Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
Happy New Year.
Holy is the Lord.
We're excited to start out a new year here at Middletown Baptist
Church and we're thankful that you are here to worship the Lord
together with us today.
Well, we are going to be starting a three week series looking
at the goals of a growing church.
Now, you got a bulletin when you came in today, do those bulletins
have a little insert there with notes?
Good, good.
We got that taken care of.
I'm glad we're going to try something new here today.
And this is outside of my comfort zone.
I'm just going to tell you that right now.
Confession time.
I don't like to stick to a script.
I like to go off and go everywhere.
But I'm going to do my best to try to follow along with these notes.
Now, you got to make me a promise here.
Don't let those notes there distract you because what might happen,
I might get ahead of myself.
I will try to fill in all of those notes, but try to do your best
to follow along with me.
And I'm also trying to do something else.
I'm throwing some stuff up on the screen behind me.
Okay, that's new for me.
Technology is not my strong suit.
But we're going to try to do something a little bit different
today.
Hopefully you can come along with me and we can learn something
in the Lord.
So the new year, right?
This is a time for a lot of people to start making resolutions.
Don't raise your hand because then you're putting yourself on the
spot.
But how many of us have made resolutions in the past and then
a few weeks later, maybe even a few months later, those have fall,
fallen by the wayside?
That's typically what happens.
We, we make a resolution.
We make a decision to change something in our life or add something
to our life or grow in an area or get rid of something in our life.
And yet so many times in our flesh and in our human nature, we.
We turn away from that decision.
So instead of calling them resolutions this year, what I would
like us to do is call our desires to grow in the Lord to call
them goals.
Like, we need to have some spiritual goals this year.
Any person that's striving to do something in their life will make
goals.
And I think that's something for us to do individually, but also
corporately.
And so here at Middletown Baptist Church, what I would like
to do is for the next three weeks, go through three goals for
a growing church.
And we're going to build on each one of these each week.
And we're going to culminate in three weeks on January 19th at
our vision Sunday.
And on our Vision Sunday, we're going to be launching what
our goal is for the year, ultimately, as a group, as a church.
And we are going to see some amazing things, I believe, happening
in our Midst here in 2025.
And so the goals for a growing church, I guess the assumption is,
is that we want to be a growing church.
The desire for us as a church is to love God and love others as
God has called us, to love them, to grow in our relationship
with Christ.
But to grow as a church, spiritually, numerically.
I mean, these are all wonderful things that God has called
us to do.
And then, of course, we know to connect and to serve.
But what I would like us to think about here this morning is
we as a church that are growing.
If you look around, you're going to see new faces.
That's a good thing.
We want to see new faces at our church.
We want to see the faces that have been here for a long time, too.
We don't want to see them go anywhere, but we want to see the
church filled.
We want to see the church growing in a healthy way.
So how can we as a church properly have goals as this church
grows?
Well, I think the first thing we have to focus in on is the first
point today.
And that is the gospel.
The first goal that we have to accomplish within our church, the
first goal we have to live out in our church, the first thing that
we have to base everything in is the gospel.
Now, that's a word that maybe you're familiar with, maybe you're
not familiar with.
It's a word that's used quite frequently within churches.
It's used very frequently within scripture.
We're going to talk about that here in a few moments.
But what I would like us to think about today is just this one
word.
Gospel.
What does this mean for us?
What does this mean for you?
What does this mean for our community?
What does this mean for our world?
How can we as a church be focused on the gospel?
How can we as a church grow in the gospel?
How can we as a church proclaim the Gospel to this world.
We're going to look at all of that here this morning.
So first thing first is, what is the gospel?
We got to think about that.
What is the gospel?
Well, it literally means good news.
I know that's a little small up there, but I will tell you that
says good news.
The gospel literally means the good news.
Now, most of you know that.
Most of you that have been in church for any amount of time know
that the word gospel means good news.
But there might be someone here today that doesn't understand
why it's good news.
Well, the gospel in the context of scripture is this.
We have the good news of Jesus Christ.
We have the good news of salvation.
We're going to dive deeper into that now.
But why should it be important for us?
Well, it's important to us because it's mentioned 93 times in
the Bible.
In the New Testament, the word Gospel is used 93 times throughout
all of the New Testament.
And so if the Bible mentions that word gospel so frequently, it
should be important to us.
It's what we do.
It's what we live.
It's who we are.
The gospel, the good news.
Now, the gospel is scripture.
It's everything in scripture, but specifically speaking, it's the
news of what Jesus has done for us for salvation.
Now, now, you could say all of this is the gospel because all of
this book is a story of redemption.
I think I want to be very clear here this morning that this
Bible is not just a bunch of historical narratives that eventually
culminate in Jesus Christ.
This whole book is a story of Jesus.
It's the story of our redemption, our need for a Savior.
From the very beginning, in the book of Genesis, we see that
the world was created good, perfect, sinless, but yet we as humans
messed it up.
We marred it by sin.
And we need a redeemer.
We need someone to save us.
And so from the very beginning, Genesis chapter three
tells us that there would be the Savior to come to save us.
And then all of the Old Testament's looking toward that.
It's looking toward this idea of a messiah, Jesus to be born in
Bethlehem.
We just celebrated that in the Christmas season.
And then we get to the New Testament.
Jesus comes, and then he says he fulfills the law.
He didn't come to destroy the law, but he came to fulfill the law
so that we could have forgiveness, so that we could have
salvation, so that we could have righteousness.
And we know that Jesus lives that perfect life.
He dies on the cross for our sins.
He's Buried, he conquers death through the resurrection.
And now he extends that gift of grace to all that is the gospel.
We can see the definition of the gospel in First Corinthians,
chapter 15.
If you have your Bibles, turn there with me.
First Corinthians, chapter 15.
I'll give you a few moments to get there.
The reason why we want to drill down on the definition of the
gospel is because for all of us to be able to live the gospel,
we must understand the gospel.
For us to share the gospel, we must experience the gospel, we must
believe in it.
We must have what we call gospel fluency.
How many of you know what the word fluency means?
It means that you can, you know it, you can speak it.
So for the language, someone can be fluent in Spanish, they can
be fluent in a different language, right?
And I had a funny story a while back.
Micah was talking to someone and there he said that I can speak
two languages.
And I'm like, really?
You can?
I didn't know that.
And he said I could speak Spanish.
And he said, I can speak it fluently.
And I'm like, no, this is my, my nine year old son, if you didn't
know.
And I'm like, that's a first for me.
Because he knew like three or four words in Spanish, maybe a little
bit more.
And he says, I'm fluent in it.
