Sermon Transcript:

Okay, we are blessed to have pastor Larry Floyd back with us after a week out. Please give a warm welcome to pastor. Larry Floyd,

well, I just want to say I had to be at another church this past Sunday because of something that was already on the calendar before I knew it was coming here so

But Dr Kremer, I heard, did a fine job last week, advice from God was his sermon title. Now I have to go back to

my brother just harped a lot on my favorite team in all of sports,

in the original Stadium in Irving, Texas when it was built in the 60s,

there was a hole in the roof. They didn't have no cover like they have now, and the reason being is so that God could look down on his team and pray for them as they played every Sunday.

I thought you all would like that.

So today's message is called no other Gospel. The Gospel for all. We're our whole sermon series is no other gospel, and this is called the gospel for all. We're going to move into Galatians chapter two. But I want you to know that the good news of Jesus Christ is for everybody. It's not just for you, and it's not just for me, but the gospel was created so that it could be for everybody, and so the globe, the world, our community, our nation, needs the gospel of Jesus. It's for everybody. We can proclaim it wherever we go. And sometimes we think we're in places that we're not we're unable to do that. I work for the government, or I do this, or I go to school. Listen, if you're willing to preach the gospel, to give advice, to talk about the Jesus, he's going to open up a door for you to spread the Gospel. And I think the problem is sometimes with us is that we don't actually pray for an opportunity. We're talking about prayer this morning. We have to pray for an opportunity for God to open that door. Because if they ask us, even, no matter what situation you're in, that gives us the ability and the availability to spread the gospel, to tell people about what's what's going on with us. This is our mandate. Before we get into our text. I'm going to read Matthew chapter 28

I know I might say 20 up there, but Matthew 2816

through 20 says this. Then

the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. That is our mandate as believers. Jesus gave that as he was leaving this earth, and He said, This is what I want you to do. So disciples listen to the voice of Jesus. We follow Jesus in verse 16. And then he also says, there's always going to be those that doubt among us, right? It is not our job to say, well, if they don't come to Christ, if I share the Gospel, then that means I did. I failed at what I was supposed to do. No, no, that's not your job. That's God's job. He said, there's always going to be doubters among us. There's going to be those that just don't believe. They're going to be among us. But Jesus has given us our marching orders in verses 17 through 20 word, where we go we preach and we tell everybody about the gospel, and we need everybody to hear that. That's our marching orders. That's who we are. So with that in mind as we read this text in Galatians, two I want you to be reminded of, Hey, am I doing what I've been called to do? See if you've placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you've made him the Lord of your life, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords into your life, then you must obey what He tells us to do. It's not an option.

You see, there is no optional. Christian, well, I'll do it just in case. You know, if I have to, no, no, you must listen. If you're not aware of what's going on in the world today,

I don't know about you, but there's not that much time left on this earth. The worlds are colliding all around us. The nations are coming together. And there's this preparation for the end to come, and it will come. It may not be in my lifetime, but it may be in the lifetime of Gen Z, Gen alpha, or Gen Z, you know, I'll be 60 in January, so I may be out of here before that happens, but it is percolating right now and marinating all across our globe. Nations are coming across against nations, and there will be an end to this chaos on this earth. But while we're here in the meantime, let's spread the gospel. Amen. Let's do what God has called us to do, because people need Jesus more than they've ever needed him before.

The Gospel is spreading across the globe. South of the equator, like fire, everybody is coming to Christ. There's tons of people coming to Christ, hundreds of 1000s of new believers every year. And sometimes we say we don't see that in the United States. Listen, let's change it. Then we don't see that in an El Paso. Well, let's change it. God placed you here to do that. That's what we're supposed to do. So as we think about that, when we read this text, you're

going to understand so let's stand to our feet. It was read Galatians, chapter two, verses, one through 10.

Galatians, two, one through 10.

Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas, I took Titus also along. I went in response to a revelation, and meeting privately with these esteemed as leaders, or those esteemed as leaders, and I presented them. I presented to them the gospel that I preached among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running, and had not been running my race in vain, yet not even Titus, who was with me, who compelled me to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.

This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

I want you to catch that for a moment the truth of the gospel has been preserved for you.

This again, this letter was written at about 45 to 49 ad, right after Jesus had died in 33 ad, so it's a very, relatively new letter that was circulating among the community of Galatia. In verse six, it says, As for those who were held in high esteem, whatever they were makes no difference to me. God does not show favoritism. They added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised, for God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised was also in work at me as an apostle to the Gentiles. James Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. When they recognized the grace given to me, they agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. All that they ask is that we would continue to remember the poor, the very thing that I had been eager to do all along, father. Thank you for your word, and I pray this morning, it will penetrate into our bone marrow, dividing the good from the evil, as it says in Hebrews in Jesus name. I pray amen. You may have a seat.

My first point is the gospel is available for all. And verses one through three

in our in our text, James Paul's talking about these leaders that he went to go see, and these were leaders that he called pillars, esteemed in what they do, and they're leaders of the church. And he said, I wanted to go there just for this thing. I wanted to make sure what I was doing was on par with what they the original gospels. Intent was because they had been separated, he'd been going to the Gentiles, and these leaders were preaching to the Jewish people. And he said, I wanted to make sure our Gospel was the same.

You see, sometimes we go from church to church and we hear things and we go, I'm not sure that's the same gospel. The only way we can know that is to know what the Scriptures teach us, amen, because there are other gospels being proclaimed from pulpits across America that kind of stretch the truth.

They say things that are not biblical. And so we can only go by what the Bible says. Paul says, I always want to go check up on my leaders. Is basically what he's saying. He wanted to make sure that they were still telling everybody that they can be saved by accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. That's number one. If you step out of here and go to another church and they don't ever preach that Jesus is the only way, I say run from that church as fast as you can, because they're trying to teach you another gospel. Every week, there should be an opportunity for people to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, so that you can bring your family, your friends, your neighbors, to the church to know that there's going to be an opportunity for them to be saved. That's what church is for. That's what Sunday morning is for. It's not for us to Yes, we go deep into the scriptures sometimes, but it's really discipleship. Happens as you live life, as you live out the scriptures in your life, and then you bring somebody alongside you, and you make disciples of them. Sunday mornings are for the unsaved and for us to encourage each other, but it's for an opportunity to bring us, bring people to Christ and to teach us how we can be better people of God. So he wanted to make sure that everybody was still preaching that in verse one, he went to follow up with his good friend, Barnabas and Titus and the guys that he could count on, that people that Jesus is still the way, the truth and life. That's what he wanted to make sure nothing has changed.

Is about the gospel. It's still valid today.

Listen. People are trying to change the gospel all the time. Don't listen to them. Make sure that you know what the Bible says. If you're going to be a minister of the gospel of Jesus, there's no way that you can do it alone. You can't we need accountability partners as we go through this life. Amen, we have to have people come alongside us to keep us in check. Listen, before I went to seminary, I got saved when I was 25 years old, the only thing that I had was a study Bible, and I was studying on my own. That's great, but I wanted to go learn by biblical scholars so that I understood the gospel, so that I could present it in a way that was receiving the truth every time that I preached it. And so I had to have accountability partners for that. And that's what that was, what my seminary experience was. So if you're a lone ranger Christian, one that's walking through this life on your own, and say, I don't need anybody, you know, there's some people they've been watching online, you know, say I need to actually go into a body of believers. That's not That's not biblical. We are supposed to go to church, encourage each other and bring people to Christ. That's what it's for.

