If y'all have been around here, I've said we're going to jump into another book this year. What's the book we're going to go through? I was going to say this year.
It's probably going to be about two years. Anybody know what's the book? Romans. And look, I'm going to say something about cross-assembly. We are a word and power church. We believe in the power of the word of God.
I believe in preaching in depth, book by book, expository stuff, which is sometimes it seems antithetical maybe to the Pentecostal movement. I still have some of you say this to me. It doesn't make me mad.
It irritates me. Chad, I look forward to the day when you won't have any notes. You just stand up there without studying. You just let it speak. Holy Ghost can anoint me just as much Monday through Saturday in my study as he can on Sunday morning when I stand. Okay, so that's, I do believe in preaching the word of God in depth. We're a word church, but we're also a power church. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit.
That's why the third Saturday of every month, we come together at nine o'clock in the morning. We call the name of the Lord. We see healings. We pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, fresh infillings of the Holy Spirit. In fact, this Wednesday night, we're going to be talking about what it means to be a word and power church.
We've got to combine those. But being a word church means we go deep into the word of God, and we're going to do that with the book of Romans. And the book of Romans has probably transformed more lives and started more revivals than any other book in the Bible. I was reading this past week about a pervert named Augustine. He's a wicked man. From age 16 to age 32, he would be what we'd call today a sex addict. He said about himself, quote, the frenzy gripped me, and I surrendered myself entirely to lust.
From age 16 to 32. He couldn't break this. In today's terms, he'd be a porn freak. And one day, Augustine is walking through a garden, and he hears a child's voice singing, take it up and read it. Take up the book and read it. He said, what, no, where's that coming from? And he looks, and there's a bench right there in the garden, and there's a Bible on that bench, and it has opened up to the book of Romans.
He picks it up and starts reading it. He gets saved, radically transformed, and becomes one of the greatest church leaders in church history, and it was all because of the book of Romans. He tried all kinds of things to really satisfy his conscience.
In fact, I think we got a picture of this. It's called the scala sancta in Rome. It's these holy stairs that the Pope said, if you will climb these stairs on your knees, when you get to the top of the stairs, your sins are magically forgiven. Now, lest you think that was just back then. Don't tell me Catholics and Protestants are the same.
They're not. It's a works-based salvation. Luther did this, gets to the top of the stairs and says, I don't feel any different. I feel wicked.
I feel evil. He tried everything until one day he did what Catholics aren't supposed to do. He actually picked up the Bible and read it and read the book of Romans and got gloriously saved, and the church was radically changed after that.
What I'm trying to say, there's power in this book that we're about to read. Now, let me give the background of this. Paul is writing this letter to the Christian community in Rome, and Paul did not start this church. We think this church was started because remember Acts chapter two, people from all over the world came to Jerusalem, got saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and they went back to their home country. That's where we think this church of Rome started. Paul didn't start it.
It started as a result of the day of Pentecost. It was a multicultural church. I'm really looking forward to the very last chapter, Romans 16, because you see, slaves, free people, men, women, poor people, rich people, they're all part of this beautiful community there, the church of Rome. Paul never actually had visited this church before, but he wants to visit this church. Even though he had never visited this church, he was familiar with this church. The very last chapter, I think he has 26 names of people that he knows that goes to that church.
Now, here's how this letter got written. About 57 AD, Paul is ministering in this town called Corinth. He wants to go to Rome. He wants to connect with that church, and he finds out that there's a local lady named Phoebe who is going to go visit the church at Rome. Now, she's a Christian, and in those days, you didn't just go from church to church.
They don't know if you're a government agent trying to sneak into the church and get the church shut down. They don't know if you're a heretic trying to bring bad heresy, and so when you go to visit another church, you actually have to have a letter of recommendation. So she says to Paul, I'm gonna go visit the church.
Can you give me a letter of recommendation? Thinking he's just gonna write, I recommend this dear sister Phoebe, here you go. Instead, he writes 16 chapters of one of the most in-depth theological treaties in the entire Bible, and at the end, he says, oh, by the way, I recommend this lady, Phoebe. And so that's how this letter gets to the church there at Rome. And the theme of this book, it is the pure gospel.
That's the theme of this book, this message that changes lives. You know, most times, Paul is writing letters in the New Testament to address conflicts in churches. Like, we got I and II Corinthians. He said, why did you write that letter? Well, because of the church at Corinth, there was incest, there was lawsuits, there was all kinds of immorality, people were getting drunk at the Lord's Supper, and so Paul had to write these letters to correct problems.
