Scripture referenced 11 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Psalm 92 opening call to worship, singing praise to God on the Sabbath
1 It is a good thing to give thanks to Yahweh, to sing praises to your name, Most High;
2 to proclaim your loving kindness in the morning, and your faithfulness every night,
3 with the ten-stringed lute, with the harp, and with the melody of the lyre.
4 For you, Yahweh, have made me glad through your work. I will triumph in the works of your hands.
5 How great are your works, Yahweh! Your thoughts are very deep.
6 A senseless man doesn’t know, neither does a fool understand this:
7 though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.
8 But you, Yahweh, are on high forever more.
9 For, behold, your enemies, Yahweh, for, behold, your enemies shall perish. All the evildoers will be scattered.
10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox. I am anointed with fresh oil.
11 My eye has also seen my enemies. My ears have heard of the wicked enemies who rise up against me.
12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 They are planted in Yahweh’s house. They will flourish in our God’s courts.
14 They will still produce fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and green,
15 to show that Yahweh is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
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Keep this verse
Romans 1:16-17
Paul not ashamed of the gospel, power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, righteous shall live by faith
16 For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.
17 For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”
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1 Corinthians 1:18
message of the cross is foolishness to those perishing but power of God to those being saved
18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.
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1 Timothy 1:15
trustworthy saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
15 The saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
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Isaiah 30:15
in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it
15 For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence.” You refused,
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Psalm 23:1
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, offered as gospel in ten words or less
1 Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing.
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Psalm 67
gospel extending to every tribe, tongue, and nation
1 May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us. Selah.
2 That your way may be known on earth, and your salvation among all nations,
3 let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you.
4 Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth. Selah.
5 Let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you.
6 The earth has yielded its increase. God, even our own God, will bless us.
7 God will bless us. All the ends of the earth shall fear him.
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Acts 16:31
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, cited as a gospel summary
31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
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1 Corinthians 15:3-5
Christ died for our sins, was buried, raised on the third day, appeared to Cephas then to the twelve
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
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1 John 5:12
he who has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son does not have life
12 He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life.
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John 3:16
God so loved the world that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life, cited twice
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ray opened the Sunday service with a congregational assignment: send in the gospel in ten words or less. Rather than working through a single passage, he let the question itself drive the message, using scripture, quotes, and responses from a similar assignment seven years ago to press toward a clear, honest answer about what the gospel actually is.
What was said
The prompt came out of something personal. Pastor Ray described waking up disoriented on a Saturday, dreaming he showed up to a wedding in cutoff shorts, and deciding to set aside his prepared message. What surfaced instead was something that had been "bubbling up" for a while: a concern that Christians talk about the gospel frequently without always being able to say plainly what it is.
He grounded the question in Romans 1:16-17, where Paul writes that he is "not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." That word "salvation," Pastor Ray said, is not just a past event. Drawing on 1 Corinthians 1:18, he noted that those who are being saved are in a progressive action, not a finished state. Justification happens at the moment of belief, but the living of it continues.
He pulled in Isaiah 30:15 to show where human nature resists: "In repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it." People want something to aim at and achieve. The gospel asks for the opposite, to repent from self-effort and rest in God.
He read through the responses his congregation had turned in seven years ago. Single words like "Jesus" and "Truth." Short phrases like "But God" and "Jesus offers rest." Longer attempts that tried to hold together the perfect life, the death, the burial, the resurrection, and the witnesses. He read 1 Corinthians 15 aloud, which several respondents had paraphrased: Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, was raised on the third day, and was seen.
A quote he attributed to C. S. Lewis framed the whole exercise: any failure to put your faith into ordinary language likely exposes the fact that you do not exactly know what you mean. That was the point of the assignment, not to produce a slogan, but to find out what you actually believe well enough to say it simply.
He closed by sitting with Romans 1:17 in two slightly different readings: "the righteous by faith shall live," and "the righteous by faith shall live." The first describes how a person becomes righteous, by placing faith in the holy one. The second describes what follows, a life actually lived by faith, not fire insurance but the daily walking out of God's goodness toward others. The service moved from there into communion.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Ray asked the congregation to summarize the gospel in 10 words or less. What would your answer be, and what does your choice of words reveal about how you understand the gospel?