In verses two and three, the great, mighty Paul gives us insight to this accountability that I'm talking about. Verse two, he says I went because I had a revelation. Now sometimes this statement actually scares people. You know, you all God gave me this great revelation. Listen, don't be as scared of what God's trying to reveal to it to you. Amen, don't be afraid. But when he does talk to you, and when you're not sure about what he's telling you, make sure you go and ask some wise counsel and say, Hey, I think God is asking me these and there's where Paul's he's out on his own planting churches. He he went back to the leaders, and he wanted to make sure that what he was preaching, what he was receiving as a revelation of God, was biblical, was what needed to be passed on. And we need to do that. And we need to make sure that our doctrine is sound, that is founded in the scriptures. You see, there are a lot of people saying different things that God told me this and God told me that that are not biblical. They must go with what Scripture says. So sometimes it's an outright lie that's being told to you.

So I want to qualify that. Second Corinthians chapter 11, verses 12 through 15. Second, Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 12 through 15, says this, I will keep on doing what I'm in doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things that they boast. For such people are false teachers or false apostles, deceitful workers masquerading as apostles of Christ, and no wonder for Satan himself masquerades around as an angel of light. It's not surprising, then, if his servants also mask around as servants of righteousness, their end will be what their actions deserve. Listen, there are wolves and Sheep's Clothing among us all the time trying to present their own light instead of Jesus's light. We must know what the Scriptures teach us. The key to is to stay the course. Paul says, Keep on doing what God has called you to do, as long as it lines up with the right doctrine. Amen.

Listen, I know that all of us want to have this great testimony. Oh man, God did this for me. God, listen your testimony is to be faithful and accountable and and and sound in what you believe and knowing the scriptures. Sometimes we want to champion one of our own causes. It could be a great cause, but it may not be the right season to do that. It might not be the right time be patient. Verse two says, here's the accountability part. Paul says, I want to make sure that I wasn't alone in what God was revealing to me. I don't hear that a lot from ministers. They don't have accountability partners. I have a group of 85 churches, and I have what I call an executive leadership team, and I surround myself with 12 pastors that are actively seeking God and so that make sure, as I guide pastors and what they're doing, that I am still also being accountable to what I'm doing. Well, God is revealing to me. It must line up with the doctrine and the scriptures. I don't want to get ahead of God and make sure that we're on the right page. And that's what Paul's just trying to teach us here. He says, Why does he do that?

Why would Paul go to such lengths to go back to Jerusalem after being gone for 14 years and to visit with these esteemed leaders so that the gospel can be preserved for us, to make sure that it's exactly what Jesus wanted us to hear. And he goes to great lengths to make sure that that happens so the gospel is available to everybody, not just some people. So the same message being portrayed back in 45 ad is still being portrayed today in 2024 Amen, the same gospel, same message. Verse three is really strange, if you look at that verse, unless you understand the law of circumcision,

male Jews are.

Circumcised on the eighth day. And there's some young people here. I'm not going to go into exactly what that is. You know what that is? Titus was a Greek, and he was not part of that culture. But the reason Paul makes mention of this is they asked him to be circumcised because they thought being circumcised after you became a believer, said, Well, now you really want a part of us listen. You don't have to do those things. Jesus is the only way to God. I'm the Way, the Truth and Life. We only have to come to Him. We don't have to do extra things. We just sang this song called grace upon grace upon grace. And that's really where God is at in our lives. Is, you know, we say God is a God of second chances. He's not a God of second chances. He's a God of second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, as many chances, as many times as many graces that you need Amen. He is not just one time. And if I mess up, I'm going to go back to who I was. No, you mess up and you come back to the altar. We give an altar call. Get your life right, come back to Jesus, reconnect with God. He's a God that will say, grace upon grace upon grace, as many as graces as it takes for you to get your life with God. He doesn't care that you fail last night. The point is that you're going to get up this morning and say, I love Jesus again. Amen. That's what we have to do. That's why it's important. As important as the we have this thing called baptism, and we'll have that in about another month, as God has led you to be a become a believer, that's the next step that we call obedience. But listen, I want to be absolutely clear, baptism does not save you. Do

I need to hide? Is somebody going to throw something at me? It does not save you.