Well, you're not fluent in something if you only know a little
bit about it.
And that sometimes as Christians, what happens is we think
we're aware of what the gospel is, but so many times we miss out
on its impact.
We miss out on the depth of the gospel, the importance of the
gospel.
And so for a believer today, if you are a born again believer
and you are in this room or you're watching at home, it is vital
for us to be fluent in the gospel, to know the nuances of the
gospel, to understand the impact of it on our own lives and
the lives of others.
And so in First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 3 through 6, Paul
explains the importance of the gospel and the definition of the
gospel.
He says, for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also
received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
That's the first aspect of the gospel.
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
It's a fulfillment of all of the prophecy.
It's a fulfillment of the scriptures.
Jesus died for our sins.
Jesus didn't just die as a martyr.
A lot of times people will present Jesus as this martyr, a Good
historical figure, a good teacher, and he died for what he
believed in.
No, Jesus died for us.
He died because of our sin.
We are the ones that put him on the cross because of his love
for us.
He said, I will die.
I will put myself in their place.
That is the gospel.
The gospel is that Jesus, the one who knew no sin.
Jesus is the only one who did not sin.
He fulfilled the law in every way.
None of us can fulfill the law.
Some of us can be good, but not perfect.
Some of us can be better than others, but not perfect.
The Bible says Jesus was the one who was perfect and so he could
take our place.
He's the one who died on the cross for our sins according to the
Scripture.
Then it goes on to say this and that.
He was seen of Cephas, then of the 12, meaning there were evidences
of this resurrection.
He died according to the Scriptures.
And then verse four, it says, and that he was buried and that he
rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures.
And so I think it's important to note that it's not just about
his death, but it's also about his resurrection.
It's the death, burial and resurrection.
It's really this, the life, death, burial and resurrection.
That is the definition of the gospel.
If you want to really pour it down into a very basic sentence.
The Gospel is Jesus's life, his perfect life, his death on the
cross for our sins, his burial and his resurrection.
All of these are validated in fulfillment of Scripture.
All these are validated by what Scripture says in the Old Testament.
So he was seen and after that, above 500 people, 500 brethren at
once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present.
But some are falling asleep.
And so what does he say here?
He says, there are people who can vouch for these things in Scripture.
Jesus's life, death, burial and resurrection.
And so we as Christians, we're not proclaiming a.
A portion of the gospel because that's sometimes what happens
is that we celebrate elements of the Gospel.
We might celebrate that Jesus died, or we might celebrate Jesus's
resurrection.
All good things.
But the Bible very clearly here says, preach the whole Gospel,
the authentic gospel, even if it offends, even if people get upset.
The Bible says that it's Jesus's life, death, burial and resurrection
that completes that gospel story.
We even see later on in First Corinthians, chapter 15, that if
we don't have the resurrection, everything that we
do is in vain.
If Jesus just died as a religious martyr and he was still
in the tomb.
It would have been significant, but it wouldn't have
been enough for us to worship him.
It wouldn't have been enough for us to say that we are going to
live and die for this cause of the gospel.
But the fact is, Paul says that we do have a reason to preach,
we do have a reason for faith, we do have a reason for service,
and that is Jesus's life, death, burial and resurrection.
First Corinthians, chapter 15.
That's the definition of the gospel.
Now, we can get into certain areas of the gospel, what that means,
what that does for us when it comes to our salvation.
But we have to start with the basics.
If someone was to come up to you and say, explain to me the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, you cannot leave out any of these elements because
1 Corinthians, chapter 15 says, this is.
This is the gospel.
And so what I would encourage you to do is think about this and
understand the complete picture of the gospel.
So that if someone came up to you, let's say, for example, you're
in Walmart and someone walks up to you and goes, hey, are you
a Christian?
I don't know why they would say that.
Maybe you were acting differently.
Maybe you're wearing a Middletown Baptist shirt.
I don't know, maybe you were really nice to someone and let someone
get in front of you in line.
Wow.
I don't know if I would ever do that.
But the thing is, this is we would have this opportunity to share
the gospel.
Would we?
Would every single person in this room that's a believer this
morning be able to articulate this basic truth?
Not, not every aspect of scripture, not every prophecy, not
every theological truth that you can find in scripture.
But would we be able to articulate, to explain and to frame
the gospel to a person who is desiring salvation?
If so, hey, we have a great tool at our hands.
We have the opportunity to share someone life, eternal life,
and that is what matters.
And so Jesus's life, death, burial and resurrection.
Now, I think, though, that many of us might understand intellectually
the gospel, many of us might even believe the gospel.
But this next challenge is this.
We must embrace meaning.
We would love it, love the gospel, if you embrace a loved one.
Like when my kids see their grandparents getting off the plane
and they run up there and they embrace them, they hold tight to
them and they don't let go.
You know, sometimes I really feel left out when my parents are
in town or when Alicia's folks are in town.
It's like, come on, who am I I'm like, chop liver here.
They're all about the grandparents because the grandparents
spoil them, right?
They know that.
And so the truth is, is that my kids, they embrace their grandparents,
they hold on to them.
That's the idea of embracing the gospel, holding on to the gospel,
loving the gospel, not walking away from it, not putting our attention
on something else.
And so the Bible calls us to embrace the gospel, to celebrate
the gospel.
That's what we do when we sing these songs here in the service,
right?
We come up here and we're singing about the truths of Jesus
Christ.
We're celebrating what Jesus Christ did for us.
We're celebrating his love.
We're getting, you know, back.
When the Eagles won the Super Bowl.
How many of you are Eagles fans?
Okay, I still love you, Christ.
When the Eagles won the super bowl, we.
You celebrated, right?
There was that.
There was that excitement.
We.
We were thankful, right?
And there's this idea as Christians that we are victorious
in Christ, in the gospel.
So therefore, it's okay to celebrate the gospel.
It's okay to allow ourselves to get to a place where we're not
hindered by the cares of this world.
And we're celebrating what the gospel means for us.
Celebrating means telling other people.
Celebrating means proclaiming to God our thankfulness to him for
what he has done for us.
That's what we do when we sing songs.
We don't sing songs so that people can hear a beautiful, you
know, symphony.
We don't sing songs here for people to judge and go, well, that
person should be in the choir.
That person shouldn't be in the choir.
No, the whole point of praising God through our songs is
so that we can pray.
We're singing to him.
We're not singing to an audience here.
See, an audience of one in heaven.
And so what we do is we celebrate the gospel.
And it's more than just singing.
It's by what we do, it's by how we serve, it's by what we do
in sacrifice.