- Romans 1:16-17 says the gospel is 'the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.' Pastor Ray mentioned he might be ashamed of how Christians have acted, but not of the gospel itself. Where do you see that tension in your own life or in the life of the church?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 6,119 words
Check. Check. Testing one two. Hey. Hey.
Good morning, everybody. How are we? Good to see you. Good to see you. How about we worship together in song?
So from Psalm 92, and would you stand? From Psalm 92, it is a song to be sung on the Sabbath. So we are going to sing a song, and it says, it's good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the most high. What do say? We sing.
Amen. Alright. Y'all can have a seat. Hey. Get comfortable.
My goodness. There are announcements this morning. Monday nights at first b. What's happening, Carl?
Yeah. We are on and we're in Mark seven, and Jesus goes into Gentile territory. Basically, the message is Jesus came for all who would believe, all, every tribe, every nation, every town. It's good to be reminded of that. Amen.
Meal music and message in Felix and Guadalupe are sing... Are, gonna be cooking tomorrow.
Fantastic. That sounds like a good evening. Awana happens at the same time. So 05:45, six, right around there. Awana start out in this room.
I don't think we have a slide for that, but it's going on. It's happening. Tomorrow night, same time as Monday nights at first b. If you'd like to help out by making a meal or preparing the kind of the breakfast between services connect hour, you can sign up down the hall. There's a retreat, a men's retreat that's coming up.
It's called the Word Retreat. It's coming up towards the end of this month, February 23 through the twenty sixth. There's the information, if you would like to go. I did register last week. It finally did happen.
When I announced that I was going, somebody said, you better register. So I did. Ladies fellowship happens on Thursday evenings down the hall in the fellowship hall. That's a great time together where they pray together, they eat together, they study God's word together, and they just talk about things. It's really good.
I think Joe has a comment on that too.
So we're doing the book Becoming a Woman of Becoming a Woman of Purpose is a book. Casey McCooey, can they see you afterwards? Will you just wave your hand? Alright. Perfect.
She is one of these sisters saved by grace. Alright. Women's retreat is coming up to March 16 through the nineteenth. That's in the same place over in Ryrie, the, Moss Avery Lodge in Idaho. Next Sunday will be the kind of close registration.
They need to know by next Sunday whether you're gonna go to that or not. So if you would sign up, in the office or with Nancy Teraciano. The student ascent started back up last week, Thursday evenings at 06:30PM. That's our student ministry, and actually it's banding together with other, high school ministries from, other churches in Jackson, and that's going really well. It's one of the most exciting things, in youth ministry that we've seen in the past years.
There's a young adult Bible study too, 06:30 in the evening, the location changes. Erin Anderson is kind of the head person on that. Is she here? There she is. You're sitting in the wrong place.
All right. That's Erin Anderson. If you want to be a part of it, talk to her. She knows what's going on. The IF gathering is coming up March third and fourth.
There's a lot, I told you. Get comfortable. Women's event, March third and fourth. You can sign up at jacksonholewomensbiblestudy.com, and that is a great event. I'm not sure all of the details of it, but the closer we get, the more you'll know, the more I'll know.
Okay. Somebody else. I'm calling in a specialist on this one. Yeah. Okay.
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the First Baptist Church, and we have been selected by the Billy Graham as... Via evangelistic association to be one of the satellite churches to host classes to get people ready for the big rally that's happening. If you've never been to one of these, they're kind of fun. They they get a big, event center, and there's Christian music.
This time it's gonna be Crowder, formerly known as David Crowder. He'll be there in September, and, there's a kids fest that happens on September 23. September 24 is the actual event. It's a great place where you can bring somebody who you've been trying to introduce them to the Lord and, or just bring them deeper into a relationship. And in order to prepare for that, we've been selected to host the local classes.
So there's a church prep briefing, March 3, 10AM to noon here. And that one is basically trying to just rally all the different churches together in the area, all the different leaders to get informed to to understand what's going on. And then Christian life and witnessing courses. These these are really really cool. They they get people baseline Christianity, what what the gospel is, how to share the gospel.
And that's also a great outreach opportunity too. If you have somebody who you'd like to be able to pour into, bring them to those. And if you go to those, you can also be a counselor at the big event. If you have any questions, let me know. There's a prayer calendar outside the church office where we pray each day for a different town that's gonna be hosting some of these events.
So if you have any questions, let me know. There's more information on the website.
