Beautiful Feet

Notes
Transcript
Intro; There is an old saying that, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Every person sees things through different lens of perspective. Things that are beautiful to some might not be as beautiful to others.
I love to see the sunrise because it’s a newly painted picture by the hand of God, while others may see it as just another day of having to go to work.
Some see a sunset as a beautiful scene [beach, mountains, front porch] whereas another might just see it as finally the end of the work day and it’s time for supper.
I see rodeo/cowboy life as beautiful. It is a part of who I am, my past and hope for the future for family/young people to grow in a wholesome lifestyle, whereas many see it as a bunch of animals that smell bad.
But most everyone can find beauty in others as they look at their hair, eyes, smile or personality.
But who finds beauty in feet? I don’t know many men who ever said, “I’m gonna marry that girl because she has the most beautiful feet I’ve ever seen!”
Beautiful Feet belong to those who have an Exclusive Relationship with Christ because those feet are shod with the gospel of peace that bring hope to a lost world!
So let’s look at how “Beautiful our Feet” are this morning!
Text; Rom. 10:13-15
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
Prayer
The Book of Romans is Paul’s greatest work under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In this letter Paul explains that the good news of Jesus Christ is more than facts to be believed; it is a life to be lived- a life being “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” [3:24]. Paul shares that though Jesus Christ came to the Jew first, His salvation is for a all!
1. The Gospel Is For Whoever; 13
1. The Gospel Is For Whoever; 13
Whoever- perchance, if ever, whenever one calls on the Lord
Jesus makes no distinction of who can be saved, just how and when they are saved!
John 14:6 (NKJV)
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
[v.12] Paul says that it doesn’t make a difference of your background, your race, culture you live in, your status in society or lack thereof, your age, how beautiful you seem to some or how ugly we may be. If you are a “whoever” you can be saved!
Today is “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday”. The phrase reflects the belief that, because people are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26–27), human life has an inherently sacred value and should be protected and respected at all times. President Ronald Reagan established Sanctity of Human Life Day in 1984 to bring awareness to the attacks on human life that occur through the abortion industry.
But all life is valuable to Jesus.
Paul was a persecutor/murderer but his life was valuable.
The woman caught in adultery, her life is valuable
Rahab the harlot, her life was valuable
The woman who is contemplating abortion, her life and the life of the unborn child is valuable to God
The woman who has had an abortion, her life is valuable too
Everyone I mentioned is a “whoever”; perchance, if, whenever they will call upon the Lord they can be saved!
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
2 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
The Gospel is for Whoever calls on Jesus in faith!
2. The Gospel Must Be Proclaimed; 14-15a
2. The Gospel Must Be Proclaimed; 14-15a
These verses are so important for Jesus to become real to a person. Paul asks four rhetorical questions that we need to address in our lives this morning.
How can someone call on Jesus to save them unless they believe in Him? They won’t! Nobody is going to trust their life to somebody or something unless they truly believe in it. [Ills. Flying on a plane/747 loaded weighs 440tons/970,000 lbs]
No person is going to call upon the Lord to save them, nor is any person going to surrender and dedicate all he is and has to the Lord, unless he truly believes in the Lord.
And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? They won’t. [Ills. Nobody is going to fly unless flying has been proven to them. People who fly tell of their experience, pilot reassures them].
A person cannot believe that Jesus came to earth and died for their sin and rose again the third day that they can have eternal life unless they are told about Him by someone who knows Him. No one is born with that knowledge.
And how can they hear about Jesus unless someone tells them? They can’t. A message needs a messenger. And the message of salvation can only be told by those who have experienced salvation in Jesus Christ.
Just like only a person who has flown on a plane can tell someone about the experience of flying.
And how will anyone go and tell them [preach] without being sent? The word preach means to proclaim that which one knows. Christians are sent by Jesus to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to the world.
Mark 16:15 (NKJV)
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
John 15:16 (NKJV)
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
The Gospel is for Whoever, but Whoever needs to hear the Gospel and that is our joy and privilege to carry that message because of that exclusive relationship we have in Christ!
3. The Gospel Has Beautiful Feet; 15b
3. The Gospel Has Beautiful Feet; 15b
Beautiful Feet belong to those who Get Involved in spreading the Gospel!
The Gospel is a message of Peace; peace is not the absence of conflict but a calm and confidence in the midst of it. Here Paul uses the word “peace” as the word “justified”
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
[Sanctity of Human Life Sunday] A woman who has had an abortion no doubt will have conflict in her life for the decision she made and from people who know she had an abortion. But that woman who had an abortion, that hears the Gospel and places her faith in Christ, has been justified by faith, she will have a inner peace with God knowing she has been forgiven of her sin in Christ. And that peace will carry her through the storms of life till they are completely calmed in Jesus Christ!
The Gospel is a message of “glad tidings of good things”; the Gospel is a message of hope
John 3:16–17 (NKJV)
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 10:9–10 (NKJV)
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The feet of the preacher/messenger/witness of Christ are beautiful; they are a welcome sight to the world. Why? The world desperately needs the message of hope, peace and the glad tidings of good things. And His name is Jesus!
Close;
If I’m honest, some of us here today has a face that only a mother could love. But remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It doesn’t matter what we look like on the outside, because we all have scars in our life, but what matters is “Who” we have on the inside that makes the difference!
God looks at the heart to determine beauty. And when He looks at our heart and sees the reflection of His Son Jesus Christ, then we are beautiful to Him and that’s all that matters.
The person that has a beautiful heart also has beautiful feet because they have hope that we can carry to others!
How beautiful are your feet?
What are you doing with those beautiful feet?