My name is Chris. It's good to be here. Past Chad is away. So just lean to your neighbor and say, it'll be better next week.
Hang on. It'll be all right. Yeah, Past Chad and Darla out of town, they've got a baby shower. They're going to be grandparents.
So, which I just realized I think I outed. So I want you to start calling like Grandpa Harvey. Can you start calling him Grandpa Harvey? Oh, old man Harvey.
Can you start doing that? Don't do anything like that to Darla. Darla is eternally young, but Pastor Chad, you can call him Grandpa Harvey.
Just don't tell him I said that, okay? Well, we're going to take a moment and pray. I've got two families in my mind today. They came to my mind this morning.
They came out of our church. As you know, we're a mission-setting base. We send people overseas. This daughter and her husband, they're serving in Eastern, almost in Eastern Russia, Eastern Europe. Right, Bob?
Eastern Europe? That'd be safe. All right. And then there's another family called the Spinks, and we could go through a whole list of families, but they're just on my heart, and they're in the Silk Road. Could you take a moment with me and pray for them?
Can we do that? Father, I just lift up those, both those families, the Weglies and the Spinks. They both have a family with lots of kids and young kids, and they're both going through the adjustment of living in a totally different culture. I pray for health for them and strength for them and favor for them. I pray for friendships for their kids that'll last a lifetime. Father, I pray your favor upon them. I pray their ministry be effective, and as they learn languages, would you give them that gift of language, Father? And we pray, Father, that you enable us to send more and more people on the field to those places that are closed to the gospel.
In Jesus' name, amen. Can we say hi to our Benson campus and our North Valley campus and online? It's good to have you guys with us. And we're going to, wow, somebody's really excited.
I'm really excited about that Benson campus. So we're going to be in First Timothy chapter two here in verse five, continuing Pastor Chad's series on First Timothy. If you've got your Bibles, we'll be there in a moment. I encourage you to bring your Bible or have it downloaded on your phone or something like that, and be in the Word of God every day.
Learn to feed yourself, amen, the Word of God. The 8 a.m. crowd really missed you guys. They really wondered where you were, and we've got lots of room at 8 a.m. And so how many of you are feeling led to come earlier? You're feeling leading by the Spirit. I got one hand down here. I got one hand. Praise the Lord, I'm an evangelist.
That's 100 hands in my mind, 100 hands. So I'm going to give you a little context for this passage. I'm a bit of a history geek, and so I do like creating context. Some of this stuff you've already heard from Pastor Chad on Timothy, but just may bear repeating.
I like to know a passage and what's going on in the moment. First Timothy was written around A.D. 63. Remember, Jesus' ministry ended somewhere around A.D. 30 to 33, so this is roughly about 30 years later. And a guy named Paul, who hated Christians and was persecuting them, was actually noted as having stood there and watched over the garments of those who were killing Stephen, the first martyr in the church, was stoning him. And of course, as you know, Paul had this experience with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Where he was going to persecute more Christians. And at that time, really, Christianity in the first couple of years was really primarily Jewish people. Jesus, of course, was Jewish, and their disciples were all Jewish, and it was really Paul who really began to break out and share that message with Gentiles, or in the Greek, ethnos, which means, where we get a word, ethnic, people groups. And so Paul began to take what we call missionary journeys around the Roman world, around the Mediterranean.
Particularly in what would be called today, modern day Turkey, and over into what we call modern day Greece, and then other parts of the world as well. And he had established a church in Ephesus, in fact, they got a map they're gonna put up here behind me, and it'll show a little orange dot with the word Ephesus on it, and this is where Timothy is when he's receiving this letter. And Paul is over in, where it says Greece and Athens, he's over there.
In Macedonia, but he's up in that direction. Paul had just gotten out of prison, he'd been in his first imprisonment through A.D. 60 to 62. Scholars believe he was martyred and killed by Nero in A.D. 64, because Nero blamed the great fire of Rome on Christians. And in fact, we think both Peter and Paul were killed because of that. And so Paul gets out of prison in Rome, and decides to go to Macedonia and visit the churches he had planted, and these would be home churches, really. And the early church initially met in synagogues, and then he sent Timothy over to Ephesus, because there were problems within the church. See, problems in the church are not unique to now, right? Because the church would just be perfect if it didn't have people in it.
