Take your Bibles and turn to Romans 1, tonight, Romans 1. And again, this is your first Sunday night with us. Tonight's Sunday night worship's gonna be a little bit different. I'm gonna encourage you to come on back another time, check it out again. But what we're going to do tonight is some training. And you say, what do you mean by training? How many of you have ever had a job, those of you in the military probably understand this concept, where a superior says, go over there and do that. And you don't know where where is or that is. So you sort of look around, and it looks like, OK, so you wander over here. And you look around and you really don't know what it is that you're supposed to be doing. But he said to go over there and do that. And pretty soon the superior comes over and he says, what are you doing? And you say, I come over here and I'm doing that. And he says, you're doing it wrong. And I know what I feel like saying. I know I'm doing it wrong. I have no idea what I'm doing. Tonight, I sometimes think that what we have when it comes to Christians presenting the gospel is we know we're supposed to do, but we don't know what that looks like. The pastor says, go out and preach the gospel. And you say, amen. And you go home and you think, what does that mean? So that's what we're gonna work on tonight. You are in Romans chapter one. Give me a second, I'll get there. Romans chapter one. We're gonna look at verses 15 and 16. Well-known verses. Paul says, so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Father, we need your help tonight. I need your help. We don't presume to come to Scripture in our own strength, our own wisdom, and our own power, and bend you and bend your plan to our will, we come to your word humbly, recognizing, first of all, that we can't even understand the scripture without the illumination of the Holy Spirit. We can't even, our minds in the flesh rebel against truth. We come to your word tonight understanding that even when we understand it because the Holy Spirit's taught us that we still can't do it in our own strength, you tell us without me, you can do nothing. So we come to you this evening because we need your help to learn the material. We need your help to live the material. We need motivation. So help us this evening to understand, to see truth, and then to know how to live it out. And we ask these things in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, amen. Now, in April, we have a special speaker coming. Does anyone remember his name? Okay, go ahead, what's his name? Ken Lynch, good, okay. Some of you are paying attention. And now Ken Lynch is a great preacher, he is. In addition to his preaching, what other unique skill does he have? Yeah, he's a musician. He plays glasses. Now, I don't mean like these glasses. I mean like drinking glasses. He fills them with water, and he actually plays those glasses. He plays a violin. He even can play the piano. I don't think he played the piano for us last time he was here, but he's a talented musician. I know you'll be blessed by hearing him play. That's in April. Now, why are we having him in? Because I'm tired of preaching, and I need a little break. And frankly, you need a break. Nan, yes, we want our friends and family, neighbors to hear the gospel. And Ken Lynch is going to present the gospel So let's imagine I say to my neighbor, I say, hey, would you come out? We're having some special meetings here at Elmira Baptist Church. Come out on a Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night, come on. He says, yeah, that'd be great, I'll come. So he comes, and he sits in the back, and Ken Lynch is preaching, and we're praying. I hope you're praying for these meetings that are coming up. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is there, and he comes down the aisle at the invitation. Then what happens? Well, I know what you're thinking. I'm gonna keep praying, pastor. Hope he doesn't call on me to help this guy. Yeah, somebody's got to meet with this fella. He's interested now. He wants to know what the gospel is. Isn't that the goal? Okay, so again, back to the, your boss says go over there and do that question. When this guy comes to the front and he wants to know how, what must I do to be saved? Remember the Philippian jailer said to Paul, what must I do to be saved? What are we gonna say? Talk to pastor, he knows. Please don't do that to me. Paul says, I am ready to preach the gospel. And so tonight my goal is to get each of you ready to preach the gospel. Now you don't save anybody, okay? I'm not asking you to save people. I can't save people, you can't save people. God saves people. But Paul says, I'm ready to preach the gospel. And I want you to be ready to preach the gospel. Another guy's coming in October, or November. He's coming in November. What's his name? Anyone remember? He's not been with us before, so that's a trick question. But his name is Matt Galvin, and he's gonna be with us. I've heard him preach, great preacher. Really enjoyed his preaching. I think you will too. Those of you that are young people, he'll be preaching at Wolf Mountain's Teen Weekend. Matt and Sarah, remember this last year, we took a group of teens up there. He'll be preaching there on Saturday. He's going to join us on Sunday through Wednesday. Then he's got to fly out and be in Virginia the next Sunday. So he's got a busy schedule. But again, we're going to invite our friends. our family members, neighbors, coworkers, because we wanna see them saved and baptized, discipled. And so if they come at the invitation and we say, well, boy, I don't know what to do. We're not really helping them, are we? So tonight we're gonna deal with