We see that. Galatians, it was written to correct a problem. Romans was not written to correct a problem. It's written to explain this glorious, transforming good news of Jesus Christ. That is the theme, and the fact, the word gospel is used 12 times in this book, more than any other book. The word grace used 26 times in the book of Romans, more than any other book. Faith, that's how we're saved, 39 times in the book of Romans, more than any other book. And the core passage, look, this is going to be a long study, and we're going to get in-depth, it's going to be challenging, but never forget, this is the core passage.
The entire book of Romans revolves around this verse, these two verses, Romans 1, 16 through 17, Paul says this, look, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it's the power of God for the salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, that is written, the righteous will live by faith. That's all it's about. And so I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and jump into this book, y'all?
Okay, again, wow, calm down, it's going to be all right, I'm going to give you some sedatives here. Are you ready to delve into a life-changing book that has transformed people and churches and movements and even countries for thousands of years? Y'all ready to jump into this book?
All right, let's do this. Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, having been set apart for the gospel of God. Now, you know, when we write a letter, we will sign our name at the very end.
In Paul's day, that's how I like the way they do it better, that they sign it at the very beginning, because, you know, otherwise you got to look at the very end of the letter, see who wrote it, he said, no, let me tell you up front who this is. My name is Paul, I am a slave of Jesus Christ. Now, here's what I want you to understand. The apostle Paul says something very audacious in 1 Corinthians 11, 1. He says this, I want you to imitate me.
That's kind of an audacious thing to say, isn't it? Here's what Paul is saying. My experience with Jesus, my experience is a paradigm, it's normative. This is how the Christian life is to be experienced. So when he says in 1 Corinthians 11, 1, I want you to imitate me, he's not being cocky.
What he's saying is what Jesus did for me, that's the paradigm, what he wants to do with you. So what did Jesus do in the life of this man called Paul? Well, look at the very first letter or word here, Paul. So who is Paul? Because, you know, some of y'all have heard this, I grew up in Bible school and I know all... Do you know there's a lot of people in our church that's never cracked a Bible before?
Do you know that? We got people coming every week that have never even read the Bible saying, I got to explain this. Who is this man, Paul?
Because Paul's experience is normative, it's a paradigm, a pattern of your experience. Paul was born in a place called Tarsus. His dad was a Roman citizen, but he also was born into a Jewish family.
So it's a Jewish family that has the privileges of Roman citizenship. Now, it's interesting that he was born in Tarsus, which is modern day Turkey, because it is said in the ancient Roman world, there were three great universities, three great learning centers. Athens, Alexandria, Egypt, and Tarsus. That was the Harvard, Yale, and Princeton of the day.
Athens, Alexandria, and Tarsus. So Paul is born in this very educated city, and we got to put the dots together. Evidently, this guy was brilliant. And in fact, he was so brilliant that the Jewish community recognizes this guy, this guy's smart. So he's educated at basically Harvard, and they send him as a Jew to Jerusalem to study under Gamaliel, who was the greatest rabbi of the day. I mean, Gamaliel is absolutely brilliant, and Paul becomes his star student.
So think about this. He graduates from Harvard, minus the wokeness. He graduates from Harvard. He's now getting his doctorate at Yale.
This is a brilliant man. And in fact, he climbed in Judaism so much that they said, man, this guy is a brilliant leader. And we got this weird group of freaky people called Christians. They claim that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.
They're growing like crazy. We got to get somebody to stamp out this movement, and they said, we're going to get Paul to do that. And in fact, Paul was given permission. Wherever he found Christians, beat them up, whip them up, and throw them into prison. And in fact, it says in Acts chapter eight, verse three, his name at this time is not Paul. Anybody know what his name was at first? Saul.
That's a good Jewish, Sha'ul, a good Jewish name. Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house and dragging off men and women, and he was delivering them to prison. Look at that word ravaging in the original language, Greek. Ravaging is a Greek word to describe a wild boar that goes through a garden and just tears it up.
Every bitter man. And then he's going to go to a town called Damascus. He's going to do the same thing. He's going to destroy the church like a wild boar in a garden. And on his way, Jesus smacks him down. Smacks him down, blinds him. Paul says, who are you?
He's blind. Who are you, Lord? And Jesus says, I am Jesus Christ, the one you are persecuting. And as a result, Paul becomes a radical follower of Jesus Christ. My life, it's a pattern. It's a paradigm of the Christian experience.
