Crossing family This week we have Matt Hessel bringing the
Word. He's the lead pastor of Life
Bridge Christian Church in Northern Colorado.
Matt and his wife, Kelly, have been married for 20 years and
have three children. But more importantly than that,
Matt has a deep passion for the local church, for preaching and
teaching God's Word unapologetically to help others
draw closer to Jesus. He wants to spend his life
making disciples and developing leaders.
Outside of ministry, Matt enjoys time with his family and close
friends, golfing, skiing, and reading.
He preached this year with us at our Uncommon Conference and I
cannot wait for all of you to hear him.
So would you please give a warm crossing Welcome to our preacher
for this weekend and my friend Matt Hessel.
Guys, how are you guys good this morning?
There we go. There we go.
Man, I am pumped to be here with you for a couple different
reasons. Number one, I love your church.
But like Clayton said, I've gotten a chance to be here
before. And I hope you know this.
I I'm getting a gotten a chance to spend time at other churches.
This place is rare. You all have an incredible
church. If I live remotely close in
either Illinois, Missouri or Iowa, may I be a part of the
crossing? The other reason I'm looking
forward to being here? Yeah.
Get excited about your church. The other reason I've been
looking forward to this is because I love your pastor.
Clayton is a great friend of mine.
I, I laugh probably too much when Clayton and I get together.
I've been with him all weekend. Look, I, I got the cuts to prove
it. He had me cutting meat all day
on Friday and I'm all bandaged up because of it.
Like, I have so much fun with Clayton, but at the same time,
there's depth there. Like I, I am a better Christian.
I'm a better man, I'm a better leader because of Clayton.
And I think you know this, but sometimes it's good to hear from
an outside voice. He's the real deal.
The same guy you see standing up
here every week is the exact same guy that you would find
behind closed doors when nobody's looking.
He's not two different people. He might even actually be better
one-on-one behind closed doors. You can't say that very often
about leaders, but you very much can say that about Clayton.
That's that's your pastor now? Yeah.
Get excited about him. Now.
I know that we're just getting to know each other.
Clayton said that my wife, Kelly, and I have been married
for 20 years. We've got three kids, Sawyer,
Georgia and Sutton. I thought I would bring a
picture of them so you can see my crew.
You want to see my family? Here's my family.
Here's a picture of my family. Parents, that's real life, is it
not? That's totally real like that,
that pictures a little outdated. My kids are a little bit older
than that now, but it's one of my absolute favorite pictures
Every year at Christmas, I asked my wife Kel, can we make that
our Christmas card this year and every year She says absolutely
not. Now we we did take our kids to
Disney a couple of times when they were younger.
I would never do that today because I don't want to take out
a second mortgage just to go to Disney World.
But it was pretty awesome taking them there, like seeing their
faces light up when your kids meet their favorite characters
or maybe seeing my face light up when I meet my favorite
characters or going on rides with them.
I was always really taken back by how pristine they would keep
that park. I mean, it's, it's pretty
impressive the amount of details they go into to make the
experience amazing for every single guest is it's pretty
impressive. So, so really, if you take all
that into account, besides the fact that prices there are a
form of larceny, besides the fact that there are insanely
long lines in oppressive heat, and besides the fact that you
have people ramming their strollers into the back of your
legs because they're not paying attention or let's be honest,
they're yelling at their own kids.
Besides all of that, I mean, Disney's pretty awesome.
It, it is an attempt to create this utopia where you experience
some kind of bliss and joy, like where the weight of the world
just comes off of your shoulders for a day.
What Disney World is trying to do in effect, is it's trying to
fulfill a longing that's in all of us.
There's a longing in every single one of us for something
different right now, maybe for things to go back to the way
they were always were, for things to actually be better.
Because you can look at how messed up our world is right
now. I mean, how many times do you
open up your phone and just scroll through your phone and
feel like, oh, I'm really glad I looked at that.
I don't, man. Everything is fear based now.
Everything looks like it's a dumpster fire.
You've got political divisions that are the most intense that
that in my lifetime. Violence everywhere.
