The Gospel

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. And it's so powerful, just the message itself. It's a vast message. I was talking to some of the brothers this morning where this can really, it should be a series.

Sorry, I'm going all over the place. It's the Italian in me, by the way. So, you know, we like to use the hands a lot. So it is a vast message. So a lot of what we're going to do today, guys, we're going to be reading out of the Bible.

Okay, so you're going to get some parts. Thank you, Matt. I love you, Matt. Don't throw rotten tomatoes at me, please, until the end. Anyway, so we're going to be doing a lot of scriptural reading.

And as we go along, I will expand and expound upon these things. So you guys will have a better understanding about what we're talking about. So without further ado, I will give you background on myself as far as the testimony of the Lord. But before I do that, I want to pray again that God's Word would go forth. As his scripture says, you know, his Word does not return void or empty.

It will accomplish what it was intended to do. So let's believe that, let's grab hold of that, and let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you today for your Holy Spirit, how your presence is here today. Because everyone who believes in you in this room today, we are walking, living testimonies. We are your temple.

And contained in that temple is your glorious light of your Holy Spirit and the power that you have given to us to preach the gospel, to heal those that are sick, to minister to those who are destitute, blind, poor, hungry, naked, thirsty. Help us to be ministers of that gospel, Lord. Help us to understand the requirements of it. It's such a great and beautiful subject. And, Jesus, because of your great love for us, do we have salvation in you because of the faith that you gave us, but the perfect sacrifice that was required so that we could have eternal life with you in paradise.

So, Lord, just use me as your willing, open vessel. Let your Word speak truth. Let me not go off of Second Opinions, Chapter 1. Let me preach your Word rightly, Lord. And we'll praise you and we'll love you forever and ever in your name, Jesus.

Amen. All right, guys. So, I'm going to kind of read off of this because I told Miranda, you know, when she preached last time, she had like a seven-page message right before she got on stage. She whittled it down to four. I have ten pages.

So, I was like, oh, my goodness, man. Am I going to make this? But, anyways, trusting in the Lord. So, I'm going to kind of just read my testimony to you guys. I'm the son of Joe and Alice Rubio.

I was raised up in a conservative Southern Baptist home. My father was a deacon and my mom was our music and choir director. And so, that meant for us as a family, we were always involved in ministry at a very young age. Singing, cantatas, plays, so on and so forth. And even outreach.

You know, we'd visit nursing homes and reach out to the community. So, let's see here, moving on. So, with all that in mind, I heard the message, the fire and brimstone message at the age of ten, you know, where the preacher is, you know, just, he's preaching the gospel, really. You know, because the truth of the gospel is a hard message to receive. But, he pretty much, here's what he said, and I'll never forget it.

He said, for those who do not confess, repent, and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus for forgiveness of their sins, they are condemned to an eternal torment in a place called hell. Or, as Leon says, hail. So, yeah, there you go. And is this you, sinner? I mean, and the pastor was looking at me when he was asking that question.

I'm like, why are you looking at me, man? And so, I'm like, oh, man. Do you want to live for eternity being tormented by Satan and his demons? Today is the day of salvation. Turn away from your sin.

Trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord today before it's too late. So, after that, needless to say, after being convicted and scared, I really, I walked down the aisle and made my public confession of faith in typical Southern Baptist fashion. We have to walk up to the altar and stand in front of everybody. That's how the Baptists do it. And I know a lot of our Protestant brothers and sisters do a very similar thing.

After being saved, I continued to learn a bit more about Jesus. The relational piece was really not there. However, my focus wasn't on Jesus. It was on girls and sports because I was like 10 years old. And just the normal distractions that come upon 10- to 13-year-old boys.

But I did always look forward to going to the youth group. We do all these great things together, you know, activities and whatnot. So, I really enjoyed that part. It was really cool. But in the midst of that, I really didn't learn a whole lot about Jesus.

You know what I mean? It was just being together. And that was my focus. So, anyways, fast forward. I was around 15 years old.

We took our family vacations in a place called Swansboro, North Carolina. Leon knows where it's at. And we would take about a week, July 4th week. That whole week, my dad would take leave because he was in the Marine Corps. And we would spend a whole week camping, fishing, skiing, clamming, all that stuff.

And so, we were coming back from that vacation. And we had a lot of great memories. I know I did. My siblings did. A lot of great memories.

But this particular one was one that would kind of set the fire for the path of destruction that I would soon come into. So, as we were driving home, we all noticed, me and my sisters, we noticed that my mom was not feeling well. She just wasn't herself. And she was whispering to my dad in the front seat. And, you know, we're trying to, you know, peek our ears like, what's mom saying, you know?

