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The River ChurchSermons

REACH, GATHER, GROW

Reach - Romans Road

Chuck Lindsey · Sunday, 7 September 2025 · Romans 3:10-18; 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-10; 10:13 · 43:41 · 7,392 words

Romans S20 · 3:10-18; 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-10; 10:13 Grand Blanc

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

The pastor explains that the true church exists to reach lost people with the gospel, to gather together in worship, and to grow in Christ‑likeness. He emphasizes that heaven and hell are real, and that believers are called to pray daily for their families, neighbors, and friends. Using Romans verses, he shows how to lead someone to faith by confessing Jesus as Lord and trusting his death and resurrection. The message challenges listeners to stop ignoring eternity and to share the salvation message with those around them.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

reach 22 growth 16 mission 13 church 52 million 9 together 28 graham 5 real 17 people 56 suppose 13 share 16 demon 6

Topics

Salvation 8 Faith 6 The Gospel 6 Sin 5 Prayer 3 Condemnation 2 The Body of Christ 1 The Holy Spirit 1 Election & Predestination 1

Scripture referenced 11

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 8 3:50 Romans 9 3:52 John 3:16 19:39 James 2 20:55 James 2:19 21:01 John 16 28:16 Matthew 28:18 30:15 Matthew 28:19 30:34 Romans 6:23 36:28 Romans 8:1 38:32 Romans 10:8 39:19

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:41. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey, everyone. My name is Phil, and thanks for checking out this message today.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

Well, good morning. It's good to see you this morning. Good to be together with you.

Hey, before we get started, I also want to welcome those of you joining us online.

I have two quick announcements I want to make.

One is we have one of our missionaries that we support as a church here with us this morning.

Beth Ann Downer is here from Kenya.

And so she has a table set up there in the lobby.

And Beth Ann, you know, she really, I would say, rescues kids that are discarded,

children that are essentially thrown away.

She takes those kids, cares for them, loves them, shows them the love of Christ,

and really raises them until they're able to almost be on their own.

So that's how long that process is sometimes.

And so we support her.

And we wanted you to know that she's here.

She's got some information there.

She'd love to meet you, love to answer any questions that you have.

And I would ask you to please add her to your regular praying.

Pray for her. Pray for what she's doing there.

And make sure you stop and meet her, okay?

So that's the first announcement.

The second one is next Wednesday, so in a couple of days, just a few days from now,

5.30 to 6.30, we're going to have dinner here at the church.

You are invited to come.

And learn about the various growth communities that we have getting started this coming week, okay?

So all of our growth communities are kicking off this week.

And so we want you to find out about those.

We want you to get plugged into those, get signed up for those.

Those of you that don't know what a growth community is, it's what we call our small groups.

And we believe it is so important, please hear this,

for every single Christian to be in a growth community, right?

A group of people that know you, a group of people you know,

you carry burdens together, you pray together for each other,

you're a support to each other, and you grow in God's word together, okay?

So we would want every single one of you to be in a growth community.

We have all kinds of growth communities.

We have men's and women's growth communities.

We have couples growth communities and young families and senior groups

and people that love donuts too much.

I mean, just stuff, all of it, right?

Right?

We have growth communities all over the place.

So you can find out about that on Wednesday night.

Come on out and then you can stay that night for the first growth community that my wife and I lead.

And also there's the Awana program that begins that night as well.

Okay?

So you can also find all the information about our growth communities online on our website.

All right?

Okay.

Well, I'm not sure where to tell you to open to because we're going to be in a few different places here in the scriptures this morning.

But twice a year.

We try to remind ourselves what the church is all about.

Okay?

What we're supposed to be doing.

So as you know, we've been going through the book of Romans.

We finished chapter eight last week.

We're going to pick up chapter nine here in a couple of weeks.

But this morning, we're going to pause and talk about for just a few moments what the church is actually supposed to be doing.

Okay?

So let's pray and let's ask the Lord to speak today.

Lord, we come to you.

We come to you in great need.

