The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 12: Jesus Saves Us From Religion

Episode Date: July 5, 2020

It’s a relationship with Jesus, not religious activity, that changes everything. For more information and resources on this series, visit coe22.com/bestsermonever. For disciple group curriculum please visit coe22.com/disciplegroups.

Hi, my name is Carla Norse, and this is my husband Woody. We're here at the beautiful mount of Beatitudes reading Matthew 7, 12 through 23. Please stand for the meaning of God's word. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Enter by the narrow gate, but the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to destruction. The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few.

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit. But the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit. nor can a disease tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven, on that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Hey, church, it's good to see you. You can grab a seat.

I mean that. Like, it's good to see you. See you. How good is it to be together, right? You join it online. We are so glad that you are here. Hey, if you got a Bible, you want to grab a Bible that's in front of you around you, head over to the New Testament book of Matthew.

Go to Matthew chapter 7. and we are in week 12 of studying the sermon on the mount. And we're calling this the best sermon ever, not because this will be the best sermon ever, but because Jesus is the best preacher ever, and this is probably one of the greatest teachings that Jesus ever gave. And so we've been in this thing,

we're in now week 12 of this. And what Jesus has been doing, as he's been teaching this sermon, is that he's been explaining what it looks like to live a gospel-centered life, what it looks like to have your life rooted in the good news of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And we are so easy, we're so prone to wander

like that old hymn would tell us. And so Jesus keeps pulling us back and pulling us back and pulling us back to what it looks like to live in a gospel-centered, grace-filled way. Now, here's how Jesus starts today's part. So you have to remember, He's been preaching this sermon, and it's been going on for what we know is two chapters now.

And in Matthew chapter 7, verse 12, he says, so. And so when he says so, what he's about to do, he's being a really good preacher, he's about to summarize everything that he's been teaching to this point. Jesus kind of land in the plane on this sermon, and so he's going to say, okay, listen, if you haven't caught it all, if you dozed off, if you missed a part, let me just say, summarize the whole thing, and he's going to summarize it in four, kind of four ways or four parts. So he says, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Now, this little do to others, what you would have them do to you is called the golden rule. It's famous, but Jesus didn't call this the golden rule. In fact, it didn't get called the golden rule for about 220 years, 200 years after Jesus's life, guy named Emperor Severus,

who's a Roman emperor, he had this saying inscribed in gold above his throne. And so people would see it and they would just call it, well, that's the golden rule. And that's how it got its name. And when we read it, it looks so nice and so sweet and so innocent, doesn't it? Just treat everybody the way you'd want to be treated. But it's deceptively sweet. And the question you have to ask is, well, why would Jesus teach us to treat others the way that we would want to be treated? And he's teaching it. Remember what I said. He's summarizing the whole sermon on the Mount in these four ways. And so this is one of the ways he's saying, everything you've heard me teach, you can boil it all the way down to treat others the way they want to be treated. That you can summarize, he even says it,

for this is the law and the prophets, meaning you could take the whole Old Testament and boil it in Jesus' words all the way down to this. You don't have to know all 613 laws that are in the Old Testament. You can boil it down to this one saying. And this wasn't really Jesus's idea. this wasn't like a new thing that he made up. He's kind of paraphrasing Leviticus 19 verse 18. And when he says that, it says, well, love your neighbor as you would love yourself. In fact, later in Matthew, we'll see Jesus gets cornered by some of the religious leaders and they try to trick him and they ask him.

So Jesus, what's the number one law? Out of all the laws, what's the number one law? And he goes back to Deuteronomy. We've been studying this for almost two years now. And he says, Here O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. It's the beginning of Deuteron. And then he says, you shall love the Lord your God

with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then he tacks on this saying out of Leviticus and you'll love your neighbor as yourself. And so Jesus would say this saying all the time as a way to summarize kind of everything that was taught in the law and the prophets in the Old Testament. The other reason that he's saying it is, if you haven't caught on, the whole sermon on the mount is just Jesus raising the bar and raising

the bar and raising the bar and raising the bar to the point where we would just go, Jesus, I can't do this. To which Jesus would say, exactly. So come to me. So come to me. And when he raises this bar, there had been a code that had been kind of a primitive law code called Hammer Rabbis Code that had been around a long, long time. And it was the old saying, an eye for an eye.