And I would encourage you to think about how we can celebrate
the gospel within the church.
But then lastly, here it's the proclamation to proclaim the gospel
as a church.
Now, how do we proclaim?
We.
We preach, we tell, we explain, we live.
I.
I think you could summarize all of this, all of this aspect of
embracing the gospel, celebrating the gospel, proclaiming
the gospel this way, just living the gospel.
If we believe the gospel, are we challenged enough to live the
gospel?
Now, how do we live the gospel?
We live differently.
We live like Christ calls us to live.
We live with love, we live with forgiveness.
We live with mercy.
We live with grace.
We live differently in this world.
We respond differently to people when we live in the gospel.
You know what?
When we live in the gospel, we're not so caught up in the things
of this world.
For me, when elements of my life aren't going the way that I
want them to go, I get upset.
I act so sometimes in my flesh, and that is not living the
gospel.
Because if I'm really living for the gospel, I'm living with hope.
And I don't care if this happens to me today.
This doesn't matter if someone wrongs me today, because I have something
better.
I.
I have something bigger.
And so the Bible says for us to not only believe the gospel, we
should believe the gospel.
That's the starting place.
You can't be saved without believing the gospel.
But the next step is living the gospel, displaying the gospel.
And so I would challenge you to look at a passage of scripture
with me.
You were in First Corinthians, chapter 15.
Go to First Corinthians, chapter 9.
This is a true challenge for not only pastors and preachers, but
also all believers.
It says in First Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 14.
And this is, this is obviously Paul speaking through the inspiration
of scripture, But I think this is a challenge for all of us.
It says, even so, hath the Lord ordained that they which preach
the gospel should live of the gospel?
So those who preach of the gospel, those who proclaim the gospel,
which you would say, well, that's the preacher.
Well, it is, right?
I.
I do preach the gospel.
But you as a believer are also called to preach the gospel, to proclaim
the gospel, not just by getting up behind a pulpit, but by
the way that we live.
The.
The Great commission says for all to go and to preach the gospel.
So we all.
If you're a believer this morning.
Okay, I can only speak in that context.
If you're a believer this morning, the Bible says that you
are a preacher of the gospel, by the way, that you should live
your life.
So it says here, if you are ordained to preach the gospel, you
are ordained to live out the gospel, to live the gospel in your
life.
So it's.
So it's like this.
What we talk about is how we should walk, right?
So it's talking the talk, yes, but also walking the walk.
It's living.
So you say, well, we're going to preach the forgiveness of Jesus
Christ.
But then when someone wrongs you, you go I could never forgive
you.
See the disconnect there?
Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 32.
You should be tender hearted, forgiving one another.
Why?
Because Christ has forgiven you.
Well, well, you know what?
I, I, we gotta love the grace of Jesus Christ.
I, I love that Jesus gave me the gift of grace.
But yet someone comes and does something to you and you go, well,
there's no grace there.
We're, we're cutting them right off.
Do you see the disconnect?
A lot of Christians will proclaim and be excited about the
gospel over here and the elements of the gospel here.
But then living the gospel is a total disconnect.
And the Bible says, live the gospel.
Proclaim the gospel.
Yes, but you proclaim the gospel loudest by the way that you
live.
And so as a church, our goal for 20, 25, our goal until the Lord
comes back, is to not only proclaim the gospel, yes.
But to embrace it, celebrate it and live it.
You would say, well, why are we so, why are we so adamant this
morning?
Why are you so adamant this morning about the gospel?
Well, because.
Look at Galatians chapter one with me.
I know you were in First Corinthians, but turn over to the
book of Galatians.
The warning is this.
If we are not careful, we can drift away from the gospel.
We can start believing in a false gospel.
We can start thinking of things in the framework of the world
instead of scripture.
And Paul actually condemns the church at Galatia here because what
happened is they were deceived with another gospel.
And so the reason why we need to live the gospel and have the gospel
infiltrate every element of our church is because if we are not
careful, we will drift.
Our natural path is always going to be away from the truth,
away from the gospel, without the Spirit indwelling our lives,
without the Spirit guiding our lives, we will drift into our natural
default mode of humanity, of humanism, of selfishness.
And so Galatians chapter 1, verse 6 says this.
He says, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel.
Paul says, I'm shocked that you could be believing something
else this quickly.
How could you drift away so far?
Another gospel.
So here it is.
What we can learn From Galatians, chapter 1, verse 6 is
that there's not just one gospel, there's one true gospel.
But there are many gospels that are being preached out in the
world today.
There's a lot of people that have good news.
Hey, if you just get this much money, you'll be good.
And even it can even be in the realm of religion.
If you guys can just keep all the laws, if you can follow all the
rules, you.
You can have salvation.
And in the context of Galatians, that's what he's talking
about.
People falling back into legalism, people falling back into
following the law.
So he says, Verse 7, which is not another, but there be some that
trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
And so what we can see is that there is a danger of someone perverting
the gospel, changing the gospel, twisting the gospel to a
place where it's not scriptural anymore.
Folks, what is the gospel?
The gospel is what the life, death, burial and resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
If someone says, yes, Jesus died for you, but you have to do
this perversion of the gospel.
If someone says, yes, you have the book of scripture, you have the
Bible, but you got to read this extra book on top of that to
really explain the Bible to you.
Perversion.
You have someone that says, well, you don't really have to believe
in Jesus completely.
It can be Jesus plus this perversion.
Jesus cannot be added to a life and just be, you know what?
Now I'm covered.
I've met some people that say, well, I'm all the religions.
I got all my bases covered.
I got this religion and this religion, folks, it's Jesus and Jesus
alone that saves us from our sins.
And so what we can see here is that there is a perversion of the
gospel back 2,000 years ago, and there's a perversion of the gospel
today.
Verse 8.
But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto
you than that which he have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
He says, I don't care who it is.
I don't care who gets up in front of you.
Even if it's an angel and he preaches another gospel, he should
be accursed.
That's a danger that we see in this world today because we might
say, well, look at how that person looks.
Look at their finances, look at their congregation, look at their
following.
So therefore, whatever that person says must be right.
No, the Bible says the true test is not their life, their looks,
it's their message.
The message of the gospel.
And so it goes on to say there in verse nine, as we said before.
So I say now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you,
thing that ye have received, let him be accursed.
For do I now persuade men, Lord God, or do I seek to please
men?
For if I yet pleased men.
I should not be the servant of Christ.
The Bible says if we seek anything outside of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, we are trying to be men pleasers.
We're trying to appease what culture wants us to preach.
Folks, there is a message that culture wants us to preach.
