Introduction So we've been talking about these markers that we see along our way along our journey of the road. And let's go through the markers so far. So marker number one for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's marker number one. Marker number one is none of us gets it right. We all blow it. It doesn't matter your upbringing. It doesn't matter your lineage. It doesn't matter your ethnicity. It doesn't matter how many times you went to church, how many times your parents went to church, how many times you messed up- none of that matters. None of us are good enough. We all fall short of God's glory and that's where it starts. That's marker number one. Marker number two, God has a plan for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord God made away when we were stuck in our sin. God made away what we earn for sin is death, but he gives us a gift, the gift of life in Christ Jesus, our Lord, and marker number three. It's a sign of his love, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, not when we got our act together, when we figured everything out, when we started living right and getting things right, then he died for us. No while we were still sinners, before we ever knew that we needed saving, he died for us. But I think the next step on this road and the next question that we ask is, okay, so we're sinners. God had a plan. It's in Jesus Christ. Faith is the key. How do I actually put my faith in Jesus? Like what are the mechanics of that? How do I actually do that? Because for a lot of Christians that I meet, there's a lot of uncertainty that people carry with them. I've noticed, and this is mostly from folks who I'd say, have been going to church a long time, there's an uncertainty like how do I know that I'm in like I've been going to church my whole life? How do I know that I have faith? I don't know- I think I do. I think I'm good. Today is going to put your heart at ease. How do we put our faith in Jesus Christ? Let's go back to the experience of Paul. Paul had an experience of Jesus before he knew what Jesus meant in his relationship with God. You know what I'm saying? He didn't understand. He had his own way of understanding God. Paul had an experience and that led Paul to ask some big questions. I think this happens with all of us. We have an experience of God and that leads us to ask some big questions. Wow, we have got a chorus of babies this morning and we're like, hallelujah. Our babies are proclaiming, but when we have an experience of God, we then start to ask big questions like, because it changes everything. What does this mean now for my life? What does it mean for the path that I was on? What does it mean for me going forward? Paul had the same thing happening in his life. He's figuring out what does Jesus mean? And he had the biggest question on his heart had to do with what happens now to my people. What happens to the Jewish people now that Jesus came? How did that change it for them? Are they, are they going to be okay? Will the Jewish people be saved? Are God's promises still good for them? And you can see in his letter to the Romans chapters nine through 11 he's working those questions out in real time. People. He's trying to figure out, okay, what does this mean for my people? Are they, are they in? Are they going to be saved? I think we're Paul lands on what it means to live in the law in the way of the Jewish people. What the law does is a lot like my tumbler that I get from Starbucks. So every year in case you're not up on all things Starbucks, every year in December, Starbucks has a sale. You buy a Starbucks tumbler for$40 but exactly. So at nine o'clock I had, it was an audible gasp from the collective congregation. I didn't even have the visual. There were horrified$40 for a tumbler. I'm like, what? So cause here's, here's the deal, here's the deal. Then in the month of January you get to fill that tumbler with coffee all month for free. So, so this is a gift that I get. Thank you. It's a gift, right? Every year I get this gift. So three years ago I think was the first time I got this three years ago and I was kind of like the high schooler going to the Chinese buffet I was like, this is my opportunity to stick it to the man So I would go into Starbucks. I was going like two, three times a day filling this giant tumbler with coffee. I'm like, I'm going to get the money's worth, you know, don't tell me you've never done that at the buffet. Eat another p late, kids- I paid 10 bucks. A lright. And the thing is, thing is then I'm drinking all this coffee and like at night I'm like, I'm not sleeping well my heart's racing and I'm thinking, and here's me. I'm like, what's going on? I must not be well, you're right, you're not well. Yo u're d owning coffee like it's water. If you dr ank t hat much water in a day, you'd be lucky. Coffee an d I was using this and I think this was proof. You can misuse even a good thing, right? You can misuse a good thing. Sometimes we can misuse a good thing so much that it can even make us sick. This is how Paul understands the use of the law. The law is a good thing, but the problem is his people had made it the main thing, the whole point of the law was to point to something else, was about a relationship with Jesus Christ and then what happened over the years is that they forgot the relationship part and all they cared about was fulfilling