ROMANS ROMANS ROAD2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Romans Romans Road

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. We're going to be starting out here in Romans chapter 10, and I want to read with you verses 14 through 17 to get us started this evening. Romans chapter 10 verses 14 through 17 says this,

Verse 1.

For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? Verse 17. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. As we continue to look at the book of Romans, I want to take some time this evening

to consider. We talked about this passage a little bit last week, and we talked about the need to preach the gospel and how that is, you know, what the gospel is for. It's the way that it's delivered. It's the way that it's received. It's through preaching. And so we understand, I pray that you understand, there's a responsibility, there's a call for all of us to preach the gospel.

But preaching the gospel can be challenging for us as believers. It can be difficult and intimidating. And so what I'd like to do this evening is walk you through one method, one tool for preaching the gospel and kind of give some example examples.

and some instruction on how to do that. And so the tool is called Romans Road. And so you received, you know, this little handout as you walked in today, which has Romans Road on there and the scriptures that are pertaining to it, again, to help you and to prepare you, to equip you to preach the gospel. This is something that every believer is called to do.

But also, I want to stress that this is something that every believer is capable of doing. So it's not just, you know, you really should, and you think, well, yeah, I know I should, and maybe one day, you know, I'll get to that level. I'll be able to share the gospel.

But I would encourage you and I would remind you that every believer is capable of sharing the gospel, even those who have only known the Lord for a few hours, and especially those of us who've walked with the Lord for many years. Now, there's kind of a little bit of a conflict in us because although we know that there is that calling, there is that need for the gospel to be preached, we

There is many times this conflict because, well, it's hard or it's difficult or it's fearful to share the gospel. Back in 2013, Barna did a study and they did a survey of Christians and those who are born again, 73% of them said that they believe they have a responsibility to share their faith with others.

So those who are born again, those who identify as those who are born again, 73% said, yes, I personally have a responsibility to share my faith. But of those, they went on in the study to find out, only half or 52% said that they actually did that in the past 12 months. So 73% say yes.

I have a responsibility to share the gospel, but then also acknowledge, you know, half of them said, but I haven't done that for at least a year. I haven't done that in the past year. I have not shared the gospel with anyone around me. And so I would ask you to consider how often do you share the gospel? And I think it's appropriate to consider too, how often should you share the gospel? Because we can take it, I think, too far and

in laying a burden on us that God hasn't placed on us. Of course, there are those who are called to be evangelists, and so their main ministry is evangelism, and so they're going to be sharing the gospel on a much more frequent basis, probably, than the rest of believers. And

And so, you know, having an expectation like, you know, you're supposed to share the gospel every day, well, that may not actually be realistic with what God has called you to do, you know, and maybe setting a number. Well, once a month, I have to share the gospel. Again, you know, that's not like a crazy number or anything, but, you know, you don't also have to beat yourself up over, you know, I haven't shared the gospel this month or this year. Really, I would look at it as God wants to give you opportunities, and

And we want to make ourselves available for those opportunities. And so God, as He gives you opportunities, you want to spot those and catch those and then be able to share the gospel whenever the need is there. So I want to encourage you to look for opportunity, to really ask God to give you opportunity to share the gospel. And it's not so much about have you done it in the past month or six months or one year or whatever.

but it's about have you taken advantage of opportunities that God has given to you? And so this idea of Romans Road is a tool to help you prepare, a tool to help you be prepared so that when that opportunity is there, when God opens the door in front of you, then you have, you know, the opportunity to share with the person in front of you some of the basic elements of the gospel.

And so there's this handout here. So this is something, you know, that you could keep with you if you'd like as a reference point. Now, I want to encourage you that this is, you know, one method of sharing the gospel. It's not the only method. It's just one I like because it's just straight from the scriptures. And again, in Romans 10, 17, he says, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And the word of God does need to be part of our preaching the gospel.

And so I like this because it just pulls directly from those things and gives us opportunity to share. And so this is a point of reference for you, and you can hold on to that. But also I wanted to let you know, we also make this available inside the church's mobile app.

And so if you have that on your smartphone, on your iOS or Android phone, I'll show you how to get there. So from the main screen of the app, on the bottom there, the menu, you see the flashlight button. You tap on that, and that'll pull up some of the different things for our flashlight fellowships. And the bottom one is the Romans Road. And so when you tap on that, it

It will take you to a page that you can scroll down and see all the different elements of Romans Road, the scriptures, as well as some of the important concepts that we'll be talking about this evening and I'll be walking through. And so again, just making it available so it's accessible so that when you have the opportunity that you're able to share and you're able to hit some of these essential points of the gospel message with the people that you are ministering to.