Jesus' death on the cross and His blood shed for you and the forgiveness of your sins is what saves you. Baptism is the outward expression of what he's done on the inside of your life. It's important. It's an act of obedience. We have to do it. But listen, you don't have to be baptized to go to heaven.

I'm an advocate for baptism because I want you to proclaim your faith in public of being baptized, and that's what it says. We we say this statement, buried with Christ in His death, raised to live a new life. We want to bury our old self, and we want to raise and start living for Him. That's the purpose of baptism. It's an important aspect, but Jesus's death in reality, is what saves you from your sins. Am I

confusing you all this morning? Alright,

there's no way Paul was going to allow circumcision

to be part of salvation. It

just wasn't biblical. It's not biblical. It's Jesus, and only Jesus, and only the scriptures. That's what he proclaimed. Since the gospel is available to all, have you received Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior? Have you opened up your life? You may be one of those ones. He's talking about the what we call fakers in church. You know it's like you just go, just to see what's happening. Imma, see what they have to say today. Listen, if you're here, just get your life right with Jesus. Give Him your life. Say, I want Jesus. I want that. I want what the Bible's talking about, how to become straight with God. Secondly, the good news is preserved for all. The gospel is preserved for all. In verses four and five, the matter came to arose false believers had infiltrated. So you know, you can know for sure,

for a fact. We're always going to have those that proclaim to have to have a relationship with God, but truly don't.

They're there for their own agenda. They want to make sure they sit in their own seat. They want to make sure they sit by their people. They want to make sure the color of the carpet is the correct color they want. To make sure the songs that are sung are what they want. You see, it's all it becomes about me,

and you have to be very careful with what we expect of here in life, church. Listen, when you come to church, we come for him. We don't come to get some fantasy fulfilled in our lives to say, well, I'll just go there so I can be a good person. No, we want your life to be changed. We want your life to be in filled with the Holy Spirit, so that you can live for him and and so that we're always going to have those that like to come for their own agenda.

They want to know if what we say is true.

It doesn't, doesn't line up what they've been taught. They're not going to believe it. You see, we have people that have been taught crazy things in religion, and they come and they go, Well, that's not what I was taught by my grandma.

Well, my mama didn't teach me that. Well, your mama didn't write the Bible, neither did your grandma. If she was saying something that doesn't line up with scripture, then it's up to us to say, this is what we believe. I believe in what the Bible says. And it's hard to stand up to your family when their faith is not biblical, amen. It's hard because it must be in a fight. Don't get in a fight. Love em, Grace em, grace upon grace upon grace. I learned that from a good friend in Del Rio.

She was always being attacked by people. And all she did a mission house, where mission groups would come in and stay at her place, and she'd feed them, and people used to always say bad things about her. And I would go, I would say her name. I'm not gonna say sorry. I know we're on video, but I would say, how do you how do you deal with people like that? She said, I Grace them.

And I said, What? She said, You know how water on you know, if you've ever seen a duck, and they get up all the way going to water, but the water just kind of rolls off their back. She said, That's what grace is, is you just allow it to roll off of you and you continue what God has called you to do. And I was like, but I want to get mad at him. I want to have an argument with them. No, that's not going to save them. That's not going to bring somebody to Christ. And so many times we get in these religious arguments. She never did that, and she taught us so much by the way she lived her life, because not everybody agreed with what she was doing. And she said, I just Grace them. And it's become a model of mine. It's like, Man, I deal with people sometimes, go, man,

are you sure you're in the ministry?