And we just knew she wasn't feeling well. So, we get home. And my responsibility was to clean the boat and the trailer out, unload. My sisters helped me with that. And dad, you know, took mom into the house.

About 10 minutes later, our next door neighbors ran rescue with the Owensville County Rescue Squad. So, I see them, both of them running into our house. I said, hi. And they kept running. So, I figured that's abnormal.

That's bizarre. So, I ran into the house. I go back into my parents' bedroom. And I hear my neighbor, Ms. Juana, you know, tell my dad, Joe, she's having a heart attack.

She needs to get to the hospital immediately. So, she's on a walkie-talkie with their rescue unit. And they were already on another call. So, they could not provide assistance. So, dad yells at me, son, get your mom into the car now.

And so, it got my attention. And I'm sitting here. And my dad, again, he was a Marine. And he'd been to Vietnam twice. He saw a lot of people die.

He saw death. It was a part of his career. You know, when you serve your country, even myself, I nearly was killed. And by the grace of God, I'm only here because of that. But I saw the look on his face.

And it was one of concern and fear. And my dad, I totally, I never, that was the only time in my life where I saw that. And I knew it was for real. So, I picked up my mom, grabbed her in my arms, carried her to the car. And as I sat her in the seat, I said, Mom, I love you.

And when those words came out in the heart and the mind, they made that journey. And it said, this is the last time you'll see your mother alive. So, as I waved goodbye to dad as he's speeding off to the Naval Regional Medical Center in Jacksonville, North Carolina, Camp Lecheon, we just waited. And around 8.30 in the evening, the phone rings.

And I knew what the phone call was. My second oldest sister was there. She looked at me. Everybody looked at me. I go, I'll answer the phone.

And yes, back then we didn't have cell phones, guys. Our phone was on the wall. So, you had to have permission to use it. And part of that permission was your friends typically were not allowed to call you unless it was about homework. That's how free we were.

So, anyways, the phone rings. I pick up the phone, again, in the spirit, just knowing that this was going to be the call about my mom passing on. And it was the pastor of our church. And he called to let me know, hey, Alex, I'm sorry to let you know, but your mom has passed on and now she's with the Lord. And I thanked him.

I hung the phone up and went back into the living room where friends and my sisters were in there. And I'll tell you, man, it was intense. I didn't know. I've never heard such grieving, crying, wailing, in all my life, next to my mother's funeral because that was a pretty emotionally charged time as well. And, you know, I'm the oldest son.

I have two older sisters. They're not bloodline sisters, but they are my sisters. And I have two younger sisters. And at that point, you know, after that happened, you know, a lot of thoughts go through one's mind. And the thoughts that were going through my mind were, you know, I'm thinking, you know, God, you say you're a God of love.

All right. His word says it. God is love. Says it in the Gospel of John. And next thing I know, I'm like, you know, I don't get it.

You say you're a God of love, but my mom's dead. You took my mom away from me. I don't believe that you're a God of love. I believe that you're here just to torment and punish us, you know. So finally, I says, you know, I hate you, God, and I am done with you.

And that, from that moment on, I did any and everything that I could to just persecute anyone who said that they were a Christian. So let me get caught up in my notes because I'll go on and on about this. But anyways, so after all that had happened, you know, a few years later, I enlisted in the late entry program for the U.S. Navy.

And so as part of that, in delayed entry, you have a certain amount. You could be in there for up to a year. I was in there for like nine months. And because I wanted to graduate from high school and join the Navy and see the world. That was my deal.

I didn't want to be there in Jacksonville anymore. I had a lot of harsh memories because mom had died. I was angry at God. So I joined the Navy, you know, right out of high school. Ten days later, I'm doing push-ups in Orlando, Florida.

And so as part of that, my career starts. During my 20-year career in the Navy, I did get married around the 13-year mark. And that whole time, mind you, okay, I had experienced a lot of things, done a lot of things that were not pleasing unto the Lord. I was not living for God at all, still persecuting people that were Christians. I would literally attack them and tell them that your God is a false God.

He's a hateful God. He's a God who's not a God of love. And this is why, because he killed my mom. He took my mom and took her out of this world. So, you, Christian, get away from me.

I don't want to talk to you. Well, I do want to talk to them, but I just wanted to just, I was being abusive. It was just full of hate, anger, resentment, ambivalence, and evil. And so, time goes on. I get married.

We start a family. And as our family grows, I start noticing in my marriage, in my relationship with my children, that the toxicity of anger, resentment, and hate that I had towards God was surfacing up. It was coming out, and it was affecting them. So, I was married for 17 years. At the 17-year mark, my former wife had had enough.