And so this is the Roman's road. Now, one other point before we actually get into the different points of the Roman's road, and that is that this is meant to be a dialogue, not so much what I'm doing this evening. But when you are engaging in the Roman's road with somebody, it's intended to be a dialogue. It's intended to be meaningful discussion.

So it's not that, you know, just hold this up and say, okay, for everyone has sinned, for we all fall short of God's glorious standard. And then in chapter 5, verse 8, it says, but God shows great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And then in chapter 6, verse 23, it says, for the wages of sin, that's not what this is for, okay? This is, you know, just...

to remind you so that you can have discussion. And there's, you know, questions that you should ask. And there's, you know, ways that you should explain these things. And it's meant to be, you know, sit down, have some coffee, have lunch, you know, or sit on a commute or whatever, and have a meaningful discussion with somebody.

It's not meant to be, okay, here's two minutes, you know, the full gospel message, everything you need to know, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. All right, you want to pray? Okay, you know, and then you move on. That's not really what it's meant for, but it's really meant for just helping guide the conversation so that you can, through the course of the conversation, preach the gospel and explain and share the different elements of the gospel message.

Now, if you only have two minutes or you only have five minutes with somebody, then I would encourage you, you can take one part of this and just share that. You don't have to share the whole thing, but, you know, take advantage of the time and the opportunity that you have. But if your time is limited, you know, don't try to like just cram it in, but just be led by the Lord on the different elements that you share according to what the person's need is.

And so we're going to walk through these scriptures and just talk about them briefly so that we can, again, have a good understanding and try to be prepared for when God gives us opportunity to preach the gospel. And so there's five points to the Romans road. The first one is in Romans chapter 3, verse 23.

And you might notice I'm using the New Living Translation for these scriptures because, again, we're looking at sharing these things with those who are not believers. And so to make it as simple as possible, but still accurate to what the word says. And so the New Living Translation of Romans chapter 3, verse 23 says, "'For everyone has sinned, we all fall short of God's glorious standard.'"

The first point on Romans Road is Romans chapter 3 verse 23. Now you can, you know, mix it up and there's other scriptures you could share, but these are just kind of some guidelines or somewhere to start with sharing the gospel. Now as you start in Romans chapter 3 verse 23, basically we're introducing the problem.

In order for there to be good news, we have to a little bit understand the bad news and understand the problem that we all have and why we need salvation.

And so this scripture summarizes that very nicely. We have all sinned or everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God's glorious standard. And so there's two things I'd like to highlight from this verse, important concepts for us to be able to understand, but also to be able to communicate with those that we're sharing with. And the first concept is that everyone has sinned.

And as you're having this discussion with somebody, there's different kinds of people. Some will have no problem with the concept that we've all sinned. And some will readily testify, I know I'm a sinner. I know I fall short. I know I'm not perfect. And so those...

this particular point is rather easy to make and to discuss with them. But then there are others who think that they're a good person, you know, and think, well, this doesn't really apply to me. You know, everyone is sin, but, you know, I've lived a good life. I've never killed anybody. And

And so there may be a need to kind of explore this a little bit further and talk about what sin is and how we miss the mark as it comes to the standard. And so the second part of that plays right into it, and that's God's glorious standard. What is God's glorious standard? And of course, we know that is perfection. Paul is saying here that we all fall short of the standard of perfection, right?

Do you know any perfect people? No, because we all fall short of that. We all miss the mark. We don't measure up. The standard that God uses in measuring us is Jesus. And so sometimes we measure each other or measure ourselves by each other. And so we're like, hey, maybe not so bad or maybe...

Not so good either, but not that bad because then we measure ourselves against somebody else who's way worse than us. But the measurement that God uses is Jesus. And so God's glorious standard, perfection, is the measurement. And the point here is that we have all missed that. We all fall short of that. And again, this is the point. This is why we need the gospel. This is why we need a Savior.

Well, moving on to the next point on Romans Road, it's Romans chapter 5, verse 8. Here in Romans chapter 5, verse 8, it says, And so the first verse, Romans 3, 23, introduced the problem, our sinful lost condition. This verse introduces the solution.

