How Faith Works | Romans: Part 3 | Pastor Alex Himaya

could take back. The questions we don't know how to ask. The feeling that we should be doing better by now. So we try harder. We hold on tighter. But through Jesus God invites us to come with us. His grace is a gift. And today we come with openings. So today we pray. Father help us trust you with what we're carrying. As we open your word give us the courage to be honest and the faith to respond. Let your grace shape our hearts, our relationships, and the way we live when we leave this room. We're here. We're listening. Speak Lord. Hey man that is exactly how we're praying today that the Lord would speak to us from His word by the Holy Spirit. I want us to put our hands together here at Broken Air and welcome all of our other campuses this morning. Would you do that? Say we're so glad you are joining us. Especially those that Alan Gamble this morning. Put your hands together and tell all those men we rejoice in what the Lord is doing in your lives. I got a note this morning actually just talking to me about week one of Romans and repenting and confessing sin. And what a powerful moment it was. I hear the 90 men to stand and turn and bow before the Lord confessing and repenting and walking away from their sins. We're with you. There were thousands here doing the very same thing with the 90 of you. So we rejoice and what God is doing across all of our campuses today. Today is week three which means Romans three. So if you got your Bible open it to Romans chapter three. And while you go there let me just remind you in week one Paul started this letter, headline this letter with some really good news. But very quickly he moved to bad news, right? Really really bad news. And to summarize chapter one his thesis is that being godless sinful only leads to and invites the wrath of God. And all the Jewish people in the church in Rome were like amen Paul get them right. We rejoice with you that makes perfect sense. And obviously because we're in this rich heritage relationship with God as Jewish people we're not included in the wrath of God. And that was leading into chapter two to which in chapter two is like no it actually does include you and all of us everyone is guilty. And he goes on to say that you're rich heritage with God though beneficial does not guarantee your salvation. And so he starts chapter three by asking and then answering this

question let's look at it together in verse one he says well then what's the advantage right what's the advantage of what well what's the advantage after all of what you just said of even being Jewish. Now remember Paul is a Jew and so he certainly is familiar with the advantages of being Jewish and he explains the advantages in verse two much in every way right there's an advantage in every way is what he says first of all the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God and what if some were unfaithful does their faith faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God. Now to summarize what Paul says he says you Jews were given the very word of God God trusted you with the Bible he trusted you with the Scriptures in addition to that you have had a front row seat to the faithfulness of God and that can be summarized in this way that the Jews were chosen by God and if you read the Old Testament and I hope you are reading the Old Testament and the New Testament and if you don't have a plan we have an app the Battle Creek Church app and the daily section I love clicking on it and praying with you over your prayer request and then submitting my prayer request and then getting notifications all day so one so is praying with you so one so is praying with you and I love reading the Scripture but when you read the Old Testament it feels at times like it's a broken record right the Jewish people's unfaithfulness met by the very faithfulness of God and it just happens with all of them right from Abraham he he was unfaithful yet God was faithful David was unfaithful yet God was faithful and on and on it goes all the people all the illustrations the exact same and the point is this the Jewish nation of Israel is still chosen by God he has not removed his blessing from them however he has not limited his blessing to them and instead God has chosen now in these days to pour out his spirit on all of us who believe in him and are following after Jesus Christ whether Jew or Gentile man or woman red y'all of chapter two last week was that Paul told us God does not play favorites. But the crowd in Rome needed to be reminded of this. Remember at that point that the church was mostly Gentile because a few years earlier, the emperor of Rome, his name was Claudius, had signed and

