The Church of Eleven22 - Helmet of Salvation: Stand Firm - Wk 6

Episode Date: August 18, 2024

In order to fully walk in the freedom of Jesus’ sacrifice, we must protect our mind from our own thoughts and the whispers of the enemy. We must use the helmet of salvation to crush the doubts that creep into our minds. - 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 find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen, amen. Well, well, well, look at who we have here, 1122. It's your old buddy, Pastor Britt, back for another lap around it. I'm glad to be here. If you missed last week, I am Pastor Britt, and I'm not normally the person who preaches here. Normally is Pastor Joe B. Martin, our lead pastor. Nine or ten days ago, he came down with flumonia, and he got pretty sick. and he is recovering and he's doing much better, but he's still got a bit of an aggressive cough. And so standing here and yelling at you for 45 minutes is probably not the best way for him to heal up. So I get the privilege of being here for another week, and we fully expect him to be back at it next week. And so you're stuck with me, man. I don't know what to tell you.

You're stuck with me. But hey, consider yourself blessed because you're only stuck with me for like 30 to 40, minutes. I'm stuck with me all the time. And imagine being my wife, speaking of which, we just celebrated our 18th year being married this past week. And we've known each other for 19 years. We dated for six months. We were engaged for six months, and then we got married. And the week, I was traveling doing ministry the summer leading up to our marriage, and I got back in town from being gone for like 12, 13 weeks. And we spent about a day together. And then I went to where my brother lived and I played golf with him for about four or five days. And then I showed up at my rehearsal dinner. And so that's what

my wife got herself into. And, but she said yes, praise God. And we got married. It was awesome. We got married on Lookout Mountain, Georgia at the top of a mountain in a little chapel. And a bunch of our friends and families came out to celebrate. Our fathers were both in ministry. And they performed our wedding, which was cool. And as a part of the ceremony, we made our vows. And then it comes to the end of the ceremony where my dad, in this case, said, by the power vested in me, and underneath the authority of God, I now pronounce you husband and wife. And everybody cheers. And my wife and I give each other a big sloppy wet kiss. I've never understood on the weddings where it's like you can now kiss the bride and it's like a little peck. I don't get it, man. I don't get it. Go for it, bro. You know what I mean?

let's just make everybody uncomfortable. That's what you should do. And so that's what I did. And then we were married in the eyes of everybody there that came to give testimony. We were legally married, and we got a wedding certificate. And the clergy signs it, and the notary signs it, and you take it, and you file it with the state. And we were legally married in the eyes of the state and in the eyes of God. And praise God for it.

And then we went on our honeymoon. And I don't know if it was like the second or third day, but one of those early days on our honeymoon, I woke up and realized I was legally married, but I had no idea how to think married. I was married legally. I just didn't know how to think married. And I'm not just talking about in the general sense. Like, I knew good marriage advice was like, don't be cruel to your wife. Don't talk down to your wife.

Don't make fun of your wife. Do your best to protect and provide. Like I knew generally good marriage advice, but I'm saying specifically I didn't know how to think married to my wife. right i didn't know that there was a time limit on which dishes sat in the sink too long like i didn't know i didn't know that the remote control was something that one could share uh i didn't know before we got married that my wife doesn't like to iron clothes and so i had to figure out real quick either how to become good friends with starch or make room in my budget for dry cleaning like i just didn't know

and no problem i didn't know that there was a thing called love languages and that people were wired differently with worldviews, who knew? And that my wife's love languages are quality time and acts of service. And that my love languages are physical touch and words of affirmation. So I would go over and try to give my wife a big old hug and she'd be like, oh, that's cute. There's a vacuum in the closet. You know what I mean? Like, I had to learn how to think married. I was legally married. I had to learn how to think married specific to my wife. I was married, but I had to learn how to think married so that I could enjoy being married to my wife, right? And that's what we're going to spend our time talking about today in terms of our relationship with God, is what does it mean to be

saved and what does it mean to think saved? We've been in a series called Stand Firm, where we've been looking at Ephesians chapter 6, where the Apostle Paul outlines to us the armor of God. He says, stand firm against the attacks of the enemy, and the way that you stand firm is by putting on the full armor of God. And we're going to be able to be able to be. And we, We've looked at the belt of truth. We've looked at the breastplate of righteousness. We've looked at the shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace. And last week we looked at the shield of faith.