That's Nick Stern. He is in the church office much of the week. Josh, would you come up and do this one? Josh Griffith. There's a red light instead of a green light.
Blake, I don't know if that matters. It's worth it.
Hey. Hello. I am Josh Griffith, and we're gonna be hosting a study on the book, The Color of Compromise. And it is the truth about the church's complicity in racism, kinda over the years. So if you'd like to join and be a part of that, we'll be hosting at our house on Tuesdays starting February 14, and that's gonna go from five to 7PM.
So ideally, we'll have dinners there. So family's welcome. Everyone's welcome, but families and staff encouraged too. We'll have dinner, and then we'll kind of pour into the study of the book for a little bit and get you home by 07:30. So we'll get this kids with bed.
Starts on Valentine's Day. So we've got lots of toys. But the... Just main rule is you can't touch my Star Wars figures. They're vintage.
Okay? So... But, yes, we'd love to have you guys. My number's up there, and you can come talk to me after this if you want little more information. And just let me know so we can make sure I get enough food for you.
And we'll have books too if you guys need one, a copy. And... Yeah. So that's
Thank you. Appreciate it, guys. Scouting Sunday. Would the scouts please stand up? Scouts and leaders, I'm actually one of them too.
So nobody knows exactly, but it's over ninety years that Firstbee's been hosting the Boy Scouts. We're glad that you're here. We're glad that you're here on mid middle of the week, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, all of the, goings on that are here. But thank you for, sticking with kids. We really, really appreciate it.
Is there anything that any of you want to say? Alright. Thank you very much. Y'all are very welcome. Scouting Sunday, shake a scout's hand on the way out today.
Thank you very much. Y'all can have a seat. And is that it? That's it. Alright.
Join us and sing with us if you will.
Lord, we we sing that, but we also make that our prayer. Would you, Lord, open our eyes truly that we would hear, that we would see? What are you saying to us today? And thank you, God, for your love, your self giving, others focused love. God, may we carry that brand of love with us.
We don't do it perfectly, but you have. And you're at work in us to give us this kind of love. Thank you. Amen. I want you to hear this from from Jesus because this is really powerful.
When he says to his disciples, I I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn't know his master's business. Jesus said, instead, I've called you friends. Amen. So know that about Jesus and know that in your relationship with Jesus, he's calling you friends by belief, through faith. He's saying, I called you friends for everything that I've learned from my father.
I've made known to you. He's not keeping secrets from us. He's openly, with abandon, sharing all the love that the father has shared with him. And then he shares that with us. Isn't that good news?
Let's keep singing. Man of sorrows. Amen. You can have a a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll ask the ushers to come on forward.
We're gonna sing a song. It's it's new to us, but it's not a new song. It's been around forever, and the lyrics are powerful. Speaks of God's love, his light, his joy, the cross. But before we before we sing, Ray, would you pray?
God, thank you for the time to gather this morning. I thank you that we got a place that's warm. It's comfortable. Lord God, I'm overcome with gratitude right now. In Jesus' name, Lord, we're gathered and thankful, and we pray, Lord, that you would, use us as a part of your plan for, for folks who are cold and lonely and don't have a place to belong.
In Jesus' name, Lord, I ask that you would use, those of, your humble and obedient servants. You'd use our lives, Lord, to call other people into fellowship with you, to give them a sense of belonging, of life abundant, and that, Lord, peace would abound. In Jesus' name, I pray that you would show who you are through your people. For this offering, Lord, just do with it as you will. We ask that you bless and multiply it to do your purpose.
Amen. All right. It's time for Children's Church downstairs. And upstairs, we've got a little something different this morning. So, do y'all have alarms in your phone?
Like, just normal alarms that repeat every so often or ever so often. So I do. I have two. One of them is to take out the trash because if it's not in there, I will forget it every week. Friday, repeat every Friday, take trash out.
The other one is, get up, it's time for church on Sunday. And that's... I mean, that might be obvious to y'all, but if y'all don't show up, somebody might notice. If I don't show up, Carl starts calling. So get up, get going, it's Sunday morning.
And those are the two. And if I ever add one, I put it in, the alarm wakes me up the next morning and I erase it. When I hit stop, I erase it, I just have two. Take out the trash and get to church. Those are the two.
