This World Needs Jesus

Introduction

Good morning. Y’all heard it. He said it was nice to have me here. I kept waiting for the turn. He’s getting soft. Romans chapter one. If you’ll turn to Romans chapter one, our text is almost exclusively going to be in the first three chapters of the book of Romans this morning. It is just such an unbelievable pleasure to be with everyone here. Excited to, I know for y’all and for me to get out of the way and let you see Kashka and Benjamin primarily. If you’re thinking Monday and Tuesday night feels too late, just know Benjamin’s gonna put on a show. That’s bedtime. So if you needed some extra incentive to come, be ready for that. That’ll be entertaining for all of us to learn at the same time what’s gonna happen.

It is just awesome to worship with God’s people, but even more so to be with people who mean so much to you. And you almost all do. I’ll let you decide who the almost includes, right, Ken? Uh there’s almost everyone here we’re really excited to see and be a part of. You know, I don’t know if you’ve heard this or not, but 2024 is an election year. I don’t know if that’s crossed your radar at all, living in Florida. I will be honest, it crosses our radar less where Costco’s from in Oregon and where we live in Alabama because those states are kind of just considered gone in both directions. So to be honest, there’s a little bit of blissful ignorance, but even there, we’re keenly aware that this is an election year.

And really, a few months ago, I don’t remember the date, and some of you would, and that’s okay, that’s fine. But one day I was just looking on social media on a Saturday and found out that former President Trump had been shot. Shot at, we didn’t really know. Was there an explosion? Was he shot at? Was he shot and killed? Not sure. Immediately. So many posts, thoughts, concerns. Is he gonna win now? Is he for sure gonna lose now? Did somebody do it? Of course, there’s always a conspiracy. And if you don’t believe in any conspiracies, isn’t that kind of its own conspiracy, right? You kind of just go through this loop and we decided there’s all these things about can he do it? Can he win?

And you might think I would always vote for President Trump. And you say I would never vote for President Trump. And all these things we care about and we vote. And I thought for myself, as someone kind of sucked into that vortex, a nine-year-old really put me into my place. Mom shared on social media later that night that her nine-year-old looked at her and said, Do you think maybe God spared his life so that he would have time to repent? I’m gonna be really honest. Even as a preacher of the gospel preparing a lesson about repentance, I didn’t think about that one time. I thought about the implications, I thought about what he would or wouldn’t do as leader, if it would be appointed as leader.

Did not one time consider that he, President Biden, Vice President Harris, anyone involved or not involved in the race would repent. Whether that would be part of God’s plan that clearly is a function of it, according to 2 Peter chapter 3. And that tells me that I, and probably not alone on this, have a real priority problem. We spend so much time and effort rooting not only for our teams, going to our concerts, but really caring a lot about who our leaders are, and to some extent it matters. And to some extent it really doesn’t, because even if you get all the leaders you’ve ever wanted, first of all, there’s about 50% of the people that think you’re wrong and that they’re making it worse, even if they do everything they promised, which they don’t.

And if the other one’s elected, you think, all right, well, good, I got my way, and then those people are mad at you, and they don’t actually keep their promises, and we’re all in the same cycle. And the reality is, no matter what you think, what you feel, or where you’ve been, or how you reached your political conclusion, this world simply needs one thing, and it’s Jesus. It does not need President Biden, Vice President Harris, or President Trump. In fact, I can make a pretty compelling argument, all three of them would be terrible for the world. And frankly, I think there’s a lot more evidence in that category. But the reality is we have to live in reality. And so when you consider what it’s like to be a real person in the midst of really crazy times, we gotta figure out what does it mean to live in a world that has Jesus?

1. The Gospel Is the Power of God to Salvation

How do we bring Jesus? And what would that even look like to start? And can he reach a society as wicked and corrupt as ours? I think we know Romans chapter 1 and verse 16. We know that pretty well. For I’m not ashamed of the gospel, for his power of God is salvation to everyone who believes. Yes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. And as we consider that, we emphasize rightly the gospel, the power of God and a salvation. Yes, for everyone who believes, yes, for the Jews and then the Greeks, in that order, according to Paul and you know, the Bible.

