4 Actions for Gospel Conversations

Preached by Pastor Chad Rickenbaker on October 25, 2026 [watch online] | Romans 10:1–13

10,000 Gospel Conversations — “4 Actions for Gospel Conversations”

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?'” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?'” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” —Romans 10:1–13 (NKJV)

As a church, we have set a goal of having 10,000 gospel conversations over the next few years, and we are off and running. Some of you are already having these conversations, and the count has started. When you have one, record it: go to the church website, and right on the front page you’ll find a banner that gives you three options for logging the gospel conversations you’ve had. I’m looking forward to hearing the testimonies you share with us about what the Lord is doing and the fruit that comes from it.

So I want us to keep preparing for these conversations. Second only to Jesus, I believe the Apostle Paul is the greatest evangelist of the early New Testament period. Last Sunday, at the beginning of Romans, we saw two attitudes Paul carried that we need ourselves. The first was eager obedience. Paul knew he had been entrusted with a stewardship to lead Gentiles to faith in Christ. It was his duty, but it was never just a burden; he was eager to do it. Jesus has commissioned us, the church, to make disciples and be His witnesses. It is our obligation, but we don’t do it begrudgingly. We are eager to tell people the good news we’ve been given.

The second attitude was that Paul was unashamed. If anyone ever had a reason to be ashamed, it might have been Paul. He was beaten, stoned, arrested, flogged, and left for dead. And yet he said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

This morning, I want to show you, again from the life of Paul, four actions we can follow in having gospel conversations. We want the right attitude, and we want the right actions.

1. Cultivate a Desire to See the Lost Saved

Paul opens Romans 10 by telling us what is in his heart:

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. —Romans 10:1

What is the greatest desire of your heart? What have you been desiring lately? If you made a list of the top five things you’ve been desiring, would the salvation of the lost be on it?

How strong was Paul’s desire? Hold your place in chapter 10 and flip back one chapter. This is strong:

I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises. —Romans 9:1–4

Paul is saying, “My desire for you to be saved is so strong that, if it were up to me, I would choose to be accursed if it meant you came to faith in Jesus.” Friends, that is strong desire.

And here is what’s interesting: Paul’s desire wasn’t always this way. Our introduction to him isn’t Paul at all, but Saul of Tarsus. Saul consented to the death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, holding the coats of the men who stoned him (Acts 7:58; 8:1). He went house to house arresting men and women and hauling them off to prison because they were Christians (Acts 8:3). He had permission in hand to do the same in Damascus when Jesus stopped him in his tracks on the road (Acts 9:1–6). He went from wanting to stamp out Christianity to wanting the lost saved so badly that he would forgo his own salvation for theirs. God changed his heart, and we should expect Him to do the same in ours. If the salvation of the lost isn’t anywhere on our list, we need to draw near to Jesus and cultivate that desire.

So how do we cultivate it?

Remember your own salvation. Study after study has shown that the most evangelistic Christians are new Christians, and the longer a person has been a Christian, the less evangelistic they tend to be. Do you remember the joy of knowing your sins were forgiven, your sin debt taken out of the way, and that you were reconciled to God? If you’ve lost that joy, do what David did and pray, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation” (Psalm 51:12). It’s hard to share something you’re not excited about. If you’re not excited about your salvation, why would you tell anybody else, and why would they listen?

Remember their plight. We rightly remember John 3:16:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. —John 3:16

But do you remember John 3:36?

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. —John 3:36

The lost are not okay. It isn’t just going to work out for them in the end. You cannot look at someone’s life and say, “They’re a good person; I’m sure God will welcome them in regardless of their standing with Jesus.” That is not how it works. The way of salvation is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and those who have not believed are abiding under the wrath of God.

Remember the desire of God. In Peter’s day, some suggested that since Jesus hadn’t come back yet, maybe God had forgotten His promise. Peter answers:

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. —2 Peter 3:9

God desires lost people to be saved. And there is no alternate way into heaven. Jesus said:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” —John 14:6

Remember the sacrifice of Jesus. He shed His own blood and died a horrific death, enduring the suffering we deserved for our sin. We honor His sacrifice by telling others that His blood is sufficient, and that if they believe, they can be saved too.

Remember God’s glory. As a church, we exist to glorify God and make disciples, and those two are deeply connected. When people come to saving faith in Jesus and begin to live in right relationship with Him, according to His design, He is glorified. The more I think about His glory, the more I treasure Jesus in my own heart, and the greater my desire to tell others about Him.

2. Pray for the Salvation of the Lost

Go back to Romans 10:1. Paul says, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.” It wasn’t enough for Paul simply to desire it. Prayer is the means God has worked into creation for us to align ourselves with what He is doing, and it is a means by which He works in the lives of others. Salvation is a work of God. We are dependent on Him to draw people to Himself, to open blind eyes, and to open hearts to receive Jesus.

So for whom are you praying? How many names are on your list?

The 19th-century British evangelist and orphanage director George Müller had five lost friends on his list, and he prayed for their salvation every day. The first came to Jesus 18 months later. The second and third came to faith about five years and eleven months after Müller began praying. The fourth was saved after 25 years. Müller prayed for the fifth friend for 52 years, and that friend came to know Jesus at Müller’s funeral when the gospel was presented. It’s also been reported that D. L. Moody kept a list of a hundred friends, saw 96 of them saved during his lifetime, and the last four were saved at his funeral.

Who’s on your list? Have you given up hope for someone? Have you written them off? Have a list. And if they haven’t been saved in the first year, or the first five, ten, or fifteen years, keep praying. Even if it’s 52 years, don’t give up hope.

