It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year — Westlake Bible Fellowship

0:00 It's the most wonderful time of the year

I thought it would get up close and personal. Let's turn the light off. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Right? I love that song.

Don't you love that song? But I love that song for different reasons. I really do. I love that song for different reasons. And it is the most wonderful time of the year, especially in telling people about Christ.

It is. It's the best time of the year. I mean, you can get the ardent atheist and you go Merry Christmas, not holidays or happy holiday, but Mary goes, Oh yeah, thanks. Thanks. And you're wondering if they're thinking of the sled that they never got when they were a kid, you know, and all this kind of stuff.

But is the best time of the year and it's amazing to me. I was on Facebook. I don't get on Facebook too often. I don't look at Facebook that much. But just the other day I saw on Facebook a video clip, a video clip of two guys, kind of balding and one shaving, I'm sure.

I don't know if they were wearing combat boots or whatever, but they looked like Elmer Fudd, you know, with a bathing suit on. They were just going down in the snow and they went into this lake lake area and then jumped in. Don't you... And then I came to find out, how often do you do this? Every week.

Every week? That's passion. That's passion. That is a real zeal. Not the real deal, real zeal.

An ardent... Let's see, I looked it up once. An ardent feeling manifested in love, jealousy, righteousness, indignation, a fervent love or devotion, zeal, an eagerness and ardent interest in pursuing of something. Fervor. You know, I looked at that.

Didn't Jesus say, you missed it? I heard You caught it. You caught it. It was these two guys. This guy and this guy.

And not that I would ever point them out. Never, never, I would never point that out. But I look at this and I say to myself, wow, that is amazing. And it is the most wonderful time of the year. You know, in terms of not doing crazy stuff.

I knew a guy that slept in this. You slept outside last night.

Me and Andy and all Andy's boys.

Did you guys like... Were you warm?

I was. I had it, but I'm old. I had to get up three times to go to

the bathroom, so that makes

me cold and then I

Yeah, wow. Enough said. Enough said. I had a friend of mine that, you know, he got a biv sack and put it in a snowbank and loved it.

In his mind. He has a heated jacket too. A heated jacket.

You had a heated jacket?

Not really heated jacket unless I just had a down jacket and a down sleeping

get down. Okay. I tell you, this actually has everything to do with what we're talking about today. It really does because I think to myself that that's real passionate and real zeal. You know?

I think it's misplaced personally. Know? I want that select comfort with the heated feet area. You know? I want one of those.

But, you know, he goes, all that kind of stuff. I'm thinking to myself, why? But, you know, the old saying to each their own. But you look at we love what we are passionate about. We really are doing...

And we're passionate about what we love. I think of the life of Paul. And I think about him. And I think that if he was at the breaking of bread with us and we were to sing Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. I think, I don't know for sure, but I think that he would probably be on his face.

I think that he would get out of his seat and lie down and worship the Lord. Because he would be so passionate about the one who saved him. I think that that's... That is amazing. When I when I look at Peter's life, and I I see this I see this.

5:21 Paul's passion and focused zeal

And he went back in and was arrested. And then he was taken to Rome because he claimed his Roman citizenship, etcetera. And he... I appealed to Caesar, etcetera. And I think to myself that this man, you know, when he writes in Philippians, this one thing I do.

This one thing I do. And I look at that and I say to myself, there's zeal and passion. Incredible. Focused. Focused zeal and passion.

We have said this many times before, but it's a great poem, only one life to a live, only what we... Only one life to live, only what we do for Jesus. Right? Is that... Did I say that right?

No. I said it wrong. Say it for me.

Only one will soon be passed. Only one life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last.

Do you believe that? Now that reflects a biblical truth, but do you actually believe that? Oh, it's a it's a cute poem. It really is. It's cutie, cutie, cutesy but do we really believe that?

Romans chapter one, please. We're going to actually go to the Bible. Actually, actually going to go to the Bible. Romans chapter one, that's the sixth... No, I see Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.

Yeah, that's six. Right? Sixth book of the New Testament. The book of Romans. They say they say about Romans, first Corinthians, second Corinthians that if you just had those three epistles, you're going to get most of the theology of the of the New Testament.

You're going to get it there. The book of Romans is the unpacking the good news. That's what it is. We say the gospel, we look at the gospel and we say, what is the gospel? Could you define what the gospel is?

And then the book of Romans, the book of Romans is going to go and it's like pulling the little pulley on a life raft with that air going. That's what the book of Romans does to the Gospel. It unpacks the Gospel. And right off the bat, right off the bat, when Paul writes, he's writing, listen to to whom he is writing. He's writing to people he hated.

