[0:00] Romans 1, verses 14-17. Let's pray together.
[0:34] Father, we thank you for the opportunity to come together to study your word. And I pray, Father, that in our frailty, you will find us faithful.
[0:47] Pray, Father, that both the preaching and the hearing of your word this morning will honor you. And that the end result of that will be the proclamation of your good news to the world. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
[1:01] So last week we talked about the obligation to gospel ministry that Paul had. It's a little early. You can take that down. We talked about the obligation to gospel ministry that Paul had to the church.
[1:14] And we saw that through beginning in verse 8 and coming down through the end of 15. So we're kind of overlapping a little bit this morning to speak of Paul's obligation to gospel ministry. But this morning we're going to talk about his obligation to gospel ministry to the world.
[1:28] So to those who did not know Christ. And he kind of gives us some different people groups in our text here. We see the Greeks and the barbarians. I told you last week that those were the wise and the foolish of the world.
[1:41] The Greeks were very educated. The barbarians to the Greeks spoke in nonsensical language. That's where they got that name. They would make fun of them and say they sounded like they were just saying bar, bar, bar, bar.
[1:52] So they became known as the barbarians. And also to the Jews who the gospel was first brought to and presented to. And so Paul essentially kind of restates Jesus' second stating of the Great Commission in Acts 1.8 when he says to the disciples, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
[2:19] And what Christ was saying to them was that the Spirit of God is going to come and it's going to work in you, and you're going to be a disciple. You're going to be a carrier of the message of the good news of Jesus Christ to your city, to your region, those of other ethnicities.
[2:33] That's who the Sumerians were. And to the rest of the world. So where do we find ourselves today in the world? I'll give you a little current statistics.
[2:44] In America, we have approximately 314 million people, only 28.9% of which claim to be evangelical Christians. And I would argue that to be a Christian at all, you must be an evangelical Christian.
[2:59] And I would also argue that many of those are probably nominal Christians at best. So 30% from a very, very positive estimate of what may actually be Christian in America today.
[3:15] In the world, almost 7 billion people that exist. 60% are unreached. And what that means is that there's less than 2% of the population of that nation, that people group, that know Christ at all.
[3:29] So 60% of the peoples are unreached. Very conservative estimates. That makes it 4 billion people who are unreached for the gospel of Christ. 4 billion out of the 7 billion people.
[3:43] Very conservative. So we find ourselves in a situation, as carriers of the gospel, of this message that's been given to us to take to the world. We've got a huge job ahead of us, don't we?
[3:56] We're failing pitifully at carrying the gospel to the nations. 4 billion people, conservatively, who have never even heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[4:08] And they are storing up for themselves the wrath of God against them. They are already found guilty, condemned where they stand, because of their disknowledge of God, because of their breaking of the law.
[4:21] There's no excuse for them. Because they haven't heard, there's no excuse. They've carried the curse of Adam in their flesh, and they will be damned to hell, unless they hear the gospel and place their faith in that message.
[4:37] So I believe that God is at work. He is all-powerful. He is sovereign. He will redeem His church. So we have this great task before us, this 4 billion people out there.
[4:52] And I believe that God is active and involved in reaching them. But He uses His church to do so. He uses us to accomplish that. And He does that because He loves us.
[5:06] Because God is a great treasure, and He wants to include us in what He's doing. He wants us to experience and to know Him more by being involved in His mission to the world. So the gospel must go.
[5:18] People must hear it. And God's going to carry us to do that. Romans chapter 10, verse 14, Paul writes, How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
[5:30] And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? So we're called to be ministers of the gospel to the world.
[5:43] I kind of thought of this analogy this week, and I actually wasn't planning on using it. But as I typically do, because I figure it'll embarrass myself, I can use it anyway. We're intended to be a tool in the hand of God in accomplishing His work.
[5:59] And I have a leaf rake that I didn't use very faithfully this year. But that leaf rake was fashioned for the purpose of raking leaves. And it sits in my shed.
