Romans Chapter 10:15-18

Generally, when you share something, you know, if I got a big monster cookie, and I share part of it with you, what does that mean?

I got less cookies on it. But you know, something interesting happens when you share your faith. When you share your faith, you don't have less faith, you have more. And as you share your faith more and more, your faith grows stronger and stronger.

But if you have a faith where you never share it, it gets weaker, and it gets weaker. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. Sharing your faith is an important part about walking with Christ.

And today David McGee wants to give you some practical tips on doing just that. Stay tuned as David continues in Romans chapter 10 with his teaching, God Wants to Use You. Here's David. Romans chapter 10 verse 15, let's read it. And it says, And how shall they preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preached the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. Paul's writing to the church at Rome. And you know, I've mentioned before, he hasn't been to Rome yet.

He's writing to the church there. This book of Romans was written before the end of Acts, the Acts of the Apostle of the previous book. And so he's writing and he's talking about Israel in Romans chapter nine, we see him dealing with, talking about Israel's past. Romans chapter 10, he's dealing with Israel's present. Romans chapter 11, he's talking about Israel's future.

Now, when we look at that, we go, okay, well, he's talking about Israel, what does that have to do with us? And it's sad sometimes when I hear people say, well, I don't need to understand the Hebrew scriptures. I don't need to understand the Old Testament.

You know, I really don't need to understand what the covenant relationship was that God had with Israel. The reason these things are important is because they define the character and the personality of God. And biblically, Israel is important. Biblically, Jerusalem is important.

And because they're biblically important, if we're following Jesus, if we're students of the Bible, these things should be important to us as well. Because, you know, sometimes I talk to people and they say, well, you know, God, he used to have this covenant with Israel, but Israel kind of acted up. And so now God, you know, he broke his covenant with him. Is that how you see God? Is that what your relationship with the Lord is like? That, okay, you're walking with the Lord and as long as you do everything right, God has a relationship with you. But the moment you step out of line, God's done with you and is going to break covenant with you?

No, no. See, and as we more deeply understand Israel and we understand these passages of scripture, we understand God and his personality and the covenants we have with him. And, and, and it's part, he's talking about this passion for telling people heart for the world. Now it says how beautiful are the feet of those. Now you need to understand when the Bible talks about feet and in the Middle East, feet are considered unclean.

Everybody walked around barefooted. You know, you get, your feet would just get nasty. Not that feet are that attractive to begin with. I mean, you know, you ever, you ever, especially in the summer, people wear flip flops and stuff and you're hanging out with somebody, you know, and they seem like a nice person or whatever.

And then you look down and look at their feet and it's like, Oh, what happened? You know? And yet even this unclean thing, it says is beautiful. Why, why be involved in evangelism? Why be involved in missions? Because Jesus told us to.

Jesus in Matthew 28, we'll come across this verse later, said, go make disciples of what out of Kernersville? No, out of all nations, all nations, not just here in our backyard. I read that list two weeks ago of all these nations that are going to our websites, listening to the teachings.

And it's an amazing thing. And why do we do that? Because we, we have a heart for the world. We're supposed to have a heart for the world. We're supposed to care, not just what happens in our backyard. We're supposed to care about the people that are around the world.

Why? Because Jesus died for them. Have a hard time when a Christian's like, well, as long as I got me and I'm mine and that's okay.

What? Once you have the joy of discovering Jesus, it's a natural thing to want to tell others. It's an unnatural thing not to tell others. Now that can take many, many shapes and forms. I'm not talking about, well, you need to be prepared to make a theological treatise to everybody that you come in contact with.

No, no. Some people don't have the kind of time for you to sit down and explain the full gospel story to them. Some of them do. But you know, these, we have these, you are invited cards. These are a great way to share the gospel. Here's why. Because you may just have a moment at whatever the, the grocery store, the drug store or the restaurant or whatever to say, Hey, you know what?

There's a website on here. Would you check that out? Or maybe say, you know what? I'd like to invite you to church because most of you are here. Not because I invited you necessarily, but because somebody else invited you. 85% of unbelievers and unchurch would attend a church or a Christian event if somebody they knew invited them.

85%. So some of your family and friends are waiting for you to hand them one of these cards. And when I talk about sharing your faith, understand I do something occasionally, you know, here in the South, you know, it's kind of the thing you go, how you doing? Even to a stranger, how you doing? Fine.

You know, if you're not from around here, just understand that's what we do. You know, how you doing? Fine. How you doing? Good. Thanks for asking. How's your mama kind of thing, you know?