And yesterday morning, the get up and go to church went off on a Saturday morning, and it freaked me out because I thought I had another day between Friday and Sunday. And it took me about twenty minutes to realize it wasn't Sunday, and I was so disoriented. We have been doing a kitchen remodel at the Parsonage and so the kitchen is torn out completely. There's nothing there. It's a bare spot in the floor.
There's not even floor, there's sub floor. And I've been doing the tear out and with a little help from my friends here and there. And I knew I had somebody coming on Saturday and it was over and I didn't remember him coming. I thought I don't even remember him not coming. It really messed with my mind.
So I've... Then I never go back to sleep. It's 06:30 when the alarm goes off. I never go back to sleep afterwards, but I thought I'm gonna try. And then I went into the deepest sleep of my adult life.
I've never been so deeply asleep and I had a dream. I knew what I was going to preach this morning. I already knew that. I knew I've been studying it for several weeks. I I got that and that's no problem.
But the dream was that I showed up for a wedding wearing cut off shorts And it wasn't that kind of wedding. And I turned around and saw Tanya and she said, you can't go like that. You're not ready. So I'm going to put on hold the messages I have for this morning. Not that I believe in dreams and omens like that, but I'm waiting for another week for this one.
This one's one that's been bubbling up lately and I feel like it needs to be said again. I also left some cards in your seat backs, little white cards. I'd like for you to take on this assignment. Okay? It's been seven years, almost exactly, since I went through this and gave a homework assignment one week and asked people to turn in to me.
And you can do it by text. My number is (956) 357-3419. I'll call, tell you again. (956) 357-3419, or you can get in touch with me by the email or call the church or whatever. But if you would turn in in some format, I don't care what it is, the gospel in 10 words or less.
Okay? I want for you to think about it. What is the gospel in 10 words or less? So we talk about gospel a lot. We mention it a lot.
It comes up a lot. And generally, what I do is just go through the text and try to point out. So I've got a few texts. Romans one sixteen and seventeen says this, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
I might be ashamed of the way that Christians have acted in the past. I might be. I might be ashamed of the way that I have reacted in the past, but I'm not ashamed of the good news. Euangelion gospel is good news. I'm not ashamed of the good news for it is the power of God for salvation unto salvation.
It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. This goes so well with what he's preaching tomorrow night. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. It's for everybody, every tribe, tongue, and nation. The message of the cross.
I bring this one up a lot. At the end of a message usually, for the message of the cross, it's foolishness to those who are perishing. But for those of us who are being saved, it's a progressive action. We are in the process of being saved. Yes.
From the moment of belief, you are saved and glory bound and gonna be glorified. Yes. That's true. But this life, you don't immediately achieve perfection because you accept Christ. You're justified, but you are being saved.
I love that. It's the power of God. Again, says it. That's first Corinthians one eighteen. Another one.
This saying is trustworthy and it's deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Ah, if we're doing 10 words or less, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. First Timothy. So that's the beginning. That's the gospel.
The power of God unto, towards, into salvation. Ace is the Greek word right there. It's good. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. The Jew first, God, in his infinite wisdom, chose a group of people, and he started with them.
But it was only a start, and he's spreading the circle. Psalm 67, to every tribe, tongue, nation. So there we are. This is from Isaiah. I love this verse.
In repentance and rest is your salvation. So this Sunday, it's about salvation. Okay. In repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength.
That's good. The problem is Isaiah thirty fifteen. It's God that's speaking, and he says, in repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. Oh, we want to work for it.
We want to work for it. We want to have something we can aim at and we think we can hit it. But the truth is, we need to repent from that kind of thinking and rest and trust in God. So that's one way. Another one from the Bible, the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. That's 10 words or less. That's saying a whole lot. Hallelujah. You can add a word in there.
Oswald Chambers. This is gonna be longer than 10 words, but no, it isn't. The next one is the reality of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the way utmost for his highest define the gospel. The reality of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, C. S. Lewis. C. S.
Lewis says, and this is your assignment. Now I really am giving you the assignment. I don't care how you get it back to me, but I'm gonna crowdsource another sermon at some point with your responses. Okay? Gospel in 10 words or less.
C. S. Lewis is purported to have said, if you can't communicate something in a way that anyone can understand, either you don't understand it or you don't believe it. It's hard to be succinct. Actually, this is a misquote.
