All right, we'll be going through Paul's letter to the church at Rome. Are y'all still reading it with me?
Y'all going through it? I didn't know if anybody was doing that. Last week, Darla and I had a little time to kill, so we went to this trendy coffee shop that's not too far from here. And when we got there, Darla looked around, the place is packed out. She said, I wonder if any people from Cross Assembly go here. I said, Darla, look at these people.
They're cool, yuppie, trendy people. They don't go to Cross Assembly. And then as we're sitting there drinking our coffee, we noticed there was a guy at his computer with the headphones on. He's just looking very intently at the computer, and he looks and he goes. He takes his headphones off, gets up from his computer, he said, Pastor Chad, I go to your church. I was just reading Romans Chapter 3 like you told us to.
He was actually literally there in the coffee shop reading the book of Romans. And so at least somebody's listening to me. Let's go through this together. This is a life... Now, look, I use this phrase very carefully. This is a life-changing book. And I was talking to some Christian counselors. I've asked numerous Christian counselors this. I said, when you're counseling Christians... Now, I used to kind of maybe make fun of the counseling industry or psychology, psychiatry. The longer I live, the more I thank God for good, solid Christian counselors. And I asked them, when a Christian comes in, generally, what do you tell them? Multiple successful Christian counselors have said this, our Christian counseling technique is, if we will just remind Christians of who they are in Jesus, their identity in Christ, it is amazing how many of our problems are taken care of when we remind ourselves of our identity in Jesus Christ.
And we speak that over ourselves. Look, I'm not bashing Alcoholics Anonymous. I know that organization has helped a lot of people.
It may have helped some of you all. So I'm not bashing them, okay? But they don't come from a Christian worldview. And when you have an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, they all get together and they will say, do you remember this? Hello, my name is John and I'm an alcoholic. That's their identity.
That's their label. I label myself an alcoholic. I want you to understand me. You may be a Christian who struggles with alcohol, but if you're born again, you are not an alcoholic. That is not your identity in Jesus Christ. And so, the apostle Paul today is going to remind us of our identity, who we are in Jesus Christ. Now, before Paul reminds us of who we are, he reminds us of who he is. Because to understand who I am, I got to know who he is because my identity is in Jesus Christ. And what I believe is when I start to understand my identity, listen to me, my activity follows my identity. When I understand who I am in Jesus Christ, it changes my activity.
It changes the way I live my life. So look, if you would, at Romans 1, we're going to pick up where we left off last week, Romans 1, verse 2, which he promised before, through his prophets, in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Through him, we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's start with who is Jesus? That is, honestly, that is the pivotal question of all humanity.
Who is Jesus Christ? In fact, I don't know if you saw this last week. You know, the language on Joe Rogan can get a little bit salty, so just be careful. But did you all see Joe Rogan this past week talking with this Christian apologist named Wesley Huff? It was actually really incredible. It's actually probably the best presentation of Christianity to a lost person I have ever seen in my life. And I can't remember how long the interview went.
It went, like, an hour, two hours, three hours. And toward the end of the conversation, the apologetics guy did what we all need to do. He asked Joe Rogan point blank, who is Jesus Christ to you?
Let me say this. I think God is doing something in the pop culture. I think Joe Rogan is going to get born again. I think Jordan Peterson is going to get born again. I think Elon Musk is going... I believe all those people. My prayer is that Elon Musk get born again, joined cross assembly, and tied to this church.
That's my prayer. But it was interesting. He asked him. He said, now, who is Jesus to you?
And Joe Rogan said something like this, well, he's a great example for all of us. He is the epitome of what we're supposed to be as human beings. And yes, he is the Son of God, but aren't we all sons and daughters of God?
Now, it's a good answer, but he has a swing and miss. Who is Jesus Christ? Paul answers this in this passage. Number one, Paul says Jesus is the subject of the entire Bible.
Do you see this? Which he promised before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Now, some of you all might be investigating Christianity or getting serious about your faith. You've just started reading the Bible and you're like, Chad, this is a confusing book.
What's this book about? One answer, Jesus. From start to finish, Jesus is in this Bible, Old and New Testaments, if you know what to look for. For example, in Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Ethan just sinned, they're covered in shame. Their nakedness was literal, but that nakedness symbolized the shame that sin brings. And it says, God covered them in animal skins. They covered their shame, covered their nakedness in animal skins, implication, an animal had to die to cover their shame.