And so now we get to begin to talk about the gospel. The solution is that Jesus Christ has died for us. God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And there's a few important concepts to consider in this verse. Number one, you could consider the Father's love.

Now, again, it's not that you have to share every detail about, you know, all of these things, depending on the context, depending on who it is you're conversing with and you're having this discussion with. You know, if you're speaking with someone who comes from the Catholic Church, let's say, then, you know, the concept of everybody being sinners, that's no big deal for them. They got that, you know, that's taught, you know, and that's no big deal. But some of these other concepts are going to be foreign to them.

someone who comes from another culture or another background, you know, some of these are going to be more needful than others. And so again, that's why it's a dialogue. And so you're discussing, you know, and so the idea of the Father loving us or God loving us might be new and might need to, you know, you might need to take some time to explain and to share what that means. Because

because there are some people who think of God as being angry or grumpy or, you know, out to get us. And sometimes even we as believers have this picture of God, you know, kind of wanting to judge us, but then Jesus kind of like standing in the gap. And that's not the picture that the Bible paints at all. But it's God who loved us so much. He showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us.

And so you need to know and you need to be able to share that the Father has great love for you. Now, it's probably worthwhile to talk about what love is and to consider that, you know, and so you could talk about different elements of love. But I would summarize love as love is doing what is best for people.

And that's what God does. He does what is best for us. Everything he does in relation to us is because he loves us. He has our best interests at heart and in mind. And so everything he does, from sending Christ to die upon the cross for us, to everything else, every other aspect of his relationship with us, it's a matter of his love for us and his desire for the best for us in eternity.

And so the Father's love is an important concept to consider, an important concept to share. But then also, another important concept is the value of the death of Jesus Christ. The death of Jesus Christ has great value. He says there in Romans 5.8 that God showed his great love by sending Christ to die for us. And it's important to consider, it's important to understand this idea of dying on behalf of someone else.

And so sometimes, even actually this last week, I had an opportunity to share the gospel. And this was part of the discussion that we had because, well, the person I was sharing with didn't really quite get the concept and understand the value of Jesus's death. And so I asked the question, could somebody else do what Jesus did? Can I die for you?

And the dialogue kind of went back and forth. But the idea was, oh, yeah, I guess you could die for me. And that would be very noble. And that would be very good. And so I had to take some time to explain, well, you know, I could die for you. I could push you out of the way so that I get hit by the bus and you survive.

but that's a temporary salvation that doesn't do anything for your eternity. It has value. It's, you know, noble. It's valuable, but it doesn't have the same value as what Christ has done for us. And there's a great value in the death of Jesus Christ that comes from the reality that Jesus is God. And the fact that Jesus is God means that his death, his sacrifice has a much greater value.

The reason why it's so valuable is because Jesus, being God, became man to die upon the cross for us. And he lived a perfect, sinless life so that he was the perfect sacrifice. And so in this death...

His death, his sacrifice has much greater value, infinite value sufficient to cover, to wipe away all sin of all humanity for all time. And so he paid the penalty for all sin because he, being God, became man to die upon the cross for us. And so it has infinite value for

because it's Jesus being God who died for us. So nobody else could do what Jesus did. There's no other substitute that would work in that way. Only Jesus could have done this for us. And then the other important concept here in Romans 5, verse 8, is that we did not deserve it. He says there in Romans 5, verse 8, while we were still sinners. God did what he did for us while we were still sinners.

The Father loved us so much, and to this extent, even though we didn't love Him, and we weren't seeking Him, we weren't pursuing Him, we weren't desiring Him, we weren't asking for Him, but even though we wanted nothing to do with God, God still loved us so much that He sent Jesus Christ to die upon the cross for our sins.

And so even though we did not love him, the Father loved us. Even though we did not deserve it, even though we did not earn it, you know, we weren't worthy of God's love, but God loved us anyway. And so Romans chapter 3 verse 23, everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God's glorious standard. And then Romans chapter 5 verse 8, but God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Now we move on to Romans chapter 6, verse 23, which says, So we're working our way through Romans, you know, and just hitting some of the highlights. Now, there's different versions of Romans Road. And again, you could pull from other verses as well in Romans. But again, this is just a sample just to give you some talking points, just to give you some points specifically

that you can discuss. And so as you're talking about the value of the sacrifice of Jesus, as you're talking about that we've all sinned, well, here is the contrast between the two and basically the choice that we have to make. And so it lays in opposite corners. The wages of sin is death, and the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

And there's a few important concepts to consider in this verse as well. So first of all, consider that people are eternal. Again, Romans chapter 6 verse 23, the free gift of God is eternal life. There is the need for people to understand, regardless of whether or not you believe in Jesus, after this life, there is eternity. Every person will live forever. And the Bible is very clear on that.

