So at this time we're going to have a presentation from Greg Sermons. Greg and his wife Judy are joining us here this morning. They are traveling through the states right now visiting different churches and their home is in France. And the last time we saw them was probably four years ago or maybe even more. and we keep regular contact with them. When you donate to the missions fund here at Calvary, it goes to the support of individuals like Greg and Judy. They're very sweet, and I have the pleasure of knowing them as we have had missions conferences over the years, and I'm very excited to hear an update from Greg. So let's welcome Greg Sermons. Yes. Oh, it was three years ago. We were here and we were with you Sunday morning and we went back to the hotel. We're supposed to be back to the evening service. We got COVID. That's what happened the last time. So it has been three years since last time we were in the States. We are Greg and Judy Sermons. I like to run through these slides, these pictures, explain to you kind of what the Lord's doing in France. When most people think of France, they think of Paris, the Eiffel Tower. But to understand, France is more than Paris. There are 68 million people in France and about 10 million live in the Paris area. So most of the French people don't live in Paris. As a matter of fact, 68 million people, but of that, there's more or less 1%, I believe it's less than 1%, some people say a little bit more, of Evangelical Christianity. Evangelical Christianity is not necessarily Bible-believing, clear gospel Christianity. That's anywhere from your prosperity gospel to everybody else. So understand, there's very few born-again believers in the country of France. As a matter of fact, approximately one-third of the French population will tell you they're atheists. God does not exist. About one-third will tell you they are agnostic. Maybe yes, maybe no, I don't know, I don't think you can know. And actually less than 30% will tell you they believe that God does exist. And that counts the Muslims, the Catholics, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, and everybody else. So that's one of the big differences. I like this illustration. What's in dark blue is the Bible about in the US of A. That's 70 to 82% of people say they believe God exists. What's in purple is anywhere from 50 to 69% of the people tell you they believe that God exists. But what is in yellow, which is most of Europe, it's between 10 and 29% will tell you they believe God exists. A lot of times people say, oh, France is just like here. No, it's not. Most of the people you witness to, at least a big part of them believe there is a God. We talk to people, we're talking to atheists and agnostic or else in some sort of religion like the Muslims. We're in Lille in North France. We're about two hours north of Paris in a car or one hour in that fast train. It only goes 180 miles an hour. Now, Lille is a large metropolitan area. It's got about a million people. And it's a city that, in time past, it was coal mining and also textile, that area. But today, coal mining went away with the nuclear power, and textiles go on to other third world countries. But we praise God for sending us to the city of Lyon. This is our church building. The church is on the ground floor. Judy and I live on the second and third floor. In the back part of the building, we have our Bible Institute as well as Sunday school classes. But we like to eat. Well, there's five Sundays in a month, we have a fellowship meal on the five Sundays. And you know, the French, they love, they have good food. It's wonderful. But this last year, we had this young man that grew up in our church, wanted to be water baptized. Praise God for that. We had another guy named Mark. or really praise God for taking that position. Baptism doesn't save you, but it is a step in the Christian life in being engaged to follow Christ and so forth. Jean-Luc came to church many years ago, and he got away from the Lord. He met Sylvie, got married, had two kids. And then about two years ago, He said, I really need to get back right with God. He started coming back to church. His wife wasn't coming with him, but his wife, Sylvie, she noticed that when he came back from church, he was at peace in his heart, he was calmer. There was a difference. So she said, I want to go along and find out what that's about. So she came to church, and lo and behold, she came to Christ. Praise God. We also have Camille. She's a Christian that lives in the Paris area, but her mother, Catherine, lives in the Lille area. And so Camille would come see her mother on the weekend. She'd come to see us in church. Well, Catherine, in her work, the people were saying, your daughter's in a Baptist church? That's a cult. You know, like Jim Jones. I mean, this is the idea. Understand, in France, if you're not Roman Catholic or some major thing like that, you're some sort of cult. So Catherine said, I'm going to go along with it and find out what it's all about. She came to church, and lo and behold, she came to Christ. So we have seen some people come to Christ who are excited about that, and that's why we're there, and that makes it all worth it. Well, end of July, I turned 70, and a month later, some of the church people had a surprise birthday party for me. And then in August, Judy turned 72. You know, I'm showing this because we are young, old people. And we intend to continue as long as we are physically and mentally able to continue. But we're praying the Lord will raise up a young generation to serve the Lord in the country of France. Pray with us about that. So Lille is known for its flea market. And it's the largest, first weekend of September, the largest flea market in Europe takes place in Lille. Then every neighborhood has their flea markets during the year. Ours, where our church is, it takes place the Monday after Easter. So we set up a table, and it gives the opportunity to share the gospel with those that come by. But you know, the French people, most of them are totally ignorant. of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They've heard about Jesus Christ, but they know nothing about salvation. Also, in our church, we have a large number of kids. We have the babies, toddlers, elementary and junior high. And during the time of the preaching, we try