that particular, particular instance when someone has come forward for salvation. But there are other times when you're going to be meeting with people specifically to give them the gospel. I hope so. I didn't share this quote with you this morning, but one fellow said this, he said, the book of Revelation was not written so that we build bigger bomb shelters in our backyard. The book of Revelation was written so we build bigger tables and invite our family and our friends to join us for a meal and tell them the good news. That's, I hope you got that from the message this morning. When we were talking about watching, we're not meeting a passive, I'm gonna sit in my chair and hope Jesus comes before I die. We're active, we're doing stuff. And one of the things we ought to be doing is sharing the gospel with people. And I'll tell you the most comfortable place for me to share the gospel is at my kitchen table. Why? Well, because it's my house. I mean, the guy sort of suspects, I mean, here's a pastor, it's his house. What else is he gonna talk about? So let me encourage you, maybe you have a neighbor, you can have them over for coffee, you could have them over for tea, if they're Mormon, maybe not, but I mean, because they don't drink coffee and tea, but you can have them over for something, and then purpose, pray, and purpose to share the gospel with them. And we're gonna help you with that too. But why you? Why do you need to be prepared? Why don't we just give this to pastor, give it to a few select people at Elmira Baptist Church, they're go-getters, they're type A personality, they're ready to go and just let them do it and I can just sit here. Well, the reason is, is because God calls each of us to be preachers of the gospel. It isn't just my job. It isn't just the job of people that are go-getters. And I hope you can say with Paul, I am ready to preach the gospel. Now, if you came tonight and you're thinking, oh no, he's gonna call on me and I'm gonna be so embarrassed. No, I'm not gonna embarrass anyone tonight. But I'm gonna give you some easy, simple tools and we are going to practice. Yeah, practice. So look around you, Billy, you're gonna need a partner here for this, because you can't do practice by yourself here. We'll get there. The second reason why I want you to be ready to give the gospel is because you're going to reach people that I cannot reach. Some of you work in the East Bay. I try to avoid that part of the country because of the traffic. But you're there, Monday through Friday, and you can be a witness there. Some of you go to prison. I can't easily get into the prison. But you can, and I know it's your job and you've got to be circumspect and wise, but ask God to give you opportunities to share the gospel. Another reason why it's important that you're ready to preach the gospel is because two of you is better than one of me. If I'm the only person, and I'm not at this church, praise the Lord, but if I'm the only person giving out the gospel, I can only do that so many times in a week. But if I can train 10 of you, 20 of you, 30 of you, 40 of you, 50 of you, and every day you're looking for opportunities to hand out a track and speak the gospel to people, the good news, tell them the good news that Jesus saves, that's much more effective than just expecting me to do it. Turn to Acts chapter eight with me, and I'm gonna give you the final reason, and I've saved the best reason for, oh no, it's not the best reason, but Acts chapter eight. We're gonna pick it up in verse one, and then I'm gonna ask you what the Lord used, what God used, what plan God had to spread his people out to preach the gospel, okay? Acts chapter eight, verse one says this, and Saul was consenting unto his death. That's Stephen's death. Stephen has just been stoned in chapter seven. And at that time, there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. What's the next three words? Except the apostles. So everyone who's not an apostle, they're running this way, they're running that way to avoid persecution at Jerusalem. Then look down at verse four with me. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad. Who's scattered abroad? Everyone who was not an apostle. So everyone who's not an apostle, they went everywhere preaching the word. So my question was, still is, what was God's plan to get the Christians out of Jerusalem to preach the gospel in other areas? Persecution. Do you think persecution is coming for American Christians? I think so. So you know what I'm going to do? We're going to use this as an opportunity to seed the whole United States with people who can preach the gospel. We're not going to live in fear. God doesn't call us to fear. God doesn't call us to worry. And I want you to be prepared when that day comes, and I'm not able to preach the gospel, because they got me locked up in prison, that you're gonna preach the gospel. Now, don't wait till I go to prison, by the way, okay? Just start tomorrow, all right? But when that day comes. Now, I know what a common objection is. The most common objection from Christians that I meet as to why you can't share the gospel is you say, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to, pastor, I don't know what to say. I understand that, I do. Again, that's why we're doing this tonight, so you know what to say. But let me show you a passage that's been extremely helpful to me, Luke 12, and we're gonna look at verses 11 and 12. Luke 12, verses 11 and 12. Luke chapter 12, verses 11 and 12. And when they bring you into the synagogues and under magistrates and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer or what you shall say, for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in