The Church of Eleven22 - Grace Saves: Run Over by the Grace Train - Wk 1 (Saturated Sunday)

Episode Date: September 15, 2024

The Good News: God Initiates. God invites. God Saves. The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To learn more about how God is moving at Eleven22, visit coe22.com.

Amen and amen and amen. We're ready for this church? All right, hey, we still got a few hundred people that don't have seats. So if you've got seats next to you, will you scoot in or raise your hand? We promise we won't make you get baptized if you raise your hand right now.

But if you got a seat next to you, would you please and look around and help them out a little bit? And please be kind enough to scoot over so they don't have to do the awkward thing and cry I'm over you in church. They don't know you that well yet. Cool.

Hey, man, all week long, we've been singing this line. I'm not going to sing it because I don't sing good. I sought the Lord, and he heard and he am. answered. That's from Psalm 34, by the way. I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered. That's what I was praying for us as a church that God would rend the heavens, that he would rip away anything that separated us from him. And I believe this week once again, God showed himself to be faithful to his own promises. Amen? That we have sought the Lord. We have leaned in. We have drawn near to God.

and he has drawn near to us. And then today, today we're in a bit of a crossroads, a bit of a railroad crossings, if you will, that it's the last day of saturated and it's the first day of this series run over by the grace train, and I'm going to preach a shorter sermon, okay? For you the Catholics, this will be like twice

as long as the homilies you're used to. For your regular 1122 or it's going to be like half a sermon, okay? So I'm going to preach, oh, I love it. Who said all? Who said all? You're my favorite 1122 right there, okay? God bless you and your ministry, you're fearfully and wonderfully made. God loves you more than everybody else right now.

Okay, so it's all going to work out the same, same heaven, but I'm just telling you, he just loves you. All right, now, listen. So I'm going to preach. I've got to shorten it up because we're going to baptize hundreds of people today. Praise God. So all you red shirt people are already, you already know. And if you just happen to wear a red shirt today on accident,

it could be because God has predestined you to get baptized this very day. You don't even know. All right. And if you're like, why not it very close? Don't worry about it. It's probably going to rain by the time we leave anyway. You're going to be wet. Get into it. So that's what we're going to do. We're preach a little bit. We'll share the gospel. I believe some people are going to get saved and we're going to baptize some folks. So we're talking about being run over by a grace train. Why grace train? Well, first and foremost, boy, our world needs some grace right now. Amen. I mean, I wish I was smart enough when Charles and I sat down over a year ago to begin to put together this book. and this idea and this concept. I wish I could say I was smart enough that I could foresee all that was going to be happening in this world. But it's just turned out this way.

But, I mean, with an election coming up and the division coming up and, you know, social media trying to tell us we're all supposed to hate each other, this world needs some grace right now. And grace has a face. His name is Jesus. And grace is the most powerful thing

you'll ever run into or that will ever run into you. That's why I call it the grace train. Listen, 100 years ago when I met Gretchen back in the 1900s. We were dating. It was 1998. Met in the gym. Told you this before. First thing I ever said to her is,

got to get a spot. That's what I said. A couple months later, we're dating. We're talking to each other, whatever the thing is. And I'm going to go to her house to meet her parents, to meet the parents. They make movies about this stuff. And so I go to the mountains of Virginia to Nicely Town, Virginia, where Gretchen Nicetian Nicely is from.

you see how little this thing is, okay? And we visit with her mom and dad, Randy and Joy. I love them so much. One of my great blessings in my life is the in-laws I have, man. Some of y'all got outlaws, I got the in-laws. I love them. They're great. They didn't love me at first.

They didn't love me at first. There's a lot of reasons. Could have been because when I met Gretchen, she was engaged with another dude, but what's the man got to do with me? That's a different story. That poor fella. Anywho. So,

So again, man, we're just very beginning of dating. And so, you know, we hang out and do all the things. And then at night, Gretchen goes to her bedroom where she grew up in, her little room. And then they made for me like a little, they fixed up the couch in the front of the house for me to sleep. Which is super awkward, right? Like the little sitting room. There's a piano. There's many, many, many little trinkets, you know.

