Tim reported, “bigger crowd today passed out many tracks preached the gospel for about 2 hours lots of positive feedback.”
See more here: https://www.facebook.com/100012845910515/videos/pcb.1049438972160957/1049438862160968/ https://www.facebook.com/100012845910515/videos/1049442168827304/
Below is an intro video with links to two reports below the video.
Click below to see the live reports from 10/23:
https://twitter.com/SportsFanOutrea/status/1319780430988660736?s=20 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=392884152087100
Above: a young man who is a new Christian heard Mark preaching and came to listen. Mark and he had a good conversation about the importance of reading the Bible; getting discipled, etc.
See team members’ reports from the weekend long outreach event below:
Bill Adams 10/23: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1059888794470491
St Pete Grand Prixđđpray for souls to hear and believe the Gospelđ pic.twitter.com/dCM4orFAeL
— Sports Fan Outreach International (@SportsFanOutrea) October 23, 2020
Mark welcoming fans 10/24: https://twitter.com/SportsFanOutrea/status/1319977108127494144?s=20
Bill Adams 10/24: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=682085602683302
Praise the Lord for a fruitful day in St Pete for the Grand Prix. Warren preaching as the day comes to a close…#JesusIsLord #SFOI1000 #GreatCommission #openairpreaching pic.twitter.com/s3FjY13KTk
— Sports Fan Outreach International (@SportsFanOutrea) October 24, 2020
Warren preaching 10/25: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=712672509341089 https://twitter.com/SportsFanOutrea/status/1320401145651695618?s=20
Grace Alone, Faith Alone
The great principle of the Protestant Reformation is salvation by grace alone through faith alone. This principle comes through loud and clear in Isaiah 1:27 in the Old Testament of the Bible. âZion will be redeemed with justice, and her repentant ones with righteousnessâ (Isaiah 1:27).
In the Old Testament Zion is a picture of the New Testament church. Hebrews 12:22-23 teaches us this truth. When someone redeems a slave, they pay a price for that servant. Justice refers to the just payment for evil. Justice demands recompense be made for evil acts. Righteousness refers to the requirement for heaven. Leviticus 18:5 says, âSo you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord.â To live is to have eternal life. The requirement for eternal life in heaven is perfection. But no one is perfect except One, Jesus Christ.
Since Jesus Christ died to pay for the sins of those who believe in Him, justice is served. Since Jesus Christ also lived a perfect life on behalf of those who believe in Him, the requirement of righteousness is met. Through Jesus Christ God can âbe just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesusâ (Romans 3:26). This is Godâs grace received through faith. We celebrate this Reformation principle on October 31.
Listen to todayâs podcast, âChrist Justifies the Ungodly.â
Times of Temptation
When is the Christian most liable to sleep? Is it not when his temporal circumstances are prosperous? Have you not found it so? When you had daily troubles to take to the throne of grace, were you not more awake than you are now? Easy roads make sleepy travelers. Another dangerous time is when all goes pleasantly in spiritual matters. A Christian did not fall asleep when lions were in the way or when he was wading through the river or when fighting with Apollyon. But when he had climbed halfway up the Hill Difficulty and came to a delightful spot, he sat down and promptly fell asleep, to his great sorrow and loss.
The enchanted ground is a place of balmy breezes, filled with fragrant odors and soft influences, all of which tend to lull pilgrims to sleep. Remember Bunyan’s description: âThen they came to an arbor, warm, and promising much refreshing to the weary pilgrims; for it was finely wrought above head, beautified with greens, and furnished with benches and settees. It also had in it a soft couch, where the weary might lean.â âThe arbor was called the Slothful’s Friend, and was made on purpose to attract, if it might, some of the pilgrims to take their rest there when weary.â
Depend upon itâit is in easy places that men shut their eyes and wander into the dreamy land of forgetfulness. Old Erskine wisely remarked, âI like a roaring devil better than a sleeping devil.â There is no temptation half so dangerous as not being tempted. The distressed soul does not sleep; it is after we enter into peaceful confidence and full assurance that we are in danger of slumbering. The disciples fell asleep after they had seen Jesus transfigured on the mountaintop. Take heed, joyful Christian, easy days are close neighbors to temptations: Be as happy as you willâonly be watchful!
Christian Freedom and Out Righteousness
No matter what he tried, he couldnât do it. Whether it was fasting, praying, confessing, self-flagellating – nothing seemed to help. He just couldnât attain the righteousness of God on his own. Instead of feeling closer to God, it seemed like he kept getting further away. Even worse, it almost felt like God had become his enemy.