This week we pick up in verse 17 of Ephesians chapter 6. And the apostle Paul says this, and take the helmet of salvation. And take the helmet of salvation. Where does a helmet go? On your head. It wouldn't do you a lot of good if you tried to put it on your knee. A helmet goes on your head. What's the point of having a helmet?

Well, it's to protect your mind. Paul says that if you want to protect your mind, you have to put on, take the helmet of salvation. We have clearly established through this series that the way the enemy attacks is in the battlefield of the mind and that he is sending flaming darts that you and me all day in the form of temptation and they come in the form of thoughts, impulses, and emotions. And what he's trying to do is to distract us and to divide us from our calling in life and from our purpose as being Christians and following after Jesus. He doesn't want us to be stable. He wants us to be divided and unstable. And so he tempts us around every corner with what the Apostle Paul calls flaming darts.

The battlefield is the mind. It says it this way in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, picking up in verse 4. It says, for though we live in the world, we are not waging war according to the flesh. That should sound familiar. Ephesion 6 says that our battle is not against each other. Our battle is not against flesh and blood or people that we are at war against the spiritual principalities of darkness, the demonic hordes of hell, are coming against God's church and God's people, and that is who we fight our battle against. Darkness. He says, we are not waging war

according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. The gospel is not just feel better about yourself. The gospel is not, you do you, boo. The gospel is not self-help. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and when God's people walk in the power of God through the gospel, they have the power to destroy strongholds in this world. 1 John chapter 3 verse 8 says, The reason Jesus Christ came into this world is to destroy the works of the enemy. And that you and I, as followers of Jesus, join him in this campaign of sabotage

to overthrow the strongholds in the work of Satan in our world. That's what we're doing. There are two strongholds, subtle strongholds that I'll give you today to pray into that we together can join shields of faith and we can tear it. down in Jesus' name. Number one is the subtle stronghold at work against the church and in our world of mindlessness. Mindlessness. The enemy knows that if he can get you thinking about nothing, that you're going to think about nothing good. Mindlessness. All day every day, just the temptation to have a mind-numbing reality to where we just dumb our senses down with entertainment and the

next thing so we don't really have to think because he doesn't want you thinking about the promises of God. He doesn't want you thinking about the resurrection power you have in and through Christ Jesus. He doesn't want that for you because he knows that if you think on these things, that the fruit of the gospel will begin to work in your life and that you will push back the demons of hell. And when you enter into a room and the power of the gospel, the demons will flee. And he doesn't want that. He wants us to be complacent and apathetic and stuck. That's what he wants. So mindlessness is one stronghold. Another is meaninglessness. He knows that if you wake up to the purpose for which God has you on the planet, that you will join him in this campaign of sabotage, and you will live a life

of purpose and meaning and fulfillment and joy and passion, and you will be at war against him, and he doesn't want us at war. He wants us stuck in normality. These are two subtle strongholds at work in our world. For Second Corinthians continues and says this, we destroy arguments. Whose arguments? The spirit of the Antichrist is what First John says. And every loft and opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. And we take every thought captive, every thought captive to obey Christ. Captive to what? Well, this is why Paul says take the helmet of salvation. We take it captive to our salvation. It is for good reason that the Apostle Paul calls it the helmet of salvation because it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that frees

and protects our minds. It is really, really good news. And so, So when we say the word salvation in a Christian context, what do we mean? We could use a lot of different words for it, born again, renewed, redeemed, forgiven. We could use a lot of different words. The big fancy, schmancy word is regeneration. But when you hear a Christian pastor or you read in the Bible or you hear in a Bible study group or on TV, someone say the word salvation in a Christian context, what do they mean? What do they mean?