he'd and kicked all of the Jewish Christians out of Rome, or most of them, right? And so what Paul is going to do here via this letter to the church in Rome is explain the Jewish faith as it relates to how we or anyone is saved today. And it's kind of funny, actually, that he just spent seven verses listing all of these great advantages to being Jewish. But in verse nine, he kind of says the opposite. In fact, let me just show you what he says in verse nine. Let me remind you of this, by the way, much in every way, advantages in every way in verse two. In verse nine, what shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all. Right? I mean, you're reading, Paul, he goes on to say, "For we've already made the charge, the Jews and Gentiles." By the way, Jews and Gentiles means the whole world, because you're either Jewish or Gentiles. So it's everybody, right? Everybody. All alike are under the power of sin. As it is written, there is no one. Say no one. Righteous, not even one. And you read this, if you've been reading, maybe you read ahead this week and you're like, "Huh?" He spends seven verses listing all the advantages. And then in verse nine, he says, "Nope, not a single advantage." And by the way, there are a lot of huns, if you're honest, while you're reading Paul's letters, because sometimes Paul is hard to understand. Anybody testified to that? Sometimes Paul is hard to understand. Even his pal Peter said the same thing in first Peter chapter three. He said, "Sometimes I don't know what Paul is trying to say. I love that. That one apostle is saying of another apostle. I don't understand what he's saying." Right? It makes me feel good and less incompetent that they are having trouble understanding one another. I love it when a professional golfer shanks a shock. I love it because it makes me feel human again. And so let me give you the summary of Paul's argument here. He's saying there is a historical advantage to being Jewish, but there is no future advantage to being Jewish. I'll illustrate it this way for you. It's like being born and raised in a Christian home. It's incredibly advantageous to your life today that you were raised in a Christian home. Right? You have the scripture. You know the stories. You memorize it. You had a front row seat to the faithfulness of God, even in the unfaithfulness of your family at times. But if you never made your faith personal, there's no future advantage to being raised in a Christian home. We jumped over a very important verse and I hope you caught it. We're going to go back and read verse eight. And by the way, this whole chapter, really much of the book, what Paul is doing is asking

a question and then answering the question. Now remember, the medium is a letter. They're writing letters, right? And so he's either heard the question and he writes it out and then answers it or he perceives that they're going to ask this question. So he writes it out and answers it. And by the way, over the years I have spoken about and written about grace a lot, actually. And because I've done that, occasionally I get some pushback. And I know you can imagine somebody pushing back with me, but it happens from time to time, right? And sometimes Christians will say, hey, Pastor, you talk about grace too much. And by the way, the reason I talk about grace, the way that I talk about grace is because I have been transformed by grace. And by that, I don't mean that I just, I don't just mean that one day I receive Christ by grace, and so I'm so grateful for grace. You know what I mean is one day I receive Christ by grace and then continue to walk in religion and continue to try to earn and keep and deserve my salvation. And at some point, eventually I hit a brick wall and realized I can't do this on my own. It's grace all the time. It's grace in the beginning, grace in the middle, and grace in the end that I was saved by grace. It's grace that's going to keep me saved, right? I cannot do it on my own. And here's the truth. I will never be able to do it on my own. So I decided instead to embrace grace, and because of that, I get some pushback. And the pushback looks like this, sometimes from believers that are like, hey, Pastor, you talk about grace too much. And even pastors who write me and say, hey, we watch you every week, we love your teaching, you're pastoring me, you're teaching me, but I'm concerned about your focus on grace. And they go on to explain what I'm afraid of is that-- and get the impression that they can send all they want to send. And that's not new, by the way. Paul said the very same thing. And by the way, just like watching, you know, chef or shank a shot helps me. I love it when I get the very same attack Paul got. And so keep bringing it if you want to. Look at what he goes on to say,

why not say, and I love this, as some slanderously claimed that we say, take that, blogger, right? Let us do evil that good may result. And the condemnation is just. Now what the haters are saying is Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul. Look, Paul, whenever you talk about sin, you're failing to condemn people. Now, to answer for Paul, what he's saying is, because to condemn people for being sinful is like condemning the water for being wet. You don't tell them, Paul, that they need to work on their sin. It appears you're letting them off the hook by telling them of the amazing grace of God. Now, let's keep reading, and verse nine, and look at what Paul has to say. What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? We read this, no, not at all. For we have already made the charge. Jews and Gentiles alike are all. Say, oh, under the power of sin, as it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. In other words, under the power of sin, they are not wise. Under the power of sin, we are not wise. Under the power of sin, none of us seek after God, right?