It's not the message of the gospel.
And I can tell you the message of the gospel is offensive to our
culture today.
So.
So let's take a side note.
How can I preach the gospel in a world that's opposed to the gospel?
Will you preach it?
And let the chips fall where they may, so to speak.
Right.
It's not my job to decide how a person is going to respond to the
gospel message.
It is my job to proclaim the gospel message.
And folks, I'm going to let you know this.
The more you live the gospel, the more you preach the gospel, the
more opposition you will face.
Say, wait, wait, wait.
The goal of Middletown Baptist Church should not be to face opposition.
It's not to face opposition.
It's to preach the gospel.
But we may face opposition if we live and preach the gospel, the
real gospel.
You're never going to offend anybody if you have a very stripped
down version of the gospel.
Well, Jesus loves you.
Everyone's going to be okay with that.
If I went to Walmart and said, hey, Jesus loves you, Jesus loves
you.
Jesus loves you.
They're going to say, oh, thank you.
Yeah, okay, because everyone wants to be loved.
Does Jesus love us?
Yes.
Is that the complete message of the gospel?
No, it's not.
Because what did he do?
He lived for us, he died for us, and he conquered death through
the resurrection.
And so you have to tell people this.
There is a problem.
What's the problem?
My problem?
I've got a lot of problems, but the biggest problem that I have
is sin.
Right?
We all have a sin in issue.
Say what?
I came into this church for the first time and now you're calling
me a sinner?
I'm not calling you the sinner.
The Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory
of God.
But I'll jump in that mix with you and say, I'm a sinner too.
But the issue is, is that that sin has a penalty.
And that penalty of sin is death, separation from God.
And so when we start talking to people and say, hey, you know
what?
We need a Savior and there's only one Savior, that's where it
can get a little bit challenging.
But we do it in love and we do it in Grace.
So here's the next thing that I want us to think about.
Romans, chapter 1, verse 16.
This could be a theme verse of the day.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
How many of us don't.
Don't admit it right now, because this is the moment where
we need to be introspective.
But how many of us have been challenged to be ashamed of the gospel?
Not ashamed of the gospel in its concept, but ashamed to proclaim
the gospel.
Well, I don't want to offend someone.
And that word ashamed doesn't just mean like, hey, I'm afraid it's
this.
I'm not putting my confidence completely in the gospel, is what
it literally is saying.
So I am not ashamed to put my confidence completely in the gospel.
That's what Paul is saying here.
I'm not ashamed to put my life into the gospel.
I'm not ashamed to sell out to the gospel.
I'm not.
I'm not ashamed to give my life to Jesus and proclaim it.
He says, why?
For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth
to the Jew first.
And that would have been totally acceptable to these people.
But then it goes, and then also to the Greek, meaning, this
message is for all.
This message is for people of all cultures, of all ethnicities,
of all backgrounds.
This gospel message breaks barriers.
This gospel message changes lives.
So Paul says, I'm not ashamed of it.
I'm going to put my confidence completely in the gospel and nothing
else.
What happens is, is that sometimes a church can be challenged
to put our confidence in things outside of the gospel.
So.
So what do I mean by that?
Well, the gospel isn't really attractive.
So let's find something else that will pull people in.
And then once people will come in, we won't tell them what we're
really about for a while, and we'll get them acclimated, and then
we'll hit them with the gospel.
Okay, well, truth is, is that how you win people to Christ?
Or let's say it, even in a bigger scale to our church, how you
bring people to the church and have them stay in the church is how
you have to keep preaching.
And if I preach anything outside of the gospel, if I preach
entertainment, if I preach, hey, you know what?
You come to our church, you'll get gifts.
Now, we do pass out gifts when you come to church.
Okay, Your first time.
But let's be honest.
We could not continue to give you gifts every single Sunday to
keep you satisfied.
And so some people might Say, well, I got a gift for the first
Sunday, but I don't get the gift.
Second, third, fourth this Sunday, I'm not coming back, folks.
That's a silly way to think about it, but a lot of times what
happens is that churches will say, let's not base everything in
the gospel.
Let's base it on activities.
Let's base it in programs.
Let's base it in giving people substance to their lives.
But the problem with that is this.
We can find entertainment anywhere.
I can find entertainment anywhere in the world by just looking
at my phone.
Okay, Some of you that have the Internet on your phone, you can
watch pretty much any movie, any video that's ever been created
right here.
So if the church is an entertainment center, it's not really
a church.
It's not based on the gospel.
So it's not.
If it's not entertainment, what else is it?
Well, you know what?
I come to church for friendships.
That's a good thing.
Are we going to find friendships at church?
Yes, but let me pose a thought to you.
You could find a friendship anywhere.
You could find a friendship up at the ymca.
You could find a friendship out in the ball field.
So this isn't the whole reason why we come to church.
The whole reason we do what we do, going back to First Corinthians,
chapter 15, is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now, is there going to be entertainment at church?
Yeah, we have a good time.
Are.
Are there friendships at church?
Yes.
Is there.
Is there camaraderie?
Yes.
Is there all these things that we love?
Yes.
Those are fringe benefits.
But it is the gospel that holds us together.
And that's what we preach, that's what we live.
Now, what does that mean for us when it comes?
Well, we're not supposed to do things like loving people.
No.
If you live the gospel, you love people.
If you live the gospel, you will serve people.
If you live the gospel, you will sacrifice for people.
And so the list goes on and on.
So going back to Romans, chapter 1, verse 16, the question
would be this.
Am I willing to say that I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ?
Now, what does that look like in my life?
Well, it looks like this.
I am not ashamed to live differently.
I'm not ashamed to serve differently.
He goes on and say in verse 17, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith.
As it is written, the just shall live by faith.
And so it's all wrapped up in having faith in Christ.
If I have faith in Christ, I will Live in the gospel.
If I have faith in this world, what will I do?
I will live like the world.
If I have faith in my finances, I will live for my finances.
If I have faith in my health, I'm going to live only in my health.
You see what it is, it's essentially your master, which whatever
you have faith in is your master.
The Bible says there's only one thing that can be our master,
and that is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord.
That's what that word, Lord means, master.
And so if we put faith in anything else in our lives and in
the church, not in Christ, what will eventually happen is those
things will become our masters and we'll be men pleasers instead
of God pleasers.
You know what?
There's a big challenge for me as a pastor to say, what should I
preach?
What do the people want to hear?
And I get that.
I get that sentiment because I don't want to get up here and preach
obscurity to you.
I do want to preach things that apply to your life.