But as we consider the world needing Jesus, we need to not only think of salvation as the gospel message that is hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized, but the way that the Bible talks about the gospel. That’s the power of God and salvation. Do you think Romans 1 through 6 just becomes, all right, this is the chapter on hearing, here’s the chapter on believing, here’s confession, here’s no, most of those are present throughout the book of Romans. But he starts to talk about a world that’s empty, that’s corrupt. Then he talks about the religious people and how they have been corrupted because of the lack of Jesus in their life. And then he focuses on the fact the gospel is the good news of salvation that Jesus came at God’s direction, was slaughtered at man’s hand according to God’s eternal plan, and was resurrected so that we could live.

Notice all of that is without the president of your choice, without the Congress with the numbers of your choosing, without the constitutional amendments that will never happen based on percentages we can’t reach because we are so hopelessly divided. Christians not only need this message, the world needs this message. And when we think about this, this means that the gospel being the power of God to salvation is good news. And so we ought to start showing that, right? Isn’t it kind of weird that we have this picture of Christians as always smiling, and then there’s the realists among us who are like, well, that’s kind of creepy. You don’t want to be smiling all the time, and you got the people who look grumpy, and you’re like, who looks the grumpiest?

The Christian people. Isn’t that kind of strange that the Christian people who know Jesus died on the cross for our sins carry themselves like the biggest grumps? That shouldn’t be. Do we need to uphold law? Of course. Do we need to care about people? Obviously. But the power of God to salvation means this isn’t something that’s just good. This is fantastic. We need to tell people, anyone who will listen. You look at Philippians chapter 1, it seems like Paul has been stationed and there seems to be some sort of rotating guard watching over him. Can you imagine how many times each individual guard that was around Paul would have heard the gospel or would have heard about Jesus? I have to imagine if they weren’t a Christian and they rejected it, they were the most annoyed people on the face of the earth.

2. The Unbelieving Gentiles Are Without Excuse

They’re so tired of hearing about this Jesus person that Paul looked up to so much. Do we talk about it at all? Salvation is a big deal. And if we don’t talk about it, if we don’t give thanks for it in prayer or to others out loud, we’re gonna see that not giving thanks for it leads to the direct degradation, not just of our souls, but of the whole wicked world that we like to feel separate and apart from. The gospel is not just for good people, it’s not just for the religious people, the people who worship in my buildings, it’s for the unbelieving Gentiles. Notice how they’re described. The gospel, yes, is for everyone. In verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Jesus died for the worst idolaters there are.

Right? So we you need what Jesus offers, and so you’re with God or you’re against God. But if we want it to be more complicated, we say, okay, well, maybe the people don’t know. And what do we do about all those people who aren’t good? Because they just weren’t exposed to it. And in Romans, Paul tackles that issue for the Jews. Did they not know about Jesus? Had they not heard? Maybe they just didn’t understand. And in every case in Romans 9 and 10, Paul says, the scripture has said, the scripture has spoken. They had a chance. They think, well, that’s the Jews. Right? That’s the people who know. That’s the religious people. What about all the people in the world? All those people in Orlando, all those people in Birmingham in Portland, right?

Even Portland that God cares about, and they don’t know anything about Jesus. Notice in verse 20, there’s something from creation that God says everyone should know. His invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature. Paul says have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and things that have been made. And what’s the last part of verse 20? So they are without excuse.

And here’s Jonah, and he goes, No, I’m not doing that. And we don’t really fully understand why there’s a little bit of subjectivity. But the point was, God said, Go, he says, Nope, I’m gonna go the opposite way, I’m not gonna do it. He finally shows up and he tells them to repent or perish, and what do they do? Well, they repent, and it’s awesome. And in chapter 4, he pouts like a child, and we don’t want to be like Jonah. But in chapter 3, the question I have is what did they repent of? Repentance has changed action. Did the people of Nineveh know who God was and hear Jonah say, okay, there’s one God, he’s the Hebrew God, worship him, and they just figured it out?

They started keeping the law of Moses? No. The law of Moses was clearly for who? The descendants of Abraham, which by the way, makes it all the more weird when we live in a culture where a bunch of churches teach the need to tithe and keep other parts of the old law when it was never for Gentiles anyway. It was for the Jews, for the Israelites. Now, maybe if you have Jewish heritage, that becomes an interesting question. But for Christians, this should be a non-starter, and not just because of the new covenant answer, we’re used to giving in a textbook way. When we consider the unbelieving Gentiles, they should have known. And notice in verse 21, he says, not only should they have known, they knew God.

