If you go to a doctor to see how healthy you are, and they'll do different tests, all right, there's an EKG test to test your heart. There is a urine test, sometimes they'll give you a urine test. There is that, the whole tongue, you know, I'm talking about the tongue, you stick out your tongue and they look at your tongue and you know, if it's coated, you probably have a fever, if it's yellowish, you have poor digestion, if it's bright red, you've been drinking too much cherry Kool-Aid. And so, you got another test, you got a blood test. The blood test, I think, is probably the best test.
It shows you all the stuff that's going on in your body. Different kind of tests to see how healthy you are. In our walk of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's some spiritual tests that we can do to do a spiritual checkup just to see how healthy we are. You know, John Wesley talked about the giving test. Wesley said, I can tell if somebody's born again real quickly, let me see their checkbook, because where your heart is, that's where your treasure's gonna be. Another test is your spiritual disciplines test.
Are you spending time every day in the word or in prayer? That's a good test to gauge your spiritual health. But I believe kind of the blood test, the most definitive tests of your spiritual health is your relationship with other Christians. That test is the blood test. It tells you definitively how healthy your walk with Jesus is by the way you interact with other Christians. There are 59 one anothers in the New Testament.
Love one another, bear one another's burdens. That's a blood test to see how healthy you are. And in fact, this test of your relationship with other Christians is so definitive that 1 John 4.20 says this. If you say I love God, but you hate your brother or sister, you're a liar, you don't know God.
That's how definitive that test is. And so here's what I want us to do today. I want you and I to allow the Holy Spirit of God to do a checkup on us and see how healthy we are spiritually based on our relationship to other Christians. So turn if you would to Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one, we're now at verse eight. We've been in here for four weeks. We're at verse eight.
We're making good progress going to this rate. We will be here halfway during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. You know, Paul is writing to Rome from the town of Corinth about 57 AD. And this thought hit me this past week. It's kind of a sobering thought. He's writing in 57 AD from Corinth to Rome to a church he's never met, but he wants to meet these Christians.
But here's it sobering. A humongous, terrible persecution came upon the church at Rome in the early 60s, which means five to seven years from the time Paul writes this book, a lot of these people that he's writing to will be tortured along with their children in some of the most gruesome ways and massacred for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. So this isn't just a letter that's on paper. This is a letter written from the heart of God through the heart of his prophet or his servant, Paul. The apostle Paul is not perfect. We don't believe, if you're new to the Christian faith, we don't believe he was perfect.
We believe he was a human being just like us. But we do believe God gave the apostle Paul to the church as an example of what a spiritually healthy person looks like. And Paul says in verse eight, first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world, for God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers, making requests if by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you, for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you but was hindered until now, that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to the Greeks and the barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise, so as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. Let's do a quick spiritual checkup, y'all ready? You're born again believer. Let's do a quick spiritual checkup and let me just ask you four or five questions so you can gauge your spiritual health.
Here's the first question. Hey, do you bless and encourage other Christians or do you gripe, whine and complain all the time? Do you bless and do you encourage other Christians?
I want you to see the verse eight. Paul says, hey church, first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Paul does two things.
Number one, do you see this? He says, I thank God for you. Paul, if you look at his letters in the New Testament, he thanks God for every church except for one. The churches of Iglesia, he doesn't thank God for them.
Isn't that interesting, because they had wandered away from the gospel. But every other church in the New Testament, Paul starts his letter by saying, I just thank God for all of you. And the second thing is he compliments them. He said, I want you to understand, the whole world is talking about y'all, about how great y'all are, your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you see what he's doing? He's building them up and he's encouraging them. And things are not going great for Paul at this time. Acts chapter 10 says this. At this time, there's a group of people in Corinth that wants to murder Paul. Now you say, okay, that's just Paul. Everybody's always after Paul.