You've heard that? And so when Jesus says this, he's countering that code. That code says, you deserve to get what you put out. And Jesus says, no, no, no, no, don't treat people that way. You give them what you would want. In fact, there was a famous rabbi that lived about the time of Jesus. His name was Rabbi Hillel. And this is, he had a saying that was almost exactly like this.

He would say it, that which is hateful to you, do not do to another. that is the entire Torah or the entire first five books of the Old Testament. But do you hear that saying? I mean, that's just like, just don't do anything wrong. Just don't hurt anybody. There's a real passiveness to that. And everybody would have said that saying, and everybody would have known that saying.

And so when Jesus says, treat others the way you want to be treated, there's a real effectiveness to it. There's a real engaging that comes along with it. And then the other way, The other reason I think Jesus says this is, who do you treat the best? You. Who do you give the most grace to?

You. Who are you the most forgiving of? Who are you the most understanding of? Who do you care the most for? You. And so Jesus would say, well, if you're going to be that caring and that graceful and that merciful and that understanding to you, why don't you do this to everybody else? because when you act that way to everybody else,

you're actually living out everything that I've been teaching you, this gospel-centered way of living. And do you remember the WWJD bracelets? WWJD said for, what would Jesus do? Did anybody have one of those? Raise your hand. If you've got one, raise your hand. Anybody wearing one right now?

I'd love it if you know. Okay, so it was kind of cool. If you missed that fad, you're lucky. Way to go. But I had this idea of not remember, making a WWJD bracelet, but I had a different one, and one of the ladies on staff made a prototype for me. This is a genius business idea. I'm just telling you, you can take this one, run with it, just cut me in on half, but we'll pay for our kids' college with this thing.

And it's not WWJD, it's HW, IWTBT. That's it. I know it's a little long, but you'll get it. It's how would I want to be treated? Right? Because, I mean, the WJBJD thing is great, but But I don't always know what Jesus would do. And when I do know what Jesus would do, I don't even know that I can do what Jesus would do. Like sometimes Jesus would show up and stick his fingers in people's ears. I don't know that you can do that right now. Or Jesus would walk up and spit in the dirt and make a bunch of mud and slap it on a blind guy's eyes and then he would see. I can't do that.

I don't know about you. That's great, Jesus. You can do that. I don't think I can do that. but how would I want to be treated? Think about that. So should I break up with her over text? How would I want to be treated?

Or should I lose my mind at my kids? How would I want to be treated? Should I publicly call out that employee in the meeting? Well, how would I want to be treated? Should I gossip? How would I want to be treated? Should I talk to the guy next to me on the air plane. No. You don't even have to ask the question. No. Never. Put your headphones in like the rest of

normal humanity. Mind your own business and quit talking to the person next to you. Don't do that. Should I do a shady business deal? How would I want to be treated? Should I answer that call that I know is going to take an hour? But they really need to talk. How would I want to be treated if I was on the other end of that? Should I ask for forgiveness? How would I ask for forgiveness? How would I want to be treated? Should I share the gospel with my friend? Should I tell him about Jesus? How would I want to be treated knowing what I know about Jesus now? Should I base the value of another human being on the color of their skin? How would I want to be treated? How would I want to be treated? And for some of us, the bracelet's a great idea. For some of us, you need to get a

Sharpie marker out tonight and like write it on your on your wrist. Some of you need to get a tattoo of HWIWTBT. Like if you get that tattoo done, I'm just telling you, send me an email. I'll take you to lunch. I think that would be super cool. But what are you, what are you facing right now? There's something, every single one of us are facing something right now. That it seems really complicated and it seems really messy and it seems really sticky.

but this will answer it. You know what to do, don't you? That's why Jesus gives us this thing. See, here's the good news in this. Religion says you get what you deserve. Religion says you get what's fair. Religion says you get what's coming to you. But here's the good news of the gospel.

Do you really want what's fair? Do you really want what you deserve? I don't want what I deserve. I don't want what's fair. I don't want what's coming to me. And here's what Jesus says. Jesus says, I'm not going to give you what's coming to you. I'm going to take what's coming to you.