Although they knew him, they did not do two things. They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. Now, can you believe that the start of the downfall of society would be because of not giving thanks? That’s a little hard to believe. I think the downfall of society is because the home’s been attacked, or because mental health has been attacked, or because people are unkind, or people are mean, or people are looking for ways just to vent at people or to unleash their frustration and anger in holy wars or in unholy ones. And yet God says these people should have known better. And they didn’t. And the cost of this is in verse 24, 26, and 28. Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.

For this reason, verse 26, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Other women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nation to their nature in verse 28. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. That was the nice way to stop the reading. If you notice the next verse in 29, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedience appearance, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. And though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

3. The Name of God Is Blasphemed Because of You

And you know who’s salivating over this message right now? They are just so happy that Paul is destroying the Gentiles. They should have known, and they blew it. And they are so wicked in verse 24, God gave them up. They are so wicked, God gave them over again in verse 26. They are so corrupt in verse 28, they had a debased mind. They were filled with all manner of evil and righteousness, and it’s the Jews sitting there listening go, you get on Paul. Those worldly people are worldly. We don’t want to be like them, and we don’t want them as part of our kingdom. And then Paul turns his sights on the Jews. Chapter 2 and verse 17. But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law, if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth.

You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You say that one must not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who have poor idols, do you rob temples? You boast in the law, dishonor God by breaking the law. For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. I think this is frightening. Because it’s easy to pile on to the Israelites in the Old Testament who always were crying about food and water. And I gotta tell you, it’s easy to do because I see the clock, everyone be awkward and look back for a second. I’m gonna be preaching in about 20 minutes. Everyone’s gonna be hungry and crying about wanting food and water.

And I’m gonna say, you just made fun of the Israelites 20 minutes ago for that. It’s easy, even more so, to make fun of the world or to feel better and superior to the world that desperately needs the gospel. Because I’m not like them. The world is crazy. God gave them up over and again. They are filled with all manner of evil. I’m not like that. And then Paul looks at the people who knew better and not only says, You’re doing the things you tell them that they shouldn’t. Verse 24, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Here’s what that tells me, and it’s frightening. We’re here in a church building on a Sunday morning, and that’s awesome. It’s really great that we get to worship with God’s people.

I hope you never take that for granted. And I hope you never take it for granted to where you don’t take part of these opportunities. But it also says that I can know God’s word, maybe maybe not be good at practicing it, and my influence can actually make those who are already in darkness worse. I can make people through my lack of light further misunderstand or turn their backs on God. Isn’t that terrible? It’s amazing, though, that if these groups of people that the gospel is for, that in chapter 3, as was read right before the sermon in chapter 3 of verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although it’s the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. Jesus died for us all.

Who may be blaspheming or turning their back on God because of me, Jesus died for them. The idolaters, the sinners, the filled with all manner of unrighteousness world, Jesus loves them too. And when I don’t act like that with my vision, with my time, with my prayers, and with the gospel message, I’m rejecting what God has told me to do. And I’m just as blind as the religious Jews. Well, look at this, because as we look at the world, and certainly as we weave in politics to our life as if it’s some sort of spectator sport, we have to acknowledge that living in a culture, living in a reality where there is this schism of what can fix everything, we have to acknowledge that those who are against God don’t have an excuse.

Right? Do we see that? We are always ready to champion the person who we perceive to be the most oppressed. And God cares about the oppressed. But one of the things that happens when it comes to spiritual things, in Romans chapter 1 and verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And that applies to the Jews and the Gentiles, by the way. That comes for them both. But this isn’t some group of people that just had it made, and as long as you don’t tell them, everything will be fine. They should have known from creation. Do I understand all of that means? No. Do I know what Jonah was able to get across to them besides the fact that God needed them to repent?

No. But I do know that God had a plan for those people, and apparently he could show grace and mercy to them just like he did to the Jews. Certainly the Jews never understood that. I don’t know why we think we would 2,000 years later. But we have to embrace what God says, and what God says is those are without excuse because he had provided enough. And so I need to look at a world and not view them as, whew, I’m glad I’m not them. I need to view the world as the way I should have viewed myself before I came into contact with the blood of Christ and say, they like me desperately need Jesus. They do not need President Trump, Biden, or Harris. They need the blood of the Savior.

