Sermon – Do You have Beautiful Feet? (Romans 10:1-21) – Cornerstone Church Kingston
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Do You have Beautiful Feet?

Pete Woodcock, Romans 10:1-21, 29 June 2025

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! Here Pete explores the great calling and assurance of Romans 10: that we have ears to hear the word, feet to walk the whole Earth, and a mouth to echo Jesus' own voice. Will you bring the Good News to those who need it?


Romans 10:1-21

10:1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for

  “Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
    and their words to the ends of the world.”

19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,

  “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;
    with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”

20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,

  “I have been found by those who did not seek me;
    I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”

21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

(ESV)


Transcript (Auto-generated)

This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Romans 10.

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, this is about the 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 the heaven? That is to bring Christ down. Or who will descend into the deep. That is who to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say?

The word is near 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.

A scripture says, anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentle. The same lord as the 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 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 did 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'll 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've held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. Well, good morning. Have a look down at your feet. Just have a look at your feet or look at the person next to you's feet. Hopefully, they haven't just got 1 leg.

But have a look have a look down at the feet. Go on. Look. Look at your feet. Don't look at me, but I'm not a foot.

Your foot is an amazing thing. It contains 26 bones. It has 33 joints. It has more than a hundred tendons and muscles and ligaments. Put the 2 feet together, and you have, 250000 sweat glands, and, you can sweat a half a pint of of juice.

In those feet every day. That's amazing, isn't it? And particularly in this weather. It's an amazing thing for the the anatomy of the foot is absolutely amazing in this relatively small package it does so many import important things slip simply walking around on an average day, pounds them with hundreds of I'm not talking about your weight, but hundreds of tons of weight a day. I put through the foot.

A single day, most people on average, walk about 8010 to 10000 steps. And then in an average lifetime, that would mean that you walk around the world, 4 times. So it's it's it's an extraordinary thing. But it has many problems. It has hammer toes.

I don't know what they are. Blisters, bunions, corns, calluses, heel spurs, mallet toes, I was is that Bob Mallet toe? I mean, what's the difference between a hammer toe and a mallet toe? Anybody know? No.

Bernadette might know. She used to be into feet, didn't she? You've got in growing toenails, toenail fungus, athletes, foot, verruchas, so it goes on. All kinds of things. So I'm asking you the question, how are your feet?

How are your feet? Do you need a pedicure? I don't know whether you noticed in the reading in Romans chapter 10, and this is the verse I wanted to think about. Paul is quoting the prophet Isaiah. And in verse 15, he says, as it is written, and here's the quote from 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? Do you have beautiful feet? You know, when you where where you go with your feet, is it, oh, no. Here comes old grumpy, so and so. Here comes here she comes again.

Here he comes again with bad news. Have you got beautiful feet? Are you carrying good news? That's the question I want us to ask. Now in the book of colossians, which is another letter in the new testament, and another 1 written by Paul, Paul tells us that, that Christ, the lord Jesus, holds, created all things.

He holds all things together, and that all things that he's created and holds together are for him. So your feet are made by Christ, and they're held together by Christ, all those ligaments, and therefore him, your feet have a purpose. And your feet are for him. That's what it says. Now Jesus Christ himself, the creator of those feet, became created.

He became a man. And so he's a living example of how you use your feet. At the beginning, for instance, of Mark's gospel, which is another new testament book telling us about Jesus. We're told why he came, and it says this. Jesus replied, he's talking to Peter, he said, let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages, listen, so that I can preach so that I can bring this good news.

There also. That is why I have come. So he traveled throughout galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. And how did he travel? Well, you know, there's no ubers around.

He hasn't got no, electric scooter that he can whiz around on. He used his feet, and he traveled from village to village, bringing this good news, this this message. And then at the end of Mark's gospel, of course, you've got Jesus who's not just carrying now the weight of his body on his feet, but the weight of a Roman cross. And at the end, there he is nailed on a cross with a nail through his feet. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?

How beautiful are the feet of those? No wonder there's a woman in the Bible. Who, when she understood just the cost of the feet of Jesus, to bring the good news to her. No wonder it says she wet those feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair and kissed them and poured perfume on them.

