That is a author, teacher, lecturer, apologist, and God is using him strategically in missions in the area with third millennium ministries, and if you're not familiar with that, there will be a little blurb on the front of the ministry connection tomorrow. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. We're glad you're here. I'm sorry, believe it. But I can't say that God made me do something, okay, that that's why I'm late. It's the tornadoes. I hope you know that, right? Yes. Do you know that? Yes. Okay. Am I allowed up? You're allowed up? Okay. I'm up. Let's do it. You have a Bible. Would you turn to the Romans, chapter one? And let me just say it is good to be with you. Thank you so much. You're so kind, not to go home. I will keep this as short as we, short and sweet to the point, is that okay? How long do you want me to go, Pastor? Is there a clock in here? 10 o'clock? 10 o'clock. 10 o'clock? 10.30? Okay. He says 10.30. So blame him. Not me. I'm ready. I'm ready to quit now. I'm really I'm glad to be with you. Thank you for coming out. I know your lives are busy, and I know that Saturday night like this, to come out this late is especially hard. And I know I'm talking to the Marines right now, right? Who are? I mean, these are the people that really love missions. They wouldn't be coming out on Saturday night like this if you didn't, and you wouldn't be staying so late if you didn't love it already. So tonight I'm hoping that maybe we can look at a passage in the Bible that you know already. Romans 1, 16, we'll start around 14. And look and see just for some encouragement in this thing that we call the mission of the church. Okay? So what's your encouragement to know? Is it really that important? Is it really worth it? For example, would it be worth staying until 9 o'clock on Saturday night? And or beyond? Is it worth your life? Might be. Might be worth your whole life. Romans 1, verse 14. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greaks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel, also to you who are at Rome, where I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. Let's pray together. Jesus, we are here to learn from you from these words from your apostle written 2,000 years ago. And honestly, Lord, on a Saturday night like tonight, when we've been here for so long and it's been a dreary and challenging day all day, it's easy for us to think, what could we possibly find in this passage? How could we possibly hear something that would actually be inspiring or encouraging? And we know that can't be done unless you send Holy Spirit to us now. And so we pray, Holy Spirit can come and be here with us even at this hour so that we may be encouraged by your word to love your mission, to be involved in it, to have confidence in it. And as you do that, we will give you the praise and we will honor you for it. Amen. I love this passage and a lot of you probably have actually memorized verse 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God into salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and then to the Gentile, to the Greek. And it's a great passage because I think it speaks about something that all of us right now, especially in this day and age, need to get charged up about. And that is confidence in the gospel ministry, confidence that it's worth doing. Imagine this eight year old boy standing behind the curtain of his elementary school. We've got the picture. He's about to sing his first solo in front of his whole elementary school. And he was terrified. I know he was, because it was me. I was standing there tears were coming down my cheeks, my hands were shaking like this, because I had sung in church, but this is different, this is school. And all the kids, I know they're going to laugh at me when this is a whole over, so I'm standing there like that. And my third grade teacher, Ms. Camper, is over behind the curtain on the edge of the stage and she says, hold the curtain, hold the curtain. And so she runs over to me and she grabs me by the shoulders and starts shaking me like this. And she says, if you don't get some confidence, you're going to mess up this whole program. Even in the third grade, I understood that's exactly the problem. That's Ms. Camper, like I didn't know that already. I don't know that she did the right thing that day, but I think we all understand what she meant. There are certain things you just can't do, certain things you won't do. You won't throw yourself into it unless you have a certain level of confidence that it can be done, that it ought to be done, that you can do it, that you can succeed to some degree in doing it. I mean you have to have a certain measure of confidence or you just aren't going to get involved. You might put your toe in it and the first time something goes wrong, you're out. First disappointment, you're out. That's the way it is with what you're doing this weekend, this thing called the mission. If you don't believe it can be done, if you don't believe that it ought to be done, if you don't believe that you can be involved in a very positive way, you won't be. Now that's just the truth. This passage, verse 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel, it's preceded by something that's really remarkable because what he says in verse 14 is he says, I am eager to come to Rome. Well who wouldn't be? I mean ladies, if you went home this evening and found two round trip tickets to Rome in the top drawer of your dresser, would you be disappointed? No, great. I've always wanted to go to Rome. I've been waiting for the day when you would think about that and actually buy the tickets and make it happen. Right, exactly. You see, I mean today when we think of going to Rome, we think about flying in an airplane, getting there, taking a little tour of Vatican City, seeing the 16 chapel, things like that, and