And so, she was like, you know, one day, it was actually the day that I recommitted my life back to the Lord. So, I was working as, I retired in 2001 from the Navy. I had about a month's span of unemployment. Then I got a job as a government contractor in July of 2001. So, from there, I'm working in Northern Virginia, in Dahlgren, Virginia, King George County, and doing work there for the Navy as a contractor, working on weapons systems that I operated in the Navy as part of my job.

And so, I was commuting back and forth. My marriage was, you know, it was bad. I knew just intuitively that, you know, sooner or later, one of us was going to want to get a divorce. I did not want to. But at that point, mind you, I still was not living life, you know, unto the Lord.

Even though I was saved at the age of 10, I was living just an evil, separated life from God because of my hate and anger towards Him. So, as a result of that, February 9th at 6.30 in the morning in King George County, Virginia, in King George, Virginia, actually, outside the Dahlgren Lab at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, I go into my office, I set everything up, I make all the pots of coffee that are supposed to be made, you know, disable the alarm, sit at my desk, and I weep uncontrollably for two and a half hours. During this two and a half hour span, I'm thinking, man, am I having a nervous breakdown because of all the stuff that's not going on in life? Marriage is falling apart, my kids are afraid of me, they don't appear to love me, they're in fear of me.

That's not a good deal. And I'm just sitting there processing all this stuff. And all of a sudden, I hear an audible voice. It was not Charlton Heston's voice from the Ten Commandments, by the way. But it was an audible voice, and it said this.

It said, Alex, I did not make you in my image to live life the way you've been living it. But here I stand at the door and I knock. And I promise you this, he who lets me in, I will sit down and fellowship with you. And immediately, when that happened, it was the Holy Spirit. I didn't know it was the Lord at the time.

I did not know that. I didn't know that that was Scripture out of Revelation 3.20 is where that Scripture is from. I didn't know that. I'm standing there, or sitting there, weeping.

And, man, it really got intense because at that point, that was when I was baptized by the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Spirit. All the hate, all the ambivalence, all that stuff that I had held on to up to a majority of my life at that point, because I was 40 years old at the time. Man, I'm telling you, God was cleaning out the gunk, man. He was, like, putting the liquid plumber in my soul, and that stuff was getting pumped on out. And what was happening was there was a great release, unlike anything I've ever experienced in my life.

Pressure was gone. Stress and frustration was gone. What once was anger and hate and ambivalence towards the Most High God, the Most High Yah, you know, Jehovah Jireh, our provider, you know, Jehovah Rapha, our healer. Man, I got it. It was, like, an instantaneous thing.

And so from that point, you know, hunger and thirsting for God's righteousness, that happened. You know, I got it. And then at that point, it was a point of confession and turning to God and going, you know, Lord, I am so sorry, you know, about this, you know. Let me backtrack a little bit. So Revelation 3.

20, when I heard those words, I didn't know what they meant. I didn't know who said them or where they came from. So I have a computer in front of me. I type it into the Google search engine, and BibleGateway.com comes up, and Revelation 3.

20 is right in front of my face. And I'm like, oh, man, dude, you know. And, yeah, and then just the Holy Spirit rained down upon me. It literally felt like I was in a flood. I was literally consumed by the holy fire, and it was the best thing ever for me.

So mind you, I want to make the distinction it was not me coming to salvation. It was a prodigal son who lived with the pigs for 24 years of his life who came back to Jesus. That's what that was. And from that point forward, my life has never been the same. And I praise the Lord for that.

A lot of things have happened. Yeah, hey, you know, we are all living testimonies. Everyone has a story. But check it out. It ain't your story.

It's the story of God and you. And, see, God's a God of allowance. He allows things to happen to you because he's a gentleman. He don't force you. He don't have to.

He's God. He can do anything he wants to do, man. But what he does is he allows these things to happen because he does know us intimately. He knows how things are going to go. And everything should be pointed to his glorification.

So, at that point, after that, man, things were not the same. And I realized at that point what I needed to do. That night, I went home. I told my wife at the time that I had recommitted my life back to the Lord. She asked me if I was born again.

I go, no, that already happened at 10 years old. I says, I'll just come back to Jesus. I've been away from him for quite some time. And then immediately after that, she goes, oh, okay, I want a divorce. So, and as I'm driving home, God gave me a word of knowledge.

He goes, dude, she's going to ask for a divorce. But he told me that. So, I was already prepared to receive that. I didn't want it. I just looked at her, and I says, hey, you know, let's go through counseling, therapy, all these things.

