Romans

Romans chapter 10 starting at verse 1. Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to god for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for god. But their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of god and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to god's righteousness.

Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Moses writes about this, this righteousness that is by the law, the person who does these things will live by them. But the righteousness that is by faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down or who will ascend into the deep. That is to bring Christ up from the dead.

But what does it say? The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. That is the message concerning faith that we proclaim If you declare with your mouth, Jesus' lord, and believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess, your faith, and are saved.

As scripture says, anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between you and gentile The same lord is lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved. How then can they call on the 1 they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the 1 of whom they have not heard?

And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? But not all the israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, lord, who has believed our message?

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ but I ask, did they not hear? Of course, they did. Their voice has gone out into all the earth their words to the ends of the world. Again, I ask, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, I will make you envious by those who are not a nation.

I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding. And Isaiah boldly says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me, but concerning Israel, he says. All day long, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. Well, good morning.

My name's, Pete Woodcock. I'm the pastor of the church. We're doing a series in, Romans, and we're at Romans 10, and we're really looking at the second part of that. If you want to just turn to that, that would be really helpful. Let me pray.

Father help us now, please help us to concentrate we need your spirit to hear your word. So open our deaf ears, blocked up ears, we may hear what you say. And then please save us from hypocrisy. Help us to be doers of your word we pray in Jesus' name. Oh, ma'am.

Now, what I'd like you to do is just to have a quick look down at your feet. So have a look at your feet. Try and remind yourself about what your feet look like. The the foot is an amazing thing. I should have asked Bernadette.

She's a foot expert here. And she will do surgery afterwards if you want to take any foot problems to her. But, your your foot is quite an amazing thing. Apparently, it contains 26 bones, 33 joints, more than a hundred tendons and muscles and ligaments, And the pair of feet that you have, assuming you do have 2 feet, have 250000 sweat gap glands. And you can sweat from those feet half a point of liquid a day.

That's why they stink. It's amazing. It's it's an amazing thing, a foot. The anatomy of a foot. It's just a very you know, it's amazingly anatomy of a foot because it's a a very small package, but it packs together very very important things.

Than that can support your whole body. While you walk around in a day, you pound into that foot apparently hundreds of tons of weight go in into the foot. I'm not saying anything about your weight, but, you know, hundreds of tons. The average person walks between 18000 steps a day. That means in your lifetime, an average lifetime, you walk 4 times around the world.

That's how amazing your your foot is. Now the foot has lots of problems. Of course, you have hammer toes. I don't know what they are. Blisters, bunnions, corns, calluses, heals spurs, mallet toes.

What's the difference between a mallet toe and a hammer toe? You've got ingrowing toenails, toenail fungus athletes foot and verrucas. Yeah? So it has a lot of problems. So here's my question to you this morning.

It's very simple. Look down at your foot. Ask this question, how are your feet? How are your feet? Do you need a pedicure?

You may have noticed that in our reading in Romans chapter 10, Paul is quoting from the prophet Isaiah, an old testament book in the Bible. And verse 15 of Romans 10, he says, as it is written, that's in the prophet Isaiah, how beautiful Are the feet of those who bring good news? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? So now think about your feet. Do you have beautiful feet?

Do you actually have beautiful feet? In the book of colossians, it's another book in the Bible, in the New Testament part of the Bible. We're told that Christ created all things. In fact, all things it's put are created through him, and all things are created for him through him and for him. And then we're told he holds all things together by his powerful word.

All things are created through Christ and for Christ, and he holds all things together. Well, that includes feet. That includes feet. Feed are made by Christ, for Christ, and he's holding those feet together for the purpose of having them for for Christ. Now, of course, the lord Jesus Christ is the creator, but that creator took on human flesh and he became a man.

And so Jesus himself gives us a living example of what to do with feet and what beautiful feet are. If you go for instance at the beginning of Mark's gospel, we're told by Jesus why he came. He says this. Let us go somewhere else to another place to a nearby villages so that I can preach there also. That is why I have come.

So he's come to preach, and then it says, so he traveled throughout galilee, preaching in the synagogues and driving out demons. And how did he travel? When he walked, he used his feet. So that's the beginning of Mark's gospel. He is here to preach and in order to preach, he has to travel and in order to travel, he has to use his feet.