But there might be a time in 2025 that I need to preach something
that I don't want to hear.
And you certainly might not want to hear it, but it's something
that we need to hear.
Folks, I'm going to tell you here today, because of my love for
God and because of my love for Scripture and because of my love
for you, I want to tell you what you need to hear, not what you
want to hear.
I.
I think that so many times people think that pastors get up
here and they're talking to people and there's a disconnect.
And sometimes that might be the case.
But folks, there are some times when I'm up here preaching
and I am super conflicted because what I am telling you is
something that I struggle with.
And I say, okay, I gotta preach this, but I'm preaching to
myself.
And I would tell you this, folks.
It is okay to have that inner conflict.
That's conviction.
Don't run away from the gospel.
Don't run away from scripture.
If the Lord is speaking to you in an area and you're sensitive to
that, that is a good thing.
Be sensitive to it.
Don't put up that calloused heart.
It's so easy for us to callous our hearts against the gospel to
the place where we disconnect the gospel to application.
Well, I love Jesus, but I don't love his people.
I love Jesus, but I don't love his ministry.
I love Jesus, but I don't love his Word, folks, those are contradictions.
If you love Jesus, you love his work.
If you love Jesus, you love his Word.
And so therefore, what we can see here is that there's that element
of being ashamed of the Gospel.
By the way that we live our lives, folks, Middletown Baptist
Church this year must proclaim and embrace and celebrate the gospel.
Not being ashamed of it, not being ashamed of it.
Hey, if you bring a visitor to Middletown Baptist Church, they're
going to hear the gospel.
They're going to hear that we are all sinners, that we need Jesus,
that we need his forgiveness, that there's a punishment for sin,
but there's a payment for sin in Jesus Christ and there's everlasting
life entrusting in him.
That is unashamedly what we are going to do here in Middletown
Baptist Church.
But I'm going to tell you, that is great on a Sunday morning
at 10:30, but what happens when we all say, including myself,
that that's not just what we're going to preach in the confines
of 419 Armstrong Corner Road, but that is what we're going to preach
everywhere we go.
That is what we're going to preach in our homes.
That's what we're going to preach in our communities.
That's what we're going to preach in our workplaces.
That's what we're going to preach in difficult places that we
travel to.
You know what that is?
The challenge is what Paul says here is to say, I'm not ashamed
no matter where I go, because the gospel is powerful to the Jew
first, but also to the Greek.
It's powerful for everybody.
And so I have a little alliteration.
The four Cs of the gospel.
The four Cs of the Gospel.
I tried to do it in a way that we could remember.
So the first one is to preach it with confidence.
Confidence literally means with.
In the.
In the Latin, with faith.
Okay.
Preach the gospel with faith.
Proclaim the gospel with faith.
Live the gospel with faith.
Meaning this.
I trust that what I'm saying is true.
What if I was trying to sell you a product, but I didn't really
believe in the product and I came up to you and, you know, I'm
kind of like half hearted about it and I don't believe in it.
And I'm like, well, it's okay.
There's probably better products out there in the world,
right?
I know we're not trying to sell something, but the concept is
still the same.
To have confidence in what we are preaching matters.
To have confidence that it's worth it to follow Jesus Christ,
to have confidence that he is going to stay with us, to have confidence
that we are in him and in his righteousness.
And so we preach the gospel with confidence.
But secondly, we preach the gospel with courage.
For I am not ashamed.
You know what?
Sometimes it does take some courage to live out the gospel in
our life, to live differently.
When everyone's living one way.
When.
When everyone is living a lie, living the truth is weird.
So.
So when I am going to live according to scripture and everyone
around me is living according to the world, I'm going to stand
out.
And there's going to be maybe some mocking, maybe there's going
to be some people that are going to question that.
The truth is, is that we have to preach it with courage.
And the courage doesn't come from our own heart.
It comes from the power of God.
And he is the one that's driving us.
It's his power.
It's the power of Jesus Christ in our life.
And so it's courage, confidence, courage.
But then I want you to see it's in a matter of concern.
We need to have a concern for the souls of man.
We can see in Scripture that Jesus, as he's moving about in his
ministry, he has concern for the lost.
He goes to the woman at the well, right?
What does he do to the woman at the well?
He could have said whatever to her, but he had a concern for her
soul.
Jesus goes, and there was one point in his ministry, and believe
it or not, the Jewish people would have traveled the longer route
to get around Samaria.
The faster route to go through Israel would be right through Samaria.
But they hated the Samaritans so much that they would take the
long route around.
And Jesus makes this statement in Scripture.
He goes, I must needs go through Samaria, meaning I want to
have a concern for their souls as well.
I have a purpose for them.
And I want you to see that there is a time in our life where
we have to lose the selfishness and say, you know what?
I have a concern for others.
I have a concern for their life, their sin, their lostness.
And when we do that, we're able to show the next thing here,
compassion.
Sometimes it takes compassion to have the concern.
So maybe we could have flipped that, but the idea would be that
we have a compassion.
In Matthew, chapter nine, it talks about Jesus.
And as he.
It says, as he sees the multitudes, he is moved with compassion.
It literally means that his bowels, his stomach feels it, and,
and the, the seed of emotions in, in the Hebrew culture was their
stomach.
We, we talk about our hearts.
Our hearts are moved for them.
It was.
Their bowels were moved, their stomach was moved for them.
And so what we see is that Jesus, he had, he had feelings for
these people that needed a savior.
We should grow, we must grow in our compassion for the lost.
We are never going to proclaim the gospel message properly without
compassion.
Sometimes we do it with an iron fist and we say, I've got a
lot of courage and I got a lot of confidence, but we're going to
beat people over the head with this.
And if they don't get it, they're, you know, not so good people.
The truth is, is that we have to have concern with.
For them, concern is tied together with love.
We must demonstrate our love to them in that compassion by sharing
the gospel.
So confidence, courage, concern and compassion, These are
the four Cs of sharing the gospel, of proclaiming the gospel,
of living the gospel.
You say, well, that's the job of missionaries, Pastor.
That's your job.
Well, let's see what First Timothy, chapter 3, verse 15 says.
It says, but if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou ought
us to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church
of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth.
The church is the pillar and ground of truth.
We are the foundational pro.
We are the ones that have to proclaim the truth of God.
So.
So we are the pillar and ground of truth, the church.
Now who is the church?
We've had this lesson before.
You are the church.
We are the church.
It is the church's responsibility to proclaim the gospel
to the world.
It's not another person's job.
It's not the media's job.
It's not Hollywood's job.
It's not the, the politician's job.
It's not anybody's job.