Crime keeps going up. You've got global conflicts all
over the place. People are just at each other's
throat, man. It just the, the world's messed
up right now. Or you can look right around you
or look at what's going on in your own life and intuitively,
you know, this is not how things are supposed to be.
There's there's got to be something better.
There's supposed to be something better.
Paul talks about this in first Corinthians 15 verse 51.
Here's what he says. Listen, I tell you a mystery.
We will not all sleep. He's talking about people who
would die. We're not all going to die, but
we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an
eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the
dead will be raised in perishable, and we will be
changed. For the perishable must clothes
itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
When the perishable have been clothed with imperishable, and
the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written
will come true. Death has been swallowed up in
victory. Where, O death is your victory?
Where, O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and
the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, he gives
us the victory through our Lord Christ Jesus.
Paul's given a glimpse of heaven.
He's saying, guys, the mess that you all see right now, every
time you open up your phone or you watch the news, what's going
around you, what might be going on in your own life, the mess
has a timeline. It's on the clock.
There is victory over death. There is eternal life.
There are immortal bodies. That longing that Disney World
tries to fill in all of us, that comes way short, or maybe we
hope that success or stuff or status or sex, maybe those
things will fill that hole in all of us, but those can't
either. What Paul is saying is that
longing that's in all of us is actually a longing for heaven.
We're all meant for heaven. We are wired for it.
And that desire for heaven, it can only be fulfilled in Jesus.
John describes in Revelation 21. Here's what he said.
This is one of the coolest passages in the entire Bible.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the earth.
First earth had passed away. There was no longer any seed.
I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for
her husband. And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the
people, and He will dwell with them.
They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as
their God. He will wipe away every tear
from their eyes. There will be no more death or
mourning or crying or pain. How good does that sound?
For the older things have passed away.
He was now seated on the throne, said, I am making everything
new. I'm making it all new.
Verse 6 It is done. I am the alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end to the thirsty.
I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of
life. Those who are victorious will
inherit all of this, and I will be their God and they will be my
children. That sounds pretty awesome.
Like John's giving a glimpse of heaven.
So the first question has to be how?
How do we get that? How do we experience that?
John says there's people who are victorious.
They do. Paul says people who have been
given victory, they do. All right, cool.
So where does that victory come from?
Guys? That's a great question.
I'm glad you're asking that because that's in my notes.
So this is going to go great today.
You got to go all the way back to the beginning of 15.
We're about ready to close out this series in First
Corinthians. So Paul's going to bring it all
back to what's most important. He says this chapter 15, verse
one. I'm going to read a chunk of it
now. Brothers and sisters, I want to
remind you of the gospel that I preached to you, which you
received and which you have taken your stand.
By this gospel, you're saved if you hold firmly to the word I
preached to you. Otherwise you believe that in
vain for what I received I passed on to you.
As a first importance, here's what it is.
That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas.
That's Peter. And then the 12th after that He
appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same
time. Most of them are still living,
though some have fallen asleep, some have died.
Then he appeared to James and then to the apostles, and last
he appeared to me. He's saying, so out of
everything that I've said to you in this letter, this, the
resurrection, this is the most important thing.
Jesus walked out of his grave, which means one day you can walk
out of yours and experience eternal life with an immortal
body in the paradise of heaven with Jesus.
That's what's important. And the resurrection makes all
of that possible. No more pain, no more crying, no
more death, no more mourning, no more messed up stuff in our own
lives around us or over the world.
That and the resurrection makes all of that possible.
There was a guy named Yaroslav Pelican.
How would you like to have that name?
He was a renowned scholar for the history of Christianity.
And he said if Christ is risen, then nothing else matters.
And if Christ is not risen, then nothing else matters.
It's that important. In fact, you could say it this
way. Jesus walking out of a grave
after three days changes all the history of the world.
But if he didn't, then there's no meaning in this life
whatsoever. Nihilism becomes our only
option. You can say that the
resurrection of Jesus is actually the hinge that all of
history swings on, but what if it's a lie?
What if the whole thing's a lie? What if it's a myth?
