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The River ChurchSermons

REACH, GATHER, GROW

Good News

Gary Wright · Sunday, 7 September 2025 · Romans 3:10-18; 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-10; 10:13 · 37:33 · 5,021 words

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

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The sermon focuses on the reach aspect of the Great Commission, urging believers to share the gospel, beginning with their families. It outlines the Romans road, showing that all are sinners, Christ died for us, and salvation comes through faith and confession. The speaker stresses that the Holy Spirit’s love empowers us to speak, and that not sharing leaves people facing eternity apart from God. He calls listeners to practice sharing the gospel in two minutes and to see family as the first mission field.

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.

share 24 penn 7 mission 10 tackle 5 new 23 separate 11 commission 6 gospel 24 believe 34 measure 6 reach 10 standard 8

Topics

The Gospel 13 Faith 13 Righteousness 4 Sin 3 Justification 2 Salvation 2 Mission & Evangelism 2 The Flesh 1 Abraham 1 Condemnation 1 Prayer 1 Grace 1

Scripture referenced 24

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

Romans 9 0:28 Matthew 28 0:37 Romans 1 4:17 Romans 1 4:32 Romans 1:18-32 4:32 Romans 1 4:43 Romans 2 5:16 Romans 3 5:24 Romans 3 6:03 Romans 4 6:46 Romans 5 7:11 Romans 6 13:07 Romans 5 15:06 Romans 10 15:44 Romans 10 15:59 Romans 10 15:59 Romans 10 16:01 Romans 10 16:07 Romans 10 17:37 Romans 9 19:34 Romans 10:13-15 27:24 Romans 1 32:42 Romans 8 34:14 John 3 34:50

Transcript

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

you don't know me my name is Gary I'm the location pastor here at the River Burton and again welcome

I'm glad to be here with you this morning excited to be here with you actually we've been walking

through the book of Romans we've went through eight chapters of Romans since May we are going

to take a break as far as going through the book verse by verse only for three weeks so we'll come

to chapter 9 in three weeks every fall we preach our mission statement which is actually not our

mission it's Jesus's mission and it comes from Matthew 28 19 and this passage is actually called

the Great Commission and it reads like this go therefore and make disciples of all nations

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I am with you always to

the end of the age this is where the church the River Church takes their mission statement from

our mission statement is reach the lost gather with the saints and grow together in God's word

that is our mission statement it is taken directly from Jesus's words in the Great Commission the

Great Commission

gives us an assignment as believers so if we put our faith in Christ we have a mission we have

assignment and the first part of it we want to talk about which we're going to talk about today

is the reach aspect Jesus says right at the beginning of that passage go make disciples of

all nations and I know we always are like does well does that mean this now or does that mean

do should we and but we have to

look at that first word it says go Jesus isn't giving us an option he's not saying hey when

when it's convenient make disciples he's saying no go wherever you're at whatever you're doing

wherever you're working make disciples and if you've been around here long enough you've heard

us say things like this believers don't just come to church we are the church we come and worship

in this building but we leave here to share the good news of Jesus we share the gospel that's the

Great Commission that is the reach aspect of our mission statement before we get started this

morning though I uh can I pray for you father we love you we thank you for who you are we thank you

for uh salvation we thank you for the opportunity to come here and freely worship you we praise you

for the prayers that you've answered this week and Lord uh we continue to trust you and the things

that we're continuing to pray about and we pray for your will to be done and Lord I I pray uh that

you just work in our hearts this morning Lord just grow us help us to take the next step whatever

that may be in our lives Lord reveal that to us this morning in Jesus name amen so in order to

reach people we need to know that we're not alone we need to know that we're not alone we need to

know the gospel of Jesus Christ we need to know really how do we share the gospel of Jesus Christ

and the book of Romans that we've been walking through the first five chapters Paul lays out

the gospel I mean uh let's just review it really quick or let's just talk about what he wrote about

he starts off and he says that we are all sinners we've all rebelled against God and we need God's

righteousness and if you think that you're excluded from this Paul covers it in the next

