If you could turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 16, we're going to be wrapping up the book of Romans in the next four or five months. Verses 25. We're going to study three words at a time. So verse 25 through verse 27. So we're going to be wrapping up this week and then next week, and then we're going to be taking a short break from the systematic study, and we're going to be jumping into the book of Hebrews, probably after we come back from India.

So it's going to be probably early February. And again, if there's just to kind of give you a plug, you know, Hebrews is a book that kind of connects the Old Testament with the New Testament. And since we've just studied the book of Leviticus, and it will be a tremendous help for us to see how that is applied and fulfilled in Christ in the book of Hebrews.

So we're going to start that in in February, but we're going to be wrapping this up and preparing ourselves for Christmas season after this. So verse 25 to 27. Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal life has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith to the only wise God through Jesus Christ be glory forever.

Amen. Let's pray. Gracious and loving Father, we thank you. Thank you for your love. We thank you, Father God, for opening our eyes to see that you are real. We thank you, Father God, for allowing us and causing us to put our trust in you. I pray, Father, that your living water is what we are coming and continue to seek.

Lord God, help us to drink from it. Help us to be satisfied, Lord God, with the bread of Christ. We ask that our communion service, Lord, would be honorable to you and that Christ's name and what he has done may be exalted as a result. We thank you in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. All right. So, as you guys know, we've been in the book of Romans for about three and a half years. If you looked at some of the questions that I posted up yesterday on Facebook, I asked you to go and look at Romans chapter 1, 1 through 17 and compare it with the way that he's ending.

And the reason why I asked you to do that is because Paul basically is ending the letter in the same manner that he started. So, you know, most of Paul's letters are written systematically. He has a point. This is the reason why I'm writing it. And then he has maybe, you know, four or five points he wants to make and then he concludes.

And Romans is no different. Even though it's a long letter and it's been three and a half years since we started the letter, if you look at the beginning of the letter, he kind of outlines that this is what he's going to say. And then at the end of it, you have very similar things that he says and then he kind of concludes it summarizing what he just said.

So, if you look at it, if you took a look at it, you'll see that Paul begins Romans chapter 1 through 17 about how the gospel is the power of God, how through the prophets and the holy scriptures he made the gospel known, how he was going to bring the obedience of faith through the gospel.

And as a result of that, the gospel is to be proclaimed and then ultimately it establishes God's glory. And so you'll see all the themes that are mentioned in chapter 1 repeated here in these three verses. What I want to do for the next couple of weeks is go through the list that I've just mentioned that is repeated here, these five things that he says about the gospel.

So today I'm going to be looking at the first two and then next week we'll be looking at the last three and then we'll conclude. The first thing he's talking about, the gospel is the outworking of God's power. The gospel is Jesus. The gospel is the mystery revealed. The gospel is the mystery to be preached and the gospel is the mystery to be obeyed.

So the last three we'll be dealing with next week. First two we'll be dealing with today. This part that we're looking at, the theologians typically call that a doxology. And what doxology basically is a short theological statement that is set in repetition or maybe a concise form because it was important enough for the early church to memorize.

So a doxology oftentimes you'll find it in hymns. You'll find the exact same wording in other letters and it's repeated. So the reason why we know that it's a doxology is because we know these phrases are used repeatedly all throughout the New Testament. In other words, it is a condensed version of theology.

So every part of what he says, he says meaningfully. Not that any other part of Book of Romans, anything else he says, he says randomly. But in particular, this part of it was probably put to memory and maybe even sung in certain circles. Kind of like, you know, when we first go to school, everybody learned their ABCs through the ABC song.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G. So if you don't know how to sing that song, you don't speak English. Right? So everybody who speaks English, at some point in your education system, you learn the ABCs through those songs. If you've ever learned Greek, we did the same thing.

Our professors and I realized it wasn't unique to our school. And everybody that I talked to who learned Greek learned the Greek song. Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, beta, eta, theta, una, kappa, lambda, minute, c, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, ti, epsilon, p, q, c, omega. That's what we learned.

So I learned that everybody who learned Greek, at least most people that I know that learned Greek, also learned that. Because by putting it in that form, I still remember. I have bad memory, but I still remember it because of that. So the doxology is written in that form.

It's written because every part of this is significant. And that's why it's important for us to take our time to dissect and remember. This is kind of a repetition or a summary of what Paul was saying throughout the whole 16 chapters. First and most important part of the gospel that Paul was talking about is that God is at the center of this gospel.