You go to the end of Mark's gospel and of course you get those same feet not only having the burden of the body of Jesus on them, but the burden of a cruel cross a Roman cross weighing on those feet so that there's even more tonnage having to pound through those feet. And maybe those feet had a nail through them on the cross. We know his hands did. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? There's a definition of beautiful feet, pounding through village of the village, spreading the good news, taking the burden of the cross and a nail.

Beautiful feat. No wonder that 1 woman in the gospel who felt herself to be a very bad woman, a sinful life. No wonder that that woman who under stood the good news that Jesus brought her and understood the cost of the feet, that Jesus brought that good news by we're told wet those feet with her tears. And then she wiped those feet with her hair and then she kissed those feet and then she put perfume on them. Now that's a Bible pedicure on beautiful feet.

Now in Romans 10, Paul has just been telling us, and that's what we looked at last week, that, he's he's been rejoicing at the fact that everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the lord, just call on the name of the lord, and you will be saved. Look at verses 12 and 13 of chapter 10. For there is no difference between you or gentle There's no difference between us in the end. We're all the same, really.

The same lord is lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him for everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved. So Jesus isn't some local little lord just for a few types of people or an elite group of religious people. He is lord of all and his wonderful blessings of good news He will richly, richly bless you if you call on him. Whoever you are, whatever you've done, wherever you are in the world, everyone who calls on the lord. Will be saved.

That's the good news. And that good news is for everyone, for all people, for all types of people, and in fact the whole world. I read something today that I re this week that I really enjoyed, that someone was writing about the book of Romans just to show us, how this message really is for everyone. This writer said that the the book of Romans is a letter to the Italians, Romans, as Paul prepared for a mission to go to Spain, that's what he where where he wanted to go. While he collected money from the Greeks to take to the Jews who were poor in Jerusalem.

I love that description of the book of Romans. It's a letter to the Italians, while Nepal is preparing for a mission to go to Spain, and while he's collecting money from the Greeks, to take to the poor Jews in Jerusalem. In other words, the whole book, the way it's written has this sense of it's for everyone. It's for every type of person. In fact, when you read, through the New Testament part of the Bible, you'll see that 1 of the great gifts that the church has is speaking and interpreting other tongues.

Other languages, and that god gives, the church the gift of tongues other languages, Why? Because it's so important that everybody hears even in their own language, this message. So look at verse 17. Faith comes through hearing the message. That's why god gives that gift.

Faith comes through hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ. People so need to hear this wonderful good news message that we need all kinds of language speakers to take that message out. Everywhere, people need to hear this message. Because if they don't hear the message, how on earth will they be able to call on the name of the lord? And so we need to take the message out But that's the big question that Paul is dealing with.

How? How can that happen? If everybody needs to hear the message so that everyone can call on the name of the lord and then be saved How can that happen? And that's the first point I want you to see. How could they call on 1 whom they have not heard of.

How could people call if they've not heard? How can they? How Therefore, can this word, this good news, get out to the whole world with all the challenges? Of language and religious beliefs and misunderstandings and different cultural backgrounds and different ways of understanding different things. How can this message be heard?

It's essential that it is heard because you have to hear it in order to call, on the name of the lord, but how? And so that's what Paul does here. He he gives a link, or he gives all of the links of the chain or if we're thinking about feet the steps along the way for this message to be heard and he puts it in a series of questions. 4 questions with the word how in it. You see it there in verse 14.

Have a look. How then can they call on the 1 who they've not believed in, and how can they believe in the 1 of whom they've not heard, and how can they hear without someone preaching to them And how can anyone preach, unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? Do you see it? Salvation is the result of calling on the name of the lord.

Yes? Calling on the name of the lord requires that people believe in the lord, you won't call on someone you don't believe in. Believing requires that they hear about him. I mean, you can't believe in a person if you've never heard about a person, Hearing about a person requires that someone tells them, and in this case preaches to them, You can't hear about someone unless you're told about someone. To get someone to preach that message, requires that god sends them.

They need to be sent by god with the right and appropriate message. And those who are sent, well, they got beautiful feet because they're taking that good news. That's his argument. You see it? Now I don't know about you, but when you read that like that, you think, why did Paul put it that way around?

Because it all seems the wrong way round. It's like topsy-turvia. I guess you thought that. It's all sort of the wrong way around because if I was writing this, And I often think I'd be a better writer of the scriptures, which shows you how arrogant time, if I was writing this, I would do it this way around, wouldn't you? Look, God sends out preachers.