then coming home. Have a pizza, come home. And that's the way it is today, but it's not the way it was in Paul's day. Already in Rome, Christians were being persecuted, already when he wrote this letter. But he says, not just, I'm willing to go there, he says, I'm eager to go there. That would be a lot more like today, you and me saying, I'm eager to go to Mecca to tell people about Jesus. Now ladies, if you come home tonight and you find in your top drawer two round trip, pick us to Mecca, probably won't be round trip, it would just be one way. Interested? Good, good for you, whoever said it, good for you, because I want to go there too. And that's what Paul's saying here, he's saying that he is eager to go to Mecca to talk about the good news of Jesus, and why would he want to do that? He says in verse 16, I am not ashamed of this thing. Well who would have ever thought he was? That's the first thing I want to ask about this passage. Why does he even bother to talk about being ashamed of it? I mean, this is the Apostle Paul. He'd gone everywhere, he'd given up everything for Jesus. He'd given up his family, his job, his reputation, he'd given it all up. So why did he waste the ink writing, I am not ashamed of the gospel. I think it's because he knew something about himself, he knew something about you and me too. He knew something about every Christian. It's natural, it's normal, it's sort of par for the course, for all of us to have just a little bit of hesitation about this thing we believe. It's normal for us to be a little bit embarrassed to let people know just all the weird, wacky things we believe as Christians. And we'd much rather than leave us alone than us have to let them know those things. And if that's where you feel, if that's the way you feel right now, don't be shocked. That's why everybody feels. I've been doing this thing for over 30 years now. I've been a professional religious worker for over 30 years and I still feel the same way. Down in Orlando, I don't know if it's like up here, but in Orlando we don't have Manly Barbershops. By Manleth, I think the guys know what I mean. You can go and if you go into a Manly Barbershop, it's like got a spittoon, it's got magazines and NASCAR pictures and you sit around and you talk about things that men don't normally talk about at home. They talk about, they actually talk, that's one thing, they do this different. Unlike at home, they talk at the Barbershop and we don't have those in Orlando. So you have to go to these unisex places to get your hair cut. All right, so you go in and that wouldn't be so bad if they would just sort of leave you alone and cut your hair. But they don't, they're taught, they're trained because I asked them. They're trained to get you to talk to them, to make conversation with them. And so every time I sit down, if it's a new person, the first question is, well Richard, what do you do? I'm a professor, your professor, yes, what do you teach? I teach religion, religion, where do you do that? I do a seminary, you know, I'm just hoping, I don't want to answer these questions. And then they respond, well are you rabbi? Because in Orlando, we don't have evangelical Christians, we have Roman Catholics and rabbis, okay? So you're either a priest or rabbi if you're connected to a seminary. And then before the conversation's over, before my hair's done, the whole store is listening to me talk about things like, I believe in the Bible. I believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation. You know, bizarre things to them, I mean, just totally bizarre that somebody can actually believe that anymore. And you know, all along, I'm thinking to myself, hey, I came here to get a haircut. I want to be left alone. The worst part of it, of course, is once they find out you're a Christian, you have to leave a really big tip. Because they talk about you later, okay? And you know, if you leave a big tip, it's good for Jesus, if you leave a bad tip, it's bad for Jesus. So, you know, it's got to be a big tip, all right? So, you know, that's my life, that's who I am, and I do this all the time. You would think that I'd get on an airplane eager to share my faith with somebody, but I've got to deal with Jesus that if they don't talk to me, I don't have to talk to them. And why is that? It's because it's natural and it's normal for you to want to be respected. For you to want to be liked. And nowadays, to believe in Christianity, the way we believe in Christianity, is not respectable. It's not the kind of thing that people are going to say, well, wait a go, I'm so glad you're a person of faith. They're not going to say that. Now, if you live in that live, say, I got my faith, you got yours, doesn't really matter. We're all going to go to God somehow or another, then they'll buy that. But if you're out there telling people that you love Jesus and Jesus is the only way of salvation, you can just forget respect. It's not going to happen. And so, no wonder we have a little bit of shame. No wonder we even find it hard to believe that supporting missionaries will do anything any good. I mean, you know, if you don't have it in your own life, if you can't see it happening in your own life, that people are responsive, and people are energized by your faith and things like that. Well, surely that's not going out there in Waga, Waga land. It's not happening out there either. So why should I pray for these people? Why should I support them with my money? Why should I think about giving my whole life to the mission? Of course not. Because if you don't have a certain measure of confidence, you don't have a certain measure of boldness, you just won't do it. And it seems very futile, so very often. But remember what he said there? He didn't say, I am ashamed. He said, I am not ashamed. Why not? How did he do it? How did he get to the point he was willing