that same hour what you ought to say. I wanna encourage you as you're praying and asking the Lord to open up doors of opportunity for you to preach the gospel to people. You don't have to worry about exactly what you're going to say. because the Holy Spirit will help you. I remember one evening, I went to a Mongolian's house, he was a Christian man, Gampur was a Christian man, and I had gone there to do a Bible study with him, and when I got there, his older brother was there, and an uncle named Sambir, and I knew Sambir was a devout Buddhist. Family history, I knew enough of the family history of devout Buddhists, and I thought, oh man, this just ruins the evening, right? Well, that's my first thought. Second thought was, okay, God brought Sambir, and took so the older brother here for a reason. So let's see what the opening is. And as we began to talk, guess what? Sambu brought up religion. Let me tell you what I believe. And Ganputov and I had a chance to witness to Sambu. Sambu said, nope, not interested, I'm a Buddhist. Okay, fine. Guess what? A year or two later, Sambu became a Christian. I wasn't there when it happened, but I don't need to be there when it happened. My job is to sow the gospel and water the gospel. And I was amazed, my wife will tell you, speaking Mongolian was always hard for me. It was one of those things, I had to really focus. I'd speak Mongolian for an hour, preaching or whatever, I don't preach for an hour, 45 minutes, and I would be so exhausted. But that night, it was like somebody just opened my mouth and I knew what to say in Mongolian, because God promises that. So rest in that promise, open your mouth, Let God guide you, give you the words to say, but I'm gonna give you some rails to run on tonight. Quit thinking that you have to do all the talking, in other words. All you have to do is be a faithful, obedient witness. A witness just tells things that he's seen. Let God do the rest. Now, the second objection, after I don't know what to say, the second big objection that we often have, I often hear, is Christians say, what if they have a question or they have an objection? Now, if I tried to answer tonight every question, every objection you're going to hear, we'd never quit the service. So let me tell you the secret here. I didn't know this until a couple years ago when someone shared this with me, and recently John Nordstrom mentioned it again. The secret, listen carefully, those of you at home, listen carefully, this is the secret. You don't actually have to answer them. What you say to the person, sincerely, genuinely say, that's a valid question, that's a good objection, but could I finish my good news first? And then I will give you an answer or I'll find you an answer. And a lot of the time, the person would say, okay, guess what? Then you finish the gospel. If you don't know what the answer to his question or his objection is, you write it down and then you find me. And you say, pastor, I don't know about this one. And we'll pray about it together. And guess what? Now we get to go together and talk to that person again. That, to me, objections are good, because what it means is they want to have a conversation. But just say to them, just real kindly, sincerely say, hey, because you do, we want to answer objections and questions, but just say to them in that moment, look, that's a good objection, that's a good question, and I do want to answer it or find an answer, but can we set that aside, and can I finish giving you the good news? Can we set that aside and can I finish giving you the good news? Say that with me, ready? Can we set that aside and let me finish giving you the good news? That's all you have to say. And if the guy says, no, I want an answer right now. Okay, well, but you know, so many times, They'll say, oh, okay, go ahead. And by the time you get finished sharing the gospel, you may have answered their question or their objection, or the Holy Spirit may have got a hold of their heart, and they'll have even forgotten what their question or objection was. So what are we gonna say? Let's say it together. Let me set that aside and let me finish sharing you the good news. What did I say? Can I set that? Sorry, let's do that right. Okay, here we go. I'm not even doing it right. Here we go. Can I set that aside and finish sharing the good news? That's all you're gonna say, all right? So, objections. And then seriously, if they still, at the end of the time, end of the good news, they still have a question, objection, come find me. Come find another Christian, say, hey, let's find an answer to this and we'll get back to that. But sowing the gospel, is a matter of faith and obedience, that's what it is. Sowing, notice what I say, sowing the gospel. You're not saving anybody, I'm not saving anybody. I'm not causing anyone to become a Christian, that's God's work, I'm just giving the gospel. These people that were facing persecution, Acts 8 tells us, they went everywhere preaching the word, just giving it out. Let me deal with one other thing before we get to the training section of tonight's message. Why do we have an invitation at the end? Why do we take some time, sometimes we bow our head, often we sing a song, and I give you a chance to respond, and I encourage you, again, I'm not here to tell you what to do, but I encourage you if you need to come to the front. Why do we do that? Well, there's four reasons that I think that helps us. The first reason is I come to church on Sundays, and I hope you come to church on Sundays to meet with God. Now if you come to church on Sundays to talk with your friends, God bless you. I guess that's better than not coming at