Yeah? Preaches speak out. People therefore hear Hereers believe, believers call, those who call are saved. Why do why does he do it topsy-turvy? Why does he reverse the polls?

I think he's deliberately doing it for this reason. To build up to the last how to build up to the last question, to put the last question on the top of the pile so that that's the 1 that's ringing in your ears. Or actually I think a better way of putting it is, not that he builds up to the pile, but he's taking the of the building down to get you to the foundation, that the foundation question is the 1 that you build all the other questions on. And the foundation is verse 15. How can anyone preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, help beautiful other feet of those who bring good good news. In other words, he's trying to get us to the point of Who's the 1 who sends? God is the 1 who sends because he's quoting from a part of Isaiah where Isaiah is talking about god raising up and sending a messenger. In other words, why has Paul put it the opposite way around to get this Really important point into our heads. It's all god's idea, this salvation.

It's god's plan. God is the author of salvation. He's the foundation of everything else And not only is he the the author of salvation. He's the author of the salvation plan to get the message out to every single person. It's his strategy, his plan.

He's the 1 behind it all. Christianity, you see, is not us seeking and searching for god No. No. It's the absolute opposite. It's god seeking and searching for us.

It's the opposite to what most people imagine and think Christianity is. Oh, you're telling me that I have to search. I have to do I have to go on. I have to try and find god somehow. No.

No. It's the exact opposite. It's all about that god has sent people to us. God isn't hiding and we have to seek him. God is speaking.

He starts the conversation, if you like. He comes to us and starts the conversation and speaks to us so that the we in turn would speak to him and call to him. You see that? He's the 1. I mean, that's amazing, isn't it?

You're a party, and there's the queen. You think, how could I ever speak to I can never get anywhere near? When I was a young man living in Windsor, I had very long hair I wasn't a Christian and I was a bit of a rebel, and I queued up to see the queen. She was doing a walkabout in Windsor. And I was in line right at the front, and here she was her majesty coming around the corner.

And some bloke who fought in the war for people like you, smashed me on the head because he didn't think that long head sort of hippie types should see Jesus whacked me round the head and knocked me on the floor, and then the queen went past. And I stood up Well, I won't tell you what I said. But I'd missed her. It's not me queuing up to see god. It's god queuing up to see us.

He starts the conversation. Imagine if the queen said, out the way you plebs there is a nice long haired man. I would choose to speak to him. Yeah. That's what's going on here.

Christianity is god starts the conversation. God sends the message with the messenger, with a beautiful feast. God sends it. He's you see it in the garden of Eden with adam and eve when they had sinned against god and and rebelled against god they hide from god. And what does god do?

He comes to their hiding place and saying, oh, not plain hide and seek. He comes to them and says, come out from your hiding place. That's what Christianity is. It's all to do with god sending a message. Now, Paul, so wants us to get this point.

He so wants us to get that this god plan and it's god's desire for everyone to hear the message that he quotes from a song in the Bible called Psalm 19. You find it in the Old Testament part of the Bible. And you can see the quote there in verse 18 of of a Romans chapter 10. Look, But I ask, did they not hear? Of course, they did, and here's the quote from Psalm 19.

Their voice has gone out into all the earth. Their words to the end of the world. Their voices gone out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world. That's a quote from a song, Psalm 19. And if you go back and read that Psalm, you'll see that the Psalm is talking about the stars and the moon, and the sun.

And they're all shining out beaming out to the entire world, the glory of god, They're declaring, they're proclaiming, heralding is the word. They're preaching to the world the glory of god. We've got the sun out today, and it's saying, the glory of god. Isn't that wonderful? Billy Graham, who died last week, as I guess you may know, has spoken live in, you know, to real people, not just through television, he's spoken to more people than any other human being that's ever lived, Billy Graham.

To more people than any other human being in the whole of the history of mankind. Billy Graham has spoken to more people. But not as many as the stars and the sun and the moon. They're everywhere. Billy Graham traveled the globe to speak the message of Christ, but not as much as the sun or the stars and it's a constant message when the sun's out, the moon's in another place declaring the message.

And so are the stars. Yeah? When the moon's out and the stars, the sun's in another place declaring the message. When the moon isn't there, the sun's there. When the sun isn't there, the moon's there.