Her, all her savings she poured out on the feet of that's a Bible pedicure. That's a Bible Piddicure. Now in Romans chapter 10, Paul is rejoicing that everyone that calls on the name of the lord will be saved. Look at verses 12 and 13. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentle, The same lord is lord of all, and richly blesses all who call on him.

This is the god that he's preaching. The god who loves to richly bless. Richly bless all who call on him, For everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved, will be rescued from yourself from this world from death, from hell. There's this wonderful picture here. So JesusCC isn't some local lord just for an elite group of people.

He's not just for the Jew, he's not just for the gentile. He's actually the lord of the whole world, and he wants to bless all the world, whatever race, whatever nationality, whatever group you're from, whatever the color of your skin is that Jesus is the lord over all the world And there's this delight in wanting to bless us to give to us. Everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved. Someone summed up the book of, Romans. I I I love this the way they did this.

I mean, it's a, you know, it's it's a sort of summary. And it says this that Romans is a letter to the Italians. Romans. Romans is a letter to the Italians as Paul prepared for mission to Spain, that's where he wants to go. While he collected money from the Greeks to take to the Jews in Jerusalem.

In a in other words, that's that's that's classic Paul. He's about the world hearing this message. 1 of 1 of the great gifts to the church is being able to speak different languages and to interpret them the gift of tongues to the church. Is that the church is able to have different languages and interpret different languages to get the message of Jesus out. Look at verse 17.

We have to get this message out, and it has to be heard in the language of different people. First 17, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. It's so important that people hear the message that god's given that gift to the church. And thankfully, we've got that gift in our church, haven't we? We have 40 nationalities here.

So many different languages. What a great thing it is to have those languages that can speak out the message to 40 different cultures, and more. Because faith comes through hearing, you have to hear. And that's the wonderful thing, isn't it? People need to hear.

But here's the question, how? How is everybody gonna hear? How are all those people gonna hear? And that's what I want us to see how he answers it in the second half of, Romans chapter 10. Everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved, but how can they call on the 1 they've not heard?

That's my first point. How can they call if they're not heard? They need to hear. How can they call if they haven't heard? So how can they?

How can this good news get out to the world? How how do we travel it out to the world? With all the challenges of different languages, different cultures, different types of people rich and poor, different age groups, how do we do it? That's what we say. It's essential that they hear it, but how do we do it?

And so he gives us a chain, a sort of a link, a chain link in the steps towards how people hear, this message. Look, look at there's a 4 house here. Look at verse 14. How then can they call on the 1 that they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the 1 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? See what he's saying? Solvation is the result of calling on the name of the lord, no 1 will call unless they believe. You're not gonna call on someone that you don't believe in.

Believe it requires that they hear about him. You can't believe in someone you haven't heard about. Hearing about him requires that someone tells you about him. You can't hear about someone if you no one's told you, and that requires that someone preach to you, in this case, the message of of Christ. And how can they go and preach this message of Christ, this message of god, unless god himself has given them the message and sent them, and that they have these beautiful feet.

Did you say what's see what's saying here? Are you with anyone with me here? Now when you read that, I don't know whether you're like me, you think, I could write that better than Paul. That's how arrogant I am. I could write the Bible a lot better.

So I think, Why does he do it this way? That's always a good question when you think you could do it better. Why why would he do he seems to have done it the wrong way round. The way round I would have written it is, god sends out preachers preacher speaker out, people here, hear us believe, believers call, and those who call are saved. But he doesn't do it that way.

He does it the opposite way around. It's like reverse the polls. Now why? Why? Because I think he's building up.

He's piling up to the last point or or a better way of putting it is he's digging down to the very foundation. He wants us to lee leave us with the big important thing. And the foundation is verse 15. And how can anyone preach unless they are sent as it is written to help you to fulfill all the feet of those who bring good news. He wants us to see who is the 1 that sends?

Who is behind all these hounds? Who who's the 1 that invents the message? Who's the 1 that strategizes to get the message out? God. That's what he wants.