There’s a big difference. And if I talk or watch news or listen to the radio or listen to the podcast or watch the polls, 10 to 1 at how much I think about what Jesus did versus who’s gonna be elected president, that’s a me problem. And apparently, I don’t care about those people that I know desperately need the gospel. But what I do care about is the economy. I do care about jobs. I do care about these things. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m saying it’s gotta be in what? Proper proportion. You can be poor and go to heaven. You can be rich and go to hell. I don’t care what economic measure you argue in a presidency, this world needs Jesus. Far more people need the blood of the Savior than need an extra or the right or the dream job.

4. Be Thankful and Honor Him

Anyone is free to acknowledge God. And because of that, we, unlike the Gentiles who are highlighted for their failure, need to be thankful and honor him. It is just astounding to me that right before this complete bottoming out in 24, 26, and 28, that it says, although they knew God, they did not honor him or give thanks to him. I gotta realize that’s a huge problem because not only does no one have an excuse, we all gotta do it, that means even when I know better, especially if I know better, I need to be more thankful. And I have no problem. I have a two year old son. We say the same night night prayers. I have no problem with night night prayers, I have no problem with food prayers.

Dear God, thank you for our health. Thank you for her day, thank you for our family, and we name them, right? For some of that vocab, and we name some of the church family members. These are great prayers. But can we be thankful in conversation too? Can we be thankful and set aside times for prayers and not just when we have it at the building? Can we be Christians outside of the huge special box that we have? Can we be people that they just know you? Because like the soldiers chained to Paul, anyone who’s in my vicinity knows Greg cares about Jesus and he’s gonna talk about them. Or would they be shocked to know what I believe about Jesus? Yeah, they might know I believe in Jesus, but do they know how often I worship?

Do they know what I believe about Jesus? And if they don’t, what does that say about me? We need to be not only thankful to God, we need to honor him, and that’s in actions, in words, and our most valuable commodity, our time. We spend so much time wrangling about things, issues. Can we say it New Testament wise? Endless genealogies, things that don’t matter. Talk about the Savior who does. Find a way to bring Jesus into a conversation. You don’t have to watch the game and say, well, if Jesus was on their team, they would have won. Don’t be weird. But when something goes well, be thankful. I’ll give you one. I think it’s weird, especially when it’s one of those teams I don’t like when they win, and the player comes up after the game and says, I thank Jesus for this.

Now, half this room loves that, half this room cringes at that. Right? I’m gonna make everyone awkward. Don’t you think we should be thankful that people are at least talking about Jesus, even if they misunderstand? That should be a great thing, right? We just moan all the time. The world is wicked, the world is dark, the world is wicked. Then someone gives thanks to Jesus, and we’re like, well, not then, not like that. When is the time? Great. Then I hope everyone who complains or cringes when the athlete says it, whether they live it or not, is saying it all the time, and they can model what their behavior, and not an I told you so, with what it means to be thankful to God. Because in a society that doesn’t, including among the faithful, they degrade quickly.

And if we’re not talking about it, it’s not a real issue. You want a political point? Watch conversations from 12 years ago and where we are now. Fringe conversations 20 years ago are mainstream now. You talk about Jesus a little, it can mean a lot. You talk about Jesus none, he’s gonna go quiet. Christians should not be the ones who let that happen. As society and its leaders leave God, wickedness continues to spiral. It does not get better. Can we see this? In the Americ utopia, by the way, we live in Babylon. Get it right. Patriotism is not spirituality. I know you love your country, I know we have things to love and to be thankful for, and we need to be thankful that God has given this country.

How about spend time thanking God for the freedom we have and using it rather than being preoccupied with what might happen if one leader gets in, and maybe in a period of time, maybe it chips away at it. How about we live so Christ-like that there’s so many Christians that we finally actually get good leaders? Instead of having to divide, decide over the division between two different strokes of evil. I understand people are sitting here. We talked about this in preparation for the lesson of the shepherds. That there are leaders who are clearly better than others in competency and morality, and you name it. But I tell you one thing that I think is weird. Christians in America seem to think there’s two sides. There’s those who care about justice and the poor, and those who care about abortion and law, and Jesus cares about all of them.