It's a constant preach So, Billy, we love you for preaching to more people than anybody else in the world, but you're nothing compared to the sun, the moon, and the stars because every single human being that's ever lived has felt something of the warmth of the sun and something of the light of the moon. It's extraordinary. In other words, what Paul is saying here is that god is about everyone hearing this message and this message is so important that it has the backing of all of creation, the star, the moon, and the sun. The message of Jesus, the good news of salvation, the reconciliation of god that you can come to know god God is so into it that he uses all of creation to echo, to resonate, to be in tune with to be in harmony with the message of Jesus Christ. Do you see that?

You can go anywhere in the world and you can look at anything in the world and you'll see something in creation of the DNA of Christ calling out to you to the glory of god. You can look at the beautiful design of a single cell organism or the complexity and the impressiveness of a foot with 26 bones so finely tuned that it carries your weight. You see it everywhere. Creation in other words is like John the Baptist, if you know him, who calls out testifying there's even a greater message than ours who calls out testifying the 1 who comes with the good news is Jesus. So god, that's what I'm trying to show you, is so about everyone hearing this message.

That he wants as many people that feel the sun on their back to hear about the lord Jesus Christ. You see? See how important that message is? Now, there's 1 other thing here. In fact, Jesus is so intimate and so intimately involved with everyone hearing the message that verse 14 is worth just a little closer look.

You see verse 14, the second half of verse 14. Have a look at it in Romans 10. How can they believe in the 1 of whom they have not heard? Do you know what a better translation would be? Is to get rid of the word of because it's actually not there.

It rid the word of. So a translation could be this. How can they believe in the 1 whom they have not heard, not of whom they have not heard. There's a big difference Just think about putting the little word of in. In other words, they're not just to hear of Christ, not just to hear about Christ.

Christ is so intimate in this message that they're going to hear Christ, hear his message, hear him. Through the preacher. It's not just the preacher rabbiting on about Christ, It's actually through the preacher that you would hear Christ. Do you see? That's what's going on here, and that's what you need to hear.

You need to hear Jesus. Not not just about Jesus. Of course, you wanna hear about him, but you need to hear him. So it's not just about Jesus. It's hear him.

It's 1 of the reasons why Billy Graham was so effective, certainly in the early days when he was really powerful. Because all he really did, if you ever analyze the Billy Graham sermon, it was very simple. All he ever did is say, the Bible says and then he quote the Bible. You never really heard any words from Billy Graham. Jesus says You know?

The only bit of Billy Graham you heard was the coaches will wait. But it was Jesus says, Jesus says, come unto me. Come. You who are weary. And burdened and worn out by life, come to me, and I, I will give you rest.

They're the words of Jesus. I am the resurrection and the life. Is your world dying? Are you Are you dying? I am the resurrection and the lie.

I am the living 1. I am the bread of life that will satisfy you. I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. Jesus said, You know, I've I've been inspired by looking at all those old Billy Graham things.

Now tonight, even though it was never night, geez, he was always saying that, but I go, now tonight, I want you turn with me. 2. Jesus said, you know, the coaches will wait. Come. Come.

It's wonderful stuff, isn't it? That's the word of Jesus. Last week, we had 1 of my favorite hymns. The reason it's my favorite 1 of my favorite hymns is because it's the first hymn that I ever heard after I became a Christian. I heard the voice of Jesus say, come unto me and rest, lay down their weary 1 lay down their head upon my breast Here was I, a young 19 year old that was rooting through life, had plenty of friends and lots of parties but wondering what life was really about and there was a burden in trying to find what life was about and someone told me about the lord Jesus Christ, and I didn't just hear a preacher.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, come unto me and rest, lay down their weary 1 laid down. I hid upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I was. Weary, worn, and sad, and found in him a resting place, and he has made me glad. That's what happened to me 40 years ago.

It was an amazing event. I heard Jesus. Not just a preacher. And you need to hear. It's personal.

It's intimate. It's not just about Jesus so you can know about him. Have you heard the voice of Jesus say, to you, come, come, Come to me, and then have you called out to him. I'm coming, lord. I have no plea.

But him, but Jesus. Now, of course, you hear through the human instrument of a preacher. In fact, the word preacher here, and we might come back to this when we come back to Romans 10 again, to just have think about what a preacher is, but the word preacher here is Harold. It is someone that calls out. It is someone that speaks out loudly actually on behalf and passionately and clearly on the 1 who's who's been sent.