The only time in scripture that we see a job description of
people to be the pillar and ground the truth.
It is the church.
We are the ones that have the burden of the gospel upon us to preach
it to the world.
It is we who are the preachers of the gospel.
We are not the producers of the gospel that is Jesus.
We are not the ones that extend salvation, that is Jesus,
but we are the ones that are the messengers of the gospel.
We are the pillar and ground of truth.
And the truth is Jesus Christ.
Sanctify them by thy truth.
John 17.
John 17:17 says, Sanctify them by thy truth, Thy word is truth.
And so what we do by living, how do we live the gospel?
We live the Gospel by living out Scripture.
Scripture is the centerpiece to our lives because this is the
message.
This is how we know who God is.
This is how we know what he desires from us.
This is how we know we have hope.
And so we proclaim with courage, we proclaim with confidence,
we proclaim with concern, we proclaim with compassion.
But I also would say the four T's of the gospel would be this.
In doing it in courage, in doing it with compassion, we must
still do it with truth, right?
We can't sacrifice the truth because of our compassion.
We can't say, well, I'm so compassionate about these people,
so I'm not going to tell them the whole truth.
We must present the gospel completely true in truth.
That's where it starts.
The word of God is truth.
As we read this morning, all Scripture is given by inspiration
of God.
And it's profitable for doctrine, for approved, for correction,
for instruction, righteousness.
So the idea here would be this, that when we proclaim the gospel,
where do we get the gospel from?
Well, we get it from what we feel.
No, we get it from right here.
Well, we get it by what culture tells us.
No, we get it through Scripture.
So that's the truth.
But then we proclaim it in trust.
We trust what Scripture says.
Now it's a lot with confidence.
But what I would say is this.
How many of you have said something to somebody that that's
what you believe, but you don't really trust in its validity?
You say, well, I don't know that.
Let me say it this way.
A lot of times we agree with it on paper, but we don't agree with
it in practice.
I, I would say we must trust what we are teaching people in accordance
to Scripture.
Do you trust it enough to apply it to your life?
So that would be like me saying this.
Someone, someone has a, a person that's sick in their family.
And I say, guys, you just have to trust in Jesus to get you through
this.
He says he will never leave us nor forsake us.
He says that he loves us no matter what.
And then I have a situation in my life.
Let's say for example, in February, my son's having surgery,
a very serious six hour surgery.
He is, by the way.
And I say, okay, when that happens, I don't trust God in that.
I'm paranoid, I'm scared and there's going to be some apprehension.
Anytime we have difficulties in our life.
But if I tell you to trust in Jesus for your difficulties, and
then I don't trust in Jesus, how is that message going to resonate
with you?
It's not.
It's going to say, well, that's just a bunch of hypocrisy.
And so when we preach the truth to people, when we live the
truth out, it is that application of trust.
Do I trust God enough to make it real in my life?
That's the truth.
That's the trust.
And then I would say it this way.
Thinking, thinking biblically, thinking gospel centric.
Is our thinking tied to scripture?
Or is our thinking tied to our flesh?
Or is our thinking tied to our friends?
Or is our thinking tied to our finances?
Right.
You see what I mean by that?
Like, what I think about is, is going to eventually dictate to
how I live my life.
If I think that security comes through anything outside of Jesus
Christ, I'm going to.
When push comes to shove and I feel insecure, I'm going to run to
those things.
So thinking biblically would be this.
I don't need to go to anything else because I am sufficient in Christ.
And this is the passage of scripture that tells me that that's
thinking biblically.
So to think biblically, you must know scripture, you must be
in Scripture.
And so to live the gospel, you've got to love scripture.
To live the gospel, you must learn scripture.
And so to live the gospel, it's living scripture.
That's.
That's what I would say to you.
You're saying, how do we live scripture?
Well, it's taking what the Bible says and saying, you know what?
That is how I'm striving in my life to live.
So the Bible calls us to live with love.
I want to live love.
Joy.
I want to live with joy.
Peace.
I'm living with peace.
Long suffering.
I live with long suffering.
You see what I'm saying here, right?
The fruit of the spirit, I am called to live that out in my life.
And so therefore, it's not just a theoretical thing, it's an
application of it.
And so the last thing I would say here is treasure.
So what you think about is eventually what you're going to treasure.
What do we treasure?
Jesus talks about our treasure.
Where our heart is.
That's where our actions are going to be.
What we think about is where our heart's going to be.
Where our heart's going to be is what we're going to do.
If I treasure something outside of the gospel, I'm going
To start dwelling on that more than I dwell on the gospel.
If I treasure my own life more than the gospel, I'm going to treasure
my life and I'm going to sacrifice what I need to do for the
gospel, for the sake of my stability and my safety and my focus.
And so it's the truth of God preached with trust, thinking biblically
and treasuring the gospel.
That's really what it looks like when it comes to being the pillar
and ground of truth.
So very quickly here, how do we do this?
How so we know what, but how I'm going to move through this somewhat
quickly, we do it plainly.
Every time we see Jesus preaching the gospel, he preaches
it plainly.
When Paul preaches the gospel, he doesn't go around and beat around
the bush, he preaches it plainly.
Now there's different ways that we can preach it plainly to
different people.
So if I brought a five year old up here and I wanted to preach
the gospel to them, I would preach it to them the same way, but
very plainly so that they could understand.
If I bring a 50 year old up here that has a master's degree in
philosophy, I might still present it plainly, but in a different
manner.
Right.
And so it's presenting it plainly to the person who needs the
truth of God.
We present it plainly.
If I get up here and I say, well, you got to go through all these
hoops to become a Christian and that's what the gospel is.
That's not plainly.
So I, I would say that we need to preach it plainly.
And then I would also say that we need to preach it powerfully.
I want you to see in another passage of scripture, it's in First
Thessalonians, First Thessalonians, chapter 1.
First Thessalonians, chapter one says something amazing here.
And I think it's, I think it's something that sometimes we forget
about because we think that preaching the gospel powerfully just
means someone's yelling it or someone's really firmly saying that
this is the gospel.
And, and so it can only be powerful when it's loud.
That's not necessarily what the Bible talks about, preaching
the gospel powerfully.
Now is there a time to shout the voice Thus saith the Lord.
Yeah.
But First Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 5, it says, for
our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and
in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye know what manner
of men we were among you for your sake, meaning this, the gospel
did not just come in word only.
But in the power of the Spirit, and in the power of the Spirit
came assurance, meaning faith, confidence.
And so we preach the gospel with the power of God.
We.
We don't preach the gospel with the power of man.
We preach the gospel with.