This is what he actually said. By trying to translate our doctrines into vulgar speech, we discover how much we understand them ourselves. Our failure to translate may sometimes be due to our own ignorance of the vernacular. You don't know how common folks speak, but much more often exposes the fact that we don't exactly know what we mean. So we're trying to get after what it is that we mean by gospel.
Boil it down. Any fool can write learned language. The vernacular is the real test. If you can't turn your faith into it, the vernacular, then you don't understand it or you don't believe it. So here we go.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel. So what is the gospel? These are responses from the congregation at first b on February... In between January 17 and 02/16/2016 in 10 words or less. So I asked them if they went over to just try to keep it to one sentence.
So I got lots of run on sentences, but we're shooting for the target which is dead center. We don't want them to be too dogmatic. We don't want them to be too existential. We don't want them to be too supernaturalistic or too natural. Just the truth.
Straight forward. Wycliffe. Wycliffe are Bible translators. They've been doing this forever for missionaries. They started off...
The central truth of the gospel is that God has provided a way of salvation for men through the gift of his son to the world. He suffered as a sacrifice for sin. He overcame death, and he now offers a share in his triumph to all who will accept it. The gospel is good news because it is a gift of God, not something that must be earned by penance or by self improvement. That's good.
Very biblical. It's still longer than 10 words. The gospel. The message concerning Jesus Christ. These people didn't know the assignment.
These are just ones I picked up. Okay? The message concerning Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. The nonfiction story through which humanity is rescued from its brokenness and returned to intimacy with God. That's good.
That's Alan Levi. He's a good friend who's written a couple of different books. One of them about his brother dying of cancer called The Last Sweet Mile. So what is the gospel in 10 words or less? Here you go.
I had all the way from one word answers to very long answers. Jesus. That's the gospel. Amen. Good and biblical.
Jesus. Two word answer. Jesus, man. I love that. Exclamation point.
Good friend that after after he met Jesus would tear up around his family and friends, and they'd say, what's up with you, man? And he'd Jesus, man. But God. Oh, so good. But God.
No matter what your story has been up to this point, but God. He is leaning towards you with grace. But God, so good. Jesus offers rest. If you're working yourself to death, Jesus offers rest.
Salvation, forgiveness, relationship. Somebody turned in 10. I know exactly who this was. At the cross, Jesus reconciled holy God and sinful man. Very good.
Jesus' resurrection reconciles holy God and sinful people who believe. Faith in Jesus is enough to be forgiven and received. Amen. I probably ought to turn off my little dinger here. People are sending in their gospel in 10 words or less.
Faith in Jesus is enough to be forgiven and received. Faith in Jesus is enough to be forgiven and transformed. Amen. God's gift of reconciliation offered to humanity. God's love, his son, for redemption, our gift to heaven.
God's living words inspired and transposed into human hands. Some of them are pretty poetic. Christ died so that we may live. So that we may live. The only way to become right with God.
That's the gospel. The only way. It's exclusive, and that's a problem for a lot of people in our society. It feels exclusive, but God has to start somewhere. Does he not?
He started with a group of people and showed them who he was and how he was and and asked them to take it on the old covenant. And he continues and continues and continues to be who he is. And after they fail, he keeps on loving them. He keeps on going. The only way to become right with God.
God's righteous wrath shall be averted, pleading Christ's death alone. That's got a little of the bad news in there. That's good. It's good news. Choose God's grace through Jesus or default to God's punishment.
That may be like Jude 23, the snatching them from the fire. Save others snatching them out of the fire. The truth about God's plan of salvation for believers. This is another Alan Levi. Being deeply flawed and conscious of it.
Recognition of how flawed we are is a part of it. If you don't recognize that, then it's real hard to repent from it. Being deeply flawed and conscious of it, but being deeply forgiven and conscious of that too. That's good news. Acceptance of undeserved blessings and atonement for yesterday, today, and forever.
These are a little longer than 10, but they're at one sentence. Christ's perfect life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection affords opportunity for a positive eternity for all who are willing to accept it. That's good. Peace with God on his terms. Think about that one for a minute.
And then the addition, peace with God on his terms. Unconditional surrender is required. Individuals can have peace with God through Jesus' atoning death. I put them into groups. You can see that we're kind of following the path of peace right now.
Individuals can have peace with God through Jesus' atoning death. Salvation is by faith alone and Christ alone. Just relax. Cleansed by God through faith in Jesus. Christ lived, loved, died, and rose for our salvation.