That is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ who died for our sins to cover our shame. Genesis 3, 15, God says to Eve, there's going to be a cosmic battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Now, the Greek word, the Greek translation of the Old Testament to the Septuagint, the Greek word for seed, the seed of the woman is sperma, sperm.
I'm not here to give you a biology lesson, but you do understand women don't have sperm, right? That is a foreshadowing of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, that the Messiah is going to come through a virgin and he is going to crush the head of Satan one day. Jesus is all over the Bible. Hey, when you read about these animal sacrifices in the Old Testament, you know, you sin, you sacrifice this bull, you sin, you sacrifice this goat. Hebrews says, those sacrifices never cleansed anybody.
Did you know that? They were all foreshadowings of the true sacrifice that was to come, Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is about God working through this nation called Israel. Even that is about Jesus because God had said, I'm going to come to planet Earth, I'm going to send my son to planet Earth, I've got to do it through a specific people group, I have chosen to do it through Israel. So the Old Testament is about God preserving and guarding and disciplining Israel so that one day he can send the promised Messiah through Israel. The Bible is all about Jesus Christ.
In fact, John 546, Jesus says this, if you believe Moses, Old Testament, you'd believe me because Moses wrote about me. This is a good way to remember what the Bible is about. The Old Testament is the anticipation of Christ. The Gospels are the presentation of Christ.
Acts is the continuation of the works of Christ. The Epistles, the letters are the clarification of Christ. And Revelation is the consummation by Christ. In other words, the Old Testament is Jesus Christ concealed.
The New Testament is Jesus Christ revealed. So who's Jesus? Number one, he's the one the Bible is all about. Number two, in verses three and four, Paul talks about the dual nature of Jesus. He is fully God and fully human. Now, cults and false religions always err on one side of the other. They will overemphasize the divinity of Jesus or overemphasize the humanity of Jesus.
I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again. Jesus was 100% God and 100% man. I know the math doesn't add up. That's 200%. I don't care.
Just accept it and go on with it. Jesus is fully God and fully man, okay? And we see that in verses three and four.
Look what Paul says. According to his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. That's the humanity of Jesus. David lived 1,000 BC. David had descendants. And genealogically, Jesus Christ was one of these descendants in the flesh of David. He was a literal, real human being.
Listen, it's going to blow your mind. I don't know how tall Jesus was. If you believe the Shroud of Turin, like I do believe it's him, he was about 5'11". You know, Jesus now exists, and he's still 5'11 or wherever he is, seated at the right hand of the Father. He didn't just become some ghost after he ascended.
He is now literally physically in one place right now. He is a glorified human being. He is Jesus Christ, fully man, and that's what Paul is saying right here. That's not like communion. That's one of the reasons I think Jesus may have given us communion, so that we'll have a real tangible thing to hold to remind us that Jesus was really tangibly a human being.
There's a group of people right after the time of Jesus called the Gnostics. They said Jesus was not really a human. He was a ghost. He only appeared to be a human. And they would say, if you walk behind Jesus on Myrtle Beach, Jesus would be walking in front of you, he left no footprints on the seashore because he wasn't a real human being.
That's heresy. Paul's saying, no, he is fully a human being, which means you're saying, God, you don't understand what I'm going through. Jesus said, actually, I do.
You don't know. My best friend befriended me on Facebook. Jesus says, well, my best friend betrayed me to death. I think I know what you're going through. I'm having to bury my father, Jesus. And Jesus said, yeah, I remember when I was 20 something years old or whatever, I remember having to bury my stepfather, Joseph. I've been...Jesus knows what you're going through.
Why? Because he's fully human. And then Paul says this, not only is he fully human, but he's also fully God, look at verse 4, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, or the Holy Spirit, same thing, by the resurrection from the dead. Now, look what Paul calls him. Paul calls him Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
That is a title of divinity. Because in John 5, 18, the Jewish leaders get mad at Jesus and say, why not kill him? And it says, therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father making himself equal with God.
The first inter-Jews knew exactly what Jesus was saying. When he says, I am the Son of God, that's a title of divinity. Jesus is fully man, but he is also fully God.
The good news is not about a good man, it's about the God-man, only God. Hey, a human being could not collectively take all the sins of the world on himself. A human being could not die in the place of all mankind. A human being couldn't crush the head of Satan. A human being couldn't take on the forces of hell and beat them all and die and come back to life. Only God can do that. And the Apostle Paul says, we know Jesus was. Do you see this? We know who he was, who he said he was.