He wants to understand this is god's idea. This is god's plan. This is god's strategy. This is god's message about god, and this is his strategy to get the message out, is that people with beautiful feet will go around the world and speak the message out so that it can be heard, and then people believe. This is god's message.

This is god who has beautiful feet. That's Christianity, by the way. God seeking us, not us seeking him. It's always that way around, isn't it? This is god's idea, god's plan, god's coming to a world that doesn't wanna hear him.

This is all the beauty of god. He is so beautiful. What beautiful feet he's got? That he would take himself and make himself a human in order to walk to people that are ignorant and don't wanna hear him. And come to them.

That's what happened with Adam and Eve, isn't it? You know that story. They broke his law. They broke his, the the the place of peace, the beautiful garden, smashed up, ruined, by their sin, then they run away and they hide from god, and they cover themselves up. Yeah?

And what happens? God comes to their hiding place. God says, stop playing hide and seek. Yeah? God comes to their hiding place, and he asks the first question that any human has ever been asked, where are you?

Where are you? Where is running away from me? Got you? Look at it. You're hiding in the in the jungle like a monkey.

You've you've absolutely devolved, not evolved. What are you doing? Where are you? Where are you, says god? And the feet of god come, and they they come to the hiding place.

It's all of god you see. This plan is all god's plan. Now we gotta get that in our heads if we're gonna have beautiful feet. This is god's message about god, and it's god's strategy. And if we're ever gonna walk around, and take this message to anyone.

We gotta believe those things. That's why he's emphasizing it. Now Paul then, so wants us to see that this is god's plan, and it's god's desire that everyone here that he quotes another another part of the old testament, not Isaiah this time, but Psalm 19, a song in the new in the old testament, Psalm 19. And you see that in verse 18. In verse 18, he's quoting in Psalm 19.

Yeah? And he says this, but I ask, did they not hear? Did they not hear? Of course, they did, and then he quotes Psalm 19. Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world.

The voice has gone out to all the earth, and the words to the end of the of the world. So in Psal 19, we're told that the stars and the moon and the sun representing creation are blasting the glory of god. Yeah? It's the glory of god. Look at the sun.

You know, we're we're all moaning about it because we're, you know, in this country. Comes out. Oh, too hot. It burns me. You know?

You know, I was only I was only out, you know, for an hour, and I've got burnt. Yeah. It's 93000000 miles away, and it still burns you. Yeah? That's the power.

That's the glory. And that is shining out the power of god because he spoke that into being. He said, let there be light, and, boom, there's this fireball that burns you 93000000 miles away. It's extraordinary. And so the Psalm is all about the the and when the sun goes down, the moon cones comes up.

And the stars come out. There's always this voice saying, god is great. God is glorious. God is the maker. Look at these the power of god in creating this.

This voice is always around. Sun comes up. God is glorious. Son goes down. Moon comes up.

God is glorious. It's like they hand the baton to each other. Billy Graham, an American evangelist, died a few years ago, it said that that Billy Graham spoke to more humans face to face, live, than any other person on earth, an extraordinary ministry he had, Billy Graham, but he didn't speak to as many as the sun moon and stars. They speak to everyone. Their mission is to say that there's a god, and he's bigger than you, and he's glorious.

And he could make this world and this universe. To the message of Jesus. Now what Paul is doing here in quoting that, he wants us to see that the whole of creation echoes, the message that we are to take to people. That the whole of creation is a bit like John the Baptist. Remember John the Baptist came before Christ and pointed to Christ, that the whole of creation points to Christ.

Everything in creation points to Christ. It's 1 of the reasons why it's very easy to turn almost any subject, if not any subject, from whatever that subject is to Jesus. Because he created everything. So Jesus's DNA is in everything that's made. Jesus is so you go to the small little single cell thing, and you will see aspects there.

If you really take it seriously of God, the creator, and how glorious he is. It's very interesting, actually, in creation, how many things are in threes? Got the father, god, the son, god, the holy spirit. Very interesting. And so the whole of creation is like John the Baptist saying glory to god, look at Christ.