[6:11] And when I go to get my rake leaf, it doesn't give me any resistance at all, does it? I just pick up my rake leaf, and off I go with my rake leaf. If I am that rake leaf, if it's me, fashioned to do this certain work, I don't tend to just be picked up and carried out to do the work.
[6:29] I tend to grab on to the shovel and the other stuff and the wall of the shed, desperately clinging to the comfort of the shed. We're tools.
[6:40] We're meant to be used. God has made us for a purpose. And if my rake had any soul at all, it would be the happiest raking leaves. That's where we find ourselves.
[6:50] God has created us for a very intent purpose. And if we're about that work, we'll be full of joy in doing it. Now Paul writes in verse 16 and 17 kind of the theme of the book of Romans.
[7:05] And we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, but it's certainly worth repeating as we think about these four billion people who the wrath of God is being stored up for.
[7:17] They have no hope except for Christ. And Paul was writing this from a coming out of one worldview where he thought he was doing everything he could possibly do to please God.
[7:29] He was a Pharisee, the most upright of people, the most zealous pursuer of God in his zeal for the law. He thought he had it all figured out.
[7:41] And it all gets flipped upside down when he meets Christ. And Christ says to him, you fool, you cannot fulfill the law. It's impossible for you to do so. Place your faith in me and live in righteousness and walk in faith.
[7:56] He flips it completely over here. And here's what he writes for us. Verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
[8:10] For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. It is the power of God, not the law, no good works you think you're doing, not the church you belong to, not the way you attend.
[8:29] Your perfect attendance record means nothing for your salvation. The gospel itself is the power of God for salvation. Matthew 28.
[8:43] Oh, excuse me, I've got to back up. So then, we ought to preach no other message. Those of us who are recipients of this grace, we ought to preach no other message to the world than the gospel of Christ.
[9:00] Not our traditions and those things, but the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power of God for salvation and He will accomplish His work. It's also the gospel that gives us the righteousness of God and it's revealed from faith for faith.
[9:18] That's kind of a confusing phrase and it simply just means, all Paul's trying to say to us, is that the gospel that we place our faith in brings us the righteousness of God. It's not our own doing. The gospel itself, Christ's imputed righteousness to us brings us righteousness and continues that work.
[9:33] So it's for faith, from faith, for faith. Okay? So from faith, for faith. That both our salvation, our righteousness, begins in Christ and it ends in Christ.
[9:46] Right? And that's what He's saying to us. Right? So Matthew 28, 18-20, it's known as the Great Commission. Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
[9:56] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Not simply converts, but disciples of all nations. Alright? He said that earlier up in verse 5, didn't He? To bring about the obedience of the faith.
[10:10] Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Verse 20, Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
[10:20] Matthew 24, 14, Jesus said, And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.
[10:32] And then the end will come. So this gospel message is going to be preached to all nations. And then the end will come. That's the mission that He has set us about.
[10:44] It's fulfilling that Great Commission work. In a commentary on Matthew 24, 14, and that phrase all nations, George Eldon Ladd wrote this, God alone knows the definition of terms.
[10:58] I cannot precisely define who all the nations are, but I do not need to know. I know only one thing. Christ is not yet returned. Therefore, the task is not yet done.
[11:10] When it is done, Christ will come. Our responsibility is not to insist on defining terms. Our responsibility is to complete the task. So long as Christ does not return, our work is undone.
[11:24] Let us get busy and complete our mission. So if we're to do that, I think we can learn three things from Paul's life in order to do so. And I think that there's some pretty deep indictments on us here.
[11:37] Three things. We need to be obligated to share the gospel, which is going to mean a life of self-sacrifice. We need to be eager and we need to be unashamed.
[11:50] We need to be obligated, eager, and unashamed. Obligated. We find that in verse 14.
[12:01] Self-sacrificial. We talked last week about this obligation that Paul felt and that it wasn't an obligation to God because therefore, grace would have ceased to be grace.
[12:14] The free gift given to him would have been based on works, not on the grace of God. It's an obligation to his identity.
[12:25] Obligation to who he is in Christ. This is my paraphrase of Romans chapter 8, 9, and 10, and then verse 12. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
[12:39] But if Christ is in you, we are debtors to the spirit of Christ within us. We are debtors. That's who we're obligated to, to our own identity, to the fact that we are children of God.