to have three adults for each group that will take turns taking them out and giving them a Sunday school type lesson during the preaching time. But the lady on the left, she teaches the toddlers. But we pray for our people as they learn to minister. Also, in France, we have a lot of Africans. They come from Africa, from Ghana, from the Ivory Coast, from Togo, from all sorts of African countries. And a lot of these Africans, they come to France because Africa's been better evangelized than France. and they come to France to look for a church. So we praise God, we accept whoever comes, and pray that these believers, as they will come to France, they will also witness to the French people. Francois, he's French. He met Marley. After his military service, he visited Brazil and met Marley. She was trusting Christ, and so she took him to the church there, and he trusted Christ. When he came back to France, they found our church, and we've seen them grow in the Lord, both of them, and he's now one of our deacons. Nielsen and Jenny, Nielsen is, they're from Madagascar, and Nielsen is our other deacon. As a matter of fact, Francois is preaching twice, and Nielsen three times during our absence, and we have some other people coming in. But also, the lady on the left, she's from Portugal, and we have teams that take care of cleaning the church. Two teams, and they take turns one after the other. It's important to get involved with your local church. It's your church, and you take part in it. In France, Christmas and Easter are the two major times where the French people have this notion that maybe go to church. So at Christmastime, these guys, along with the ladies, put together a choir, and the kids did a play, and I preached the gospel. And we have been 10 or 15 visitors each year when we do this. But now look at these kids. This is an old picture. I want you to look at their faces, because today they're teenagers. And they've grown up in the church, and they all profess to know Christ, but they haven't decided to be baptized. Now, baptism doesn't save you, but it's important as far as being engaged to follow the Lord. So pray for that. Now this couple, they had a bakery a couple doors down from where we live, and they became good friends. And they come to see us, and we go to see them often, and we always end up talking about the Bible, opening the Bible and sharing. And she's trusted Christ. I don't know. He's still, oh, you gotta be good enough. No, you can't be good enough. Nobody can. But pray for their salvation. On Thursday evening, I do a Bible study. I've been doing it. Since COVID, I've been doing it with Skype. Skype stopped working. I'm using WhatsApp now. And I've actually been doing it here in the States, the Bible study on Thursday nights. Our church service, if everybody's there, counting the kids, we're about 60, and a big part of them are kids. So do pray for that church. We'll see growth. Preaching and teaching is important. We have a small Christian bookstore in the front part of the church. Not many people come in, but it's also another opportunity to share the gospel. So pray for us in Lille, France, in North France. We share our prayer requests often on Facebook. Become one of our friends. Now, this picture, I don't know where it's taken, but every time I see it, why it is the way that leads to destruction. narrows the way that leads to life. Understand that over 99% of the French people are on the highway to hell. Pray for France, pray for salvation. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. This is the prayer request we want to leave with you today. Thank you very much. I can't tell you how encouraging it is to be able to partner with somebody like Greg and his wife Judy. See when we have church here on Sunday mornings, we need to be reminded that there are other people doing the same thing. Literally all over the world. And the Lord is adding to His church. People are coming to faith in Jesus Christ. But it is shocking, isn't it? To see the percentage of people I mean I remember when Greg came at the first missions conference which had to be right around the time that the Bible college was starting, so around like 2013. And he made a statement regarding the fact that if you were to go up to somebody on the street in France and say, do you know what John 3.16 means? They wouldn't know. They wouldn't know. If we did that today, if we went to Citrus Park Mall today and we just polled people on do you know what John 3.16 means, not only would people know what it means, you'd probably get a handful of people that would be able to quote it to you or at least tell you what it's talking about. Our country is going the same way. You see this. You see that there seems to be a revival about God We don't hear the name of Jesus often. We hear a lot about God. We don't hear a lot about Jesus. And you're finding that people are finding God, but they're going back to the Roman Catholic Church. The membership in the Catholic Church is increasing dramatically. because that's what the conservative movement is pushing. So where does that put us? I like that Greg said evangelical Christianity does not mean Bible believing, clear gospel. Where does that put us? And when I say us, I don't mean those of us in the free grace movement or those of us who are here today at 4811 George Road. Us being the body of Christ, where does that put us? What is our goal? It's the same. it's the same. We need to speak the truth. We need to speak and preach the Gospel message. We cannot be content with simply going to church. A lot of people are doing that. You may actually ask a neighbor to come to church and they say, well I go to a church and the churches are vastly different. One preaching the truth and one who is not preaching the truth at all. I saw a Facebook post this week of a church that had something called a spooktacular It looked like it was written by Chad GPT. He said, well, there's a bunch of heroes in the Bible, but there's villains too, and we're gonna study them. And they had worship leaders and worship performers on the stage dressed as witches. They had Bowser from Nintendo and all these Disney villains and stuff. You go, what, is this church? Is this what we're calling trying to evangelize people? I don't want to study villains. I want to study Jesus Christ. Amen? And