I want you to understand this. We were all Paul's before we met Jesus Christ. I've got in this church men who are crackheads living on the street with no hope, destroying their lives.
And now they're on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a missionary right now. Just heard from him last week.
He is doing an incredible work in a very dangerous country with a beautiful wife and kids. He was a homeless crackhead living out of his car, a messed up, wicked life until he radically met Jesus Christ. And Jesus changed him. And he went to Teen Challenge and got discipled. And now he's on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's what people, no, this makes sense too.
Okay, do you understand that? What about the Christian here today that got saved at age nine? They didn't smoke any crack. They didn't prostitute themselves. They got saved at nine. They weren't Paul's, were they?
Answer is yes. They were sinners as well. Understand this. Being a sinner isn't just what you do. It's who you are. We are all born Paul's. We are all born sinners. And the moment you give your life to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ radically changes you.
Just like he did that man right there. And so he says, my experience is your experience. You and I were Paul's. And then he says this, Paul, a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I want to know what you're doing. You're looking at your Bibles. He said, my Bible doesn't say slave. It says servant or bondservant. Do you know that's not the word in Greek? There are words in Greek for bondservants or servants. That's not the word that's used here.
The Greek word is doulos. It's somebody's property. It means slave. Paul doesn't call himself a servant of Jesus because here's the thing. A servant can decide I want to be employed by you.
I want to quit. You can't do that if you're a slave. If you're a slave, you're owned by somebody. Paul says, I am a slave. I am owned by the Lord Jesus Christ. I got saved and I became Jesus' slave. And why do English translations water this down?
It's very obvious. Because of our horrible history in slavery, we're very shy about using the word slave. In fact, you think it's ancient history. I met two men in my lifetime who remember talking to family members who were slaves. When I was in my 20s, late teens, early 20s, I worked as a groundskeeper with a man who was about 80 years old.
He could outwork me any day of my life. And he talked about talking to his grandparents who were born into slavery. So this isn't ancient history. What our English translators have done is that we're not going to use the word slave because that's politically incorrect. We're going to use the word servant or bondservant.
That's not the word. Paul says, no, I'm a slave of Jesus Christ. The Bible calls Jesus Lord, which means master, 300 times in the New Testament. Only calls Jesus savior eight times. When you get saved, you now say, I belong to that man.
Jesus Christ. I am the property of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Oh, look, this is the most used metaphor in the Bible to describe our relationship with Jesus Christ. He is my master. I am his slave over and over and over again. But I would have, nobody's on staff like this now, but I'd have young guys come on staff. When do I get to be called pastor? What? I don't be called pastor.
I do this, I do this. When can I be called pastor? We actually have this great volunteer organizational thing called, what's that thing called? DCLA. We have directors, then underneath them we have coaches, then we have leaders, and then we have apprentices.
How many of y'all heard that before? Okay. That's our organizational structure. Periodical, we have people say, well, I'm just a C. I want to be a D. Hey, I'm just an L. When do I get to climb the ladder and be called coach? I don't want to be called apprentice. I want to be called leader. Can I tell you the most common term that the New Testament leaders of the church call themselves? Slaves of Jesus Christ.
You can have the titles all you want. I'm pastor. I'm director.
I'm whatever. Paul says right here, y'all have that? I am Paul, slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. James, y'all read the book of James? Y'all know who James was? He's the half brother of Jesus.
He's the leader of the church at Jerusalem. Do you know how James starts out the book of James? It's not James, half brother of Jesus Christ. James, leader of the church at Jerusalem. James 1,1. James, slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1,1. Peter, slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jude, a slave of Christ. Jude 1. Jude, a slave of Christ.
I'm starting to see. When you get this thing straight, that he is your Lord, he is your master, you belong to him, he owns you. When you start to understand the slave relationship, it's amazing how the Bible starts to make sense and the Christian life starts to make sense. Galatians, what was that verse? Galatians 6, 17. Paul says this, I bear, and to give you an example, I bear the marks of Christ.
Have you read that before? The Greek word is stigmata and that's why you get these weird horror films like the stigmata or the Catholic church that sometimes people start bleeding out of their hands like Jesus did because it's a stigmata. That's not what Paul's talking about. Stigmata is slave language.
When you bought a slave, you take your personal brand and you brand that into their body and they call that the stigmata. And Paul says, I've been beaten. I've been shipwrecked. People laughed at me. They ridiculed me. They turned their backs on me.
