Recognizing the Beauty of the Gospel
Tom Shrader works through 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 as part of a larger section beginning in chapter 1, showing that Paul deliberately set aside persuasive rhetoric and came to Corinth in weakness and reverent fear, trusting the Spirit rather than human wisdom. The power to save souls belongs entirely to God and is released through the simple proclamation of Christ crucified, not through clever debate or emotional theatrics. Shrader applies this directly to the congregation, calling every member to be a witness in homes, workplaces, and neighborhoods to a world that is desperately searching for something worth living for.
“The power that is in the gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher — otherwise, men would be converters of souls — nor does it lie in the preacher's learning — otherwise, it would consist of the wisdom of men.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 1 Corinthians
Recorded: 2001 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 38 min
Themes: evangelism, gospel, weakness, humility, witnessing, holy spirit, fear of god, sharing faith, afraid to share faith, feeling inadequate, new believer, workplace witness, neighbor outreach, struggling with self-reliance, young adult, everyday believer
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:17, 1 Corinthians 1:27, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 1 Corinthians 5:1, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 2 Timothy 4:2-3, Philippians 2:12-13, Acts 18:9, Acts 20, John 9, Colossians 1
Theological Themes: proclamation, kerygma, christ crucified, pneumatology, power of the spirit, soteriology, divine sovereignty in salvation, human wisdom vs god's wisdom
Full Transcript
Background on the Church at Corinth
Turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. It has been a while since we have been in this letter that Paul writes to the church at Corinth. Let me remind you of a little background information. Paul writes to the church at Corinth, a church that he had established during his second missionary journey. He was there about a year and a half, and he is now in Ephesus writing back to them.
It is an interesting city, Corinth, in that it has two very distinct histories. During the golden age of Greece, Corinth and Athens and many of those cities were marvelous cities. Corinth was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC and rebuilt in 44 BC, roughly a hundred years later. It was rebuilt for two reasons: it had a strategic location, and Rome had within it many freed slaves whom they would frequently send out to populate new areas or outposts.
Corinth was strategic in its location. Moving from Asia westward into Greece and on toward Rome, travelers inevitably came to Corinth. You could bypass Corinth by sailing around the southern tip of Greece, but that was a dangerous trip of about 250 miles that took a great deal of time. In fact, one author writes that a sailor would never take a journey around the Cape until he first wrote out his will.
That strip of land where Corinth sits is an isthmus about four miles wide, so it was much cheaper, much safer, and much more timely to simply unload the ships, move the cargo across land, and then return to the water again. That is what they did. In that strategic location, there developed a metropolitan city — like Los Angeles and New York and Las Vegas all rolled together — a center of business where sailors, entrepreneurs, and financiers all came together in a cosmopolitan area filled with pagan worship.
The Wickedness of Corinth
The people of Corinth were notoriously wicked. Everyone understood that when you said you were from Corinth, you meant you were evil. In fact, when Paul writes to this church in the very letter we are studying, in 1 Corinthians 6:9, he writes to these Christians: "Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers shall inherit the kingdom of God" — and then he adds, "and such were some of you."
This was a terribly wicked city, and it was out of this city that God pulled a remnant — the church. Yet even within that church, corruption had come in. Look at chapter 5, verse 1: "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind that does not even exist among the Gentiles." Not only was the city corrupt, but corruption had come into the church itself. There were those in the church who had been delivered and saved from this wickedness, but there were also those who were still practicing it. That is the backdrop as we enter chapter 2.
Paul's Purpose: Preaching the Cross
When we start today in chapter 2, we are really finishing a section that Paul begins back in chapter 1, verse 17. Here is what he wrote: "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should be made void." Paul said he had a calling on his life — Christ had called him to preach the gospel, and that was his job. But he was to do it in a way that did not overshadow the message, not drawing attention to himself, keeping the focus on the gospel.
Then he says, "For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to those of us who are being saved, it is power." And still in chapter 1, look at verse 27: "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." In this entire section — from chapter 1, verse 17 through chapter 2, verse 5, which we are closing today — Paul is saying, "I came simply to preach the cross of Christ. The gospel is all that I care about, and it is in that where you are going to find real power."