We are witnesses to Christ. And that he's saying is showing us that god wants the whole world to look to the lord Jesus Christ, and he wants everyone to hear. In fact, here's the thing here. Now following with this, that Christ is so intimately involved in all of this. Look at verse 14, the second half of verse 14, where it says, how can they believe in the 1 of whom they have not heard.

Yeah? How can they believe in the 1, in the 1 of whom they've not heard? Now a better translation would be to take the off out. Take the all vow. And it it it could be this.

How can they believe in the 1 whom they've not heard? Do you see the difference? 1 is people talking about Christ. How can they believe in the 1 who whom they, have not heard? The other is Christ speaking.

How can they believe unless Christ speaks? And what Paul is doing here is, in creation, everything is echoing something about Christ. And what he's doing is He's saying, when the preacher brings the good news, it's not the preacher's voice, it's Christ. It's not someone saying, let me tell you about Christ. It's the very voice of Christ.

And that what people need is not just a preacher, but they need to hear the voice of Christ through the pre preacher. It's personal. Christ needs to be heard. When I first became a Christian, I was blown away by that song that we've just sung. I heard the voice of Jesus say.

I didn't just hear a preacher speaking. I didn't just hear the evangelist that brought the good news to me with his 84 year old feet. I I didn't just hear that. I heard the voice of Jesus say, come unto me and rest. Lay down their weary 1, lay down their head upon my breast.

I came to not the preacher. I came to Jesus, as I was, weary, worn, and sad, and found in him a resting place He's made me glad. He's made me glad. So the whole thing that Paul is trying to say here is that we need to hear the very voice of the 1 who said I am the resurrection and the love. So that I hear that, and I'm given life and resurrection.

I am the living 1. So that I am made alive. I am the light of the world. So it's a per it's personal. And what Paul is doing here is saying that we hear we've gotta hear the voice of Jesus.

And it's like John the Baptist in creation, but the preacher is bringing the very message. That's why we love Billy Graham. See, Billy Graham, really, if you I don't know. Did anyone ever hear Billy Graham go to a yep. He never his sermons were so simple, to be quite honest.

It because he he he just basically said the bible said, And then he quoted a Bible. Well, it's pretty easy, really. Well, Jesus said. Jesus said. Come on to me.

Jesus said. And then he just quoted Jesus. Because it's the voice of god. The Bible's the voice of god. That's why we opened the Bible up.

I mean, the only thing Billy Graham said that seemed to be his own stuff is the coaches will wait. You don't get that in the Bible, but He's saying that and that's the Christian message. And that's why we we preach the Bible because it's not just the preacher. It's Christ speaking. And is he speaking to you and saying, come to me?

Yeah? It's never all about the preacher. That's why you don't have the we don't want big celebrity preachers. It's nonsense. The celebrity is always Christ.

Always Christ. So that's the message that we bring, the voice of Christ. So how are your feet then? How are your feet in carrying this a message away? That's what god is about.

And I think, that's what the local church is about. Well, I don't think. I know that's what the local church is about. All over the world, the Holy Spirit, has been establishing global networks where people live so that this message can go out to the community. God plants, local churches, and through those local churches, they herald the gospel.

So you may say, look, hold it. I'm no preacher. I'm just not the preacher. You might be, but I'm not I'm ah, but the local church is the body of Christ. And the body has a mouth and the body has feet.

And our job as a local church are to be beautiful feet to a world that's lost, are to be the voice of Christ to a world that is deaf to truth. So you may say, well, I'm not a preacher. I'm more of a hand. Brilliant. Or I'm a liver.

Some of you probably say, I'm I'm more like a bladder. The the older men get, then they're much more in line with being a bladder. But, sorry. I've I've ruined my own thinking now. The illustration of the body.

The illustration of the body is that we're a body, but as a body, we need feet. And we need to be herald in speaking out. And our job, not just individually, but as a body, is to preach to this area, is to speak to this area. So if you've got a language, if god has given you a tongue that is in English, then we need to think about how we reach those people with that tongue. You see that?

Where's where's Karen? She has, like, hundreds of tongues. She she's got the gift of time really genuinely. She speaks like hundreds of languages, and she can do her hands as a language. It's extraordinary that woman.