Judgment, wrath, and justice against your sin. That I'm not going to give you what's fair. I'm going to give you what you need and what you need is grace. And I'm not going to give you what you deserve. I'm going to give you what I deserve. That if you are a Christian, if you are a follower of Jesus, do you know what you get that Jesus deserves? You get to be called a child of God.

Jesus says that you will be an heir and a co-er with him in the kingdom of heaven. That's what Jesus gives you. That's the good news that the gospel. So Jesus kind of sums up all of the sermon on the mount the first way by saying, hey, listen, it's a real simple question. How would I want to be treated? And then live that way. Then in verse 13, he says, this is the second way he summarizes.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. and those who find it are few. Now, if you just, if you kind of read that, like Jesus is just talking about treating others the way you want to be treated,

and then it's like he just double clutches and goes talking about gates and paths and ways and few and just, like, what in the world is he talking about? But again, he's summing up everything that he's saying. And the gate is salvation. He says, you enter. by the gate. And the way

is the way we live out our salvation. In fact, did you know that Christians weren't called Christians right away? It took years and years and years until the church was planted in a place called Antioch. And it wasn't until that, years later, that Christians were called Christians.

Christians were just called followers of the way. And so Jesus says, listen, there is a wide gate. and there is an easy way and lots of people take it. Can you just hear your mom seeking to you? If everybody jumped off the bridge, would you do it also? Yeah, mom, I would actually.

But there's a wide way, there's an easy way and many, many, many people take it and that way leads to destruction. And the word actually is, that way is wasted. Like it just leads to nothing. He says there's another way that's got a narrow gate, an easily missed gate, like you could just pass by it if you're walking on the road. And there's a hard way. Like following Jesus just isn't easy believism.

It's not. And few people take it. Not everybody walks through that narrow gate. And not everybody walks down that hard way. but the few that do walk through that narrow gate and walk that hard way, the promise is life. In John 1010, Jesus said, I came that you might have life and life to the fullest. Now listen, what Jesus is saying here is that the way of salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone. and Jesus would say other things like this all the time

that would honestly get him in a ton of trouble. Like in John 14.6, Jesus would say, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I am the life, nobody comes to the Father except by me. Or he'd say things like in John 10, 9, I'm the door. If anyone enters by me, he'll be saved. John 11, 25, I am the resurrection and the life.

And Luke would say a similar thing. There is, in that X 412, there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. Now listen, I know what you're probably thinking. It's like, come on, Adam. That is so exclusive. Like that, I mean, that just, how can you say that? How can you be so exclusive about it?

I mean, don't, one way it's kind of posed is like, I mean, isn't there just a mountain and there's a bunch of different paths that all lead to the top of the same mountain? I mean, aren't we all kind of finding our way around? Sometimes it's posed like, hey, there's an elephant, and then there's three blind guys, and one of the guys grabs the tail,

and he thinks it's a rope. Another guy grabs the leg. He thinks it's a tree trunk. Another one grabs the trunk. He thinks it's a snake. Isn't that so arrogant of you? The only problem is it's really arrogant to say you're the one and everybody else is blind and they can't see.

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus comes and opens our eyes. We're not blind. He makes deaf men hear so that we can actually hear and know the way. Or that idea that there's a mountain and it's kind of one mountain and all the roads lead to the same mountain. Here's the problem. Not all religions have the same God, have the same deity. Like Islam has Allah.

And Hinduism has 330, at least 330 million different gods. Buddhism doesn't have any gods. New Age, you are God. Atheism, there is no God. Christians say there's one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We're not even on the same mountain. They all contradict each other about who God is. They all have different views of who God is.

And the destination isn't the same place. For in Islam, it's paradise. In Hinduism, you're just trying to break out of the cycle of reincarnation. In Buddhism, the goal is nirvana or enlightenment. In New Age, it's sort of an objective, reality. You're trying to break out and not have any reality. In atheism, there is no destination. Eat, drink, be merry, get it while you can. Christians say there's a new heaven and a new earth. And then the paths aren't leading to the same place. So you have different mountain peaks. You actually

have different mountain ranges and you have different paths all along the way. Islam would say, listen, there's a five pillars that you have to follow. There's things you have to work in order to earn your way to get to paradise in order to please Allah. Or Hinduism would say there's karma. Right? Karma is you do good, you get good back in the next life. You do bad, it goes really bad in the next life. Or Buddhism would say there's an eightfold path

to extinguish your passions. It's works. New Age would say there's a consciousness that you have to try to attain, a mindfulness that you have to work at in order to reach their version of salvation. Atheism would just say, Carpe diem, seize the day, but it's a works-based thing. And Christianity would say, trust Jesus. and so in a sense all world religions in some way are the same because they're all man-made attempts to get to God and they're all attempting to do the impossible and at the end of the day they're all leading to a place that's all for not but there's really good news

