GOD'S MARKETING STRATEGY

0:01 Tuesday morning, I was on an American Airlines flight from Atlanta to Dallas. I really enjoy studying on airplanes. I put my headphones on and I zone in and I don't know, I just have always liked that a lot. Well, I began to read the text that we just heard about, Romans chapter 3, 21 through 28. I knew intuitively it's probably the most important paragraph in the Bible. Drop the mic. The paragraph we're going to study is it. So I'm just asking the Lord, God, what angle, I mean, do you want me to take? What is the big idea so our audience will understand, obviously inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, what this paragraph is about?

0:57 So I started reading it, and then I wrote it in my own words, and I thought, marketing. This text is about God's marketing strategy. Now, I know for some of you that makes you a little bit uncomfortable to say God in marketing in the same sentence. We'll just hang on. I love marketing. Google serves us 30 billion ads a day. It's a lot. I think about Mark Zuckerberg. I think about Elon Musk. I think about another marketing genius, Jerry Jones. I think about Phil Knight.

1:52 You remember when Phil rolled out Just Do It? Nike. You know the word Nike means victory in the Greek? So we could sue him for that, lawyers. And we could also sue him for Just Do It because that's in the Bible as well. Did you know that? we have a lawsuit maybe the statutes have run out I'm not sure but that was a brilliant campaign, wasn't it? Just do it because it told us, hey, don't just sit around. Don't make excuses. Get up and do it. Well, today I'm going to give you God's marketing strategy. I'm going to go through what you might go through or one day you will go through in your company. I'm going to talk to you about the product, the testimonies, the currency, the demographics, the guarantee, the logo, and the ROI.

2:50 That's a return on investment for some of you. God's marketing strategy, what is it? Well, you see in Romans chapter three, verse 21, that Paul makes a massive pivot. Now, we're in a study throughout the book of Romans. The book of Romans is the Magna Carta of the Christian faith. It's the constitution of the Christian faith. is probably the most important book in the Bible. If you understand the book of Romans, you understand what it means to be a Christian, and you understand what it means to walk with the Lord. So I want to challenge you to be here at Fellowship Church for the next several weeks. And you know, too, I want to just say hi to all of our different campuses. If you're in downtown Dallas, downtown Fort Worth, if you're in fabulous Frisco, Alasso Ranch, you're watching online. If you're watching one of our online presentations on another streaming platform, radio, whatever, welcome to Fellowship Church.

3:52 This is going to be an exciting day as we study the most important paragraph in the Bible, which is Romans chapter 3, verses 21 through 28. Let's talk about the product. Whenever you're marketing, you have to have a product. So what's the product here? Jesus. It's a pretty good product, isn't it? That's who Paul is marketing. And the Bible tells us in verse 21, like I told you a second ago, but now apart from the law, apart, what? Apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known. Again, this is a major sea change. Paul now is talking about God rolling out this different way, this new way to have the righteousness of God through faith in Christ. So whenever you see those transitional phrases in the Bible, pay attention.

4:50 But now, but now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known. This word known or the phrase made known is the Greek term. I love this. Fanarou. We get the word fan from this. Hey, yeah. God has put this on display. He has marketed this. He's like, I'm going to show you a new way, but this new way is really not a new way. It fulfills the old way. I'm rolling this plan out, and here's the plan. The plan is you can receive righteousness not by your works, but through faith. Faith alone. Yeah, but surely I deserve something.

5:44 No, you don't. Well, surely I'm a pastor. No, I don't. You might be going, well, Ed, okay, I thought the Jews were God's chosen people. Yeah, they were in the Old Testament. Why did God choose the Jews? You ever wondered that? Here's the answer. Because.

6:05 Parents, you say that to your kids sometimes, don't you? I don't have time for an explanation. Just because. But the person is the person of Christ Jesus. Because whenever you're marketing, you have to have testimonies. So the verse continues. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. The law and the prophets testify. So they've been testifying. They've been witnessing to this new marketing plan that God has and is rolling out. I'm talking about, if you talk about the law, that's the first five books of the Bible, the Torah. You probably knew that. You were talking about that over morning coffee, I'm sure. That's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Torah. And we have all the different laws, the ceremonial laws, the moral laws. And then from there, you have the prophets.