But you know, people do that. And here's what I, you know, I asked him, how you doing? I say, fine.

And generally they asked back, how you doing? And I said, man, I'm a sinner saved by grace and it doesn't get any better than this. I've just shared the gospel. I've just shared that I was a sinner, that I was not saved by works, that I was saved by his grace. Now, and they understand I'm talking about Jesus and if a conversation opens up, I take in that direction, but there's so many ways that we can share our faith.

And let me say this, when share that word, share your faith. I really like that phrase. Well, I like it and don't like it.

I'll tell you why I like it. Because when we're little, we're taught to share. And do y'all remember what the opposite of sharing is? It's being selfish in it. We're taught from a young age that we shouldn't be selfish that we should share. So I like it on that. I don't like it because generally when you share something, you know, if I got a big monster cookie and I share part of it with you, what does that mean?

I got less cookies on it. But you know, something interesting happens when you share your faith. When you share your faith, you don't have less faith.

You have more. And as you share your faith more and more, your faith grows stronger and stronger. But if you have a faith where you never share it, it gets weaker and it gets weaker.

Again, I'm not talking about necessarily setting up a little picket sign down here or, you know, getting the bullhorn at the stoplight. I'm sure some of those people intend well and mean well. But let me point out something in this verse.

Notice how it, who bring glad tidings of good things. Now you need to understand, I'm a Bible teacher, I'm a pastor. When we come across scriptures that say, you know, this is wrong, I'm going to tell you this is wrong. When we come across passages that, you know, that say you shouldn't do this, we'll talk about shouldn't do this. But when we're talking about the gospel, look how it's described here.

Glad tidings of good things. If when you're sharing the gospel, it's not glad tidings of good things, it's not the gospel you're sharing. Now I've got no problem saying that sin has separated us from God.

But you need to understand, a lot of times we tend to focus on that. And Jesus himself, when he came across somebody that knew they had messed up, knew they were stood in shame and guilt, he didn't spend a lot of time walking those people through the law. They understood that they stood condemned. They were trying to figure out how to deal with their guilt, how they could be forgiven.

And Jesus would bring them what? Glad tidings of good things. So this has to be a part of the gospel in that we're sharing the good things, how we've been forgiven, how God loves us, how we found not only fellowship with him but fellowship with other people that we never experienced before in our lives. Those are the glad tidings of good things. Let's look at verse 16.

It says, But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report. Let's understand, when you first come to the Lord and you discover this incredible thing, salvation, Jesus, forgiveness, this relationship with the Lord, it's just incredible. You know, it's like the birds are singing better and the skies bluer, and it's just marvelous. It's a marvelous thing. And then you know that the moment you open your mouth to tell anybody about Jesus that they're going to fall to their knees, start weeping and repent.

And generally it doesn't happen like that all the time, does it? I remember years ago I was doing street witnessing down Tate Street on a Friday night. It was just really intriguing the conversations I was having with people. This one young girl walked up and she said, hey, can you do me a favor? And I said, what? She goes, will you go in there and buy me some beer? I thought, man, you just walked into it, man. So then I explained, you know, beer's just going to make you thirsty. No matter how much you drink, you'll be thirsty in the morning.

And you know, what you need is the living water. But then, you know, there was a couple walking by and I said, you know, have you heard the good news and glad tidings of Jesus Christ. The guy, it was like he was shot out of the gate. He immediately began yelling and, and doing his, what do you mean? You can't live in this country?

Not here. You know, and, and his wife is embarrassed trying to calm him down and trying to hold his arms down. And so, you know, they begin walking off and he's 20 feet away and still yelling and waving his arms. And do you know what my statement to that was? He's close.

He's close. See, because if I shared in the yell, whatever, I've heard it all before apathy. Ah, it's the enemy of faith.

But that kind of the eggshell, which is one of the hardest substances known to man is so brittle that it breaks easily. And this man was very brittle. And my guess is he was getting ready to break and decide that Jesus was who he said he was and call him his savior. But see, we don't, we don't always expect a good response or at least we shouldn't, you know, so some people won't believe some people rebuke and, and, and understand this is from Isaiah 53.

And you can read it later. Maybe read the first seven verses that you're probably familiar with. Some of the, it's, it's a messianic chapter and it's kind of interesting what Israel, what the Jewish people, they thought it was a messianic chapter until Jesus came. And then 2000 years ago they decided, well, it's not really a messianic chapters talking about the nation of Israel.