And so it's multifaceted. It's like a 10,000-carat diamond. but I'm going to talk about four different parts of salvation today, helping us to understand what it means to be saved and to think saved. And so it's one salvation that is offered to us by Jesus Christ. Here's four different parts of that salvation that are foundational to understanding what has happened to us by grace. Number one, when we say salvation, it means this. Salvation means forgiveness. It means forgiveness.

Our sin debt is canceled. Our debt has been paid in full. Jesus Christ's death on the cross. That's what it means. Colossians chapter 2, verse 13 and 14, says, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This, he set aside, nailing it to the cross, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. So we say we are salvation is forgiveness. Forgiven for what?

Trespasses. Sins. Times that we've gone where we shouldn't have gone according to God, where we've done what we shouldn't have done according to God. And that these sins come at an infinitely high cost. Romans chapter 3 says that for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There are none righteous, no, not one. Romans chapter 6 says that for the wages of sin or the cost of sin is death. And it means that in an eternal sense that is infinitely costly. In John chapter 3, Jesus Christ says that for God so loved the world that whoever would believe on the son, the only begotten son, they would not perish, but they will have eternal

life. He goes on to say in John chapter 3 that he who does not believe is already condemned. Jesus goes to make such intentional statements like don't fear the one who can destroy the body, fear the one who can destroy the soul and cast it into hell. And these are very intense statements, forgiven for what, trespasses against God? trespasses against God, sin is what needs to be forgiven. And so what is sin? What is a right working definition of sin?

Well, this is the best one I've ever heard, is that sin can be rightly defined as any feeling, thought, or speech, or action that comes from a heart that does not treasure Christ over all things. It is a heart that gives preference to anything over God ever. Dr. John Piper says it like this. So what is sin? Sin is the glory of God not honored. the holiness of God not reverence, the greatness of God not admired, the power of God not praised, the truth of God not sought, the wisdom of God not esteemed, the beauty of God not treasured, the goodness of God not savored, the promises of God not believed, the commandments of God not obeyed,

the justice of God not respected, the wrath of God not feared, the grace of God not cherished, the presence of God not prized, and the person of God not loved. And I would add to Dr. Piper's very thorough definition that the sin is also the Goss of God, not trusted. Sin is far more than a struggle. It's not just a mere weakness. Sin is a state of being. It is a state of being, and we have a taste for it, and we were born hungry.

This is a huge problem that we cannot fix ourselves. And in the salvation that Jesus Christ offers, we find the forgiveness of sins because he is the only one who has the power and has earned the right to forgive sins. Everybody will walk one of two roads. road one is the road of self-atonement, where we will spend our life and eternity trying to pay for sins, trying to pay the cost, the infinite cost of sins. There's an awful lot of religious prescription in this world that says that offers this as a solution. If you do these religious practices enough, then you can do enough good to outweigh all of the bad.

And oftentimes we'll get caught in the mind game of trying to justify in our own mind how we can have a hope of heaven. and we begin to rationalize our behaviors against our behaviors trying to figure out and solve our own problem. And that is a road that we can choose. It just leads somewhere and where it leads is eternal separation from God. But there's another road that we can walk. And that road is that we don't trust in ourselves to pay for our sins, but we trust in Jesus Christ for the atonement for our sins.

That we trust in him to be the one who has the power and the ability and the willingness to forgive sins. Jesus Christ is the only one who can do it. We trust that when he walked on the power, the earth and he never gave way to temptation, meaning he never sinned. That in that he revealed he had the power over sin. And because he had the power over sin, he was the only one who could go to the cross and pay the just penalty for sin because without the shedding of blood, there can be no

forgiveness of sins according to God's legal system. And Jesus was the only one who could pay the price and he died on that cross, shedding his blood willfully so that sins could be forgiven, but he did not stay dead. Three days later, he rose from the dead, showing now walking in the power of God over hell, over death, over sin, and over Satan. And when we place our trust in him, all that Jesus grabbed and earned through his resurrection,

he now gives to us and we can live in his resurrected life. This is the power of the gospel. We receive the forgiveness of sins, not because of what we've done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done. Salvation of Jesus Christ offers us forgiveness. Our sin debt is canceled. Our debt has been paid in full by Jesus Christ's death on the cross.