Lord, we are needy people.

We need you, Lord.

We ask for you, as your word says, to open your hand and to satisfy every need today.

Lord, we just look to you.

I pray that you would speak.

I pray you would open our eyes.

You'd open our ears.

You'd open our hearts.

I pray, Lord, that you would speak to us.

That not one word from me would be heard, but only from you, Lord.

Help us to hear you today.

Help us to hear your heart.

We love you.

We thank you.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

So what is the church supposed to be?

What is it supposed to do?

There are a lot of...

churches, right? And there's churches on nearly every corner and they're all about all kinds of

things. Within those churches, you could take any direction. A church could be known for their

community efforts, you know, food distribution and homeless shelters and food kitchens and things

like that, right? They could be known for their social causes, advancing different, you know,

social causes in the world. That could be sort of what the church is known for. Church could be

known all for politics. No thanks, right? But trying to influence people, you know, for political,

you know, outcomes, things like that. A church could be all about religious experience. They

want you to come and then have some, you know, emotional or exciting experience. A church could

be the opposite direction. They could be just doctrine. Like you come in and all it is, it's

like reading, you know, some theological manuscript, you know? And then there's, of course,

there's variations in all of this, everything in between.

But the question we're asking for the next couple of weeks is, what is the church supposed to be?

Is it really supposed to be so far and wide? Is it supposed to be all over the place? Now,

qualifier, right? When we say church, we're not talking about a building. We're not talking about

a brand. We're not talking about a denomination. The church, they are the people of God, right?

The church can be anywhere. The church is anywhere. The church is everywhere, right? All over the place

where God's people gather.

When we gather together, that is the church, right? But what are we supposed to be doing when we gather

together? And we're going to talk a little bit about this. By the way, when I say church, I am

meaning the true church. I'm not talking about those things that would call themselves the

church that do not exalt Jesus Christ. The true church, please hear this. You want to know a true

church? They point to Jesus. They point to his work. They point to what he has done. They point

to him as the answer. And they exalt God's word over anybody else's word, okay? False church,

going to point to you. False church, going to point to your work, your effort, your ability,

what you can do, what you can give. Nine times out of 10, right? Every true church preaches Jesus

Christ and him crucified according to the scriptures, right?

So what is the real church supposed to do and supposed to be? Well, biblically, what we see in

the scriptures, it's really three main things. If we were to boil it all down, condense it all down,

it's three main things. There's a lot of things you can do, wonderful things. But when you come

down to it, three main things, every real church, every good church is supposed to be doing. And the

first one, we're going to talk about it a little bit more in a moment. But the first one is every

good church should be trying to do what they're supposed to do. And that's what we're going to

to see people saved. That is why we are in this world. It is not to have, you know, a box and us

for, and no more. We are trying to reach the world around us. And so the way that we conveyed that,

we, we summarize that down into one word for us here at the river. It is the word reach. We are

trying to bring the message of the gospel to the unsaved people of this world. And, uh, and so it's

the gospel. The church doesn't save the brand doesn't save. I can't save anybody. You can't

save anybody. It is the gospel. That is the power of God unto salvation for every person who

believes. Okay. So that's the first thing any actual church should be doing. The second thing

is this. It's what you're doing this morning, gathering together. Like we are doing this

morning. We gather together, not to have a religious experience, not to check a box,

our duty for the week. We come together for him. The end. We come together for him. We come together

to celebrate who he is, what he has done, his work in our lives. And in this world, we come together

to sing about him. We come together and open his word and talk about him. We come together and pray

to him. We come together and encourage each other in what God is doing and in who he is.