Let's do our best to work through it because I really believe that God can restore and reconcile us because that's one of his promises in his word. And so, we wound up getting divorced, and life continues to go on. But I just want to bear witness of the fact that, you know, I am only... here because of my faith and belief in Jesus Christ, okay? He's central to the gospel.

So what we're going to do is we're going to dig a little bit deeper into what the gospel is about. I kind of did the framework as I told Pastor Leon. I wanted to do it in what is the gospel, what isn't the gospel, or what is not the gospel. So that's kind of how we're going to do it. So I'm going to start off with a definition here, and it's out of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary.

And it should be up on your screen, by the way. So, excuse me. It's the message concerning Christ, the kingdom of God, and salvation. Now, there's another definition I'm going to give you as well. This won't be up on the screen, and it's out of Easton's Bible Dictionary, and it's more in-depth, and that's the framework of the message, okay, that I'm going to be preaching and teaching you guys.

Okay, so it's this. The Easton Bible Dictionary says the gospel is a word of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning God's spell, i.e. Word of God, or rather, according to others, good spell, and i.e.

good news. It is the rendering of the Greek word evangelion, and it means good message, and it denotes the following things. The welcome intelligence of salvation to man is preached by our Lord and his followers. It was afterwards transitively applied to each of the four histories, the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and of our Lord's life, okay? So these are historical things about Jesus, published by those who are therefore called evangelists and the disciples who are with him, writers of the history of the gospel, the evangelion.

The term is often used to express collectively the gospel doctrines, and preaching the gospel is often used to include not only the proclaiming of the good tidings and good news, but the teaching men how to avail themselves of the offer of salvation, the declaring of all the truths, precepts, promises, and threatenings of Christianity. And it is termed in the following scriptures as the grace of God, Acts 20-24, the gospel of the kingdom, Matthew 4-23, the gospel of Christ, Romans 1-16, the gospel of peace, Ephesians 6-15, and the glorious gospel, the everlasting gospel, the gospel of salvation, Ephesians 1-13. So most people who come to the knowledge of the saving grace of the gospel primarily think that the gospel is all about getting saved. And while that is true, what my job here is to kind of open the canvas wide for you guys to really dig deep, okay? So those of you that are new in Jesus, you know, just be patient.

If you have questions, I'll be available after the message to answer as much as I possibly can with the time allotted. But just, you know, tag along the ride. I'm going to try to go at a pace where I can stop and explain certain things to you, okay? All right. So what is the gospel?

Well, first, the gospel is salvation, okay? When we think of the gospel, most of us think of salvation, the truth be told, the gospel is salvation. And in him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, and that's Ephesians 1-13 out of the English Standard Version. So the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to, if you can go into Acts 16 verses 25, starting at verse 25, we're going to start there, and I'm going to read to you. So if you have a Bible, a Bible app, and some of it's going to be on the screen, but some of it won't, okay?

But anyways, this is about the Philippian jailer. So let me give you some historical context for you, so you know what the deal is, the setting. Because when we study the word, we need to know the who, what, when, where, why, and how of situations, you know? So when we're looking at scripture, you know, we need to look before it, we need to look after it, and that keeps us right in dividing the word of truth, and also interpreting it in the correct way. So what's happened is Paul and Silas, they're in prison, okay?

And so, and they're in Philippi. Paul planted a church in Philippi, you know, and that's where we get the book, Philippians, it was a letter. A very short book, by the way, I think four chapters total. But anyways, so that's the setting, okay? Now some other things to consider, okay?

In Roman culture, jailers, soldiers, any officials of the Roman government and the empire, they were held to a higher standard. So like this jailer guy, and I'm putting this out on the front end because you need to know this, what's about to happen to, in the jail, and what the Holy Spirit does and what God does, this jailer, according to Roman law, he's supposed to be put to death, okay? So let's kind of keep that in the back of the mind as we move forward. Okay, so here we go. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. So again, praise and worship. Brother Chris talked about that a couple weeks ago and how important it is. Paul and Silas were praising and worshiping the Lord. They were singing hymns, and the prison doors opened.

The chains on the dudes had come unlocked, okay? Now I don't know about you, but that's some power there, okay? It's not mysticism or mystical. It's a power of God when he hears the praises of his people. Man, there is nothing like that.

And that's why I know Chris, part of his motivation and rationale to preach that message about praise and worship and how important it is, is because God does honor and hear the praises of his people. And our worship that we offer to God has to be acceptable. Very clear in here that we read already, Paul and Silas was definitely offering acceptable worship to the Lord, right? So that's pretty intense, okay? And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bonds were unfastened.