The gospel is this, is that we are weighing over our heads when it comes to sin. It will always take us farther than we want to go, and it will leave us there far longer than we want to stay. But Jesus Christ drowned on our behalf so that we could live through him. It's the good news of the gospel. And so the enemy will fire these flaming darts at us, and he'll say you're too far gone. You've done too much. If they knew this about you, they would never accept you. You could never be accepted because of what you've done or what you've thought or where you've been.

The enemy will fire these flaming darts of doubt saying God would never forgive you for that. But we take that thought captive to the gospel underneath the helmet of salvation. And we say, I hear you enemy, but it's not true. I am clean. I am forgiven. I'm not guilty anymore. I have placed my faith in Jesus Christ and I have been made new. I have been washed by the blood.

of the lamb. I heard those words my entire life washed by the blood of the lamb. And I've been in more church services than you can imagine. And I've lit, but it wasn't until I was in my mid-20s to where I began to really, my imagination got taken captive by the truth of the total forgiveness that is available through Jesus Christ. 100% absolute forgiveness. My mind was captivated with this truth. I was sitting in a worship service much like this one and a man named Aaron was playing on the piano and he was leading us in worship and he began to give testimony before the song that he was going to sing. And he said, you know, I have struggled my entire life believing the gospel of grace, believing that I got everything and all that I brought to the equation was the

sin that made it necessary. He's like, I've just struggled to believe that I don't owe God something that that Jesus truly did all of the work. And I sat down and began to study Romans chapter 8 starting in verse one, which says, there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He goes, I really began to internalize this, and so I wrote this song, and I want to read you this song, I'm not going to sing it to you because you would be too blessed if I did that. But he wrote this song from God's perspective, and here's what it says. It says, it doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter where you're coming from. It doesn't matter where you've been. Hear me tell you, I forgive. You're not guilty.

anymore. You're not filthy anymore. I love you. Mercy is yours. You're not broken anymore. You're not captive anymore. I love you. Mercy is yours. Can you believe that this is true? Grace abundant I am giving you. Cleansing deeper than you know all was paid for long ago. There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Jesus. You're not guilty anymore. You're not filthy anymore. I love you. Mercy is yours. You are not broken anymore. when we place our faith in Jesus Christ and receive his salvation, we are not guilty anymore. So salvation means forgiveness. Salvation also means justification.

It's a legal term. There has been a legal exchange made in the courtroom of heaven. And justification means that we are declared righteous before God, our judge, because Christ took our place and gave us his righteful. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this. Pastor Jobi preached a marvelous sermon a few weeks ago on the breastplate of righteousness where he unpacked the fullness of this. But here is what it means. It means that Jesus Christ took all the bad that sin has to offer and he gave us all the good that heaven could afford.

It means that he took all the blame for all the sins of everyone who would believe and he gave them all the beauty of heaven's future. It means that he took all the sin and all the shame and all the guilt and he secured for those who would believe an eternity of acceptance. He took all the bad and we get all the good. It's a legal exchange. I'm not sure, I couldn't remember if I'd shared this story before. I think I did many years ago, but back then I had hair,

and so you'll have forgotten by now. Pastor Jobi and I were traveling some years ago, and we were in Brazil, and we were meeting with some friends there and working with some ministry partners. And so first, we went to meet with some friends at a restaurant and have a long, lunch and it was this little Italian restaurant super nice like some of the best food I've

ever had it was right next to the Copa Copa Caban y'all don't even know I had moves did you look at that y'all didn't know bricoshacus hips so we had lunch we had lasagna unto the glory of God lasagna is on my gratitude list it's the thing man I like it whoever invented chocolate and peanut butter I like them too you know Nobel Peace Prize worthy invention there that said we had lasagna and And then we got up and got in the car and we drove across town and we met our ministry partners. And we pull up in the parking lot where the team is assembled and there's some trunks open and everybody's beginning to grab snacks and materials. So when we go into this community where we're going to serve, it's a slum called crackland.