As long as we’re dividing ourselves, why would we even think we could get leaders to help us out of it if we’re not focusing on prayer? And if I’m focusing on prayer and getting a good leader instead of my leader’s soul, what does that say about me? I told you I feel this small when that nine-year-old understands what really matters, and I don’t. Christians should be acing this test. Wickedness does not improve with better law, it improves with the blood of Jesus. I care about the lives of the unborn. When you comfort people who have lost their babies, you realize that that is a life. But to then not help after they’re born doesn’t make things better. Or to think that passing a law will stop the wickedness and the corrupt households and the hold that Satan has on them won’t make it better either.

We need to teach people that to value life as God does and to value souls as God does. And there’s only one fix for that, and it’s not legislation. It’s Jesus. We need Jesus. And Christians have to carry that torch. Now, if we’re the Jews, we look at this and we kind of view ourselves as a religious. And we go, okay, yeah. Yeah, the world is wicked. Our options stink. And yeah, we gotta be better. We gotta be thankful and acknowledge God. We’ve been doing that. That’s why we’re here. We pray, we know it. And Paul says, look, the very things that you’re saying you’re good at, you teach others don’t steal. You teach others hate idolatry, you’re doing it. You’re doing the things you wish they didn’t.

And I’ll give you one example. We’ve already talked about it. We need to be talking about Jesus. We’re like, man, I wish this society would talk about Jesus. And when someone does it, what’s our response? Well, why’d he do it then? That’s weird. Jesus doesn’t care about the football game. Why is he talking about him? Do we have to give a thousand more examples? I don’t just mean worldliness. And by the way, if you’re living in a worldly way, Jesus sees that. Knock it off. Can we say that as a sermon? And if you’re struggling and you’re trying, that’s awesome. Jesus died for you. And I want you to know Jesus didn’t die for the good or those who clean up nice. He died for those in the throes of the sin.

We read that in Romans chapter 5, didn’t we? In verse 6, at the right time, while we were weak, Christ died for the ungodly. In verse 8, God demonstrates his own love towards us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And in verse 10, when we were when were we reconciled? When we were enemies of God. We’re described four ways in five verses, and it’s not pretty. Weak, ungodly, sinners, and enemies. If you are struggling, be thankful that Jesus loves you and died for you. Be thankful that even when I fail you, our leaders fail you and friends fail you, that Jesus sees you and loves you. But for the love of all that is good, please stop living outright hypocritical lives.

If you say you believe in Jesus, love people like Jesus. If you say you believe in God and think his way is best, spend time planting those seeds rather than political signs in your yard. If you care about people, pray about them. To say you care and do nothing is not only hypocrisy and sin. It’s why verse 24 is true. As it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. When you act like a Christian and you argue about politics, what do people see? Someone who cares about this world. Care about eternity and the souls who are going there. And yes, to care about the souls who are going there means caring about the here and now. Trying to pick holy leaders, trying to find people with policies that mere God’s.

But shouldn’t there be a clear pecking order to avoid this hypocrisy? They made a mockery of God’s reputation. And I gotta tell you, I’m embarrassed that as Christians, we have a name in the community as people who either don’t care about the poor injustice or don’t care about law and the lives of the unborn. Those two choices are untenable, not only scripturally, but it’s embarrassing. Christians need to be better. And it starts with me. And so when someone cries the name of Christianity or of Christ or of the followers in America who vote this way or that all the time, we need to have a conversation and say, no, we can do both. True story. I had a study with a youth pastor of a community church who was leading his youth group to visit different groups.

And before he came to ours, I wanted to meet with him. And so I visited with him, and we had a sit-down conversation, and trying as best I could to find common ground. This was an it’s this is a strange dude. I’m just gonna be honest about that. Strange guy. But one of the things we got to was in his college classes at a Christian college in Tennessee, he had been taught that to love people means to let them do what they want. And finally, he looked at me and he said, for example, I believe abortion should be okay because people need it. They need that access. And he said, I don’t think churches do a good job at taking care of orphans and foster children.