When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were opened, he drew his sword, because he knew that if that news got out, he was a dead man, okay? So he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And the jailer called for lights, rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Now, I don't know about y'all, man, but this jailer already, he's like, man, this is like miraculous. Nobody left when they could have. I realized that, you know, that something happened in him to ask, what must I do to be saved, okay? And don't think for a minute that this jailer didn't hear the gospel every day, because this was Paul we're talking about. Paul was unashamed of the gospel.

He preached it daily. He could not not do it. It was a compulsion to him. It was like an addiction, one of the best addictions I think we could ever have. He was all about it, man.

Anyone he met or would even listen to him, he would preach the gospel, because he knew it was the power of God and salvation through faith. Okay, so he asked them, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds.

And he was baptized at once, he and all his family. So again, I'm going to stop there. He gets saved, he and his whole household. This includes the slaves, the servants, right? They all got saved.

That's how that rolled back then. Entire homes were getting saved, not just one or two people, entire homes. And then of note, they were immediately baptized. So these are from the very beginning of the early New Testament church. That's how that went down.

And today, like we did our Sunday night salt a couple of Sundays ago, phenomenal. I'm so sad that I was not able to make it because I had to work. But knowing that God, man, he's so amazing. Baptism is, is awesome because it recognizes that we died to Christ and we rise up in Christ. We've stricken the old man dead, the old self.

We rise up as a new creation in Jesus. So I love that. And again, we see a little bit of that right here. We see this jailer and his whole house, his whole family to include his servants getting saved. That's, that's powerful, man.

You know, I don't, I don't know how to frame that, but it's pretty cool. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour. Okay. I already read that.

I'm sorry. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before him. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. Okay. So now the next piece of this is.

The Gospel is also bold. So, after this, and you're going to see some boldness going on here, man. It's phenomenal. So, Paul and Silas had just preached the Gospel to the Philippian jailer, and the jailer in his entire house came to be saved in salvation through Jesus Christ and the power of the Gospel. And now the boldness comes in, so we're going to go to Acts 16, verses 34 through 40.

This is a long clip, but it's very important. But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, Let those men go. And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore, come out now and go in peace. Now check this out.

So Paul said to them, They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens. Mind you, they're in jail, and they're Roman citizens as well. They're Jews, but they're Roman citizens. And have thrown us into prison, and do they now throw us out secretly? No.

Let them calm themselves and take us out. So, you know, stop there. I don't know what else you would call that except courageous and bold. Paul's, he's not even out of jail yet, and he's already talking like that. Now, even in today's world, we typically would not speak to law enforcement, you know, officials and Department of Corrections officials in that tone of voice, would we?

I know I wouldn't. I'd be afraid, man. He'd hand me over to the sodomites. So, yeah, right? And I know, and Seth knows this because, you know, he's a lawyer.

So that's very bold to me, the language that Paul uses. He's basically calling them out. He goes, Uh-uh. No, we ain't have none of that. They need to come here and throw us out because, uh-uh.

You know, we've been treated wrongly, and we're taking a stand for it. And again, you know, that's part of what the gospel does. It makes you bold. It makes you unashamed and unafraid. Okay.

Moving on, the next thing is the gospel is kingdom-minded, okay? So, well, let me back up. I'm jumping around here. I'm sorry. I lost my place.

So anyways, after that, what happens is the police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens because they knew that they had broke the law because Roman citizens aren't treated that way, to be publicly beaten and all that stuff. So they came, and they apologized to them. So Paul calls them out, and they come to him, and they're like, Listen, dude, we're really sorry. We messed up. So here we are.

You know, we're sorry. You can go. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. And they took them, yeah. So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia.

And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed, okay? So, again, we see in that passage that what Paul did was he was not going to accept the government and their cover-up because that's what they were doing. They were like, you know, let's just send them quietly away. And when they found out they were Roman citizens, they were like, Ooh, man, we really, really messed this one up bad. So now, you know, they're sending them on their way.

So now we're on to our next point that the gospel is kingdom-minded, okay? And the reference for this is going to be out of Matthew 4.23. And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, temples, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So what Jesus is doing is he's proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, right?

By not just telling people who he is, but also teaching in parables. And he's healing people, okay? So what I see in here is, you know, I see a glimpse of glory in heaven and the kingdom of heaven because he's healing people. When you read in Revelation and you see many of the descriptions of heaven that Jesus is conveying to John the Apostle, there are so many things that John couldn't describe because they're so glorious and so great. There were not words to even put pen to paper as what John says.

