Speaker Development Day

Well, good morning everyone. Glad to see you this morning and wanted to share something with you that is special for this particular Sunday. About five or six months ago Pastor Jonathan Drake came to me with an idea and he said what if we gave some of the folks in our ministry arena that don't normally have the opportunity, an opportunity to be able to develop in their speaking, their preaching, their communication, like on a Sunday morning. Now, my guess is that probably his idea was informed by the fact that as a young man he had an opportunity to do that and it contributed to his development. Well, I loved the idea, and I began to think about it and thought this would be a wonderful time frame here on this Labor Day weekend to be able to do that. Now some of these folks are younger in ministry and some of them are relatively young in ministry, but all of them have this in common, they don't normally communicate in these types of venues.

Now, at the Chapel, as a ministry we have obviously three different campuses, plus an online presence. At those campuses, we actually have eight different venues. There are two in the Worship Center at CrossPoint, there are two in the East Worship Center at the CrossPoint Campus, there are two at the Lockport Campus, and there are actually, even though they are simultaneous, there are two at the Cheektowaga Campus between two theaters. So what we're choosing to do today is we're going to have in those eight venues, eight different communicators that are going to have the opportunity to communicate with us today and teach us from the text. Now, so that you know, we've met with all of these communicators and we have agreed upon one particular passage of Scripture so in every one of our venues at the Chapel Campuses we're going to be hearing from the exact same text in every one of our venues. Now they're going to put their own kind of personality into this, and they're going to communicate in their own way, it's not an outline that myself or any of our pastors have already formed for them, this is going to be their preaching, their teaching. And it's going to be a wonderful opportunity for them to develop.

Now, what does that mean for us? Well, here's what it means for us. Just like every other week, when you come prepared to hear from God from His Word, you do the same today. I'm going to ask you to prepare your heart to be able to receive from the Lord, because God wants to say something to you and to me on this particular day through these particular people.

And I also know something else about the people of the Chapel and that's one of the reasons that I'm so honored to be able to serve this body of believers. You are a gracious people. I know that because we have had the opportunity here over fourteen years to be able to grow together and you've been so gracious to me. And I want you to show that same kind of grace and that same kind of love and that same kind of encouragement to every single one of these communicators today. I want you to listen for what God has to say and I want you to be able to find an opportunity, maybe even after the worship gathering to be able to encourage them in the fact that they've prepared and they've prayed and they've sought the Lord and they're going to be communicating God's Word to us today. This is a great development opportunity because there's really only one way that people development. They need the opportunities to be able to do that.

And who knows, some of these folks may very well at some point, be pastoring their own churches. We don't look forward to losing anybody at any point, but because of our mission we understand what that means. And that means that we prepare people so that they're prepared to be able to do what God's called them to do. So with that in mind, I want every one of you at every single venue on every single campus to right now welcome your guest communicator, encourage them, listen and give them a warm Chapel welcome.

Well, good morning. I know I'm not new to many of you, because we worship together at the 11:00 time here in this service. And I'm known as, this is what they call me in the office, the Pastor of Announcements. So, I almost confused the Scriptures with the new September monthly and was going to start announcing when the kids go back and when Movi starts.

But seriously, I am deeply humbled to be able to worship with the church I belong to in this way this morning. What a great privilege it is, I'm thankful for the leadership of this church and their investment in me as a young leader.

Before we get started, would you mind praying with me this morning. Father, we thank you for an opportunity to gather here together under your name, under your Spirit, to step out of the routine of our tasks, in our lives, and give your Word it's proper place. So God, I pray Ephesians 4:12 right now, that your Word would come alive in our hearts this morning. That your Word would be a window in which we can see you more clearly. God, that we would get a clear message from you this morning and it would provoke a response in our hearts that we would love and enjoy you even more. Father, I pray that your peace would come over our hearts this morning and that we would walk away knowing that we heard from you. Father, I ask that you bless me, and that my words would not be my own but your Spirit would be behind every one of them. Thank you Jesus, in your name I pray. Amen.

We're so glad you're here this morning. I've known that this day was coming for some weeks now. And I knew which passage I was going to be in, and so for those of you who are over-achievers this morning, if you want to head there early, we're going to find ourselves in Romans chapter 5. Just six simple verses in Romans chapter 5 in which we're going to be in this morning.