The first thing that we need to learn, one, that gospel is the outworking of God's power. We can study all about what he has done and the intricacies of that atonement and sacrifice, but behind all of that, it is a revelation of who God is. And that was the whole point of the revelation of the Old Testament and the New Testament and the gospel.

If you learn all the secrets about what it means to be saved, what Christ accomplished on the cross, and at the end result of that, you don't have a clear vision of who God is. You've missed the whole point. First and foremost, we need to recognize that the gospel is the power of God.

Romans chapter 1, verse 16, it says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation." "For it is the power of God for salvation." Think about when we think about the power of God, there's a whole bunch of things that we can refer to.

His very creation in the beginning, it was a demonstration of God's power. All that you and I know about the universe, it says, by his words, he says, "Let it be," and it happened. I mean, if that isn't the demonstration of God's power, I don't know what is. All throughout redemptive history, we see God delivering the nation of Israel from the superpower of the Egyptians through these 10 plagues, these miracles.

God demonstrated his power. Even the superpower couldn't do anything against him. As they were escaping, they run into a body of water and he just splits it and causes them to walk through. There are periods when we see God stopping the sun for a period. So when we think about the power of God, there's all kinds of things that we can choose from.

And even in Jesus' ministry, he walks on water, he calms a storm, he catches fish, you know, and he feeds the 5,000, miraculously. So we can think of all types of things that Jesus himself has done to demonstrate his power, and yet in Romans 1:16, he says, "It is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation." We know that in the book of Matthew 9, and I refer to this passage quite a bit because when I understood what Jesus was saying and all that was attached to this passage, it was paradigm shifting for me.

In Matthew 9, 2-5, that's a passage where the paralytics are taken in front of Jesus, hoping that Jesus would heal him. So they rip open the house, they drop him below because there's too many people in the room, and then this is what Jesus says, "And they brought to him a paralytic lying in a bed, seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, 'Take courage, son, your sins are forgiven.'" Now, you have to put yourself in their shoes.

That's not why they lowered him. That was not their problem. At least that wasn't their perception. Their problem was they had a friend, a brother or son that couldn't walk. So what problem could have been bigger than that? He couldn't walk. If he couldn't walk, I mean, we're not talking about a period of time when there's all kinds of help that's coming from the government.

If you couldn't physically walk, you were basically forced to be out on the street and beg, and oftentimes they equate it with some sort of spiritual sin. Maybe you or your parents or ancestor did something and you must have deserved this. So they didn't really receive much compassion. So you can understand why they went through all that trouble to put him in front of Jesus, hoping that he would heal him, and instead Jesus says, "Take courage, your sins are forgiven." Some of the scribes said to themselves, "This fellow blasphemes.

How dare he say this? We know that you have power to heal, so if you heal him, it's great. But how dare you say your sins are forgiven?" Jesus knowing this, in verse 4, their thoughts and said, "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or say, 'Get up and walk.'" Think about who it is that we are talking about.

The scripture says all things were made by him and for him. Not only did he create all things, all things are sustained because of him. The very reason why we have enough breath is because Jesus is allowing it. So think about the context. When he asked this question, "Which is easier to say, 'Get up and walk,' or say, 'Your sins are forgiven?'" For Jesus, I mean, what would it take for him to just heal this man?

Get up? That's all it would take. Just get up. Get up and walk. And that's exactly what he did. He had blind people and just touched them and he would get healed. He had a woman who was hemorrhaging for years and all she did was reach out to him and then she was healed.

A lame man who couldn't walk and all he did was pick him up and then he is healed. So for Jesus to heal this man, all it took for him was to just say the word. He asked, "Which is easier, to say, 'Get up,' or to say, 'Your sins are forgiven?'" Humanly speaking, when we think of the power of God, we don't necessarily think about the gospel and what he has accomplished and what we already have in Christ.

In fact, you and I are constantly looking for evidence of his power. We want him to answer our prayer, we want something miraculous to happen, or we have disasters happen and we're praying for God to supernaturally stop and demonstrate his power. But the scripture says the primary demonstration of his power was the gospel.

You have to understand what it meant for him to say, "Your sins are forgiven." That the God of the universe became nothing, humiliated, was crucified on the cross, resurrected by absorbing sins of all upon himself. You have any idea, and I'm sure some of you do, how difficult it is to not to strike somebody back when they hit you?