So it is actually a preacher like what I'm doing right now. But that's what god is about. So let me ask you this. How are your feet? Let's have a look at them.

We cover we cover them up so much for little things, don't we? How are your feet? How are your feet? Those feet were made for walking. And that's what they should do.

They should walk all the way around the world. All the way around the world carrying the mouth of a herald. And that is what god is about. He's so about it. It's his god's plan and god's idea.

Think just first of all, think about the local church. All over the world, the Holy Spirit has been establishing a global network. Where people live out the message so that you can see whether the message is absolutely real or not because it's live doubt in communities. In the local church, churches fail. We fail each other.

We let each other down, but they're an amazing thing where people are welcomed, where we're working out what it is to follow Christ. The Holy Spirit God has planted churches all around the world, but those churches are the platform for which the heralding happens. The preaching happens. Global outlets right away around the world, the local church and the local church's job is to raise up people that will have beautiful feet who will herald. We do it as a church, the local church.

It's called the body of Christ, the local church. And in the body, you have feet. Now you may say, well, hold it, Pete. I'm not I'm not like you. I'm not a herald.

I'm not a preach I couldn't stand up and do what you do. I'm I'm more like a hand or I'm probably a liver, or a little bit of the bowels, because wherever I go, I make a stink. And, you know, whatever whatever it is or I'm a shoulder, I carry the weight or I actually go and work and produce money so that we can have a herald. I'm not a preacher. Yes, but if you're about the local church, If you're about the body, then as a body, we will have some feet.

Do you see that? The body illustration, if you read 1 Corinthians, the body illustration is that all the parts are working for the greater aim and purpose, which is to Harold, which is to preach, which is to prophesy, which is to speak out god's word, that we're all working together for the feet, for the mouth, to be carried, to be preached. Do you know people, some say, I don't know what my life is about. I'm a bit lost. I I would be about the local church.

I don't know what my gift is. Well, whatever it is, use it for building the body so the herald can preach. Be about that so that you can say we have beautiful feet. I'm part of the body of Cornerstone Church. We've got beautiful feet because we preach the good news.

It's a corporate local church plan of god that we're all invested in so that we're what's going on? Down down in the new forest. There's 30 students down there with Tom. I'm not preaching. You're not preaching.

Tom is. Good on you. The feet of Jesus are there in the new forest preaching as a whole lot of hoofs around. In these little ponies and things, but there's Tom preaching right now to 30 students. It's wonderful.

And they're backed up by people that are cooking, the Tissards are cooking. And, and, and Chris Tilly is there to help out, and and Paul Simpson is there to help out and Chris Bradshaw is there to help out. There's a whole team that are working as a group so that the beautiful feat that Tom has can carry the mouth of Tom to speak the message. Isn't that wonderful? We do it as a church and god is about that globally worldwide doing that.

But not only do we do it as church. Of course, we all have opportunities to speak when we can. Even though we may not be the preacher, In our faltering words, we can point people to the lord Jesus Christ. Now I want to say, however difficult the job is of taking the message out. We need to know that the whole of creation, of course, god himself, is on our side.

Creation itself echoes the message of Christ wherever we go. The universe is backing us up is promoting the message. Even the very people that use their god given mouths to curse Jesus and oppose the message of Christ in their very doing of that are only showing that Christ created all things. In the very darkest times, the stars shine out. On the dullest day, the sun is still there, backing us with our message.

If you wanna be 1 with the universe, which I hope you do, if you wanna be, you know, a new age or in that sense, to be 1 with the cosmos, then you have to be about preaching the gospel because that's what the whole cosmos is about. That's what it is to be at 1 with nature. And that's why we're committed in sacrificial service to the local church so that the church does its job of heralding. Preaching. We do it personally.

We do it as a church. Now are you still with me? Because this brings us back to the original subject that Paul is dealing with in Romans chapter 9 to 11. And what is he dealing with? Why then do his people the Jews not believe?

Why haven't they believed? And what's been proposed is it must be god's fault. And of course, he's answering this. In my last sermon last week, we looked at 3 things that stopped them listening. They didn't listen because they had pride.