That's fellowship, right? Fellowship is when you and I,

are talking about who he is and what he's done together, right? That's fellowship. And so gathering

is the second thing that any good church should be doing. We gather together for him. And that's

the word that we use. So reach and then gather. And then there's a third thing that should be

happening in every true church. And that's this, there should be growth. We're not meaning grow

in numbers. We're not meaning growth in programs. We're not meaning the building should get bigger,

the stuff, the name should be bigger. We're not meaning any of that. We're meaning actual growth

in our lives. Discernible Christ likeness should be happening in our lives. In other words, if we

keep coming and nothing's changing, something's wrong, right? You can't plant a seed, see it never

grow and think that that seed is alive. The same is true with a church, right? We don't want to

just keep coming in and, and hearing stuff and then leaving. And we are the same people we've

always been. Something's wrong with that. There should be growth, right? And so we summarize that

with the word grow here at the river. Okay. And so we do that through, as I talked about a moment

ago, our growth communities, we're going to get together. We're going to iron sharpening iron.

We're going to encourage each other, bear one another's burdens, pray for each other and grow

together in God and in his word. Okay. So these are the three things that any, any good church,

any true church should be doing.

It's the things that we saw in the new Testament, the church of the new Testament was doing,

they were reaching the lost, they were gathering together, they were growing together. Okay. And so

we say reach, gather, grow. So this morning, I want to talk for just a few moments about reach

about reaching lost people. And so you may have, I think we ran out of these. You might have one.

If you don't have one, I don't know.

Get one to you. Okay. But this is just a little guide, just stick it in your wallet or your purse

or whatever. It's just a little guide, a little Roman's road guide. And I'm going to talk about

Roman's road here in just a moment, but kind of how to walk someone through the steps that are

needed for salvation. Okay. But I want to begin with this. I want to, I want to let you know,

uh, there are 10, just over 10 million people that live in this state. Okay. Michigan 10 million.

Do you know what?

The percentage is of that 10 million that would say they are Christian. It is less than 10%. Okay.

This is Pew research, less than 10%. That is less than a million people in your state that you live

in would call themselves an evangelical Christian. Now we also know that even if someone is saying

they are Christian, we know they could be meaning that as a category, right? Like, Hey, I'm not

Muslim. I'm an American. So I'm Christian. So it does not necessarily mean that they are Christian.

They love and they know, and they follow Jesus Christ and they are his disciple, right? We know

that. And so I would ask you out of the, the, you know, even if it was a million, let's say a million

that would call themselves a Christian, how many of them truly are disciples? They love and know

and follow Jesus Christ. Let me ask even a stronger question. If they died, they would go to heaven.

How many do you think? Of course, there's no way to answer this, but we know that it's very,

very small.

It's not a million people because Jesus said this, right? He said, broad is the way that leads to

destruction. And there's a lot of people on it, but narrow is the way that leads to life. And

there are very few that find it. Jesus himself said, right? It's a very, very narrow. It's very

small numbers, not the majority that are going to be saved. It's actually the minority that are

going to be saved. And so I would ask you this, how many of these are your neighbors?

Think about your neighbors for a moment, left, right in front, left, right. Do they know Christ?

Are they trusting him? Have they heard the message of the gospel? Just your neighbor.

What about your coworkers? What about your friends? Now here's the tough question, right?

What about your family? How many of your family falls into the category of those who do not know

him? And here's the serious question. What happens?

When they die, death is all around us. It's all around us. We try to ignore it. We try to put our

head down and do our thing, but it is constantly in front of us, isn't it? The reality, listen,

the reality that, that people are entering into eternity forever, that is constantly in front of

And we're trying to act like it's not.

We're trying to act like somehow 50, 60, 70, 80 years is like all there is.

And it's not.

People are entering eternity every moment.

The people all around us, everywhere we look.

You see, before we get a hold of what we're talking about with Reach this morning,

we have some major questions we have to answer.

And I'm going to push you to really think through these for a moment.

Because none of this is going to make any sense if we don't believe some things.

These may seem like simple or obvious questions.

But man, I'm asking you to really consider what you believe about this.

Here's the question.

Is there anything beyond this life?

Is this all there is?

Is it just whatever, you know, humanity has?

You die and it's just over?

Is that the case?

Is that true?

No, of course it's not true.

Of course there is an afterlife, right?