Amen. Jesus' perfect life for our imperfect ones. That's good. Jesus Christ gave his life to save ours from sin. God's message of love and forgiveness available in Christ, actually alone.
The exclusivity of it, like I said, seems really... But it's an inclusivity. If God is calling people into his righteous and eternal kingdom, God's message for love and forgiveness available in Christ. Jesus loves ragamuffins. He died to save them and empowers them.
Lord and savior, Christ is God. He died to redeem our sins. Jesus, father's final sacrifice, making dead alive, empowering through humility. Because of his love for us and through the gift of his son, Jesus Christ, God has bound us together with himself for eternity. Jesus.
His birth, his life, his crucifixion, and his ascension, Jesus. He died on the cross for my sins even though I constantly fall short. That's good. A lot of acrostics people came up with. God offers a savior to all, providing believers eternal life.
God's only son provides eternal life. Grace offered sacrifice promised eternal love. God's riches at Christ's expense. I I like to hear what y'all are saying. I know this was seven years but I want to hear what you're saying.
I really do want for you to do the assignment, okay? If you'd send it to me, fill it out on the white card, leave it, put it up here at some point or send it to me. I want to hear because the gospel doesn't change, but how we view it does. There is something that is is, temporarily progressing about the gospel. Having accepted it for salvation and then beginning to be transformed and sanctified to a place where you're actually living it out.
Sin condemns hopeless mankind. God lovingly redeems all who believe. It is through belief. That's an important component. Jesus, God offers his righteousness, redeeming us from sin's condemnation.
Sin. The condemning debt we all carry could only be paid by God through Jesus who freely offers that make to to to Did I just show up for a wedding with cut off song? This is this is the... Not the norm. I know this is not my norm.
I love this. This is a line from a John Lennon song, actually. It's So This Is Christmas, Happy Christmas, that song. The background singers are singing,
War is
if you want it. War is over, if you want it, it's available. There's a war that can be over if you just want it. If you will, surrender. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That's a theme. Some of them were very much scripture short. Acts sixteen thirty one, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Amen.
Damnable as mankind is, this is one of my favorites, God in Christ provides a way out. Amen. Through Christ's undeserved death... You know, because he had a perfect life. He walked a perfect life, communion with God, surrendered to his...
The spirit, and walked it out through Christ's undeserved death. God forgives sins of anyone willing. War is over if you want it. Consenting to his undeserved death for those he loves. Christ obeyed.
That's good. God is good. He really loves you. Accept that truth. There are a lot of people shaking their fist at God.
God is good. If you don't understand it, it's not because he's not good. It's because you don't understand it. God is good. He really loves you.
Accept that truth. Amen. That's that's a... On a mission trip to Africa. There's a Bible sitting on a kid's desk.
I thought it was cool. I I a a think Christ, the perfect sacrifice for the sins... Oh, he's translating in the back. Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all who believe in him. Amen.
To pay the penalty for every acknowledged sin, Christ died. Since Jesus paid for me, shouldn't I give my all? Jesus paid it forward. Are you thankful? The love of God expressed through Christ for my eternity.
That's what somebody sent in. That's their card transcribed exactly. My favorite is the love of God expressed through Christ for my eternity. Since Jesus paid for me, shouldn't I owe him everything? Wow.
The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus apart and received. Song lyrics were pretty popular. That's from a song. Jesus offers rest. Christ died for our sins, buried, raised, seen.
He was seen. They were witnesses. They're eyewitnesses, and they lived the rest of their lives for his glory, for his mission, for his kingdom. The gospel by which you are saved. Christ died for our sins.
He was buried, proof he died. He rose again. He was seen, proof he lives. First Corinthians 15, for I passed on to you as of first importance, but I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas. Then to the 12, truth.
That's actually a guy sent this in and just said, Hi Ray, I've been thinking about this all day as an assignment, you know. With all the turmoil, the dishonesty, the fear, the evil seven years ago, only one word speaks to me and it's truth. Have a great weekend. Cheers. Truth.
Truth. Man oh man. There are a lot of different ways to view any particular thing that happens, but the truth is the truth. We're shooting for the center of the bull's eye. And one guy, it's Bob Wells.
I'm just gonna tell you who it was. Bob Wells said, this is what he turned in. Man's salvation, the forensic gospel, God's plan and provision. Jesus Christ is the incarnate son of God. He died on the cross in your place and became the righteous payment as a ransom.