I don't think you and I understand how psychologically damaging it is to know that there are people out there who are actively wanting to drive by your house and gun you down. And he's not doing a pity party. How many of y'all know, Satan loves when Christians throw a pity party. He shows up with balloons and whistles. He loves it when we throw a pity party. Paul's not throwing a pity party. He says, don't worry about what's happening to me.
I just want you to know I love you. I thank God for you. Everybody's talking about how great you are. That is a mark of a spiritually healthy person. Now I'm preaching to myself.
I can't remember what Greek personality type it is that can kind of get irritated and aggravated a lot. I'm speaking to myself as well. I think we as God's people ought to be known as people who bless others, who speak blessing over people.
We don't whine, we don't gripe, we don't complain. In fact, I was listening to this, it's like a social media influencer. His name is Andrew Bustamante. He's a former CIA operative. So I kept seeing all these little CIA things he talked about, being in the CIA. And I was watching something the other day and he said, oh, and by the way, I'm a Christian. I follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thought it was very interesting. He said, I was raised in an atheistic family, and not an irreligious family. I was raised in an anti-religion family. He said, I went to the Air Force Academy and the guy right next to me is this Christian who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I intentionally tried to make this guy's life miserable. He said, do you know what drew me to Jesus Christ? This guy never complained, he never griped, he never fought back. He was the most positive person I've ever met and I said, man, I need what that guy's got and that's what caused me to give my life to Jesus Christ.
Isn't that something? There's something about being people who bless and not curse, it draws, because there's a lot of negativity out there. Have y'all, I don't know if you've noticed that lately. There's a lot of negativity going on. Spiritually healthy people like Paul, you're blessed.
It's not right for those of us who say we have Jesus Christ living in us, we are clothed in Jesus Christ, but we go around complaining all the time. In fact, Times Square had a problem a couple years ago. You ever been to Times Square? They'd have these street performers dressed up like Spiderman and Elmo and Cookie Monster and Mickey Mouse and a few years ago, they had a big problem.
Y'all read about this on Times Square? Spiderman was arrested for punching a policeman. Cookie Monster yelled some profanity and shoved a two-year-old. Super Mario said some filthy things to a woman and groped her. Elmo was booked for shouting anti-Semitic slurs. Now what makes us weird is we look at these beloved characters and we say, they're beloved characters, they're dressed in these beautiful, wonderful, funny outfits. They oughta be happy, but instead of being happy, all this profanity's coming out of our mouth. It's incongruous, it doesn't make sense.
And I was reading about that, I was convicted. Spirit of God said, yeah, but you're clothed in Jesus Christ. When you walk around, you're clothed in Jesus himself.
What kind of things are going on out of your mouth? Is there some incongruity? You are clothed with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords but you merely mouth and complaining all the time.
It's incongruous. My first question is, particularly with other Christians, do you bless, do you encourage, or do you gripe and complain? Here's a second spiritual checkup here. Some of us have failed already.
Let's see, maybe this one will be better. Do you pray for other Christians? Look at verse nine. Paul says, for God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing.
You know what that means? I'm all the time mentioning you in my prayers. And these are people, he's never even met them before and he's praying for them. Paul says, I want you to understand, I pray for you all the time.
And what kind of, have you ever wondered this? Okay, so what kind of things did Paul pray about for them? God, I heard his chariot has worn out. Can you give him a new model of chariot? Or God, I heard his boss is kind of mean to him.
Can you give him a new job? What kind of things did Paul pray for these people when he prayed for them? Because usually when we say, how can I pray for you?
It's the job, it's the money, it's your health. And those things I know God is concerned about, I get that. But can I tell you when Paul says, I pray for other Christians? Can I give you an example of how he prayed? Here's one of the prayers of Paul, Ephesians 3, 14 through 16, the Apostle Paul says this, for this reason I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named. And I pray that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what's the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with the fullness of God. That's how he prayed for Christians. There's a little difference between that and his chariot had a flat tire, can you help him?