In the power of God.
And what does that mean?
That means this.
We preach what the word of God says, and we allow that person to
respond.
We.
We don't make excuses for the Bible.
We say, you know what?
This is not me.
This is the word of God.
This is not me.
This is the gospel.
This is not me.
This is Scripture.
And, and so we.
The way we preach the gospel powerfully is by relying on scripture.
We rely on scripture to proclaim the gospel, to live the
gospel.
I've had many people tell me, well, that doesn't make sense.
I don't agree with that.
I don't think you should do that.
And I say this, okay, I understand where you're coming from.
And even there, there are certain elements of scripture.
Confession time.
There's certain elements of scripture that I wish weren't there
because it would be a lot easier for certain things to not
be there.
But what I'm going to say here to you today is that if the Bible
says it, we preach it.
And that's the power in.
It's the power of the sword of the Lord and not the power of the
person standing up here preaching.
Because I can say whatever I want to say up here.
But what the Bible says in First Thessalonians, chapter one,
verse five, is that it didn't come from the power of the word.
It came through the power of the spirit.
The power of the spirit.
And so therefore, we preach it powerfully.
But then I want you to see here, we preach it persistently.
We.
We do it regularly.
We don't just stop when we get opposition.
Do you know it's very easy to quit living the gospel life when
you feel pressure, but pressure is all the more reason to
be more persistent.
Now, now, we don't.
We do this.
We.
We don't beat someone over the head.
Like.
Like if I go and preach something to someone and they go,
well, I just don't want to hear it right now.
We go, no, you gotta hear it.
And you grab them by the, you know, shirts and you pull them in
like, okay, that's where we're taking it too far.
The Bible says that there is a time and a place to say, hey, I presented
the word of God to them, and now we have to let the Holy Spirit
work.
You cannot Force someone to be saved.
You cannot force someone to understand it from your perspective.
It is only by the Holy Spirit that that happens, by the power of
God.
And so you present it persistently, as God calls you to
present it persistently in the concept of people that have been
prayed for for years.
And that's the next point here.
I want you to see this.
We got to do it prayerfully.
You can't be persistent without the prayer.
If you think about it from the perspective of scripture, it says
in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God.
It's the prayer that powers us forward to be persistently and powerfully
and plainly preaching the word.
Pray for folks.
If you have a situation where you're going to be living out the
gospel, pray about that situation.
Pray that you are able to properly present the gospel in a
clear, powerful way to an individual or to a group of people.
It is the prayer that allows us to be persistent.
I mentioned people that have been prayed for for years.
I've heard of stories of people that have been prayed for
for decades, and they've rejected the gospel.
They rejected the gospel, but there was a faithful person or people
or church that were praying for an individual.
And over time, and that persistence of prayer allowed that
person, and their heart got softened and they came to a place
in their life where they trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Never give up on praying for individuals, for the gospel.
Oh, they're too far gone.
It's not our job to make that decision on whether or not they're
too far gone.
It's our job to plant the seed, water the seed, and God gives
that increase.
That's 1 Corinthians, chapter three.
I, I, I don't, I don't, I personally don't get people to get
saved.
It is the word of God.
I am just the vessel.
I, I, I'm just the person that says, hey, thus saith the Lord, I
love you enough to tell you the truth.
But I'm not the one that's grabbing their heart and changing
their heart.
I'm not the one that's giving them that power in their life.
It is only by prayer and persistence that we are able to be
a part of this.
And so how do we do it plainly, powerfully, persistently,
and prayerfully?
The next question is, who, who's doing this?
Well, I put this phrase up there.
It's very basic.
All believers are called to proclaim the gospel to all people.
All believers are called to proclaim the Gospel to all people.
So, so what do I mean by that?
Are you a believer today?
If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you are called.
You are called.
You are called to preach the gospel.
Well, who am I called to preach the gospel to?
Mark, chapter 16, verse 15.
And he said unto them, go ye unto all the world and preach the
gospel to the people that you like.
No, to every creature.
That means everybody.
Now here's the thing.
Can you preach to everybody?
No.
Why not?
Well, are you in China this morning?
No.
You can't preach to someone in China unless they're watching the
live stream.
So we have limitations.
But if everyone preaches the gospel to who they can preach to,
we can continue to connect with people not just in our community,
but around the world.
Say, well, I'm not able to go to this country, but I'm able to
support someone who is going to that country.
There is our way to reach people for the gospel.
And so all believers, if you are a born again believer, have you
been saved for five minutes or 50 years, it doesn't matter.
You are now called to proclaim the gospel to all people.
And so that is the who behind it.
We've talked about the what, the how and the who.
And lastly, we need to answer the question when.
Right?
Just happens to be the questions that we ask.
Who, what, when, when?
Well, Colossians chapter one.
I want you to see all of these because this is pretty neat to see
where we have a few verses to look at here and then we'll come.
I, I want you to give me an answer.
Okay.
After we look at all these verses, I want you to see when we
should go.
So the first one is colossians.
Colossians chapter 1, verse 28.
Hopefully you will see the urgency here.
Colossians chapter 1, Verse 28.
Look at verse 28 and 29.
After we read these verses, I think we'll have an answer on when
we should preach the gospel.
Colossians chapter 1, verse 28, whom we preach, warning every
man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus, wherein to I also labor, striving
according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
So he says warning.
So actually proclaiming the gospel is a warning.
But we look a little bit further and we see what Second Corinthians
chapter 6 says.
Second Corinthians chapter 6, verse number 2.
Second Corinthians chapter 6, verse 2.
We see more about the time frame of when we should preach the
gospel.
Says, for he saith.
For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted and in a
day of salvation, when I secured thee.
Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 16.
Some of you are familiar with that verse, Redeeming the time because
the days are evil.
And then lastly, here, this will be the last one.
We look at Colossians, chapter 4, verse 5.
It says, Colossians 4, verse 5.
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without meaning.
They're not saved.
Redeeming the time.
So walk in wisdom, redeem the time.
So with all those things in mind, what do you think next year?
2026?
Now.
When is.
It's now.
Preach the gospel now.
Redeeming the time.
Warning.
Get ready.
That's the idea.
There is an urgency for the gospel.
The urgency is that we don't know when time is going to run out.
We don't know when that person is going to take their last breath.
We must have that compassion and urgency to proclaim and to live
the gospel as a church.
Now, individually, yes, you can do that.
But think about when we all come together individually and do
that as a group, think about what that means for us.
Being a lighthouse to our community, to be a lighthouse to
our world.
And so when we think about the gospel, we think about the idea of
who?
