to plunge on briefly, just for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: He says, What is it?
SPEAKER_00: How is the gospel revealed?
SPEAKER_00: It is revealed, first of all, from faith.
SPEAKER_00: What this means is that this is what God has faith in.
SPEAKER_00: And the gospel always invites us to have faith in what God has faith in.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've got a Bible, uh you don't have to have one, but if you do, you might want to just turn one page from chapter one over to chapter three.
SPEAKER_00: It'll come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean from faith?
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is not something that people made up, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's not invented by man.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a bunch of religious rules that'll make you miserable and guilt-ridden.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: You think God's that not creative?
SPEAKER_00: And so when it comes from faith, it's basically God, look at me, God putting forth and saying, Hey, this is what I have faith in.
SPEAKER_00: What do you have faith in?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it like this in Romans chapter 3, verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law.
SPEAKER_00: So that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
SPEAKER_00: For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight.
SPEAKER_00: Since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
SPEAKER_00: But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and prophets, see how that's capitalized?
SPEAKER_00: That's a reference to the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
SPEAKER_00: The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
SPEAKER_00: There's no distinction for all who have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Big word there.
SPEAKER_00: Big word alert, propitiation.
SPEAKER_00: Propitiation means that the wrath of an offended deity has been satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Ever in your life, say amen.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of the Bible, uh, of the gospel is that God says, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: By nature, that would be my response to that.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus died in your place and for your sin on the cross, and so he has taken my wrath away.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine being in a relationship with a God who never, ever, ever is going to destroy you?
SPEAKER_00: See, there's just four things in this passage I just want to point out very quickly that we just read.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, everybody in the world's accountable to God.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody is.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you believe or don't believe, you're still accountable.
SPEAKER_00: He says that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be held accountable to God.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, you can find you can be justified in your sight, but not in God's sight.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says in verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: He says that by works of the law, that's doing good things, no human being will be justified in his sight.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I did a wedding this summer and I was just chatting people up, and this guy's standing over by the bar, and he's like, hey, that was good, man.
SPEAKER_00: I that wasn't what I expected.
SPEAKER_00: That was kind of funny and meaningful.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh, well, thanks very much.
SPEAKER_00: And got to talking, and so you pastor a church?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I pastor a church.
SPEAKER_00: Well, so what's that like?
SPEAKER_00: Well, right now I mean doing nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what?
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm on a sabbatical.
SPEAKER_00: No one knows what that word means.
SPEAKER_00: So I said, I'm on I'm on an extended vacation or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: We're chatting away, and I said, Hey, I said, And when you look at your life, how do you feel about it?
SPEAKER_00: He said, I feel pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: I said, From your perspective, you feel pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Yeah, I said, How about from God's perspective?
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, we all can feel good if we're looking at ourselves through the lens of self because we're never gonna be hard on ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We might get mad at ourselves every once in a while, but we don't have the power to change us.
SPEAKER_00: But when you look at yourself through the lens of God, how do you feel?
SPEAKER_00: Whoo, I don't even think about that.
SPEAKER_00: It was a great conversation.
SPEAKER_00: I just said, hey, I might want to think about it sometime.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you say that?
SPEAKER_00: I said, because one of the things I'm I'm writing on right now, so when I go back, I gotta preach because the Baptist wants you to come back and go to work.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know, there's a part in the Bible that basically says that that nobody can ever be justified in God's sight by doing because he said, I said, when what makes you feel good about yourself?
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm a good dude, man.
SPEAKER_00: I don't steal, I mean, I'm straight up, I smoke a little weed, I mess around with women and stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, So basically you're a pretty good dude.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, from God's perspective, I said, you know, you said you you're pretty good guy.
SPEAKER_00: I said, but the Bible says that nobody can get right with God by doing good things because your goodness can never exceed your badness.
SPEAKER_00: That's math.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is music.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I said, you want to go back to work?
SPEAKER_00: He went, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I said, all right, man, shake hands.
SPEAKER_00: He walked off.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't throw literature at him.
SPEAKER_00: Take and read this, you sinner.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Told him what I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_00: You can be justified in your sight, but not in God's sight.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, I want you to see that our sin doesn't cause God to give up on us.