They looked at their own rightness rather than the 1 that was provided for them by Jesus. Secondly, they looked zealous for god, but actually they were only zealous about how good they were. Thirdly, They turned the simple word of trusting Jesus to a complicated works. You've got to do lots of things. Now there's a fourth problem.

They had messengers that they rejected. They had beautiful, fitted preachers, and they didn't listen. Is this god's fault? No. So look at verse 15, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?

You Jews, Israelites, had beautiful, fetid preachers. So what's the problem? Here's the problem. First 16. Got it.

But not all the Israelites accepted the good news, for Isaiah says, got who, lord, who has believed our message. In other words, they didn't believe the message that was delivered to them by the good news preachers, and that was Isaiah's own experience. That's why you need to be sent as a preacher because not everyone will think you are bringing good news. If everyone said, oh, Pete, We love you because you bring good news, then it would be easy to be a preacher. I just go down to Kingston University, say hello, everyone.

I bring you good news and everyone say, oh, bless it on the feet of him who brings good news, you know? Isaiah didn't experience that. They are beautiful feet. They do bring good news, but the people did not wanna hear the message. So who's to blame?

Who's to blame? Billy Graham spoke to more people than anyone else in the world, but they, you know, they reckon that it was a million and a half or 2000000 people came to know Christ. Well, that's not that many, is it? I mean, I think it's brilliant, but most people that heard him didn't. Why?

Why didn't they hear? Is it because the preacher wasn't clear? Or, he was a bit quiet. You know, didn't have a big enough sound system, to blast it out. Well, look at verse 18.

But I asked, did they not hear? Of course, they did. Their voice has gone out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. In other words, listen to this, no 1 no 1 will be able to stand before the judgment seat of the lord Jesus Christ and say, I didn't hear enough. I didn't hear.

No 1. Or well, here's a second objection. Perhaps they just didn't understand the gospel. It was just too complicated perhaps that's the reason we'll look at verse 19 to 20. These are strange words, but the overall feel you'll get.

Again, I asked, did Israel not understand First Moses says, I will make you envious by those who are not a nation. I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding and Isaiah boldly says, this is obviously about god. I was found by those who did not seek me. I revealed myself to those who did not ask me. What he's saying there is the gentiles that had none of your, privileges didn't even have the word of god in their own language, had none of your they believed they were not to people and yet they became a people.

They had no understanding and yet they understood. Who's fault is it that the Jews aren't believing? God's? Did he make it so complicated? No.

It's simple because even those that had no understanding understood, Those who hadn't asked, the message came to them, and they heard the message and called out. Now you'll be judged because you had the message and you decided not to do anything with it. It's not god's fault. And then he ends with this magnificent verse in verse 21. But concerning Israel, he says all day long, I held out my hands to a disobedient an obstinate people.

Who's fault is it? He was holding his hands out. He was saying let's be reconcile. He came to the hiding place He says I will start the conversation. I have sent the message.

The whole world has seen the message. The message has come. You can hear it. I've spoken plainly. It's very simple.

I'm holding my hand out to you to say let's be reconcile. I've done it all for you. I can forgive you. Here's my forgiving hand. Let's start again.

Come and make friends with me. I hold my hand out. I begin the speech. I've spoken to you, but you obstinate disobedient people turned away to look at yourself. You're so obsessed with yourself.

Like narcissus looking at his reflection of himself and dies of starvation because He wouldn't listen to echo who loved him so much. He didn't know love outside of himself. He only knew self love, if you know the story. You obstinate, disobedient people. God so loved the world.

That he gave his darling son. For you, Here. Come to Christ. Here I am. I've done it all.

Oh, no. I'm too busy looking at myself. It's extraordinary, isn't it? So here's my last point. Over to you.

This word of Christ is the very light of the world. It's the very light of the world. This Bible isn't some boring textbook or even some book with good stories in with helpful advice. Of course, it is that, but it's more than that. This is the word.

This is the breath. The breath of god is cool. This is the very word of god. This is the word of Christ. The 1 who made the stars and the sun and and and and the moon, all of or the the god who created that thing in the sky, that fireball.

That's 93000000 miles away. But still can burn us. I was looking in the mirror today. I've got a spot on my nose where my my sunglasses from the summer burnt me Yep. That's the sun.

Did that, this spot there? You can see it. You go, it's a red mark. I've been burnt. For nearly 9 months by the sun.