to go to Mecca to do this thing, calling, called, telling other people about Jesus, fulfilling the mission? I mean, how did he get to the point that he was not ashamed and able to give his whole life to this? To vote himself to every hardship that he faced, so that the good news would come to people like you and me. How did he do it? He tells us how. I am not ashamed of the gospel. Why not? Because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Think about that for just a minute. The story about the good news of Jesus, and that's what gospel is, that Jesus came to this earth, that he died for sinners, that he rose again from the dead, and that he's coming back one day. That simple story, just those very words, he says it has power in it. I know something about the gospel story that most people don't know, and it is this, it's got power. I think we all understand, in some ways, words have power, all words have power. When somebody insults you and it hurts your feelings, that's power over you. When somebody praises you and makes you feel good to get pumped up a little bit, that's power over you. But Paul's not talking here about the normal kinds of power that we experience when we talk to people. It's not the power of people, he's not saying that, it's not the power of language. No, no, no, he says it's the power of God himself. The one who made everything, the one that sustains everything, it's his power, and it's inside of a story, it's inside of a simple message that even children can understand. So that when it comes to people in God's providence and in God's timing, it has power to bring them salvation from eternal death and to give them everlasting life. It's not a trick, it's not some ideology that we try to convince people of, it's not something we argue them into, it's not something that we trick them or have a ploy that we get them into is some kind of gimmick. It's a simple story about Jesus coming, living, dying, resurrecting, trust in Him, and you'll have everlasting life, and that story has got the power of God in it. It's unbelievable. But if you've been touched by that power, you know it's true. I grew up in the church, I grew up hearing the good story all the time. I grew up in a good back to church, so I heard it every Sunday. I had opportunities to walk down a thousand times, and that did a thousand times in one. But I can remember still the day when I was 17 years old, when that simple story finally reached my heart. Even though I'd heard it all my life, Jesus died for you, all the things that they tell you. It just bounced off, bounced off, bounced off, but finally, at one point, that story's power became true in my life, and it turned my life inside out. And a lot of you here have had that. You might know the facts of it. You might have grown up with the facts of it, but there was a moment when suddenly, that story, the power that was in it was evident in your life, and it was transforming you. And when you know that power, that that simple story has, you can't be ashamed of it anymore. I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia. I'm a hillbilly from Southwest Virginia, proud of it. No problem with that, I'm glad for it. But before I became a believer, I was a normal teenager in our high school. And one of the things we would do is we would stand in our parking lot, right at the edge of the parking lot where people would drive in, and we would watch to see what kind of cars they drove in. And if they drove a really good car, then they were the kinds of people you wanted to know. You want to date that person. You want to get to know that person, because you get to ride around in that car. If they drove a really crummy car, they were worthless human beings. Well, I remember one day, a new student came up to our school, driving a car that was at least 15 years old. It was back in the old days you guys are too young to know this. Back in the old days, when he had an old car, the windshields would cloud up. This had clouded up windshields. One of the headlights was cock-eyed. The bumper was like this. The fenders were rusted and all those kinds of things. And at first, we didn't pay any attention because nobody would drive a car like that to our high school, no way. But this guy was new. He didn't understand he was the worthless human being. So he comes down the road, and he slows down the front of our driveway, and he turns in right in front of us. And instead of hiding down like this, a shame to the car, he was driving. He had his hand on the steering wheel, his other hand on the window, driving in like this. He looked over and said, hey, y'all, how you doing? And he drove in and went on the class. And we made it our mission to let him know whether worthless human being he was that weekend. And we did, at least we thought we were going to. There's this 16-road in Brona, Virginia with lots of traffic lights on it. And on Friday night, this is right out of American graffiti, the movie, okay. We were into it. We would go cruising up and down that highway, okay. And every time you come to a traffic light, of course, you would always do the same thing. And you would listen to see if the car next to you did it as well. Now you didn't look because it might be your mother, and you didn't want that to happen, okay. So you just did that, and you listened. And if they did it, then you knew you had a race to the next traffic light. So everybody went out looking for Scott in his Hick Rack. And a lot of us found him, a lot of us raised him. And he beat every single one of us hands down. Hands down, it wasn't even a contest. And later that night, he drove his Hick Rack into the little hamburger drive-in place, and over all the skates and all that stuff. He drove it in there, and we found out why. He beat us all. He opened the hood up. He did not care what his car looked like on the