The World's Search for Meaning
Where are people looking for that power? I was at the gym recently, and I had the radio on listening to NPR. They were interviewing a man, and this man said, "This has changed my life. I had never really been exposed to it until four years ago, and I have given my life to it." The interviewer said, "You are considered perhaps the top expert in the world," and the man replied, "I think I am, because I have thrown my life into this."
What was he talking about? Cheese. This man said, "All I ever had was Velveeta, and then I tasted real cheese, and now I am a leading expert in the world in cheese." And then — and this is not a joke, because nobody was laughing — he said, "Cheese transcends us. It is cheese, in many ways, that connects man to God." One of the musicians after the last service said, "This guy needs to meet the big Cheese." But that moment captures just how desperate the world is, because the world is lost.
Recognizing the Beauty of the Gospel
Last night I was flipping through channels and came upon the Hour of Power with Robert Schuller. Here is what Robert Schuller said. He shared his mission statement, and the first word was "helping." He said, "That's a positive word, isn't it — helping?" He then mentioned that after a year in television ministry, he received a letter from Doris Day. In that letter she said she loved watching the show, but that the previous week he had used the word "lost," and she said "lost" is a very negative word.
Robert Schuller said he learned from that letter that he needed to be positive. But to me, "lost" is a positive word. The man wandering without direction needs to hear he is lost. There is a whole world out there that needs to hear they are lost. I cannot imagine anything more loving than telling someone who is lost — and does not know it — that they are indeed lost.
The Gospel Appears Foolish to the Lost
Paul says that when you look at the gospel and you are lost, it may look foolish to you. I will put this on myself: I remember the first time someone shared the gospel with me, and I said, "That is goofy. That doesn't make any sense at all — that's silly." And you know why? It is right there in verse 18. I was lost, so it was foolish to me. But to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God. That is where the power is.
This is really the dilemma between the way man sees things and the way God sees things, and that is what Paul is talking about in this section as he discusses sharing the gospel.
Paul's Deliberate Commitment to the Gospel
First Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1: "When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, I came proclaiming to you the testimony, the truth of God." Paul said this was a deliberate decision. As he was going to the Corinthians, he declared in his own mind that he was not going to get sidetracked with flowery speech, not going to try to out-argue or out-debate anyone — he was simply going to give them the gospel.
I had a meeting not too long ago, and on my way to it I did what I frequently do before meetings. I said to myself: I know this is the man, I know the topic, I know he will probably go down this road. If he says this, guard your reaction, be very careful, don't overreact — then say this, and Tom, be sensitive because that is a key moment, and how he responds there determines where you go. I was very deliberate in how I approached that meeting. That is exactly what Paul described. He was deliberate, and what he deliberately determined to do was not sway anyone with a fancy vocabulary.
This is great news for someone like me. Paul says you do not have to argue anyone into this, you do not have to debate anyone into this, you do not have to be smarter than anyone — all you have to do is share the testimony of God. That is why in this pulpit, as in any pulpit, we have real power when we speak of the testimony of God, and we get into serious trouble when we start talking politics, psychology, economics, and all those other things. He said we proclaim the truth because that is where the power is found.
Preaching the Word in Season and Out of Season
Second Timothy chapter 4 — Paul writes to Timothy, his young protégé, and says: "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires."
Paul said a time would come when people would not want to hear the testimony of God — they would want teachers who simply tickle their ears. You are living in that day.
A Culture That Has Fallen
I was watching C-SPAN Thursday morning before I left to teach, and they were interviewing William Murray. His mother is Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who many know as the principal driving force behind expunging prayer from public schools. The interviewer asked who his father was, and he said he never knew his father. Then, without any prompting, he said that his two brothers also never knew their fathers — they all had different fathers. He said his mother was very promiscuous, and that is really how she turned to atheism. She was not raised that way; she turned to it, and it was really the only path available to her at the time.