Let me give you another example. When Paul says I pray for Christians, let me give you another example. Philippians 1, nine through 11, you wanna know how I pray? I pray, church, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may be approved of things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ, I pray that you'll be filled to the fruit of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God. That's powerful. I love you, I don't know that I've ever prayed for you like that before, that's powerful.
Let me give you one more example. When Paul says I pray for the church, how does he pray? Second Thessalonians one, 11 through 12. Therefore, we also pray always for you. Here's how we pray, that our God would count you worthy of his calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. You pray for other Christians.
Let me ask you to do something. If you're gonna complain about a brother or sister in Christ, can you at least do this? Can you pray as much as you complain?
Can you at least do that? If I'm gonna spend 15 minutes complaining about a brother, sister in Christ, that's fine. But would you start by praying for 15 minutes for that same brother, sister and Lord Jesus Christ? You might be amazed at what God does through your prayers. God, ma'am, some of y'all have been praying for your husband because my husband's not the man he's supposed to be and I'm nagging him all the time about how he ought to be a better spiritual leader. He doesn't do what he's supposed to do. Hey, there's not a spiritual gift of nagging. Why don't you do this? Why don't you pray for your husband at least as much as you complain about your husband?
Is this microphone on? I don't know if I'm, okay, all right. There ain't something powerful about praying.
And let me just kind of take a quick detour. I don't want you to raise your hand, but it's come to my attention. There's a lot of mothers and fathers in our church that have kids who have wandered from the faith. I want you to keep praying for those kids. I was reading about Jim and Carol Simbola. They were the pastors, they still are, the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church in Brooklyn.
They've won several Emmys because of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. He's an author, he's a preacher. But they had a daughter, I think she's about 16 years old, named Chrissy, who grew up in the church, but decided I don't want Jesus anymore. He said she wandered from the faith. She left our home. He said we would go weeks, not even know where our little girl was.
We told everybody about what's happening. And finally, he said, God, stop me one day. And he said, Jim, I don't want you to talk about your daughter anymore. I want you to pray about your daughter. I want you to pray for her.
I don't even want you to reach out and try to find her. I just want you to pray about her. And he said, that's all we did. He said, for months, we didn't nag her, we didn't try to bring her back home, we let her go. We just prayed for her. And he said, one Tuesday night at our church's prayer meeting, so the lady came up to me and said, Spirit of God just told me, we're supposed to pray for your daughter right now. He said, there's something about the way she said it, it rang true, and so we stopped the prayer meeting. And he said, it turned into a maternity ward.
People are moaning for my daughter, crying out to God. He said, our people were in agony for our daughter. He said, when I got home that evening, I told my wife, it's over. She said, what do you mean it's over? He said, Chrissy's coming home.
She said, she ain't coming. How do you know she's coming home? He said, if you could have been in that prayer meeting tonight and heard the way my people pray for our daughter, you'd understand she's coming home.
So the very next morning, he said, I'm up shaving, and my wife screams out, Chrissy's home, he said, I run downstairs, and she is sobbing, and she hugs my legs, and she said, Dad, I've sinned against God, I've sinned against you, I am so sorry, can you bring me, can I come back home? And he said, we were reunited, and after things calmed down a little bit, and he said, what happened? Why are you back?
It's great to have you back, why are you back? She said, last night, Tuesday night, I was about my business doing my thing, and all of a sudden, I had this vision of a giant abyss, a pit, and I was being pulled down into that pit, and it scared me to death, and God said, this is where you're headed, but there is time, come back home. She said, that vision terrified me. He said, we compared the time she had the vision, it was at the very time that our church was crying out for Jesus Christ to bring her back. So there is power in prayer.
Y'all believe that? So, are you a spiritually healthy Christian? Do you encourage and bless or do you gripe and complain all the time? Number two, do you pray for other Christians? Number three, do you want to be around other Christians?
