October 23, 2016 | Bob Bartlett
Passage: Romans 10:8-15
Reset – Part 3
“My Voice” Romans 10:8-15
Lamentations 3:40 “Let us examine our ways and test them and let us return to the Lord.”
Jeremiah 20:9 “But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”
Jeremiah: aka the ‘weeping prophet’ (that we should consider)
- Wept for a nation – a people of God, who more and more turned their back on God.
- Wept because he saw the devastating effects of sin on people’s lives.
Might say today: ‘reset feet’ Vs 15 “how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.”
Romans 10:14 “How then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”
To Reset my Voice:
- Nothing matters more to God than one human soul. Luke 15:7 “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
- That’s a 99 to 1 ratio. John 3:16 – A life for a life.
- Develop a strategic plan to minister to that one soul. (from Colossians 4:2-6)
- Devote yourself to prayer: (to effect a heart transplant)
- John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…”
- Be watchful and thankful: (an internal watch and an external watch)
- 1Timothy 4:16 “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
- Pray for God to open the door for the message: (only God can open a heart’s door)
- 2 Corinthians 4:4 “The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers…”
- Pray that I would proclaim the message clearly: (be the best messenger I can be)
- Isaiah 50:4 “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.”
- Be wise in my interactions with unbelievers: (‘all things to all men to be ‘win-some’)
- 1Peter 4:10 “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
- Speak with grace and truth: (begin with your testimony it is enough)
- 1Peter 3:15 “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,”
Where do I begin? “It makes all the difference to this one!”