Like, you know, her mom's into them, boy. They just little, what are they called? just moments, just big eyeballs, just like, we see you. That's what I'm trying to sleep. Terrified. All right. So my father-in-law was an engineer, not like the wreck from not Georgia Tech, not like, I know you thought, structural, no, no, no, train, hur, that kind. Like hat, pocket watch, you know, that like a back of the back of the train guy. That's what he did, his whole life. They live right next to this CSX railway. It's like across the street from their house. And I didn't pay attention to this during the day. You know, who scopes out this sort of

thing? Well, the way the train tracks went and the way the house was oriented, I was at the front of the house with a bunch of windows, and across the street is the train tracks, which came at the house and then obviously kind of S turns around the house. But I didn't think about that. About three o'clock in the morning, nobody warned me. It's not like new construction either. Dude, the house is like you know, the windows are rattling, the little precious moments are going, ah, you know. And I wake up thinking, this is it. The trumpet is blast, and Jesus is returning, and that is what's happening. And I wake up, and I look out of the window, and all I can see is the train lights, man,

and I'm like, huh, and you know, you hear the train are coming. Bro, it's coming. And it's shaking, it's shaking, and the house is shaking. And in my mind, immediately, I've been awake for, one in one half second. And I think this train has jumped the track and it is going to go barreling right through the middle of the house. And I am a dead man. And sitting on the couch, I put up my arms like that might do a thing. And I'm terrible. And so I go to let out the biggest blood-curdling scream I have in me because I'm afraid. And I go, nothing. In retrospect,

thank God. Because if I'd have screamed like a little baby, there's no one. in the world, Randy Nicely would have trusted me to provide and protect for his little girl, amen? That's what I tried it? And nothing happened. And then the train went around the house on the tracks like it's supposed to do. And six years later, I told my in-laws that that's what went home, right? Now, here's the thing. If that train would have jumped the tracks and hit me, guess what? They ain't no 11-22. Why? Because I am done for, man. My life would have been changed forever, forever. And the idea behind being run over by the grace train is if you were late to church, and I walked up to you and said, hey, why are you late? And you said, oh, I got hit by a freight train.

And you look the way you look right now. I mean, whoever the worst-looking person in here is right now, one of you is that person. I don't know which one. But even you aren't you. You volunteered. I don't disagree. All right, I don't disagree. All right, so I'll look at you. Then I would look at you, and if you were saying, I was hit by a train, I'd be like, brother, I don't know that you were. You still have on a saturated hat. And your hoodie isn't bleeding, and you have all of your body parts. And I watch you walk in here. And yet people often talk about running into the grace of Jesus Christ, and yet there's no evidence in their life of it.

And I'm just here to tell you that the grace of Jesus is infinitely more powerful than any freight train you've ever seen. I mean, you don't believe me. You really want to ruin your day. Google or YouTube freight train hits cows. I wanted to show it in here. The elders wouldn't let me, okay?

Because they have wisdom, all right? But, bro, it ain't a bump. when the freight train hits you, it changes everything about everything, about everything. And my prayer for you, what I want for you is I just want you, I want you to taste and see that he's good. I want you to experience the grace of Jesus Christ. I want you to know, it's not about you trying to get you better so that you can earn a right relationship with him, but that he has sent a freight train of his grace and it's barreling down the track. and all you have to do is receive it.

And then before you know it, you got a seat on the train, and he's taking you with him all the way to heaven. The way to receive the grace of God is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Gospel means good news. If you've got your Bible, Ephesians chapter 2 is wherever we're going to be. You've got to listen way faster than you are, or we're not going to get to the baptism. Here we go.

I'm going to try to go so fast. Ephesians chapter 2, this just is the gospel. Now again, gospel means good news. Good news has to go into bad places. The gospel is the cure. But before we get to the cure, the apostle Paul is going to lay out the diagnosis. He says this, and you. So he's talking to you.

He's talking to me. This isn't a sermon that you text to your mother-in-law. He'd be like, Sherry needs to hear this. No, no, no. He's talking to you. He says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Listen, here's the thing. Apart from Christ, you're not a bad person that needs to do better.