What if it's a fairy tale? What if it's a big hoax to try
to just dupe, at this point, billions of people?
I mean, because the last time I checked, the mortality rates for
humans, is that 100%? Last time I checked, I don't
know if there's new data out, but it's still the mortality
rates at 100%. I've never seen somebody die and
then three days later that guy's walking around with a cup of
coffee like nothing happened. Like I haven't seen that.
I'm, I'm assuming you haven't either.
So since none of us have seen somebody resurrect from the
dead, let's just say for a second that the resurrection of
Jesus didn't happen. What would that mean?
Well, first of all, it would mean that your faith is
completely pointless. Christianity is not a religion.
It's not. I'll have people, especially
where I live in Colorado, a lot of people will say to me, hey,
Matt, I'm not, I'm not religious.
I'm not, I'm not religious at all.
And my response back to them will be, I'm not either.
I'm not either. Religion is what you have to do
to make yourself right with God. It's what you have to do to to
set things right to earn your way back to God, to please God.
And then you're good. Then you're in.
That's religion. So whether that's Islam or
Mormonism or Hinduism, you can fill in the blank with whatever
world religion. They're all saying the exact
same thing. They're just saying it in very
different ways. It's all about you and what you
have to do to make things right, what you have to do to earn your
way, what you have to do to please God, and hopefully you're
good at that point. That's religion.
Christianity is completely different.
Christianity is not about what you've done.
It's about faith in what's been done for you, for you through
Christ, faith in Christ. Christianity is not an idea,
it's not a perspective, it's not a principle.
It's news, good news that something happened.
And if that something didn't happen, then your faith in my
faith is completely pointless. I mean, that means this whole
church thing is a massive waste of time.
Like what we're doing right now. If the resurrection didn't
happen, this, this is a waste. Church is a really, really lame
hobby. If this is your hobby, come on.
Like there's better things to do with your time If it didn't
happen, I wasted my time getting on a plane to come here.
And you shouldn't listen to anything that I say right now.
You shouldn't be listening to me at all.
Paul says this in verse 14. He says if Christ has not been
raised well, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
He keeps going to verse 17. And if Christ has not been
raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins.
And those who have fallen asleep, those who have already
died in Christ, they're lost. If only for this life, we have
hope in Christ. If that's it, then we are all
people. We have all people must be
pitied, he's saying. He's saying that if Jesus did
not rise from the dead, if the resurrection didn't happen, then
we're fools. If the Bible says that about us,
it says we're fools because we banked everything on this one
event. And if it didn't happen, we
should be pitied because we've been duped more than anybody
else on the planet. He says if it didn't happen in
verse 30, he keeps going, then why do we endanger ourselves
every hour? He says I face death every day.
Yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our
Lord. If I thought wild beasts in
Ephesus, he's not talking about actual animals.
He's talking about people that were just they were beasts.
If I thought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human
hopes, what if I gained? If the resurrection didn't
happen, then facing risk and opposition where it's risking
your own life seems like a pretty stupid thing to do,
doesn't it? Now you know this, but
Christianity and the value system of the culture that we
currently live in, they're not very compatible together.
The world says affirm yourself, Christianity says.
Deny yourself, the world says. You do you.
Christianity says. Imitate Christ.
The world says my body, my choice.
Christianity says. You are not your own.
You were bought with a price. The world says do whatever feels
good to you sexually, as long as there's consent.
Christianity says flee from sexual immorality.
The world says live your truth. Christianity says Jesus is the
truth. There is serious opposition
between the world that we live in and the truth of the gospel.
And some people are going to get very, very upset about it.
So to follow Jesus, you're going to face opposition.
It's going to happen. To follow Jesus, you're going to
risk something. It will cost you something.
So if the resurrection didn't happen, why risk it?
Why face opposition? Why put yourself in a position
that's going to cost you something over something that
never happened? Might as well live it up.
Might as well live it up while you can.
Paul says, hey, if the dead are not raised, then let us eat and
drink because tomorrow we die. It's quoting Isaiah 22.