SPEAKER_00: It's that part down there in verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For there's no distinction.
SPEAKER_00: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift for the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Our sin doesn't cause God to give up on us.
SPEAKER_00: Underline or circle those two words.
SPEAKER_00: No distinction.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever done something that was really, really, really sinful and you knew it, you did it anyway, and after the fact you thought, what was I thinking?
SPEAKER_00: Say amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's terrible.
SPEAKER_00: You should be there, should be more sinners in here than that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I got landed in the front row, and some of you go, let's try that again.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have ever committed a sin and you thought that is terrible?
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe I did that.
SPEAKER_00: Say amen.
SPEAKER_00: See?
SPEAKER_00: Church people don't have it all together.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad you came today?
SPEAKER_00: No, why do I say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because he says there's no distinction.
SPEAKER_00: What does he mean he says there's no distinction?
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is that God doesn't look at your sin to decide if you deserve grace.
SPEAKER_00: That's good news, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't look at your sin and go, oh, well, let me see, that wasn't too bad.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I feel I feel okay giving you this.
SPEAKER_00: I feel good at this time.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: There's no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because everyone's sin, God doesn't distinguish or relate to you on the basis of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You can be justified by his grace as a gift.
SPEAKER_00: Your sin doesn't nullify the gift of God's grace that he wants to give you.
SPEAKER_00: So if you hear anything today, if you're like, this is my first time, I'm not real into this, I don't really understand it.
SPEAKER_00: We sang some songs.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know any of those songs.
SPEAKER_00: Relax.
SPEAKER_00: It just means come back and learn some of the songs.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find yourself singing them.
SPEAKER_00: But hear this: God does not look at your sin to decide if you deserve grace.
SPEAKER_00: Fourth thing, and that's a little part of the Bible, is that the gospel invites you and I to have faith in what God has faith in.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Whom God put forward.
SPEAKER_00: Talking about Jesus as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
SPEAKER_00: By putting Jesus forward on the cross, God is saying, This is what I have faith in.
SPEAKER_00: Now the question you got to ask yourself is, do you have faith in that as well?
SPEAKER_00: It's from faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means when he says it's from faith.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, secondly, it's for faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is to give us something to have faith in.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel doesn't come to us for the purpose of condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: Does it make sense?
SPEAKER_00: God didn't do everything God did just to tell you what a pathetic loser you are.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come to say you don't stand a chance.
SPEAKER_00: You might as well just do whatever.
SPEAKER_00: A friend of mine sent me this video a couple days ago, this filmmaker, it's so good.
SPEAKER_00: He just interviews real people.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy he interviewed was a fentanyl addict.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy's all cut up.
SPEAKER_00: He's out on Skid Row living on the streets.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I got shot two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, What's it like?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, other day I was on the elevator, I spit on the floor, and I looked at the people on the elevator and said, That's me.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy started crying.
SPEAKER_00: And the filmmaker said, You handed him a tissue said, You okay?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Yeah, I joked about it in the moment, but now I just I just feel sad thinking that way.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's jacked up, man.
SPEAKER_00: Man.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Because for the person that thinks they've got it all together, or the person that says, you know what, I feel like just worthless spit on the floor.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel doesn't come for the purpose of condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel comes and says, you may feel like that, but that's not the truth about you.
SPEAKER_00: God has a plan and a purpose for your life.
SPEAKER_00: And there's something that you can have faith in.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from faith for faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's very causal.
SPEAKER_00: Before you go to bed tonight, you should ask your spouse, hey, what do we have faith in?
SPEAKER_00: Just watching the way we live.
SPEAKER_00: What do we have faith in?
SPEAKER_00: And then finally he says, by faith.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Ah, man, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's the power of God unto salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who believes to the Jew first and then to the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith, and then he says, by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Those who have come to faith, they live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the gospel is not just something they believe to get into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It is the gospel, the gospel is the reality that they apply to all of their life.