I don't know if you've ever experienced that. Or maybe even slandered you, how hard it is to just not to say anything when somebody slanders you. So when the scripture says, "Turn to your other cheek," I mean, that's not human. What human being does that? They'll think you're crazy if somebody hits you and you turn to your other cheek.

I remember years back, Pastor Peter Chong, he took a group of pastors and we went out to the Philippines in a poor area. And when I came back, I shared this story with the church before. But I remember very vividly being in the elevator with this old man. And we noticed after about two days at this nice fancy hotel that we were at, a lot of 12, 13, 14 year old, 15 year old young girls running around.

And what was interesting was they were all connected to some old man. Probably in their 60s. And they were just having fun and the girls were there. And you could tell that they didn't want to be there, but they were there because that's the way they were going to make money.

So there was sex trafficking that was happening right in front of us. And once we realized what was going on, obviously we were disgusted. And even as we were eating, we could see them in the corners coming in and out of the restaurants where we were at. And one day, about five of us were headed up to our rooms and that guy and a young girl walked into the elevator.

And the elevator could fit maybe about 15 and there was about six of us and then two of them. And we were all guys. Some of the guys in the room were pretty big guys, are in the elevator. And we knew exactly what was going on. This guy was taking advantage of this young girl because he has money.

And he was knee braided, he was having fun. Then he turned around, looked at us and said, "Hey, you guys want to join us? We're going to have a party, we're going to have fun." You could tell the awkwardness in that girl in that elevator. And the whole time, all of us were looking at each other, just restraining ourselves.

Because we were just one second away from just grabbing this guy. And every single one of us, we knew exactly what we were thinking. Because I have a daughter that age. I mean, our natural instinct was to grab him and just choke him. And we would have felt good about it.

And we were just holding back, understanding that that wasn't going to fix the problem. And we're all pastors. Wouldn't it be a good testimony? Come back, say, "How was Philippines?" "Oh, beat up a guy in an elevator." So we strained ourselves and then he walked out. And as soon as he walked out, we all just kind of sigh of relief.

And we were just, "Oh my gosh." And we knew exactly what everyone was thinking. We were so disgusted to be in that elevator with this person. Imagine the restraint of our God. Seeing his son being brutalized by the very people that he came to die for. Watching him getting beaten and then mocked and then nailed on the cross.

All the while the Father is planning to come and put their sins upon him. What power, what restraint did God show for not coming and just whack and just be done with it? I know I promised Noah that I would not destroy the world in this way. But I'm God.

How many times do I need to forgive these people before they listen? When we think about the power of God, we think of trivial things in the light of who he is. But in order for him to restrain himself from just squashing us, from finishing this earth, just destroying the universe and say, "You know what?

Let's just start over." Why not? Because they surely don't deserve it. How much power and restraint that he must have shown not to simply end it then. But not only did he not end it, he purposed it. He drew near to his son and he placed their sins, my sins, upon the son and raises him up from the dead and then he reverses the curse.

And the curse is not reversed for people who are going to live the rest of eternity saying, "Thank God. You and I received this salvation by his power and we're constantly forgetting what we have in Christ." So it wasn't that, "Well, he saved us and then wow, the great reward for our God is like we're worshiping for eternity." All that is true.

But meanwhile, we're constantly, constantly forgetting what he has done. And that's whose sin he died for, mine and yours. So when the Bible says that he is able, the greatest demonstration of God's power is in the gospel. We're constantly looking for trivial things, some magical tricks for God to show who he is.

But beyond the cross, everything else is trivial if you really understand what happened. In 2 Corinthians 9, 8, not only does he save us, the Bible says that he is able to sustain us. He didn't just start this and then save us and say, "You know what? Rest of it is up to you." In 2 Corinthians 9, 8, it says, "And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed." How often do we waste time wondering, "Only if, only if God would give me this, only if he would answer my prayer in that, then I would have sufficiency." The scripture says, "God is able to make all grace abound to you." Any Christian who genuinely believes what it is that he has in Christ and has genuinely met him and is living day to day in want, either has severely forgotten who it is that he worships or he does not believe.

A Christian can never come before God and say, "God, I am the way I am because you didn't give me this." He says, "God is able to make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency in everything," just in case we missed it, "everything that we need is sufficiently found in God and God alone." See, what we lack isn't resources.

What we lack isn't money. It's not organization. It's not people. What we lack is faith to recognize what it is that we have in God already. What we lack is faith because if God is the God that we truly believe, then all the resources, everything that you and I could possibly imagine is found in him.