Of course there's something beyond all of this.

Christ told us this over and over and over, that he's a liar.

He's not right.

Well, what about heaven?

Is heaven real?

Most people are like, oh yeah, heaven's real.

Yeah, heaven's real.

No problem with heaven.

Okay.

How about this?

I don't like that one.

Pretty good with an eternal paradise.

Not okay with the eternal judgment.

But here's the problem.

There is, according to Jesus, a real heaven.

There is a real hell.

Real people are going to enter one or the other.

There is nothing in between.

There is no.

You know, midway stop.

There is no, you know, a soul sleep.

There is no annihilation.

There is none of this, right?

It is either one or the other, right?

So the reason for this is, and here's the question, are people eternal?

I don't mean have people always existed because that's not true.

But once a person has been created, will they continue on forever?

And the answer to this is yes.

We have been made in the image of God.

There will never be a moment.

Never a moment when you stop existing.

Not ever a hundred million trillion years from now, you go on, you continue, and it is actually you, you get to ditch those bodies, by the way, the Lord will fix all that up like, oh, dear Lord, the, the bum knee for a hundred million years.

No, no, don't worry about it, like the Lord's going to fix all that, right?

But, but like it is you, it's not like some thing that's not you, it's not something that's been represented in like Disney movies.

You're just some like soul floating around.

Out there, right?

No, this is really you forever.

You'll never not be, you will continue forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

So people are eternal.

Now, if all of that is true, right?

If the, if it really is, there is something beyond there really is a real heaven.

There really is a real hell.

People really are eternal and they're going to enter one or the other.

Then the question becomes, does anybody have a choice in this?

This is a very serious thing, especially when you're talking to church people, because there are some bad.

Ideas that tell us that there really is no choice in any of this.

There's bad theology, bad doctrine that tells us that it's already all been decided.

It doesn't matter if anybody decides anything, it's already been decided.

God has chosen who will be and God has chosen who won't be.

And it really doesn't matter what we do or say.

If you believe that idea, you're never going to tell anyone what he told you to tell them.

You'll never bring the gospel to another human being.

If you have this idea that it's already been decided.

You just won't do it.

And I think that it's a very clever argument in the church that really it's an attack from the enemy to keep us from sharing the gospel.

Because why?

Why would you share the gospel if it's already done, if it's already decided?

It doesn't even make any sense to.

And then I would ask, well, why did he grab us all together and tell us to go do it?

If it didn't matter, right?

So has it already been decided?

Whether you share the gospel or not will depend on your answer to that.

But if you know it has not been decided, and if you think that there really are stakes in this, that will be some motivation, right?

To go and do this.

And of course, the answer to this is yes.

People can choose where they will be for all eternity.

In fact, the most well-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16, actually tells us that there is a choice, right?

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

And then it's subjunctive in Greek.

It's a question that whoever believes in him, it's literally, will you believe in him?

not perish but have eternal life. The message of the gospel throughout

the New Testament is one of choosing, not of it already being done. So track with me. If it's true

that there's an actual afterlife, if it's true that there's a real heaven and a real hell that

real people are going to enter for all of eternity, if these things are true, and if it's true that

it's not already decided that people do actually have a choice, then the question becomes what

determines where a person goes? How do people get there? Well, is it enough to simply believe in God?

It is not. Is it enough to believe Jesus existed? Nope. Is it enough to believe that he died on a

cross? Nope. Is it enough to believe that he died for sins? Nope. Is it enough to believe that he

rose from the dead? Nope. Right? You say, how can you say that? Well, because James tells us, and I

think this is a little bit of sanctified sarcasm here, okay, in the book of James. James chapter 2

verse 19 tells us that the demons believe. They are not saved. Listen to this. James says, you believe

that there is one God? Great. Right? You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. You see, the

only people that don't tremble at the idea of God? Us. We're the only ones. The demons know that Jesus

is God. The demons know what he did on the cross. The demons know that he was paying for the sins

of the world. The demons know these things, and they are not saved. So what is the defining difference,

right? Is it enough to go to church? Nope. Is that going to change where a person spends eternity?