You wanna gather with other Christians like you're gathering today. I want you to look at verse 10. Paul says, I'm making a request to God if, by some means, now at last, I may find a way in the will of God to come to you, to come to your church.
For I, he's not even met these people before. For I long to see you, verse 13. Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I'd often planned to come to you, but I was hindered until now. Here's what Paul's saying. I'm about 700 miles away from you in Corinth, and I am desperate to go that 700 miles over rivers, over mountains, fight bandits, fight sickness.
I wanna go 700 miles for one reason. I just wanna gather with you in your church. That's what Paul wants. And I can't get Christians to come if it's raining outside. Or if you have to wait 10 extra minutes to get into the parking lot because of the traffic, I'm giving up and going home. The guy's like, I'm gonna travel 700 miles to get to you. Do you understand that kind of heart that Paul says, I'm a believer and I want desperately to be with other believers.
If the Barna poll is right, the latest Barna poll says this. If a Christian goes to a church once a month, they consider themselves active church members once a month. If I feel like it, I'll go to church. The Apostle Paul does not understand that.
The Apostle Paul says, I love Jesus so much, my heart for Jesus Christ causes me to want to be with the people of God. Listen to me, you're saying, Chad, are you saying if I don't go to church, I'm going to hell, I'm not a Christian? That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is I don't understand that mindset.
That is what I am saying. Hey, the church is called the body of Christ. If you're to tell me, Chad, I love you, it's just your appearance. Your body physically makes me sick. I don't wanna be near you.
I like you, I just don't like your physical body. That doesn't make sense, does it? The church is called the bride of Christ. If you're to tell me, Chad, I love you, but your wife disgusts me, I can't stand her, I don't wanna be near her, but I like you, I'd say, come out. It doesn't work that way.
You can't say you love me, but you hate my bride. And so I just, I'm not saying if you don't go to church, you're not a Christian. It's not what I'm saying.
What I am saying is I don't understand that mentality. The apostle Paul says, I am desperate to be with God's people. Well, Pastor Chad, Pastor Chad, you don't understand. I have been hurt by the, oh God, here we go. I'm so tired of hearing this stuff. We all get hurt by Christians. We're an imperfect group of people, but that doesn't really make a difference here.
We still belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you love Jesus, you love his bride. I mean, I was thinking about this this past week. You get a magnet and steel. Magnets are going to attract steel. Steel will be drawn to a magnet. You don't have to beg the steel to go to the magnet. The steel doesn't go to the magnet once a month if it feels like it. If a steel gets his hurt, his feelings hurt, he doesn't stop getting drawn to the magnet. There is something about the nature of steel that it's drawn to a magnet, and when you get born again, Jesus changes your nature, and part of your nature is you want to be drawn to other Christians. Even though we can say stupid things and we can hurt people's feelings, there is something inherent in being a follower of Jesus Christ, you just want to be with the people of God.
So how you doing so far in your checkup? Are you the one that blesses, or do you gripe all the time? Do you pray for other Christians? Do you want to be with other believers?
Here's a fourth test. Are you more focused on getting from the church, getting from your brothers and sisters, or are you more focused on giving to the body of Christ, blessing the body of Christ? Because look what the Apostle Paul says here in verse 11. For I long to see you, why? Because I want to impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established.
I want to come bless you. Just telling you, okay. The consumer mentality is infiltrated to the body of Christ today. See, we're consumers out there, and we come here and we think, well, it's all about me, because I just listened to that Burger King commercial. At BK, have it your way. You know what I'm talking about? At BK, have it your way. If I hear that song one more time, I'm going to go on a shooting spree. I'm tired of hearing the commercial, but here's what we say. What BK says, have it your way. So I come to church, and I'm supposed to have it my way.
I want the temperature set at this degrees. I want the pastor to preach this sermon. I want the people to sing this song that's consumerism.