Jesus's way is not another man-made attempt to get to God Jesus's way is a declaration that he came to us. That in essence, Christianity isn't even a religion, it's a faith. Because a religion is something you have to do in order to earn your way up to God, and a faith is a trust that it's already been done for you. It's fundamentally different. And the good news of the gospel is that we're not trying to make it up a mountain. Jesus said, in fact, there is the mountain.

and I came down the mountain to get to you. It's been the entire story of the Bible. God creates Adam and Eve. It goes real well for about a page. Then the wheels come off the entire thing and do you know what God does? He walks in the cool of the evening, calling out to them.

He moves towards them. There's a story in the Old Testament of the Bible. It's called the Tower of Babel. Most of the time, we tell it as a way to like, here's how all the languages of the earth happened. But really at the heart of the story of the Tower of Babel is that the people were trying to build a tower in order to attain their way to God.

They were trying to show how great they were that they could get closer and closer and closer to God. And God was like, that's not the game I'm playing. And he knocks it down. Because God's saying the game, the thing that I'm doing is not you get to me, it's me come to you. every Christmas. I mean, I love presents.

I love the decoration. I love the music. I love the food. I love everything there is about Christmas. But Christmas at the root is a radical declaration that God did everything necessary for him to be with us. That he came to us in Jesus.

Christianity is not be good enough to get up to God. It's that God came and come. condescended and came to us. And then if you go to the very end of the book of Revelation, the way this whole thing all comes together, here's what John writes in Revelation 21, verse 3. Now the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them. And they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. The promise is not that we go to be with God, it's that God in the end comes to be with us, that He dwells with us forever. And it actually ends the entire Bible. Go look at the very last words.

If you've got a Bible, flip over to the very last page and read it in Revelation 2220. He who testifies to these things, this is Jesus, says, surely I am coming soon. And then it says, Amen, come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. The last promise of Scripture is that Jesus is coming to be with us. And the last prayer of scripture is Jesus, please come be with us. The good news of the gospel is not that we go to God,

it's that God has already come to us. And he came on a rescue mission to seek and to save. and that he'll dwell with us forever and ever. And the good news also is that Jesus took the narrow gate and the hard way for us. That when he laid down, he was in heaven. And he laid down his robes, his royal robes, stepped off his throne and stepped into humanity. He took the hard way. And when he lived a perfect life without sin, It said that he was tempted in every way that we would be.

He took the hard way. At the end of his life, sitting in the Garden of Gassimony, sweating blood out his pores, he took the hard way. They drug him across the valley, up into the high priest's house, locked him in the dungeons underneath his house, took him out, beat him, he took the hard way. It took him over.

They beat him again. cat of nine tails he took the hard way they put the cross on his back Jesus took the hard way for us dragged him out to the crossroads in a garbage dump outside of town and they put him on the cross and he bore the weight of the sin of the world and he took the hard way and that's the gospel and the paradox of the whole thing right a paradox is two things that seems to be a hard way that seems like you can't figure out how they go together and yet they're true all at the same time is that the gate is narrow because it's only found in Jesus and we have to walk through it but it's open because everyone gets in exactly the same way by grace through faith in him

and the way's hard because it costs Jesus's life and it demands that we walk that way but it's also light. Jesus said, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Like if you are weary and tired, trying to walk the so-called easy way and it just never seems to work out.

If religion just beats you down, Jesus said, come to me. I'll take that weight. I'll bear that weight for you. I will walk the hard way. for you. Take my yoke. It's easy. It's light. So he says, that's what I've been teaching you all along. And then he goes into verse 15. This is the third time he sums it up. And he says, beware. Like, watch out. You've got to be discerning about what I'm about to tell you. Beware. Beware of

false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing. But inwardly, they are ravenous. wolves. True prophets always point to Jesus. False prophets always point away from Jesus. True prophets always point to the narrow gate. False prophets always point to the wide gate. True prophets will always point you to the hard way. False prophets will always point you to the easy way. True prophets will always point you to life and life in the fullest. And the thing about a false prophet is, Godwardly, Jesus says, they look like a sheep. They look sweet and they look innocent and they look like all the rest of everybody else.