Nope. You say, Chuck, why are you talking about these things? Because when we go to share the

gospel, sometimes here's what we do. We say, you know what? It doesn't really matter anyway. If God

wants them to be saved, they'll be saved. Doesn't matter if I share. We blew it. He sent us on a

mission. Or we go, why don't you come to church with me? Now listen, it's great. People come into

church. That's a wonderful thing. Is church going to save them? Absolutely not. And there's actually

a danger in people coming and hearing and then doing nothing with it and thinking they're okay

and went to church. There's a danger there. You can't do that. Is it enough to tell people, hey,

just clean your life up, man. Stop drinking. Stop cheating. Stop this. Stop that. You know, do this.

Do what's right. Is that going to save anyone? Nope. The gospel is not a moral message. The gospel

tells us we are already immoral. We need salvation. So listen, when we're sharing the gospel, we better

be clear about what we're sharing because it's not enough to just believe that Jesus existed. We

must believe that we need to be saved. What determines whether a person goes to heaven or

a person goes to hell? Well, according to the Bible, it's three things. Repentance, belief,

and following. Okay. Those three things have to be in place. Repentance of sin. A person has to

repent of sin to God, not to a priest, not to a church, not to another person. A person needs to

turn to Jesus Christ in repentance of sin. In other words, there is no easy believism. Oh, I know. I hear

it too, buddy. There's no easy believism. There's no, hey, why don't you add Jesus on like some

insurance policy writer in case something goes bad? Like you're covered. Like flood insurance,

you know? You know, just in case. You believe? Yeah, yeah, I believe. Repentance means I sorrow

over my sin. Have you felt the pain of your own sin before God? Come to him,

in broken repentance of your sin? That is a requirement in the scriptures. Repent and

believe. We repent. The second step is to believe. We must believe that we are lost,

you know, in and of ourselves, that we're not strong enough, that we cannot, but we also must

believe positively that he is God, that he came and he died in our place. And what he actually

did on that cross actually removes and forgives sins forever. We must believe these truths. We

must believe he's alive. Sin didn't beat him. Death did not beat him. We must believe these things.

But then the third step is we must follow him. And so it's not enough to make a quick prayer or,

you know, take communion or, you know, be baptized or go to church, you know, on Christmas and Easter

and then think that we're going to be completely fine. No, no, no. The true saved person follows

Jesus. This is a, this is relationship, right? If you got married and then lived.

separately and never talked, never did anything together. It'd be like, what did you do? Like,

what is this? This isn't a marriage. This is just some weird thing you've come up with for some tax

purpose or something. You know what I mean? Like this isn't a marriage relationship that defines

marriage, right? And so here, the person that follows Jesus enters relationship with him. We

learn of him. We hear his voice. We follow his lead. We serve him out of a thankfulness and love

for him. Like we talked about last week at the end of Romans eight. Now, if this is how a person

is saved forever, and it is, we have one final question we need to ask. How do people come to

this realization? What I'm asking is how does your neighbor realize their need? How does your

family member, your child realize their need for salvation? The answer might surprise you

because the answer is God and man. What do I mean by this? Well, first of all, God, of course,

he is the one who works in the heart of every person who ever will be saved. Okay. You cannot

save anyone. I cannot save anyone. It's not my job to save anyone. I can't talk anyone into it.

If I could talk them into it, someone else could talk them out of it. Like we, we are not,

we don't save anyone. We can't do that. God, if anyone has ever saved, it is because God has

worked in their hearts, convincing them of their need, right? And they then,

they then trust him. Okay. So he, they have become convinced by the Lord of their need for him.

God speaks to them. He might use the circumstances of their lives, you know, to pull them to himself.

How many times have we heard that my own father and mother turned to Jesus Christ after my dad

got into a car accident that should have killed him. You know, he went right under the flatbed

of a diesel truck. He just ripped the whole top off. He said he didn't know, didn't know the Lord.