The reason why we are living day to day in want is because we lack faith to believe that. Ephesians 3, 16-20 says that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man. We're always looking for external things to answer our questions.

We're always looking for circumstances, for people, for opportunities. He says, "No, I'm praying that your inner man be strengthened so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." If you believe, again Ephesians 1-3 describing about what God has done, if you believe that, through faith you have access to that.

If you believe in a God who predestined you, elected you, pursued you, and you believe in that love, if you believe that, you will be strengthened. That you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.

Any kind of knowledge or study or pursuit, he says, it surpasses all of that, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Fullness of God is found where? Believing in God. "Now to him who is able to do far abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us." We've been given.

God is able. He is able. If he is able, why do we live our lives in want, constantly thinking only if? If I just had this, if we just tweaked that, if I just worked harder, if I just did this. If you've been raised in the church and you've been a Christian for a while, if we ask the question, "Do you believe?" The obvious answer to that knee-jerk reaction is, "Of course I believe.

I was baptized so many years ago. I was raised in the church. I've never been an atheist, so of course I believe." But the fundamental question about the gospel is that very question. Do you believe? Now, we can say, "Of course I believe. I believe in God. I've never been an atheist." But that's not the question.

The question is much more profound than that. The question is not, "Do you believe that God exists?" But do you believe that he is able? Do you believe that he is able? That he is able to forgive your sins and that he is able to sustain you until glorification?

Do you believe that he is able or do you think your boss is able? Do you think your job is able? Do you think your friends are able? Do you think the church is able? Where have you put your confidence outside of God? So the fundamental question in our walk with God is, "Do you believe that he is able?" Before we make a knee-jerk reaction and say, "Of course we believe." But do you believe that God of the Bible?

Do you believe that God of the gospel? Paul says in 2 Timothy 1.12, "For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day." Paul has been beaten, he's sitting in prison, possibly waiting for a death sentence, and he says, "I rejoice.

I know whom I have believed, and I know he is able to guard whatever it is I've given him." So his confidence did not come from Timothy. His confidence didn't come from Timothy. Timothy was a, humanly speaking, young, inexperienced, timid, weak guy. That's not where his confidence was coming from.

He says, "I'm confident that what I've entrusted to him, if you entrust it to him, he is able to guard it. He is able to guard it." He says the same thing in Philippians 1.6, "For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians was a great model church, but he says the confidence is not with the Philippians.

He says, "I am confident that he who began a good work, he will carry it unto completion on the day of Christ." Because it is his work. He begins it, he sustains it, and he's the one who ends it. That's why, again, this benediction, this doxology in Jude 24, 25, "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy.

To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, authority before all time and now and forever." Again, in this doxology, "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling." Is he able? Think about where our grumblings come. Our grumblings come because we don't believe there's an answer.

So our faith is not in God. And we have to ask ourselves that. We want you, we want them, we want this, we want those things to change. But if we believe he's able, why do we not go to him first? Why do we seek counselors and friends and small groups and accountability?

Why do we seek all of these things first before we go to the God who is able? The whole purpose of all of these things are simply a conduit to get us to God. The whole purpose of worship and the whole purpose of fellowship is simply to point us to God.

It is not the final destination. He is able. And so the fundamental question that we have to ask ourselves every single day, and sometimes God squeezes us and forces us to ask this question, "Do you believe that he is able?" That the power and the resource is in him.

And that's the first and the most important part of this gospel, because if you don't believe he is able, all he becomes is a security blanket. Security blankets don't have any power, but it makes you feel good. When the boogeyman comes, you grab the security blanket, it just makes you feel good.

Because the boogeyman is not real, so the protection is not real. It's just to make you feel good. But if you believe he is able, it changes our pursuit. It changes where we seek counseling. It changes our hope. It changes our life. And isn't that why we pray to him?

Because we believe he is able to forgive my sins? And the reason why he is able to forgive my sins is because of what he has done? Because he is powerful? The second point is related to this because he says, "Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ." So if you look at the second line, preaching of the gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ is used interchangeably.

Because in the end, Jesus is the gospel. Jesus himself, not only is he the end goal of the gospel, it says he is the gospel. Colossians 1:16, "For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority, all things have been created through him and for him." So the point of the gospel is to bring us to God, to bring us to him.

First Peter 3.18, "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he must," what? Bring us to God. Coming to church and missing this, this is not just one of many important things. This is the church. This is Christianity. This is the gospel.