That's okay. That's just the stigmata. That's just the marks that prove I belong to that Lord Jesus Christ. It's all over the New Testament. And the beautiful thing about slavery, look, let me give you a couple things. Once you grasp that, the Christian life falls into place.
In the first century, did you know this? Slaves didn't choose their masters. They chose their slaves. You say, I got saved because I decided to give my life to Jesus. Did you know that Jesus decided you before you decided him? Jesus says in John, you didn't choose me.
I chose you. And in fact, we see this all over the New Testament. You are bought with a price. That's slave language. That's what it means to be a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me give you another example. You weren't owned by multiple people. You were owned by one master.
Jesus says this in Matthew 6, 24. No one can serve two masters. Do you know that's not correct? That's not true. You can serve two masters.
Some of y'all work at Sheets in the daytime. In Walmart at night, you got two different masters. You can serve two masters. But when you translate that verse into the original Greek, it literally says nobody can be the slave of two masters.
And that's correct. You belong to Jesus Christ. Here's what Paul says in the Second Corinthians. My only goal is to please my master, Jesus Christ. Do you know how much more simple the Christian life will be when you stop trying to please everybody on Facebook and all your buddies and everybody?
You want everybody to like you. When you just say, no, they're not my masters. I have one master, Jesus Christ.
My aim is just to please the Lord Jesus. That makes life so much more simple. Hey, let me give you another example. In the first century, slaves submitted to the will of their masters. You didn't go to the master and say, why didn't you give me this?
You owe me that. See, that's the American church. We come to Jesus and we say, if I do this, Jesus is obligated to give me that. When you self-actualize, Jesus says, no, now you belong to me. And I'm going to show you a better way to live. You do what I say because I'm the master. Why do I give 10% of my income to the Lord? Because the master tells me to. I don't quit.
I just do it. Why don't I walk with clean hands and a pure heart? Because I don't belong to myself. I belong to my master. And the master tells me what to do. And the master told Paul, I want you to see this. He said, Paul, here's my assignment. I'm the master. I'm the slave.
And here's my assignment. Do you see this? Paul says, I am called to be an apostle. Now, apostle can mean one of the great leaders of the church. Do you know apostle can also mean missionary? God says to this man, Paul, Paul, I'm the master and I'm telling you what to do. You're now to be a missionary, a leader in the church. That's my call. You don't question that.
You just do it. God is saying to a Christian businessman here today, I'm not going to be a minister. I'm not calling you to go into ministry. You think I am.
I'm not. I am the master. You're my slave. I need a representative in the business marketplace. You are my slave. So I'm telling you, my assignment to you is you be the most godly, ethical, on fire businessman for me. I'm the master.
That's where you serve. You're going to take your mouth off to your mama one more time. We're going to start putting you on that school bus. You're going to go to the public school. You're wondering, why am I even being a homeschool mama?
Because the master said to you, my call in your life is to be a homeschool mama. That's where I've placed you. It's not going to be easy and you're going to want to bail, but you can't bail because you don't call the shots. I call the shots.
That's where I put you. I love, honestly, we got public school teachers at cross assembly. I thank God for our public school teachers. And you want to bail and you're like, why am I doing this? Why are you doing this? Because you're a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ and he says, I have given you an assignment. It's not always easy, but I need you in the public school system. That's why I planted you there as a public school teacher.
Does this make sense? See, when you're a slave of Jesus, you just do what he tells you to do. Hey, let me give you one more trait about first century slavery. In the first century, good masters looked out for their slaves.
I'm going to tell you something. He's a good master. He's a kind master. Look, you say, I don't like this idea, this concept of him being master and I'm being a slave.
I don't like that. I don't want to be a slave. I want you to listen to this great quote from P.T. Forsyth. He said this, the duty of every soul is to find not its freedom, but its master.
Do you know what he's saying? We're all going to serve somebody. We're going to serve Satan or the flesh.
But autonomy doesn't exist. You will serve anybody. Since you're going to serve somebody, why not serve the best master there is? And in the first century, good masters took care of their slaves. In fact, if a slave wasn't taken care of, if there wasn't a fed or clothed or housed, that was a bad reflection on the master. Jesus is going to take care of you.
Why? Because you belong to him. He is your master. You are his slave. And in fact, in Leviticus, there is actually a ceremony for slaves who have served their master so long and now they're free and they say, I don't want to be free. I want to belong to him.