If a name is already on your mind, write it down: in your bulletin, in the margin of your Bible, somewhere. And there is a bulletin board in our intercessory prayer ministry room where you can post the names of those you’re praying for. You don’t need a full name, address, and phone number; a first name and the first letter of the last name is enough, and our prayer team will join you in praying for that person’s salvation.

3. Explain the Righteousness of God

Look at verses 2–5:

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” —Romans 10:2–5

Paul’s fellow Jews were zealous, passionate, and sincere in their religion, but they did not understand the righteousness of God. Here is the issue: God is holy and perfectly righteous, without any trace or taint of sin, and the only people He will accept into His presence are those who are perfectly righteous. Do you see the problem? We’re not. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We need a righteousness God will accept.

Paul’s countrymen were trying to get there by keeping the law, the 613 commandments plus all the man-made customs built like a fence around them. Listen carefully, because I don’t want to be misquoted: Paul implies you can take that approach, if you keep the whole law perfectly. But no one ever has, except Jesus. And whatever goodness we bring, compared with the righteousness of God, is described this way:

But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. —Isaiah 64:6

In gospel conversations, we have to be able to explain how this works. You don’t get the righteousness of God by being good, because none of us is. You don’t get it by being religious, going to church, or keeping the law, because none of us can keep it perfectly. So how do you get it? Faith. Not faith in faith, and not some vague, nebulous faith, but belief and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the cross on our behalf.

“Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (v. 4). The law is our tutor (Galatians 3:24). When you read it, you arrive at the conclusion, “I am guilty.” In that way, it has served its purpose: if you’re guilty, you need a Savior. Christ is the fulfillment of what the law was pointing to. Let me show you how the Bible explains this, because these are verses worth knowing for your conversations:

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. —Romans 3:21–22

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. —Philippians 3:8–9

When we place our faith in Christ, God gives us His righteousness, and the righteousness God gives is the righteousness God accepts.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. —Ephesians 2:8–9

Grace is God’s unmerited favor. We can’t take credit for it; God gets the glory. Now come back home to Romans:

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. —Romans 4:3–5

We have a righteousness deficit. When Abraham believed, the righteousness of God was put to his credit. And Paul says that wasn’t written for Abraham alone:

Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. —Romans 4:23–25

Imputed. It’s a word you may not use very often, but in terms of salvation it’s a wonderful word. Do we have a righteousness God will accept? No. Do we need a perfect righteousness to be accepted by God? Yes. Where does it come from? God gives it. He imputes it, credits it, and accounts it to us on the basis of our faith in Jesus. So when you’re talking with the friend you’ve prayed for over weeks, months, or years, and their heart is finally open, here is your explanation: “You don’t have any righteousness God will accept, but God has the perfect righteousness of Christ, and He is ready to give it to you. All you need to do is believe that Jesus is God’s Son, that He died on the cross in your place, and that He was raised again on the third day.”

4. Tell How to Be Saved

Say you’ve cultivated the desire, you’ve prayed, and now you’re in the conversation. They’re nodding along. “Does that make sense?” “Yes, that makes sense.” And then they ask, “So what do I do now?” Inevitably, as you have these conversations, you will meet someone in whom the Spirit of God is already at work, drawing them to salvation. You need to know what to tell them. Look at Romans 10:9–10:

that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. —Romans 10:9–10

The mouth confesses what the heart believes. And what you believe in your heart is that Jesus is God’s Son, that He lived a sinless life and died on the cross as our substitute, taking my shame, my guilt, and my punishment. He was buried, and on the third day God raised Him from the dead.

Why is the resurrection so significant in a gospel conversation? Because when God raised Jesus from the dead, He vindicated everything Jesus ever said and every miracle He ever performed, and He declared that He had accepted Jesus’ work on the cross as sufficient to pay for your sin. When you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, you are saying, “I believe all of this is true about Jesus, and that if I believe in Him, my sins are forgiven.”

And who is this for? Verses 11–13:

For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” —Romans 10:11–13

Who should we tell? Everyone, in hope and faith that all who believe will be saved. And saved means forgiven: God takes away our sin and gives us, in its place, His righteousness.

Two Things Before We Go

So what is the gospel? We are all sinners by nature and by choice. God, in His love, sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to live a perfect, sinless life and to die on the cross in our place. He was buried and raised again on the third day, so that whoever believes in Him and trusts in Him for salvation will be saved.

First, is that what you have believed? It took effort to get up, get dressed, and get here this morning, but being in church on Sunday does not mean you are saved. Paul’s friends were zealous in their religion, and they were lost. I don’t want you to leave without God’s righteousness. If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Simply go before the Lord and say, “God, this is what I believe. I believe Jesus is Your Son. He died on the cross for my sins, and I receive Him by faith as my Lord and Savior.”

Second, if you already know Jesus as your Savior, today is the day you begin. We’ve talked about Paul’s attitudes and Paul’s actions; now we act on them. Cultivate the desire. Start your list and pray for your lost friends by name. Get a firm grasp on the gospel so you can explain how God’s righteousness is received. And when someone asks, “What do I do now?”, tell them how to be saved.

Scripture references in this message: Romans 10:1–13; Romans 1:16; Romans 9:1–4; Acts 7:58; Acts 8:1, 3; Acts 9:1–6; Psalm 51:12; John 3:16; John 3:36; 2 Peter 3:9; John 14:6; Romans 3:23; Isaiah 64:6; Galatians 3:24; Romans 3:21–22; Philippians 3:8–9; Ephesians 2:8–9; Romans 4:3–5; Romans 4:23–25. (NKJV)

Want to go deeper? Join us Sunday mornings at Berea First Baptist Church, and log your own gospel conversations through the banner on our homepage.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.