We all actually turn away from him when we try to do it on our own. We all hit a dead end, because none of us are good enough on our own. Now question, what does this word righteous even mean? It means to be right with God. It means to be right with God. In fact, what he's saying here by saying no one is righteous is everyone is actually unrighteous. Meaning the stuff we do makes us dirty. And then what Paul goes on to do feels like a word salad to me. Like he's just mixing up a bunch of words, right? And he goes and pulls from a bunch of Old Testament passages. He pulls from Ecclesiastes, he pulls from Psalms, and he pulls all these scriptures to paint the picture of how dirty we all actually are. Look at it. Their talk is found like the stench of an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies. Snake venom drips from their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now notice the words he's using to explain our wickedness, right? He says their tongues are filled with lies. Venom drips from their lips. Their mouths are full. Their feet are swift.

There is no fear of God in their eyes. Do you see what he's doing? He's using scripture. He's quoting all these scriptures to prove a point. He's laying these verses one on top of the other, and the thing they have in common, all these verses, is they're all about the body. That when we try to be righteous by what we do in the body, our bodies will actually fail us. He goes on to say, even if we have the law, even if we have the long list of all the do's and all the do nots, they won't help us because our body or our flesh is actually weak. Now look at what he goes on to say, verse 20, "No one can ever be made right with God." That's pretty clear, isn't it? "By doing what the law commands, "the law simply shows us how sinful we are." In other words, none of us can clean ourselves up, but we sure try, don't we? We all try, right? We have this sense in our hearts that there's something dirty in our hearts. It's kind of like a stain when you have a bunch of toddlers running around your house like Ed's house, probably, right? (congregation laughing) There's a stain, somebody spills apple juice, an apple juice is like bad for carpet. And you don't even know it's there,

you scrub it and it attracts and sticks to all the dirt and you get the cleaners, you're researching the cleaners, you get all the cleaners and you put the cleaners on the carpet and you scrub and you scrub and you scrub and you scrub and you scrub and it looks clean. I'm describing what Meredith did, not me, actually, right? But a week or two later, it looks dirtier, right? And so you get the cleaner out, this is me, and you read the bottle. And it says, "Do not apply directly to the stain." Which makes no sense, what do you put it around the stain? Just near the stain, it makes no sense at all. But you scrub and you scrub and that's exactly what happens when we try to do this thing on our own to clean ourselves up by following the law, right? Scrub and scrub and scrub and we end up even dirtier. Why? Because the law was never intended. is. And by the way, it's like a mirror. You can look in a mirror and see the smudge on your face, but you never take the mirror and try to remove the smudge from your face. It's not the intent of the mirror. The mirror was only meant to show you the smudge on your face, not to clean your face. And by the way, it's universal. It's stuck to all of us. Now, how did that happen? Take a look at this word right here, no one. It's interesting that the translators translated that word that way. Because that Greek word there is the Greek word "sarks," which is almost always translated

as "flesh." The flesh, no flesh can ever be made right with God. Now what the translators are saying is that Paul used this word for flesh to mean no person can ever be made right with God. But you have to read the Scripture in context. He just listed all the parts of the body, all the parts of the flesh. So what he's doing is highlighting the weakness of our flesh, of our sinful flesh. Now, we're going to explain this in a few weeks when we get to Romans 8, because in Romans 8 and verse 3, it says God has done what the law could not do. Why? Because the law was weakened by the flesh. In other words, our flesh cannot serve God. It cannot do what is right. It's like when your kids are little and you're driving down a country road and you let them sit in your lap and hold on to the steering wheel. But it's you that's holding the wheel underneath, it's you that's pushing the gas pedal, it's you that has a driver's license, it's you that only you that knows anything about driving whatsoever. But your kid can sit in your lap and think, "Look, Daddy, I'm driving." In the same way, we try to convince our Heavenly Father we can do it on our own, and it has to feel silly to him. And the whole idea of doing something for our salvation is also universal. Because when you read the New Testament and somebody is seeking after, sought after salvation, they all say the same thing. What must I do to be safe? Rich Young Ruler, we talked about that one last week. Rich Young Ruler looks at Jesus and asks Jesus, "What must I do to inherit salvation?" The Jewish people in Jerusalem asked the apostles and asked chapter 2, "What must I do?" The Philippian jailer asked Paul in Acts 16, "What must I do to be safe? What must I do to get right with God?