And they'd go through this ceremony where they'd poke out their ear, their earlobe, not ear, not bust a eardrum, but their earlobe. And in the ceremony, what they're saying is, I could be free if I want, but I don't want to. I want to serve him. That is a prophetic picture of the Christian life where you say, I want to serve Jesus Christ.
Let me understand this. In fact, I love what Charles Spurgeon said. Spurgeon said this, I love what one author says about this whole thing of slavery. He is a master who loves his slaves perfectly. He is a master who seeks the best for his slaves. He is a master who turns his slaves into sons and daughters and gives them a full inheritance and seeks them on his own throne in eternal glory to reign with him forever. That's the master that we serve.
You know, I get this periodically. It must be hard passing a church like this because you're responsible for so many people. You're responsible for this organization. I'm not trying to be, don't cut my salary when I tell you this.
It's not that hard actually. Because you know what? It's not my church. It's the master's church. Y'all aren't my people.
You're his people. I just do what the master says, that the master decides to close up shop one day. He can close up the shop because it ain't my church.
It's his church. There's nothing more liberating than to say, I'm not in charge. You are. You're the master. I'll just do. I'll salute you and say, yes sir, and just do whatever you tell me to do.
It's a beautiful, wonderful life. So here's what Paul's saying. Paul's saying, I'm a paradigm of the Christian life. Paul, y'all are all Pauls. Some of you are perverts. Some of you are drug addicts.
Some of you are just sinners by birth. We were all Pauls until we met the Lord Jesus Christ. Slave, I belong to him. He is a good master. He loves me.
He will take care of me. Not only am I his slave, I am also his son. It is great to be a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul, a slave, and there's one more part here, set apart for the gospel of God. Here's what Paul's saying. God didn't just save me so that I'll go to heaven when I die.
That's not why he saved me. Paul says right there, I have been set apart to influence others for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, if 1 Corinthians 11 and 1 is true, that we're to imitate Paul, what we're saying is, I was lost until I got saved just like Paul. I am a slave of Jesus Christ just like Paul. God has called me to influence lost people just like Paul.
Myself, this question as well. At the gym, wherever you are, is your lifestyle a lifestyle that is set apart and drawing others to the Lord Jesus Christ? Or do people look at you and say, I don't want to be like that? If that's a Christian, I don't want to be like that. Paul says God saved me to draw others to Jesus Christ.
Cross assembly, you need to listen to me. Our passion for global missions, our passion for events. Look, we're not a social club, okay? We're not like the Lions Club or the Rotary Club. I heard years ago this pastor was preaching revival at a church.
True story. He's preaching revival at the church and while we're standing outside before the revival services, I'm talking to the pastor and some Latino kids are trying to get into the church to play some basketball. And the pastor said, I'm sorry, hold on just a second. And he went to those kids, hey, get out, you're not supposed to be here, get out of here. And went back over to the pastor and said, sorry about that, those Mexicans think they can take over our church.
And he said to that pastor, sir, you don't have a church, you got a country club with a steeple on top of it. We are here to draw people to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we forget that, we forget that the master has given us an assignment and that is to be set apart to draw others to the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you're going to be part of cross assembly, you have to understand we believe heaven is real, hell is real and Jesus is the only difference between those two. We are set apart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Y'all with me on that? That's who we are, that's what we're about.
Not just rich people. That's why I decided to leave the nicest part of Raleigh and set up shop in a creepy industrial park on the side of the interstate because I just want to draw everybody to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our calling. We can just speak in tongues and freak everybody out and think we're crazy. God didn't give us the Pentecostal power so we can handle snakes and drink poison and be weird up. That's not why he gave us the Holy Spirit. You will receive power and the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you'll be my witnesses. That's why God has set us apart.
That's why he set you apart. And when you forget that, everything starts to fall apart. Like in the late 1800s, they said if you got lost family members and you wanted to get saved, take them to the Methodist Church. The United Methodist Church lost that calling. And when you start to lose that focus, things get real weird and real fast. And that's why today the United Methodist Church is basically a carnival freak show with drag queen pastors and non-binary pastors and all that weirdo stuff.
They make it so easy. That's really what happens when you forget what God has called you to do. Listen to me. God saved you. God bought you. You belong to him. And now God is saying if you find this Jesus Christ the best master, if you love this thing of walking with Jesus Christ, I don't want you to keep this to yourself.