I want to make sure people are introduced to Him. But this is where the church is going. It's becoming very performative. And when you read in 2 Timothy, they have itching ears. They will depart from the truth. You know, that is likely talking about born-again believers will depart from the truth. But we see the same thing on a worldly scope. Why I think it's so important for us to hear from our missionaries is because we need to have their support in mind. Not just financially. We need to be praying for them. Do you pray for our missionaries? Do you pray for their efforts to reach people? I think what Greg and Judy are doing is a valuable use of their time. And I appreciate that they're transparent with where they are. Old, young people. And you know, they came in, from Pensacola, and we were talking. I said, you know, we're gonna take care of you, all this stuff, and we're gonna, let's get your slides and all of that. And then he said, I said, oh, tonight we have our trunk retreat. He said, oh, really? Well, I was actually talking to Judy. And Judy was like, well, we'd like to come. And I thought, sure. So they showed up. They showed up, and within an hour, Judy is pushing around two kids from the church, Greg has talked to everybody at their trunk, and they're helping out. Those are people that care. I want to support that kind of mindset. So when we're done today, which we do have communion, before we come across the aisle and join hands for our final song, I'm going to ask Greg and Judy to go to the back, and I want to make sure that you press hand on hand there and pray for them and encourage them. because they're going to go back to doing what I believe is important work. Let's take our Bibles and go to 2 Corinthians chapter five. I have four things that I want to remind you of today. Those four things having to do with what you see on the screen there, speak. I was reading through the book of Acts, and I came across chapter 18. We'll be there later today, Lord willing. I came across chapter 18, and I read about the affliction that Paul endured from Jewish people in Corinth. And he shook his raiment and he said, I'm going to the Gentiles. And he went and you have the characters of Justice and Crispus and all of those things there. But there was something in Paul that required the Lord to speak directly to him. And the Lord said to him, be not afraid, speak. I'm going to be with you. I have much people in this city. There will be no harm on you." And Paul stayed there for 18 months, of which generated the church in Corinth and two fantastic epistles that we believe is canon today. We need boldness. We do not need to have fear. I spoke on this Wednesday evening. We have the spirit of love, power, and a sound mind. Something happened to young Timothy. He got discouraged. Maybe he received some harsh feedback from a trusted friend. Maybe he was leading the church in a direction and there was just, everything was apathetic. Nobody really cared anymore. But something happened and Paul reminded him of the gift that had been given to him by the Holy Spirit, of which they had laid hands on him and ordained him into ministry. And the instruction was, go. Go and do this important work. Timothy is charged twice in 1 Timothy and in 2 Timothy to go and do the work of an evangelist. What is the work of an evangelist? Sometimes we think it's on a street corner. That is one part of it. Yes, preaching the gospel boldly, that is one part of it. We need to preach the gospel boldly to our families, to our children. Remy is learning how to pray. it becomes one of those things that delays bedtime now, right? We gotta pray, and she'll pray. I think we may have a little charismatic on our hands, you know? But she'll pray for everything, and it's amazing to see how her mind works. I'll see her, Kyla's holding her, maybe we're at dinner or something, and she's praying, and she'll go like this, and she's got her eyes closed, and she'll go, dear God, I, Thank you for my Play-Doh. Other eyes open. Looking at Mama. Thank you for Mama. And Dada. She's looking at everything. The spoon on the wall gets blessed. You know? Our dog, who has had new life now. Our dog is 14 years old. I think she's going to live for another 14 years because Remy keeps feeding her. You know, the stuff from the table. Junie's pawing on her chair and stuff. She's like, Virginie, thank you, Virginie. The other day, this was probably a few weeks ago, she's praying, she has her eyes closed and she says, thank you for Jesus dying on the cross. Now listen, I don't know if she understands that, but she's hearing it. Is that important? It's incredibly important. I'm pretty sure some of us here today would have given anything to hear that as a child. instead of going through all of the deception and the mockery that comes from our world about God. And I told Kyla, I'm like, she's hearing it. Now, I don't think she understands all of it, but at least she's hearing it. She knows what Jesus did. Do you know that's more than 99% of what we just studied about France? It's important. That evangelism is every area of our life, our family, our kids. I've been saying this on Wednesday nights if you've been here. People are planning to come to your house or you're planning to go to people's house in a couple of weeks. With all the turkey and the ham and the holiday festivities, I guarantee you we are in such a charged climate today, I guarantee you there will be an opportunity to talk on spiritual things. If someone asks for your opinion on what's going on in the world, you say, I believe in spiritual wickedness in high places. Put that one out there, see how it goes. Because everybody's noticing things right now. What's our answer? Are we going to fade into the mashed potatoes and the stuffing? We don't talk about religion and politics. Or are we going to be prepared? So it's every area of our lives. It should infect everything that we're doing, our position with God. And then as Gary said so well when he did the scripture reading, not just standing in our position, but walking with the Lord. Look at 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, speaking of the new birth, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. This means that when you put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you were born again and that sin