outside, but he was a master mechanic, and he had put all those four barrel chrome magnum, this, that, and the other that you put on cars. And he had turned that machine into a racing machine. And we all sat back like this, feeling like fools, because now we understood why Scott was not ashamed of his car. He wasn't ashamed of it because he knew it had power under the hood, and if anybody challenged him, he knew that he was the one that would win the race. Got power under the hood? You have nothing to be ashamed of. And that's the way it is with the good news of Jesus. It's nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, have you noticed that people are increasingly in Gainesville, Georgia, thinking that if you believe in Jesus, that's not fashionable? Have you noticed that happening around you yet? I know it's happening. You need to get out more often if you don't receive that. Have you noticed that in your neighborhood, there are fewer and fewer people that are getting up and going to church on Sunday? Have you noticed that they think you're a little bit peculiar in the way you live your life? That you're driving around in a rusted out, cock-eyed, bumper, headlight off to the side car called your religion? I mean, you're not cool anymore. You're not even mainstream anymore. You are weird. And so naturally, you want to pull back. Naturally, you do. And naturally, you don't want to invest your money in something that's weird and bizarre like this and unfashionable. And naturally, you don't want to devote yourself to praying for something like the mission of the church that's so unfashionable, weird, old-fashioned, hick-wreck. So you and I have got to lift up the hood for a moment here. And look again at what this thing is that we're talking about. We're talking about a message that has the power of God unto salvation. It's the kind of message, it's the kind of story that can reach into a young person's life and turn that person inside out. It's the kind of story, it's the kind of simple message that can reach to a person that's on his deathbed and give them everlasting life. It's the kind of story, the kind of message that can transform the world. That's how much power it has. So I have a big question for you tonight and it's going to be a hard one about a need you to put your thinking hats on it and think about this for just a moment. How long has it been since you have seen that power in somebody's life? If you've been a Christian for 3, 4, 5, 10, 20 years, it may have been a long time since you have seen what that simple message of Jesus can do to somebody. And if it's been a long time, it's no wonder you're ashamed of it. I mean you're looking at your own life and saying, I don't see its power in me anymore. I feel like a failure. And if that's where you are tonight, it's no wonder then that you have a little bit of hesitation about this thing called the good news of Jesus. So you need to get out there. And you need to let somebody know the story and watch what happens and you'll be amazed. And you won't be ashamed anymore. Mike Tyson, you remember him? He's a husband now, I know, but you remember him. He was a boxer for those who either aren't into boxing and things. I'm not really into it, but I kind of know a little bit about these things. And Mike Tyson had very strong, powerful arms, like the power of the gospel. I mean, I saw him one time, hit a man like this and lifted this huge man off the canvas, okay? I mean, just up into the air with one punch. And you know, that's a powerful arm. But Mike Tyson had a great disadvantage. Does anybody know what his big disadvantage was? He was short for one thing, that's right. But there was another thing that goes along with being short. Crazy, yes, he was crazy. But I didn't go with being short. What disadvantage did he have as a boxer? Does anybody know? Yeah, he had short arms. And in order to hit somebody, he had to get very close to them. I mean, so close that I'm sure that sometimes he was tempted even to bite their ear and things like that, which he did, ladies, if you didn't know that. He did that one time, bit the guys ear. You know, it's like, what in the world, you're a maniac? Get that guy out of the ring, okay? I mean, that's the way it is in boxing. You don't just need a powerful arm. You need a long arm if you're going to do it. And that's the way it is with the gospel, too. The gospel has power, okay, like power under the hood. But if it can't reach very far, then what good is it? Well, listen to what he says. I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God into salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. Now, in Paul's day, the Jews were nice people. They went to Sunday school, they called it synagogue. They knew the Bible. They were well prepared to hear about Jesus. I mean, they were the kinds of people you'd want living next door to you. If you brought them to church, they wouldn't embarrass you. They would know when to stand up and when to sit down in church. They wouldn't, their kids would be well behaved in church. They wouldn't mess up the youth group, all those kinds of things, all right? Nice people, the kind of people you would want to have in your neighborhood. And Paul says that the gospel does reach those kinds of nice people. I mean, the people that you know that you like to be with, that are not believers. Those kinds of people, it reaches those kinds of people. And we're glad for that because a lot of you were those kinds of people before you came to Christ. Well prepared, you knew the Bible, you understood things, and then the gospel came. Great, wonderful. But if that's the only kind of people this gospel can reach, as we look around ourselves and we notice our culture becoming more and more and more distant from Jesus, distant from the things that we hold dear. Then we would wonder what good is it now.