I have to Grace them, because I want them

to have a real encounter with Christ as well. You see,

the Scripture says those people infiltrate our ranks for you military, that's kind of military talk. We would never let somebody in our military coming inside that or an outsider to say we're going to start doing things this way. No, no, we have our marching orders. We have our this is who we are, even when we don't agree with what our leaders are telling us, we must line up and be in agreement so that in totality, we can march together. Right? And that's what ball is saying here. So listen, I'm the interim pastor here. I'm your temporary shepherd, and my calling is to make sure that people here are protected. I will not let somebody infiltrate the ranks here. Somebody tries to say, I want to do this. I want to do that. Let's say, if it lines up with Scripture and how we are they going to be accountable. That's the only way you're going to be handed a microphone or the stage, we have to make sure that you're in line with what we're doing your pastor, your previous pastor, would have never called me to come and preach to you if he didn't know who I was, because you don't just give the pulpit to anybody you want, people that are preaching the gospel. And that's what Paul is trying to say. There's only one way to protect you, sound teaching the truth about Jesus, about the Bible, and so when you're called to go, go out somewhere else, and some of you will not stay here permanently, you'll, you know, if you're in the military, they're going to call you and go somewhere else, you get to take Jesus with you. I consider that a mission ground. I consider that our our call. And verse five, this verse is a game changer. Listen, look at verse five. I want you to remember the day you had this verse explained to you. Okay? I want you to remember how precious the Word of God is. He says this, we did not give in them. Give in to them for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

Paul goes to great painstaking links to go and visit make sure he's doing the right thing. And then he says this. He says, Listen, the gospel as we have it today, has been preserved for you and mana for you to hold that in your hand, for you to say, I get to hold God's word in my hand. I get to see God's word for myself, because they went through so much trouble to make sure that the gospel would be preserved for me and for you, so that we know that what we hear is true. When you read the Bible and you stumble across verses like verse five, it's hard just to pass by. It's you need to go, Wow. Thank you for all the guys that went before us, all the ladies that went before us, all the pastors that went before us, that preserved the gospel for us so that we can know the truth.

Hard to imagine that what went into a preservation of the Bible, right? It's amazing.

I've been to seminary and been to different things and everything. It's amazing the preservation of the Gospel for us to have it correctly. It's exciting to be able to study and teach something that's beyond us. That's so amazing. Don't pass this book. Stand on it with confidence, knowing that the Gospel is true. It's been protected for you and for me. So we don't have to make up clever things about who Jesus is. We don't have to make it up. It's all here. I

want to illustrate this in a text for you. Second Corinthians, chapter four, seven through 14. Second, Corinthians, chapter four, seven through 14. You may have a subtitle in your Bible that says Jars of Clay

for you old school guys here, there was a Christian group called Jars of Clay back in the past, but it says this, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We're hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body. For We Are we who are alive are always being given over.

Death, for Jesus's sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then death is at work in us, but life isn't at work in you. So listen, when you wanted to hide something back in the the biblical times, something of value. It was crazy to think that they would put something of value in these breakable clay jars that were worthless, but they did it so people wouldn't actually look for them in there, because you would go, well, they're no, they're not going to put anything value in something that's breakable. But that's exactly what Jesus does with the gospel. He hides it in this breakable mortal body that is so valuable. So when we break Jesus is revealed, so that something of value is revealed. And that's when Jesus, when Paul wrote in Corinthians as well, he said, he takes the

the weak things of this world to make them strong. He takes the the things that are that we think are wise in people's eyes, to shame them, to show them that this is what the gospel is really about. Listen, it's amazing what we have that God has bestowed upon us in this jar of clay that we are we're breakable, we're weak, we're not strong. But when a when we do break, the Gospel comes out from us. Jesus is revealed. The Bible has been preserved to everybody so that they can understand who Christ is. Have you had a breakthrough with Christ? Have you asked Jesus to be the Lord of your life? Have you allowed your body to be crushed for him so that Jesus can be revealed? Listen, he's available to you today. He's available to me. Ask him to be the Lord. Lastly, the gospel is preached to all. In our last verses, six through 10, the gospel is preached to all. Paul breaks it down in these last verses. Let's look at verse six. If you've ever wondered why God seems to show more favor on some people than he does others,

well, don't

God says? Paul said, God doesn't show favoritism.