As a monk in the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt, Martin Luther zealously sought the righteousness of God. âIf ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery, it was Iâ (Roland Bainton, Here I Stand, 26). He would later realize that the righteousness of God is not something that man must strive to attain, but a gift that is to be received. God had already brought down to him what he was trying so hard to reach up and grasp.
When Luther finally came to the end of himself, he found Christâs righteousness right there waiting for him. When he turned to his mentor Johann von Staupitz for counsel on the matter, he was told to cling to Christ and recite the verse from Psalm 119, âI am yours Lord, save me.â
When God made a promise to Abraham in Genesis 15 that he would have a son, Moses wrote that âAbraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.â What did Abraham have? He didnât seem to have much of anything. He was an old man married to a barren woman. He was a wandering Aramean from the pagan land of Ur. He didnât have a house, a land, a church, or a Bible. All he had was Godâs promise. It doesnât seem like much, but as it turns out, it was more than enough. In fact, it was more than he would ever need.
Both the Old and New Testaments reveal to us that God saves his people by grace through faith in his promise. The Old Testament saints were saved as they looked forward in faith and believed in the promise of the coming Messiah. New Testament believers are saved by faith as we look back and believe in the Messiah who has come. God declares a person righteous in his sight by faith in his Son, or as Luther put it, a simple âtrust of the heart.â (Large Catechism, First Comm.) We receive that faith by the power of the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, the word and the Sacraments (Holy Baptism and the Lordâs Supper).
The two most important things to God in the Old Testament, justice and righteousness, are fulfilled in the person and work of his son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world. By the passive righteousness of his sacrificial death on the cross for us, we are justified, forgiven, and set free. And by the active righteousness of his holy life in our place, we are given his purity and holiness as a royal robe of righteousness to stand blameless before God the Father in heaven.
Is it any wonder that when Luther discovered this stunning truth as he studied the book of Romans in the cloister tower, that he felt as if the gates of heaven had finally been opened to him?
We now stand holy and blameless before our Heavenly Father as his own dear children, and we are set free to serve our neighbor in love.
I meditated night and day on those words until at last, by the mercy of God, I paid attention to their context: âThe righteousness of God is revealed in it, as it is written: âThe righteous person lives by faith.ââ I began to understand that in this verse the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous person lives by a gift of God, that is by faith. I began to understand that this verse means that the righteousness of God is revealed through the Gospel, but it is a passive righteousness, i.e. that by which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: âThe righteous person lives by faith.â All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into the gates of paradise itself. Immediately I saw the whole of Scripture in a different light. I ran through the Scriptures from memory and found that other terms had similar meanings; the work of God, that is, what God works in us; the power of God, by which he makes us powerful; the wisdom of God, by which he makes us wise; the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God. I exalted this sweetest word, âthe righteousness of God,â with as much love as before I had hated it with hate. This phrase of Paul was for me the very gate of paradise (Lutherâs Works Volume 34, 337).
The gates of paradise are opened up to us today as well. By our baptism and belief in Jesus, through his dying on the cross and rising from the grave, we are now offered free forgiveness and full salvation by our gracious God. We not only experience Godâs tender mercy by not getting what we truly deserve (death and hell), we are also the recipients of his amazing grace by getting the riches that we donât deserve (eternal life, heaven).
Our debt of sin and guilt is fully paid for on behalf of Christ, and our account is actually credited with his perfect righteousness. His purity, piety, and perfection become our own. We now stand holy and blameless before our Heavenly Father as his own dear children, and we are set free to serve our neighbor in love. Luther writes in his explanation of the Third Article of the Creed, âthat I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.â
âI am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, as it is written: âThe righteous will live by faithâ (Rom 1:16-17).
âIf the Son set you free, you will be free indeedâ (John 8:36).
From: https://www.1517.org/articles/christian-freedom-and-our-righteousness
Blessed are the Pure in Heart in a Troubled World
In his book, The Big Ego Trip, Glynn Harrison, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, University of Bristol, UK, writes of the way the self-esteem ideology has led to a culture of narcissism and entitlement. Dr. Harrison observes, âOn almost any measure you care to mention â precision of terminology, evidence of beneficial effect, potential for harm, philosophical integrity â self-esteem ideology promised big, but delivered small. Itâs time to turn back and set out on a different pathâŚâ (p.130).
He continues: ââŚI believe the Christian worldview provides the coherent narrative that we long forâ (p.130f).
Why would an eminent professor of psychiatry suggest this? What does Christianity offer?
Genesis. Itâs said today that in order to live life to the full we need first to learn to love and forgive ourselves. But the Bible sees things very differently as we learn from Genesis 1.
Confusion exists over Genesis because, influenced by a culture of science, we ask the wrong question. Genesis is not interested in the how of creation. It is concerned with the who and the what. The Bible narrative begins by telling us that God created all things and that everything has its origin and meaning in him.