He said he felt someone push him down and hold him.

There, as he went under it, came out the other side, all he had was, you know, broken ribs and,

you know, cut face and everything. And it should have died. Didn't die. Someone held him down.

And two weeks later was Easter Sunday. And my grandmother did what we're talking about right

now and tried to reach them. And they came. And I remember my parents walking forward to receive

Christ. And I remember me as a little kid, we were up in the balcony and we got up and we started

walking. And I thought we were going to our car. When we came down the step,

and I thought we were going to turn left to the car. And instead we turned right. We started

walking right down the center aisle. And I thought, what are we, what are we doing? I'm just

like eight, you know, what is happening? Well, there were streams of people walking right up to

the front, people with tears in their eyes. And I look up and I see my mom and my dad and tears

running down their face. You realize God had been doing a work in their hearts before anybody ever

said anything to them. And so it's not us who saves, never. It's God who saves. And he is the

one who, John chapter 16 says,

Jesus said, when the Holy spirit has come, he will convince, convict the world of their sin

and of God's righteousness and of, of this coming judgment. And so it's God who does this. He

convinces, but please hear this. It's not just him because he sends us as his people to share

this message. You realize, right? Before Jesus left this earth, he gathered his disciples together

and he gave them just one mission.

Just one. He didn't say he didn't grab them together and say, all right, guys, here's the

thing. I want you to build the biggest cathedrals possible. He didn't bring them together and say,

okay, here's the thing. I want you to, you know, figure out hierarchies. I want certain people to

be over everybody else. And I want you set up all this stuff. I want to make this thing. This is

going to be a program. He didn't do it. Here's what he did. He brought them together and he said,

preach the gospel everywhere you go. That's literally how it's written. Everywhere you go,

take the gospel with you and share it with people.

With people who are lost. Go into your fabrication, you know, and welding and manufacturing. Go into

these places and share the gospel with people who do not know me. Go into your salon and share the

gospel with people who do not know me. Go into other parts of the world where people are throwing

children away and bring the gospel with you and share the gospel of what I've done for these kids,

right? I mean, on and on it goes. Wherever you go is literally how it's written. Then you go and you

bring the gospel with you. You're an artist. You're a musician. You're a handyman. Whatever

it is, you're a mother. Bring the gospel with you everywhere you go. Jesus, this is what he said. He

spoke to his disciples, Matthew 28, 18. He spoke to them and he said, just before he left, he said,

all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Now, if he stopped right there, we might

think the next words out of his mouth would have been, so don't worry about it. Whoever's going to

be saved is going to be saved because all authority has been given to me. So don't worry about it.

That's not what he does. Look what he says. Verse 19, go. It's literally, as you are going,

make disciples of all the nations. So go everywhere, baptizing them in the name of the

father and of the son and of the Holy spirit. The baptism thing was people going, I am now a

follower of Jesus Christ. I am choosing to follow him. It's this moment of salvation. The gospel is

having its effect and people are saying, I am a follower of Christ. So baptizing,

in the name of the father, the son and the Holy spirit, teaching them to observe all things that

I've commanded you. And then Jesus says, don't worry. I will be with you the whole way. Do what

you do. I'll be with you as you do it. What an encouragement. I'm so thankful for that. He didn't

go, Hey, Chuck, get out there, figure it out. Right. And if you need me, check in, let me do.

He's like, no, I'm going with you wherever you're going. I'm going with you.

Bring the gospel because at the end of the day, this is the only thing, right? The thing above all

other things, go back to the questions we asked. If hell and heaven are real, if eternity is

forever, if real people are going to enter one or the other, what matters most than where people

will be for all eternity. So the message was reach. The mission was reach. I want to ask you

to be honest, is your mission reach? Seriously? Think about it. Is your mission reach or is the

mission retirement? Is the mission comfort? Is the mission what? Or is the mission,

reach? If the mission isn't reach, we've missed it. Something's wrong. We're not where we're

supposed to be. The mission is reach. And while it is always God that saves the Lord sent us his

people to share that message. And so to help you with that, um, we're only a couple of minutes

left here. And, uh, we put some cards obviously on your chair. If you, if you do have one, if you

don't, we're going to walk through the Romans road. This is a little bit condensed form of that.