Now listen to what he said next — and this was not prompted by the interviewer, this was simply the man speaking. He said, "You know, if my mom were around today, I am certain she could find a church that would love the sinner and embrace the sin." That is how far we have fallen — to the point where standing up and saying "you are lost" and "this is wrong" sounds jarring and distinct.
Directness in Ministry
Many people come to this church from different backgrounds, and sometimes they are taken aback by the very direct approach — not just from this pulpit, but in student ministries as well. We are very deliberate in student ministries. When someone comes in, I can guarantee you — the student ministry staff will confirm this — if not the first question they ask, then certainly the second is: "What social activities do you have for the kids?"
The Singular Focus of the Gospel
Paul said, simply, "I am determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." He came to the city of Corinth with one purpose: to give testimony, to be a witness. John MacArthur explains what that means: a person can only testify to what he himself has seen or heard or experienced. A witness in a courtroom is to report only what he knows objectively, factually, personally. He is not there to speculate or guess or deduce.
Paul was a witness only to God's revelation, not to his own human understanding, reason, or inclinations. God's revelation was everything; human wisdom was nothing. So when we are told we are to be witnesses, the call is straightforward: report what you objectively know as fact, and give testimony to the things you have seen, heard, and experienced.
When you share your faith, when you are a witness for what Christ has done, you are talking about what Jesus has done in your life. John chapter 9 is a great illustration of that. Jesus heals the blind man, and when they bring him out and ask whether Jesus is the Messiah, the man says, "I don't know what He is. All I know is this — I was blind, now I can see." You have the same opportunity to go to your friends, your workplace, your neighbors, and be a witness. What do you share with them? The same thing Paul did: Christ and Christ crucified.
One commentator writes, "To know nothing does not mean that he left all other knowledge aside, but rather that he had the gospel with its crucified Messiah as his singular focus and passion while he was among them." We know that Paul was with the Corinthians a year and a half, and we also know from Acts 20, where he admonishes the elders at Ephesus, that he did not shrink from preaching the whole counsel of God. Paul is not saying that all he ever discussed was Jesus and the crucifixion. What he is saying is that the cross was the focus, and even when he moved on to other topics, it was always in the light of Christ and Christ crucified.
The Gospel Applied to All of Life
Consider the husband and wife relationship. Paul turns to the husband and says, "Husbands, love your wives," and the husband might say, "Well, she's not lovable." But that objection misses the point entirely — it is in the context of Christ and Christ crucified. You do not love her because she deserves it; you love her because she is the woman God has given you. Likewise, "Wives, submit to your husband" — whatever he may be like — is answered the same way: Christ and Christ crucified. And for children, Scripture is clear: you have one thing to do, obey your parents. Why? Christ and Christ crucified. That becomes the whole framework.
For Paul, the core message was the lostness of man — man is hopeless, man is helpless, there is nothing he can do, and he is trying to fill his life with things that cannot satisfy. Then Christ dies, and in that suffering Messiah there is now life. As we have already seen in context, that sounds foolish to the world, but it is wisdom to God. That was Paul's message.
The Weakness of the Messenger
Having described the message, Paul becomes autobiographical and turns to talk about himself as the messenger. He says, "I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling." Paul had endured a great deal by the time he arrived in Corinth. He had been imprisoned and beaten in Philippi, then moved on to Thessalonica where a mob came together and ran him out of town, beating the man he was staying with. He landed in Berea, where Jews came to agitate the crowd and were ready to seize and beat him, so he fled again. Then, in Acts chapter 18, verse 9, Jesus appears to him and says, "Do not be afraid. Just keep doing what you are doing. Keep preaching."
Dave Fisher captures the full weight of that moment: "Imagine Paul's first visit to proud Greek Corinth. If the second century description of Paul is correct, he was a small man, bent and bald. He entered a city that featured statues of perfect physiques and that gloried in economic power and philosophical prowess. Besides that, the city was a cesspool of moral perversion in religious dress. Paul had come to tell them that their spirituality was defective and that the answer to their need was a Near Eastern Savior — a Jew at that. This Savior was an exclusive Lord who was crucified to pay for their sins, rose from the dead, and demanded moral purity from His followers. Talk about an alienating message. No wonder Paul confessed that he entered Corinth in fear and much trembling."