Jesus is the gospel. Have you ever met anybody that loves the Lakers but hates basketball? I have, and it's weird. They love the yellow jersey, you know. They love the shoes. They're interested in what kind of shoes they wear. They love the experience of going to the stadium. They even like the food.

They're weird, you know. $13 hot dogs, $8 Coke, that whole experience, you know. But then when the basketball game is turned on, they're not interested. And I always wondered, like, why would they do that? Why would they go through all of that trouble? And I realized the reason why they do that is because they're trying to please somebody.

They have a group of friends that really love Lakers, and they're trying to love the Lakers. They don't. They don't like basketball, but they're just trying to fit in. So they're trying to get all the benefits of being a Lakers fan without liking basketball. I've seen some good wives do that, or girlfriends.

Usually it's the girlfriends. Once they become wives, it's like, there's no need, right? I've seen some girlfriends do that. They try so hard because this guy's a diehard Lakers fan, and she's just trying to be a good girlfriend, you know. So she goes to the games, and she gets the jersey, and when he gets excited, she doesn't even know what she's like, "Oh, yeah!" She doesn't even know what's going on.

But she's trying really hard, and when their friends get together and play basketball, she sits with them, she chits with them, she yells with them, and wears the jerseys and shoes and all of that, but she has no interest in basketball. And she's doing all of that because she wants to be a part of the game.

She wants to appease her boyfriend or her husband. Christianity without Christ looks exactly the same. We're trying so hard to get the benefits of Christianity, benefits of being a follower of Christ and being around other people who love Christ because you want to be a part of that. You want to appease somebody, your leader, your brother, your sister, your parents, or your small group leaders, but there is no affection for Christ.

You can talk about church and small group and missions. You can talk about hermeneutics and theological systems, and you can talk about everything except when you talk about the beauty of Christ, there's a blank look because that's not their attraction. Trying so hard to get the benefits of Christianity without Christ, you miss the whole point.

You can live your whole life and then to not to know Christ. You can preach, you can miss the gospel, you can even go to foreign lands, you can be generous, you can serve, you can sacrifice, you can be generous, all with a deep affection for Christ and you miss the whole point.

That's why Jesus says, "I am the bread of life." He's talking to a group of people who are coming because they were fed and he said they want more and Jesus says, "Do you not know I am the bread of life? I give you this bread to teach you that I am the bread of life." John chapter 8, 12.

He's talking to a group of people who are waiting for the Messiah to come and be the light and Jesus says, "I am that light." John 10, he's talking to a group of people who are being shunned from the synagogue if he didn't submit to the leaders and Jesus says, "I am the door.

I am the good shepherd." He's talking to a group of people who are sad because Lazarus died and Jesus says to them, "I am the resurrection and the life." John 14, 6, as people are staggering, "Where should we go? Who should we follow?" Jesus says, "I am the way.

I am the truth and I am the life." And then he tells his disciples, John 15, as he is about to depart, he says, "I am the true vine. You continue with me. Everything that I have said to you, you continue even when I am gone. I am." Without faith it is impossible to please God.

He who comes to God must first believe that he is. He is. He is. That's the introduction of the whole book of Hebrews. We're going to spend probably another two, three years going over he is because that's the summary of the theme of the book of Hebrews. Until we recognize he is, there is no reward for good works in the church.

There is no reward for hard work. There is no reward for generosity until we are connected to Christ in faith. Colossians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 22 to 24, "For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block and Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." Years ago, every year we go out to China for mission work and one year we couldn't go because of SARS.

So last minute we were directed by our denomination to go to Romania and we were in Bucharest in Romania and in that area we found this one church and it was a very majestic church. It's the kind of church that you don't normally see today because it would just cost way too much money.

You know, you could tell the stones that the walls are made out of was just like two feet thick. And what was interesting was it was built in somewhere around 1490 something, so about 10 or 15 years before the Reformation took place. So it was a Catholic church that was created and at the early stage of the church it went through a Reformation.

So you can still see it in the building, all over the building where you have little Catholic figures of Mary and the saints and all over that the Catholics were praying to and they never took it down. And it said this church went through a transformation and went through the Reformation and it says on one of the plaques in the walls it says that Martin Luther visited this church.

And it was a very, very majestic church because it would fit maybe about 1500 people on the seats and I've always wondered how the church at that time would preach in that kind of a setting because they didn't have a mic system. And I have a pretty loud voice but even in this room I'd have to yell pretty loud for people to hear.