He's writing to the book, the church at Rome. He hated those guys. He hated Rome. You know, a zealous, a zealous Jew who is over his homeland taken over by Rome and now he's writing to Rome to the Romans. He's going to go there.

He's going to he's going to be there and and he's going to die there. Church tradition says, they behead him. He knows these things. He writes to Timothy in second Timothy chapter four. He said, my time is at my at hand.

I have finished my course. I have run the race. He knows that he's going to die. He's writing that from Rome to Timothy and he's telling these Romans, he's he's going to write 16 chapters. Of course, the verse breaks and chapter breaks are not in the, you know, in errant but you know, they're made up by, you know, outside influences but it's it stands to reason.

It's good. It's it's a great text. 16 chapters, unpackaging, and then telling us from 12 on how to live. But in the first the first salvo, the opening salvo, the opening shot that he is going to give to us, He is going to show us some incredible things. He said, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of God.

Where are my friends? They had... They must have had to leave or something. Yeah. Is your brother still playing rugby?

Yeah. They're still playing.

Yeah, still plays rugby. Don't know. Yeah, have a friend of mine who played for John Brown University. They were pretty good rugby guys, you know. When you talk to my friend Bobby, his name is Bobby, and you talk to my friend Bobby about rugby, he lights up like a firefly.

It's amazing. I mean, this guy is tough. We had a Japanese student at the Ezekiel Project School of Evangelism. We had two, actually, two Japanese students, and one of them is named Haruya. And you remember Haruya?

You remember him? Yes. Haruya Nakano. No, Haruya Kojima, excuse me. Like he's gonna hear this.

And so Haruya, before he ever graduated from high school, broke both ankles, broke both wrists, broken arm, separated both shoulders, all this kind of stuff. It's great. He loves rugby. He loves rugby. I'm going, no way.

11:33 Being separated unto something

You really got to, don't you agree? I mean, have you ever, did you ever watch your grand? Yeah. Lot of a lot of matches.

I loved it better than football.

Yeah. Loved watching him get killed. No.

He he was in shape. You know, when you're not in shape, you get

I know what you mean. I get out of the car, I get hurt, you know. I know what you mean. I'm not in shape, that's for sure. That is for sure.

But separated unto rugby. Separated, I was separated unto basketball for a long time. I mean, it was literally, I'll tell you very frankly, basketball was my God. Paul says he was separated unto the gospel of God. He was separated unto the gospel of God.

And so when you look at this and the gospel of god which he had promised beforehand by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of god with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. So, it's true. It's factual. It's true. It's absolutely true that the lord Jesus Christ came into this world, actually lived in time and space, died on a Roman cross, and was physically raised from the dead, physically raised from the dead.

We go in the open air. I triple dog dare people to disprove it. I do. I actually say that. Wall Street, Times Square, University of Michigan, I actually triple dog dare.

I mean, that's the gauntlet. I guess I could go four times, quadruple but it's absolutely a fact. It is absolutely a fact. It's a fact no matter where you're from and no matter who you are, Jesus is a was a living human being, still is, and god man and he died on the cross, shed his blood to wash away my sins. Three days later, rose again physically from the dead and that is a fact.

I like this. I like this. I preached in front of Columbia University. I preached you know, a lot of universities. Not not one time.

Not one time on the streets, not even the intelligentsia of America and the ivy leagues. On that not one time has anybody ever said I got proof and he never did. Not once. It's true. I like that.

I like that. I could be separated to that. I could... That to me, if it's true and it is that you're a sinner and that I'm a sinner and that I can't save myself from my own sin, if that's true, I'm cooked. It's over for me without outside help.

I need the outside help. Every human being on this planet needs the outside help. And that outside help is that god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Hey, we, you know, we we get real familiar with that, right? But it doesn't...

Our familiarity does not, hopefully hopefully, does not breed contempt. It breeds a greater appreciation, a greater separated, separation, a greater dedication. Shouldn't it? Don't you think it should? I mean, if I was rescued from some, you know, certain fate, well, who was telling me?

You were telling me. Tell me about that. Tell us about that guy.

It's World War

two. Nice and loud. Everybody's got... I got hearing problems.

South South African soldier in World War two fighting against the Nazis in North Africa, and he and his colleague were at a signal house, and they were attacked with a mortar shell. And he just happened to bend over to pick something up, but mortar went right through their their little house. It took off... Well, killed his colleague, let's call that, and explosion burned off all his hair on his head. But when he responded to that, he responded to that by saying, I have no fear in life now.

I'm going to live it to its fullest. Unfortunately, you didn't know Christ and that still didn't lead him to a point where

he received Christ. Yeah. Only one life. It will soon be passed. You know, I...