SPEAKER_00: And by doing that, they bring heaven to earth.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the Bible says in Galatians chapter 2, verse 20, this guy, Paul, that recorded the book of Romans, he said, I've been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
SPEAKER_00: And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_00: The life I live in the flesh, I live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: There's towards the back of the New Testament, there's a book of the Bible called Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: Get to chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: It's this great faith chapter of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Over and over.
SPEAKER_00: It talks about what these people did, and it all starts with, By faith, this happened.
SPEAKER_00: By faith, by faith, by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Because the gospel comes from faith, for faith, so you and I can live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself, what is the fuel in the tank of your heart that propels you to do the right thing?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that this is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's think a little before we're done.
SPEAKER_00: You're still with me?
SPEAKER_00: Can you think for like 30 seconds?
SPEAKER_00: Because see, if you're not careful, uh, when you stop living by faith, you set yourself up to rely on sanctification, your sanctification for justification.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all are like, what?
SPEAKER_00: Those are two big words, and I don't use them, so you'll feel stupid, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So let me just let me give you two simple words.
SPEAKER_00: Sanctification is progress.
SPEAKER_00: Sanctification means that I'm making progress in my Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm becoming more and more Christ-like and less and less like my natural self.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: I'm making progress.
SPEAKER_00: Justification is person.
SPEAKER_00: Sanctification, progress, justification, person.
SPEAKER_00: It's the person of Jesus who dies on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if what I mean, if you don't live, if you don't aren't living by faith, you start looking for in your sanctification to see how you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm making progress.
SPEAKER_00: I feel good about myself.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do you feel in the days you're not making progress?
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever have thoughts like, man, is this even real?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, am I even so you start disassociating from the gospel, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so this is why it's important that we live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, a guy named Richard Lovelace said this.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote a book called The Dynamics of Spiritual Life.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts Him in Jesus, justification, a person, uh, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons.
SPEAKER_00: And such insecurity can easily hamper progress in Christian living.
SPEAKER_00: And so the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Hey, I am eager to preach the gospel to those of you who are in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Listen, uh, because he associates well with the gospel, he understands the capacity of the gospel and he trusts in the content of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So don't walk out of here today and go, oh, I want to practice gospel eagerness because your coworkers will be like, what?
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: Just immerse yourself and just say, I want to understand the content of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to go through life trying to convince people that I'm I'm righteous.
SPEAKER_00: That's self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: I want to trust in the person of Jesus and what he's done in my place for me.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest, we we like to teach the Bible, then we just take some time just to be still.
SPEAKER_00: And Clyde will come and he may play something.
SPEAKER_00: Some questions come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Those are just to kind of give you some jumping off points mentally.
SPEAKER_00: You can take a picture with your phone.
SPEAKER_00: You can screen write them down if you if you want to.
SPEAKER_00: Let me voice a prayer and let's just linger and think for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thanks for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's very thought-provoking, it stirs head and heart, and that manifests in our hands and what we do.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, just kind of brood over us.
SPEAKER_00: Cause us to think about and feel what we need to feel.
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with what we heard today?
SPEAKER_00: What do we have faith in?
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, just brood over us.
SPEAKER_00: Father, to we understand today that uh to have you at the center of it all is to be safe and secure from all alarms.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's there's a reality bigger and better than us, and it's you.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't have to be the general manager of the universe, somebody else is gonna run the universe, and I can be not in control and still be safe.
SPEAKER_00: So, Holy Spirit, continue just to enhance and illuminate our understanding of the gospel because we want to practice gospel eagerness.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be religious jerks that say snarky things to our neighbors, we want to be winsome, joyful people.
SPEAKER_00: This is our prayer, God.
SPEAKER_00: Make it our experience.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a guest, let me say this to you.
SPEAKER_00: You're always welcome here.
SPEAKER_00: You you don't have to believe yet.
SPEAKER_00: Do we want you to believe?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but we're not gonna pressure you, we're not gonna jam you up, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh we just say just keep coming.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that God will just keep filling your heart up to one day it just overflows, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So if you're a guest today, uh all we ask of you is that you would pull one of those guest cards in the seat back pocket in your row, fill it out, drop it one of those wooden boxes by the door on your way out.
SPEAKER_00: And for the rest of you, if you consider this your church and today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity when it comes to giving, that's where you take care of that as well.