What must I do to stay right with God?" That's the million dollar big question. And let's look at how Paul addresses it in verse 21. But now, I love that by the way. All of this bad news, but now, God has shown us a way, a way for what? A way to be made right with him. By the way, I want to encourage you in your Bible, highlight, circle these four verses, 21 through 24. These are perhaps the most important four verses in the whole Bible. In fact, these are the four verses that convicted Martin Luther and that caused him to abandon the overly religious church and start what's known as the Protestant Reformation. But now, God has shown us a way to be made right with him, watch this, without keeping the requirements of the law, without striving in the flesh, as was promised, they promised, as was promised in the writings of both Moses and the prophets a long, long, long, long, long time ago. In other words, it's not a different story. It's the same story with two parts. It's the same way to be saved with two parts. They were saved in the very same way that we are saved, right? Well, what's different today? The degree of revelation. They were believing in a coming Messiah. We know that the Messiah came and we look back and say we believe that the Messiah came, but the Messiah is how people were always saved. Moses and the prophets. In Deuteronomy 30, Moses said, "A time is coming when the Word will not be written on stone tablets." It will be written on our hearts, that it won't be somewhere way up there in heaven where nobody can get to them. They will be right down here.

In fact, they will be right here in our hearts and the prophets. He says the prophets too. Moses and the prophets, prophet Jeremiah, chapter 31, this morning in that. Did you read it this morning in that? Jeremiah 31, he says, "The Holy Spirit will write His law on our hearts." Ezekiel, prophet Ezekiel, verse 36, promises that our hearts will be transformed, that He will do heart surgery and He will exchange our stony hard hearts for soft pliable teachable hearts. New ones. words, God does the work that works. Say amen to that. Now look at verse 22, this righteousness, there's that word again, this right with Godness, is given, say given, through faith in Jesus Christ. And you might read this and you might read your translation of this verse and think, so we do have a role. Our role, we are placing our faith on Jesus Christ. Now I'm gonna come back to that in a minute because that is incredibly important. But first, let's keep walking through Paul's argument here because what he has to say about how we are made right with God is incredibly important. Look at this verse, this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, again, the whole world, for all have sinned and fallen short of what? The glory of God. Not the acts of God, not the goodness of God, the glory of God, meaning what?

The nature of God. Listen to me, church, that's our problem. We do not have the very nature of God. And because we do not have the very nature of God and the standard is the very nature of God, we cannot do it on our own. We have a sin nature and we need God's nature. Why? Because we have all sinned and fallen short of his glory. In other words, in our own flesh, in our own strength, we all fail for every person since Adam and Eve who has ever lived on this ball of dirt, we call earth 100 billion people, roughly. We are now 120 billion and zero when it comes to being righteous on our own. It does not happen, that's the reality we have all been born into. We are all born sinners. We sin because we have a sinned nature. We are not sinners because we have sinned. We sin because we have a sinned nature. We are born with it. We are born with that flesh that won't serve God, that can't serve God because of sin. Now when I used to do youth camps all the time, sometimes I would end up in big arenas and colleges, like at Louisiana Tech, with like 5,000 teenagers. And it didn't feel like a camp, it felt like a conference. And I'm standing in the round preaching and teaching to 5,000 teenagers.