If we could just have no people, especially me, it would be really perfect. So the church was experiencing problems from without, it was experiencing persecution, and problems from within. And one of the things that happened is that there were some, what were labeled false teachers that had risen in leadership in the church in Ephesus, and were teaching a false gospel, and were also speaking against Paul's authority as an apostle, which is a fancy word for an overseer. And so Paul had sent Timothy to Ephesus to do this. In fact, Paul had sent Timothy to three previous church assignments, Thessalonica, and Corinth, and Philippi, so Timothy was like a Sunday ministry. And Paul writes a letter, and the letter he writes is not just meant for Paul, I mean, pardon me, for Timothy, it is also meant for the church to hear. And some of the studies I did in the past that we're gonna read say that verse five in particular, we're gonna read in a moment, may have been an early credal statement, which means a doctrinal statement, a dogma statement, okay?
And that Paul was referring to this. You know, the way we look at the world is called a worldview. You may have heard that before, they teach on it in philosophy classes. And a worldview is just the way you look at the world, and it's the lens through which you look at the world through the values of life, the values you hold to be true. A worldview has sets of rights and wrongs in it. A worldview has a faith element in it of is there a God, is there not a God, who is God, right? A worldview.
And the Christian worldview has certain truths that we hold to, and Paul is bringing the church in Ephesus back to a core, central truth about Christianity. And so I'd like you to stand with me. We're gonna be reading in First Timothy chapter two, verse five, and they're gonna put that on the screen in the English Standard Version, and I'd like you to read it with me out loud. Can you do that with me? You guys ready?
Alright, let's go. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth. I am not lying. A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Thank you.
You may be seated. God has blessed in the reading of his word. It's important to be in the word daily. I encourage you to be a person that gets a little bit of the Bible in your life every day as much as possible. I had a friend of mine give me a New Living Translation Bible. It's a little less word for word, so not quite as accurate, but my favorite study Bible is a New Living Translation Illustrated Study Bible. If you're looking for a good study Bible, that Bible is incredible as a study Bible. It's huge. It's not one you wanna carry around.
It's like a weapon. But First Timothy 2.5 in the New Living Translation says it this way. For there is one God and one mediator, we're gonna talk about what a mediator is in a moment, but that mediator is of course Christ, who can reconcile God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus. That's that potential early creedal statement.
He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave the world at just the right time. And I have been chosen as a preacher and apostle to teach the Gentiles, ethnos, the nations, right, non-Jewish people, this message about faith and truth. I'm not exaggerating. In the ESV it said I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying. You kinda see where Paul is defending himself here against accusations of him not having the right claim to leadership over the church in Ephesus.
I'm not exaggerating in the New Living Translation, just telling the truth. You could probably sum up this creedal statement with these words, one God, one problem, one solution. There is one God, there is one problem, there is one solution. Philosophers tell us that almost every human being will ask themselves five questions about life.
Maybe they wanna ask him as a child but if they're an adult. And these questions have to do with origin, identity, purpose, morality, destiny. Gonna get a cup of coffee here and take a sip. Thank God we haven't made caffeine a sin yet. Hallelujah. I think I quit the ministry. Alright.
Yes, I'm addicted. Okay. Origin, identity, purpose, morality, and destiny. What do I mean by origin? Sometime in your life you may have asked this question, who did I come from? I don't mean your mom and dad, but I mean a question of creation. Who made all this? Is there a God?
If so, who is he? Origin question. Most human beings will ask that question about life. Where did all this come from? Identity, who am I? What is my identity? What is my place? What is my role? Purpose or meaning, why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? Morality, how should I live?
Boy, our culture is really struggling with this one. How should I live? What is the standard of right and wrong? Our culture doesn't even want to believe there is a right or wrong. How should I live?
What is the standard of right and wrong? Destiny. Where am I going? And more specifically, what happens when I die? Who did I come from? Who am I? Why am I here? How should I live?
Where am I going? Origin, identity, purpose, morality, destiny. These are questions everyone asks, and every worldview needs to be able to answer. And everyone has a worldview, right?