If the resurrection never happened the whole you do you
life philosophy that's very popular in our culture.
Which is just another way of saying humanism makes sense.
The resurrection didn't happen, might as well live it up and
live for pleasure while you can. Then he quotes a famous Greek
poet. Bad company corrupts good
character. Which is 100% true.
This is a lesson that my wife and I are trying to teach our
kids who are in that phase right now.
Hey, who you surround yourself with?
If you're running with bad company, it's going to corrupt
you. Let me say it this way.
This is what I tell my kids. Show me who your friends are and
I'll show you who you'll be in five years.
But if the resurrection never happened, then who cares who you
hang out with? Doesn't matter.
Who cares if they corrupt your good character because death is
final. Doesn't matter at all if the
resurrection isn't true. If it never happened, then
you're going to constantly be stuck in self preservation mode.
Because if this life is it, and we know that death is
inevitable, then you're going to have to self preserve and self
promote at all costs so that you get as much satisfaction as you
possibly can for yourself in this life, even at the expense
of other people. Is that really how you want to
live? I mean, if this is all that
there is, you're going to be stuck going back and forth
between I want to exploit and explore life for all that it is.
Back and forth between that and everything is a potential threat
to my satisfaction and my survival.
So I got to preserve even at the expense of other people.
I got to have it all, and at the same time, I got to avoid it all
at all costs. So your entire life, you are
going to feel this tension and every aspect of your life that's
going to make you feel like you're stuck.
Maybe you feel like you're stuck right now.
It's going to make you feel like you're missing out on something.
You'll never be content. There always needs to be more.
Or I'm always a victim about something and it's going to make
you feel like you can never experience real peace.
So let me say this, if death is the end, if it's the end, then
you would be a fool not to live to enjoy the moment.
But if death is a door, then you would be a fool to live only to
enjoy the moment. Now if the resurrection is true,
if Jesus walked out of a grave, that changes everything.
If the resurrection is true, you don't have to self preserve
because ultimately if your faith is in Christ, you win.
The resurrection actually gives you something that hedonism
cannot. It gives you the ability to live
and enjoy life without fear. You don't have to be afraid of
any kind of risk or opposition, even if it goes to worst case
scenario. Jesus died.
OK, man, I met with a guy that was planting churches in
Pakistan. He's from Pakistan.
And he asked, hey, he told me, hey, Westerners get killed over
there because they think that they're killing Christians and
Americans at the same time. Hey, brother, would you come and
teach us? And I'm like, OK, well, I have
blue eyes. I'm going to stand out, man.
If God wants me to come teach, cool.
But I mean, is that kind of reckless?
And this was his response. Brother, if you die, you die.
But he's right, isn't he? If the resurrection is true, why
do you have to fear that? Why do you have to fear risk
your opposition? Why do you have to fear missing
out? You don't.
You don't even have to fear death.
In fact, death is one of the ways that you know, you know at
your core that the resurrection is actually true.
And the way you know it's true is by how we all feel about
death. Like there's, there's sadness,
right? There's there's grief whenever
we go to a funeral or you see a tragic death on the news,
there's, there's sadness and grief to that.
Why? It's because we all know at our
core that this isn't the way it's supposed to be.
See, you and I have bought into a lie that we've been told our
entire lives. And usually this lie has been
told out of good intentions. It's an attempt to make us feel
better, but it's still a lie. Here it is.
Death is a natural part of life. That's just not true.
First of all, it's an oxymoron like death and life that they
they cannot coexist with each other.
I cannot be dead and alive at the same time.
That cannot happen. It's not true because there's
nothing at all natural about death.
Nothing at all. We weren't created to experience
death. We were created to experience
eternal life with God in relationship, face to face.
There's nothing natural about death.
It was never part of God's natural plan.
But death is very much a part of our reality right now, is it
not? Some of you know, this thing of
it. Well, it's very much a part of
our our reality today. And the reason why we experience
it today is because we live in a world that's been broken by sin
and in desperate need and hope of redemption and restoration.