And I would do this all the time. I would say all kids who know Romans 323, you memorize that scripture, stand up. This was back when kids like interacted with the Bible and they would stand up. Hundreds of them would stand up. The new Romans 323. I'd call on this middle school girl and she would say for all of sin and fall in short of the glory of God. And I would sometimes embarrass her and say and. And then I would offer a hundred bucks for any of those who are standing that know 323 to remain standing if they know 324. I never gave the hundred dollars away. Why? Because preachers love to preach Romans 323 for all of sin and falling short of the glory of God. Exclamation point. A bunch of aliens. (congregation laughing) It's not an exclamation point there. It's a comma. And for those of you who are homeschooled, comma means what? Pause and keep going. I'm just kidding. Some of you are bright and homeschooling, right? But some of you are not. And you did not know. You didn't even answer when I said what is a comma for.

A comma means take a breath. This is a comma. Say comma. It's not the end of the sentence. For all of sin and falling short of the glory of God. Amen, dismiss. See you later. Live with the bad news. That's not even the end of that one sentence. He goes on to say yet. Say yet. Yeah. Yet God in his grace. Are you grateful for his grace? Amen. Freely. Makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins. He did this in his grace by his power and his ability. In other words, not by what we could do, but by what he has already done. And meaning we didn't do anything to earn it. It's what? It's free. Paul says in Ephesians chapter two and verse nine, it's by nothing we've done. Otherwise we could brag about it. By the way, he says that at the end of Romans chapter three, two, there is no bragging involved.

It's all grace. It's just grace. And the word, we talked about the word grace a few weeks ago in the last series. It's the word carers, remember? And that word is actually translated mostly gift. It's a gift, grace is a gift. Now watch this, he did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from, watch this, the penalty for our sins. And we just read it, we've all sinned. So the penalty we all deserve is death in a real place called hell. Romans 6, 23 says, "For the wages of sin is death." Meaning what we earn, right? What we earn is flesh. It is a death sentence on our own. All we're able to earn is what? Death. And hear me, the penalty must be paid. In order for God to be just and righteous, He did not have the option of ignoring it. It had to be addressed. And there was only one way it could be addressed through Christ Jesus. Only way, God did this through His Son. How did He do it? Look at the next verse. "For God presented Jesus as these sacrifice for sin." Circle this phrase in your Bible.

This phrase in the English is one word in the Greek. That whole phrase is just one word in the Greek. The sacrifice for sin. Maybe you've heard this Greek word before. It's the word propitiation. It's a weird word. We don't use that word every day, do we? In fact, I can't ever remember ever using the word propitiation in a conversation apart from a theological conversation. It sounds like something a doctor diagnosed you with. You have a propitiation. (congregation laughing) You know, what does a propitiation mean? Here's what it means. The act of gaining or regaining the goodwill of someone by a sacrifice. Now this was used in the ancient world in ancient times concerning the approval of a little gee God. In other words, when they would upset that little gee God, they would need a propitiation in order to avoid the wrath of that little gee God. And we've already read that God's wrath is being poured out. It's being poured out on sin. And since we are all sinners, what we all need is a propitiation or a sacrifice to stop what? The wrath of God. In order to start a relationship with Him,

to be made right with Him. That's what Paul says. Look at what he says. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life by shedding his blood. Now let's talk about sacrifice for a minute. Because what he's talking about is Jesus shedding his blood. Now, why did they need a sacrifice? And what was that whole sacrificial system in the Old Testament all about? Not just in the Old Testament, by the way, even in the day of Paul. Paul's writing this 20-something years after Jesus died and rose again. And even when he is writing this, still in the temple in Jerusalem, there was an annual sacrifice on Yom Kippur or the day of atonement. We've talked about this dozens of times, right? The blood of a bull would be poured over the top of the art and it would cover the people for how long? One year, good. Whoever said that, thank you for paying attention. That was the only way to cover up the sins. To push back the penalty for the sin. That is until Jesus came along. Now here's a question I want you to ponder. Whose sins were covered by that sacrifice at the temple? And the answer is the nation of Israel.