And so he says, it's not just for the Jews, but it's also for the Gentiles. Now you've got to hear what that meant in his day. This meant that it was for pagan dogs. That's what the Jews called them, dogs because they behaved like animals. They were worthless. They didn't know the difference between a polite word and a cuss word. They would come to church and they would curse and not even know they were being rude. They wouldn't know what a hymn it is. If you said turn to him, 442, they would be looking for him who? Who's the hymn you're talking about? They wouldn't understand why you're standing up at certain times and sitting down at other times. Why somebody's up there yelling at me about something. Those things were far into them. You would not want their young people in your youth group because they would corrupt your youth group, even though your youth were corrupted. They would think that they would corrupt your youth, okay? They're the kinds of people who would be out on Saturday night and their parties would be so wild. They'd be so drunk that they'd park their truck in your front yard rather than their own. That's what we're talking about here. And he says, the gospel has such a long arm that it even reaches those kinds of people.
Do you know that there are people in your church and some of them are probably here tonight? There are people who come to your church who would say to me right at this minute, if they could, if they could get the nerve to do it. They would say this. They would say, Richard, if you knew what I do in private, you would not say that the good news is for me.
If you knew what my spouse doesn't even know about me, those secret things that I'm involved in, you would say I'm too far away, that I've got to change myself and get myself ready and get myself in gear and get my life straightened out and then I can come to Jesus. That's what people who will be here tomorrow morning will be saying to themselves. If you knew who I really am, you wouldn't be saying that the gospel can reach anybody. Well, I have some good news for you. If you're feeling that way tonight, I have some really great news for you. If Jesus's gospel can reach somebody like me and can hold on to somebody like me,
there's nobody too far away.
Nobody.
I don't care what your secret sins are. Don't tell me I don't want to know.
It's not too far away. I know some of you are struggling that you have children who have turned from Christ and you think they're gone too far away. They're not too far away. You have parents that have done the same thing. You have spouses that have left you and they've turned away from Christ and you say, there's no way. Everybody's got that alcoholic uncle. It's so hardened that they'll never come to Christ. Do you know that crazy uncle you got in your family? You know, we all have people like that. Our next door neighbor, the Muslims who moved in next door, remember them, the shakes that moved down the street, the lesbian couple that's across the street from you now. They're too far away. I'm not going to waste my time letting them know what I believe because they're so far away and unprepared, they can never come to Christ so that's exactly what the devil wants you to believe. The good news of Jesus is just for those people, precisely for those people.
Now in Paul's day, he had to have a lot of faith to believe that. I mean, can you imagine he's staring at a world, a whole world that is just full of ugly, the worst imaginable paganism that we can possibly even imagine. That's the world he was looking at. And he was devoting his life to taking the story of Jesus to the entire world with the conviction that it will change the world out there. It took a lot of faith. Now we live 2,000 years later. It doesn't take that much faith for us to believe it. We live on the backside of seeing what the good news of Jesus can do in this world. We have seen it transform country after country, nation after nation, culture after culture. We have seen it and even today in our own land when the gospel is fading, when we find other forces at work in our culture, we can even still today look eastward to China, and India, and Africa, and we can see the good news of Jesus absolutely transforming those parts of the world. It doesn't take much faith. All it takes is just a little bit of knowledge these days to realize that the good news is for everybody. And there's no reason for you and me to hesitate for a moment to let people know that the good news of Jesus is for them. That's why you send missionaries to these places you don't even know where they are on the map. You got flags around here. I bet you if we took a quiz, we wouldn't be able to identify but maybe two-thirds of the flags. That's why you're supporting missionaries whose names you don't even know. That's why you are, I hope, have plans to reach to this community in ways that you've never had plans to reach this community before. It's because you believe, you believe, you know that the good news of Jesus is for people who are unprepared. You see, Miss Camper was right. If you don't get some confidence, you're going to mess up this whole program. You want to doom this church. Do you want to doom your children to a worse life than what you are seeing already coming up? Then remain in the condition of having no confidence in the gospel. Be quiet. Live your private life. Be safe. And you are guaranteed that they will be sorry.
But it starts with you to turn it around. It starts with you. Not being ashamed of the gospel because it's got power under the hood. And because it's got that kind of long arm. They can reach anybody. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we bless you. We just, we bless you because we didn't want to come to you. We didn't try to come to you. You came to us. We believe that the simple message about you can transform people from everlasting death to everlasting life. Give us confidence in this so that we will never be ashamed again. We need Holy Spirit to empower us in this. We need Holy Spirit to convince us of this, to let it set deep within our hearts so that we may be people of your mission and so that we can see the world around us transformed by your gospel.