Yeah. Mind you, I never know what she's talking about. But, but she's an she's an amazing amazing woman. So if you've got a language, we should be thinking how do we reach because that's beautiful feet. That's beautiful feat to take the message of Jesus.

Yeah. And I I wanna say that that that's what god is about, that the headline in heaven is like What's the local church doing? Yeah? That's the headline in heaven, isn't it? Gabriel and the angels, they're looking through their social media.

Yeah? And it's what cornerstone? They're reaching out to this group of people. Hey. Did you hear that?

Gabriel me off. Look. Look at that. Swipe down there. The exciting thing of heaven, that's what's going on, is that there are mission plans.

To take beautiful feet out and to speak this message clearly to people. But it's not just church. We have opportunities to speak, and I want to encourage you that take those opportunities, and you personally speak out, take your feet and go to people and speak out, and remember that the whole of creation is backing you up. You see that? It it's it's not that we've got a hard job in some ways because everything is speaking of Christ.

Everything points to Christ. So even the atheist whose mouthing off, there is no god. He, in himself, is created by Christ, held together by Christ, can't open his mouth without Christ holding him together, And he's showing us that he's a created being. He's trying to reason with us why. If he's just a fortuitous occurrence of atoms, if he's just an accident, his reasoning is only just twitching gray matter in his brain.

So it doesn't mean anything. But he's saying it does mean anything. Means something. And if it means something, that means that he's created by the living god. And therefore, I can speak to him about Christ.

You see that? We have the whole backing of creation. A friend of mine, went to church, and, he only went there to because he liked the girl that invited him. And, he heard a sermon by someone like me, and he was furious. He was so angry.

He said, I don't even wanna go out with a girl anymore. He went home, and, he turned the telly on. And it was songs of praise. He booted the telly and swore at it, and then turned over the program, and it was a day because he booted the telly, he smashed up the sound. He was so angry.

And he turned the telly over, and it was David Attenborough showing creation. But there was no sound. There was no interpretation. There was no atheistic. This was just an accident.

And what he saw was design. And he said there must be a god, and he fell down on his knees and became a Christian and went back to church and married the girl. That's what happens because the whole of creation is speaking. Turn the soundtrack of atheism down, and how can you believe this is an accident? So let's go out.

Let's speak. Let's be 1 with the cosmos. Let's be 1 with nature. You know? Let's be 1 if we're 1 with nature, nature's crying out.

Jesus is lord. Do you see that? You see that? Now I must, go on to my second point. It's not always gonna be easy because those feats that you take, to take the message, people may not like that message.

They may stamp on your feet. They may shove a nail through it. They may say shut up. They may not like it. Not everyone will actually like what you're saying.

And that's why we have to understand this is god's strategy god's message, god's plan, god is with us, and the whole creation is backing us up. Because how will they preach unless they're called? How would we go into territory where our feet may be stamped on or even crucified for saying the message? How are we ever gonna do that? Unless we know we've got the backing of a calling of a god with us.

That's what keeps us going. It's why so many people give up Christianity or so many preachers give up because they've not remembered that fact. This is god's message, god's plan, do god's work. And what you see here is in the, chapter here, is people not believing. Now is it god's fault?

He was he's actually dealing his overall argument from chapter 9 to 11 is Is it god's fault that Israel aren't believing in Christ? And he's saying, no. It's it's not god's fault. Look at verse 15. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

They had good news brought to them but they wouldn't listen. Look at verse 16. But all but not all Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, the lord, who, lord, who has believed our message. They wouldn't believe his message.

In fact, they They wanted to do all kinds of nasty things to to him. He did just because he had beautiful feet and turned up with this message, they said, I don't like your feet. They're ugly. They stink. They they're sweaty.

They've they've walked this way. I don't like them, and I don't like your message, and they wouldn't hear I wouldn't hear because of pride. Pride is such a horrible word. It's a terrible thing. Pride pride.

Stop your pride. Pride, you see. It's so ugly because it stops me listening to advice. It stops me having stuff come into my life, because I know I'm proud. And I'm surround myself with my own knowledge of my own I'm proud I don't want you telling me what to do.