which condemned you, the penalty of it has been paid, amen? Life now is sweet and my joy is complete for I'm saved, saved, saved, amen? That's not just a beautiful hymn because it sounds good and there's nice music to it. There's biblical truth there as well. You say, well, pastor, I still struggle, I still have sin. Well, listen, we read Romans six in the scripture reading, did we not? We have a choice now. At the moment that you trusted Christ as your savior, you were saved from the penalty of sin, having forgiveness applied through the blood of Jesus Christ to your sin debt, and you are promised to be saved from the presence of sin when one day we exit off of this stage and we are with the Lord. If we perish before the Lord comes back, then we wait for a new body when the Lord returns. And if we go up in the rapture, then we're transformed in a moment. But that is the culmination, that is the glorification, the new body that doesn't need doctor's appointments, amen. Ain't gotta worry about LBS, those pounds and the BMI and all that stuff. You don't have to worry about it, why? Because it's gonna be as John 3 tells us, 1 John 3 says, we'll see him as he is and be like him. Aren't you excited about that? Sometimes we forget, right? The first of the month just passed. I got an email from my HOA. Thanks for your payment. I almost wanna say, you don't have to thank me. It's a requirement, you remember? We get emails like that all the time. Your payment has been received, and we know 30 days, 31 days later, they're gonna send another one, right? Sometimes we let that kind of thought process steal us from the joy that we have in Christ. I can't wait for the day when the rapture happens, if I'm here, and they try to draft my account in insufficient funds. I wish there was a way for me to send them a gospel tract when they try to get that. I wish I could tell you the amount. Our HOA is out of control. They just sent an email. They said, we're looking for people to start our community enforcement team. No one has signed up. Yes. I want to, we're going on a different path there. Community enforcement team? Oh, your shrubs are not trimmed. I had a teacher that would give conduct cuts. How many of you guys remember conduct cuts in school? And she would give them like this, Mr. Martinez, conduct cut. Didn't have the bell work done. I was talking after the bell. Mr. Martinez, conduct cut. And I feel like that's what's gonna be, Mr. Martinez, conduct cut. I'm a grown adult now. I pay my dues. We're really getting off the track here. You're delivered from the penalty of sin. There's the promise, eternal life, that you will be delivered from the presence of sin. The daily battle now is to choose to be delivered from the power of sin. This is shown to us in the fruit of the Spirit, meekness, self-control, which is the word temperance. We have to choose that. It doesn't miraculously happen. We have to choose. I'm gonna obey the Lord, which requires you to yield, and I'm gonna say no to the flesh and the things that are against God. And we see Christians struggle this way all the time. But the promise and the great security is, look at verse 17. You're in Christ. You're a new creature. Old things pass away. All things become new. And all things, 18, are of God, including that new birth, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. It's all about Jesus. Spoiler alert, it's all about Jesus. This is what I don't like about a legalistic gospel. It makes the person the one who is delivering themselves. When I choose to walk in my new nature, it's of no self-disciplined glory to myself. It's because I've been reconciled to God by Jesus Christ, that's why. Legalism takes the spotlight off of Christ and puts it back on you and your performance. That's how you have cliques develop in the church. Right? And churches have fallen for this trick. What's the trick? Oh, well, we gotta have two services now. What are they called? Traditional for the old people and contemporary for the young people. What ends up happening, half of the time, what ends up happening is the contemporary service either takes over the property or departs and starts a new church. I don't think that's how the body of Christ is supposed to function. It's supposed to be about Jesus Christ. When I choose to do something good, it is because I have that nature within me which is born of God and cannot sin. So no pat on my back. When I choose to do sin, that is also equally my choice. And I will have to give an answer for that. reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, who hath given to us the ministry, the work of, what? Reconciliation, removing that which is in the way. So it's not just, ooh, I'm going to heaven, praise God, now you introduce that good news to somebody else. That's why I really enjoy what we did on Friday night. There's opinions out there. But you know what, I don't think we need to put the gospel under a bushel because it's October 31st. I think we should open up our parking lot and meet people where they are. How about that? And many people came through here. I'm fairly certain we got close to 200. Given out Bibles, Louie and Aroma were working over there with people talking. At least that we know of, eight came to faith in Christ. Can we praise the Lord for that? And how about the ones that I talked to that drove from Riverview because they saw us on a website and they said, this is a nice place. We like this. And everybody who participated, it's for a purpose. It's not like, here's a safe option. Although the world sees it that way, we have a purpose in it. Ministry of Reconciliation. Ministry of Reconciliation is happening right now today. When Greg and Judy go back to France, they are Ministers of Reconciliation. Their work is to introduce people to Jesus Christ, which has removed that sin which is between them and God. Look at verse 20. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The question is asked once in scripture, what must I do to be saved? There is no get baptized. There is no join a church. There is no prove it or you never had it. There is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I'm gonna say that's sufficient, period. The rest of the things we choose to do are between you and God, your heavenly Father. And we have a friend in Jesus who has laid down his life And we should be ready to do the same. I appreciate that recently the president has brought attention to the tens of thousands of Christians who are being slaughtered in Nigeria. I appreciate that. It does not change our work here. You understand? Because here's the temptation there. Well, money can solve it. Politics can solve it. You know what can solve it? People are gonna continue to die for Jesus Christ. we need to keep teaching and preaching the gospel message. And when the persecution comes, we need to be prepared to endure that persecution, even to death if necessary, because that's how the church grows. But my heart is there, and I am praying. My first prayer is that clarity would be present. My second is that if more have to die, it will abound to more trusting in Christ as their Savior. I know this sounds dark, but think about it. Is death really the worst thing that can happen to us? You know, when you say, Lord, we're praying for the rapture, we're praying to go, you know that means life is over here, right? It don't matter who's gonna win later this afternoon, you'll be gone. The way things are going for me on a sports level, all that is fading away. I made the mistake to watch the World Series last night. America's team was in Canada, and they lost. I know, there's no opinion on that that needs to be spoken, but it was a hard day. As a Florida fan, four points close, and then watching that, I went to bed and I was like, I'm so glad at least the clocks go back. Get an extra hour to wallow. I'm joking. But you know, it's so, sometimes we think that's the worst thing that could happen, death. Folks, absent from the body, present with the Lord. That's a true statement. That's not just something we say, oh, put it on a t-shirt. Put it on the imprint of your life. That's more important. Now we see something here, which is my first point. We speak because our ambassadorship demands it. We're ambassadors. We're ministers of reconciliation. Look at verse 21. For he, God, hath made him, Jesus, to be sin for us. Who's us? Anybody. Who knew no sin, Jesus, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. When you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior, the righteousness of God was put to your account. We are now hid in Christ. Number two, we speak because our voices carry the power of God. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter two. And remember, he's writing this to a group of people that the Lord told him, don't be afraid to speak. I've got you, I'm gonna take care of you. And that 18 months proved to be incredibly important, did it not? I believe it did. 1 Corinthians 2, look at verses one through five. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I've got to believe that this is a part of what he was instructed to do. He faced opposition from the Jews, Paul did. Crispus and Gaius, excuse me, and Justice were not very kind in the beginning. There was hardness there, there was contention. But he heard from the Lord, Paul did, in Acts 18, and we'll see that in a moment. And then he went and said, I don't want to be known by anything else except Christ and Him crucified. As a man who likes the complex made simple, that is incredibly comforting, isn't it? I remember as a teenager, staying up at night, burning a hole through my ceiling, wondering, what is God's will for me? I knew that I had talents, I knew that I had abilities, but I had one foot in each world. Trying to straddle this fine line between walking in the world and walking with the Lord. And I felt a calling, I felt a tug. I know that that sounds a little ethereal and stuff, but I'm just being honest with you. I felt a pull to go into pastoral ministry, but I had no idea how to do it, none. And I've been coming here to Calvary Community Church since 2003. And I prayed, and I would pray, and my prayer would be this, Lord, what's your will, what's your will, what's your will? And I'm thinking it's some deep, complex, you know, maze of choices and decisions and blindsiding and all this kind of stuff. But at a summer camp in 2011, after I had just gotten married and was about to start a new job at Bank of America, I sat with Dr. Arnold in a golf cart, and I told him what I was thinking. And he said very simply a sentence that changed my life. If you want to know the will of God, you've got to know the word of God. And that was like the master lock unlocked. And it was simple. Because now I knew, well, I should at least try to pursue Bible college. And I did. And I ended up going to college from 2013 and graduating second in my class of three. But that placement has no bearing on this next part. I learned the Word of God. In 2011, if you were to ask me why I believe that you cannot lose your salvation, my answer would have been, that's what my church teaches. Essentially, I don't know. It wasn't until I opened this up that my life began to change. and I was presented with things. It was almost like the Lord was saying to me, son, what are you listening to? Does that edify me? And it, just naturally, it was like, I don't find enjoyment in that stuff anymore. Go look at the top 10 songs right now. They're filth. It's just junk. And our kids are getting this plugged into their ears with headphones so you don't even know what they're listening to. Son, what are you watching? That's not a good thing. No, it's just entertainment. I started seeing very little value in those things. Because as I was exposed to God's will, it started drawing a contrast between my will. And there's always a common denominator, the gospel was present. Because of how good I have it now, how could I choose the thing that Christ died for? that became ever more present. Paul continues in verse three, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That's such a good reminder. You say, Pastor, I'm not a good speaker. Great, you qualify, right? The one person in Scripture who gave that response and would not move from it was Moses, and he was given Aaron, and Aaron kindled Moses' wrath, and he struck the rock twice, he didn't get to the promised land. I think there's a little picture there. It's not your power and talent, it's his, amen? that your faith, verse five, your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And that's what I pray for today, that people would hear the truth of God's word, not the