few chapters chapter one he says if you're not Jewish you're known as a Gentile in the Bible

he says Gentiles are guilty of sin and they need God's righteousness and that's the whole from

chapter or chapter 1 18 through verses 18 through 32 and then I know if the Jews at that time would

have been reading Paul's letter to the Romans in

they would have read chapter 1 and heard that the Jew that the Gentiles were sinners they probably

would have said preach it brother Paul amen right but then Paul says guess what guys you need Jesus

too you're just as guilty and uh I don't know if you know what a a gif is on the phone the little

there's one of Homer Simpson backing up into some bushes that's what I picture the Jews doing you

know when he said that

we all need Christ matter of fact Paul if you if you don't know it by the end of chapter 2 and

chapter 3 he says no one is righteous not even one not even one we all need Jesus we all need

his forgiveness so that's the bad news of the gospel the good news goes on God provides

justification God provides and justification is righteousness

God declaring us righteous and the only way to do that is we have to have a source for that

righteousness and guess who the source is we've already talked about him his name is Jesus

actually in Romans 3 22 it says the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus for all who believe

that is the source of our righteousness and Paul gives us an example of what how we get this

righteousness and how we get this righteousness and how we get this righteousness and how we get this

through faith and he uses an example of a man named Abraham from the Old Testament who believed

God he had faith in God and because he had that faith he walked in the direction God wanted him

to go and he used him as an example that example is how we become followers of Christ do and it's

through faith Romans 4 3 says for what does the scripture say Abraham believed God

and it was counted to him as righteousness when we have faith in Jesus and what he did on the cross

is counted to us as righteousness as well it's no different and there's a blessing for that

righteousness and that is we have peace with God Romans 5 1 therefore since we've been justified

declared righteous by God by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ when we're

sinners before we know Christ we are separated from God but through faith in Jesus we have peace

with God we're no longer his enemy we are reconciled okay so I shared the gospel right there in the

long version but on your seat this morning there's some cards they look like this these these are for

you to take home this is the Romans road to salvation I don't know how many of you have

heard of the Romans road if you haven't I'm going to explain that this is a quick reference to share

the gospel with somebody to talk about all the things that we just talked about but there's a

list of all the scripture and I want to encourage you memorize these verses I've memorized these

verses myself because I want to be able to look people in the eye I want to be able to be confident

when I'm sharing this good news and these scriptures are important ones to know

for that okay so this is for you to take and even if you don't memorize it you have them right here

right Romans road starts off with this passage we first of all we have to know that we are truly

sinners in order to come to Christ if our car has a flat tire we're not going to change it unless we

know it's flat at least I'm not right if we're when we know we're sinners and we know our only

hope is Christ we know we need to change something and that's what we're going to do

is to come to him in faith but I love a story that a guy named this guy's name is pastor John

Phillips he writes a commentary that I read sometimes and he shares this story about two men

they're they're at a recruiting office and they in London and they want to be part of the guard

regiment you know the guys who wear the big hats and they they don't talk and all of that so they

they both come there to join but there is a requirement one of the requirements

for joining the guard regiment is you have to be a minimum of six foot tall I would qualify but I

know some of you would not I probably would fail in some of the other areas but anyways six foot

tall one man was taller than the other actually one of them was only five foot seven he was far

under the requirement but the other gentleman was five foot eleven when he stretched

the max but guess what he was still short of the requirement and he was short of their standard

he could stretch all he wanted but he was short and he was a shoe in for the job because he would

probably compared himself to the shorter guy he's like oh I got this because I'm comparing myself to

this guy but it didn't matter the standard was still six foot God's standard is perfection

it is perfection we have to follow the law 100 percent in order to measure up to God's standard

and I have some bad news here too we don't measure up nobody that's why it says for all have sinned

and this this gentleman this guard not only he didn't measure up there but he used excuses that

