Beautiful Feet

What’s something that you’ve received or been gifted in your life that you felt like everyone in the world needed to know about?

Sometimes it’s a gift we get that has rocked our world or maybe it’s a new phone and we need those contacts back. Maybe it's the new girlfriend or boyfriend we want to share with the world. Or maybe, it’s that awesome life update that everyone needs to know. One of the reasons we are on social media is to share and to celebrate one another.

Chances are that at some point in the past two weeks, we shared our Halloween costume or what we did for Halloween and in the next three weeks, we’ll share how thankful we are for something or maybe that turkey dinner. There’s no problem with sharing these moments in our life, we get excited by sharing things we love.

Many of us have made a decision to love Jesus as well, but sometimes we get to a place where while we might say we love Jesus, we don’t really talk about that. But what if we did? What if we understood what it means to be fully in love with Jesus that we wanted to share him with everyone. This morning, we are going to talk about what it means to have beautiful feet and to go and talk about the love of Jesus.

We are going to pick up in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome, he wrote Romans to unite the Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome in the gospel. He also wanted the church in Rome to become the base of operations from which he could proclaim the gospel in Spain.

Join me in Romans 10:9-15

Romans 10:9–15 ESV

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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 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. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 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? 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!”

Saving Grace through Christ

It’s as clear as day, Romans 10:9-10 say that those who confess with their mouth and believe in their heart will be saved.

Our heart:

Paul shares here that the process of salvation involves both our hearts and our head. Here Paul is sharing that the Gospel should not just be something we confess but it should first and foremost transform our heart. When we accept the grace of God through the cross of Christ, we should be radically transformed. Now, this is a process that happens throughout our life. When we commit to following Jesus, we are placing our faith and trust in the death and resurrection that Jesus had.

Our head:

Faith in Jesus means that we understand, in our mind, that we are new creations and that Jesus loved each of us so much that He took the cross to make us clean. How incredible is that, we have a brand new start when we come to Jesus Christ for the first time. This change is available to the whole world and is only available through the grace of God. Paul is saying here that we have salvation through our faith alone because of the grace of God alone in Christ alone. It is only through Jesus that we can be saved. We must be willing to share that news with everyone.

Salvation for all who call

Paul makes it clear here that regardless of culture, ethnic or location, the saving grace of God is for anyone who calls on him. He strategically quotes Joel 2:32.

Joel 2:32 ESV

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Why is this strategic? Well he shows that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy here by offering salvation to the ends of the earth. The Gospel has no limits on who it can reach and who it can save. Paul is making that clear here and if we’ve made the decision to follow Christ, we have the responsibility of taking the same salvation we confessed to the ends of earth. And it start where you are right now.

Sent to Share the Good News

Romans 10:14-15 and are my favorite verses in the Bible. Paul reminds us that we must go and share the Gospel but he does so in a challenging way. He really asks the question, if not you than who. I’m here to tell you this right now,we have to take the step to share Jesus. We cannot wait for people to come to us. Theres a .05% chance they will. 99.95% of the time, if we don’t go to them, they won’t hear the good news of Jesus.

We have to be the one to initiate conversation and make it happen. It’s our action that helps others know Jesus. We need to be active in sharing Jesus, in all things, the brand that we wear that is most important is the one of Christ.

Paul goes on to call feet beautiful l and I don’t know about you, but feet are not what I would consider beautiful. In Paul’s day, they would be even more disgusting. Covered in dirt, mud and horse poop, walking everywhere in sandals…not fun. But yet Paul calls them beautiful, why? They bring good news.

Wrap - Up

So what’s stopping us? Why do we not want to share the Gospel? We have the greatest gift of all and we don’t want to share about it. Frankly, it’s not an option, it’s a mission. Your mission as given by your Savior is to share His love and grace so that others may live. When Jesus calls us to put others first, this is apart of that. Often times we don’t share the Gospel because we are scared. We are scared of rejection, scared of not being in the cool group. You have a great opportunity to reach your friends with the Gospel and remember this,

The gospel works, and it addresses what doesn’t work. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Through the gospel, God forgives, heals, fills you with love and power, sets you free, and enables you to live an altogether different life. You know this if you believe the gospel, because if you believe it, you know how well it works. The gospel of Jesus Christ changes you. And when it changes you, you talk about it.

You have two challenges today as we wrap-up, have you been changed by the Gospel? If not today is your day to make that decision. Second, if you have made a decision to trust in Jesus, have you been changed by the Gospel enough that you want to talk about? If not, let’s think about what that means to be.