Paul knew about unrealistic expectations, and the church in Corinth was a classic case in point. The church did not like Paul's looks. They did not like his personality, and they did not like his style. Yet when Paul says he came to them in weakness and fear, there is some physical dimension to that, but it is not his primary meaning.
Fear and Trembling Before God
William Barclay is helpful here. He explains that it was not fear for Paul's own safety, and even less a fear that he was ashamed of the gospel. The phrase "fear and trembling" appears several times in Paul's writing, and examining those uses clarifies what he means. In Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13, Paul writes: "So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling."
The Fruit of Salvation, Not Its Cause
Some look at this passage and say, "He's saying to be saved, you're never really saved — you've got to work that out." That is not what he is saying. Ken Taylor in the Living Bible actually captures this pretty well. Here is how he paraphrases verse 12: *"Dearest friends, when I was with you, you were always so careful to follow my instruction. Now that I am away from you, be even more careful to do the things that result from being saved. This isn't what causes my salvation, it's the result of my salvation. Obey God with deep reverence and shrink back from all that might displease Him."*
That is what he is talking about with fear and trembling. Paul says, "I came into this city with fear and trembling," and he says, "I want you to work out your salvation with fear and trembling." When you see that phrase, what he is talking about is an awesome reverence for God — a fear to offend Him or in any way displease Him.
He goes on to say, "When I came to you, there was weakness and there was fear and there was trembling, but my message — I stayed right on message. My message and my preaching were not persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of the power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God." Summarizing what he has said several times in this section, Paul is saying: I did not come and try to blow you away with how smart I was. I did not come and try to dazzle you. In my presentation, I did not use a bunch of theatrics. I simply shared it with you.
The Example of Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards is probably regarded as one of the greatest preachers this country has ever known. He is regarded by the Encyclopedia Britannica as the greatest mind America has ever produced. When Jonathan Edwards delivered what is, by all estimates, the greatest sermon ever preached in this country — *Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God* — he delivered it with his hands on the pulpit, in a monotone, looking down and reading his notes.
As people fell under conviction and began grabbing poles — so desperate for something to hold on to — he would even look up and say, "Shh." He did not want a bunch of amens. He did not want a bunch of yelling. He did not want anything to distract in any way from the Spirit of God working.
Affection Flowing from Knowledge
What Jonathan Edwards understood was that we need to love God — but not in the way we so often see today, not this gushy, emotional affection. Turn on Christian television and you see all of this experience. What you essentially have are people who are not satisfied with knowing God; they need to experience God. They need some mystical move.
Edwards wrote a book titled *Religious Affections*, and the whole premise of the book is this: there should be times when we are swept away with who God is — with His grace, His mercy, and His love for us — but that sweeping away flows from knowing Him. We must know His Word. We must know who He is. The more we know Him, the more we love Him. The more we love Him, the more we want to know Him. The more we know Him, the more we want to love Him. If we are not moving from knowledge, we are never really moving in deep love.
An Illustration from Marriage
Let me give you an example. The first time I saw Susan, I was in apartment 202 and apartment 201 was vacant. It was a Saturday, and I was out getting a little sun. I could see a chair being moved up the stairs, and then at the top of the stairs there was this small figure carrying that chair into apartment 201 — and that was Susan. I thought, that is pretty nice, I wonder — but I assumed there was a boyfriend. Then, lo and behold, the next person up the stairs bringing something in was a girl. I found out these were two single women who had moved down from Idaho.
When I saw Susan for the first time, I was filled with unbridled lust. I was not a Christian, and nothing could stop me from acting on it — nothing except Susan. And she did stop me. She said, "Get away from me. Get out of here. I do not want to be around you."