I think we kind of use these same kind of excuses to the guardsman he argued that he said my

was a guardsman and he says I've studied and I've learned all of the regulations and he promised to

be a good soldier but none of that mattered because he didn't measure up to the standard

and we do the same thing I believe we say things like listen I know Jesus because I grew up in

church and I know Jesus because I memorized scripture

and I read the bible and I I know I know Jesus because I've been baptized truth is I listen to

this the truth is if we have not put our faith in Jesus those things do not matter we're still

short of the standard only through faith all short of that standard and because we don't measure up

to God's standard this is the second verse we're going to talk about there's a lot of things that

there's a cost there's a cost for our sin because we don't measure up to God's perfection

Romans 6 23 says for the wages of sin is death we'll come back to the second part of that in a

second the wages of sin is death our sin separates us from God that's what the death means we're

separated on this earth and if we don't put our faith in Jesus before we die we will be separated

from God and we will be separated from God and we will be separated from God and we will be

separated from God for eternity eternity that's a long time that'd be forever we're gonna have

eternal life somewhere it's either going to be with God in heaven or without God in hell but I

love the second part of the verse it says the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God

is eternal life through Christ Jesus eternal life and he uses the word life anytime we use the word

death he's talking about separation

anytime he uses the word life he's talking about reconciled with the Lord we have life through

Christ Jesus there's a free gift and I like how there's have you ever had to pay for a gift I've

never had to and my buddy doc told me he says why does he say free gift if Paul's like double giving

you a double jab here right a double punch he's saying it's free gift he's saying there's no cost

here all we have to do is come in faith it's a free gift and why would God give us this free gift

or what is this free gift it is eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ it's eternal life and why

did God give us this gift it's because he loves us Romans 5 8 next verse God shows his love for us

that while we were still sinners Christ died for us he loved us so much that he sent his son to die in

our place to pay that penalty of sin the wage that we owe are you but that is amazing to me still to

think about that he sent his own son for us and how do we receive this gift Romans 10 actually Romans

10 9 I don't believe is on this paper Romans 10 9 I don't believe is on this paper Romans 10 9 I don't believe is on this paper

but Romans 10 10 is and I'm going to read them both because I think they're both important but

Romans 10 9 and 10 says because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your

heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart one believes and is

justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved look when we understand that we're sinners

and there's a cost and the direction we're going is not the direction that we need to be going we're

following our own selfish things and and we realize that Jesus is the only way the way the

truth in the life we turn to him in faith trusting that his death on the cross paid the price for our

sins we believe that he rose from the dead I love what it says you will be saved you will be

saved from what from God's wrath spending eternity separated from him in a place called hell you will

be saved from that I don't want nobody to go there I'm standing up here because I love you enough to

tell you the truth we I don't want no one to go there and we shouldn't want our loved ones to be

there we should be doing everything we can to keep them from it one more verse I want to talk about

Romans 10 13 it's also on here for everyone who

calls on the name of the Lord will be saved look when we pray to the Lord that's not what saves us

it's the faith in the in our heart but we need to cry out to God when we come to that faith

Lord I'm a sinner I need you I know you're my only hope will you save me I believe that you died for

my sin I believe you rose from the dead will you save me that's how we lead folks to the Lord it's

here and it honestly you can even make it if you only have a couple minutes you can share the

gospel in a couple minutes and I'm going to tell you what we practice this as a staff sharing the

gospel in two minutes I challenge you to do that if we believe Christ is the way the truth in their

life and we believe he's the difference between life and death we should know how to tell people

the truth right so if we're going to reach people we need to know how to share the gospel I believe

that and if we don't if you want to talk about this more with me I would love to we also need

to have compassion and love for people if we don't have that love we're not going to share the gospel

and guess where that love comes from it comes from the Holy Spirit that we've been talking about

for the last five weeks it is the overflowing of God's love in our heart that we want to share the

good news with the people in our lives and I love Paul has this love and compassion

for his people which are the Jewish people and in Romans 9 1 through 3 he speaks of this love and

it's so awesome says he says I am speaking the truth in Christ I'm not lying my conscience bears