My... And my dad probably was very thankful and and probably had survivor's problems, know. Know, why did my buddy go and then I survived the war and that kind of thing. But the thing about it is, Bob Schroeder is with the Lord. He is gone to be with the Lord.

That's the end of your life. That's the end of my life. And it doesn't matter. I mean, we we just... We talked about the cars going around and all that kind of thing right now.

We we talk about, you know, we've got so much life and so much time. You don't know that. A three year old went went to be with the lord. I mean, we don't we just don't know this. You do not know it.

You cannot guarantee a thing. You cannot guarantee tomorrow. You can't. Nobody can. That's why the psalmist says, show me how short my time is.

Show me how short my time is. My times are in your hands. That's true. It is so true. So I might want to be, I might as well, and this is the thing that baffles me about my own life, this is the thing that baffles me, is when I get caught up with other things that don't matter.

So what if they would have won last year? And so what if they traded Kluber? And so what if they... You know, what what does that matter? What does it matter if the Browns were were incredible or not so incredible and they're definitely not so incredible.

So, I mean, what does it matter if LeBron's with the Cavaliers? We used to call them the cadavers, you know? And because they were a bunch of stiffs and and I I I remember, you know, we did a a basketball clinic with the Cavaliers. Walt Leslie and Jerry Egan and all this guy, these guys. I just, I mean, I look at this and I say to myself, I'm I'm...

Unbelievable. That's before the three. I would have scored so many points at unbelievable. I mean, would have been because I was a shooting guard at six five, you know. A shooting guard in college and I would have been like, woah, this guy's good.

You know, if we had the three. It's all gone. It's all gone. Beauty fades. You get...

You shrink. I've heard that. You shrink. When you get older, if you get older, these kinds of things. Why not make a wise decision in our lives right now to yield everything to the one who purchased our salvation forever.

20:45 I am a debtor to all people

Debtor, I owe, you owe. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Well, that's all the time. That's all the time. So Barb is such a good good woman and a good solid Christian sister, you know.

She got me, may I ask you a question with little ornaments on it. This is a great piece of literature. People take this. Merry Christmas. Oh, thank you.

We did this at the restaurant. Thank you. Thank you. This is life for people. Not so not so smart people and really smart people.

I don't know and I don't care. Here, this is good news for you. This is the most sensitive time of the year for people to receive something like this. This is... I mean they will receive it this time of the year whereas in July they might go, forget it, I don't want that stuff.

What is that? You know that kind of... But not this time of the year, I don't care what the TV guys are saying. And I'm going to say, you know I find out people are really, they get really ticked. When they are forced to say Happy Holidays, you know what they say?

Merry Christmas. You can see it in their eyes, you know? You know? You have to say Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas.

In your face. Well, what is the meaning of Christmas? We're so secularized now, people don't know that. Meaning of Christmas is Black Friday. Meaning of Christmas is sales.

Meaning of Christmas. What is Christmas? And so we have this incredible weird debtor. We owe those people that we that we rub shoulders with. You don't even know them personally, but you owe them.

I owe them. And so he... This is what he says, I'm a debtor and and debtor to the lord, debtor to the lost. And this is, you know, both to the wise and to the unwise. I'm to the smart people, to the not so smart, to the Jew, to the Gentile, doesn't matter who they are.

If they are breathing, I owe them. And what do I owe them? What do I owe them? If we're debtors, am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the... You're right?

I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. Paul, my dear friend Paul, what do you owe them? The gospel. The good news. You own that.

You know, it's really weird. I was talking to a dear brother the other day and he was telling me of a guy who is saying, we don't go to the unbelievers with the gospel. We go to the non born again believers. I said, what? He says, yeah, the unbelieving believers.

I'm try... I'm still trying to figure that one out. Yeah, we don't go to the lost, we go to the unbelieving believers or the non born again believers. Does that make any sense at all? No.

No. But see, it does to that guy and that's how satanic that is. Because satan doesn't want you to tell people about Jesus Christ. His demons don't want you to tell people about Jesus Christ so he's going to distract you, he's going to get you weird, he's going to have you thinking about other things and all these kind of stuff. That's exactly what he's going to do.

He's going to try to distract you from giving out what is the most important thing on the planet. You know my buddy Gorman, yeah, you know John. Yeah. You know John. The guy was a blue chipper.

The guy was an incredible athlete. He got saved February 1971. I got saved in March, but he tried to tell me about Christ. I blew him off. He hitchhiked all the way from the University of Louisville where he played flanker back for them.