I want you to be set apart for the gospel just like Paul was. That's what we're called to do. So on a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occurred, there was once a crude little lifeboat station. The building was just a hut and there's only one boat. But the few devoted members of that life-saving station kept a constant vigil over the sea and with no thought for their own safety went out day and night tirelessly looking for drowning victims of the shipwrecks. The work of that crude life-saving station attracted the attention of others in the area. People began to join that life-saving station and they gave their money to support it. New boats were bought and new crews were trained and with commitment and energy that little life station grew and more and more people were rescued from the sea. Some members of the lifeboat station were unhappy with the building that was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable building should be built.
So they enlarged the station and built a beautiful state-of-the-art facility. Now lifeboat station became a popular gathering place for its members and they decorated and they furnished it beautifully and they actually organized a lifeboat club. This club began to have gatherings and events and dinners.
Life-saving pictures and mementos covered the club's walls where official meetings were held. They decided to hire other people to go out and rescue for them. About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, half-drowned people. They were dirty, they were wet, they were sick and the beautiful new lifeboat club was now in chaos. The beautiful carpet had water all over it.
The walls were stained with water. Club membership was divided. Most of the members wanted to stop the club's life-saving activities since they were unpleasant, they were a hindrance that stained the carpet but some members insisted that life-saving was their primary purpose and they pointed out that they were still called a lifeboat station. However they were outvoted and told that if they wanted to save people who were drowning they probably needed to go start their own lifeboat station.
And so they did. Farther down the coast they started their own station. As years went by similar changes took place at the new station. It evolved into a club and consequently another lifeboat station was found further down the coast. History continued to repeat itself and on that sea coast today you will find a number of exclusive clubs dotting the coastline. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters.
But most of the people are never reached, they're never saved, most of them drown because the lifeboat stations have stopped rescuing the drowning. Y'all are smart people. Do you see the parallel here? Do you see what I'm talking about? See if we're not careful we'll become this exclusive club that gets here on Sunday morning and has lights and I don't even think we do smoke anymore. So no, it's just lights okay?
And singing. Well this world drowns and goes to hell right outside these walls. Paul says you've been saved. You're a slave of Jesus.
So that you can go rescue the parishion and care for the dying. That's our call church. Y'all receive that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hey can we stand right now? Hey let's pray together as a church.
Let's talk to the Father for just a second. In the name of your son Jesus, I pray that the spirit of the gospel will rise up in this congregation. God I can't remember the last time we wept as a church over friends and family members dying and going to hell.
God give us tears. Set us apart to rescue souls. If Jesus Christ comes back in 2025 may he not just find us here singing songs. May he find us out on the rough waters rescuing souls from a devil's hell through the good news of Jesus Christ. Give us that spirit of evangelism. Give us oh Father a passion for souls. In the name of Jesus and the glory of Jesus we pray. Amen. That's what I've said to several of these sections.
You need to listen to it. You will hit some tough times this year. You will hit some battles. Can I tell you something?
Listen to me. One of the best backhanded compliments of Satan is when all hell breaks loose in your life. That means you're doing something right. If you're walking with Jesus and there's no satanic opposition, you're not doing something right because you're not a threat to Satan. So when things come against you, when the battles come against you, when hell comes against you, understand you're not fighting alone. In fact it's not even your battle. The battle belongs to the Lord. It's his battle. And so this year lift up your heads, throw up your hands and praise the name of the one who goes before us and fights for us.
Let's sing to the Lord right now. There's power in the mighty name of Jesus. Every war he wages he will win. Cause I'm not backing down from any giant. Cause I know how this story ends.
Cause I know how this story ends. And I'm gonna see a victory. I'm gonna see a victory. For the battle belongs to you Lord. I'm gonna see a victory.
I'm gonna see a victory. For the battle belongs to you Lord. You take what the enemy meant for evil, and you turn it for good. You turn it for good. You take what the enemy meant for evil, and you turn it for good. You turn it for good. You take what the enemy meant for evil, and you turn it for good You take what the enemy meant for evil, and you turn it for good You turn it for good I'm gonna see a victory, I'm gonna see a victory For the battle belongs to You, Lord You know, one thing I understand is that people say Christianity is boring. Not if you're doing it right. How's it boring to fight demons, rescue souls from hell, push back the kingdom of darkness, expand the kingdom of light?
How's that boring? Thank you for watching today, and be sure to like, subscribe, and share this video. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we pray, Amen and Amen. God bless you, beloved. Let's go change this world for Jesus Christ.