Something interesting has happened since that first meeting, around twenty-four years ago. I now have an incredible love for her — far deeper and more permanent than lust — and it comes from knowing her. I said to her the other day, "I know you better than you know yourself. I know everything you are thinking and everything you are going to say." She said, "No, you don't." I said, "I knew you were going to say that." She said, "No, you don't." I said, "I knew you were going to say that too."
But I do know everything she is going to say and everything she is going to do. We go through the same routine every day. And the more I know her, the more I love her. I have a love for her that I did not think was possible, and it is deeper now than it was before. I presume it will be even deeper next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, because I know her more every year.
The Power That Lies in the Gospel
That is exactly what Paul is saying. He is talking about power — not some emotional power. Paul goes out of his way to say it is not merely him speaking. Charles Spurgeon writes this: "The power that is in the gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher — otherwise, men would be converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher's learning — otherwise, it would consist of the wisdom of men." This is vintage Spurgeon. "We might preach until our tongues rot, till we exhaust our lungs and die, but..."
The Power Behind the Gospel
No soul would ever be converted unless the Holy Spirit is with the Word of God, giving it power to convert. That is what Paul understood. Paul said it is not him in this process. It is not his cleverness, not his debating, not his arguing. It is the simplicity of the gospel.
Every Sunday, at least for me, I try to approach the lesson and ask the same three questions: What does it say? Is it true? And — I love to hear you say it — so what? So what? So what?
Now, you might be thinking: that is a good lesson for Tom, because he has to teach these things. Maybe it applies to anyone who teaches. But it does not really apply to me. I want to suggest that it does apply to you. Here is my "so what" for you: recognize the beauty of the gospel. When we talk about the beauty of the gospel, we are talking about two things — how simple it is, and how powerful it is.
The Gospel Is Gloriously Simple
We once had a man come and speak named Bob Hage. He was a remarkable man. His job was serving as the liaison between McDonnell Douglas and NASA for the seven original astronauts — needless to say, a brilliant man. He had been all over the world, partly in search of God, asking who God is and what it all means. He had just come back from L'Abri, having spent two and a half weeks with Francis Schaeffer, clearly one of the great minds of the Christian faith, yet he returned filled with questions and still did not have the answer.
One day he was at home on the phone, working through a problem. They were preparing to launch a man into space and trying to figure out how to get him around and bring him back safely. The thing they absolutely had to have — the thing they understood how it worked but could not fully explain where it came from — was gravity. He hung up the phone, frustrated, and his maid was there. She said, "I can explain gravity." Here he was, surrounded by PhDs from NASA and McDonnell Douglas, and his maid said she could explain gravity.
He said, "Really? What is gravity?" She said, "It's Colossians 1 — God holds it all together." She read to him how God created all things and holds them together. This man had been with Francis Schaeffer. He had traveled the world seeking answers. That day, his maid led him to the Lord. It is so simple. It is so simple a child can grasp it.
My office windows look out onto a bookshelf, and it is a great bookshelf — R.C. Sproul, Sinclair Ferguson, John MacArthur, tremendous material. But I fear that sometimes we think we have to be R.C. Sproul or John MacArthur or John Piper to share the gospel with someone. You do not have to be a Rhodes Scholar to share the gospel. Sometimes we miss the simplicity of it entirely. Because we do not want someone to say "that's stupid," we feel we have to have every answer to every question and explain everything perfectly. But the power is not in your explanation. The power is in the gospel. It is simple, and it is powerful.
A World Dying to Give Itself Away
Let me tell you something about the world we live in: it is dying to hear the gospel. I turned on the television last night and heard an announcer say, "Since November, these men have left their families, left their jobs, left their homes. They have done it for no money. They have walked away from everything and prepared for this moment. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the men of the XFL." These men walked away from their homes, their jobs, and their families to give their lives to the XFL.