God doesn't have teacher's pets. Now, if you're a teacher's pet in your class, or you were sorry, we didn't like you people,

right? You guys got away with everything, everything they did. The teacher was like, Oh, just be like, little Bobby over there, Susie or whatever, and you're just like, why?

Listen, God doesn't have teachers pets. What we see is people who are more obedient to God and responding to the obedience of what they've got called to, you see, and we think God has showed favoritism on them. What we really see is that God people being obedient to the call of God on their life, and we go, well, they God must like them more. No, he doesn't.

I want to talk to you, mom and dads for a minute. Those of you that have children more than one child,

don't show favoritism to one over the other. If you don't think that those kids can't sense that they will

listen. Everybody responds to love in different ways. You have to figure out how your kids respond to the love that you give them, and that's what God does with us. He shows us the same love, but each one of us responds differently to it, and so he's not showing us favoritism. But many Christians are satisfied with just this one thing, I'm just glad I'm not going to hell, right? I just want Jesus to be in my life so that I can go to heaven, because I don't want to suffer. And what the Bible describes in the things that will be going on in hell, hot body parts falling off,

endless, eternal separation from God, I don't want those things, so therefore I want to go to heaven. And it's like, it's like we as Christians walk around going, well, thank God, I'm going to heaven. At least I'm not going to that place. That's not all there is to this life. Listen, if heaven was the goal, when you gave your life to Christ, he would whoosh you away and you would be out of here right away. If that was the goal, it's not the goal. The goal is that's our that's where we're going to spend our eternity. But the goal is to really is to take people with us, take as many people with us, so we have to share the gospel. He doesn't show favoritism. What I see is this,

hopefully some of you all have your steel toed boots on,

but this is what I see, ungrateful Christians are disobedient Christians, and what I mean by that is they're not grateful that God has entrusted the gospel to them because they don't share with anybody. They hold it for themselves. They're these secret agent Christians.

Verse six, God doesn't show favoritism, so even those pastors who are held in high esteem

and add something to the Gospel, says, Paul says it doesn't matter. It

doesn't matter. Paul knew that even pastors like myself are going to stand just like you before a holy God, and we're getting an account for the life that we've lived as well.

God, even as pastors. So don't hold us any higher. Yes, respect what we do. Respect the office of the pastorate, but listen, I need to be accountable for the gospel just like you do. I'm going to stand and give an account for my life. So will you. In verse seven, Paul makes a case for the call of God in a person's life, and he says to leaders that I've been called and entrusted to preach to the Gospels, and Peter's been called to preach to the Jews. We have a calling to preach or share or reveal the gospel to those that he's entrusted us with, whether they're Hispanics, angles, African American, Korean, whatever he's entrusted you. If they're in your circle of influence, it's your job to tell them about Jesus. You must do that. And that's what Paul's trying to call us out. He's like, listen, Peter had his call. I got my call. Matthew had his call. Everybody had their own call. They preached to their circle of influence, and you have yours as well.

Who has God entrusted you with?

If you're married, you have a spouse. He's entrusted you to lead that spouse. Men,

yes, I'm calling you out. Men, you are the spiritual leaders of your household. Your kids are looking for a leader they're looking for. What does my dad believe?

What does my father believe? That's your sphere of influence, your kids, your parents, your brothers, your sisters, your friends, your coworkers, your classmates, your neighbors, your grandchildren, and the list goes on and on. God has entrusted you to share the gospel with them.

Why would he have given you that family? If that wasn't the case,

we all have a sphere of influence. No one is exempt,

and man, sometimes our influence, our people that God has entrusted us with,

that's tough, isn't it?

You just go, I can't God. You just don't know. Yes, I do.

I know exactly what you're going through, because I have them in my family too. I have them in my friends too. I have them as pastors too. I have that sphere of influence that I wonder, why are they in my life?

I'll tell you why, so that you can be an obedient Christian and be a grateful Christian that God has given you somebody to share the gospel with. That's your job. Look at what Paul says in verse eight. He says, the same God who was at work at Peter was also at work in me, the same God,

not a different god, the same God.