It's a disaster pride at every level, isn't it? And so they won't listen because they think I don't need this message. Then look what he says, and I'll finish with this, I think. Look of verse 21. But concerning Israel, he says, all day long, I've held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.

All day long. God has been speaking to them, and their pride said I'm not listening. All day long creation calls out There is a powerful, magnificent god. Look at the sun. Look at the moon.

Look at the stars. You can't get away from the calling out all day long. All day long. God saying, Christ is the savior. You're a sinner, but you come to Christ.

Come to Christ. Come to Christ all day long. God is holding his hands out. Look at my feet. They've got nails through them.

Look at my hands. They've got nails through them. Why did I do that? What is this cross about? Because I love you.

I want the best for you. I want you to be forgiven. I want you to be made righteous. I want you to be brought into the kingdom of god all day long, pleading with us, pleading with us. Come to Christ.

Come to Christ. Jesus said. The Bible says, But this people were obstinate. Proud, stubborn. It's pathetic, isn't it?

Seriously, when you see pride and stubbornness in people, you know what it's like. You're in a restaurant and there's a little kid and he's you know, and you're pretending it's all very nice. Don't worry. And you think it's stinky little kid. You know, what he needs is a good And, you know, but you're not allowed to say anything like that anymore.

You know, but, hey, you see it in other people. What about you? With god? Where are you with god? Are you any better?

I won't listen. I'm not gonna listen. I'm not gonna listen to love. I know what is better. You know what's better after death?

You know what life is better than god? Is there any better person in the universe than Jesus? Don't you wanna know him? And he's pleading and holding his hands out, and he's showing his feet, and he's come to us. But Israel said no, but what about you?

You you've heard that some of you have heard this message so many times. So if you, you know, I honestly, I've pleaded with you for for years and you still haven't you still have you just still said no. Yesterday, I I met a bloke. He said, oh, I last heard you in 19 84. And I thought, I'm like, that old?

He says I can still remember, an illustration. It was about a pig. I said, oh, what? He said, do you know it? And I said, no.

I can't remember it. And he told me, I thought that's really good. I'll write that 1 down. Okay. I'll use that.

All those years, All those years, some of you have been hearing the gospel, but no, stubbornness. Oh, no. No. I'm the I'm the husband of the wife, and she believes, but no way I won't do it. Just out of pride.

Perfect, isn't it? All the evidence is there? Oh, no. I'm I'm the wife I'm not doing. I I'm not following my husband on that.

Oh, no. I'm not he pleads with you. And I'm pleading with you. Please. Trust this message, trust in Christ, look at creation it's singing out to you, but Christ has come with the good news of the lord.

Being the savior. Beautiful feat. What are your feet like, Christian? Have you ever been devoted to the feet of Jesus? It's interesting that the woman that washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.

That story is told all the way around the world we're promised. Wherever the gospel is preached, her story is told, I've just told it to you. Do you love the feet of Jesus that brought you good news? Will you be like Jesus and take this good news out to a lost, a lost world? That so desperately needs to be found by god and understand who they are, why they're created, and why they have feet.

Let's pray. Further god, we know that, so we've heard that pride is a is a big problem. And it's a big problem for all of us. Lord, there are areas many of us, who are following you. Who aren't, so proud that we say go away.

But nevertheless, we're saying that in areas of our life. There are areas of, the way we live, the way we speak the way we act, the way we, don't love others, the way we don't love you, that mean that, there is a pride there. There is a, and ignoring of you are turning away from you. It would help us to be, people who, love you, who humble ourselves before you, who want you in every area of our life. That you will change us.

That we won't walk out of here this morning, just having heard that, and and then it's gone. And, you know, we get on with life, and the pride's still there. Well, we pray that you will this morning deal with us, help us to change, help us to be more godly, help us to be more like Jesus, help us to get rid of those elements of pride. In Jesus' name, amen.


Preached by Pete Woodcock
Pete Woodcock photo

Pete is Senior Pastor of Cornerstone and lives in Chessington with his wife Anne who helps oversee the women’s ministry in the church.

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