6:58 I'm talking about the prophets mentioned throughout the Old Testament. So really, when you see the law and the prophets, it refers to the entire Old Testament that is setting the course for this new marketing strategy. It's like you could put the law and the prophets on the witness stand, and they would all go, oh, it was all about him, Jesus. Yeah, everything we did, it was about Jesus. So every sacrifice, every prophecy, every shadow, every type in the Old Testament points to the person of Jesus because the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. Who's the product in God's strategy? Jesus. The testimonies, I mean, that's the witnesses. the law is very important.

7:55 The law came by behaving, but the new righteousness comes through believing. I was scrolling through social media a while back, and you know I wear T-shirts a lot. I just do. And I saw this ad, this t-shirt ad. And these t-shirts looked really cool. They came in multicolors and I looked at them and I read some testimonials. Watched some videos. And they said, these t-shirts are for men. And they're kind of tight, guys. Are you feeling me? Up here.

8:47 Around the arms. but they're loose around those problem areas. I said to myself, that is awesome. I've never seen a t-shirt like that because the older I've gotten, you know, sagasaurus pecs. I don't wanna have any tight shirts anymore down there. So I thought, okay, these t-shirts will be for me. And the price, I'm talking about, it was almost free 99. It was dirt cheap. I ordered, I bet you, 24 of these t-shirts.

9:22 I wear them every day, every single day. The morning I wake up, boom, I put on another one. I'm thinking, I'm looking good, look at those arms. So marketing works, doesn't it? And those T-shirts cover problem areas. And God saw our biggest need, didn't he? If you're marketing, you'll see the pain point. Sin, that's our problem. What's our greatest need? Jesus. So the product is Jesus. The testimonies are the witnesses back in the day, remember? The law and the prophets. Then we come to the currency. You've got to have currency. You've got to have capital, we say. What's the currency? The currency is faith. I've already talked about faith a little bit, faith. What does faith mean? Faith is a belief. It's a trust.

10:13 It's putting weight on something. Faith connects you and me to Christ. I'll say it again. Faith connects us to Christ. this morning I woke up at dark 30 walked into my office and my office was dark I could see the light switch. So I thought to myself, you know, I don't want to be in the darkness. I'm going to turn on the light. So I turned the light on. Boom, my office was illuminated.

10:54 I thought about that. I mean, the electricity was there, but I didn't activate it until I flipped on the switch. And once I flipped on the switch, the electricity was everywhere. The righteousness of God through Christ is there. All we have to do is flip the switch. And too many of us right now are walking in darkness and God doesn't want us to do so. Romans 3.22 says this righteousness, talking about a right standing, a perfection, is given through faith. There's the channel. In Christ Jesus to what?

11:45 To what? To all who believe. I have a friend of mine and he told me a funny story about his mom. his mom and dad had five kids, and now they're adult children. And whenever they bring up an issue to their mom today, she always uses this tactic. Whoa, let's not talk about that, she says, because we all have problems. You want me to start talking about your problem? Well, that's what we're going to find out. who is this letter written to? The faith we have and the faith that's out there. It's for everyone.

12:38 It's not a Jews only thing. It's not a Gentiles only thing. It's for everyone everywhere. It's God's marketing strategy. Have you ever wondered why we like to market stuff? I'm gonna say it was planted by the God of the universe because God is the master marketer. So we want to market our business. We want to market our brand. We want to boast and brag. Why do we have that? I'll tell you why we have it. We're made to market our master, Jesus Christ. And I would say the other marketing we do is just kind of a little shadow. It's a little something, something, but it's not the real thing. I'm not saying don't market your company. I'm not saying turn your back on a lot of money. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that desire you have was put there by God because, my friend, God is the master marketer.

13:35 I'll say it again. God is the master marketer. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, marketing. Marketing. Think about the garden for a second. Think about Adam and Eve. Remember Adam and Eve, don't you? Well, everything was perfect, yet the devil came in and revealed this Ponzi scheme to them and we've been paying for it since they messed up. Again, I'll say it, marketing. So the product is Jesus. The testimonies are the witnesses who've gone before us and let me just add on to the witnesses. I'm talking about the early church fathers. I'm talking about the disciples. I'm talking about the martyrs. All of those people are witnesses. They're testimonies to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Okay, the product is Jesus.