I tell DirecTV exactly which channels I want, and DirecTV gives me my channels. And some people are not trying to be mean. No, I just thought I get to come to church and tell them what I want, and you're supposed to give it to me, because I go to church to have my needs met. Since when was Christianity about having your needs met? The apostle Paul says, no, I am here to bless others. I want to speak into the lives of others. I want to impart spiritual gifts into others. There's something about being a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ that says it's not about me. I want to bless. Now, I'll be honest with you. Some of this consumer mentality that we're seeing in the body of Christ, we leaders have got to do a gut check, because it's gotten crazy out there.
This is why they're, let me say this. If you have a nationally renowned Christian leader come to cross assembly, you'll know that I've thoroughly bedded them, because I don't put up with the attitude that I'm about to give you. I was reading about a Christian speaker who travels all over the nation, and here's what she demands if she's going to come and speak at your church. She wants a $5,000 deposit just to secure the speaking date. She wants a 70-30 split of all the offerings raised at her event.
She wants a first-class airline ticket for her and three coach tickets for her assistance, one presidential or executive suite at a five-star hotel, two king rooms and one double room at a five-star hotel, and room service available 24-7. Paul is the number one Christian celebrity in the world at that time, and he says, forget about love offerings. I don't care. I just want to come to your church, because I want to bless you. Do you see the difference between that and the American church today? And so, my question to you, Jesus himself put it this way. He said, even the Son of Man, do you know who the Son of Man is? It's Jesus, God in flesh. Even me, Jesus, God in flesh, did not come to this world to be served, but to do what?
To serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Do you understand? It is spiritually sick for us to go around thinking everybody owes us something. Paul says, no, no, no, I just want to bless you.
How are we doing on the test so far? Do you bless and encourage other Christians? Do you pray for other Christians? Do you even want to be around and gather with other Christians? Do you want to give more than you want to get? And let me give you a fifth, I guess, test of your spiritual health.
Do you want to see other people come to the Lord Jesus Christ? Verse 14, Paul says, I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and unwise, unlearned. Now there's parallelism here. Greeks and wise go together, because Greeks were the intellectual elite, they were the sophisticated North Raleigh people. Barbarians and unwise go together.
These are not the educated people, these are the down and outers. In fact, the word barbarian, it's, have you ever heard of this term? Do you remember studying this in English? Have you ever heard of this term, onomatopoeia? Have you heard of that? Where the word itself kind of sounds like what it's trying to describe.
Barbarians is an example of onomatopoeia, because to Greeks, when they went to all these uncultured people, all these uncultured Germanic tribes or Frankish tribes, the way they talked, they thought they were just going bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, and so they called them barbarians. What the Apostle Paul is saying, I don't care if you're rich with a PhD, or I don't care if you're a homeless person on the street, I just want to see people come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says something very interesting here.
Do you see this? Paul says, I am a debtor, I'm indebted, both to Greeks, and I'm indebted to barbarians. Now what does it mean by I'm indebted to? I can be indebted to you in one of two ways. If you loan me money, and you say you owe me, I'm indebted to you. If you loan me money to give to that person, I am now indebted to her, because you gave me money to give to her, and until I give her that money, I'm actually in debt to her, because you gave me the money to give to her.
Does that make sense? The Apostle Paul says, I'm indebted to Greeks and to barbarians, why? Because God gave me this beautiful thing called the gospel, and he told me to give that gospel to these people, and until I give the gospel to those people, I'm indebted to those people, because God gave me something to give to them. If you're a born again believer, and you're a healthy Christian, you're going to want to see other Christians, other people come to Jesus Christ.