But inside, they are ravenous wolves. They are bloodthirsty killing machines. And they come to seek and kill and destroy. But here's the thing. I think it's easy to think about false prophets. It's like, oh, those people that preach false doctrine and that is true. But here's the thing that I thought about this week.

I can be my own worst false prophet. Can't you? I mean, can't you? I can point myself in the easiest way possible. I can diminish the call of Jesus for my convenience and my comfort so easily. I can, if I'm left to my own devices, I can sort of water down the teaching

so that it doesn't make anybody upset and it doesn't ruffle any feathers. And I can be my own worst false prophet. Where are you? Where do you have the tendency to widen the gate and ease the path? So Jesus says, you'll recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes

or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit but the disease tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a disease tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down, thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits.

It bugs Kristen, my wife, to no end. When I eat like a piece of fruit, I'm like, this is the best apple. Do you see how crunchy this apple? or this apple's so mealy or like, taste this strawberry. And she's like, I know what a strawberry. I'm like, no, but it's really sweet. It's really good.

These are the best grapes. She's like, I quit. Stop. Bugs her. Jesus is saying, you got to, you want to know whether you're entering through the narrow gate and hard way, whether you got a true prophet or a false prophet working in your own heart or around you. You look at the fruit. Not at the size of the fruit, not at the amount.

amount of the fruit, you look at the quality of the fruit. Paul in the book of Galatians, he's right into a brand new church, a church plant. And in Galatians chapter 5, verse 19, he starts, and he's going to explain what bad fruit is and what good fruit is. He'll call bad fruit, the works of the flesh. He'll call good fruit, the fruit of the spirit. So this is what he says, starting in verse 19. Now the works of the flesh, so bad fruit, are evident, meaning it's wide, it's easy. You'll see lots of people doing this. The works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,

sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissension, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I don't even know what goes in that junk drawer. Like things like these. What else is there, Paul? And then he says in verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If you want to know where God is leading, the spirit of God will always lead you in a direction

that produces the fruit of the spirit. you'll always act in a way that produces the fruit of the spirit it'll lead you towards the fruit of the spirit god will never lead you towards works of the flesh i love one of the things that i love about our pastor is that you can see the fruit of the spirit and pastor joby you can you can see it you can see a joy of the lord in him you can see a love and a kindness that that runs deep. You can see it in our elders. You can see it in our other pastors around here. It's one of the things that I love. And John says, John the Baptist says in Matthew 3 that we should also produce a fruit that's in keeping with repentance, that it's not that

we're all perfect, but when that we aren't producing that fruit, that we would repent and that God would produce a fruit out of that repentance. And that's a good fruit. And the world will say, you work real hard and you produce your own fruit. And Jesus says, no, no, no, you come abide with me. You come stay with me. You come sit with me. You come rest with me. You come spend time with me.

And I will produce a fruit in you that you could never produce on your own. And the good news, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus is our good shepherd. You know, shepherds have a hook, a crook. right? And on one end it's got a big hook and that hook is for reaching out and grabbing lost sheep and pulling them back in. And then the other end of the stick is for beating off wolves. And Jesus is our good shepherd. And he pulls back in lost sheep. And on the cross, he beat down the ravenous wolf of Satan. And he killed him and he destroyed him. And he rose from death and victory. And Jesus is the perfect prophet. He is the true prophet. And then Jesus goes on in verse 21.

And he says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And cast out, demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name, then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Can I be honest with you? This scares me to death. I'm a professional Christian. Like I've been in ministry for 24 years, full-time ministry. I got like titles in front of my name and letters after my name. I used to know Greek and Hebrew really, really well. Not so much anymore. It's been a minute.

I know lots of Bible. I know lots of theology. I mean, I've been there. We prayed for people and watched them get healed. And I imagine God going, that's great, Adam. You know a lot of Lots of Bible, so does Satan. You know lots of theology? So does Satan. Satan seems to be able to move demons around just fine. Good for you. You prayed and miraculous things happened.