A fluella is what they would call it. And the title of it was crackland. And so we walk up to the cars and they hand Pastor Jobi two leaders of Fanta and they hand me two bags of buttered bread. And I go, no problem, man. What says Jesus loves you like Fanta? buttered bread. Nothing else, you know, it works. And so we went in to the neighborhood and we began to walk down the road. And I'm walking next to the pastor who had been doing ministry in this community for more than a decade. And I'm asking him about the ministry and what's happening.

And two, three, four times a week, they've been showing up and sharing the love of God and meeting people's needs and praying for people. And they'd been at it for a very, very long time. And as we're walking down the road, I see this huge ditch in the road. And it's like, six feet wide or 10 feet wide like six feet deep and you have to kind of like skirt around it and I'm like hey man what's up with the big ditch in the middle of the road and he's like yeah they dig it they dig out this road and blow this road out so that the cops can't get back here with their trucks and with their cars and I think huh well it doesn't seem like we're in jack's beach anymore and but we continue on and we round the corner and right in the middle of the open air there's like

four or five card tables open and on these tables are mountains of crack cocaine I'm not talking about one or two baggies. I'm talking about mountains. Okay? And there's all these drug dealers standing there with semi-automatic weapons, and there's all the drug users standing in line to buy their drugs. And the pastor that we were with walks up to the leader, the El Hefe, the boss, and says something. And that man whistles, and he does this.

And I think, what does this mean? Like, somebody's going to need to explain this. to me, you know? And everybody stops and backs away from the tables and they form this big circle of which we're kind of in the middle of it. And this young Brazilian woman begins to step forward and she starts to preach the gospel to these folks. And she begins to tell them about the love of God. And she begins to tell them about the good news of Jesus Christ and how he can change their life. And she's going on for like 10, 15 minutes. And as she's getting close to the end of sharing the gospel, I begin to have all these thoughts. And I start thinking, I'm like, I have an American passport

in my pocket. What's keeping these folks from stealing this for me? Because on the black market, that's worth a decent amount of money. Don't ask me how I know that. And, like, what if they kidnapped us? Like, what if they kidnapped us? Like, surely there would be, like, some kind of ransom. Like, I don't know that y'all pay anything for me, but for Pastor Jobie, I bet you'd deal, you know? And I start having all these thoughts like, what is keeping these men from harming us, from kidnapping us, from acting wrathful toward us? What is keeping them from hurting us and what is keeping us safe in this moment? And then all of a sudden this thought just came over me.

And I realized why we were safe. And it didn't have anything to do with what we had done. Do you think what was keeping us safe was the fact that I was holding some of the fact that I was holding some bags of buttered bread? You know, maybe it was our boyish good looks that was holding them back. No, what was keeping us safe in that moment? Nothing we had done but the pastor that we were with. He had earned their respect. He had earned the right to be heard. He had earned the relationship with all of these folks in this community. And because he was safe, we were as safe as him because we were with him. One day, I'm going to stand in judgment before God according to Jesus.

And on that day, if the question comes up, what gives you the right to enter the heaven that belongs to a holy God? The only answer I've got is, oh, God, have mercy on me a sinner. And I'm immediately going to start pointing at Jesus Christ saying, I'm with him. I am with him. It is him who did all the work. It is him who earned the relationship. It is him who has now, by grace given me the right to spend eternity with God. It has got nothing to do with what I've done. It's got everything to do with who I'm with. The gospel of salvation, the free offer of Jesus, means salvation.