[12:51] We ought to share the gospel, right, with each other and with the world. So it means we must be self-sacrificial. We need to die to ourselves, to our flesh, and we need to live to the spirit within us.
[13:04] Luke chapter 9, verse 23 and 24. Christ says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
[13:16] Let him deny himself the pleasures of this world, those things that our flesh longs for and take up our cross. What does that mean? That we die. We literally die to ourselves every day if we're going to follow Christ.
[13:33] Verse 24. For whoever will save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Luke chapter 14, verse 27.
[13:44] Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. It's pretty huge, isn't it?
[13:55] Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So do you die daily to yourself, the pleasures of your flesh, the lusts for this world?
[14:11] We need to lay aside our comfort and our vanity. All of us care too much about how we look and how comfortable we are. I try hard to look like I don't care.
[14:24] we need to die to our self-promotion, our ambition. That's what the word ambition means.
[14:36] It means self-promotion. And we need to begin promoting Christ. Ambition, good, but let's redefine the term. Let's make it about promoting Christ and his kingdom.
[14:47] we as Americans are far too comfortable. I wonder what would happen to this room if suddenly Christianity was declared illegal and it was an offense punishable by imprisonment and death.
[15:04] How many of us would still sit in this room? There are people all over the world this morning meeting in underground secret locations for hours.
[15:16] We get mad if the service goes past an hour and a half. You have comfy padded chairs they sit on dirt floors for hours because they're so hungry to know their Savior.
[15:31] We're shackled by our comfort. I want to be the type of Christian that everything could be taken away from me and I would still follow Christ. I'll give you an example of Paul.
[15:44] I want you to turn here. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 I believe most of you will be familiar with this passage but it certainly bears repeating.
[16:03] 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 24 through 27 Paul recounts his suffering. He says, five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.
[16:16] Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
[16:44] This was the life that Paul was called into. This was the guy that in Philippians 1.21 says, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
[16:57] This is the man who found his joy in the supremacy of Christ greater than the circumstances of the world. This is not us. This sounds like a horrible camping trip to me.
[17:16] Number two, we can learn from Paul, we need to be eager. We'll see that in verse 15. We need to be eager. How is it that you're eager to share the gospel?
[17:27] I believe that if you value Christ as supreme, if you treasure him above all else, you will be eager, you will be desirous to talk about what you love and to experience more of him in sharing your faith.
[17:42] He is active. He is at work. His spirit is moving throughout this world. The gospel is advancing. We've been invited to join him in that. We ought to want that.
[17:53] We ought to be eager to be involved, to experience him deeper and to know him more in his work. Turn to Philippians chapter 3.
[18:08] We're going to start in verse 7. Paul has just completed giving his religious pedigree. He's compadding the Judaizers, those who would have the Philippians be circumcised.
[18:21] He's saying, hey, listen, if it matters, if outward appearance, if outward stuff matters at all, if it's not about a change in heart regeneration, the statement that we read this morning, then I was the best.
[18:34] I had it all sorted out. He's just finished saying that. And then verse 7, he says, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
[18:46] Whatever gain I had, I counted it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
[19:00] Pause there. everything, I count it all as loss because of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.
[19:17] I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. This word in Greek is a foul word. It means excrement, human excrement. Not wadded up paper rubbish.
[19:29] vile. And what he does to us here, understand what he's saying, that if you don't have the same mind as him, if you value the things of this world more than Christ, if you do that, what you're doing is you're playing with your own excrement.
[19:47] What he's saying, you love it. You want to live in it. That's the indictment on us there. We love the things of this world more than Christ to plan with our excrement.
[20:01] You're welcome, parents. I'm trying to use big words for you. All right. Verse 9. In order that I may gain Christ, verse 9, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
[20:44] I press on to make my perfection, my perfection which will come through suffering, see what he's saying there, and I may share in his suffering, becoming like him in his death, I press on, I am eager to arrive at it, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
[21:05] Verse 13, brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind all those things, all those things he's counted as loss, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, and what's the prize?