Well, everybody, when, now, how powerfully, persistently, prayerfully,
plainly.
Then we think about.
We think about like, well, what is it?
Well, it's Jesus.
It's the message of Jesus Christ.
The last thing we didn't bring up is where.
Where do we preach it?
Well, the Bible says in Acts, chapter one, verse eight, in Jerusalem,
you say, well, I've never been to Jerusalem.
I can't get there.
It's not literally talking about us in Jerusalem.
Even though it would be totally fine for you to preach in
Jerusalem, but that means your local area.
It starts here.
We're not even going to go to the next steps.
It does say Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, into the uttermost part
of the earth.
We're going to get to that later on in this study.
But it starts in Jerusalem.
It starts in.
In your home.
It starts in your town.
It starts in your workplace.
That is your Jerusalem.
And so what I would say is this.
Before we start thinking about the uttermost part of the earth,
which we will think about, let's start in Jerusalem.
Let's start in our lives.
Like, where can I adjust in my life so that I can begin to live
the gospel, so that I can be Able to proclaim the gospel powerfully
and persistently and prayerfully in my life.
What have I allowed to seep into my life that has pulled me away
from what I need to do?
And then next week, what we're going to look at is as we individually
get on track with the gospel, how can we then corporately, as the
group, come together and amplify and multiply our message
to this world?
I can only preach to so many people, right?
But if I preach to 20 people and you preach to 20 people and she
preaches to 20 people, do you see?
That's the element of multiplication.
And so we want addition in our church, but we want multiplication
as well.
And so what I would encourage you to think about is this.
I need to get where I need to be when it comes to living the gospel,
proclaiming the gospel, believing the gospel, trusting in
the gospel, so that I can join arms with other like minded people
and proclaim the gospel corporately to this world.
Think about how many people are moving into Middletown, Delaware.
Just Middletown.
We're not even talking about Odessa, Townsend, Bear, Newark.
Think about how many people are just moving into Middletown.
New houses.
We can look at that a few different ways.
We can look at that as well.
Middletown's getting too crowded.
We need to chase them out.
Or we need to say God is naturally, or maybe even supernaturally
bringing more people to our sphere of influence.
There was already enough unsaved people in Middletown for
us to proclaim to.
Now he's bringing us more.
You know what?
Right up here, there's a Wawa right up at the corner, you see right
behind Wawa, there's I think there's like 87 houses, townhomes,
87 families that are moving in there.
There it is.
There's our mission field.
There are people around us that you go around every single day
and you see that's your mission field.
And I would say even so within your home.
Like you might have someone in your home that's not a believer,
might be a child, it might be a grandson, it might be a granddaughter,
it might be a spouse.
I don't know where you stand, I don't know everyone's lifestyle.
But what I would say is this.
You have an opportunity to be a gospel witness right where you
are.
But before you do that, you have to go back and understand the
importance of celebrating, embracing and living the gospel message.
And so as a church, the goal, the very first goal is to have everything
that we do ministerially in our ministries, in our practice,
in our message, in Our activities, everything be centered
in the gospel.
That is the root, that is the core.
Can we do other things?
Of course.
But everything's set in the gospel.
And so when we're set in the gospel, all the other distractions
are just distractions.
We just let that go.
We can have a lot of disagreements in 2025.
We've got our annual business meeting coming up on January 19th.
In the evening service, there's a lot of things that we could
disagree on.
Well, Instead of spending $20 here, we should spend $50 there.
We could.
And there might be a conversation that needs to be had
about certain elements of that kind of stuff.
But when we understand the core, we understand the purpose.
When we understand that it's the gospel that is our driving force,
we're so.
We're not so concerned with the fringe details that don't really
matter in the long run.
You know what?
It doesn't matter.
It does not matter in the long run what we do when it comes to what
time we meet on Sunday morning or, or.
Or how many ministries that we have or how many ministries that
are doing this and doing that.
What matters is who are we preaching the gospel to?
How are we living our lives according to the gospel?
Are we living according to the gospel?
It's all about the gospel.
And I would encourage you to think about that here in 2025 while
going to ask if you're able to.
To stand with me, every head bowed, every eye closed as the music
plays.
This morning, we're going to have an opportunity to respond.
And really, it's.
It's two.
It's two responses.
One response is this.
I don't even.
I might not even know the gospel.
I don't understand the gospel.
Or at least I haven't trusted in the gospel.
I've been trusting in something else.
Before we can get on board with living the gospel, you have
to trust in the gospel.
You have to believe in that.
Jesus died on the cross for your sins.
You have to believe that he rose again on the third day.
That is the challenge for us this morning.
Are we willing to say that we are trusting in the gospel?
Hey, there might be folks here this morning that have been trusting
in something else.
This is your chance to start out the year, to start out 2025,
not just as a new year, but a new life in Christ.
You want to know what that means to have faith in Jesus and
to have faith in his work and his work alone and not your works.
Hey, this morning is a time for you to respond in Faith.
And as the Bible said in Second Corinthians, Chapter 6, Today
is the day of salvation for you.
What an awesome start to the year that would be.
But secondly is this.
Maybe you're a believer this morning, but the challenge is not
do I believe the gospel as much as am I willing to believe it
and then live it?
Am I willing to not only trust in it, but also proclaim it?
Am I willing to say that, hey, this is going to shape my life.
I'm going to think differently, I'm going to act differently,
I'm going to respond differently, I'm going to love differently.
Am I going to allow the gospel to be the center of my home, the
center of my church, the center of my ministry, the center
of my work, everything in my life?
May the gospel be centerpieced in that.
That, that the gospel is the focus.
Hey, maybe you need a rededication to the gospel here today,
not being re saved, but refocused on what the gospel means
for you and your family for this year.
Hey, if that's you this morning, as the music plays, you
can come here and rededicate your life and refocus your life to
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Maybe, just maybe you need to thank him.
Because a lot of times we miss the point.
We miss the point of why we should serve.
And we say, well, you know what, it's just hard for me to serve.
Sometimes it's not as hard when we actually think about the
attitude of gratitude.
Maybe you need to be reset in that thankfulness of what Jesus Christ
has done for you.
So here in the next few moments, if you need to respond,
the altar is open, you can come up here and you can kneel here
at the steps or in your pew and respond to the message here this
morning.
Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation.
Pray that you work in hearts and lives.
I pray that you challenge our hearts in the area of the gospel.
I thank you.
We ask these things in Jesus name.
Amen.
As music plays this morning, follow as the Lord leads.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro at middletown baptist
church.com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and
follow along for future podcast and updates.
Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.