You cannot pay for your unrighteousness, which is condemning you before God. Furthermore, Christ was buried, resurrected, witnessed by many, and ascended to heaven where he currently intercedes on your behalf. So what's your responsibility? Your responsibility in God's promises, if you choose to believe or trust in these provisions, then God promises your removal from condemnation, and you will immediately possess an eternal new life. And he ended with this, and I love it.
Precision trumps brevity. He was able to say that quickly, though. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life. That's biblical.
First John five twelve. John three sixteen. It's an open thing. Exclusivity, if exclusivity bothers you, then this is a very inclusive verse because whosoever really means whosoever. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God is good. He really loves you. Accept that truth. I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God unto salvation, for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also to the Greek, For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.
He really is good. This is a this is a problem that the world has. If God is all powerful and there's evil that he could stop it. Boy, wouldn't we all be automatons if he stopped every evil? If he stopped us from making poor decisions?
He gives us responsibility. He gives us choice. He gives us a decision to make. He would never force your hand. In the gospel, the righteousness of God, it shows him to be right.
And it's revealed from faith to faith. And as it is written, the righteous one shall live by faith. So in Greek, this is that if you say, well, I come to hear the Bible. I don't come to hear people's opinion. Here it is.
Just as it has been written, but the righteous by faith shall live. This is a really interesting verse to me. The way that it's a... It's an old testament verse that's picked up by Paul. When he sends it in his theological opus to the Romans, he picks it up and he says it in just these few words, that the righteous by faith shall live.
There's a conviction, a trust that you have and you can place that. And it is by faith they they shall live. By faith. The righteous by faith shall live. And the righteous by faith shall live.
You catch the difference in those two? The way to become righteous is not because you are already right. It's not because you argue better than anybody else. The way that you become righteous is by faith. Placing your faith in the righteous one, the holy one.
And then after that, he allows for this. By your faith, you shall live. It's not just about salvation fire insurance. It's about the way that you walk out the goodness of God to others with all we are, loving God, loving people through Christ. So that's the homework assignment.
Besides the 10 words or less, I really mean it. I really want you to turn it in. I wanna see them, but I also wanna have them to be able to share them. How is it that you will live out the gospel? And how is it that you will reveal God's righteousness?
I think that's the last one. We do have communion right now. So for anyone who has accepted the truth of the gospel, in all humility, we are following after Christ's disciples, and we're taking on this ordinance, we call it, of the Lord's Supper. It's a completely open table for anyone who has believed. You're welcome to to partake.
I'm gonna ask the elders to come forward. I'll ask the band to come back up, or you wanna do that now or wait? Play something pretty, Florine, if you would. God, would you bless, the distribution of this, little cracker, representative of the body of Christ. A lot of these responses about the gospel, all of them really had to do with Jesus' sacrificial death for, you walked out a perfect record and you offered that record to anyone who would, simply believe.
So for everyone who has believed, Lord, I pray that you'd bless this little cracker representative of your body. But for anyone who hasn't, Lord, and they let this pass, I pray that by the witness of the people around them, sitting right next to them maybe, that they would come to know who it is that you are. In Jesus' name, Lord, I pray blessing over this. Amen. On the same night that Jesus was betrayed, just after supper, he says to his disciples, they're there.
He took bread and he broke it and he said to them, this is my body which is given for you. Take this and eat of it, and do it in remembrance of me. Amen. God, thank you for the perfect life that was lived out. Thank you for giving the direction.
Thank you for giving the spirit, and thank you, Jesus, for walking it out. Pray that you bless this cup, this little plastic cup of juice that's representative of the blood of Christ. Lord, I ask for your blessing on it as we distribute it this morning. Amen. Amen.
Thank you, Florine. In the same way that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup after supper and said to the disciples there and it rings to us today. Jesus said, this is the new covenant in my blood. Take this and drink of it and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Thank you, Lord, for your allowing us to take a part in your good news, Lord.
Accepting it and living it, but also sharing it. In Jesus' name, I pray that we'd be about your business. Amen. Would you stand with us?
Let's sing that again. We believe. We in God the father. We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in the whole spirit,
There it is. John three sixteen. There there there is an inclusiveness about this too. For God so loved the world in such a way as this, that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Amen.
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