But I'm praying that the gospel is deep for you today, the depth of the gospel is deep for you today, and that you recognize the importance that we need to hear and preach the gospel to ourselves every day. You and I don't just need to hear the gospel on Christmas and Easter. We don't need it just on Sundays, we need it each and every single day and I'm just praying that God would illuminate that to you. You would see the depth of it and it would meet you where you're at.

The book of Romans is written by a guy named Paul. The apostle Paul has an incredible story. He was a religious leader in the Jewish culture who staunchly opposed Christianity. He hated the Christ movement, so much so that he persecuted and arrested Christians. Well, one day on his way to the city of Damascus to arrest Christians, he met Jesus and it changed his life forever. And he immediately began to proclaim this gospel message, this message that Christ died so that you and I could have life in Him. The theme of the book of Romans is that God justifies guilty condemned sinners by grace through faith alone in Christ.

And he's writing to a group of disciples in the city of Rome, the capital of the greatest empire the world had known at that time. He's writing to them because he wants to encourage them, but he also wants to provide them sound biblical doctrine. Now doctrine is just simply, it's a set of beliefs. So biblical doctrine is a set of beliefs about God and the Scriptures that reveal Him to us. And he's writing to them because he wants to encourage them. The book of Romans is a heavy book loaded with theological truths. That is truth simply about God.

But Paul placed a high, high priority on belief. See, he knew that belief, it effected every aspect of our lives. What you believe about yourself, what you believe about God, that effects your thoughts, your values, your behaviors. It effects the trajectory of our lives. That's why A. W. Tozer says what you and I believe about God is the most important thing about us. And so he wanted to give this group of disciples good, sound doctrine so they would believe about God correctly.

And so we're going to look at Romans chapter 5 verses 6-11 and what we'll do is we'll go through it from beginning to end and then we'll head back and dig a bit deeper. But if you would, you can read along with me, it is on the screen as well. He writes this: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

There's a lot packed in those six short verses and that is the picture of the gospel. But what is Paul trying to communicate to his listeners in Rome that you and I have to hear today? That's the question we must ask ourselves. I believe there's at least three things, at least three things we can pull from this text. I'm sure there's more, but for time's sake and what I believe God by His Spirit illuminated to me in my time with Him, I believe we can grab three things from this passage of Scripture.

The first one being God's love for us in Christ. He spends the first half of this passage talking about God's love for us in Christ. He writes, you see at just the right time this was God's perfect plan happening at the perfect time. We see back in Genesis chapter one with the first human beings. They made a decision to say no to God and yes to themselves. No, God, I've got this, I want to be a master of my own destiny, I want to follow my own ways. And as a result that brought separations between the divine and humanity.

But God promised a Messiah, a Savior, and at just the right time Jesus Christ stepped into human history. And why did He step into human history? Well, it says, Paul writes, to die for the ungodly.

Well, who is that? Who is the ungodly? Paul writes this in Romans 3:23: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's you, that's me, no one here this morning sitting in this room or watching on-line can stand up and say no, that's not me. Now I know that can be tough for us sometimes, for those of us who grew up in church backgrounds, or great home lives. The reality is, the Bible says that we are all sinners.

Now I know a word like sin is not popular in a culture like ours today. It's not. Actually, recently I heard someone say, I have no use for the word sin. I have no use for it. There's too much spiritual baggage, people used it for oppression. I have no use for the word sin. Well, my question to that is, well then what do you call evil? How do you describe cold-blooded murder? How do you classify child abuse? What about human trafficking, what do you call that where human beings are being sold? What about child sex-trafficking, where in Cambodia boys and girls are sold as young as five years old for someone's distorted pleasure and another person's greed? What do you call that? The Scriptures say it's sin.

Now, before you go to your own defense and say, well hey, I've never killed anyone, I've never sold a human being, I don't abuse children, the reality is those same evil acts, the root of that, the sin root of that resides in all of our hearts. The greed, the anger, the jealousy, the lust that resides in our hearts, and we're all affected by it. We're all stained by it.

A pastor in the 1800's, his name is Charles Spurgeon, he says that far better than I will. He says, as the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived. As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of your nature, and my nature.