Why? Because he's raised from the dead. Over and over and over again in the New Testament, Jesus says, I'm making some outlandish claims. And if you want to know that what I'm saying about myself is true, when I rise from the dead, that will be proof that I was who I say I was. He is fully God and he's fully man.
That's who he is. Now, here's my question for you. If you're a born-again believer, which means you have turned from your sins and you've said to Jesus Christ, you're not coming and said some silly little prayer, you're not going through a ritual, you're not going through a catechism, no, no, no. You've turned from your sins and said, Jesus Christ, I'm a sinner but you died for my sins. I turn away from all my sins. I now give you my life.
You're now in charge of my life. If that's you, we know who Jesus is, I just told you. Well, who are you? Well, here's who we are in Jesus Christ.
This is good stuff right here. This is your identity in Jesus. I want to say something I just said a second ago. Your identity determines your activity. I don't think I ripped that off.
I actually think I came up with that myself right here on the spot. Your identity determines your activity. If you know who you are and that goes from here to here, it's going to change the way you live your life. Who are you?
Well, number one, who are you? Well, you're the person that God has given grace to. God gives you grace.
Look at verse 5. Through him, through Jesus, we have received grace. Now, we got to get this grace thing straight because that is the key concept of Christianity. You know, we throw these words around, grace, righteousness, substitutionary atonement, we don't know what we're talking about. What is grace?
I want to keep hitting this thing from all different angles. I'm constantly trying to come up with new ways to describe this concept of grace. Because, you know, other world religions don't have this.
I had somebody from the Jewish faith argue with me about that. No, we Jews have the concept of grace not like this, a Mormon. No, no, we have that concept of grace not like this.
What do we mean by grace? I'm going to do the best I can to describe this to you in two little analogies. You know, every analogy breaks down at one point, but let me give you this. This may have never happened to you. It's happened to me once or twice. Have you ever maybe been with a group of people and a mama comes in with a little baby, a little infant, and that infant is looking at the crowd and all of a sudden, you don't know who this infant is. You've never met her in your life. And that infant reaches out and wants you to hold her.
Looking around here, that's probably never happened to you all, but that might have happened. The baby wants you. And in this crowd, the baby keeps looking at you. And the mama said, man, she really likes you. Well, you don't know her. You've never done anything for that baby, but that baby just likes you.
That's grace right there. Why does that baby like you? I don't know. It doesn't make sense, but she just likes you. Why does God love you? I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. I don't know.
He just likes you. That's grace. Or this. Have you ever heard this before? I've heard people say this. You don't choose your puppy dog. Your puppy dog chooses you. Like, if you're going to go buy a puppy dog from a litter, they say, when you get there, the dog you're supposed to have will come up to you.
You know, we did this four years ago as a family, one of the biggest mistakes in my life and I'm still regretting four years later. But you go and there's this litter of puppies, and all of a sudden, this one puppy kind of peels off and starts coming up to you and starts licking your foot, and you pick it up, and you pet it, and you put it back down. And for some crazy reason, a puppy doesn't know who you are. It keeps coming up to you.
Why? That's grace. That puppy just is drawn to you. That puppy just likes you. It doesn't make any sense. You haven't earned it.
You don't deserve it. He just likes you. And that is grace. I'm not comparing God to a dog or a baby, but I am comparing grace to this. Grace means that in Jesus Christ, God just likes you. He just wants to be around you. Yeah, but I've messed up and I've disappointed him.
And I don't understand it, but he still wants to be with you. That is grace. Who are we in Jesus Christ? We have grace. God just likes us for some crazy reason. And then, number two, your identity is this, God has given you a calling.
He's giving you a calling. Look at verse 5, through him, we have received grace. Now, here's what we... Now, this is not... Paul doesn't use the singular. He uses the plural. We, plural, have received... Watch this, apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name.
What in the world is he talking about? He says, right there, every one of us have received grace. Here's your identity. Every one of us has a calling. We are all called right there to be apostles.
Do you see that? Now, what does it mean to be an apostle? The Greek word is apostelo. Apo means from.
Stelo means to send out. Listen, apostelo, to be called out. Apostelo means somebody who is sent out. Every one of us are called to be apostelo, to be sent out. People ask me this, because we're Pentecostal church and Charismatics will come in, Chad, do you believe in the fivefold ministries? Do you believe apostles are for today?