Why? Because when you read the chapter and Isaiah is in the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, it's obvious that it's saying that Jesus was and is the Messiah. But that verse is from there.

And so I understand some people will, some people will not. We'll return to David's teaching in just a moment. First, I want to tell you about a special booklet that would be the perfect gift for any man on your Christmas list this year. The booklet is entitled A Father's Blessing. And within its pages, David McGee discusses the power and responsibility a father has in caring for his family.

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The whole book for the whole world. Now let's return to David McGee's verse-by-verse teaching in the book of Romans. Verse 17. So then faith comes by hearing, and the hearing by the Word of God. Great verse. Powerful verse. It's interesting that some of the things we can do to build our faith are so simple.

One of the easiest things to do, one of the simplest things to do, you've decided to do today in being here. Because I'm up here, and I'm talking about the Word of God. I'm teaching the Word of God. And as you hear the Word of God, your faith grows.

And so you've decided to do something very good here, and be here today, and hear the Word of God. And your faith will grow, your faith will increase. When you listen to Christian radio, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. What kind of faith? Understand faith is an active power. It's not...and understand, you know, some people, St. Francis said, share the Gospel, and if all else fails, use words. Now, understand what he meant, and kind of agreed to a certain point that we need to be living out our faith. But we also need to be telling people, but that statement suggests we need to have an active faith. Not just, hey, you know, I pretty much...I go and visit a church every Sunday, it's the same church, I'm not actively engaged, I'm not praying for them, I'm not praying for the pastor, not giving there, but, you know, I'm going there, and it seems like a good church.

How sad that is, that you're not engaged, and you're not involved. So, as we look at this active faith, you have to ask yourself, is your faith active? Are there deeds, when you think about yesterday, last week, this month, are there deeds of yours that are tied into your faith? You did it because you're a believer.

Not just attending church, attending church, great thing, but are you engaged? James speaks about faith in James 2.17. He says, thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, it is dead. That suggests that your faith can be dead, and it's inactive, it's worthless, or your faith can be active. James 2.20 says, but do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead? And again, in 2.26, he says, whereas the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Is your faith an active faith, or is your faith a dead faith? Can you point to yesterday, or this morning, something you did that you did because of your faith? If you are sitting here, and you can't automatically think of something you've done lately, you should be concerned.

You should be concerned. Now, understand, I don't buy into this whole spectator sport of Christianity. It's not a spectator sport. Most churches have people somewhere in the 5% to 8% of the people who attend the church, or even are members of the church, are actually serving in any form of ministry. I think that's horrible. And I'm delighted that in this church, over 50% of the people that attend the church are active in ministry in the church. Amen?

Over 50%. You guys rock. I'm clapping.

I'm clapping for y'all, to the glory of God, but I'm clapping for y'all. Because in a lot of places, that doesn't happen. And you need to understand, friend, if you're new here, go ahead and take a sidestep a little bit. And your plan is to kind of slip in and slip out.

That'll work for a little while. And maybe you're here and you don't yet know Jesus, and I'm not going to beat you up, throw things at you, yell at you. We're going to talk about the goodness of God and how He desires to forgive you.

We're going to talk about that today. But you need to understand, if you want to be a spectator Christian, I love you enough to challenge that. The Bible says that we're supposed to stir one another up to good works. And in the Greek, another word for that is agitate.

So, let me put it like this. I love you enough to agitate you at some point, okay? Now, if you're sitting here and you go, oh, I just love you, just wait, I'll agitate you at some point. And that will be agitating you, not just to get you mad, but to agitate you up, to stir you up to good works.

Why? Because I want you, if anybody else later on asks you that question, do you have deeds of active faith, you can say, oh, absolutely. I just came out of children's ministry, awesome time, talked to kids. We had a couple come to the Lord. I showed up yesterday, I was helping clean the churches. You can know that you've had deeds of faith.

Why? Because your faith should be active. Life lesson here, we should have a living and active faith, not a dead faith.

We should have a living and active faith, not a dead faith. When it speaks about the Word of God, there's a couple of different phrases, meanings in the English and the Greek. One of them that you'll hear is it's the written word.

It's logos or logos, depending on your enunciation. And Jesus is referred to as the written word. The Bible in certain places is referred to as the written word. And then you have the spoken word, which the Greek there is the rhema. It's often a word of faith receiving a blessing from the Lord, the rhema word. And then the other one is when it's talking about a living epistle, a living word, if you will.