vessel of which it is coming from, but the truth itself and believe. And that's the danger I see today. We are building altars to men, political men. And we're saying, well, he says it so well. He says it so accurately. It's such beautiful speech, but when you compare it to the word of God, it's wrong. You know how common it is today to hate Israel? You know how common that is? Oh, everybody's divided. Everybody's divided. What do we do? What do we do? You know, the last thing I hear about support or going against Israel is anything biblical, it's all political talking points. And I've heard people mainstream say now things that I believe the Antichrist will say about Jews. It's a DNA thing. Watch out, folks. That's Antichrist speak. You study the Antichrist in Daniel 7, Daniel 8, and you see his affinity for power and for money. He will not have the natural desires of a man. A lot of people have opinions on that. Will he be a homosexual? Will he have a family? I believe he's going to be bent on one thing, total and complete destruction of his opposition. And remember, that first three and a half years, there'll be peace. And then there will be swift destruction. You hear this stuff and you go, what do we do? Read your Bible. What does God say about Israel? Read Romans 11. And everybody wants to twist that. And I'm telling you, they twist and you hear the bones break. I hear the Reform movement use it. I'm like, guys, this is a swing and a miss. But they're telling you it's a bass hit. Look at verse five. This is where I want to move to the next point. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God we speak, because our voices carry the power of God. Romans 1 16. What should our voices carry? The gospel message. And what is the gospel message? Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, died, was buried, and rose again to pay for sin. Salvation is only through him. That's the gospel message. Number three, we speak because our Savior is with us. Go to Acts 18. I've talked about this a little bit now throughout our study. But here, we have just a really good story. If you read verses one through eight, you see how there was all of this backlash, contention. You've got big characters mentioned there. In verse five, Timotheus is mentioned, Silas, Macedonia, all these different things. You've got Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue coming in, believed on the Lord with all his house. People were baptized in verse eight. By the way, I loved seeing, Pastor Greg, the picture of the young kids, and then they were teenagers. That got to me. That was just like, they didn't leave. You guys are doing a good work, and our ministry is praying for you. So people are getting baptized, they're trusting in Christ, they're getting baptized, they're hearing verse nine. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, be not afraid. We're like, wait a second, nothing said that Paul was afraid. Well, he had some stuff going on. Be not afraid, but speak. Didn't say pray, didn't say wait, didn't say hold tight for the next guy, go and say what you know is true, Paul. I think that's the instruction for you and I today. We're looking for somebody to, you know, coach, the running back got hurt, who's going in? How many times you hear coaches say, next man up? Well folks, next man up, it's us. We're here. You say, how do you know? You're alive. That's how I know. Next man up. Be not afraid, but speak, hold not thy peace. Then you compare that with what we just read in 1 Corinthians chapter two, knowing that he heard this first. And look what the result was. I don't want you to know anything about me except Christ and him crucified. Boy, I love that. For I am with thee. Why should he have no fear? Why should he speak and not refrain? For I am with thee. No man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. It reminds me of Elijah. He's in the wilderness. The worst woman in the world has just said, I'm gonna kill ya. He's pleading with God, he has nowhere left to turn, and God says, stand up! I have 7,000 that have not bent the knee to bail. See, we kinda think trusting the Lord requires knowledge of the future. And if we don't have knowledge of the future, then you know what, it's best to just wait. While we might not have expressed details about the future, do you know you have the promise of eternal life? One day this is all gonna close. This'll be done. And you'll be with the Lord forever in glory. He's gonna reward us for what we've done here. I wanna be found faithful till the end. I have much people, verse 11. He continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. In John 14 and John 15 and John 16, we read about how the Holy Spirit's gonna come and lead, guide, and direct into all truth. I lean on God for that. When I don't know, I depend on the Lord to show me what I don't know. We've had a rough few shows on BibleLine this past couple weeks. Shows where our screeners and our producers will tell you, they look at me and they go, he's tired, but I still depend on the Lord. You know how much courage it takes to open up a phone line and say, ask me anything? And we don't have FCC regulations. Now I have my finger on the mute button, because one of these days, someone's going to say something that I have to cut out. I depend on the Lord for that strength. Not books and commentaries and man's wisdom. God will lead, guide, and direct. And there's no shame in saying, I don't know. As a matter of fact, I think a lot of people refuse to say that and then they say a lie. And then if they get public enough, they double down on it. Look at Ephesians chapter six. Ephesians chapter six. verses 19 through 20. Ephesians 6, as we know, has the warfare that happens with believers. We also have armor as well that the Lord gives us. Everybody thinks it ends at verse 17, right? It's like, hey, a helmet of salvation. All right, the show's over, no, no, verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, not just the ones that you like, all of them. And you know that means too that there are some of our brothers and sisters who have fallen away from the truth. They have apostatized from the truth. What is our role in their lives? To keep praying for them. I have people in my life who have apostatized from the faith. They reject the things they once believed. Two