the law and it was making them sick. They were misusing a good thing. Let's explain that quickly. So why did God even give the law in the first place? Well, God wanted to live amongst his people. Now, if you believe in a God, I hope you would believe that God is Holy. In other words, God is nowhere in the presence of sin. There's no sin in God, I would hope that that's the kind of God we would long for. If that's true, then holiness will leave its mark on sin in a very powerful, in fatal way. When I came to see that... Long story short, God's like, I would love it if my children did it die when I came to see them. Like that'd be awesome. Let me help you not die. So this is how you not die. I'm going to give you the law and this is how you actually live righteously. This is how you can live in such a way that you are Holy. So I can be with you, but you're going to mess that up. So let me give you this other way of sacrifice. In other words, you should die because of the sin that's in you. But instead I'll accept the death of an animal. This helps you understand the fatal consequences of sin. Now we can all sit here and be like, Oh man, that was really like barbaric. And the thing is God always uses human culture, leverages it to say something true about himself all throughout history. In other words, it wouldn't make sense to us if God spoke out of culture. He speaks to us where we are back in the ancient, near East, at the time of the Israelites, every pagan religion also did animal sacrifices. What he did was take the idea of sacrifice for them to understand sin and what it meant to live in the presence of God. He did the same thing with Greek philosophy later in the new Testament. So he gives this system and then what happens is he says, all of this is so that you can have a relationship with me. Remember that's the point. I'm going to live with you. I want to be with you all the time. I want to be your God. You my people, this is how you do it. And then what happened was, according to Paul, is they were misusing that. They forgot that there was a relationship going on. It was all about I'm going to fulfill the obligations and that's what it's about. And that's how they misused it. It's kinda like getting married and having a family. If I got married and had a family just so I could get a tax break or whatever other legal benefits of marriage and family brought me, but ignored the relationship, that would not end well. That would not be good. That would be an adventure in missing the point. Now it'd be the misuse of a good thing and this is Paul's whole point. Same thing with God's law. Jesus didn't come to get rid of it. It has its part to play, but it's not the main thing. The main thing is what Jesus did on the cross. The law is not an end in itself. The relationship is the end that God is after. Okay, let's jump into Romans. Was that funny? Let's get into Romans chapter nine we'll start with verse 30 what then shall we say that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it? A righteousness that is by faith, but the people of Israel who pursued the law as the way of righteousness have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith, but as if it were by works. Right? Works of the law. Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. This is Paul's heart. He wants his people to be saved. So how? How do we do it? How does it happen? What's the process by which we know that we are saved by God? This is the number one beating heart center of the target. What Jesus is all about, how do we actually go from death to life? The answer that Paul gives us next is very simple, but it is very profound. Verse nine if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be safe. That's it. Believe in your heart and declare with your mouth. For it is with your heart that you believe in, are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Think about it this way. I mean, you need both. You need to believe, and you need to say it, but this is true in any relationship. You need to believe that you love somebody, but you need to say it. You really can't have one without the other. It's how you show love in any relationship. If I believe that I love my children, but I never say it to them, then depending on the day, may actions may or may not display my love. If I say it and I don't believe it, that's a problem. I need to do both. I need to believe in it in my heart and say it with my mouth. I need to say it. salvation is a process, but it's also a moment. It's both. Here's what I mean. The apostle Paul, he didn't really know about Jesus. He knew about what the early Christians believed and he knew about God's law. You know what really well, but for him it was a moment where Jesus literally knocks him off his horse. He has this blinding light moment and he puts his faith in Jesus. Yeah. What did that mean? But then after that it was also a process of him understanding and figuring out what did that mean? What were the implications? Okay. I think this idea is so important to grasp. I had an apostle Paul moment for sure. I do not equate myself with the apostle Paul. Let's be clear on that. But I had a similar moment where it was a moment first I didn't know anything about Jesus. Somebody went through the Roman road with me one night at a campfire and I said, yes, I, I believe. And I say, yes, I believe in Jesus. It was a moment