And that's when your life is lived out. And you may have heard the saying, you may be the only Bible that someone ever reads. Be careful what's written in you. Now, in this phrase, it's talking about that rhema word, that spoken word. And so, again, that's part of the reason that we do some of the things we do as far as radio ministry, internet ministry, TV ministry, is because as people hear the word of God, they can have their faith built. And as they hear about the goodness of Jesus, they can come to a saving knowledge in Jesus Christ. In the New Living Translation, this verse says, yet faith comes from listening to this message of good news, the good news about Christ.

So we want to be active in that. We want to be telling people, we want to be sharing our faith, this rhema word, this word of faith, the word of testimony, the written word, all these things, sharing the word, building the faith. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 says this, but the only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts and everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. Clearly, you are a letter from Christ prepared by us. It is not written with pen and ink, but with the spirit of the living God.

It is not carved on stone. It's carved not on stone, but on human hearts. I love that passage. And I'll tell you in part why I love that passage. Because when I look out here on a Sunday morning and I see your faces and I see the smiles that are now reaching your eyes and the eyes that are filled with hope instead of despair.

Because many of you, I saw you when you first came in here and your eyes were not filled with hope. And you've gotten a hold of God and God's gotten a hold of you. And the Bible is not just a book anymore, but written on your hearts is the word of His testimony. And I can look at your life and go, man, glory to God. Look at that man, look at that woman and see what the Lord is doing with them.

I can't even begin to express the joy that I take in that. And so as we look at this, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. As you travel through your circles, as you go to school, as you go to work, as you are in your house, as you are with family members and all these things, you can have an impact.

Do not friend. We sometimes overestimate our importance in this thing we call life. We do. God will fix that. But I think many times we underestimate the impact of the things we do and say.

You never know what will happen. Verse 18, But I say, have they not heard? Yes, indeed, their sound has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.

Now Paul did an incredible job. The apostles did an incredible job covering the known world with the gospel. But I don't think in their wildest imaginations they could dream what is possible now. I don't, I think there's some prophetic significance in their words to the ends of the world. Which is now possible. God wants to speak through us to the whole world.

And the fact is he's doing it. Now I understand too when we talk about evangelism. Years ago I spoke to one church and it was talking to him about evangelism and stuff.

And you know what they said? They said, well evangelism is not a priority for us right now. That's an interesting statement for a church to make. I don't understand that. May I never understand that statement. I'm not church bashing.

I mean that's just the reality of what they said. But here's the thing, life lesson, we should do all we can while we can to reach all we can. We should do all we can while we can to reach all we can. Here's Paul's heart and this is a great, great verse. First Corinthians 10 33 says, that is the plan I follow too. I try to please everyone in everything I do. I don't just do what I like or what is best for me, but what is best for them so they may be saved. What an interesting verse.

It's a new living translation. Please everyone in everything I do. A lot of times we we are really, we, I'm not just saying y'all, we are hard to get along with and we say it's because God has spoken to us about this. So we're a jerk for Jesus to people. Now that doesn't mean we have to sugarcoat the wrong or the evil that's going on in the world. But it means, friend, that sometimes we need to lower our self-righteousness enough to have a conversation with me. If you've ever walked in, I'm not going to do what they want.

You know, be careful, friend, because in the past I have won the argument and lost the relationship. There's a verse that Paul talks about Christ and Him crucified, which the Lord used in a powerful way because years ago I used to travel and do teaching and in many different churches. I mean, I went, I was all over the map. I went into Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Assembly of God, Vineyards, Calvary Chapels, Nondinoms, all these different churches. And it's like, okay, God, what should I really be focusing on sharing?

And the Lord said, Christ and Him crucified. And we can disagree on a lot of stuff. I mean, you probably have different, whatever, music preferences or clothing preferences or hair preferences or whatever. But we can agree on this part. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If this was your first time praying that prayer with Pastor David, we would love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Jesus. Also, if you have been blessed by the Ministry of Cross the Bridge and David McGee, would you consider supporting us with a financial gift? This month, when you give to Cross the Bridge, we will send David's powerful booklet on Biblical fatherhood entitled, A Father's Blessing. The number to call is 877-458-5508.

That's 877-458-5508. Or go online to crossthebridge.com. While you're there, make sure to sign up for David's email devotional and begin receiving daily inspiration in your inbox. That website again is crossthebridge.com. Thanks for listening today. We pray you will join us next time as we cross the bridge.