Image-bearers. Furthermore, we learn that God created men and women in his image (1:26ff). We are the glory of his work. And unlike other ancient creation accounts, weâre not a final emanation, created to serve the needs of the god(s). Rather, God has ordered everything in such a way that, under him, we have the responsibility and joy of overseeing his creation. As C.S. Lewis put it in his Narnia series, we are royalty. As rulers under God, we are expected to learn from him, to trust him and to find our meaning and purpose in him.
However, as Genesis unfolds, we learn that the glorious hopes for humanity are dashed. In chapter 3 tragedy enters the scene of perfection and peace. Failing to follow Godâs command, men and women succumb to the temptations to be independent of God, to indulge their appetites, and to see themselves as gods. The innocent joy in their relationships with God and with one another is shattered. Tainted now by self-interest, we have a strange capacity for both good and evil. If weâre honest, we know we deserve to be judged. The dread shadow of death now hovers over us all.
But there is a ray of hope. Genesis chapter 3 holds out a clue, indicating that hopelessness and death need not be the end of our story.
Many centuries later, a remarkable birth occurred. It is recorded by two witnesses â Matthew, a Jewish tax-collector, and Luke, a non-Jewish physician. Astonishing though it is, both reveal that with the birth of Jesus, divinity came amongst us. The names the baby was given are significant: Jesus means God saves, and Emmanuel means God with us. Jewish and Roman historians of the time reference Jesus but it is Matthew, Mark, Luke and John who fill out the details.
Jesusâ public ministry focuses on the kingdom, or the rule of God. Jesus is unique in history â in the purity and integrity of his life, the power of his words, his compassion for the needy, and in his unexpected capitulation to the deceit of the Jewish authorities and the power of Rome. Yet, it was through his death and resurrection that Jesus the Messiah opened the door to life in all its fullness for anyone who turns to him in repentance and in faith.
This is the Jesus whose counter-intuitive Sermon on the Mount includes the Beatitudes that we are considering in this podcast series.
The sixth Beatitude reads: âBlessed are the pure in heart for they will see Godâ (Mt 5:8).
Throughout the Bible the heart speaks of who we are.
Purity of heart is something God has always expected of his people. In Psalm 24, King David asks, Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? To which he had answered: Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfullyâŚ
God, the maker of heaven and earth is holy. Indeed, when Isaiah, one of the great prophets saw a vision of the heavenly throne room, he exclaimed, not âWowâ, but rather, âWoe is me, ⌠for I am a man of unclean lipsâ (Isaiah 6:5). And the prophet Jeremiah chillingly speaks of the human heart as being deceitful ⌠and desperately wicked⌠(Jeremiah 17:9).
And Jesus concurs: â⌠It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a personâ (Mark 7:21-23).
How then can anyone be pure in heart?
Itâs important to read Jesusâ words in the context of all the Beatitudes. Purity of heart is not a work nor a legalistic piety that will open the door into Godâs presence. Rather, in the flow of the Beatitudes, we are blessed when we are aware of our spiritual bankruptcy and our need for salvation (Mt 5:3), when we weep over our sin and the sins of the world (Mt 5:4), and when we hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt 5:6).
Purity of heart is the outworking of the salvation that Christ alone has achieved for us. The Letter to the Hebrews says to believers: Make every effort⌠to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).
God now expects the hearts of his people to be pure. Ask yourself, âWhat it is that I think about when we put away my phone? Do I let my mind linger on images that have tempted me? What dominates my private thoughts? To what extent is my true inner self expressed in my words and actions?â
Furthermore, how do I view myself? Where do I look for meaning and purpose? Do I crave self-esteem through self-help mantras or the praise of others? Or do I thank the Lord because he has adopted me as his son or daughter? Do I now pray for his grace to live with a pure heart taught by his Word?
While seeing God in all his glory is in the future for us, we can experience something of it now. For as we see and delight in the rightness of his ways, so our hearts will be drawn into a deeper love for him. To know God is to have his Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus within us, the Spirit who assures us that we can call God, Abba, Father. No wonder Glynn Harrison wrote that the Christian worldview provides the coherent narrative that we long for.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
From: https://anglicanconnection.com/blessed-are-the-pure-in-heart-in-a-troubled-world/
Join David Doerman and his team in heralding the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ at the Cincinnati Bengals home football games this 2020 season.
Join David Robert and his team in heralding the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ at the New Orleans Saints home football games this 2020 season. Contact David: graceandtruthevangelism@gmail.com or (601) 590-1990.
Join James Dellastatious and his team in heralding the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ at the Washington Football Team home football games this 2020 season.
SFOI ARCHIVE