It means justification that we have been justified in the legal sense before a holy and righteous God. And it also means reconciliation. It means reconciliation. It means we are no longer enemies of God, but we are no longer enemies of God, but we're we are in fellowship with him. Romans chapter 5 verse 10 says, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? The fruit of this work of reconciliation is that the sinner can say with confidence that

I was indifferent to God and now I'm in love with him, that I was in conflict with God and now I'm in cooperation with him, that I was in rebellion against God and now I'm in a loving relationship with him. The sinner can say with confidence that me being someone who has rejected God receives the free offer of his salvation, and today I rejoice in his salvation. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 says it like this. Therefore if anyone, anyone, anyone, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord can be saved. Everyone who places their faith in Jesus Christ will become a child of God. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.

The old has gone, the new is here. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he is committed to us the message of reconciliation. This is why we are on the earth, is to join Jesus in this ministry of reconciliation. We say it all the time here. Do you know what a great number in the kingdom of God is?

One more. One more is a great number in the kingdom of God. That one more person would come to hear and believe the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. That one more person would hear the good news of the gospel and receive the divine revelation of grace. That one more person would surrender their lives under the lordship of Jesus Christ and walk in the full abundant life that Jesus has to. offer. That's what we're praying for. That's what we're hoping for. That's what we're laboring forth on this earth is one more. The church, God, Jesus gave the church a great commission. He says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to

obey all that I've commanded. And we don't just want to obey the great commission. We want to see the great commission fulfilled in Jesus' name. We want every tribe, every tongue, and every nation to hear the good news of the gospel so that they can surrender their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and they can be free in Jesus' name for all of eternity. That's what we want, because we want heaven filled and the glory of God declared on the earth as the waters cover the sea. That's what we want.

That's what we're after. We are in this ministry of reconciliation. A great number is one more, so I ask you, Church, who is your one more? Who are you asking and seeking and knocking on heaven's door for? Who are you praying for and believing for and building a relationship with that you might have the opportunity to share with them

the good news of the gospel? Saturate is right around the corner. And so if you're here and you can't quickly answer that question, who is your one more, I would encourage you, challenge you even to begin to pray about that. Think about that. Look around your relationships and see who God has put in your path that he might use you so that they could be one more person added to the kingdom of God. On Tuesday night, we have elder-led prayer.

Our elders are going to lead us in a direction of praying. Between now and Tuesday night, I pray that every person that calls 1122 home will be burdened for someone by name and that will be that person's one. more and that we invite them to saturate it and we see an awakening of our friends and family happen through the declaration of the gospel who is your one more with the flaming darts of the enemy come at you and say your life is meaningless you don't have a purpose you don't have a ministry you don't have a next step you don't have any reason to be to join god in his work when he lies come at you we take those lies captive and we say absolutely not i am connected

it. John chapter 15, he is the vine and I am the branch, and in and through Jesus Christ, I will bear good fruit. We take it captive. So the salvation Jesus offers is forgiveness, it's justification, its reconciliation, and fourth is this, is that it means adoption. It means adoption. We are one with Christ the Son and are now God's children. For one reason or another, I would say it's one point in my life is because of how I was raised, but the older I get, the less I want to cast blame on the previous generation.

So I don't know exactly how I ended up here, but I had a really faulty view in my relationship with God for a very long time. And I thought that my highest and best use in the kingdom of God was to work hard for God. And I thought that was the point. And so I saw my heart. as a tool in God's hand to be used. And I went to work, man. And I did many things that were

overtly Christian. And by any measure in the human eye, you would say, that guy's a strong Christian or that guy's certainly a Christian. I did many overtly Christian things. But because I had a broken view in my relationship with God, that those things were done from this joyless, powerless place. It was very dutiful. And it was very obligatory. And it just didn't have joy. And it just didn't have power. But over time, God began to change my mind with his love and through the power of the gospel. And he began to reveal to me this truth. And he spoke it over me many times. And he began to reveal to me this truth. And God would say to me,

Ryan, you were not primarily a tool in my hand to be used. You were a son and my family to be loved. Long before God puts us to work, God adopts us into his family and lavishes his love on us. The kingdom of God is a family affair. Long before it's a team or an army, it is a family affair. Adoption. I heard a pastor named Jonathan Pekluda share this idea and it really got me thinking and it ran me down a trail. If you right now went and looked at the adoption documents for the state of Florida, one of the questions that you would encounter is this. If you wanted to adopt a child and you were filling the paperwork out, this is a question that you would come to.