[21:26] It's Christ himself, Christ himself, so we ought to be eager to share our faith with the world. I'll give you another Pauline example, Acts 9, 20, after his conversion in Damascus, verse 9, 20 says, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the sin of God, saying, he is the son of God.
[21:51] So this Jew of Jews, the man, the great Pharisee, who was going to Damascus to drag the Christians out, to take them back, to have them imprisoned and stoned like Stephen, went to the very same places he was headed to, to those synagogues, and proclaimed he is the son of God.
[22:18] Number three, we should be unashamed when we see this in verse 16. We need to be bold and courageous. Isaiah chapter 6, verse 8.
[22:32] Isaiah is just seeing this vision of heaven. And he records, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, and you got to notice the punctuation in this, here am I, send me.
[22:47] here am I, send me. He was bold. God said, there is a great message I have to carry to my people. Who will go for me?
[23:01] Isaiah was bold. Here am I, send me. We need to be courageous as well. Psalm 40, verse 9 and 10, David wrote, I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation.
[23:16] Behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
[23:31] So we have this great news and we tend to keep it all hidden, like it's a little secret for us. We need to be courageous in sharing it. I'm going to use a term I don't love.
[23:42] I need to get out of our comfort zone. I learned this this week. Did you know that if you have a goose and you put it on a concrete and you draw a white circle around it with chalk and it won't cross the circle?
[23:53] Did you know that? It's phenomenal. Maybe that's not the truth. But it's actually afraid of crossing over that line. So if you draw it in a circle, it won't cross over that line.
[24:05] I can't wait to go to the park and test this out. If some goose proves me wrong, it's still a good analogy. Supposedly, a goose will not cross this line, will not go outside of this because it's afraid of going outside of it.
[24:23] There is no doubt, there is no doubt that you will find ridicule in this world if you share your faith. None whatsoever. It will happen. You will be persecuted for your faith.
[24:35] And that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be beaten or shot or imprisoned here in America. It may mean that in other places. But you'll be made fun of.
[24:46] The gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. It doesn't make any sense to them at all. But we ought to continue to share our faith in the hope that we find the one that will place their faith in Christ.
[25:00] We have a hundred sheep and one wanders away. Let's go get him. The rest of the sheep probably think we're foolish for doing so. Go find that one.
[25:12] It will happen. Why should we care? We care too much about being cool and fitting in. Since we all live in the southeast, we don't want to be associated with all the dorky Christians.
[25:26] I'm in there. I'm summer camp kids with their sandals and their white socks and their testaments and all that stuff, all that Christendom stuff.
[25:39] I do not want to be associated with it. Right? I don't want to hand out tracts because I don't want to be a tract hander out. I don't want to be that person. The gospel is contained in there.
[25:51] It's a good message. We ought to want to share it. And when I'm in moments where I share my faith and I'm more concerned about how cool I am, then the soul sitting across the table from me or serving me or shameful, absolutely shameful.
[26:11] I've got another example of Paul in Acts chapter 14. I want you to read this one with me. Acts chapter 14. It's a story about Paul being stoned at Lystra, which he referred to earlier in 2 Corinthians.
[26:29] Acts 14 verse 19 to 22. But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.
[26:43] So they had stoned him enough that he seemed like he was dead. Verse 20. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered into the city.
[26:54] And on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe, I'm going to guess, when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
[27:13] Now, let's go back to the story again. So he's in a town called Lystra, and Jews come from two other towns. They come from Antioch and Iconium, and they come to Lystra, and they convince everybody there that they should stone him.
[27:27] And they drag him outside the city, which is what they did with dead people. When the disciples came, he rises up, and what does he do? In verse 20, he goes back into the city. To the people who had just stoned him and dragged him out of the city, dead, he goes back into the city.
[27:43] And on the next day, he goes to another city, he goes to Derbe. When they preached the gospel there, and made many disciples, what does he do? Verse 21, he returns, and goes to the two cities where the Jews had come from.
[27:55] He goes to Lystra and Iconium. He went back into the lion's den, back to the place where people hated him and were trying to kill him. He went right back there because he was courageous, because he had a message that must be taken to these people.