That's why when people quote that part of First Corinthians
at a funeral, when they say where, where death is your
victory, where is your sin? Man, I hate it when people do
that. It's just taking that verse way
out of context because I want to stand up and say this thing is
right here. He's in the casket right there,
she's in the casket right there. That's the thing.
The thing of death is being removed later, but right now
it's a part of our reality. We live in an unnatural world
that is desperately right now waiting for redemption and
waiting for reconciliation and waiting for restoration, waiting
to come back to the plane that God always designed for it.
The resurrection of Jesus means that hope is valid and one day
that hope will be realized. Knowing the death isn't the way
things are supposed to be means we know that resurrected life is
now. Still, you might think, OK,
cool, Matt, that's I, I get it. But I think you're stretching it
a bit. OK, if you want to deny the
resurrection of Jesus, then you also have to deny history.
The very beginning of First Corinthians 15, Paul lays out
four different historical realities about the
resurrection. So if you want to deny the
resurrection of Jesus, then you have to explain these historical
realities. If you're not a Christian, have
the intellectual honesty to objectively look at these
things. Don't just gloss over them or
dismiss them, but wrestle with them.
The truth's not, not, not scared of you poking at it or exploring
it. If it's really true, it has
nothing to be afraid of. So go after it, examine it, try
to poke holes in it, look at it, wrestle with it.
And if you are a Christian, these four realities are meant
to encourage you. The first historical reality is
this, the burial of Jesus. Jesus was crucified and killed
by the Romans and then buried. This is a fact that historians
agree on. There is no debate among
scholars or historians about the fact that Jesus was killed by
the Romans. The Islam would would say that
Jesus was never crucified at all.
And then other religions would say he didn't rise from the
dead. And then other people will
explain this and say, OK, well, yeah, they killed him.
But then he wasn't really dead. He revived it three days later
in the tomb. First of all, that's just,
that's a huge stretch #1 the Romans were experts at killing
people. The Persians invented
crucifixion. The Romans perfected it.
They knew how to torture someone.
They knew how to kill him. They were not taking someone off
the cross unless they were dead. And then to just suddenly revive
3 days later, you weren't really dead, you just were unconscious.
With the amount of torture and trauma Jesus went through,
that's a medical impossibility. He was killed by the Romans.
He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and then the
Romans put guards to guard his tomb.
Joseph was a part of the the court that condemned Jesus and
Roman guards were not falling asleep on the job and they were
not being overtaken by fishermen.
So if this was all a hoax, you wouldn't write that into the
story because nobody would have believed you.
He was killed and he was buried, which leads to the second
historical reality, the empty tomb.
On day three, Jesus's tomb was empty.
Everybody at the time agreed on that.
Nobody said, oh, wait, hold up, hold up.
Jesus is right here. We just got the wrong tomb.
My bad. Like that didn't happen.
The tomb was empty. It was completely empty.
So it was empty either by means of resurrection, which was the
claim of hundreds of people at the time, or it was empty by
other means. And you have to come up with an
explanation of those means. There have been so many
different attempts to explain why the tomb was empty besides
resurrection, and none of them come close to holding water.
On top of that, the empty tomb was first found by women.
Here's why that matters. In the 1st century, women's
testimony was not permissible in courts.
So if you were making this whole story up, you would never say
that your first, your first eyewitnesses were a group of
people that couldn't testify to it.
You would have lost credibility to the resurrection claim, which
is a big claim, right, To claim that somebody rose from the
dead. You would have lost credibility
for that claim immediately. If you would have said that
women found the tomb first, you would have never said that
unless it was true. Because if it's true, who cares
who found him? The story is the guy's alive and
he's not here anymore. Which leads to the third reality
post resurrection appearances. Paul says that after the
resurrection, Jesus appeared to Peter, then the 12 apostles,
then to more than 500 people at the same time, then to James,
and then to Paul. He's saying Jesus appeared to so
many different people after the resurrection.
Most of them are still alive. So if you don't believe me on
this, and I get it, if you don't believe me, if you think I'm
crazy, if you think I'm lying, go ask them.