Well it made a lot of sense because when I entered everything was made out of marble so I could just snap my finger and it would ring everywhere. I can speak to you softly and the person in the front, the person in the back would have no problem hearing.

So the way that they had it was they would have whoever was preaching, not preaching like this, they would have the person, it would be a long row so you can imagine how big this place was for about 1700 people to fit into this long row. And then the pastor, whoever is giving the sermon, would actually preach in the middle, not in the front.

So if you're sitting in the front you would have to turn back to listen to the preacher. And so the preacher is elevated literally to the second floor. And so he would be preaching straight down. And so you can see why they did that because without the mic system it was for everybody to hear.

And so it became a place where everybody visited. In fact they said that Martin Luther possibly could have preached on that pulpit. And so I tried to sneak up there to see and of course I got yelled at. But it was just the history behind this church. And then I asked the people who were basically taking care of this, "Does a church actually meet here?" And you kind of have to think for a little bit and say, "Well, there are people that meet but it's not necessarily a church.

There's maybe a group of maybe about 15 to 20 people who are here to take care of the church. So they make sure that it's clean, they make sure that people like me don't go up to the pulpit and so they kind of take care of the facility. And they do gather but I don't know if I would call it a church." And I remember just when they told me that it's like, "Wow, you have a historic church where Martin Luther may have preached on the pulpit.

It was one of the first churches that went through the Reformation and you can actually even see it in the building but God is not being worshipped in this room." And I remember how sad it was just to have the remnant, just a building of somewhere, something so fantastic happened.

And yet what it was created for was being ignored. Sad to say, so many Christians can relate that we have all the forms of religiosity but do not know the power of God because they don't know Jesus. To me, you could think about hunger for the orphans and so many horrible things that are going on in the world and all of these things deserve our compassion.

But to me, the saddest thing is being so close to the power of God and living your whole life, whole life giving, serving, pretending and not knowing Him. It's like being at a buffet and being so hungry and starving to death and you never eat. Until you meet Christ, all of this is for nothing.

There is no reward for church attendance. There is no reward for memorizing Scripture. There is no reward for being active at church. There is no reward for titles. There is no reward because you're a leader. There is no reward for that. Only He is able to establish us. And until we meet Christ, all is for nothing.

Jesus is the gospel. He is the gospel. So I want to ask you the fundamental question, do you believe Him? I'm not asking you, are you a theist versus an atheist? That's not the question. Do you believe in this God? Do you believe that He is able? If you do, how does that change us?

That's the gospel. That's the gospel. A man cannot confess the gospel in reality and not be changed. It is not possible. You cannot be in the presence and have seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and then look at the world and say, "You know what? I'd rather have that." Then you didn't see Him.

You didn't see Him. If you look at the world, it is more tempting to you to go that direction than to want Christ. You didn't see Him. Because that's the only way I can understand how somebody can confess and still run to the world. You didn't see Him. It is not possible to see the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is not possible for a man to confront this living God and then turn the other way and say, "That is better." It does not make any sense. It is illogical. That's why in Romans chapter 12 it says, "It is a reasonable response to give our bodies as a living sacrifice in light of the mercy that we have heard." God is the gospel.

Jesus is the gospel. This morning as we participate in the communion, He says that's the reason why we have the communion, to proclaim His death and resurrection, to remind us again what it is that we have in Christ, that maybe all of our frustrations, all of our hopes and desires have been placed on something that is only going to disappoint, and to remind us again that our hope is found in Christ and Christ alone.

So as we open up the communion table, I'm going to ask you guys to take some time to pray, to come up. If you're a baptized believer, we ask you to come up, again, from the sides and go down the middle so that we don't create traffic here. Then if you are visiting us or you have not been properly baptized, we ask that you would just sit and contemplate in prayer.

So when you are ready, we ask that one by one that you would come up. Let me open up the communion table by reading 1 Corinthians chapter 11. For I received from the Lord that which I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread.

And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." Heavenly Father, you know our sins of our hearts.

You know, Father God, how often we struggle, Lord God, because we take our eyes off of you. I pray that this communion table would help us to fix our eyes upon Christ, the author and the perfecter of our faith. I pray, Father God, if we have been given you worship externally but internally, filled with pride, with coveting, with lust, with guilt.

I pray, Father God, that breaking of your body, breaking of drinking of the blood, would cause us, Lord God, to be renewed in our dedication. We pray, Father God, that you would anoint this sacred time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.