And I love that. Paul says that there are, there is no other gods. They're just false gods out there. But he's saying the same God that was in work in Peter is in work at me, and he's at work in you, the same God you have, the same power that I have to preach the gospel. I may have studied a little more than you, but that doesn't omit, that doesn't negate the fact that you still have to preach the gospel. And you said, Pastor, I don't know what the gospel teaches or says, well, then learn,

figure it out, because you've been called to do it.

The Real God is at work. So

I want to say this, the same God who's at work in me is available to be at work in you, same God.

I don't have any more anointing than you do.

I just try to be obedient

each day because it's a daily struggle. Remember, I've said this before. Sometimes we wake up and we don't feel like we're in the kingdom of God or in his work, because we just start doing things that aren't godly and that gets in our way. Same God who has preserved the gospel for me, has preserved the gospel for you, the same God who I that I preach, is available for you to preach to your family and your sphere of influence, your circle and my circle are not the same. So it's not my job to go tell your family about Jesus. It's your job to tell your family I got my own family to worry about. Amen, it's your job. God entrusted you with them. So do it. Verse nine, James, Peter John, known as pillars of the New Covenant, they extend their hand to Paul Barnabas and Titus, and now they're extending their hand to me and to you, and say, Listen, we preserve the gospel for you so that you can share it, because it's in breakable jars of clay.

We don't have to create anything new. We just have to extend the hand of fellowship to those around us. Verse 10 keeps everybody humble. Look at Verse 10 with me.

I want you to study that verse i

all i all they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing that had been eager to do all along. Listen, we can do all of these things for God and all of these people are around us that have a need. And it's not just the poor financially. They're.

Poor in spirit.

Paul says, Listen, if we go and preach the gospel, but we will meet those that need it the most. We're not doing our job. We're not doing what God has called us to do.

Oh, church, do you hear Paul crying out to you today,

I went to a dinner last night

at the rescue mission of El Paso. Have you never been there? If you don't know who Blake burrow is, you need to meet him. He's a trial lawyer. 27 years ago, God called him to start serving as a homeless administrator.

He has no experience doing that, and he'll tell you that himself.

But last night, he was faithful to preach the gospel to those that need it the most, those that are among us on every corner in El Paso, those that we see and we go, well, that's not my job. It is our job.

And he's doing amazing things there, and you guys need to get connected to him. I know that Life Church has been down there as well, but some of you, not everybody, has been down there. But God, Paul is calling out to us today to preach the gospel to those that need it the most. It's easy to preach to those that already know the gospel. It's hard to preach it to those that need it the most. Second, Timothy, I'm going to close with this four. One through four says this

second, Timothy, four, verses one through four, in the presence of God and of Christ, Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and His Kingdom, I give you this charge, preach the Word.

And I know Paul was talking to Timothy as a young pastor, but I believe it comes to us be prepared, in season and out of season, correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction for the time will come. We're here, we're there, we're already at that time, the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, they're going to suit their own desires, and they're going to gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths, old wife's tales, a different gospel, other than Jesus. All roads lead to Jesus, right? All religions lead to the same God.

We're all the same. We're all brothers and sisters in God's eyes. Listen, all roads do not lead to the same God. There's only one road that leads to the God, and that's Jesus. He said, I'm the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. There is no other way except through Christ. Are you telling others about Jesus?

Have you shared the gospel this week? What's preventing you from doing so if you don't know how to I will give you my personal cell phone number, and you can call me this week, and I will teach you how to share the gospel in a moment of three minutes, I will show you what the Scriptures say, and I will teach you how to share the the Scriptures. And for you to let the gospel speak for itself, you don't have to come up with these magic words in this magic potion or these great testimonies. All you need is a few verses from God's word, and you let God do his work. And I will show you, if you want to know if you're serious about it, you see me after church, I'll give you my cell phone number, and I will teach you how to do it. I will send you messages on how to do it, and you just try it, see what God does. So I

want to give you this time to respond to the gospel. Listen,

I know there are some here in the room this size that have never given their life to Jesus. There are some here that have been sitting next to people that are saved, hoping that the salvation rubs off on them, right? Let's be honest.