You're a dead person that needs to be alive. Sin doesn't make you bad. It makes you dead. And he's talking to all of us here. There's no levels of dead. The Princess Bride was a liar. They're just dead. If every single one of us had a swimming competition to swim to England,

guess what? None of us would make it. Now, some of you in-shape people like you, Alan, you would probably go a long way to swim for miles and miles and miles and miles. God bless you. Some of you would die in the shallows and be embarrassed. But the people dying in the one foot of water and the 100 miles from here, guess what? They're the same dead. And I know some of you think you are good and you are compared to the nightly news in your college roommate, but compared to a holy God, you're not. You're not.

that our condition is that we were dead in our trespasses. And God wants to make you alive. One of the most beautiful pictures in my mind of this is in the very beginning of the Bible, when God creates his image bearer, the very first man that he ever creates, the Bible says his name is Adam, Arama Hebrew means dust. He gathers together the dust of the earth. And the Bible says that this form of a man is not yet a living creature. that's where some of you are right now.

I mean, physically you're a person, you're a man or a woman, but you're not yet alive for the one who created you to be with him. And so he gets really close, face to face, nostril to nostril. And God breathes the ruah, which means breath of life into Adam. He opens his eyes and the very first thing he ever experiences is he is alive and face-to-face with his creator. That's what you were made for. It's just not how we start out. We were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of

disobedience. That's who you were, and that's who you are if you're not in Christ, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and mine. Now listen, I get it, man. If you're like 25 and under, you're so offended right now because your kindergarten teacher told you that you're a snowflake and your puppy's breath and you're a Skittal.

All right, Skiddle, she lied to you. We know this around here. You and I, by nature and nurture, are wretched, crooked, and depraved, black-hearted sinners. anybody ever raised the two-year-old? Who taught them to sin? It's amazing how good they are at it on their own, right?

Every single one of us. In fact, I mean, Jesus' command is to be perfect, design perfect. Be perfect as I am perfect. Think about this. Forget God's perfect law for a minute. I mean, we can't even keep the top ten commandments. You realize that? But let's just lay those aside for just one second.

The reality of it is, is we can't even keep our own commandments. You ever promise you you're never going to do that thing again? How about this, sister? You ever promised God? If you can just get me out of this one, I'll never do it again. You remember that? Your girlfriend was holding your hair back. You were praying.

Remember? What if the only thing God held you and I accountable to were the times that we started a sentence with, I ought to? You see, nobody's lied to you more than you. Nobody's broken more promises to you than you. Nobody's let you down more than you. Why? every single one of us, some of us through religion and some of us through rebellion,

have rejected God and say, forget you, God, I got this. And I don't really have time to spend any more time convincing you that you're a sinner. Do you know what? The number one thing you need to be saved is need. And if you don't know that you need a Savior, then you think you will be your own Savior. And I hope you come back next week. But he is here to save. By nature and nurture, this is who we are, crooked and depraved.

He keeps going and says this, if that's not bad enough, and we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Well, that'll make you uncomfortable. We don't talk about, well, I talk about it all the time. Most churches don't talk about the wrath of God very much, right? You ever heard a wrath of God song? We had the third day guy here the other night. Imagine if he was like, your wrath, oh Lord, burns me to a crisp.

Praise God. We don't talk about that. Without the wrath of God, you'll never understand the love of God. But please know this. God is love. His default is love. Love is who God is. But he is stirred to wrath.

And because God is perfectly just, all sin must be paid for. C.S. Lewis in mere Christianity says this. In other words, fallen man, that's me and you, apart from Christ, is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement. he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. And so a doctor would not be a good doctor if you knew that you were sick and you walked into his office and he tried to assure you that you were okay.

The apostle Paul wants us to know the diagnosis, the heart of the problem is we've got a problem deep down in our heart and that we're the Lord of our own lives that we have rejected God to say, forget you that I do what I want with who I want when I want. if we stay in that state, because God is a just judge, all sin must be paid for.

And then, two of the greatest words you'll ever see in the whole Bible is this, but God. And I've told you this before from my Gen Xers in the house. I like big butts and I cannot lie, especially when they show up in the Bible like this. When we have been told that we were children of wrath, you want to hear a big butt, but God. That God gets to tell us who we are, that our condition, our situation, Our sin does not have to be the one that defines us, but God being rich in mercy. Rich means more than enough. And he's rich in mercy.