I'm going to give you a couple of other verses here. Don't follow it.

But I want, I want you to know how to walk someone through the Romans road. We're just

going to look at a couple of verses. So Romans road begins with stop number one, which is Romans

three 23 for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Would you be able to explain

that to someone, your family, your friend, your neighbor, would you be able to explain what that

means? All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Well, the point of that is to show

us our problem. Okay. So the goal

of this first verse is to say, we all have the same need. We're all in the same situation. You

could back up to Romans three 10, go all the way down to Romans three 23. And it would explain

every single one of us are in the same spot. Nobody gets a pass, right? I don't, I don't get

a pass. My kids don't get a pass cause I'm a pastor or something, right? Everybody's in the

same boat. That boat has holes. It's filling with water, right? We're all in the same boat. Okay.

So that's what the all have sinned.

That's the emphasis. We all need to be saved, but we have all also fallen short of the glory of God.

And that's, that's what it means to sin, right? We fall short of the glory of God. So this tells us

nobody lives up to the standard. Nobody does enough good to live up to the standard. So that

is so important to explain. We all fall short of perfection, which is what is required to be saved.

Well, the next verse Romans five, eight, but God, but God demonstrates,

the word means proved. He proved once and for all his own love toward us in that while we were

still sinners, Christ died for us. I love this verse so much because it really just points out

the love of God. It tells us before you looked for him, he looked for you before you searched

him out. He had already been searching you out. You weren't the one seeking. He,

was the one seeking. Yeah. You weren't the one who loved him. He's the one who loved you. You love

him now because he first loved you. Not the other way around. You see the message of religion says,

I'm going to try to get God to love me. I'm going to try to get God to accept me. We've been looking

at this all through Romans. God already loved us. He already received us. He already accepted us.

We're not trying to get God to love us. Here's the flip side. He wants us to love him. He's trying

to get you to love him. Well, this is the message. God says, I died for you when you hated me. That's

the summary. What a beautiful thing to tell someone. You've done nothing to deserve this.

God has done everything. He loved you when you hated him. It's his love. The Bible says that it

is the goodness of God that leads a person to repentance. So I kind of have a problem with the

people that stand on the corner with the sandwich board. You're going to burn and die in hell. You

know, kind of a rough message. True.

But maybe we should look at the scriptures a little bit. The goodness of God leading to

repentance, you know, maybe have on the backside. Oh, he loves you too. You know, I don't know

something, right? But listen, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And this is meant to

tell us it is only through the death of the son of God that salvation is even possible. Okay. So

next stop, uh, Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in

Christ Jesus, our Lord. So the goal of this verse is to tell us that the gift of God is eternal life

to show how serious this all is. Being a sinner doesn't mean that you've just kind of messed up

like everybody's messed up. Being a sinner means you're going to die. And it would be important to

understand what, what biblical death is. Biblical death is not just when these bodies die. Biblical

death is separation from God. And so the Bible tells us our sin is going to kill us. It's going

to separate us from God forever, unless it's removed. And this is the reason God can say you

have eternal life. When sin is removed, you will always have eternal life. And so the Bible tells

us to always be with the Lord. It's important to understand these verses. And so it says, right,

that the wages of sin is death separation forever, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ

Jesus, our Lord. And I love, I love to be able to say to people, it is a gift. God's giving this to

you. Will you receive it? You know, if at Christmas time I come to you, I'm so excited. I say, Graham,

I got you this incredible gift, man. I want you to open this gift. And Graham's like, no, no, bro.