I call that osmosis, right? We just rub up against people and we think it's going to rub off against on us. It's great to be around people that are blessed. It's awesome because some of the blessings do fall your way. But wouldn't it be something if you could have Jesus for yourself and not having to be relying on other people to be blessed? You can have Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You can have the Lord of your life, change your life. Listen, this is an opportunity. We call this an invitation, because I want to invite you to come.

Hey, I know that this is new for this church. Man never had done this, you know, a lot of times. But listen, what an invitation does is it allows us opportunity to get serious with our Creator. It gets an opportunity to say, I want Christ in my personal life.

And the way you do that is simple. It's called, we teach this to kids ABC. You admit that you're a sinner. God, I'm a failure. We can all say that I'm a sinner. You believe in your.

Heart that God did what he said he was going to do.

And the third thing is, C, A, admit, B, believe. And C is confess. You confess Him as your Lord. You say, Jesus, I believe you are who you say you are, and you invite Him into your life.

And the Bible tells us this. In Romans, 10, nine and 10, it says, If you'll say that Jesus is Lord.

He says, Imma, come into your life if you believe that he was raised from the dead. He says, I will give you a testimony. If you'll just believe that and ask him to be the Lord of your life, you too can be saved, and it's not a salvation for today, it's a salvation forever. And as you're saved throughout your walk, you'll be sharing the same message with your sphere of influence, but you can't do it if you don't have Christ for real in your life. You can't base your testimony on somebody else's salvation. I say this all the time as I preach, I say, I wish I could accept Christ for you. I wish you knew what I knew about what how Jesus has changed my life. I wish that you could see what God has done in my life. All you do is hear about it, but my family's had a front row seat to the transformation in my life, and I want that for you.

You can't do it based on my testimony. It has to be your testimony. It has to be you receiving Christ. So this morning, as we sing this song, you have an opportunity to come and kneel before this altar and say, Jesus, I need you. I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I'm broken, and I want when I get broken, I want Jesus to come out of me, not the Satan that's in me right now. I want that out of my life. I want the real Christ, and so you come this morning, and maybe they're here this morning. And you know for a fact that you have Christ in your life, but you've walked away from him. You have not been walking with him. Come and reconnect with Jesus.

Come and reconnect with them. Maybe you've been saved here, and God is calling you to something bigger than just being here. There's opportunities to volunteer. Maybe God is calling you into the ministry. Wow. Could you imagine?

I'm a guy from Northeast El Paso, went to Irvin High School, left here in 1985 unsaved, and God called me to the ministry.

It doesn't matter where you're from, what your environment is, what your circumstances, God can use you. Maybe God's calling you to do that. Say, Pastor, I don't know what that is. I did the same thing. I said, God, if you want me, you're going to have to show me. But I surrender. The first step is saying I surrender. And that's what the altar call is for. Is for you to surrender your life to Christ, your life to reconnect with Christ, your life to the ministry. Maybe you're here and you've never been baptized, or maybe you've been baptized and you really haven't been saved. You thought baptism saved you,

it doesn't. Jesus is the only one that can save

you. So as we sing, you come and when the altar call is over, if you've made a decision for Christ, or you've made a decision for something else, please stop by the prayer room. Stop by there so that we can help you on your next steps. Let's pray,

God, this is your time. We thank you for the opportunity you've given us to hear Your word this morning. And I pray this morning, God, as we come to this opportunity to respond, I pray that you would work in the lives of these that are here and father, no matter what decision needs to be made, I give I pray that you give them the courage to move from where they're at to where you need them to be in Christ's name, I pray amen. Let's stand to our feet and sing. Amen.