14:31 The testimonies, the witnesses, and the currency is faith. And now let's just go ahead and do a demographic study, you know, because God knows you and me better than we know ourselves. The Bible says he knows the number of hairs on our head. How about that? even though I've had hair transplants and I'm thinking about getting some more, but I'm not sure I'm gonna do it.

14:55 I'm serious. I did a whole series called Hair when I had my head shaved and the ping, ping, ping. God knew every 1,437, he knows the number of hairs on our heads. So that's how well he knows you and me. He knows, again, our pain point, sin. He knows our felt need. Our greatest need is a savior. He understands that. And again, this message is for everyone. Everyone comes to Christ the same way.

15:28 So again, listen to me as I talk about God's marketing strategy. Let me go through these verses again real quick. Romans 3, 21. But now, okay, hold on. Apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. Sounds like marketing to me. Verse 22, this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. It's given, it's not earned. Say that with me, it's given, not earned. I don't deserve it. It's given, not earned. Sometimes people tell me, Ed, man, I wish I had your faith. I mean, I wish I had enough faith to become a Christian. I always go, hey, you have enough faith to become a Christian? You live by faith. You're making a faith decision right now by sitting down in these beautiful theater seats. You made a real faith decision when you drove to church here.

16:28 I mean, everything is a faith decision. So as I talked about last week, it's faith, but what is the object of your faith? It's not the size of your faith. It's the size of your God. We live and we walk by faith. And Jesus tells us that faith is even a gift from God. We're made to put our trust, our faith in him. So that's basically the situation. So the product is Jesus, the testimonies are the witnesses, the currency is faith, the demographics would be everyone. Let me go through this real quick. you've heard this verse probably a squillion times, but let me go through it. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile. I mean, Paul's making this plain, isn't he? And remember, Paul, you're talking about a testimonial.

17:22 He was killing Christians. He met Jesus, and now he becomes a preacher. So for him to say this, I mean, this is radical. There's no difference between Jews and Gentiles. For all have sinned, all have sinned. The word sinned is an archery term. It means missing the mark. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Hmm. Let's go to the next one. The guarantee. You know, like those T-shirts that are tight on the arms and cover my problem areas. You know, it guaranteed that I would like them. And I'm sure they marketed, you know, me and read my demographics because of my age and everything. And they knew, of course, I have increasing problem areas. so that's why they did that. So the guarantee that we have is the freedom. Romans 3, 24 and 25.

18:18 And all are justified freely, freely by his grace. Here's how I would explain it. It's like a judge who steps down from the bench, takes his robe off and pays the fine and renders you and me not guilty. He erases our past, all of our sins. That's kind of what it's like. So we're all justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith. Now I read three big words, and these are three big miracles, three big miracles that happen to you and me once we place our faith in Jesus Christ. Three massive miracles that take place when we trust Christ as our Savior. I just read them to you. The first one is justification.

19:14 Justification, whenever you see that word, think just as if I hadn't sinned. Just as if I hadn't sinned. Because the moment we make that faith decision, boom, God declares us justified. And there are no levels of justification. Don't go, man, Ed is much more justified than me. Are you kidding me? Isn't this great? Because the playing field is level at the foot of the cross. I love it. Justification. The next word is redemption. Circle that one, another miracle. What is redemption? It's a slave trade kind of image. Back in the day, you could buy a slave, take the slave home, and release the slave. It was called redeeming the slave. That is what's happened to you and me because we were, those of us who were Christians, slaves to sin, and now we're free.

20:13 We've been redeemed. The third word is the word atonement, another miracle. So justification, that's a miracle. Redemption, a miracle. The atonement, that's a miracle. Don't turn there, but if you look at the Old Testament book of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 16, I believe, you have the Old Testament sacrificial system. Again, remember I told you everything points to Jesus, remember that? So you had a couple of goats that were in play, a couple of goats. You know what a goat is? Well, one goat would be slain, and listen to me very carefully, his blood would be spilled, sprinkled on top of the Ark of the Covenant, which was the mercy seat. And the blood would cover the law that was in the Ark of the Covenant. And that signified the sins of Israel were covered.

