I Long to Preach the Gospel to You

An epidemic has shaken relationships and lives alike, and a season drags on in which people cannot freely come to worship. Here, the sermon says, Christians must look honestly at themselves and ask whether they were ever truly people who felt their need of Christ and the gospel.

Paul was well aware that the believers in Rome already had faith, yet he earnestly longed to preach the gospel to them. Once people have attended church for many years and assume they already understand, their hearts grow hard and grace slips away. The gospel is a word that such people need to hear for themselves first, even before the world does.

Like Paul, who was not ashamed of the gospel, the faithful must live by their faith in Christ. Receiving Christ by believing, and seeing that faith grow until it shows in one’s life, are both part of the process of salvation. The sermon urges them to hold fast to an enduring faith that looks not to people or circumstances but to God alone.