And he hitchhiked all the way after he trusted Christ, had to... He hitchhiked eight hours just to tell me about Christ and I blew him off. I thought he played too many games without a helmet. You know, I'm thinking, what is wrong with you? You know, I'm okay, you know, and then it took a Protestant to tell me.

So, it's a gruesome twosome god to me about the the with the gospel. You know, and I just thought, wow, this is fantastic. When I heard the gospel from a Methodist who told me the straight up biblical gospel, I wanted it. I wanted because I was being sold a bill of goods that you didn't, you couldn't get it. You had to work for it and you still wouldn't know if you had it or not.

What? You mean you can have it and it's free and you can have your sins forgiven? Are you kidding me? You don't have to work not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us. What?

For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of god, not of works, lest any man should boast. You serious? Yes, right here. That's fantastic.

You don't have to work for it. Nope. No work for it. Just receive it. But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become a child of God.

That is all you got to do? Mhmm. My friend Gorman told me this years later. He said, what could be more important? What could be more important for...

Except for one human being telling another human being how to get to heaven? What could be more important than that? I am debtor, both to the Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. And then I like this. I like this one.

Where's your brother? He's in the Sunday school? Oh, he's up there. Are you up there? Wave.

Okay. Is it... The basketball player? He's up there? I don't know where he at.

Oh, that's amazing. Like... Oh, there you are. No, that's not him. Hiding by...

There you are. There you go. Alright. Okay, bro. Let's talk a little bit.

29:01 Basketball power moves and Christian witness

Yeah. Yeah. And what do you do? You go in a straight line?

Yeah,

you don't go around somebody and do a fade away. You go straight up and let them take the charge. I say to myself, if they're going to take a charge, I'm going to help them. You know, knees, elbows, body going right through. Let them take the charge, know.

And they're not going to do it again. After after I hit them, you know. Let them take the charge, hard charging, going in there, you know, desperately going in there. So, and so what you do is and and they teach you power moves, bro. You sat down.

Stand stand back up. They teach you power moves?

Yeah.

Okay. So a power move, it goes like this. You get the ball, you're underneath the basket and you go up as hard as you can and you clean like this, you clean their hands out like this and then shoot the ball. You got to be strong to do that. You know, you really got to be...

You got to... You know, and usually they get the foul and you get the basket. So it's a it's a win win situation for you, not for them. They get the foul. Right?

It takes everything you got to do that. It is. It's very concentrated effort. I mean, it's everything. I...

Sometimes I had these monster guys, six eleven, you know, and I'm going and up like that and get the foul because they made me eat the basketball. You know? And... But I got the foul. You know what I mean?

When you go up, as as much as in me is. As much as in me is, can we say in terms of our Christian life, in terms of our Christian witness. So as much as in me is, It's not it's just not and I love that when when Paul writes to Timothy, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season. He says, pray be instant. I I like that the King James says instant.

The the new Schofield reference 67 edition updates the word to diligent but I like both of em. I like both words. Be instant. In other words, you're fast to do this and it's instantaneous and diligent. You're consistently doing it.

You're diligent in doing it. I love Pacific Garden Mission, the second oldest rescue mission in The United States. It's in Chicago. That's where they got unshackled, The radio program. Okay?

I think there's still a plan. Oh, okay. So, I love that. I just love them when they do that and I mean, very famous people got saved there. Billy Sunday got saved there, etc.

And some of these great evangelists, etc. Right? You know what their motto is? I love this. I wish I thought about it.

Before them and copyrighted it and then sent them a letter if they used it. Okay, so from a lawyer, you know, don't use this one. Their motto is this, everlastingly at it. So as much as in me is diligent instant and continually doing it. You're ready to go all the time.

So as much as in me is, what is in me? What is in me to do this? I mean, you take an athlete, they're running, or playing rugby, or they're playing basketball, they're giving everything. I used to, hey, bro. I used to have, you don't have to stand for this but even he got down.

But I used to think to myself that if I left any... If I didn't leave, if I had... I had to leave it all on the court, all my physicality. I had to leave it all on the court. I had to be exhausted when I got done or I did not do the job.

As much as in me is, I am not doing the job if I am not constantly everlastingly at it. In terms of sharing my faith. Why? Why wouldn't I do this? This is the most important, the greatest thing anybody could ever hear or anybody could ever say and I don't say it and they don't hear it because I didn't say it.

34:05 What an awful thing for a person to go to hell

They got the disease? We had the disease? It's just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread? We've got we've got it all. All we got to do is tell it.

We're not making them believe, but all we got to do is tell it and they can believe. Don't you think that that's... I mean, that's an inequity. I don't even know what that means. That sounds like some kind of financial thing.