They're still alive. They would love to tell you.
And then there's the fourth reality, the reactions of the
other disciples, like here's what here's what happens.
Like the way the disciples reacted after the resurrection
of Jesus is one of the things that is always, this is the one
of the things that's always grabbed me.
Here's what goes down. The 12 were killed in some
pretty brutal ways, except for John.
They tried to kill John by dipping him in boiling oil.
He didn't die. So that kind of freaked
everybody out and they just marooned him on an island.
So the other eleven were killed in brutal ways.
Most of them were given the opportunity to denounce Jesus
and stop preaching the resurrection.
You can save your own life if you stop talking about this
Jesus walking out of a grave. They all refuse to.
Every single one of them willingly chose death instead of
stop. Stop talking about Jesus being
resurrected. Now here's my question with
that. Why would you die for something
that you knew was a lie? The disciples had first hand
knowledge. They would have absolutely known
whether the resurrection was true or the whole thing was a
lie. They were even accused of
stealing the body. So if they were stealing the
body, they know the whole thing's a lie.
Like why would you do that? Especially when you don't get
anything in this life from that lie.
They didn't gain financially or politically or socially from
this lie. In fact, they lost everything.
It was the opposite. They lost everything, including
their lives. So you're telling me they would
willingly give up everything, including their lives in brutal
ways for something they knew for a fact was a lie?
People will die for stuff they believe in all the time.
That happens all the time. Nobody dies for something they
know for a fact is a lie. So the only logical explanation
is to give up everything to lose your life.
It's because they saw the resurrect of Jesus.
They saw him, they heard him, they touched him.
If the resurrection is true, everything they lost, everything
they went through, everything that you're going through right
now, everything you've struggled through in the past, and the
opposition you're going to face in the future for following
Jesus because the resurrection is true.
It's all worth it, those historical realities that change
the reality of history. So because of what Jesus has
done, here's the truth. This life is the closest that
some people will ever come to hell, and that's great news.
But at the same time, this life is the closest some people will
ever come to heaven. That's terrifying.
It all comes down to the resurrection.
Do you believe it? And if you really believe it,
it's going to show up in the way that you live.
Here's how Paul, Paul ends first Corinthians 15 verse 51.
Therefore, my brothers, stand firm, let nothing move.
You always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord because
guys, because you know that your labor and the Lord is not in
vain. So how do you live like that
right now? Go back to the beginning of 15.
You got to remember what's of first importance, because
whatever's of first importance to you will drive the way that
you live. I mean, just look at yourself.
I mean, what you do, how you live, what comes out of your
mouth, what you spend your money on, what you do with your money,
what you do when nobody is looking.
Take all of that into account. And what would other people say
is of first importance to you? Ask somebody who knows you
really well and loves you enough to tell you the truth.
Would they say you live like you believe in the resurrection and
that you believe Jesus is the Son of God?
Would they say you live like you've been resurrected
yourself? Or would they say you're living
like a zombie? Zombies are walking around, but
they're still dead. Ephesians 2 says this.
This is also Paul. He says you are dead in your
transgressions and sin in which you used to live when you follow
the ways of the world. But this is a great but but
because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, He
made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in our
transgressions. It is by grace you have been
saved through faith. Are you living like you're
saved? Are you living like you're still
dead? Are you living like the
resurrection really happened and you believe it?
If the resurrection didn't happen, then believing in this
whole Jesus thing, that's for fools.
But because it did happen, because the resurrection of
Jesus is true, and it's the event in history that changes
everything, Don't live like a fool.
Live like it's real. And because it's real, it
requires a response from us. Jesus has given us victory over
death because of what he did on the cross and then walked out of
a grave. Because he's given you that
victory. We win, so we live like we win.
Maybe this whole church thing is brand new to you.
Maybe you've never walked in into a church before.
So let me say it as clearly and as simply as I possibly can.
We have broken our relationship with the Creator of the
universe. There is one God and he is
alive. He made us in his image and he
created us to have eternal life in relationship with him, but we
rejected him and we broke that relationship with our own sin.