SPEAKER_00: We have an announcement video, so direct your uh attention to the screens, please.
SPEAKER_03: Good morning, Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_03: My name is Clyde Copeland.
SPEAKER_03: I'm the worship pastor here at the church.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, I'm standing here in the master control room of our new sanctuary.
SPEAKER_03: There's work going on behind me.
SPEAKER_03: It is a hot, muggy day.
SPEAKER_03: Uh and this room may not look like much right now, but in the next few weeks, it's gonna be filled with people and with equipment that will making our Sunday morning services what they are.
SPEAKER_03: Two words I'm gonna put in front of you today to be bringing about the first word of progress.
SPEAKER_03: Continues to bring progress to our church with people coming in and with new ministry opportunities that come with you.
SPEAKER_03: The second word is place.
SPEAKER_03: There is a place for you here on our team with what we do in the production ministry.
SPEAKER_03: Today I want to give you the opportunity to hear from some people who have found their place on our team.
SPEAKER_03: Let's take a look.
SPEAKER_04: What I enjoy about uh serving on the production team is the camaraderie and getting to know the people.
SPEAKER_04: Uh back here, uh, when you're doing the booth, you're with the people for three services and it gives you a chance to interact and get to know people better.
SPEAKER_04: I like to know that I can help people sing the songs and praise the Lord in a way that they're not struggling to try to uh remember what comes next in a song.
SPEAKER_04: And to listen to everybody sing for three services is amazing.
SPEAKER_02: Many things that I've seen and been a part of have really ministered to me specifically.
SPEAKER_02: So, what I've seen over the years uh in regards to the growth of this church is been really amazing.
SPEAKER_02: Part of that comes uh from a group of people that they call this church home that are willing to serve and willing to sacrifice because we have seen what God can do when we set our mind to his work.
SPEAKER_01: So we need more people.
SPEAKER_01: As we get into the new building, we're gonna have more positions, more things to do, more tools to be able to give people who are at home who can't come to the church to be able to see the sermon, but we're gonna need more people.
SPEAKER_02: If if you have the gift of service, uh we need you to be part of this ministry.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to have the technological training for this job.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we need people that are willing to learn.
SPEAKER_02: Whether it's learning how to control the videos, whether it's learning how to do the sound, whether it's learning how to do the screens, we need people that are willing to serve and willing to learn, to be a part of a great ministry.
SPEAKER_02: I have seen what uh what God is doing, uh what he's done, and what he will continue to do through this church.
SPEAKER_03: To find your place in our worship ministry, contact Clyde at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_03: There are two more ways you can be involved in the ministry of the church.
SPEAKER_03: ESL is a ministry for teaching English as a second language.
SPEAKER_03: It begins September 7th here on our campus.
SPEAKER_03: We would love to have you join us as a teacher or as a conversation partner.
SPEAKER_03: Contact ESL at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_03: Tonight at 6 p.m., our church has been invited to prayer walk at Oyster Creek Elementary School.
SPEAKER_03: We will gather in front of the school and then divide up into groups to pray over the school.
SPEAKER_03: See you then.
SPEAKER_03: If you're new or would like someone to pray with you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_00: We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And before I have you stand, some of you are leaning forward, like, get the kid, we're out.
SPEAKER_00: Uh look at me.
SPEAKER_00: If you're visiting today, this is what you can expect every time you come.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna we're gonna teach the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We'll try to teach it in a way that makes sense in 2021.
SPEAKER_00: Not that it doesn't make sense, but sometimes it uses big irregular words.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but just because you don't understand some words you hear, that doesn't mean you're dumb.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the voice of God, okay?
SPEAKER_00: God says you're capable, you're competent.
SPEAKER_00: You can not only understand this, but look at me, you can experience this.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: The peace of God, you can experience that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want you to experience.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't want to just preach to you, I want to be your pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so we're available if you have any questions.
SPEAKER_00: Just make an appointment with one of us.
SPEAKER_00: We'd love to sit down and process with you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to just get to know you, all right?
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're about.
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_00: We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_00: If you're comfortable, hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: Your God knows everything about you, and he's not ashamed to be your God.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now with gospel eagerness to be the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.