I don't have to beg you, it just happens, it's natural. Now, I'm gonna share a story with you that I had a professor share this with my class, he was a great man, pastored I think the First Baptist Church of Charlotte, and he told us this story about a prominent pastor here in North Carolina, but I can't verify the story, because the professor's gone on to be with Jesus, and that pastor's gone on to be with Jesus. I'm just gonna share with you what he shared with me, but it was a sobering story. He said, this professor said, my friend that's this prominent pastor in North Carolina years ago, he was scheduled to go preach a revival in a neighboring state, like Virginia, Tennessee, something. And so he said, it's a week-long revival, he said he was driving to, let's say it's Tennessee, driving to Tennessee, and he had to stop and get gas. So he said, I stopped to get gas at this convenience store, and started talking to the guy behind the counter for the days of Pay at the Pump.
I was talking to the guy behind the counter, and he said, I just kinda started sharing Jesus with him. And he said, I could tell the guy was interested. And he said, all of a sudden I looked at my watch, I said, shoot, I'm supposed to be in Tennessee in a short time, I gotta hurry to get there. He said, I told the guy, let's call a quick time out. He said, do you work here next week?
The guy said, yeah, I work, told him the days. He said, look, I'm preaching this revival, I'm coming back, I'm gonna talk to you a little bit more about this. And the guy was like, man, I'd love to hear you talk about this. He said, I go to Tennessee, preach the revival, and he said, I'm so excited about going back through and talking to this guy that I'd established this rapport with. He said, I'm driving, driving, and he said, I get to the convenience store, and as I'm walking in, I notice there's a spray of flowers right there. And I go inside, and I say to the guy behind the counter, he said, man, I'm looking for so and so. He said, so and so? He said, yeah. He said, do you not hear?
This place was held up a few days ago, and he was shot and killed here. And this guy said, that man went into eternity as far as I knew, not knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, because I was too busy to take a few extra minutes and share the gospel with him, and I vowed to the Lord, if you give me an opportunity to share the gospel from here on out, I will never short circuit that. I'll do what you tell me to do.
He said, it broke my heart. Beloved, I want to have that kind of heart that says to people, it's more important for me to be at point A on time. It's worth me slowing down my life just a little bit to share the gospel. If you're a true born again believer, you realize you are indebted to lost people, because God has given you something to give to them, and until you give it to them, you're indebted to them, and that's the good news of Jesus Christ. And so, look, I'm not trying to put the guilt trip on you, because I'm going to make you feel better in just a second, but I want us to do a recap of the spiritual checkup. Do you bless and encourage other Christians?
Do you just speak blessing, or do you complain all the time? Number two, do you pray for other Christians? Number three, do you want to be around other believers? Sunday morning, you can't keep me away from this place.
I want to be here. Number four, do you want to bless and give more than you want to receive and get? And number five, do you want to see others come to the Lord Jesus Christ? And let me show you how Paul ends this section. It's very interesting what he says here in verse 15. He says, I want to come, church, to see you. Verse 15, so, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
Now, stop right there. That doesn't make any sense. He's saying to people who are born again already, they're already saved. I want to come to you and preach the gospel to you.
Paul, that doesn't make any sense. You preach the gospel to lost people, okay? You don't preach it to other Christians because they're already born again. Do you understand what I'm saying? Why don't you want to go preach to a bunch of Christians who are already born again?
I love this quote. The gospel is not the ABCs of Christianity, it's the A through Z of Christianity. You never get away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul is saying to these Christians, I know you're born again already, but I just want to share the good news of Jesus Christ with you. It's healthy to preach gospel to Christians.
I want you to understand something. I preach the gospel to myself every single day. At least once a day, Chad Harvey reminds himself of the gospel. I got that from Alistair Begg, great preacher.
Alistair Begg says, I've now gotten into the spiritual discipline at least once a day, reminding myself of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was talking to a man this past week. God has permission to share this, I won't share the name, the details aren't important, but he and I sat down and he said, Chad, you've walked with me for the last 20 something years. I said, yeah.
I didn't initiate this, he said this to me. He said, you know some of the stuff I've done. Some of the sin issues and the wickedness that I've gotten caught up into.
I said, man, I do. And he says, but I'm here today and I still love the Lord Jesus and I've gotten knocked down a bunch. I still love the Lord and I'm still walking with him and I said, I know, because it's amazing.