things are true. God's word is still true. They're a child of God. The second thing that's true is there is heavy chastening. And my desire is for God's will to be done. But I gotta make sure that I'm not trying to be the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna be the one that brings them back. Who are you again? Who am I again? Look at verse 19. Paul says this, and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds jailed. that therein I may speak boldly, and I love these last five words, as I ought to speak. It is a responsibility. The illustration is like this for loving the Lord, right? Your dad is on his way to work. And you're saying goodbye, and you say, I love you, Dad. He says, I love you, too. And he says, look, I really want you to make sure that the dishes get done. You say, OK, Dad, I'll do that. All right? Dad's out at work, and you're taking care of the lawn. You've vacuumed. You've put your room back in order. You've dusted. You replaced the rotting soffits, all of this stuff. But you didn't do the dishes. So your dad gets home, and you're just excited. Good to see you. I did this, you know, you grab them by the hand, you look at this and look at this and did all this. You get to the dishes and they're not done. He says, what about the dishes? Oh, well, you know, I did everything else. And it's just because I love you so much. I mean, look at the splinters on my hands from the rotting wood and look at the Look at the lines in the lawn are so nice and look at this carpet, you could eat off of it. I asked you to do the dishes. Yeah, but my room is put together and I just love you so much I went above and beyond. It's still disobedience. This is where I think a lot of Christianity is today. We think our love for the Lord can be defined by ourselves. This is why Paul says, die to self, live unto Christ. I was talking to a friend about this recently. A lot of Christians are willing to serve the Lord so far as it is convenient for them. That's not love. And if it is love, it's love of self. Paul says, I ought to speak, so I need boldness to do it. Shows us too that there's some difficulty in that. That's my prayer for the sermons, for Yankee and Betty, for all the churches that are having church in an hour here on Central Time. I want the pastors to be given boldness and say what they ought to say. And finally, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, where we started this morning. We speak because our Savior will judge us. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. In verse 10 we read, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. And the Greek word there for bad is worthless. See, the judgment seat of Christ is not necessarily a judgment for the additional payment of sin. This is why I reject the idea that unfaithful believers will be separated from God as a form of punishment in outer darkness. You know who took all the punishment of the believer? Jesus Christ. but it is a measuring, a rewarding, and what will be lost at the judgment seat of Christ is what we could have earned. Verse 11 is striking. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Knowing that I'm going to have to give an account, nowhere to hide, No ifs, ands, or buts, no the schedule didn't allow it, or I was sick, or whatever, I didn't know. And the fact that there are people who can hear life from my lips, I want to persuade men to believe. We are made manifest, verse 11, unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. Just for a moment, look at verse one. for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, the body, we have a building of God, and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That's talking about the new body. For in this, this earthly vessel, we groan. Y'all did that this morning. Alarm went off, you pulled one of these. You know, another kind of groaning is when we lose a loved one. When our kids walk away from the Lord, there's groaning in that too. Loneliness, when the church is so divided on things that really don't amount to a hill of beans. All of it. You say, what can we equate groaning to? Sin. earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven, again talking about that new body, if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for what we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. This is true if you've put your trust in Christ. You have a robe of righteousness waiting. You're not going to stand before God with no proper covering. Now he that had wrought us for the selfsame thing as God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit." It's a pay it forward. You have the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we are always confident. Really? Always confident? Yes. You can have confidence in any situation or circumstance, in any place on this planet. Well, the government's against Christianity. Be confident. You have the Holy Spirit. It's not like you have to declare Him at customs in that country. You have Him. What does that equal? Confidence, knowing that, whilst we are at home in this body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. I like how there's a little emoticon there, you see that? A little smiley face? We are confident, I say, and willing, rather, to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore, we labor, that, whether present or absent, which is just a merism for at all times, we may be accepted of him. that we'd be walking in step as He is walking. And then we see, for we must all appear before the judge in the seat of Christ. Those first nine verses are positive reinforcement. This is also a critical reinforcement, and we will give an account. That's why we speak. In 1 Thessalonians 2, in verse four, Paul says, not as pleasing men, but God with trieth our hearts. we need to speak. Speak what? You speak the truth. Well, what's the truth? Start with the gospel. I'm sure the Lord will lead you down that path if you just make that the standard. You can close your Bibles, please, and look up here. We do have communion today, so I'm going to ask if the gentlemen who are going to be administering communion, if you would stand and go to the back. Don't let them distract you. I know, dashingly good looks are these gentlemen here. As they're getting ready for that, I want to share what we ought to be speaking every opportunity