Who was a part of the nation of Israel, the high priest? The very same one who performed that sacrifice. In other words, the one performing the sacrifice was himself sinful. And fell short of the nature or the glory of God. That's why it was only ever good for one year at a time. Why? Because the high priest was unable to substitute himself for the sins of the people. But then Jesus comes along who was, sinless had the nature of God was born of a virgin so that he did not inherit the sin nature. Every once in a while somebody would say pastor, why do you harp on the virgin birth to that degree? It's not important, it's incredibly important that he didn't come through and inherit the nature of man. He did not have that nature, he had the nature of God. It could not be more important. And so the sinless one comes with the very nature of God and he then could substitute himself. And he took that penalty and substituted his own blood as a sacrifice or a propitiation for our sins as a way to atone cover wipe out. He was the substitutionary atonement for our sins. No one else could take our place. No one else could pay for our penalty. That's why He's the only one worthy of putting our hope, faith, and trust into, amen? And listen, we didn't earn this. It was given to us, it was a grace,

it was a mercy that was shown to us, and it's very interesting because that word for propitiation in the Greek, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, that word propitiation appears 27 times. And out of those 27 times, 20 of those times, it is referring to the mercy seat of God. That sat over the ark. The ark of the covenant was in the holy of holies where the high priest would go and pour the blood on it. And it's called the mercy seat, why? Because even in the Old Testament, we did not earn it. It makes us righteous, not because we earned it, but because His mercy is so great. And many people, even in church, define righteousness by behavior, by what we do. In other words, to be righteous means you have to do the right things. That is not a biblical definition of righteousness. Righteousness, and by the way, we'll get there in chapter five. And chapter five in verse one, it says, and to be righteous means to be in a right relationship with God, in other words, righteousness is a state of being. It's not an action. It's not a behavior that you get good at. It is a covering that is provided for you. Now, watch what Paul goes on to say. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight

when they believe in Jesus. Now, do you see what God is doing here? He's emphasizing this over and over and over again. God, His righteousness, for He Himself, He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus, who is God? Is it incredibly clear and obvious to you? This is all about Him, and only Him. And what He is doing in this process. And the big question is not what Tina Turner saying about is what's love got to do with it. The question is, what's faith got to do with it? And let me tell you why. I told you I was going to come back to it. There is a misnomer in Christianity today that says you are saved by faith. The very people who say you cannot be saved by works will say you are saved by faith. You are not saved by faith. You are saved by grace. It is through faith, but it is by grace. It is 100% a gift. All faith did for you is help you open your hands. But you did nothing to get your salvation. Let me show you, I mentioned Ephesians 2, verse nine. Here's eight. We are saved, say it. By grace through faith. Now I want you to look at this phrase, by grace through faith.

There is a big, big difference between by and through. And I want to show you this in the scripture because this word grace, as it relates to salvation, always appears in the New Testament and what is known in the Greek as an instrumental dative or a dative of means. Now before you fall asleep. And you didn't pay attention in grammar and you should have paid attention in grammar. And all the English teachers said, amen. We use case in the English language. And sometimes we will change pronouns to he, his, him so that you know the case of the word. In the Greek, it actually is much, much easier 'cause they change the end of the word to tell you. So when you read the word, you know the case has changed. In this particular case, the word is caris which is the dictionary word for grace. Paul does not use the word caris right here. He uses the word carity. Same word, but different ending. By the way, it's where we get our word charity, right? It is a gift, it is a grace. It is in the dative means meaning what? Here's what that means. Grace is the source. It is the means by which salvation happens. Faith is, faith by the way is always attached to the preposition dia, dia, which is almost always translated through, meaning what?

A channel or a pathway. So, faith is the path, but grace is the source. Now what does that mean and how does that even work? Let me attempt to illustrate this big, big thought for you today. In your house, you have electricity. Unless you're watching from Arkansas, somewhere in Arkansas was a generator today. But an electrician came out, right? By the way, T.U. in Arkansas, only two teens at one yesterday, by the way. Let's all cheer for T.U. and Arkansas, right? Some electrician came out to your house and ran wires all through the studs of your house. But those wires are not what's powering your house. The electricity is what's powering your house. The wires are just how the electricity gets into your house. But the point is exactly the same. Your faith is not the source of your salvation. It's God's grace. You are not saved because of your faith. Faith is just a pathway or the route that grace takes into your life. Grace is the power. Grace is the electricity. Faith is just the wires. Let me show you what I mean. This battery, the power source, represents grace in your life. And this wire simply represents faith. Faith.