I hate to break it to you, but you and I, we're all sinners
like we just saw. That's the truth and there's
nothing we can do to make it up. We can't earn our way back to
God. We can't pay for that sin.
But God being so rich in mercy because he's so good and he
loves us so much, He says, guys, I got this.
I'm going to send my my son. He's going to live the perfect
life you were meant to live, but you could never live it.
Then he's going to pay for your sins by being nailed to a tree.
And then three days later he's going to prove that he is God by
walking out of a grave on the cross.
Jesus wrote a check for your sins, and at the resurrection
that check cleared. Now we get to respond in faith.
I'm putting my faith in Christ and I'm going to follow Him.
It doesn't mean I've made anything up.
It doesn't mean I have all the answers.
I haven't cleaned myself up. I'm not trying to clean myself
up. I'm not let Jesus do that for
me, but I'm going to follow Him in faith and obedience.
So if I can say what the Christian life is as simply as I
can to anybody who's brand new to all of this, the Christian
life is this Know Jesus, love Jesus, obey Jesus.
The more you know him, the more you're going to love Him.
The more you love him, the more you're going to obey Him.
And the more you obey him, the more he will reveal more of
himself to you. So you'll know him even more.
You'll love him even more than you'll want to obey Him anymore
even more. It just keeps going round and
round and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper.
And there are people in this room right now.
When you interact with them, you say they're different, they look
like Jesus, they're bearing all kinds of spiritual fruit,
they're making disciples, they're humble, they're
servants. I want to be like them.
It's because they know Jesus, they love them and they obey
them, and that's what this church is doing.
You can be a part of that. It requires a response.
So if today you want to put your faith in Jesus, you come
forward, you confess sin to God, not to somebody else.
You confess sin to God because he's the one that paid for your
sin. You repent.
Repentance is gets a bad rap in our culture.
It's actually one of the greatest gifts that God gives
us. Repentance is freedom that he
gives to you. It just means to turn around and
run away from your sin. And then maybe you get baptized.
Baptism is that next step. Baptism is a picture of you
putting your faith in Christ, dying to yourself, being buried
with Christ. That's why we go under the water
and then being resurrected as a new creation with Christ.
That's Romans 6 and 2nd Corinthians 5.
Maybe that's your response. And then if you are a follower
of Christ, the way we respond to the resurrection, besides
obedience and following in faith, man, we worship.
This church has a culture of worship.
So when we get up here and worship again, sell out.
You're not performing for anybody else.
You're singing to him. You're praising him because man,
I was dead in my transgressions. I was dead in my sin, but now I
am alive in Christ because not what I've done, but because what
Jesus has done with me. What a gift.
So think about that and how you respond as we enter into a time
of decision. You just heard a very simple
depiction of what the good news is, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We win, all right? I mean, can we just claim that
for a, for just a little bit, whether you're online or in this
room, we win. We win because of Jesus Christ.
Here's what he's done so far. You've heard he's victorious
over sin. He your sin and my sin.
He's victorious over shame. Whatever shame you may have
carried into this room or wherever you're watching from,
he's victorious over it. You can't take it with you any
longer. He's victorious over death and
he's victorious over the grave. Nothing could hold Jesus down.
And and he has the power over it all.
And for those of us in this room and watching online, we've never
started an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Listen, if I could have a moment where we could just get outside
of this room, or even if it took place in this room, if I could
just sit across a table from you, or if I could just look at
you, look in your eyes, I would simply just say this.
Stop messing around with this. Stop playing with fire.
If you're walking outside a relationship with Jesus, listen,
come to him today, lay whatever you've been trying to run away
from and just lay it down before him.
That statement that Matt was kind of referring to, and I was
just kind of listening to it. I was thinking about friends and
family who are far from God, those who aren't walking inside
that relationship with Jesus. I'm thinking of some of you in
this room who may you've been coming for a while, but you're
just, you're far from God. And you hear that, that this,
this life, this is the closest that you or my friends and my
family may ever experience heaven.