But what we see is that there's no more sickness, there's no more illness, there's no more sin, there's no more evil, there's no grief, no taxes, no mean-spirited people in our lives. It's just great joy and being in the presence of God. And for me, when I read that, again, you know, just myself, that's what spoke to me. It's like Jesus is bringing the kingdom of heaven on earth. He's healing people.

I mean, he's casting out demons. Man, he's making lame people walk, blind people see, deaf people hear, and mute people talk. Who does that? No, not Benny Hinn. But Jesus does that because he knew that that was his mandate to show these 12 men how to do that, that that's purpose, that's planned by God by design.

Okay, so now the next thing that the gospel is, is it is the grace of God. Okay, and our scripture reference for this is Acts 20, verses 17 through 24. Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them, You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance towards God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

So I'm going to stop right there. So he said a lot there towards the back end of that, you know, imprisonment and affliction. I don't know about y'all, but that kind of really stands out to me. I've never been in jail before. I know our brother Seth is part of his job.

He goes into the jails as part of his job and also part of his responsibility as a follower of Jesus. I don't, man. So for me, that's kind of daunting in the flesh, just the human guy outside of Jesus Christ. If I would see that, my human response would be, there's no way in the world that I'm going to go into a jail or go into a city where I know they're going to hem me up, man. They're going to lock me down and beat me and spit on me and all kinds of heinous things.

I don't want to do that. You know, why am I going to jump into the bar patch and, you know, hop on that grenade? No, I'm not going to do that. So that's a natural flesh rising up. But Paul, you know, his conversion happened when he got blinded on the road to Damascus.

And from that point on, he was radically transformed by the renewing of his mind, as the word says. And so we see that in here. He's like, I don't care, man. I know what's waiting for me. I'm still going to go because this is the power of God.

And I love Jesus. I'm created to serve him and to love him with everything I have. Greatest commandment, right? Love the Lord, our God, but all of our heart, mind, body and soul or spirit in some versions or translations. And that's what we do.

And we see a loving example of Paul's heart towards Jesus. And keep in mind some back story, history on this. Paul never physically met Jesus. Okay. He met him on the road to Damascus, but he never physically met him in the flesh.

Okay. All right. So let me see here. I've got to find my place again. Okay.

Imprisoning and afflictions away of me. But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. So that very ending part of the grace of God piece, Paul experienced that on the road to Damascus when he was blinded. Right. Because he's just walking along bright light flashes and he's blinded.

And next thing you know, he's laying because he was being escorted by, you know, by some temple guards, you know, from the temple. And he's got death warrants, you know, in his in his man purse, his satchel. And so he's walking down the road and and got all these names of people that he's supposed to kill. And all of a sudden he goes blind. So then now he's crying out.

You know, Lord, who is doing this to me? And there's an audible voice, and in the scriptures it says that the guards even heard the audible voice of Jesus. It is I, Jesus Christ. Why are you persecuting me? Why are you persecuting me?

Paul, just like me for half my life, hated Christians. He was a Jew. He was a Pharisee. And he hated every one of them, every one of us. And then God blinded him.

Jesus has this conversation with him on the road. And next thing you know, Paul's like, immediately when he finds out it's Jesus, that was a moment of his salvation. You know, and pretty much at that point, Paul was, you know, he, he followed in lockstep with Jesus every step of the way. And even Jesus would tell Ananias, the man who would heal Paul of his blindness, he would let Ananias know. Because Ananias had knew of Paul, and he was afraid, Ananias was afraid, because he was afraid he was going to be on the list of the death warrants.

And Jesus says, no, don't worry about that. He's going to learn what it means. He's going to suffer much to learn what it means to serve in my name. And Paul did. He ultimately was martyred.

But Paul, yeah, at that point, he experienced the grace of God, because Jesus gave him clear instructions. You know, it's, he identified himself. It's me, Jesus Christ. Why are you persecuting me? And then immediately, Paul was, was converted and saved.

And he came to salvation in faith in Jesus. Then Jesus says, you're going to go down to the Simon, the tanner who lives by the sea, a man named Ananias will heal you. And then at that point, I will give you further instructions. Okay. And from that point, that's where Paul's missionary journey, I mean, it just took off.

Okay. And I can't compare to Paul, but I can relate because the testimony that God wrote upon the table in my heart is very similar to Paul's. I was an enemy to God. Even though I got saved at the age of 10, I hated God for 24 years of my life. I'm 55 now, guys.

That's a long time to be full of anger and hate. Okay. So anyways, we see that Paul is talking to the elders from the church in Ephesus regarding his actions in the ministry of the gospel to both Jew and Greek. Paul was always humble in his approach to believers and unbelievers, yet he's also refreshing in the fact, as I mentioned earlier, that he was unashamed of the gospel. Okay.