that changed everything, but it was also a process for me to learn. What did that mean? What did that moment mean? now I would say my wife's example is the opposite. It was a process that led to a moment like she always went to church and many of you are in that, in that category. You always went to church. It was a process. But then there was also a moment, like there's a moment that she can remember sitting in a kitchen in her best friend's mother led her in a prayer to put her faith in Jesus. She remembers that moment. I think the hard thing for a church like mainline denominational churches in America is that we assume the moment's already happened before you walk in the door, and so we talk a lot as if we're in the process together, but we don't want to assume that. Have you had your moment? Let's keep reading. Verse 11 as scripture says, anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. I feel like this is the piece of the gospel. If you are not sure where you stand with God, if you believe in your heart and profess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you are in no prerequisite. It's not like, well first I have to do some Bible memory and then I got to get on the plan, got to get on the Bible app and do my daily devotional and then maybe God will listen to me. No, no, no, no, All that stuff will help you, but you don't do any of that. All- everyone, everybody, even you, if you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. That's it. You're in every believer of Jesus should have this piece because it's not about what you do. That would be really not peaceful if it was about what we do. Was I good enough today? I don't know. I hope the day I die. I'm like good that day though. My gosh. What a nightmare. No, that is not the gospel. so Paul is, he's working out these big questions. You know what happens to my people in light of what Jesus did, what happens? The answer is- will Jewish people be saved? Yes. Or God's promise is still good for them. Yes, but they're good in the same way that they're good for everybody. It's all through what Jesus did on the cross that everybody is going to have to believe and say, but of course everybody's in. Everybody who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved and so this is our fourth marker on the road. If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Okay? How many of us are living like we're still trying to meet the criteria of the law trying to meet those standards of God and it's exhausting and it's making us sick because we're misusing it. It was never supposed to be about that. It was supposed to be about a relationship with God. The law was just a tool to get us there. It's meant to give us peace. Okay, now here's my favorite part of the gospel. It doesn't just end with us. You're not gods end game. You're part of the big end game. In other words, the gospel doesn't just land on you and you say yes. Amen. Hallelujah. And that's it. The rest of your life, cause watch what he says next verse 14 how then can they call on the one they have not believed in? How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard and how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? You have beautiful feet. what'd you guys talk about at church today? I got beautiful feet. All right. Sounds like a real Bible church there. Our job is to receive this gospel message and to deliver it to somebody else. how are they going to believe if they never heard, how am I going to preach if they're not sent? As I said in the prayer, this is the locker room speech. The game is outside these doors. Yeah, salvation is a process, but it's also a moment. So I want to ask you, have you had your moment? What I'd like to do today is to give you a moment to do this. Now putting our faith in Jesus. Sometimes you hear the term a born again and that has a lot of baggage taught. People talk about born again, Christians, they are. They're talking about a whole thing. Born again, just simply means doing what Jesus tells us to do. That when we put our faith in Jesus, we're born again. We are made new Someone asked me one time, are you a born again Christian? And I say, is there any other kind? Like that's, that's all of us, right? Aren't we all? Isn't that what he says happens? We're born again. We want to give you a moment this morning, but also for all of us, you've been following Jesus for a long time. A chance to recommit our lives to him. So what we're going to do in just a moment is I'm going to lead you in a prayer and I'll invite everybody who wants to participate to participate. And it's a repeat after me prayer about putting our faith in Jesus Christ. And I want to say if you've never done this prayer before, I just want you to walk out of here knowing yes, I had my moment. My moment was today. I don't have to wonder anymore. I have peace if you said that prayer on be hanging out after the service right up here near the front. I want to carry you to come pastor Julie's here as well. She's going to be hanging out. If you want someone to talk to her to pray with, I think this is so important. Let's not assume that we've all had our moment. Let's make our moment right now. Please pray with me. I'll ask that you repeat after me. Jesus, I believe you died and Rose again for my sin. I believe you are, Lord of all. I put my faith, my trust, my hope, my whole life in you. Amen.