all. If you come next Sunday because you know there's a meal afterwards and you want to eat with us, great, have at it, I'm happy for you. But the real reason we ought to come, the genuine reason we ought to come is because we want to meet with God. So what happens when I meet with God and whatever it is God speaks to me about, I realize I've been wrong and I need to fix something. I found it helpful personally, just come to the front, to this altar, tell God about it. Now, is there anything special about this altar? No, it isn't. You could do that at home. But what happens? after the invitation is given, and the last song is sung, and somebody prays, and then somebody grabs you, and, hey, I need help with this, oh, can you do this for me? If you've got kids, the kids need to get home, and you get them bathed, and you get them ready for bed, whatever you do, and you get your kids to bed, and what has happened? You've forgotten completely about what your response was. And so the altar for me often has been a place of submission, whereas God has spoken to me in service, I come to the front, not to talk to the pastor, we're gonna talk about that in a second, but just to say, God, you're right, I've been wrong. And I'm willing to say I'm wrong, forgive me, that's what confession is, admitting you're wrong. Forgive me, clean me up. God says, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and I'm gonna do it right. The altar can be a place of submission. Again, you can do this anywhere. Not saying you gotta come to the altar. I don't keep track. So-and-so came to the altar today, prayed for three and a half minutes. But I think it's helpful to just let God know I'm serious. There's a second reason why we have an invitation and we invite you to come to the front, and that is sometimes this altar is a place of counsel. You need wisdom, you don't know what to do. The message is spoken to you, the Bible truths that you've seen, they've shown you that there's a problem, but you're not sure what it is or what to do about it. Now if you're not a Christian, for example, you may feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, but you don't know what to do with that conviction, and so you come down to the front, and I'm gonna match you up, If you're a lady, I'll match up with a lady. If you're a man, I'll match up with a man. They're gonna take you to a spot where they can open God's word and show you, and that's what we're gonna talk about in a minute, how you can know for sure your sins are forgiven and you have eternal life. You may need counsel, but you may be a Christian, though, and you need counsel. There's a problem in your life, and it just isn't making sense to you, and you just wanna say, Pastor, let's talk. I need to figure this out. The altar can also be a place of accountability. If you've ever struggled with bondage to sin, you know how important it is to get someone on board with you to walk through that struggle with you. Not because God's grace is not sufficient. God's grace is sufficient for all things. But remember what Galatians tells us, bear ye one another's burdens. And you don't have to go through life fighting against sin alone. Isn't that one of the reasons we have a church? We have a church family? So that I can be frank and candid with my Christian brother and say, hey, I'm struggling, would you pray for me? Would you ask me? Would you hold me accountable? I don't wanna give you the impression, this is a little bit different, but I don't wanna give you the impression that when you come to church, you have to look perfect and act perfect. Feel free to come to church sad. But don't be surprised if one of your sisters or brothers says to you, hey, can I pray with you? How can I help you? Because we love you. But don't come to church and feel like you have to put a mask on. Be yourself. And if you need some help, the altar is a place you can come and say, I need some help with this. This is bothering me. Help me. But finally, the fourth reason we have an invitation, the altar is a place of witness, and I don't mean witness, what I mean by that is it's a place where I can say to my Christian brothers and sisters, hey, this is what's going on in my life, and we can be excited with you. For example, church membership. Someone asked me this today even. They said, how do I become a member of Elmira Baptist Church? It's not a secret process. What you do is, at the invitation, you come down to the front, you say, pastor, I'd like to become a member. Now, I have some questions for you, and most of the time, I'll have already met with you in your home or here at the church, and I'll know that you're a Christian, I'll know that you've been baptized, and I can recommend you for membership. But I'm not gonna come to you and say, you need to become a member. That's up to you to come to us at this time of invitation and say, hey, I wanna become a member. By the way, church membership is important. I'm not gonna preach on that tonight, but it is important that you're a member of a church somewhere if you're a Christian. Also, sometimes there's a commitment to God that we need to make publicly. When I was 17 years old, I still remember the building, still remember the pastor, still remember many of the people. God had put on my heart to give my life in service to the Lord. I wasn't sure what that meant, and if I would have known what that was going to mean, I probably wouldn't have done it, because I'm a coward by nature, humanly speaking. But I realized what I needed was I needed some other people to be candid in front of my church family and say, hey, this is what God's called me to do. I need you to pray for me. I need you to keep