And the question is, what type of child is most appropriate for your family? What a question to have to think about? What type of child is most appropriate for your family? What they're asking, and I'm sure for good reason and rooted in all kinds of expertise, but what they're asking is this, what challenges are you willing to accept on the child's behalf? I mean, what if the child has disabilities

as the world defines them? What if they have a feeding tube? What if they don't have the ability to speak well or at all? What if they have cognitive challenges? They're different. What if they've... suffered severe trauma? What type of child do you think is best for your family? What kind of

challenges are you willing to accept on the child's behalf? The gospel is this that when God looked down at me, he saw a teenage boy who was very, very angry. And he was angry at God. had just buried his mother, and he was confused, and he was hurt, he was scared, and he was this close, this close to making decisions that are really hard to come back from. And when God filled the paperwork out on me, he knew exactly what he was getting. And he looked at me, and he said, I'll take that one. I'll take that one. And today, he looks around the church of 1122 and he says that one right there who looks in the mirror and hates what she sees I'll take her that one right there who thinks he's defined by his divorce I'll take him

that one right there that is addicted to the materialism of this world and thinks that money will fully and finally satisfy I'll take that one This one over here, who's got the porn addiction that they keep going back to over and over and over again, I'll take that one. This one who has so many broken relationships that they don't know if relationships are possible anymore, I'll take him. This one who's crossed the line, who's gone where they shouldn't have gone, I'll take him. The kingdom of God is a family affair. The offer of Jesus unto salvation is the offer of adoption. It's the offer of adoption. into God's family and he looks at everyone who would believe on him and says I take them. I take them. This is really, really good news.

One of the things that I get to do here at a church is that every year I lead a daddy-daughter retreat. And I invented it, and you're welcome, by the way. And it's real good, man, I hang a lot to you. Give credit with credit to you, people. I don't want to tell you. It's a good thing. And when I invented it, I created the age limits for the daughters to be nine to 13 years old because that way both of my daughters could only attend at the same time once.

And I'm nothing if not strategic, you know? And part of this daddy-daughter retreat is that you sit down in a chair across from your daughter and the dads write their daughters a letter. And we write them a letter of affection, a letter. love letter and we looked them in their eyes and we read this letter to them. And this year, one of my good friends Jay was there and he had with him one of his adopted daughters. And he read his letter after me, which is a good thing because if he had read it before me, I never would have made through reading to my daughter. It was just this time at Daddy Dollar Retreat is just an

eye-swetting snot fest. I mean, it's just what it is. But he wrote this letter to his daughter. And this is from a father to his adopted daughter, and I want to read it to you. There's just so much gospel in it. Here's what it says. It says, my dear daughter, you were prayed for by me, your mom and your brothers, before you were born. We knew we wanted to adopt. We just knew it was in God's timing. I remember meeting your birth mother.

She loved you, but knew she couldn't care for you and wanted you to have a family who could. I remember the day your mom walked into my office and told me your birth mother had chosen our family to be your forever home. You were chosen by your birth mother to be with us, chosen by us to be in our family, and more importantly, chosen by God to be in his. I remember the first time your mom held your older brother up to see you the day you were born, and he said, Mommy, she's perfect for us. He was right. You were our princess, our first daughter, and we all fell in love with you. You are strong, beautiful, and smart. I'm so proud to be your dad, and my prayer for you is that God would give you an unshakable faith, a faith that would not only sustain you through the hard days,

but also be a light that draws others to Jesus. You are loved, you are chosen, and cherished more than you'll ever know. And today, God looks at his children, and he says, you are loved, you are cherished, you are treasured more than you'll ever know. First John, chapter three, says it like this. See what great love the father has lavished on us, has given to us, has given to us that we should be called the children of God and that is what we are. And so when the enemy comes against us and he says, you don't belong, you can't be accepted, that you'll never be a part of God's family, you can never be a part of what God's doing, you're displaced. We take that thought captive and we reject it in Jesus' name and we say absolutely not because of Jesus Christ,

I am chosen. I am treasured and I am cherished. Remember where we started. So we're going to talk about what it means to be saved and to think saved. And there are many now who are listening that have never trusted in Jesus Christ for the free salvation that he offers. Never trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins for the reconciliation, for the justification, and for the adoption.