Of Jesus Christ. He would go to any lengths to preach the gospel. Paul's passion for the gospel was fueled by the unmerited favor and grace that he received from Jesus, you know, on the road to Damascus. And again, we kind of talked about that whole story and how powerful that is. You know, I couldn't imagine being blinded and hearing an audible voice, and then the guards that are with you are hearing this.

You know, you just, you can't make that kind of stuff up. So, all right. So the next thing that the gospel is, is it's the power of God for salvation. And we're going to use Romans 1, verses 16 and 17 for that reference there. And it says this, So I'm going to stop there.

God, in his word, says that he is long-suffering. It's a really fancy theological, biblical term for uber-patient. He really, really is. And let's think about this. For those of you that know Jesus, just examine yourself.

Think about the testimony that's staring me right back in the face. So many of these beautiful faces sitting out there. Think about your testimony, right? Think about how long God has been waiting for you, okay? I was talking to a friend last night about God's love and how Jesus pursues us with a never-ending love.

And that's the gospel, man. That's the power of the gospel. It's so patient. He will allow things to happen, as I said earlier. These situations.

That, by the way, Jesus don't throw us into these situations. We choose that, right? We make decisions and choices that put us into the spots that we're in. And so, in turn, there it goes. There's a rub.

And our world culture says, I'm not responsible for anything. I'm going to do what I want to do. And, you know, don't hold me to account. But for those of us in Jesus, we know better, right? Cool.

Okay. All right. So that pretty much is, you know, what the gospel is at this point. I could go deeper, but my time is running out. Oh, my goodness.

Matt, you can throw stuff at me if I'm going over. Oh, already? Oh, Jesus. I'm way over. But anyways, yeah, we'll get through this.

We don't have much more, so I should be able to wrap it up here. So now the next part we're going to go over is what the gospel isn't or what the gospel is not. Okay. So the gospel, first of all, it is not condemning. You know, like that fire and brimstone message, even though it's the truth, it carries like condemning tones.

You know, like if you don't confess and repent, you're going to be damned and go to hell. Okay. So, you know, and with that in mind, you know, that scared the bejesus out of me. I really, you know, thought like I was in a bad episode of Scared Straight and I was the kid who was hopeless. And so I was like, man, I'm not going to hell.

So that's what it does. You know, it does not condemn us. It literally is life. It's eternal life in Jesus. Okay.

So the gospel is not comfortable. Okay. So I'm going to read out of Luke chapter 10, verses 1 through 12. And here we go. The apostles knew this very well.

Let's, excuse me. After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of him two by two into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way.

Behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, peace be to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you and remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages.

Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is said before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.

I tell you, it would be more bearable on the day for Sodom than for that town. So basically, Jesus, up until this point, just, again, context and historical information, he's training his 12 disciples, but obviously there are 72 other followers. So the ministry has increased, right? So this is basically like Evangelism Boot Camp 101. He's like sending these dudes out, okay?

Because when you do the math, there's 72 plus 12, what's that, 84, right? So there's a total of 84, not including Jesus, and they're all going to be going to these different towns that Jesus is going to follow up on. He's going to check on them. But he sends them out, and what happens is he's sending them out with what in a natural would seem like no resource. But he is sending them out there with the only source and resource that they have, and that's him.

You know, they have the Holy Spirit. They have Jesus. Not the Holy Spirit in the context. Let me back up. Not the Holy Spirit like on the day of Pentecost.

But they are in the spirit of him. They've been trained by him through the power of the word of God the Father and the Torah and the Old Testament because they were living in the New Testament. This wasn't even written back then, okay? So Jesus is sending them out, and on faith alone are they going, in Christ alone. To preach about Jesus.

And later on in that chapter of Luke, we see the results. And many came back with great reports of people being healed, people coming to salvation, and just, you know, again, the power of the gospel going forth. You know, some people were martyred because he told them that some of you are going to die, too, in my name and for my name. And that is, that's part of what happens with the gospel is, you know, it's not comfortable, but it needs to go forth. Matthew 28, the Great Commission, right?

What does Jesus say? He says, you know, therefore go into all, all the corners of the world, you know, every tribe, tongue, and nation, right? Everybody. And proclaim the gospel, and make disciples of them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And guess what, guys?

You guys aren't, you know, ordained pastors, but you are ministers of the gospel, each and every one of you who know Jesus. You have a responsibility to do that. Okay? It's not optional. And as I've heard before, it's not the great suggestion.