me honest. Now, were there times in the next few years as Trials and tribulations came where there are times that I felt like quitting on what God had called me to do. Oh yeah. But in the back of my head, you know what I was thinking? If I quit, there's gonna be people in my church who are gonna say, what are you doing? I thought you told us that God was leading you down this path. I thought you were convinced that this is what God wanted you to do. And I would have had to say, yeah, I'm giving up. And I didn't wanna say that, because I'm a coward. So the altar can be a place of witness where we let other people know what God's doing in our heart. If you were recently saved, for example, that might've happened in your bedroom. That might've happened at someone's kitchen table. That could've happened on the street. But isn't it neat when that person comes to the front of the church, they say, hey, I just want Elmira Baptist Church to know that I've become a Christian. That I recognize I was a sinner, I couldn't save myself, and Jesus has miraculously saved me. We wanna say hallelujah with you. But we don't know that if you're just sitting there, right? So you come on down at the invitation. Let us know. We will rejoice with you. So with that in mind, let's go back to our previous scenario. I've invited a friend or a family member. I've invited someone to come to a service. It's the end of the service, the time of the invitation, and that person comes to the front. Now what do I do? Well, this is what I want you to do. And if you have your Bibles, we're gonna just go through the Romans road. How many of you have ever heard of the Romans Road? See how easy that is? You probably already know it. In fact, I don't know if you caught it, but in our weekly memory work in January, guess what verses we had you memorize? You say, oh, I've already forgotten them. That's okay, just review them. Because when someone comes to the front at the end of a service, at that invitation, and I say, hey, can you come, show this person from the Bible. how they can have their sins forgiven and know that they have eternal life. I don't want you to say to me, you know, pastor, can you ask him? Can you ask her? I want you to say, yes. I don't know about you. When people come forward for salvation, that's the easiest one there is. I don't mean easy, like it doesn't, you know, salvation isn't hard for God, but I'm just saying for me, to witness to somebody, it's easiest. Why? They already recognize they have a need. I don't have to convince them that there's a problem, they already know it, and I'm gonna give them a solution, God's solution, not my solution, to their need. So I want every one of you to be ready. I'm hoping, I hope you're praying, I know I'm praying, I'm hoping we'll see dozens of people this year respond invitation at your kitchen table, at your place of work, around the break table, we're gonna see dozens of people place their faith in Jesus Christ. To God's glory, not my glory, not our glory. Not so we can write about it. Sword of the Lord, guess how many people, I don't care what the Sword of the Lord prints. I don't mean, Sword of the Lord's a good publication, but I don't care what they print about us. We're not here to please the Sword of the Lord, we're here to please God. I'm not here to impress other pastors in our area. I know some of them and many of them are doing a good work and I pray for them by name because I want to lift them up to our Heavenly Father, but what they think of me is not important. What God thinks of us is important. And if we're just gonna be a church that's good enough for the people in these four walls, no, I'm not gonna let you do that. There's a world out there, there are people out there that need the gospel. We wanna get them here if we can. If we can't, we're gonna give the gospel to them out there, but if we get them here and they hear the preaching of God's word and they respond, let's be ready. Don't be, okay, well, ask that person. No, I want you to say, yeah, preacher, I'm ready. Let me grab my Bible. Now, the first thing I know you're gonna ask me, because some of you are smart enough, you've already asked me, where do we take this person? That's a good question. Right outside this door, the first classroom there is classroom C. That's the first place I'd take someone. If I ever ask you, hey, can you help this person? They have responded to the invitation. They wanna know how their sins can be forgiven and they have eternal life. Would you help this person? That's the first place to go. If that place is already occupied, maybe someone else is already in there with their Bible showing someone from the Bible this good news, the gospel, then you can go to the patio room. If that's closed, if that's full of people, there's all kinds of room outside, and we live in California, so you can go outside, right? All kinds of room outside where you can just open your Bible and show that person how they can know their sins are forgiven and how they can have eternal life. So let me show you the verses that you're gonna use, ready? Whether it's at that invitation time, or whether it's at work, or whether it's around your kitchen table, these are the verses I want you to use. Well, you use whatever God lays on your heart, but here's the basic framework anyone can use, okay? How many of you brought a pen tonight? Don't raise your hand, because I don't want to embarrass anybody. Here's my pen. Write these down. Memorize them, okay? Verse number one is Romans 3.23. How many of you think you can say Romans 3.23 with me? Let's say it together. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. How hard is that? If you can't say it, Roger, what about it? There is none righteous, no not one. I like that one too. Personally, I like Isaiah 64.6, which says all our righteousnesses, plural, are as filthy rags. But here's my point, don't say, oh, I don't know what verse to use. No, the Holy Spirit is gonna help you because you're praying. But I'm training you, go over there and do that. No, no, take your Bible and open to Romans 3.23 and show them, let them read it. Quoting it is neat because it makes us look like, I'm really smart. But they don't need it quoted, they need to see it. Show them Romans 3.23. And what is the single message that we want them to understand from Romans 3.23? Man is a sinner. Man is a sinner. I didn't say that. I mean, I am, I agree with the Bible, but whether I agree or not, that's what the Bible tells us. Man is a sinner. Sin is anything we think, anything we say, anything we do that breaks God's law. And maybe they need some help understanding what that is. You can go to Deuteronomy chapter 20, show them the 10 commandments. We've broken every one of those 10 commandments in thought or in word or in action. But here's the verse you're gonna give them, Romans 3.23, say it with me, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Man is a sinner. Look at him, man is a sinner. Do you understand that? No, okay, then you'll have to do a little bit of explaining, but who's gonna help you? The Holy Spirit's gonna help you. You're gonna tell, yeah, I heard some of you say pastor, no, no. Holy Spirit's gonna help you, and you're gonna explain sin is anything we think, anything we say, anything we do that breaks God's law. Okay, that's first verse. Here's the second verse. And again, you don't have to use these verses, because if you don't, you're gonna get in trouble. But if you don't know what else to do, these are the verses. Any one of you can open your Bible and show them. Romans 5, 8. But God commended, He showed His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now, the whole verse is important because God's showing his love for us, but notice the last four words, Christ died for us. Why did Jesus die on the cross? Yeah, for our sins, because I'm a sinner, because you're a sinner. You know, there are people out there that think, well, Jesus died because the Romans were persecuting people, and he was an oppressed person. Yeah, I suppose, but that's not the important thing. The important thing is Christ died for us. He died in my place. Christ died for us. So the first verse we're gonna give them is, Romans 3.23, let's say it together. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And we're gonna turn to that person and we're gonna say what? Man is a sinner. Okay, turn to the person next to you and say, man is a sinner. If you are sitting next to your spouse, this is your chance to say, you are a sinner. And it's true. Yeah, I am a sinner too. I mean, don't make it sound like you are the sinner. No, man, all of us, women, children, we're all sinners. By the way, if you don't believe that people are sinners from birth, you haven't raised children. No, I'm serious. You haven't raised children. I didn't have to teach my children to lie and to take a toy and say, mine. That just came naturally. That's what sin is. Anything we think, anything we say, anything we do that breaks God's law. Okay, so man is a sinner. Now again, we can say the whole verse, but let's say the last four words together. Here we go. Christ died for us in my place. That's how God showed his love to us. Christ didn't die for us when we were good people. When we were like halfway there and God said, here, let me help you. No, when we were sinners. In fact, another verse says when we were the enemy of God, that's when Christ died for us. So that's the important part there. You tell them you're a sinner, man's a sinner, all of us are sinners, but here's number two, Christ died for us. Now we're gonna get to the resurrection. The resurrection is an important part of the gospel. It's not mentioned in this verse, so that's where we're gonna get there. Here's the next verse, Romans 3.23. for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. I love that, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The gift of God is not eternal life some way you earn it. No, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Two points here that you're gonna make to them. Number one, what you deserve because you're a sinner, what I deserve because I'm a sinner is death. Now, you and I know that that's talking about eternal death in a lake of fire. You don't need to get that deep with Him. They just need to understand the consequences of sin are serious. God is absolutely holy, and He must judge sin. But there it is. Wages of sin is death. That's what we deserve, the wages. Wages are what you earn. If you work all week, Most of us, I suppose, get paid twice a month. You work all month, and you go into the bank. I know what I do. I look at my app at the end of the month, and I see there's no money deposited in my account. Do I say, ah, maybe next month? I don't. I call HR. It's not Cindy, by the way. I say, hey, where's my wage? I got bills to pay. I'm not that desperate, but I do want to know. And it so happened one time it got canceled or something. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, let me get that fixed for you. Yes, please, get that fixed for me. I expect my wages is my point. The wages of sin is death. What you can expect as a human being who lived your life whatever way you want, you get to the end of your life, You've not thought about Jesus Christ, you've not accepted his death for you personally, not been important to you, you can expect death, eternal death. But that's not where this verse ends. The gift of God is what? Eternal life. The gift of God is eternal life. So what you deserve, two points here under Romans 6.23, you're gonna look at the person, what you deserve is death, the wages of sin is death, but what God offers is life. I like that word offers because it does call it a gift. And there are many people who've rejected God's gift. They've heard clearly. They've had an intellectual understanding of what they've heard, but it's a gift. And they've said, nope, not for me. In fact, I told you about my friend in Mongolia, Michael was his name. He could explain the gospel better to me in words than I could explain it to him. But at the end, what does he say? But I don't believe it. It's not that he doesn't know, it's that he hasn't accepted it's a gift. So, first thing you're gonna say, Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come to the glory of God. You're gonna say to that person, man is a sinner. People are sinners. I'm a sinner, you're a sinner. Then we're going to say, Christ died for us, but God commendeth His love toward us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He died in our place. And then in Romans 3.23, you're going to make two points, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The first point is, you deserve death. That's what we get. That's what we earn. but God offers us a gift, offers us a gift. Now, here's Romans 10, nine, and we're also gonna look at Romans 10, 13. The reason we're looking at Romans 10, nine is because this talks about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that it's his death for our sins and his resurrection that is the gospel. So we don't wanna miss the resurrection because a lot of people die, in fact, I was just at the hospital the other day visiting a church member, and you know what she said to me? There's one thing guaranteed in this life, you're gonna die. I said, you know, you're right, unless Jesus comes, I'm gonna die. That Jesus died is not amazing. That Jesus rose again, that's what's amazing. That he's not dead, that's what's amazing. So don't miss that, that's what we get in verse nine in here. It says that if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And then Romans 10, 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now those two verses are very close to each other in your Bible, so you're gonna open up your Bible to Romans chapter 10, you're gonna point those two verses out and you're gonna tell them that what's important is calling upon the name of the Lord. Recognizing they're a sinner. Remember, man's a sinner. Recognizing that Christ died for us. Recognizing the wages of sin is death, but God offers us a gift. That God raised his son from the dead. That's what they believe in their heart. They can call on the name of the Lord and have salvation in two weeks. Right? No, it's instant. Help them understand that. It's not something that, okay, you're gonna call the name of the Lord and then you gotta come back to church a couple times, maybe get bathed. Don't, no, no, no, no. Their salvation, by the way, isn't dependent upon them. One of us, we were talking about this. So many people think that salvation is something you get ready for, right? You sort of get yourself cleaned up and, yeah, I haven't been living right, but I tell you what, friend, I'm gonna get right and then I'll come back and I'll become a Christian. No, no, you can never be right enough to become a Christian. That person doesn't understand for all of sin and come short of the glory of God. You don't have to get better. You don't have to get a little bit closer. You have to call upon the name of the Lord. So when that Philippian jailer said, what must I do to be saved? Paul's response was, say it with me, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And thy house, by the way, but you can leave that part off. But that's the point, belief. That's the point. Now, God's already done all the work, so there's no work involved here. There's nothing they have to do, but for whatever reason, when we're asked in the Bible, what must I do to be saved, that belief comes up again and again and again. So I like to ask, okay, so then the next thing I want you to do is give them your testimony. How were you saved? Oops, I'm messing with their minds back there. Give them your testimony. What did you do? There's nothing you did. Okay, what did you believe? Thank you. What did you believe? What happened to you? That's called our testimony. Now, if you don't have a testimony of salvation, if you don't know your sins are forgiven and you have eternal life, then guess what? I wanna talk to you tonight. At the invitation, you come to the front, I'm gonna match you up with someone. They're gonna take you to classroom C or the patio room. They're gonna show you these verses that I just showed you, but if you're a Christian and you have a testimony, you have something that happened to you, Just tell them what happened to you. And then ask them. I like to go back over the verses. Remember Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Just ask them, are you a sinner? Now, I don't know how many times I've shared those verses with somebody, and then I get to the question, are you a sinner? And they look at me and they say, no. Okay, then you need to go back to the beginning, okay? Don't just say, okay, well, just pray with me anyway. No, no. The conviction of the Holy Spirit, you notice in the Bible, Acts chapter two, Acts chapter 16, over and over people say, what must I do to be saved? There's the conviction of the Holy Spirit on that person. They're not glib about it. I'm gonna get sidetracked