[28:14] And he strengthened the souls of the disciples, saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Don't worry about me, guys. This is the life of a Christian.
[28:26] It's cool that they stoned me. It's not a problem at all. I expected it to happen, because the world is hostile towards Christianity. Okay, that's all I can go up there now. I wanted to show you this.
[28:41] This was a carving in stone of a tablet that was discovered in Rome. There's some debate about when it dates to. Most agree the third century.
[28:54] Kind of an interesting piece. I got this pen for Christmas. I never ever thought I would use it, but I got it out of the box and put batteries in it because it's got a pointer in it. So I just want to show you what this actually is, what it's depicting.
[29:06] This is a cross with a human body with the head of a donkey on it, which was mocking Christ. And here you have a man raising his hand.
[29:18] We would assume in worship, and his name is Alexa Manos. The inscription here, Alexa Manos worships his God.
[29:30] It says, Alexa Manos worships his God. It's a hero of mine, Alexa Manos. He was ridiculed for his faith in the third century, depicted in his piece of art, a sign of the culture and the times.
[29:50] We're not in a different place now at all. Another one of my Christian heroes is a man named Polycarp. And I wish he had a better name because I would have named my next son Polycarp, but I'm not going to do that to him.
[30:05] I've read, most of you have probably heard me read this before, but I think it should be read again. Polycarp was a first century Jew, and he was taken, excuse me, Christian, and he was taken before the pro-council.
[30:24] He was going to be killed for his faith. And the pro-council then urged him, saying, swear, and I will release thee, reproach Christ. Polycarp answered, eighty and six years have I served him, and he never once wronged me.
[30:42] How then shall I blaspheme my king who hath saved me? The pro-council again urged him, swear by the fortune of Caesar. Polycarp replied, since you still vainly strive to make me swear by the fortune of Caesar as you express it, affecting ignorance of my real character, hear me frankly declaring what I am.
[31:03] I am a Christian, and if you desire to learn the Christian doctrine, assign me a day, and you shall hear. It's response. Love it. Hereupon the pro-council said, I have wild beasts, and I will expose you to them unless you repent.
[31:19] Call for them, replied Polycarp, for repentance with us is a wicked thing if it is to be a change from the better to the worse, but a good thing if it is to be a change from evil to good.
[31:30] I will tame thee with fire, said the pro-council, since you despise the wild beasts unless you repent. Then said Polycarp, you threaten me with fire which burns for an hour and is soon extinguished, but the fire of the future judgment and of eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly you are ignorant of.
[31:49] But why do you delay, do whatever you please? So there's a little more banter back and forth. They finally take him out into the stadium and put him on a burning pile of wood.
[32:04] When they would have fastened him to the stake, he said, leave me as I am, for he who giveth me strength to sustain the fire will enable me also without your securing me with nails to remain without flinching in the pile.
[32:18] So he said, don't tie me up. God strengthens me to withstand the fire. I can stand here. Upon which they bound him without nailing him. So he said, thus, O Father, I bless thee that thou hast counted me worthy to receive my portion among the number of martyrs.
[32:35] As soon as he had uttered the word Amen, the officers lighted the fire, the flame forming the appearance of an ark as the sail of a vessel filled with wind surrounded as with a wall the body of the martyr.
[32:47] Fire doesn't do that, right? It's like, made like a force field around him. Around the body of the martyr which was in the midst, not as burning flesh, but as gold and silver refining in the furnace.
[33:02] We received also in our nostrils such a fragrance as proceeds from frankincense or some other precious perfume. At length, the wicked people, observing that his body could not be consumed with fire, ordered the confectioner to approach and to plunge his sword into the body.
[33:18] So, they're all sitting around waiting for him to be consumed and he's not. He's glowing like gold being refined and there's a sweet smell coming out of it.
[33:29] So, the confector comes, plunges the sword into his side. Upon this, such a quantity of blood gushed out that the fire was extinguished. Polycarp, a great man who died for his faith.