It's so powerful. Yeah. I'm pressed. I'm distorted for the rest of my life. To remind me of the power of the son.

Jesus created that with his word. This is the same word This is living. This is vital. This is alive. This is why we wanna get into it and out of the pages of the Bible.

It's all the same. It's the 3 d image of the living Christ with his living word. This is the book that gives me life. The Bible says Jesus. Come to Jesus.

Did you hear that little clip on the on the I mean, for the BBC to have anything of Jesus was just a joy. So it was worth Billy Graham dying. I hope more that Moore saved in his death than his life. Jesus, he said on the first clip. Gee come to Jesus with your problems.

Whatever your problem is come to cheat with how I because he's the life giver. Of course he is. Stop making it so complicated. Stop making Christianity so complicated. Come to Jesus with your problems.

I'm beginning to sound a bit like him. I'm pleased, actually. Come to Christ. That's the first thing. Have you?

Have you heard the voice of Jesus of Jesus say come. Have you ever come? If you heard him, not me, but the voice of Jesus come. Would you come? No life.

The second thing is, and this is a, by the way. In Romans 9, it's a classic this is for Christians. I wanna be clever. Roman's line is classically about the sovereignty of god. Yeah.

And often young men, they get all excited about the sovereignty of god, so you should. It's brilliant. We couldn't live without the sovereignty of god. But Paul's response to the sovereignty of god is to pray and to preach a message for all. That's what he does.

He prays. He he prays at the beginning of chapter 9, he prays at the beginning of chapter 10 for his people and he preaches he preaches. That's the response to the sovereignty of God. We don't say, well, god's sovereign, he will save who he likes. Therefore, we do nothing.

That's never in the Bible. Here's the third point. Won't you be about god's plan Won't you pray and preach? Won't you be about building the church up, whatever your gift is so that we can herald to this world? Won't you be about this?

Jesus said this. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the harvest field. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Are we going to pray?

So our job is to pray that there'd be beautiful feet. Are we about feet? Beautiful feat. We wanna pray and have beautiful feet. Here's 2 pictures of feet.

Can we can we see that? Which ones do you like best? 1 of those is Beyonce's feet. Which 1 do you think it is? It's amazing actually how sort of vicious people are because, I looked for Beyonce's feet.

I know you gotta be quite careful. I looked, Anne was in the house, as I looked for Beyonce's feet, on the internet, and, that picture came up, but it was from an article called asn't Beyonce got ugly feet. Extraordinary. Extraordinary thing to write, but anyway, What are the most beautiful feet there? Those fat feet or an 82 year old man.

Do you know who that is? I haven't spoken to that man for 40 years. But over 40 years ago, those feet carried that man to me. A 19 year old rebel, and it was those feet that were used to bring his message to tell me that Jesus saves. I haven't spoken to him for 40 years because we lost contact because he lives out in Cambodia.

I just happened as I was preparing this sermon. I've tried to look for him before, but never found him, but I just thought, oh, I wonder if he is on face book again and I put his name in and up he came straight away and I I I messaged him and said, have a picture? I know I haven't spoken to you for 40 years, but can I have a picture of your feet? And he said, oh, Pete, this is so typical. I remember you.

But here they are. I'm afraid they're ugly and they're 82 year old feet. And I went back and said they're the most beautiful feet I've ever seen. They're the feet that brought the message that brought me to Christ, they're much more beautiful than Beyonce's. I'm sorry, Beyonce, but your feet You know, I guess I'd rather my wife have your feet in 1 sense, but in another sense, I'd rather I don't know.

It's a hard 1, isn't it? But Beyonce will have feet like that soon, I guess. Someone said she's pregnant, or she's got twins or something that will make her feet go fat. They are beautiful feet. Can you look at your feet?

Let's get off Beyonce's feet. This feet are Nigel Boatman's feet. Are your feet beautiful? And the last thing I just want to say before we finish is will you not be devoted to the beautiful feet of Jesus, just like the woman, who'd lived a bad life, but so understood the good news that changed her that she wept over the feet was devoted to those feet. And gave in her entire entire, savings, which was Alabaster jar full of perfume.

On the feet in order she gave all because she loved the feet of Jesus. How are your feet? How are our feet? As the body of Christ, and are you devoted to those feet? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?

Father god, thank you for the truths that we see here. Help us please to listen to your word and respond to it in Jesus' name. Oh, ma'am.