here and I'm already, okay. Do you believe you're a sinner, number one. Number two, do you believe Jesus died for you and rose again? Now again, if they say, no, no, no, no, no, Jesus did it, and they start talking, okay, go back to Romans 5, 8, go back to Romans 10, 9, and show them that Jesus died for us, okay? Third question, do you believe that God offers you this gift? That comes from Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life. Do you believe God offers you this gift? You'll be surprised, some people might say to you, well, not me, I'm too bad of a sinner. Okay, then again, they don't understand the offer, do they? But ask him, do you believe God offers you this gift? And then fourth, do you wish to accept this gift by faith? Now again, God does the saving, so I'm not asking you to talk anyone into it, I'm not asking you to convince them to say yes. If they say to you at that point, no, Guess what you've done? You've done your part. You've done the sand bill part. You've put the gospel out there. Any questions that you have about those four verses or what they teach us? Now, I understand some of you are visiting tonight, don't worry, I'm not gonna call on you, but I'm assuming then the rest of you that are church members here, I could say, hey, okay, let's go, let's go talk to this person right here. You could say, okay, pastor, I'm ready to give him those four verses and say, man is a sinner, Christ died for us, what we deserve is death, right? What God offers us is a gift, and we receive that gift by calling upon him. That's all we need to do. Because again, the Holy Spirit's going to be at work. You're gonna be praying. Holy Spirit's gonna be at work. Taking these truths that are so obvious to us, but others can't see because they're blinded. We have an adversary, and you know what he does? He blinds people. 2 Corinthians tells us he blinds people. You say, I don't know how to rip that veil away. You don't rip the veil away, God does. Let God do his work, but you have to be ready to give them these truths. That's what sowing the gospel is. Any questions? Okay, then I have a question for you. Do you think that I really expect you to be ready next Sunday morning to take someone out and show them these four verses? The answer is no, God does. Now, I'm serious. God does. Now, I do too. I'm gonna call on somebody, but God does. God wants you to be ready. Paul says, I am ready to preach the gospel. You say, you know, pastor, that's nice. I'm not ready. You are tonight. You came tonight, you're ready. Unless you didn't take notes and then... I want us to be ready because I believe God has a harvest for us. Jesus said to his disciples, lift up your eyes and look on the fields. They are white to harvest. In other words, they are ready now to be harvested. And I know some people say, well, okay, you believe what you want, I'm gonna act in faith that if God tells me to go out and sow the gospel, I need to go out and sow the gospel. And I want you to as well. We'll, over the coming weeks, not next week, but in other messages, we'll talk about sharing the gospel with a person on the street. You've never met that person before, and how we're gonna get the gospel in there. We're gonna talk about how to share the gospel at your kitchen table. When maybe they didn't come to hear the gospel, but at least you know who they are, unless you invite total strangers into your house. I typically don't. But we'll talk about how to talk to those people at your kitchen table. But here's the core of the gospel. I gave you the four verses. And later on, you can look at 1 Corinthians 15, verses three and four, where Paul says, I gave you the gospel. Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture, and was buried and rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. That's the gospel. Okay, Billy, would you come lead us in our song of invitation after I pray? Father, thank you for the folks that you've brought out tonight. I thank you that you want us to know that we have eternal life, that you tell us these things are written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And I'm grateful we don't have to wonder We don't have to try harder. We don't have to clean our lives up. You just offer us the gift of eternal life. Thank you, Father, for your help. Help, Father, without you, we can't do it. Thank you for reaching down and plucking us out of our sin and our shame and our misery. Thank you, Father, for giving your Son, Jesus Christ. who died in our place, who shed His lifeblood to pay my sin debt, to pay our sin debt, and who rose again to show His victory over death and over sin. With your heads bowed and your eyes closed, I just want to give you a chance to respond to this message tonight, as I mentioned earlier. Is anyone here? Just think about yourself, nobody looking around. Does anyone here that say, pastor, I came tonight, I don't know that my sins are forgiven and I have eternal life. I don't know that I'm a child of God, but I would like to know, would you pray for me? If that's you tonight, would you raise your hand? Anyone like that? Father, you know our hearts, you know my heart. You know the hearts of these folks that are here tonight. And I ask you, I beg you, that if there's anyone here that doesn't know their sins are forgiven and that they have eternal life, that today, this evening, would be the day of salvation for them. Lord, give us faith. Show us that the fields indeed are white unto harvest, so that we act on that. We don't believe that You can, but that You will through us to the point that we step out and obey You. Help us this week, we pray in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.