And let's be real honest this morning if we can do that. Even our most noble acts are often marred by pride. Living in this culture, we have to fight all the time not to covet our neighbor, not to want what other people have around us. Living in this culture we have to fight against greed. Greed, wanting far more than we would ever need, because we're consumers and we just want. We're all affected by sin.

And as sinners, as Paul states in verse 10, we are enemies. He writes this in Romans 8:7: The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. So we're powerless, in this passage we're ungodly, we're sinners, we're enemies. And in Romans 8, a few chapters later he says how we are hostile to God.

But then he wraps it up and gives us the mind-blowing truth of the gospel and he writes in verse 8: but God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Do you understand that? Christ died for undeserving enemies. It's not just dying for a friend. It's dying for someone who hurt you, and has no regard. He did not wait for us to concede to His holiness, no Jesus Christ came, stepped into human history, became obedient to death on a cross because of His great love for you.

But I don't want us to miss something. Because Paul writes, "But God demonstrates His own love that Christ died for us". So why is demonstrates in the present but died is in the past? I mean I would have assumed he would have said that Christ demonstrated His love in the fact that He died, looking back to the past. Well we know why He wrote died. 1 Peter said this in 1 Peter 3:18: Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, that he might being us to God. Christ only had to die once for you and for me. One death paid for all the sins.

But why does he write "demonstrates"? That's in the present progressive tense, like God is demonstrating His love to you right now, right here. Because Paul doesn't want his listeners to question God's love and goodness. You and I may be tempted to look around and say, oh, my life, it's not, things aren't working out the way I wanted them to. I'm going through some tough times right now. God do you love me? God, where's your goodness in my life? He says look to the cross, look to what Jesus has done for you. This is objective proof of love.

We all look for objective proof of love, don't we? I mean, I'm sure a number of you in this room are married, and even those who aren't have been in relationships. Remember back to dating? And those days were the worst, weren't they? I mean, going around looking for someone to love. But let's be honest, we're actually going around looking for someone who would actually love us, right? I mean, I know myself. I look in the mirror and go, who's going to love this, right?

And I thought, you know, back in my day we called it game. If a guy had game in dating, right? And so, I thought my game needed some help so I had this brilliant idea. You know what, I'm going to start watching chick flicks. That way the girls that I come in contact with, they're going to thing I'm a sensitive guy. I'm in touch with my emotions, I want to be different.

Of course the funny thing is, I started watching them and I somehow I started to like them. Now, I know, I know. Someone from Fight Club is going to come up here right now and take my man card away. I get that. So but in reality I did, I started to like them, I was like, ah, that is a notebook I would read. Or I was like, sniff, sniff, that is a walk I'd like to remember.

But you remember those dating days when you were ready to profess your love? Or someone used those three big words, I love you. The truth is, it didn't just end there, did it? And for those of us who are married, that I do, that big I do. That was, it was a big deal, right? You're saying vows before a holy and perfect God. The reality is, it didn't just end there, did it? Okay, you told me you love me, now prove it. Oh, I want, I told someone I love them, but now want to demonstrate to them, I want to prove to them that I love them. So what did we do? We started spending time with that person. We started spending our hard-earned money. We started paying for a nice dates, buying them a gift that really would mean something. Or maybe buying them something really nice that they would never buy for themselves. We started giving of ourselves, we opened up that window of our hearts into who we really were, we started giving our emotional energy. We started giving of ourselves.

Well, spending and giving, words associated with sacrifice, with giving of oneself. And what Paul is stating is that the greatest act of love was the great sacrifice of Christ. The greatest act of love was the greatest sacrifice of Christ. John writes in 1 John, "There is no greater love than this, that Christ lay down His life."

And so Paul writes in Ephesians, walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Christ loved us and He gave Himself up for us. He doesn't want us to question God's love to us - God's love for us - that great, great love.

The second thing Paul wants us to see is God's work for us in Christ. He spends the second half of this passage talking about God's work for us in Christ - God's great love. Jesus came and He died. Then we respond. John 1:12 says that our response is to believe and receive. To believe Jesus is who He claimed to be, and to receive His forgiveness, to receive His grace, to receive the life He has for us.

And so what Paul spends verses 9 through 11 doing is talking about what happens when God accepts us. What happens when God accepts us. He writes this in verse 9: Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! We have now been justified by His love. He writes this in Romans 3: All are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. All are justified freely.