Mercy means when we don't get what we deserve. Grace is when we get what we don't deserve. And so many times in our culture, we'll say, well, that's not fair. Look, dude, you don't want fair, and you know you don't want fair. I remember I was coaching JP in, like, Little League Baseball, and I was always the first base coach. and there would be times where he would hit the ball to shortstop, and he would run it out to first, and the shortstop would throw it to the first basement,

and he would catch it, and I'm standing right there, and I can see that he's clearly out. He's clearly out. And the aunt will go, safe. And I wouldn't go, that's not fair. I would say, praise God from whom all blessings flow. You know you don't want fair. How do I know?

Because the last time you were driving down 95, and you saw a state trooper pull somebody over, You didn't go, oh, pull over. Can I help you? I was speeding too. Here, here's $100. No, no, no, no, no. God, thank you for your protection.

You're traveling mercies. You pray stupid prayers. So God looks at you and he offers you the most unfair deal on the planet. Why would he do that? But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved you. Please hear this. God loves you. And Jesus is the proof.

Do you want to know if God loves you? Please don't look at your circumstances. We're not smart enough to navigate through and understand exactly how God is using the circumstances that surround us. But you want to know if God loves you, Romans 5-8 says, it's already done. But God demonstrates his love for us and this

while we're yet still sinners, Christ died for us. Because of the great love with which he loved us. even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. God is not waiting on you to get your act together. That God initiates, that God invites, that God saves.

The only thing you bring to the salvation equation is the sin that requires a Savior. And yet God delights in saving you. Look, man, there's this old preacher story. It's probably not true. most preachers have never let the truth get in the way of a good story. And so the story goes that this little boy is trying to join the church and he's got to interview with the deacons.

And so they asked the little boys to tell us about your salvation. And the little boy says, well, I did my part and God did his part. And these were good to reform deacons. They're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, boy, what you talk about? He said, yeah, that's right. I did my part and God did his part. Please explain. And the boy said, I did the sinning and Jesus did the saving.

That'll preach. The only thing that we bring to him is a need for salvation. and it's crazy. You can't even get your mind around it. This is why grace is amazing. And he gladly meets you in your need and offers you this deal. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And raise this up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Notice, Pastor Matt Chandler talked about this on Thursday night. Notice who the active agent is in that you didn't save you, you didn't seat you.

No, no, no, no, no, you didn't adopt you. We are the passive agent. We are the recipients of this gift that God has given to us through grace. All we have to do is receive it. Listen, adults, you're terrible gift receivers. When Jesus says, unless you change and become like one of these little children, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. One of the things that kids are really good at receiving gifts.

Have you ever been at Christmas and your nine-year-old be like, I think that's quite enough gifts for me. No. But yet, watch adults try to pay for another adult's dinner, right? People get weird. Sometimes this is happening to you when people give me a gift? I simultaneously think two things. Somebody gives me a gift. I'm like, oh, thank you.

That's so thoughtful. Then I think crap. Now I've got to get you something. You ever think that? That's what you think. Oh, I got a Christmas card from who are these people? I don't know these people. Now we're going to add these randos to our Christmas card list because we can't be those people.

Why? Because we think we have to do something to earn that kind of relationship. And yet, God offers this this free gift of salvation. And not only that, if you are in Christ, it's a big phrase, man. By the way, we're only called Christians like three times in the whole New Testament, and one of them's a shot. They're making fun of us. 216 times in the New Testament. We're called in Christ.

And when we are in Christ, he is in us. And so if you were in Christ, you are no longer a wretched, crooked, and depraved, black-hearted sinner. That's who you used to be, but that's not who you are anymore. Now you are more than a conquer, and you are adopted into the family of God, and you have been seated with Jesus in heavenly places. That is who you currently are. Well, why would he do all that?

I'm so glad you asked. Verse 7. So that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable. riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Why, God save you? Made him happy for his own glory. And he delighted to do it. In the verse 8, if you haven't memorized this verse, you totally should. For by grace you have been saved through faith, this is not your own doing. Look at me. All you recovering Baptist do think God is going to look and see what types of movies have attended and if you drink or cuss or whatever this is not your own doing Catholics

all you recovering Catholics look at me he's not checking on how many times you took the sacraments or if you prayed the rosary he's not all you independent fundamentalists you ain't here so you saw a woman in pants you're like we got to get out of here all right so whatever but if you're listening it's not your own doing it is this not A, it is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast. Listen, man, good people don't go to heaven. Save people go to heaven. Forgiving people go to heaven.