The warning in this is that our religious works and our religious activity and our religious words don't save us. Jesus saves us. Jesus saves us and he doesn't save us according to our good behavior Jesus says did I know you

like in the Bible the term no carries this real intimacy with it it is a relational term that Jesus would say do I know you like it's not knowing about

it's trusting in like a relationship Religion would say know a bunch of religious teachings, and Jesus would say, know me. And religion would say act right, and Jesus would say, love me. And religion would say, believe some information about Jesus, and Jesus would say, no, believe in me. And religion would say, bank it all on how good you can act. And Jesus would say, no, bank it all on how good I act. And so the question for every single one of us is do you know him?

Do you know Jesus? And does Jesus know you? Does he know your heart? Do you love him? Do you treasure him? Is your greatest joy found in Jesus? Do you know how good he is? Do you know that he came on a rescue mission for you?

Do you know that Jesus did that for you? I mean, can you imagine standing before God? And he looks at you and he says, that's great. You said, Lord, Lord. And you went to church all the time and you did lots of religious activity all the time, good for you, but I didn't know you.

Depart from me. You don't have to ever hear that. You don't ever have to live in fear of hearing that. You can live with the assurance that you will stand before God and you will hear, well done, my good and faithful servant. You can live with the assurance that you will hear, come on, come sit at this banquet table with me forever. Come here, come sit on the throne next to me and rule and rain.

Come here, come be an air in a coat. with my son, Jesus, come here, my child, come here. You can live with that assurance. And it's not based on what you've done. It's not based on your religious works. It's not based on your activity. It's not based on you trying to earn your way up to God, but knowing that God made his way down to you. It's walking through the narrow gate that Jesus walked ahead of you and opened up for you. Do you know him? Do you know him? Do you know him not as Lord, Lord,

but as Savior and Lord? Do you know him as the one that created you? The one that knit you together in your mother's womb? The one that counts the hairs on your head. Do you know that he knows every breath that you take and every day that you will live? Do you know that he knows that about you? Do you know that he came

and lived the life that you and I should have lived. Do you know that he came and died the death that you and I deserve to die? Do you know that they put him in a tomb? And three days later, death couldn't hold him and he got up out of the grave. And he walked around for 40 days saying, if you would confess with your mouth

and believe in your heart that I've been raised from the dead, you will be saved. You will know on the day, that you can stand before God. And here, I know you. I know you. You don't have to live in fear.

You can live in assurance of the promise of Jesus. If you will know him. And so right now, I want to give you the opportunity. If you have never said to Jesus, Jesus, you are my saved. and my Lord.

I want to know you. I want a relationship with you. I want to bank everything on you, not on me on you. I want to accept that you came for me on a rescue mission for me. If you've never done that, I want to give you that opportunity right now.

And there's nothing magical about it. Raising your hand doesn't do anything. But it's your heart. Would you say to Jesus, Jesus, I want to know you and hear him say, I know you, my child. Would you bow your heads right now and pray with me? And if for the first time, if you want to know Jesus as your Savior and your Lord, right now, would you raise your hand?

If you're in this room, would you raise your hand wherever you are? If you're joining us online, look at the person next to you and say, I just want to know Jesus for the first time as my Savior and my Lord. And live with the assurance that you are as child. Heavenly Father, I thank you. I thank you for Jesus. I thank you for the teaching of the sermon on the Mount. I thank you that you came not to just give us good tips and good tricks and good methods

to be better versions of ourselves, but because of your richness and mercy and your love for us that while we were dead in our sins, you made us alive together with you. Lord, we can't do it. Only you can. Only you can speak life into these dead bones. And so God, I thank you for the life

that you have breathed into people today. So Lord, may we respond and worship. God, as we sing to you, would it be a declaration that we love you and that we know you? Lord, as we give, may be out of an overflow of gratitude from our heart, not of compulsion, not as a religious work or an act to somehow try to get you to love us or accept us

because you already did it in Jesus. And Lord, as we pray, would you just hear the gratitude? Would you hear the love? Would you hear the repentance? And would you bear fruit of repentance in that? Lord, we love you. We worship you.

We sing to you. We glorify you. We honor you for the life, death, the resurrection, and assurance of salvation in your son, Jesus. We pray it in His good name. Amen. Would you stand

and let's worship together.