And I want to give you the opportunity to do that. Romans chapter 10, verse 9, says that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and we believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, then we shall be saved. It doesn't say that God would consider saving us. It doesn't say that we might be saved. It says that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that

God raised him from the dead, then we shall be saved. There's three parts of this. Number one is that we admit that we're a sinner. We admit that there's a problem. When I'm reading through that long definition of sin, we recognize there's a problem and it's not out there, but it starts in here. There is a separation between myself and God, and I have a problem, and I can't fix this problem myself. I'm a sinner and I am in need. I need someone to do for me what I cannot do for

myself. I cannot forgive and pay the price for my sins. And we admit that that's the position we find ourselves. And second is that we believe. We believe that Jesus Christ is that person, that he can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, that he has done for us what we could not do. And that when he died on the cross and he pushed up on those nail-pierced hand, those nail-pierced feet, and he said the three most powerful words ever uttered in eternity when he said, it is finished, that what he means is that what is finished is the power of sin, the penalty of sin,

and one day the presence of sin, that God's people can be totally forgiven because of what Jesus Christ has done. When he says, it is finished, we believe that somehow it counted for me. And the last part is that we confess. We admit, we believe, and we confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord, that we want to be saved and we want to think saved,

that we want to be adopted into the family of God, and we want to live our life. life's walking out what it means to be surrendered unto the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Admit, believe, and confess. And so if you're here and you've never trusted Jesus Christ, I want to give you the chance to do so. You can repeat after me. The prayer is not magic.

I'm just trying to help guide the time and the words. And it's this, Jesus, pray this with me. At all of our campuses, if you want to surrender your life to Jesus, I admit that I'm a sinner, that I have a need, that I can't meet myself. I admit that I have gone where I shouldn't have gone, done what I shouldn't have said, done, and said what I shouldn't have said according to God. And I believe Jesus Christ that when you died on the cross, it counted for me. And I'm asking for your forgiveness and trusting that you are the only one who can forgive sins.

And I want to confess you as my Lord. I want to surrender my life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. At all of our campuses, if you're here and you make that confession today that you want to be saved and trust your life in Jesus Christ's hands, I would invite you to raise your hand as a confession. Let's pray together as a church. God, we thank you that today is the day of salvation. We thank you that in this house, people have trusted you for the first time. And, Father, we thank you for the good news of the gospel of grace.

We thank you that you came for sinners and you came to set us free and you came to adopt us into your family. And God, that you did all of this because you love us. And so we believe and receive your love in Jesus' name. We believe and receive that you have done for us what we could not do for ourselves. And we rejoice in salvation. We rejoice in the free gift of forgiveness. We owe it all to you, you've done all the work, and we receive it. We pray all these things by the power of the resurrected Christ, and it's in his name.

And all God's people said, amen. Amen. If you're at all of our campuses, would you please stand with me? I said it was a two-part response. We're going to respond in the way that we normally do. We're going to sing songs to Jesus, and we're going to declare his worth because today is the day of salvation. We're going to bring our first and best back through ties and offerings because God gave us his first and best in and through Jesus. Christ and we respond by being rich toward God and cheerfully giving and then we're going to pray

I would invite you to come and pray at our altars put on the helmet of salvation and surrender any thoughts that are divisive and that are working against your mind so the unity that you have in Christ we're going to surrender those things and put all the helmet of salvation let's respond together let us sing let us bring let us pray