And so it's not just those that believe in Jesus will live forever. It's every person will live forever. That's the reality that we face. And so it's important to, you know, help people to consider eternity.

This is one of the reasons why I, in a sense, enjoy ministering at funerals. Because at funerals, people are faced with questions. They're kind of forced to deal with issues that they would normally, you know, change the subject, not think about, do anything that they can not to talk about. But at a funeral, they're forced to face these things that they don't want to think about. And that is, what happens after this life?

And so it's a really good opportunity. It's a prime opportunity to share the gospel because people are thinking about eternity. They're thinking about the next life and life after death. And so this is something important for us to grasp hold of. People are eternal. Now, the second important concept is death versus life.

And so as we think about the idea of eternity, understanding there's eternal death and there's eternal life. He says, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. And so this idea of death, well, what does sin earn you? The wages of sin, what you earn by sin, by your sinfulness is death, which the Bible would describe as separation from God.

And so every person is in this condition of deserving death, having earned death by sin. Because, well, again, in Romans 3.23, everyone has sinned and fall short of God's glorious standard.

And so every person deserves eternal judgment. It's what we've earned. It's what we've deserved. We've earned it up for ourselves, this judgment from God, this eternity apart from God because of our sinful condition. And that's the wages of sin. But then the free gift of God is eternal life. And so there's a free gift, which is life.

Now, life is the opposite of death. Death is eternity apart from God. Life is eternity with God. It's eternity in God's presence. It's heaven. It's glory. It's paradise. It's far greater than we can imagine. And so you have these contrasted, death and life. These are the only two options. And so I like to ask people to think about eternity and what's your plan for eternity?

What is your plan for eternity? Knowing these are the two options, life or death, what's your plan? And of course, everybody, you know, pretty much wants to go to heaven, but what's your plan to get there? How are you going to get there? And that comes to, or brings us to the third important concept in this verse, and that is that salvation is a free gift. And so there in Romans 6, 23, the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And so this opportunity to have eternal life

is a free gift. It is not earned. It cannot be deserved. There's nothing that we can do. There's no good works that we can accomplish. There's not enough good deeds, you know, and it's not that you have to measure, you know, good deeds versus bad deeds. And as long as your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, that is not at all what the Lord says. The Lord says salvation is a free gift. The only thing that we can do regarding this free gift is receive it.

That's our only option. That's our only choice. That's the only decision we have to make, whether or not we receive the gift that is being given to us. And so salvation is a free gift. The wages of sin is death. Notice the contrast. There's the wages, what you've earned, versus the gift that you simply receive. And if you go with what you deserve, if you go with what you've earned, it's death.

But if you go with what you don't deserve, which you just receive from God, it's life, eternal life with Christ Jesus our Lord. Well, that brings us now to the next point, and that's Romans 10, verse 9. He says, Here is the explanation of how to receive this gift.

The free gift of God, which is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. And so, important concepts to consider in this verse. Number one, the resurrection of Jesus. There he says that you have to believe that God raised him from the dead. And so, the reason why I have this here at the top is because we've talked about the death of Christ already in chapter 5, verse 8. But then also to recognize and remember that Jesus died, but he didn't stay dead.

It wasn't a permanent death. It wasn't final. It was, well, the death that he died and then he resurrected three days later. And the resurrection of Jesus proves the claims of Jesus. And so he foretold his resurrection and it authenticates his ministry. It authenticates his teaching. It authenticates the rest of what Jesus declared about God, about himself, and about life and what he's called us to.

Another part of the resurrection that's important is that it demonstrates that Jesus is able to give you life. So if the promise is eternal life, but the one who's promising it doesn't have eternal life, then it's not a very significant promise, right?

But because he resurrected, he's demonstrating to us, I can resurrect you as well. And I can give you everlasting life if you believe in me. And so the resurrection of Jesus is an important aspect to share and to consider. But the next concept to consider is what does it mean to confess? Because he says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, right?