Now, there’s a lot of options. One of them is to say, hey, silly, killing lives is always bad. We’ll figure out the rest later. It’s to say, you’re right. We got to care more about people. I just told him. Look, I said you’re talking to the wrong guy. Our congregation has a bunch of people who have been adopting actively. People who literally work for orphanage adopting organizations. We have people who are actively fostering. And if it’s true that people are going without the help they need, that is a shame and we need to fix it. But the answer isn’t do one sin to remedy the other. Why can we not have the conversation that says we can do both? Stop picking one side. It makes God seem like he only cares about one thing or the other, and he’s cared about all of it.

We are turning people away from Jesus with wrong non-Jesus beliefs. The gospel is the power of God and a salvation for everyone who believes. Jesus cares about the person who had the abortion. Jesus cares about the person who is rude and mean to people who have sinned. And it’s a good thing because we’re all lost without that love of Jesus. We need to talk more about that and less about the issues themselves. Maybe we would grow some ground, not only not have God’s name blaspheme, but arguably praise, like Jonah somehow was able to do in Nineveh. The reality is we feel like Jesus is someone that we need less than the unrighteous Gentiles would have. We don’t say it that way because we don’t have the Jewish pride.

But they said, Yeah, we know we need Jesus, we need God, but not like them. They’re the worst. And you see this over and again. He’s having to deal with them. Paul is trying to explain, no, all of you need them. In fact, he actually upsets them. He goes so far that then he then has to explain the rhetorical question. Am I saying that the Jews had no advantage? No, I’m not saying that. Am I saying that they’re less than? No, I’m not saying that. The scriptures are clear. None is righteous. No, not one in Romans chapter 3. The point is not God cares less for you or even that you didn’t have an advantage. The point is we all need Jesus’ blood. And if we keep thinking about other people needing it, we’re not spending enough time being thankful for it.

5. We All Need Jesus’ Blood

And remember, where did the degradation start in Romans 1 for the Gentiles? Although they knew God, they did not honor Him or give thanks to Him. The Jews made the same mistakes the Gentiles did, and they would hate to hear that. But it was true. So Paul said it anyway. How do we bring Jesus to a world? We recognize we all need Jesus. We all need his blood. One of them is to personally be thankful for, show, talk, pray, accept the gospel, and do it on God’s terms. We understand the conclusion. Chapter 1 of Romans is the Gentiles need Jesus. Chapter 2 is the Jews need Jesus. The climax is chapter 3, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so we should be very thankful that Jesus was sent as the propitiation on our behalf.

That we can come into contact with his blood and his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus to be received by faith. This means God gets to set the terms. In Romans chapter 6, notice this passage. To those who would say, Well, we need more grace. True. Paul would say, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who die to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. How do we accept the gospel? You look at Jesus’ life, you look at his terms, and you receive it by faith. And what does that mean? It doesn’t mean turning on a mental acknowledgement that God exists. The Jews did that. That wasn’t enough. Don’t be hypocrites. Honor God. Give thanks to him. Show it. And yes, hear the message of the gospel. Believe that Jesus is the Christ. Confess Him as Lord. Repent of your sins. Be baptized. It’s the only way the scriptures teach us to share in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The million dollar question always is, Jesus died for me and shed his blood, how can I come into contact with it?

Here it is, in baptism. But that’s just the beginning. And that’s an awesome beginning. And we should rejoice over this. But shouldn’t we also acknowledge that this is the bare minimum? To be thankful for the gospel is to be thankful that God gave me the forgiveness of sins and that I am wrapped in the blood and grace of Jesus. Notice Romans chapter 5, verse 1 and 2. Can you say what Paul does? Romans chapter 5, verse 1 and 2. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Can you say, verse 1, that we have peace with God?

Can you say you are standing in the grace of God? And if you can’t, it’s really hard to be thankful for something you don’t understand, feel, or accept. And if you don’t, I have good news. It’s hard to do, and you have teachers, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ who want to help you. Please put your hand up and ask for that help and guidance. God expects us to get through this life with its trials, with his harsh realities, with its wickedness, because we have each other, and most importantly, we can feel protected by the peace of God and the grace in which we can stand. I think that’s awesome. It’s something we need to talk about. We need to make sure that we’re not drifting with the world, that we actually are thankful and honor God.