You follow? Grace is the power. Faith is the wire. When it is attached to your life, the light comes on. And when the light comes on, don't misunderstand this because I don't ever think because I have faith, I am saved. You did nothing but open up your hands to receive the gift of God's salvation. You are saved by grace and it came to you through faith. But without grace, your faith is hopeless. In fact, I go as far as to say, faith is an act of grace that He gave you. And grace is God reaching down to save us. Faith is simply our empty hands receiving what He freely gives. And the hand doesn't earn the gift. The hand doesn't pay for the gift. The hand doesn't contribute to the gift. It simply receives the gift. Do you understand? We didn't do any of the heavy lifting of salvation. God did all of it. Jesus did it when He died on the cross. We just accept His gift of salvation. That's our role to hold our hands out and say, I can't save myself, help me. That's it, right? And look at what Paul says at the end of the chapter in verse 28, so say so. I love it when he does that.

So in conclusion, we who are all sinners are made right with God. There's that righteousness word again. Read it. Through faith and not by obeying the law, but by grace. Amen? Not by what we do. Not by how good we can be. We are saved through faith, but by grace. And maybe you're here today and you've never received His grace. I'd love to help you in this moment. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes at all of our campuses today? And if you're here today and you have come to this place, not for a lesson on salvation, but actually for salvation, to receive the very grace of God and your life. I want to lead you in a prayer helping you do just that. The Bible says if you believe in your heart, confess with your mouth, you shall be saved. I want to help you do that. So I'm going to lead you in a prayer, one phrase at a time, so that you can repeat it after me. And really what this prayer is just helping you do is open your hands. In fact, there's a passage in Scripture where somebody says to Jesus, hey, I believe, but help my unbelief. In other words, faith even itself is a gift. Give me faith in you.

You receive it. You don't work it up. So today, if you want to receive it, I want to lead you in a prayer. You're going to hear people praying all around you. But if that's you today, would you pray with me and say, dear God, I know I'm a sinner. But today I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin. Jesus, come into my life to be my Lord, my Savior, my forgiver, I receive your grace. Give me faith. And before we say amen, if you just prayed that prayer and you meant it with all of your heart, can I say to you, congratulations. Before you leave today, would you take that card in the seat pocket in front of you and just fill it out and mark that box that says I received salvation today? Just check that box. and our staff team will respond and help you in your new journey with Jesus Christ. But I wanna lead you in one more prayer before we dismiss, because next week is Gospel Sunday. And I wanna ask you, would you pray right now for God to lay on your heart a name or names that you're to invest in, to invite next Sunday, to bring with you next Sunday, to have their children spend the night in your home so they can ride in your car, to church with you next Sunday.

And the temptation is for you to think, this is for other people, and somebody else is gonna do this. No, no, it's for you. It's for all of us, would you pray and ask God to lay a name or names on your heart? And when He does, would you pray for those people? That wherever they are today, that God would work on that end of the equation, and would prepare them for your invitation. You're offered to bring them for the conversation, just pray for them for a moment. And now would you pray for yourself on the other end of the equation, that God would give you the courage to speak a word, to send a message, to make a call, to drop by, to reach out, give you the courage, the words to say, and pray that God would work on each end of that equation and use you to bring men, women, boys, and girls to this place next week, where they can hear this news, this good, good news. And would you pray on that day, where the gospel is shared across six campuses, that men and women and boys and girls would receive the free gift of salvation. Use this church to expand your name and your renown, Jesus, to kick back darkness and toss America and around the world. In Jesus' name we pray, and together we all say,

amen and amen, would you put your hands together And thanks, the Lord, for meeting with us today.