I will tell you what is my heart’s desire for this church. I am not empowered to go and save the world, but I am empowered and commissioned by God to help you have a fuller life in Christ. I do not teach a doctrine of prosperity. To those who ask, “Are you going to teach on the more abundant life that we should be living?” I say, “Yes, in Christ.” I have no other message than that. I have no desire to bring you health products or the latest gadgets. It is my heart’s desire to grow with you. I have not “arrived”; I’m still on a journey to grow with you in this faith walk.
Now I spent a lot of time reading Romans 9 this week and with all my heart, I really understand what Paul meant when he opened that chapter saying, “I would be accursed from Christ for my brethren, for my kinsmen.” It matters not if you want to say that was a rhetorical remark; it came from the heart, as if to say, “I would go to hell for you if you would just hear me out.” And I don’t mean that offensively; I mean that with all of a heart towards God. So to those that are joining us today for the first time, please open your hearts and your minds to hear the words I’m going to speak. I only bring the Gospel. That’s all I have, which to me is everything. To some people it’s not enough. To me it is more than enough and more than sufficient.
Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that last week, we looked at the Christ-centered life. Today, I want to continue on that path. I’m not done speaking about Romans 9, and I think we can understand an analogy in terms of the things of time. I know of at least one man in our congregation who is a fireman. Firemen are trained and equipped to go into a burning building, and they don’t stop and count the cost to themselves. It is assumed when you begin that vocation that there are risks, that you may lose your life in the act of saving somebody else’s. That is an act in time. I look at the Gospel as not being any different; but we are dealing with eternal things.