And can we just for a little bit just think the gravity of that
situation? But it doesn't have to be that
way. This life is is so temporary,
it's so short. And I want every single one of
you. I want all my loved ones.
I want all my, even my enemies. I want every single person that
listens to my voice. I want you to be able to call in
the name of the Lord to be saved.
That is why we do this invitation every single week.
We give a people an opportunity just to respond to what Jesus
has called them to. Scripture says in Romans chapter
10 for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
And it's not like, Hey, you might be if you call on the name
of the Lord or hey, you could be, it says you will be saved.
And so the invitation is very simple.
And I want to make sure it's as direct as possible.
You don't you're not saved because of what you've done.
You're saved when you call on the name of Jesus.
And that is the opportunity we have.
So if you're in this room, you're watching online, now is
going to be a good time or you're going to start maybe
praying to the Lord. Maybe you're starting to call on
his name right now. Jesus, I need you.
But if you have questions in this room, we have a couple
pastors are going to be up by the baptistry underneath the
screen. They would love to answer any
questions that you may have, maybe things you're wrestling
with. Maybe you just need prayer.
Maybe you just need to figure out what is your next step.
I'm going to encourage you when the music starts and people
start standing up and starting to sing, maybe you'll just take
some steps and you'll just talk to them.
Or if you're online, there's a chat host that's there and
there's probably a link that's coming up right now in your chat
where you just click it and you can connect with someone in this
moment. But don't miss it.
Don't complicate it. Everyone who calls on the name
of the Lord will be saved. Call on his name, Jesus.
For the rest of us in this room online, those of us who have put
our trust and we are following Jesus, let's just take a moment
and be encouraged again. Yes, we win.
There's there's victory through Jesus and we've claimed that.
But be encouraged by who you're chasing after, who you're
following, how you're surrendering, how you're being
obedient, how you love Jesus. It's worth it, it's worth it.
Don't grow weary and doing good. Keep the faith, keep going.
Don't give up. Don't let the world divide you.
James Ford says man, don't be friends with the world because
that makes you an enemy of God. We don't need to have both feet
in both waters, man. Just be all in for Jesus.
Continue to imitate him. Continue to deny yourself.
Remember that you were bought at a price and He's the truth.
And seek Him every single day, not just here, not just on
Sunday mornings. So as always, these steps are
open for all of us. There's nothing special about
them. But it's an opportunity for us
to just come lay down some things before Him, humble
ourselves before Him, come close to Him and His promise and His
word. And James also says he'll come
close to you as we moved closer and closer to Thanksgiving.
Maybe you're like me. You're starting to think about
it. You're starting to think about
the people who are going to sit around your table, the family
you look forward to seeing every year.
You know what conversations are about to come, but I want you to
think about those who are far from God.
Maybe during this time you start praying for those conversations,
lifting their names up to the Lord and saying, Lord, would you
give me a boldness this Thanksgiving?
Don't let me be shy. Don't let me just go away from
my faith. Let me proclaim it and ask God
to let you share that good news. This Thanksgiving, we win
because Jesus defeated the grave.
We win because He defeated death.
We win because He defeated your sins.
He defeated my sins. And because of that, we have
every reason to praise His name. So that's what we're going to do
right now. Would you stand with me?
We're going to praise His name. He is worthy, He is worthy of it
all. Jesus, right now we lift up your
name. We we give you thanks, We give
you praise. God, thank you for the
resurrection. Thank you for what you did.
Lord, you didn't stay in a grave, You didn't stay in there,
but you rose from the dead. You walked and you defeated
death once and for all. And Jesus, I pray for that
person, those people in this room, the people listening to my
voice right now who have not claimed victory through your Son
Jesus yet. I pray right now they call on
your name. Lord, I pray for victory in
their life. I pray, Lord, for, for just
freedom in their life that they've been in bondage, they've
been in sin. And Lord, you can free them from
all of that. It is all because of what you've
done on their behalf. And so God, during this time for
us, the rest of us, let us humble ourselves before you.
Let us sing praises to you. Oh, praise the name.
King Jesus, we love you and pray
all this in your name, Amen.