that we get, and that is the gospel. And it's for two reasons. Number one, it's for those of you that might be here today that do not know that you're going to heaven. It's for you, but it's also for those of us who have already believed. A reminder of why we do what we do. I used an illustration here. This is going to represent sin. And this is going to represent you and me, the whole world. I put this on top of my hand because the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God loves us, hates our sin, this separates us from Him. In order to get to heaven, you have to be sinless. See, and everybody wants to define that, right? They say, oh, sinless in whose eyes? I'm glad you asked. You have to follow the law. You say, oh, the Ten Commandments? Yeah, and the 603 outside of that. James 2 says if you follow the law and offend in one point you're guilty of all. So here we are, not sinless. We fail to meet the standard. We're sinners. The wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God, and a literal fire burning hell. But God has provided a covering for this sin. That word biblically is called an atonement. It's a payment. It's not just covering it up and pushing it off to the side. It's a transaction that God honored to pay for sin. It does not involve your good works, your turning from that sin, your promising to live a good life. Those things are commendable, but they cannot be met with the gift of righteousness. The Bible says without the shedding of blood there is no remission, there's no forgiveness. This hand represents Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, fully God and fully man. And what Jesus did, He who knew no sin became sin for us. Listen, that we might be made the righteousness of God. What does that mean? Christ on the cross took our sin, laid it upon himself, paid for it, and the last thing he said before his death was, it is finished. What does that mean? It's paid in full. If you're here today thinking that being here or being a good person is good enough to get to heaven, I want you to change your mind in light of new information. That new information being, for God so loved the world, that's you and me, that He gave His only begotten Son, that's Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in Him, that's salvation, whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. You can know that you're going to heaven because Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins. You say, Pastor, well what if I don't turn from my sins? Well shame on you if you don't. Can I be frank with you, even though I'm Jesse? That's a shame. Why would we choose to serve the thing which nailed our Savior to the cross? But it doesn't change the promise that God gave. You're passed from death unto life, and you'll never be brought into condemnation again. Either he said it and he lied, or he said it and he meant it. And we know that God does not lie, Titus 1-2. So if you're here today and that makes sense to you, would you simply put your trust in Jesus Christ? that He is the only begotten Son of God who died on the cross, was buried and rose again to pay for your sins. My friend, the moment you do, you're saved. You say, Pastor, I don't feel any different. Not about feelings, it's about the fact of God's Word. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, shall we? Heads are bowed, eyes are closed, nobody's looking around for privacy. If you just trusted in Christ as your Savior, I would like to pray for you. I'm gonna ask if you would slip your hand up. That is not to save you. This is not an emotional thing. No one's gonna isolate you out or ask you to come down the aisle. It's just for the opportunity to receive prayer from me. So if that made sense to you, and you just trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you now know that you're going to heaven, would you just slip your hand up? I'd like to pray for you. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. I see you, sister. Amen. I see you. I see you, sir. God bless you. we will have prayer for you. Anyone else before we close? We've got one more I'm being told back there. Three have come to faith in Christ, amen? Before we pray for those three, those of you who are here this morning and you've been walking with the Lord for a while, speak. Speak boldly. Our ambassadorship demands it. Our voices carry the power of God when we preach the gospel. Jesus, our Savior, is with us, and one day we will need to give an account for what we have spoken and done. We're gonna have prayer for the three that just trusted Christ, but we're also going to turn our attention to communion. After prayer, Dana will be playing the piano softly. And for those of you who have trusted in Christ, even the three that just believed today, we now remember the Lord's sacrifice that he made for us. If there's disobedience in your life, if there's things you're not doing correctly, bring that to the Lord. The word confess means to come to an agreement. It's not how the Catholic Church teaches it, as a way to pay for sin and penance. That's not how that works. And then thank the Lord for his sacrifice. It was a gruesome sacrifice. We should not take sin lightly. Let's pray. Father, for the three that trusted in Jesus Christ this morning, you receive the praise, honor, and glory. They are now your children, now and forevermore. I pray that they would grow in their faith. They are sealed with the Spirit. They have a new body waiting. Now the Christian life begins. I pray that, if possible, our church would be able to serve them. But Lord, they have assurance that nothing can separate them from where they have now been placed. And we praise you for that. We also pray for our communion service now as we consider the sin which causes a schism, a division in our walk with you and dealing with it now, knowing that it has been dealt with on the cross, but it still has power over us now if we choose to serve it. May we remember your body which was beaten beyond recognition, and your blood that was spilt to pay for that sin, and let us deal with it swiftly and severely. I thank you, Lord. You receive the praise, honor, and glory today and every day going forward. In your name, Jesus Christ, we pray these things. Amen. I'm going to have the gentlemen come down and we'll begin our communion service.