If good people went to heaven, you've got to ask yourself the question, how good do you have to be? If good people go to heaven, then where in the Bible is the grading chart? I mean, is it like 51% good you get to go? Because the 51 in school is an F. You fail. You don't get to go. Is God standard like my standard? like my standard in college, C's equal degrees, let's go, right? Is that what it is? No, no, no. And so there's not like a grading scale. And not only that, if good people go to heaven, then doesn't

God owe it to you to give you a progress report? I mean, how are you doing? If good people go to heaven, where are you on the scale? And I've told you this before, because some of you, old heads, You know who you are. Some of us don't have enough time left in the semester to make up for our previous work, if you know what I mean. You remember that? Remember you show up your chemistry late? And you'd be like, oh, no, I need a 206 on this exam.

What am I going to do? Now, I know what y'all would do, all right? You'd just get it incomplete because I'm so hurt, and then I'd have to pay for it. I don't know how that works. But we would actually just fail. It's crazy. No, no, man. Good people don't go to heaven.

There are no good people. There was one good people. His name was Jesus. And he lived a life that none of us could pull off. And then willfully went to the cross and received the sin and its debt. And he died on the cross not just for us, but instead of us. And for anyone who would believe that when Jesus pushed up on his nail on his feet and says, it is finished, then when you believe somehow, I don't even know how to fully explain.

do, but you might not know how to fully explain it. And you believe somehow that counted for me. It's unbelievable, man. It's unfathomable. This is the greatest exchange you're ever offered in your life. That he takes all of your failing grades. He takes all of your debt. He takes all of your sin upon himself on the cross. And he offers to us. He imputes to us. He credits to our account his perfect life. So when he says, be perfect for I am perfect. You're like, I can't pull this off. He goes, I know, I'm going to do it for you. And if you'll believe, if you'll trust, by grace, through faith, that's what faith means.

If you'll trust that when I did this, this counted for you. It's not about the things that you did to earn it because you can't earn it. Even the faith you have, I gave you. So don't brag about that either. But by grace, I am going to give this to you. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. for we, anyone who has believed in him, are his workmanship, his masterpiece.

Literally the Greek word is where we get the word poem. There's no mass production of people. He knew exactly what he was doing when he created you, knit you together in your mother's room, created in Christ Jesus four good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. are we saved by works we're saved by the finished work of Christ his good work are we saved two good works

you better believe it when you get run over by the grace train it changes everything about everything about everything about everything the order is everything that he doesn't save you because of what you've done but when you surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ then you eagerly do the things that he has created and called for you to do and one of those things one of those good works that will not save you but is a declaration that by grace through faith you have

already been saved is baptism it's one of the first things jesus says to do in obedience after you have believed on him for salvation roman six says this do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into christ jesus were baptized into his death we were buried therefore we him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too may walk in a newness of life. Here's what baptism is. Baptism is a good work that we have been saved too. Baptism does not save us.

Baptism is an outward and visible declaration that Jesus Christ has already saved us. The word baptism in English is a transliteration of a Greek word. baptizo. Baptizo means to dip, dunk, or submerge. So part of the reason we don't have clamshells up here and just sprinkling it on your head is because that's just not

what the word means. And here, in Romans, what Paul is showing us is that the physical act of baptism is a picture of what's already happened the moment you got saved. For those of you getting baptized, you're going to walk in here. And listen, man, this ain't holy water.

This is J-E-A water. They've literally paid fines because of the contents of what is in here. Let's go. Glory to God. Do you understand what I mean? It won't hurt you though. Don't worry about it. All right. We drank out of the hose. That's why we tough. Get into this. All right. Doesn't wholly about this water. And you're going to stand in that spot and somebody's going to ask you a question. So who is Jesus? To you. Because he is who he is who he is, regardless of what you say about him. You realize that? So what Pastor Ben taught us last night. Oh, he is Lord. Period. But to you, what is your public definition?

declaration. And you'll get to answer, in just case you can't remember, we put it on your shirt so you can remember. Who has Jesus to be? And here's what you're doing, man. You're doing Romans 10.9. I believe in my heart that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And I believe in my heart that when Jesus came out of the grave, he put death to death and that counted for me. And therefore, I'm going to confess with my mouth, Jesus is Lord. And when you do that, the Bible says that you're saved. Now listen, before you get in the tub, you're saved. You're just telling everybody that's what you're doing. It's not the ceremony that saves you. It's the ceremony that tells everybody you already have a relationship with Jesus. Like I wear a wedding ring, right? Because the world needs to know.