I don't, I don't deserve a gift. Well, duh. But here, man, I love you. You know, you're,

wonderful man. Here, here's this gift. No, no, no. How much was it? Graham, stop. You know,

say, let me Venmo. You got Venmo? You know, it's like, take the gift. He opens it up. Oh,

this is way too much, man. No, no, here, you got to take this back. No matter what I try,

I can't get Graham to take the gift. Graham doesn't take the gift, right? Doesn't understand

it. It's not a payment. Now, thankfully, Graham has taken the gift from our Lord Jesus Christ.

You just got to receive it. You don't deserve it. Duh. You just got to receive it. It's a

you can't earn it. You can't deserve it. You can't get, give God anything for it. You just

have to receive it. It's a gift and it's eternal life. And it's only through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Now, next verse is Romans 8, 1. There is therefore now, because of this, there is therefore now no

condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. I love to tell people this. You will never be

condemned because you're in Christ. And the reason you'll never be condemned is because you're in

Christ. So you cannot be condemned. You might condemn yourself. And we do that, don't we? It's

not up to you. And we've been talking about this in Romans. It's not up to you. It's up to him.

And he has already decided to receive you, to accept you, to love you, to you are completely

forgiven. And so you cannot be condemned. The last verse that I try to show people is how they

actually receive it is Romans chapter 10, verse 8. So what does a person have to do? Well, here it is.

What does it say? The word is near you. It's in your mouth.

It's in your heart. That is the word of faith, which we preach that if you confess with your

mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will

be saved for with the heart. One believes under righteousness and with the mouth confession is

made into salvation for the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.

The goal of this is to show that it is not by any works. It's not by church attendance. It's not by

giving. It's not by serving. It is by the work of Jesus.

Jesus Christ alone, believing in what he has done, it is believing that saves, right? And so, yeah,

you could just say the words, but it doesn't mean anything. So the emphasis is on, do you believe

this? That's the emphasis. Do you actually believe you're a sinner? Do you actually believe that you

need to be saved? Do you actually believe that he died for your sin? Do you actually believe that

he will save you if you ask him, do you believe these things? So I would ask you, can you walk

a family member through these things? It's not super complicated. Take a step. Trust the Lord.

We have to open our mouths. We can't be those people that go preach the gospel at all times.

And if necessary, use words. Don't do that. Preach the gospel at all times and use words, please.

Share the gospel. Yeah, let your life be consistent, but share the gospel. I would just ask you, are you

praying for your family members? Are you praying daily? What matters more than that they be in heaven?

Are you praying daily and specifically for the people around you? Listen, the command was not to

go reach the whole world. It was just to reach yours. It's your kids. It's your grandkids, which

I'm in the grandkid club now. So I get to say that. Okay. It's your kids. It's your grandkids. It's

your neighbors. It's your family. It's your friends. It's the people around you. Listen, I'm not sitting

at your Thanksgiving table. I'm sitting at mine. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not interacting with your family members for the most

part, right? You're not interacting with mine. It's my job to reach my family members. It's your job

to reach yours. It's my job to reach my neighbors. It's your job to reach yours, right? He has sent

you with this thing. What matters more than this? I would encourage you begin to pray specifically

and make yourself available to the Lord. What do you believe about these things? Let it motivate

you. Let's pray together. Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for your word and the truth of

it. Thank you, Lord, that it really is a rescue mission.

You coming into this world. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to carry this mission

out, to use what you've given to us, to share this message, to bring this, this gospel, this only

thing that saves to as many people as we can. Maybe you're sitting here today and you have not

received Jesus Christ. You have not repented and believed. You are not a follower yet of Jesus

Christ, though you've come to church or you've done things with the church before you've not yet

believed. Even now, you're not a follower of Jesus Christ. You're not a follower of Jesus Christ.

Even now, you turn to Jesus Christ. You must repent of your sin. You must believe in what

he has done and you must begin to follow him. A real relationship with him is what he wants.

Just turn to the Lord. Now, the Bible says all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

That can be you this morning. Talk to him. He's listening to you right now. We love you,

Lord. We thank you. We give everything to you. It's in Jesus name. I pray. Amen.