Whether or not you know it, you do. Some people put their faith and trust in science. Some people may be like my dad's dad that was given up as a young man for adoption during the Great Depression and really saw God as being non-existent as an atheist. And then saw God as being kind of like what he'd experienced in life, that God created us and left. And then a month before he came to the, he died at 90, almost 94. Gave his life to the Lord, which is an incredible story.
I'd love to tell it. I don't have time for that this morning. But they're all, everybody has a worldview. And your worldview needs to answer these questions.
If it doesn't answer them, then it's not worth following. I would submit that 1 Timothy 2, 5 through 7 is an encapsulation of the Christian worldview. One God, one problem, one solution. There is one God.
We have one problem with only one solution. Let's start with the one God. I know that that, she's like oh yeah, of course, one God.
But not everybody believes that. In fact, Paul, we think, is referring to the Jewish prayer called the Shema. And it was a prayer that quoted Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9, which started with the words in Hebrew, and I don't speak Hebrew, so please forgive me, Shema Yisrael, which meant hero Israel, the starting of Deuteronomy 6, 4. The prophet Isaiah says this in Isaiah 45, 5. I am the Lord, and there is no other.
Besides me, there is no God. That Shema prayer, which is used regularly night and day by those who are traditionally Jewish people, particularly if they're more orthodox. In Deuteronomy 6, 4, it goes like this, Shema Yisrael, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your might. There's a relational component to God, even in the Old Testament.
And in fact, Jesus called that the greatest what? Commandment. And these words that I command you today should be on your heart.
It's a personal thing. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You ever seen an orthodox Jewish person with a little box right here? It's got parts of scripture on it. They were literally trying to be literal to that word.
You should write them the doorposts of your house and your gates. If you see a traditional Jewish home, you'll see a little metal piece sitting there. It's got part of scripture in it. Shema Yisrael, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. The biblical viewpoint of creation is that the universe as we know it has one creator. In the beginning, God. Right? And in fact, science, not Christian, not just secular science, does agree with the biblical account that time, space, and matter all came into existence in one moment.
Can't have one without the other. Time, space, and matter. Now, scientists date that like, I don't know, 14 million years or something like that ago. I'm not sure where I stand with that.
I'm not really in agreement with that. But they do agree in the fact that time, space, and matter came into existence that something came out of nothing. There was nothing, there was no time, there was no space, and there was no matter, and suddenly it was there. And the biblical account is that there is a God behind creation. One creator, one God, one divine power, and listen to this very carefully, and he is knowable. He's not distant.
He's not far off. And you would say, duh, Chris, yeah, I know, but I'm telling you, if you study religions, other religions do not teach that. The viewpoint, this viewpoint is in conflict with pantheism, many gods, like Hinduism, agnosticism.
There's a God, we don't know who or where he is or what happened. Atheism, there is no God, and world religions, and I don't consider true Christianity religion. I think there are people who are Christians that can be religious, but I think that religion is spelled D-O. It's what you do that counts. You do this, you do that, and you do enough of it, and the God or God you serve will be happy with you. But Christianity says, no, you're not weighed on a scale of good and bad.
Christianity is spelled D-O-N-E. It is what Christ has done for you. Romans 5-1 says, and that's such a great book on theology, Romans is, therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.
Christianity says it's not what you do, it's what Christ has done for us. One God, one problem, one solution. We have one creator, one God, one divine power, and he is knowable. He wants to be in relationship, even in the Old Testament, which is another way of saying, Testament's another way of saying covenant or contract, right? It talks about God looking forward to the day when he would write his word on people's hearts, right?
That every person would know him for himself. So, one God is the Christian worldview. And then it gets into Christ being mentioned as a mediator because we have one problem, that ethnos, people group, nation, people, it applies to all people. Jesus says something really interesting. You know, when Jesus was teaching, sometimes he would say something like, you have heard it said, but I tell you. You read that trick in the Gospels. You've heard it said, but I tell you.
And what he's actually doing in that moment is he's actually correcting and adding to the teaching of the time the Jewish people had out of the Torah. And he's saying something really powerful, you've heard it said. One of the things he said was, you've heard it said, you know, don't commit adultery, right? We all know what that is, right?