Look here, ladies. Sorry, suckas. I am off the market. And if I don't wear a wedding band, does that mean I'm not married? No, I'm married because the core is my relationship with Gretchen. not this outward visible symbol. And if you put on my ring, do you have that relationship with Jesus? Ha, you wish. I mean, with Gretchen, not Jesus. You have relationship with Him.

No, no, no, it's just an outward invisible symbol. And what we're trying to do here is Romans 6. You're going to declare Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. And then this is a picture that you are dead to your old self. And that's why, like you put somebody in the grave, to bury you in this watery coffin. That's what they look like. Don't our Baptist things look like watery coffins? That's what they are, man. You know why? Because the old you is dead and done. The old you has been nailed to a cross with all of its sin and shame. All of the accusations

that the enemy has against you past, president, future, they're done and dead and buried in the grave. And we're going to hold you under the water, not for a long time, okay? I promise we don't evaluate your Instagram to see how long we hold you under. We don't have to have you. We don't have that kind of time. We got another service after this one. The water represents the blood of Jesus that washes away our sin and the Spirit of God that fills us up. And then when you come out of that water, you are participating in what Christ has already done. And since Jesus was the prototype, the prototoco from the dead, he's the first one that came up out of the grave. Then when you come out of that grave because your old self is dead, then now you can walk in a newness of life.

and you don't have to do the stuff you used to do because the old you is dead and the new you is here. And that's what we're going to do. And every single time you see somebody get baptized, you need to remember and rehearse when you got saved. You see, because Paul's writing Ephesians 2 to church folk. He says, listen to here, church folk. Don't forget who you were. Don't forget that you two were dead in your trespasses. Don't forget that you too just a minute ago that you,

you were children of disobedient. Don't forget that God's wrath was upon you. And when we celebrate with our brothers and sisters when they come up out of the water, what we're celebrating is but God being rich in mercy by grace, not my own works, has saved me. And that is worthy of celebration. Amen. Now, Jesus says, blessed are the poor and spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. poor in spirit means blessed are the people that know that I'm spiritually bankrupt and this ain't working I can't convince you of that it takes the conviction of the holy spirit for you to realize uh oh there's a problem and the problem is me but there's a greater solution and the solution is Jesus by grace through faith for anyone who would believe and here's what I want to tell you if you realize

that your life is a train wreck right now and you need a savior, you're in the perfect place and it doesn't matter how you got there. Whether you did this to you, because some of you did, you train wrecked your life. For others of you,

somebody else did this to you, and you're probably right. But you find yourself beaten up, battered, and bruised. The scary thing is some of you're like, my life's not a train wreck. And everything on the outside is awesome, And yet, when you lay your head on the pillow at night, you know deep down in your soul and up here in your head, it's a train wreck.

Because you're like, is this it? And you know it's not it. Pastor Jim Bergen, who, by the way, is watching right now from Serbia. All right. He just texted me. He says this. There are no second chances. There are no second chances.

There's just the blood of Jesus and from now on. Oh, that's good. Listen, there are no, you don't need a second chance. You know what you do at the second chance? you just jack it up again. Me too. And so we don't need a second chance. All we need is the blood of Jesus and from now on.

And it doesn't matter how you got there. It doesn't matter how you find yourself in the place where you realize that you're a sinner in need of a Savior. You just need to know that Jesus came to save you. I told you during our staying firm series, man, the enemy is coming at my house pretty hard. Try to take my voice to my kids. a couple weeks ago, my daughter Reagan got in a car wreck, pretty good one.