And the word confess, it means to say the same thing or to agree with. And the basic idea here is that you agree with God that Jesus is Lord. Agree with God, agree with God's testimony of Jesus, that Jesus is God who became man, that he is Lord, that he reigns on high, as well as, you know, his ministry, that he died upon the cross for our sin, that he resurrected the third day.

Jesus is Lord. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. And so if you confess, he says, with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, if you testify, if you agree with God about who Jesus is, well, that's one aspect of receiving this gospel message. Now, as I shared last week, it's important to note that a lie cannot save you.

So to say the words, Jesus is Lord, without it reflecting the reality of what's happening within you, reflecting the reality of what you truly believe, that doesn't save you. It's not magic words, but it's confessing Jesus as it matches where your heart is. And so that's the next important concept, and that's what it means to believe. To believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.

So to believe the truth, to accept, the word believe means to be convinced of something.

And so be convinced of who Jesus is, not just that you agree with God and you're able to say that out loud, but that it reflects your heart, that you are genuinely convinced that Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead on the third day, that he is God, that he is able to give you everlasting life, that he is able by his sacrifice to forgive you of your sins. That's what it means to believe in Jesus.

As we talked about last week, it's important to understand that believing in Jesus is not just acknowledging information in your head, but it's basing your whole life on

on this understanding, basing your whole life on the reality that Jesus resurrected from the dead. And so those who confess with their mouth and believe in their hearts, they will have a changed life. It will be a difference in them because, well, their life is now lived based on a new understanding, based on a new belief of who Christ is and what he has done for us. Well, the final point on Romans Road is Romans 10, verse 13 says,

And that says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That is the final point because, well, there's the opportunity to invite someone to call on the name of the Lord. Just two quick important concepts regarding this verse. Number one, everyone can be saved.

So the invitation here for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord means that it's within everybody's reach to call on the name of the Lord. Everyone can be saved. Nobody is outside of the reach of the gospel. Nobody has sinned so much that forgiveness is unreachable or unattainable.

Nobody has done such bad things that they're not able to be forgiven or not able to accept and receive what Christ has done for us. Everyone has the opportunity to call on the name of the Lord and be saved. And so everyone can be saved. Well, the second important concept is call on the Lord. And the idea of calling on the Lord here, again, it goes back to the previous point there in verse 9, to confess and to believe.

To confess that Jesus is Lord, to believe that in your heart, and to call out to him and say, Lord, save me. Lord, forgive me. Lord, change me and make me born again. It's part of the internal and external, right? The confession is the external. The believing is the internal. And the calling on the Lord is the result of that.

when you agree with God about who Jesus is and believe you're convinced that he is who he declared himself to be, well, again, you have the option at that point, knowing all the facts, knowing the truth, to reject it. Just because everybody or someone knows the truth doesn't mean that they receive it.

Doesn't mean that they're now going to live it, but those who call on the Lord, it's those who know the truth, know the facts, they know and they recognize, they believe who Jesus is, and now they are asking for God to change them, for God to save them, for God to do the work in them. And so everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And so there's the opportunity for

to call on the name of the Lord, to receive from him the salvation that he promises and that he offers. And so this is the Romans road, walking from Romans chapter 3, verse 23, to Romans chapter 10, verse 13.

It's real simple. It's very basic. We haven't spent, you know, hours and hours and hours working our way through this. But that was the point. The point I wanted to kind of share with you and encourage all of us in is we can take some time with people to share the gospel message. And in walking through these things, we have the opportunity to preach the gospel. And it's something that every believer is called to do.

And it's something that every believer is capable of doing. You can do this. You can share the gospel. And I want to encourage you to be seeking the Lord for opportunities to do so. Again, it's not that we're trying to, you know, shove these truths down people's throats, but that you're looking for an opportunity to have a discussion with people around you.

looking for God to open the door to have these discussions. Now, again, you can mix these things up. You can change them around depending on the need, depending on who you're talking to. It's not a magic formula. It's just helpful guidelines to kind of keep us on track and not just go immediately into talking about the Dodgers, but also to walk through the different elements of the gospel message so that they have the opportunity to understand and clearly respond.