Having relationship with somebody, you don't have to spell it out, I'm not gonna spell it out. It's not your spouse. And then he says, you've heard it said, don't do that, and you shouldn't, but then he says, but I tell you, it is, right, considered adultery in God's eye, just a lust in your heart. I mean, God looks right within us, not just at our actions, but the core of who we are. Jesus said in Mark 7 20, what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within, and they defile a person, right? See, it's really clear the Christian worldview is that there is a right and a wrong, that there are right ways to live and wrong ways to live. And Christ says, those actions that are considered wrong, they start here. In fact, the scripture says, the heart is deceitful and beyond cure, who can understand its ways.
So I always think it's funny people say, follow your heart, and I like to say, don't follow your heart, it's an idiot, doesn't know where it's going. See, one God, one problem, one solution. The problem is this, sin, it's not a common problem, it's the common problem. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, and Corinth was a crazy town, it was like the Vegas of our days today. There was literally a word in the Greek which meant to Corinthianize, which meant to party. I mean, and they had all kinds of moral issues in the church because of the culture they were in.
They had people getting drunk at communion and all kinds of things, right? People say, oh, I want to be like the early church, they don't mean Corinth. No temptation, Paul wrote to the Corinthian church about sin issues they were having, has overtaken you that it's not common to man.
It's the common problem. Sin is any deviation from a divinely revealed will. It is the source of evil, corruption, and death, and is what humanity and all of creation, it's the box of the creation is groaning because of the sin in the world, must be saved from according to the scriptures. In 1 John 3 verse 4 it says, everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Sin, quite simply, is missing the mark. Romans 3 23, for we have all fallen short of God's standard. It is this idea that God has a standard and we are not reaching up to it, we are not hitting it like shooting an arrow at a target.
We are missing the mark. Scripture even says there's no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. In fact, I mentioned earlier the Old Testament, New Testament, Old Covenant, New Covenant, Old Contract, New Contract. Well, the Old Contract came through a guy named Abraham who God said, through you all nations will be blessed. You're going to have kids. He's like, what?
My wife's really old and she hasn't had any kids yet and what do you mean? But I believe you and so he becomes a father of righteousness by faith because he believed God and through him comes a nation of Israel and then you have the deliverance of Israel, the nations of Israel, the tribes of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. You have a guy named Moses and Moses writes the law and in fact, Romans says, man, before the law came, there was no sin. It's kind of like saying if there was no speed limit, there'd be no speeding. Wouldn't that be fantastic? For me at least, it would be fantastic. Maybe not for you.
I have a good traffic lawyer so if you need one, let me know. Sin is missing the mark and there's no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood and so Moses lays out this law and in the law, there becomes all these rules about how sin can be forgiven in a tabernacle, a tent structure is set up and God's presence dwells there and there's the shedding of blood by the sacrifice of animals and it's done over and over and over again. The new covenant, the new contract, the new testament is through Christ's blood like once for all. It's God dealing with our problem. One God, one problem, one solution. The problem is sin.
It's the common problem. Sin is missing the mark. Let's talk about one solution because that is Christ. The word ransom is used often to describe Jesus, antilitron. It meant the price required to redeem someone, to buy back, the liberation of any possession, object or person usually by payment or ransom, the freeing from change, slavery or prison. Christ is described as our ransom, our redeemer. Romans 3, 23 and 24, all the sin and falls short of the glory of God and are justified, a legal term, by his grace, God's riches at Christ's expense as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
He's the solution. Hebrews 9, 22, indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Mark 10, 45, for even the Son of Man, Jesus said, it's a title he gave himself, came not to be served but to serve. Remember, done for you and to give his life as a ransom for many. A what?
A ransom. Christ is a solution that we need because we are in trouble because our sin has separated us from God in this life and eternally. He is the mesites in the Greek, the mediator, the reconciler. Christ is pictured as an exchange price on behalf of and in the place of all, on the grounds of which freedom may be granted through Christ.
A mediator is a person who brings two people or groups together by identifying with both sides and establishing relationship between them that would not otherwise exist. Christ mediated a new covenant. One God, one problem, one solution, he is that solution. He mediated a new covenant.
Hebrews 9, 15, therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance so that death has occurred, Christ's death, that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Luke 22, 20, at the last supper, Jesus lifts up a cup after they've eaten and says, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. This is the solution for the problem before the one God, my blood. It's a song by Matt Redman, an old worship song, nothing but the blood, right? It goes, your blood speaks a better word than all the empty claims I've heard upon the earth, speaks righteousness for me, stands in my defense. Jesus, it's your blood, speaks a better word than all the empty claims. And it goes on to say, your cross testifies in grace, tells of the Father's heart to make a way for us. Now boldly we approach, not earthly confidence, it's only by your blood.