me witness in the Holy Spirit I have a great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for I

could wish that I myself were accursed and colorblind and I could wish that I myself were

cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers and kinsmen according to the flesh so Paul here

is speaking to the Jews his people the Israelites if they're also known as and he's bitter and he's

sorrowful why because most of his people have rejected the good news of Jesus the gospel they

have rejected it he's broken he's grieved because he knows without faith they're

going to spend eternity separated from God and Paul I love what he says here and I want you to

know that this is not possible but he says I wish that I could be separated from God and if it was

possible I would want to be separated from the love of the Lord go to hell so my people could

be saved if I could do that I would that's what he's saying that is love that is love I cannot

imagine that kind of I mean I love people that's incredible that is incredible look Paul he knew the

Jews rejected Christ and they were sinners but he didn't come to them as an enemy or condemning them

he came to them obviously in love here because he wanted them to know the good news and to surrender

to Christ wanted to be a friend he wanted to be a friend and he wanted to be a friend and he wanted

to protect his people and he wanted them to be rescued by God we share the gospel we reach people

with the gospel why because of that love that God has poured into us through his spirit if we come

to people condemning them of their sin before they know Christ if we come to them not as a friend and

not in this loving way guess what they're going to do I want nothing to do with that I want nothing

to do with that

verse Peter 3 15 I love this passage of scripture Peter says but in your hearts honor Christ the

Lord is holy always being prepared to make a defense for anyone who asks for the reason for

the hope that is in you listen to this next part yet do it with gentleness and respect do it out of

love that's not in the verse but that's what he's referring to do it out of love there is a

magic and comedian duo possibly heard of them their names are Penn and Teller Penn is an atheist he does

not believe in God he doesn't believe God exists yet this gentleman came up to him after the show

one night and actually there is a clip on this on YouTube where Penn's actually talking about this

I encourage you to watch that if you're interested but this this guy was a Christian he came and

talked to Penn he says look I I love the show I love it it was great but listen I'm I'm here to

witness to you and he had a Bible and he put his name and his phone number in there actually there

was like four references Penn said he gave it to him and he said look I care about you he looked

him in the eye and Penn says this he says this multiple times the man was friendly and he looked

me in the eye he's playing with this pen he's playing with this pen he's playing with this pen

his hair the whole time it had an effect on him what had an effect on him the guy wasn't rude he

wasn't pounding the table with the gospel he came to him because he wanted him truly to know Christ

out of love that's how we share the gospel with people and and he Penn even says this now I want

you to know I would love to tell you that he came to faith from that he's still an atheist but this

was powerful in his life he says he says

if you believe there's a heaven and a hell and you believe that you're going to spend eternity

somewhere how much do you have to hate someone not to share the gospel with them how much do you have

to hate them to not share the good news that there's hope of eternal life and he uses this

reference of a truck coming at somebody he says if there was somebody that didn't see a truck coming

at them but you saw it and you said I'm going to go to heaven and I'm going to go to hell and I'm

going to be a good man but he says at some point I'm going to tackle them right I'm going to tackle

them even this atheist believe we need to reach people if this is how we believe love people

enough to tackle them with the good news of Christ was a kid's pastor at the Holly location his name

was Tommy Youngquist and he used to say this found people find people this guy that went to Penn was

trying to find somebody he was trying to find somebody he was trying to find somebody he was

he wanted to share the news he and he was willing to do whatever he needed to do he was willing to

tackle somebody to share it we willing to do that hope that we are our unbelievers ever going to

believe we don't do the Great Commission if we don't share the gospel if we don't go and make

disciples and that's exactly what Paul talks about in Romans 10 verses 13 through 15 he says this and