21:12 If you understand what I just said, just kind of nod, all right, okay. There was another goat. And this goat really had it better than the first because this goat, we call him Goat B, first one's Goat A. This is goat B. Goat B would be a goat where the high priest on the day of atonement, really? Yeah. Would place his hands on the back of the goat, signifying the transferal of all of the sins of the people of Israel to this goat. And then the priest would say, I don't know, get out of here. And the goat would gallop away into the wilderness. he became the scapegoat. Jesus is our scapegoat. Jesus also covered all of our sins.

22:07 Powerful stuff. I'm telling you, this paragraph is loaded. I'm just giving you the high points. The product, Jesus, the testimonies, the witnesses. Do you have a testimony? The currency, faith. That's the capital. The demographics, everyone. The guarantee, freedom. Now the logo. You gotta have a logo. You remember Nike swoosh stripe? I liked their swoosh stripe back in the day better than today. I bought my first pair of Nikes. I looked it up in 1973.

22:42 They were red suede low top blazers. No one had these shoes. And I had these shoes, and I loved these shoes. And I played so much basketball in them that when I would sweat, the red dye from the suede would get all over my socks. But, you know, I didn't care. But I liked the big, you know, logo of Nike. Victory! That's what it means. God's logo is the cross. But notice the cross is empty. I mean, it's really poor theology, to be frank with you, when you have a cross with Jesus on it. He didn't stay on that cross. They put him in the ground. And three days later, he rose again. So we have an empty cross and an empty tomb.

23:39 But you're talking about a brand. Wow. The logo, the cross. He did this to demonstrate, there's another marketing word, his righteousness so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. So wait a minute, that's confusing me. Jesus is the just and the justifier? Yes. Write this in your margin. The just, he's punishing sins. It's a picture of a courtroom. and the justifies, the justifier, he's pardoning sinners at the same time. So I'm setting you up. When Jesus died, listen to me very carefully, on the cross for the sins of the world, his atoning and redeeming sacrifice went all the way back.

24:38 Back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back to Adam. Yes. Well, how were the people in the Old Testament saved? By faith. You see, their sins were covered in the Old Testament. Oh yeah, they were covered through the sacrificial system, et cetera. But they weren't paid for. They were paid for on Calvary. so that's why this is such an awesome awesome text so the death reached all the way back to Adam how about the ROI well return on investment I'll tell you what it is the transformation of lives the transformation of your life and mine that's the ROI where then is boasting I mean I don't have any room to boast about this Do you understand that?

25:42 It's not like oh I'm more righteous than you You're more righteous than me Yeah the law shows us what's wrong with us The law though cannot give us the righteousness of Christ So we've just been recipients of it So what are we doing walking around boasting? We shouldn't boast about that. That would be like me. Let's say I went to the beach. What's the popular area? 30A, you've heard of that? Let's say I went out there, and I know there's a lot of rip currents in that area. And let's say I walked out in front of our condos, and the rip current just took me out. And I'm trying to swim and swim against it, but I'm going nowhere. And I think to myself, well, I could be drowning. help, help lifeguard jumps down off his stand rescues me now I would be an idiot to go around saying man you should have seen me swimming in the ocean man, I was drowning.

26:57 Let me tell you, I was drowning. You'd be like, you're crazy, man. I wouldn't brag on that. But here's what I would brag on. I would brag on the lifeguard. And Jesus is our lifeguard. So where then is boasting it's excluded? Because of what law? The law that requires works. See, the law is not a ladder, it's a mirror. It shows us, see, what's wrong with us. No, because of the law, that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith, there's a word again, apart from the works of law. Let me give you three things right quick, because we're about out of time, about faith, okay? Okay, faith eliminates pride, the pride of human effort.

27:50 That's why we're saved by grace through faith. Number two, it exalts what God has done, not what people do. Number three, it shows us, it's just by faith that we can never measure up on our own. And number four, it's based on a relationship not performance. Henry Ford. Have you ever heard of him?

28:27 Henry Ford once said, if I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. God understands, doesn't he, our needs, our felt needs. He understands, and he understands the fact that we now are his marketers. I'm a marketer of the Lord Jesus, and so are you. So Nike said, just do it. Okay. But what does God say? It's already done. Thank you, Lord, for this message. Thank you for your truth.

29:23 Thank you for marketing. And I'm thankful that I've been on the receiving end of your marketing strategy. And I pray that others here will do the same.