Don't you think that that's wrong? Don't you think that that's not a correct way of living our lives? He was deliberate. He was debtor and he was deliberate. In fact, you have to say about Paul when you read his life in the New Testament, when you read just his life in the New Testament, and you get some of the background of how focused this guy was, you have to say to yourself, this guy had nothing else to do but that.

Nothing else to do but that. In fact, it translated years later, years and years and years, centuries later, when a guy a guy about this tall, he received Christ as his savior. Not even, he wasn't even aboard a ship, but the ship transit from Georgia to England really made a huge difference in his life because they were about to go down because of a storm And he heard these guys singing on the deck. They were singing hymns and he's going, what in the world? This guy was a failed missionary to Georgia from England.

And the reason why he was failed is because he didn't know the person of which he was trying to serve. He didn't know him. And so, he gets on there and he hears these guys singing. In the midst of this incredible storm, he's fearing for his life. They pull into port and the main head guy, his name was Peter, came and talked to him about it and John Wesley trusted Jesus.

He later said to people who were trying to be discipled by him, he said, you only have one thing to do in life. You only have one thing to do in life. This is what John Wesley said, and that's to win souls. That's your only job. You only have one thing to do in life, and that's to win souls.

So John Wesley told these, you think about it, what could be more important than this? You know, we we we get so distracted with all the other trappings and all the other things, but isn't this the most simplest thing going? And you don't even have to be good at it. Because one of the things about it is that the spirit of God takes his word and drives it into their hearts. That's what you want.

You don't want to be like super polished and unbelievable and incredible and all that kind of stuff of what we think evangelism should be like. Well, yeah, we want to grow and we want to know and we want to improve and all that kind of stuff. We want to do this. No questions about it. For what reason?

Not to be cool and not to be great, but to be effective in telling somebody about Jesus. So it is the most wonderful time of the year. 364, three hundred and sixty five and a quarter, twenty fourseven. That's what it is. It's the most wonderful time of the year.

We could sing this in July. We can sing this in June. Just name the twelve months and all the days in that. In those months and then he was dedicated. He said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

39:01 Not ashamed of the gospel of Christ

You're touching all the bases. You got Zeus. You got Poseidon. You got all these gods, right? And the major guys and then you got your own personal gods and then you've got one in case you missed one.

Who knows who that one is to the unknown god? I'm going to tell you about this one you don't know. He is both Lord and Christ. He is the savior of the world and there is no other. There is no other.

Christians are not pluralistic. And we're not very tolerant. We're not. We're not pluralistic. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the father but by me. It's not everybody else plus Jesus. It's Jesus only. And he's the only one who qualifies. Dedicated.

I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ For it is the power of god unto salvation. To everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For it is the righteousness of god revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. You say, Chris, I can't do this. You're in a great position.

If you can't do it, praise god. Let god do it through you. The just shall live by faith. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Right?

Hey, I'm doing this with shaking hands. And I get it upside down and in the Hebrew. And I'm shaking like this, some good news for you today. That person is going to go, you're going to be surprised, they're going to go, Thank you. What?

You didn't kill me? I'm still breathing? Thank you. Thank you very much. Even if it doesn't...

Even if they don't thank you and they turn you into the authorities and the authorities arrest you, and you go to a North Korean prison for a long time and people working on your behalf to get you out of it. That happened to a guy who actually passed a track in North Korea and we prayed like crazy for that guy to get out. And the Lord opened up political doors for him to be released, but it was some time. I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Why?

It's the only thing. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So we're debtors. We owe. We should be deliberate.

43:10 We owe them and must be dedicated

Don't you get annoyed with somebody who is just like one tracked? All they do is one tracked. They're one tracked mine. I don't want to be annoying to people. But I'm going to risk it.

Because this is the one track that saves people forever and ever and ever. And there is no other way out. That's why this is the most wonderful time of the year. Because we celebrate his birth and his death and his physical resurrection. And we celebrate him because we love him because he first loved us.

So this is why we do what we do. At great cost sometimes. Isn't he worth it? What's that saying? Only

one life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last.

Father, we ask you that you would help us to see this Help us to be dedicated to this. Help us not to be afraid Help us to be more afraid of failing you than being afraid of people. Help us to see the real issues that are before human beings. Without your son, it is over. It's the most wonderful time of the year because we're saved because of him.

Saved from a Christless eternity in the lake of fire. Saved. Thank you. Help us to communicate this to everybody we see. No matter what they look like, no matter how many tattoos are on their body, and how many earrings they got.

No, doesn't matter what they look like. Doesn't matter to everybody. We ask these things. Help us. And we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. Thank you.

It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year — Romans 1

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It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year — Romans 1

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