I absolutely love this

passage too I guess I just love scripture sorry he says this and this is repeating one of the Romans

road passages but I think it needed to be repeated and you'll understand here for everyone who calls

on the name of the Lord will be saved how then will they call on him who they have not believed

how will they uh I'm sorry how and how are they to believe in him whom they've never heard and how

are they to hear without someone who has never heard and how are they to hear without someone

preaching and how are they to preach unless they are called or sent as it is written how beautiful

are the feet of those who preach the good news beautiful feet I wish my feet were beautiful

they're not but listen Paul's not talking about our actual feet he's saying look it's beautiful

when somebody loves you enough to come and tell you the good news to tell you the difference

between life and death that's what he means but he's Paul asked a series of people to come and

ask a series of questions he's basically saying this in order to call on the Lord someone has to

believe first so they have to be told they're not going to believe unless they've heard the good news

from someone and they're not gonna hear unless someone tells them God has called us to be that

part he's the one that's going to do the changing were his hands and feet and then he uses the word

you're not off the hook I'm sorry because this preaching here is not necessarily talking about

somebody standing in a pulpit preaching the good news that is part of it but the word preach here

means herald the good news someone who has been given a mission and told to proclaim it maybe

wonder what I brought my cup up here for you like my stickers last year in Iwana Haley one of our

leaders down here leads the pre-k my granddaughter was in there

they made these cups and she cut the bottom out of all of them and this was a megaphone they were

teaching about sharing the good news so they were to do this good news good news I got good news

I do have good news it's called the gospel my granddaughter took this home to her parents

and for months she was walking around good news good news that that was almost a year ago they

they've just now threw this away my daughter said at home I might give her this but

her name's Quinn by the way but listen the last question Paul says how are they to preach unless

they are sent Christians we are sent we are given a message and told to proclaim it remember the

great commission go therefore make disciples of all nations really want to share this to our

families grandkids my kids your kids and your family are our first mission field they are I

want to encourage you to do that I want to encourage you to do that I want to encourage

you to share scripture with your kids on a regular at home and I also want to encourage you this week

it's we start our growth community we start a wanna and on Sunday mornings Marky's back there

the guy that was up here last week teaching your kids and grandkids and so are some other fantastic

leaders get them involved it is life and death and we cannot teach them too young a lot of times

get in a situation where God gives us the opportunity to share the gospel and you ever did

this I'm going to be honest I have and there's been times where I've God's teed it up for me

and I wasn't prepared and I I like it was so sudden I didn't even do it or I chickened out

and listen Paul says this and this is the theme of the whole book of Romans Romans 1 16 and 17 I am not ashamed of the

the gospel why for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek that means everyone else for it is the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith look the gospel is the power of life and death the gospel is the key the gospel

should not be something we're ashamed or scared to talk about people will reject it right and Jesus

promises that but some will leave at some point and if you have the opportunity to lead somebody to the

Lord oh man praise God that's so awesome because you know they went from life to death reach really

boils down to is this do we believe what scripture says and what are we willing to do about it Jesus

says I'm the way

the truth in the life nobody's coming to the father except through me Romans 8 1 says this there is no condemnation in those who are in Christ no condemnation that means there's no judgment for our sin there is no punishment for our sin we are forgiven that means we are guilty but because we have faith in Jesus we're innocent we're

righteous by God that's amazing what a free gift that is Jesus says the same thing and then he adds to it and John 3 18 Jesus says whoever believes in him is not condemned right if we have faith in Jesus again we're not condemned but then he goes on and says but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God if our friends

if our family if our relatives if people we work with go to school with don't know Jesus they're condemned that means there is going to be punishment there and it's in their future if they don't come to Christ no we don't like punishment is eternal separation in hell and we don't like to talk about hell because it's Gary and nobody wants to hear that but I have to tell you the truth that's where we're headed if we don't know Christ there's a

truck bearing down on our unsaved friends and family you're willing to tackle them are you willing to be those beautiful feet more beautiful than mine or will we just stand by and let it be run over it's our choice there's one other thing I want to share with you this morning and that is this we want to reach others we have to make sure we're reached ourself first do you know Jesus do you did you listen to the Romans road do you understand that you're a sinner

and that your only hope is faith in Jesus Christ have you turned from your ways to his have you repented you believe that he died for your sins and that he rose again you called on his name for salvation

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