It's by what? By his blood. Christ is the solution to the problem. One God, one problem, one solution, one response. Only you as an individual can respond to this. All people come the same way to God.
Not only must they come the same way through Jesus, but salvation is available to all, Jew and Gentile alike. But is it true? Is it trustworthy?
Dare we ask that question? Paul said, I'm a teacher and an apostle to the Gentiles in faith and truth. I looked up that word faith, and I'm not sure if it's quite pronounced this way, but I pronounce it P-I-S-T-I-S. And it meant what can be believed or trust. Believed to a complete trust, a trustworthiness.
If we don't do something to be right with God, what are we to do? The scriptural response is we are to put faith in what God has done. In fact, Abraham, remember, described as the father of those who have righteousness by faith, faith could also be tantamount to the word trust. Faith equals trust, right? Do me a favor, hand me that chair right there. Or just one of them, or two of them, three of them, excellent, thank you. See, you believe this chair exists, you believe it's real, but you're not putting your trust or your faith in it.
People can believe God exists, but have no relationship, because it takes faith to have a relationship with God. Faith is putting my weight and my trust in what Christ has done for me. Thank you, you're now on the usher team. Appreciate that very much, so you're gonna be fantastic. Double the pay that we pay all the ushers is going to you.
Get a bonus, get a bonus. Like a half an hour hang out with Pastor Chad or something like that. He'll talk to you in Greek the whole time, I don't know what he's saying. And just nod and say hallelujah. Faith is trust, what is truth? Remember Pilate asked that to Jesus, what is truth, aletheia in the Greek. Is that which is in accord with what really happens, truth is that which corresponds to reality. Jesus said something really audacious, and he was either lying, or he was a lunatic, or he was Lord, he was who he said he was when he said in John 14 six, I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. One God, one problem, one solution, one response, faith.
But can it be trusted? The entirety of our Christian faith and the establishment of the church was built upon an empty tomb. That Christ was resurrected from the dead.
It was central to the early church teaching. A method commonly used today to determine the historicity of an event is inference to the best explanation, inference to the best explanation. William Lane Craig describes this approach where we begin with the evidence available to us and then infer what would if true provide the best explanation of that evidence. In other words, we ought to accept an event as historical like the empty tomb if it gives the best explanation for the evidence surrounding it. When we look at the evidence, the truth of the resurrection emerges very clearly as the best explanation.
There is no other theory that even comes close to accounting for the evidence. Therefore, there is solid historical grounds for the truth that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. There are three truths about Christ's resurrection. One, the tomb in which Jesus was buried was discovered empty by a group of women on the Sunday following the crucifixion.
And if you were making up a story, ladies, please forgive me, you would not have used women because at that time, ladies, you weren't even allowed to testify in court because you weren't considered to be able to tell the truth. So if you were going to make up a story about Jesus being risen from the dead, you wouldn't pick women as being the first ones. Two, Jesus' disciples had real experiences with one whom they believed was the risen Christ. Maybe you say, oh, they saw something, didn't really experience it, but the reality is they fully believed that they had interacted with the risen Christ.
That you can't doubt. And as a result, the third truth of the preaching of these disciples, these first-hand witnesses, which had the resurrection at its center, the Christian church was established and grew. Paul writes to the church of First Corinthians 15, three, and he records an early creedal statement that scholars date to about three to five years after the crucifixion, the death and resurrection of Jesus.
So we'd be around A.D. 35 to 40, somewhere in there. Three to five years, Paul writes to the church in Corinth, remember Paul experienced Christ on the road to Damascus. He says in verse three, for I delivered to you, to the Corinthians, this message, the gospel, as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. This idea that the resurrection of Christ was a legend that developed over hundreds of years as a false truth. The early Christians, from the earliest times of Christianity, taught that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and then he appeared to Cephas, Peter, then to the 12, the 12 disciples, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, difficult to have 500 people hallucinate at the same time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, the half brother of Jesus, think about that. James, who grew up with Jesus, called Jesus Lord.