So what does this mean, justification? To be justified. This is one of those theological truths that I talked about in the beginning that provide us doctrine. What does that mean? Well, justified is a legal term. And so in Paul's day, the court system worked like this: there was a judge and then there was two people. The accuser and the accused. There wasn't a D.A, a public prosecutor. It was the accuser and the accused. And at the conclusion of the trial, the judge would pronounce his judgment and he would call one of the parties justified, or to be in the right. This party is in the right.

To be justified means that you and I - we are innocent of our sins and absolved from the punishment that comes with them. We are justified because of Jesus Christ. The reality is everyone in this room, watching online, we all do have an accuser. We have the same accuser. The Scriptures say his name is Satan, which means the accuser. But God looks at us and says you are right - or in other words - you are righteous.

Do you understand this is far more than just a pardon or an acquittal? We're not just on Nancy Grace, hearing her debate whether or not we're beyond a reasonable doubt. We are considered righteous. There is great freedom in justification. You and I stand before the Holy God and we are justified. We are righteous. Out of justification flows you and I living in the grace that's been given to us. Living in response to Jesus - good works, acts of obedience, following Christ even when we don't feel like it. Those are all out of gratitude - the fact that we are justified.

But do you want to know what else justified people do? They no longer look to justify themselves. Let's get real. You and I - we are great at justifying our own actions or our own thoughts, aren't we? Something happens and we respond in a way, our spirit's a little unsettled - ooh, I don't know if Jesus would have done it that way. And then we have that big but - BUT I'm justified. The reality is people who are justified by God no longer look to justify their own actions, their own ways. Instead they just follow the One who did it for them.

In verse 10 it describes the way, what happens when God accepts us in another way. It says this: For it, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Two times he uses the word reconciled. We were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son. We're justified and then we're reconciled.

What does it mean to be reconciled? Well, when two - there's a rift or a break between two people, reconciliation has to take place. Remember, we are sinners - powerless, ungodly. We were estranged from our creator and such estrangement can only be reversed by reconciliation. Reconciliation means there's no longer tension between two people, and what that means is there is no longer tension between man and God because of Jesus. There is no longer any tension.

Now we know as fallen, human - stained by sin - reconciliation, one, has to happen in our lives with others and it's also difficult. We're fallen people. Naturally people are going to offend us and hurt us. Of course we are going to hurt others. There's times where we have to extend forgiveness. There's times when we have to ask for forgiveness.

We've got to be careful not to project something on God that's not there. We could wrongly conclude that God is like you and me. Because let's face it - we have a hard time sometimes with letting things go, don't we? Even when forgiveness is asked for and extended we see a person who's hurt us - it's hard for us to fight against thinking about that every time we see them. We should not project that on God. God is not like you and me.

Some of you are living still in your past. You're sitting on the sidelines, as I like to say. You're just hoping for scraps of grace. And so you never step out and serve. You never serve in our church. You never serve in the community. Sure, you'll sit here on Sundays listening to Pastor Jerry preach but you sit on the sidelines, and that's because you're living in your old identity. Paul says this is who you are. You're justified and reconciled. Don't live in the past.

He says this in Romans 8: Who is there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God - and He is interceding for us. He says stop condemning yourself. No one else is. God is not condemning you. Reconciliation and justification open the door to step out of your life before Christ and to step into this incredible journey with Him where He can use you in the Kingdom He's building that lasts forever. Paul says this is who you are now that you're accepted by God. You are justified, you are reconciled - not because of anything you and I have done.

Understand the stark contrast of the Gospel. World religions of this time, it was all about sacrificing to the god so you would get their approval - sacrificing to these angry gods so that you would get some favor. Not the Gospel. This is Christ who sacrificed himself for us that He might bring us to God.

There's a third thing we can grab from this passage today and that's God's peace for us in Christ. I want us to go back to verse 1 in this chapter because I believe this is why Paul is explaining all that. He writes, "Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Therefore, since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He wants his listeners to know that because they have peace with God now that should trickle down into every aspect of their life. He wants them to know that because Christ died, there is peace for us now. There is peace for us today.