It's a command from the Lord himself. Okay? So, I just wanted to kind of wrap it up at that point, because that was really the last part of the message. And I just wanted to convey to you guys, again, you know, I'm only here because of Jesus and what he's done in me. Yeah, if you in the band could come on up.

Thank you, brother. And I know there's probably some people in this room who may not know Jesus as Savior and Lord. So, I want to give that kind of opportunity right now as the band comes up, and we'll play some music in the background. And I'm just going to pray us out. And I just ask for, you know, God and the power of the gospel, which is salvation, the very power of God.

Our issue as human beings is we are born into sin. You know, Adam and Eve, when they committed the first sin in the Garden of Eden, that separated us from God forever. But God loved us so greatly and so much that he made a way for us to be able to relate to him. And that way is Jesus and salvation, the gospel. So, it's all about Jesus.

Okay? And we need to get off of our wrong point of view of we're all good people, because I don't know about y'all, but if you spend, as I told my friend last night, a couple of minutes in my head, you would only want to know me, because I'm as filthy as a day is long outside of Jesus. And just being honest. And I challenge you, you know, do that to yourself. Think about that.

Just in the last five minutes, how many impure thoughts have you had? Okay? How many evil thoughts have tried to penetrate into your mind and your heart? We all battle that every day, don't we? But because of the power of this gospel that I've, hopefully, you guys have received it, and I believe it went forth and has achieved what it's supposed to do, because of the gospel, man, nothing, nothing can take away our salvation.

So, I'm going to offer that opportunity to you. I'm a firm believer that there's no magical format of prayer. There is a process where, when you recognize who you are separated from God as a sinner, and someone who is dead in your sin, or basically like the walking dead, when you come to that point in your life, and everybody, it takes certain situations and allowances that God ordains in your life to get to that point, you realize that, oh my gosh, you know, I've been doing this wrong the whole time, and then you become aware, like in that song, in Holy Spirit, man, Lord, you are here. You've been here the whole time. So, confess.

Confess our sins before God, that, you know, we are dead without you, Jesus. Then we repent, we turn away from the very evil that we once had lived in, or thought about, or held on to, okay? And we give that to God, and with the power of His gospel, bring us to the knowledge and grace of His salvation. So, I'm just going to pray with every one of you real quick, but that's the process. Confess, repent, trust in the Savior, man.

You know, whether you do it here, or you do it at home in private, or on your way driving back home, or out on the beach, God's going to meet you wherever He so chooses, because He's God, man. He can do anything He wants to do, and He's the mighty God. And I encourage you, because I have joy and peace in my life because of this gospel, because of this Jesus that I talk about almost every day through devotionals, and through social media, and in my life. And those of you that know me, what you see is what you get. I don't own any masks.

It's too much energy and a lot of money, so I don't do that. But I encourage you, if you don't know Jesus as your Savior, the King of your life, He loves you the most. I have not met any human being on the face of this planet who loves me deeper, higher, longer, wider than Jesus Christ. Nobody. So I just encourage you to do that as we take some moments just to fellowship with the Lord in prayer.

So please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we come before you today. We thank you for your word. We thank you for this beautiful message of the gospel of salvation, of Jesus Christ, the one who has paid the perfect sacrifice to deliver us from hell, to deliver us from eternal torment, to give us life, and life eternal. And so what that tells us, Lord, is we don't need to do anything except to confess, repent, and trust in you to be the King of our lives, to allow you to be the lover of our souls.

Lord, I thank you for every person that's here today. I pray that for the ones who don't know you, that you would speak to them right now in your name, Jesus. That you would just meet them in the road like you met Paul in the road. And in that journey of seeking out the truth, you, through the power of your Holy Spirit and your word, will reveal who you are to them. We thank you, Lord, for every good and perfect thing that you give us.

For you are the Father of heaven and the light. Everything that's perfect comes from you. I thank you for this fellowship. I thank you for my Salt Church Ohana, who has been nothing but a straight blessing to me and to our community. Lord, challenge us as your people to be the hands and feet of you, Lord Jesus.

To preach this gospel of good news. It's not bad news. It's great news of salvation, of peace, and eternal life in you, Lord Jesus. And we know that the journey is hard. We know that we're going to experience loss and suffering and grieving.

But nonetheless, as your son said, we're going to set our faces like stone towards you. Because we know when we turn towards your holy hill of Zion, our help, our strength, our everything comes from you, Lord Jesus. So we want to praise you for that and celebrate you. And we give you all the honor, the praise, and the glory, Lord, in your holy and precious name, Jesus. Amen.

All right, guys.