We talked a lot about drifting this morning, but notice in Ephesians chapter 4. Turn with me here in Ephesians chapter 4. Notice the risk to even Christians with a God given community. Sometimes we say, well, if someone would just go to church more, they would have the answers. I think we all know where there is people, there are people problems, and that goes from the top down. But Ephesians chapter 4, God even describes look, there’s all these people he can give us. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Notice this. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. The world wants us to drift away. Verse 14, tossed to and fro by the waves of doctrine and human cunning. That’s what will happen if we don’t try, if we’re not grounded. Trust God, trust His plan, trust His Word. And when you know His Word, by the way, and you talk to others, how is it to be spoken in verse 15? Speak the truth in love. Love is not only the right words, it’s the right delivery.

6. Live Authentically Like Jesus

And that matters. How do we bring Jesus to the world? Two more points. One of them live authentically like Jesus. Don’t live in a way that detracts from Him. We do not want to be like the Jews. Can you imagine being at the gates of judgment? And someone looks at you and says, God’s name was blasphemed because of you. We need to be better than this. In Romans chapter 11, there’s a very clear picture that Paul makes. And he talks about this tree, and I’m not really a herbologist, so we’re just gonna go with this the idea that Gentiles could be added, grafted in to God’s family. And to some extent the Jews would be taken out. God didn’t just choose people, he chose the people who had faith in him, the people who were willing to submit to him.

And he says, The Gentiles you’re in, I can take you back out. The Jews have been out, they can be placed back in, and they can be removed. We need to live in a way that actually shows. What does it mean to be thankful? Talk about Jesus. Stop talking about politics, start talking about the Savior. Stop taking stands for things that divide your influence. Maybe to live authentically like Jesus is so nobody knows who I’m gonna vote for, because if they know who I’m gonna vote for, I can’t reach your soul now. I’m not saying don’t vote. I’m saying maybe everyone doesn’t know how to have to know how I feel about everything. Because when they know how I feel about everything, people aren’t gonna have the patience to listen to my example.

Is that right? No. Is that reality? Of course it is. When you put a sign in your yard, everyone who doesn’t like that sign now has a negative opinion of you. That wouldn’t matter if we weren’t weren’t all after a higher goal to please the Lord. Authentically like Jesus means caring about the things Jesus does. That’s eternity. We need to trust God to take care of it all. This world needs Jesus, and that means in legislation, that means in the economy, most importantly, that means in our souls we need the blood of Jesus. I don’t care what you take that to mean. This world needs Jesus. We need him across the board. And the only person who’s capable of taking care of it anyway is God in the first place.

And so he really doesn’t need my say so. He doesn’t need my campaign. If God wants somebody to win, he’ll do it. In Romans chapter 13, God’s behind the governments. That includes the governments I don’t like, by the way. And over the last 20 years, there’s been presidents from both sides. So I imagine everyone here has had somebody they kind of liked a little bit and people they didn’t like a lot. Isn’t that funny how we only like ours a little bit, but we dislike the other one a huge bit? God’s in control. God let a lot of wicked kings lead Israel and Judah. And they often got who they deserved. My problem is not trying to figure out why God appoints a leader, it’s to do the best I can in the influence I have.

Conclusion

And my influence needs to stop being spent on trivial things like money and politics and spent on talking about Jesus. Be thankful for him. Pray about it. And most importantly, including the leaders, pray for them, as Paul tells Timothy too. Be thankful for the freedoms we have. Use them. Use what God has given you. One thing he’s given us all is this moment. And if you’re not a Christian, he has given you this moment to realize people are flawed. They make mistakes. They’re hypocrites among the religious. There are worldly people who don’t understand, but there is a God. He does care for you and he knows you whether you believe in him or not. And he wants you to come home. Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Confess your sins. Repent. Live more like Him. Don’t be like the people who are imposters. Be like the authentic Jesus. Be baptized. Share in that Romans 6, death, burial, and resurrection. You can have your sins forgiven. You can become a new man. Maybe you’re a Christian here and you say, I’ve been caught up in the world. Be thankful. Look around. We have all done that. We have all been there. And we not only can pray with you from a position of wanting to be there and hug you and support you, but from having been there and done that position. You are not alone. You will never be. Don’t let Satan lie to you. We will pray with you and pray for you. If we can help you in any way at all, come forward as we stand and sing the invitation song.