The same goes for you and for me. There is peace for us today because of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. There is peace for us today - the hostility, the tension has been removed between you and the Alpha and Omega. It's gone between you and the One who is the King of Kings - who's building the only Kingdom that's going to last forever. That means no matter what's happening in the here and now. No matter how tough life is getting, all I have to do is look to Jesus to see His love for me, the hope I have, the fact that I'm accepted by God, and that should bring peace to my soul.

His peace is far more than just an absence of conflict. I understand in days like these it's easy for us to adopt a peace that's uneasy. With acts of terrorism, mass shootings we can be a bit unsettled. That's not this peace. Pastor Deone spoke of this peace a few weeks back. The Jewish term shalom which means completeness, soundness, harmonious well-being - that's what God wants for you.

Isaiah, a prophet in the Old Testament writes of this peace. He says, "The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest." Wow! Quiet? Yeah. Quietness and confidence forever - it says, "My people are going to be living in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest." That's our future for those of us who are in Christ. That's our future. But he wants that same peace for you now.

Paul wants for his listeners the same thing Pastor Jonathan wanted for us last week in his message. He wants us to understand that Jesus is more than enough. He's everything we could have ever asked for. You and I can have nothing on this planet, but if we have Jesus, we've got everything. Flip side of that - you and I could manage to gain this whole world, even if we could figure out how to do that, but if we don't have Jesus, we have nothing.

So if you're here today, you're watching online - if you don't have Jesus, you don't have peace with God. You don't have this peace that the Scriptures speak of. There is peace for you today because there is no longer any hostility between you and God.

Now that doesn't excuse, that doesn't forget. We're not naïve to the fact that life gets tough. Life is about adversity, isn't it? The rich or the poor - it rains on both. Sure, there's plenty of times in life where it's like running downhill, isn't it? Almost as if momentum's carrying us - life is going so easy. Life is going so great. Reality is a storm is always coming where we have to run - it feels like life is running uphill, the wind is crashing against our face. It's tough. We don't ignore that. But we have a peace - a peace that's rooted in hope. He says this in verse 5 - a hope that we have in Christ. A hope that does not disappoint. A hope that does not put us to shame because we know who holds our future and we know what our future is.

So Paul's invitation to his listeners - God's invitation by His Spirit to us today as he revealed in the Scriptures to recognize God's great love for you and for me; that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And that when God accepts us, we are now justified before the just judge. We are now reconciled before Him. There's no longer any tension between us. That's why the Scriptures invite us to come boldly and confidently to the throne of God. That's who you are. All of that should bring peace to your soul - that even when you go through trials, even when your faith is tested, you are rooted in the fact of God's love for you and who you are in Christ. That's what He wants for us today.

If you would please, pray with me. Heads bowed and eyes closed. In many ways, I believe this is our most important time together because this is where you get to respond to God's truth. This is where you get to respond to the Scriptures.

Perhaps you're sitting here this morning, and maybe even this is your first time with us, but in our time together you've realized one thing. You don't have Christ. You've never come to that place where you believed and received all that Jesus has. I want to invite you after service to stop by the Fireside Room. It's directly across our atrium. You can't miss it. It's easily labeled. Stop by and talk with one of our prayer partners or one of our pastors. I don't know what you have going on after this service. They're not going to keep you long but whatever you have going on after the service - it pales in comparison to what God is doing in your heart right now. Stop by. We want to pray for you. We want to help you on a journey with Christ. All we want to do is help. We've got something we want to put in your hands for later. You're not signing up for the church. We just want to pray with you and get something in your hand and help you in your new life with Christ.

Maybe you're sitting here and you've been following Jesus longer than I've been alive. How do you respond to the message this morning? Maybe you're sitting here and life has been tough. Maybe you've just recently experienced loss of someone dear to you, maybe even a job. Maybe you're going through tough times yourself. What is God speaking to your heart this morning? Give it to Him. Give it to the One who wants to give you a peace that surpasses all understanding. A peace where regardless of what's happening to our left or to our right we know where we stand with God. We know what our future is.

Father, may we be a people who lives in your peace. May we be a people that when others look to us, see your peace and notice that there's something different about us and that's not because of anything from us but because they see You, Jesus. Father, give us a great courageous and bold faith to follow You wherever you lead because we know where You are there is life. Thank you, Jesus. For it's in Your name we pray. Amen.

May the grace of God and His peace be with you this week. Thank you for being so gracious. I love you guys.