I'm not calling my brothers Lord, I don't know about you. James grew up with Jesus and recognized who he was, then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. The early church believed from its earliest foundation in an empty tomb. Because of the strong evidence for the empty tomb, most recent scholars do not deny it.
It has been said that it's extremely difficult to object on the empty tomb on historical grounds. Those who deny it do so on the basis of theological or philosophical assumptions. Jacob Kremer, who has specialized in the study of the resurrection and is a New Testament critic has said, by far most exegetes, people who study scripture, hold firmly to the reliability of the biblical statements about the empty tomb.
He lists 28 scholars that back up this fantastic claim. All of the theories that would say this is how this happened, that somebody stole his body or maybe he never really died and he just kinda woke up or they just had a hallucination. Those theories are laughed at today by all serious scholars. In fact, they've been considered dead and refuted for almost 100 years. There is simply no plausible, natural explanation to account for Jesus' tomb being empty. If we deny the resurrection of Jesus, we are left with an inexplicable mystery. The resurrection of Jesus is not just the best explanation for the empty tomb, it is the only explanation. Our faith is built upon truth. The Christian worldview is not make believe, it's not Santa Claus, it's not the Easter Bunny.
It is built on historical evidence and truth from eyewitnesses. I said earlier that everyone asks five origin, or pardon me, five questions about life. Remember I've said the Christian worldview, one God, one problem, one solution, one response, your response, my response. How does Christianity answer these five questions of origin, who did I come from, who made all this? The biblical viewpoint is the answer is that God is our Father. Identity, who am I? The answer in scripture, a child of God. You have a place that you are belonged and you are wanted by God. Purpose, why am I here, the answer, to know God, to have a relationship with God. Jesus said many people will say they did this and that in my name and he says, yeah, but you never knew me. God is all about relationship, morality, how should I live like Jesus did. He set the example and destiny, where am I going?
Well the answer is heaven or hell, eternity with God or away from God. One problem, pardon me, one God, one problem, one solution, the question is what is your response? Would you please stand with me? Worship team's gonna come and lead us for a moment and I'm gonna come back and close us in prayer. We're gonna sing about that solution, that Matt Redmond song I butchered earlier in the service.
We're gonna sing it properly this time. Your blood speaks a better word than all the empty claims I've heard upon this earth speaks righteousness for me It stands in my defense, Jesus it's your blood Your blood speaks a better word than all the empty claims I've heard upon this earth speaks righteousness for me It stands in my defense, Jesus it's your blood What can wash away our sin What can make us whole again Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood of Jesus What can wash us pure as gold Welcome as the Prince of God Nothing but your blood, nothing but your blood, Jesus Your blood, it speaks a better word than all the empty claims I've heard upon this earth speaks righteousness for me It stands in my defense, Jesus it's your blood Why should I follow Jesus? Will it make my life easier?
No. It'll probably make it harder. Because you'll have to die to yourself. And our culture is pushing further and further away from biblical values so it won't like the way you're living. Why should you follow Jesus? Because it's true.
Because He loves you. God so loved the world that He gave. The only begotten Son who ever believes in Him should not perish from everlasting life. That's why when you come to Jesus you don't just get His salvation. That's the easy part. You receive Him as Lord, as the leader of your life, as the dictator of your life, as the authority of your life, as the one that tells you what to do with your life.
What to do with your relationships, your time, your money, your career, what you watch, what you listen to, because He's got a better life for you. It may not be easier, but it is a better life. It's blessed. So right now, if you've never made that decision, nobody can make it for you. One God, one problem, one solution, one response.
It's yours. If you want to receive Jesus, then I want to challenge you today. He won't take you halfway. You either follow Him all or you don't. You're either with Him or you're against Him, He said.
Would you close your eyes with me? Father, I pray for anybody in the sound of my voice that's never made this decision. This is a serious decision, the biggest decision that they'll ever make. Father, I pray that if they need to make that decision, God, they're unsure, God, that they'll take a step of faith and put a trust in You and discover that they can taste and see the Lord as good. Father, I pray they pray a simple prayer and just say, Jesus, I am a sinner, I know I've done many wrong things, and I am separated from You. I ask You to come into my life, forgive me of my sin, and take over, be the leader of my life.
