Turn Around

Turn around!  We are talking about conversion – how a person turns away from their sinful life – pulls a 180 – and becomes a Christian.  Specifically how the Holy Spirit creates faith.  Our text doesn’t mention the Holy Spirit, yet we know from the rest of Scripture that it is God the Holy Spirit who accomplishes this work.  No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.  The last verse from Romans 10 lays out exactly what happens.

How does faith not come?  ¹⁷ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.  The rest of our text this morning is a commentary on this verse – the details of how it happens.  But before we go there, I want to explore the idea of where faith does not come.

No amount of effort can create faith.  This includes prayer.  There was a woman sitting in my office a few years ago who was going through a difficult time.  She had never been a church going person, but she really wanted God’s help.  She had figured out that Jesus had something to do with it.  She knew that she had to do something so she prayed, “Please God – I really believe.  I want to believe.  Help me.”  That’s a great prayer, but did she have any idea to whom she was talking?  Did she know what she had done?  The problem with prayer is that it is one-way communication.  Prayer is you talking to God.  Paul hits this point in the next couple verses.  “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” So what’s the problem?

¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  They can’t!  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  They can’t!  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  They can’t!  ¹⁵ And how can they preach unless they are sent?  They can’t!  As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

What a privilege it was to share with that woman who her God is!  All that he had done for her.  If faith come from hearing the message – we know it does, what do you need to do if the person doesn’t know the message or their Savior.  Tell them – that’s how you get beautiful feet, not matter what your toes look like.

Want to hear more?  Watch this week’s message taken from Romans 10 – Turn Around.