[33:46] For the gospel to advance to this four billion people, it's got to go to dangerous places. It has to. There are people who are hostile toward the gospel.
[33:57] They will not just make fun of us, but will kill us for the gospel. Some of you may have a call to go to countries like that. And I think we need to be willing, whatever our walk of life is, to do so.
[34:13] My son's name is Cademan Danger Rainer. He has the middle name Danger because I want him to be willing to be dangerous for the gospel.
[34:25] And I want to be a dad who's willing to let him go and be dangerous for the gospel. We need young people who are willing to rise up and to do this, to carry this message out to the world.
[34:43] We're going to be obligated and eager and unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because it is the power of God for salvation to those who will believe in it.
[34:57] It's the power to live righteous lives to the end. I pray that God will be honored with the lives, both individually and corporately, of Christ's family church.
[35:10] church. I want to challenge you. I grew up with cheesy youth group challenges, but I think it's in order here.
[35:22] As many of you are going to go off for the summer, we'll have no idea where you'll be and what you'll be doing. I want to challenge you to pray and look for opportunities to share your faith.
[35:33] They are out there. If you make yourself available to God, He will use you to spread the gospel. I promise. It's going to happen. Wake up in the morning, die to yourself, treasure Christ, and ask Him to move you to share your faith throughout your day.
[35:52] So here's what I want to do over the next couple of weeks. We're going to begin talking the next two weeks about the wrath of God being poured out on the unrighteous. It ought to be a reminder to us to be sharing our faith.
[36:05] We have a message that will save people from that. We ought to want to do so. So here's what I want you to do. Alex, if you can put that up there for me. I want to encourage you as I'm sharing my faith, and I want you to encourage me as you're sharing your faith as we carry the gospel message.
[36:21] And here's how I want to do that. So Twitter slide. We're going to use some technology. We're going to redeem technology today. Back there's a slide called Twitter.
[36:34] There we go. If you don't know how to use Twitter, it's really simple to do. Go to twitter.com, trade an account. As simple as that. But here's what you've got to do next. I want you to follow Christ Family Church.
[36:47] It's Christ Fam Church. That's how you search for it. You click follow. And here's how you tweet. Very simple.
[36:58] I guess it's called a tweet. That's official language. You tweet at Christ Fam Church and then you share your story. You're limited to 140 characters, which will be very interesting, since at Christ Fam Church is going to take up quite a few of them.
[37:12] But what I want you to do is just quickly say, met a guy at the gas station, shared my faith. Simply, just like that. At Christ Fam Church.
[37:23] And what that does is it'll send that message to Christ Family Church, and then Chris, who manages that account, will retweet it. Yes, that is official. So that we can all see it. So if you're following Christ Family Church, that's going to pop up in your feed, and you'll be encouraged, I hope, to do so.
[37:40] We need to be doing it, and we need to be encouraging each other, we need to be spurring each other on to good works. We need to be about doing that, and I believe this is a way that we can accomplish that.
[37:52] So we'll remind you next week, I hope you don't forget this week, but set yourself about this work this afternoon, set yourself about this work of sharing the gospel with the world. Now to wrap this all up, remember Paul's obligation to gospel ministry.
[38:10] We talked about it last week, we talked about it this week, part one and part two, Paul's obligation to gospel ministry. It should be present all the time in our lives.
[38:22] It ought to be what we are about. We come together and we minister to each other with the gospel so that we can go out and minister to the world with the gospel. So let's get busy about that.
[38:36] I'm going to take the Lord's Supper. I think that some repentance is in order, that Christ didn't break his body and shed his blood for us to just be happy Christians in our little happy Christian world, did he?
[38:51] And if that's where you find yourself this morning, I just pray that you'll repent, that you will place your faith in him again, that you will see that his righteousness is your righteousness, and that you'll forget what lies behind, and you'll strain toward what lies ahead.
[39:09] Take the elements whenever you're ready to do so. But I just ask that this be a serious time as Wes plays some music for us, and that you'll really reflect and see if you need to get anything sorted out.
[39:23] So let's pray together and we'll continue our worship with the Lord's Supper. Let's Thank you.