I know some of the junk that you've been through and what you've done. And yet you haven't walked away from Jesus. And we got on this subject of preaching the gospel to ourselves every single day. He says, every day, I can't deny this.
It's right here, the memory's here. Every day I'm reminded of how I failed God. And every day I tell myself, but God, you knew that from the foundation of the earth and you still sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sin. He died for that wickedness. He hung on that cross in my place for that wickedness. He paid the price for my wickedness. I am covered in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has forgiven me of that wickedness through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And just as Jesus was buried and was raised up, one day my body will go into the ground but my spirit is gonna raise up and I'm gonna be with the Lord Jesus Christ forever and ever.
Why? Because that man died on the cross for me 2,000 years ago. My only hope is in the blood of Jesus Christ. Every single day, I have to remind myself of that. Paul is saying to the church at Rome, I know you're born again, but I gotta come and preach the gospel and remind you one more time, you are saved because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I wanna, listen to me. Sean just shared this a few minutes ago. Revelation says they overcome Satan by the blood of the lamb.
Why is that important? Because did you know that the book of Revelation causes Satan, the accuser of the brothers and the sisters day and night. How many of y'all have experienced that before? Day, I'm reminded, it was just something popping in my mind, just how wicked I am. At night, I wake up in the middle of the night and I remember what happened 20 years ago.
I remember the affair, I remember the abortion, I remember the porn, I remember the whatever. Day and night, the accuser comes at me. How do you fight him? Only one way, through the blood of Jesus Christ. You say to Satan, everything you've just said about me is true, but 2000 years ago, that man died on the cross for my sins and when I gave my life to Jesus, I was covered in the blood of Jesus. And so now when God looks at me, he doesn't see the sin, he sees the blood because I'm covered in the blood of Jesus Christ. We overcome Satan by the blood of the lamb. Would you stand with me right now? If you've been redeemed, if you've been forgiven, if you've been sanctified and adopted and given the Holy Spirit, would you lift your hands and lift your voices right now and thank the Father for the precious blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from how much unrighteousness? All unrighteousness. Let's sing this to the Lord right now. Here and now I draw a boundary against every weapon that's formed.
The thief and his plans will pass over where he sees the red on the door. I plead the blood. The enemy can't take my family because this home belongs to the Lord.
So I'm not afraid to remind him that he has no claim in this war. I plead the blood. I plead the blood of Jesus more than he does. I plead the blood of Jesus.
My future is glory to glory. My freedom's been purchased in full for all of the weight of his suffering. The lamb will receive his reward. I plead the blood. I plead the blood of Jesus more than he does. I plead the blood of Jesus.
My shield and my shelter, it's my defence. I claim it over and over again. I plead the blood. I plead the blood of Jesus.
I'm gonna say it one more time. What do they do by the blood of the lamb? They overcame him by the blood of the lamb. Y'all are overcomers, which means the enemy attacks, you get knocked down, you get back up, you keep overcoming. He accuses you, you feel bad for a few moments, but you get back up and you keep moving forward. We overcome Satan by the blood of the lamb, the forces of hell.
Listen to me right now. Would you tell me God could never forgive you for what you did? You're telling me the powers of hell have more power than the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And brother, that ain't right. There's nothing more powerful than the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So if I said it before, I'm gonna say it again. Lift up your head, throw your shoulders back, walk with a little bit of divine cockiness and understand who you are in Jesus Christ and what God said to Joshua, I say to you, chazak ve'ematz. Altarot, je'archet. Hee and echa, Adonai, elehecha, behold, eshetelech.
Which means cross assembly. Y'all be bold, you be strong, you don't be afraid, you don't be intimidated by nothing. Why? Because the Lord your God is gonna be with you everywhere you go in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and the people of God said amen and amen. God bless you. Make sure you go by and see our missionaries. God bless you.