She was on her way to church. You know, we just live right up the road over here. And she was riding with a lady named Alex that works with us, and Alex's daughter and my daughter are in the same small group. So they run by our house to get something, and they're coming to church, and then we get this phone call. Gretchen and I were heading the other way on Beach Boulevard. We get this phone call, and I can immediately tell it's just, you know,

it's just pandemonium. and Reagan's screaming. We've been in a wreck, we've been in wreck, we've been in a wreck, we've been in a wreck. And Gretchen's like, what? And I'd start screaming, that's what I do. You know, hey, noise, I'll join. Ah, what are we doing? What's happening?

Explain. I'm the worst. And then I hear Gretchen say, I see you, I see you. We just happen to be driving by, and we're like right out here on Beach Boulevard, and they're a couple of hundred yards away. And I can see Reagan standing in the road on her phone, and there's two smashed cars. And so I was like, I'm driving my truck. I'm like, Gretchen, you're driving.

And so I just, on the beach boulevard, just hit it in park. And you know what? Thank God. My wife, God bless her. She's awesome, man. In moments like that, she lets me lead. She didn't do, like, I don't think this is legal. And isn't it dangerous?

Yes, it's illegal and it's very dangerous. And you're driving. So I put it in park, and she jumped in the driver's seat, and I just go, I told you, if you ever seen me running, call the police, something's gone wrong. Something had gone terribly wrong. And I'm sprinting to my daughter, and I get up there, And it's a bad wreck.

It's a really bad red. And the girls, or everybody's crying, man. This girl runs this red light and runs into them. Reagan hit her head. And honestly, I'm so angry at the enemy right then. I'm so angry. You know what I spent zero time doing? Trying to figure out whose fault it is.

I didn't go up there and be like, did you run the red light? Were you driving safe? Were you observing? everything. Did you have your seatbelt on? No, no, no, no. There were people in need. And I called 911 and immediately first responders started showing up and praise God for our first responders and our first responders ministry. Because it's also awesome. Because when they did show up, they're like, Pastor Jobb. I was like, you're dang right. Let's go, boys, all right.

Listen, man, the insurance company is going to ask a lot of questions. The police are going to ask a lot of questions. There's the time to sort all that stuff out. That's a not the time to sort it out. In that moment, all I know is here's my daughter and she's in need and I'm here to help. When Jesus showed up on this planet, it wasn't to sort out all the little details of your life and point to you and tell you all the wrong things that you've done to get yourself in the car wreck of your life. But he stepped off of the throne and like a first responder, he ran to your mess and he said, I came not to condemn you, but in order that you might be saved through Jesus. It is by grace that you have been saved through faith, not your own doing.

This is the gift of God. So let me ask you, have you ever been saved? Have you ever trusted Christ for your salvation? I want to give you the opportunity to do it right now. Would you bow your head? Would you close your eyes? Without any more explanation, if today, for the very first time you are ready to put your faith in Jesus to believe that when he died on the cross, somehow that counted for you. if you are ready to receive that offer of salvation, your sins to be washed away, you to be adopted into his family right now. If you're ready to receive that for the first time, would you lift your hand as high as you can as if you're standing on the road with a train wreck of a life calling out to your father?

God, I need help. Raise your hand. The Bible says all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Our good and gracious heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you love us. And you demonstrated it at the cross. So, God, I thank you and I praise you. For these men and women, I can see right now in this very second that grace is flooding their life and flushing out all the things that we condemned them.

God, I thank you that there's salvation in your house. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, we're about to baptize people. I want to invite you to be baptized. If you've never been baptized as a believer, all you people just raise your hand, you should go. You should get baptized right now. and if you got clothes on that aren't conducive for baptism,

I mean, first of all, you live in Jack's Beats. Give me a break. You know everything about that stuff. We have T-shirts. We got you covered. You'll be cool like all the other red shirt people. If you want to get baptized, you start making your ways to both sides, okay? North and south side.

I mean, if you don't have a compass, that way and that way, you just start lining up. And if you're like, listen, if you've never gone public as a believer, as an adult, then you should do this. And to the rest of the church, we're going to celebrate, man. We have so much to celebrate. Because hundreds of times today, not only are we going to celebrate with these men and women, but we are going to be reminded that we too were dead and have been made alive.

And if you're excited about this, every single time they come up out of the water, then you come up out of your seat and lose your mind. We also, the band's going to be singing. And so let's just make much of Jesus. Jesus in this moment. Let's go.