Then consider Howard Schultz, the chairman and CEO of Starbucks. Starbucks existed before Schultz arrived, but it was really just a local enterprise at that point. In his biography, Schultz describes the moment he first encountered Starbucks and then flew back to New York. Listen to what he wrote:
"On the five-hour plane trip back to New York the next day, I couldn't stop thinking about Starbucks. It was like a shining jewel. I took a sip of the watery airline coffee, and I pushed it away. I reached into my briefcase, I pulled out a bag of beans, I opened the top, I sniffed it, I leaned back, and my mind started to wander. I believe in destiny, and at that moment, flying 30,000 feet above the earth, I could feel the tug of Starbucks. There was something magic about it, a passion, an authenticity that I'd never experienced in business. Maybe, just maybe, I could be part of the magic. The opportunity seemed as wide open as the land I was flying over. By the time I landed at Kennedy Airport, I knew in my heart that this was it. I jumped into a taxi, went home to Sherry" — his wife — "That's the way I met Starbucks, and neither of us have ever been the same."
He is talking about coffee. But notice even the title of his book: *Pour Your Heart Into It.* Pour your heart into cheese. Pour your heart into the XFL. Pour your heart into coffee. The world is dying for something to give itself to. The world understands that life is empty. Howard Schultz thinks he has unlocked the secret to life — and the answer he gives is: pour your heart into Starbucks.
You Are the Evangelist
Here is why this applies to you: you need to be the deliverer of the gospel to the world. There is a classic little book by Ray Stedman written in 1972 called *Body Life*, where Stedman talks about Peninsula Bible Church. In 1972, Peninsula Bible Church was on the cutting edge, and there were churches all over this country trying to figure out what they were doing, so Stedman wrote a book.
In this book, he talks about evangelism. In one section, here is what he says: "In all the years I pastored Peninsula Bible Church, we never held an evangelistic meeting in the church." You might think that means a very static church — that without evangelistic meetings, there wouldn't be too many new converts. But in that, you would be very mistaken.
Even without evangelistic meetings, Peninsula Bible Church experienced a continual, steady stream of new converts coming into the church for instruction and development in the Christian life. Where, then, did the evangelism take place? Stedman answers: "Evangelism occurred in the homes of the members, in public halls, over the back fence, on the school campuses, wherever a hearing of the gospel could be obtained."
The Philosophy of This Church
That is exactly the philosophy at East Valley Bible Church. We are not going to hold an evangelistic meeting — we do not need to. You are the evangelist. You go and share with them. You talk with them. Whether you are at Mesquite, at Dobson, working at Intel or Motorola, or at the club, you are the one who shares. That is the so what of this.
Do you understand the beauty of this? Do you understand that this world is lost? That is not a negative term — that is an accurate description of this world. People are so desperate that they are pouring their lives into cheese, into the XFL, into coffee. And you are the messenger who can come along and say, "Let me tell you something worth pouring your heart into: Jesus Christ and His gospel."
There lies the power. If they reject you, they reject Christ. You move on to the next person, and you come back, and you let them see a difference in you. How beautiful the gospel is in its simplicity, and in that and that alone you find the power.
What Is Happening in This Church
That is what happens at this church. I hear it and see it all the time — people who have come to Christ — and when I ask how, they say it was somebody from the church who brought them. I had a great experience recently. A man was at a Christian bookstore buying a fairly heavy doctrinal book, and the person checking him out asked, "Are you from East Valley Bible Church?" He said yes and asked how they knew. The reply was, "You're the only ones who buy these books."
What a story. You are gaining a reputation in the marketplace as people who care about doctrine and truth. But what you have that most people who care about doctrine and truth do not have is that you also care about people. You love people. You understand that the people around you are lost and on their way to hell, and God has given you the privilege of sharing the gospel.
He is glorified in the proclamation of that gospel. They may respond, or they may not — that does not matter. You do not convert a soul. He does. So you simply share the truth in its simplicity, and there lies the power.
An Incredible Privilege
Can you imagine that? The Creator God of the universe has chosen the people He will save, and in some instances He has chosen to use you to deliver them the message. That is an incredible thing — something worth pouring your heart into, worth making a sacrifice for, for the gospel of Christ.
Father, we pray that we would be men, women, and students — people that You would use to bring this beautiful, simple, pure message to a lost and dying world. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.