This is something that God is going to be challenging us with, I believe, that we need to be preparing ourselves to get the gospel out, to be sharing the gospel with the world around us. Because again, going back to Romans chapter 10, verse 14, how shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? So everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but how can they do that if they don't yet believe, if they don't yet understand who Jesus is and what he's done?

And he says, how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? So how can they believe in Jesus when they've never got to hear these things explained to them? They've never had these concepts shared with them. They've never had these discussions and explored these ideas. So how can they believe if they've not heard these things? The Bible is the number one best-selling book of all history consistently.

But that doesn't mean that anybody reads it. It doesn't mean that people understand it. Remember Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch? The Lord led him and opened the door, and then he overheard the Ethiopian eunuch reading from Isaiah, and he said, hey, do you understand what you're reading? And he said, well, how can I unless someone explains it to me? And see, that's what God's called us to. So lots of people have Bibles, and we live in America where we think everybody knows the gospel and everybody's heard it. But the reality is...

the majority have not. They've not had a real opportunity to respond to the gospel message. We live in Southern California where we have the Harvest Crusade, right? But you know, there's so many people who see those bumper stickers and signs every year and still don't really have any idea what the Harvest Crusade is. It's not a given that everybody knows the gospel. How can they believe in him whom they've not heard? And so part of our job as believers is to give them the opportunity to hear.

And so he says, how shall they hear without a preacher? How can they hear unless one of us preaches? Now, that doesn't mean you have to have a pulpit, and it doesn't mean you have to, like, shout or, you know, draw a big crowd. But perhaps for you, it's just sitting down and having coffee or, you know, having a conversation at a playground or, you know, talking with your neighbor over the fence or whatever the case may be. How are they going to hear unless someone preaches?

And that call has been given to us. He says, how shall they preach unless they are sent? And again, as I shared last week, we've all been sent. There in the Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28, Jesus told us, he has authority in all heaven and earth. So go therefore and make disciples. And he said, I'll be with you even to the end of the age, by which we know he wasn't just talking to those people immediately in front of him, but for all disciples who will believe, he will be with us.

as we go therefore and make disciples. And so we are people who are sent and we're to have beautiful feet, the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace. But remember, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And that's why this is, I believe, a good method to follow, a good thing to start from, because it's the word of God that's gonna change hearts. It's the word of God that's gonna change lives.

We can't do it ourselves. And, you know, I think our tendency many times as believers here in Southern California is we don't share the gospel. We invite people to church because then, you know, Pastor Jerry or whoever's, you know, teaching or whatever for that church that, you know, they'll share the gospel, then they'll get an opportunity. But you don't see that pattern. You know, you don't see that modeled for us in the New Testament. What God's called us to do is to preach the gospel.

and bring people to church. Church is an important part of the Christian walk, but we shouldn't just, you know, defer that. Well, that's for other people to do. No, that's what God's called us to do. And so here's a simple tool that you can use, and I pray that you would really seek the Lord about opportunity to share that. And I would encourage you to memorize these verses. Memorize this

path, you know, memorize this road. You can have, you know, access to it. Again, it's in the mobile app and such, but to learn these things, to become familiar with them so that you're able to engage in this discussion as God gives you opportunity. There on the spot, wherever you are, you're able to preach the gospel and give people an opportunity to respond. You're able to give people an opportunity to hear that they might believe, that they might call on the name of the Lord and be saved. Amen. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for the great privilege we have as being your disciples. Lord, that you've given us the opportunity to make a difference, to make an impact for the kingdom of God. Lord, what a glorious thing to be able to share your truth, the gospel message, and to be involved in bringing others to know you, to be forgiven, and to have everlasting life. And so, God, I pray that you would stir up within us a fire, a passion, a

Lord, for the people around us that need to know you. Lord, they need to hear about you. They need to hear your word. But how are they going to hear? Lord, we can't leave it up to TV preachers. We can't leave it up to church invitations. We can't leave it up to things they might read on the internet or somewhere else or things that they were taught in Sunday school. Lord, you've given us the commission and the call to bring forth your word. And I pray that you would help us to do that.

Give us boldness. I pray, Lord, that you would fill us and baptize us with your Holy Spirit, that we would be empowered to be witnesses to you here in Corona, Riverside, Norco, all of Southern California. And Lord, I pray that you would even send us forth to the uttermost parts of the earth with your message, the gospel of peace. Lord, I pray that you would give us opportunity to share and then give us the boldness to be able to do so. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.