Absolutely. I've got about 4,000 apostles here at cross-assembly, apostles are for today. Y'all are all apostles in Jesus Christ. Pastor Chad, apostles so and so is going to be preaching at such and such church in Raleigh.
Well, that's interesting. Apostle Chad is going to be preaching at cross-assembly this coming Sunday. According to this, every one of us are called to be sent out.
Are you with me on that? Wait, sent out to who? Paul says right there, he says, we are sent out among all nations. Here's what he's saying.
Listen to me. Paul's saying this world is lost, dying, and going to hell. They are miserable, they are perishing, and God has said every one of you are sent out to reach the nations for the Lord Jesus Christ. This isn't for a select few of missionaries. We are all called to be sent out to change this world for the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are all sent out to the nations. In fact, I heard this story one time about a ship that was going from England back in the 1700s, whatever, to America, and a man fell overboard in a storm. And this storm is ravaging, this guy's about to drown. And what they did on the ship is they got this guy, a tiny, big rope around the guy, and the guy jumped overboard into the storm. And he ran, he swam, he grabbed the guy, and there were some men on the deck holding that rope. While he's swimming to the perishing person, there are people on deck holding the rope. Who gets credit for saving that man?
They all do. The man who swam out and grabbed him, the men holding the rope, they all get credit for saving that man. And what Paul the Apostle is saying is this church is called to be an apostolic church, which means we are to go into the storm and we're to rescue souls dying and going to hell. And sometimes we send missionaries out, those are the swimmers. Our missionaries are the swimmers. Some of you all are called to be swimmers. But if you're not going to be a swimmer, that's fine.
You at least need to be on the deck holding the rope for the swimmers. We are all in this together. We are called to win this world to Jesus Christ. So, who are you? Who are you? Well, I'm just a...I've said this before. Man, I'm just a no-good, low-down sinner on the backside of glory. I just hope I can make it into heaven one day because I ain't nothing but a no-good, rotten sinner.
It's a great country music song, but that's not the Bible. Number one, you're the recipient of the grace of God. Number two, you all are called to be world changers. You have an apostolic calling to help win this world to Jesus Christ.
And then number three, look at this. God loves us. Do you see that in verse 7? To all who are in Rome, beloved of God. God loves everybody.
Yeah, but not like this. In fact, let me say this. Maybe God's just interrupting me to say this to somebody. Stop being somebody that you're not.
You're trying to be somebody that you're not. God doesn't love this image that you've created. God loves you.
He doesn't care about the image. He cares about you. Be the person God has called you to be. God is madly in love with you. You're a recipient of God's grace. You are an apostle. You're sent out to change this world for Jesus Christ. You are loved of God. And I want you to see this. God calls us saints.
That's who you are. You're a saint. Look at verse 7. To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. Now, this morning I'm using the New King James Version.
I'll toggle back and forth between that and the Legacy Standard Version. The New King James Version, do you see this? It says, called to be... How many of y'all are using the New King James Version? Anybody in here?
Okay. Your New King James Version, it says, called to be saints. But do you see 2B is italicized? Do you see that? That means that's not part of the original. The translators supplied that.
It's not part of the original. And that's unfortunate because called to be saints, that seems to have a future implication. You can say, well, one day if I live a good life, perform a miracle on planet Earth, when I die, they'll call me a saint, they'll light candles and they'll pray to me. One day I might be a saint. That's not what it says in the Greek, is it says, to you all, called saints. Right now, God calls you a saint of God. You are a saint. I am a saint.
In fact, from now on, don't call me a pastor or even apostle. I'm now Saint Chad across the assembly, okay? Because we're all saints, that's who we are. Now, what does saint mean? That word saint, now watch this, it means set apart for special use.
It's not common, it's not ordinary, it's not daily, no, no, no. It's special, it's set apart. When God calls you a saint, it means the moment you got saved, God set you apart for something special.
You're a saint of God. Give me an example. So my wife, when we got married, she spent a lot of time, a lot of emotional energy, and people spent a lot of money finding the right China pattern. And she sent out the guest registry, everybody buy this China. So everybody spent a lot of money buying China that we never use. It's sitting in a cabin and we never use that.
Why? It is set apart for special use. You don't use that for everyday use. She has a bowl in that China cabinet.
I think somebody got it from Ireland, it's a crystal bowl. We don't use that every day. That is set apart for special use. Now, if Darlene came home tomorrow and I'm eating biscuits and squirrel gravy off the China and I'm slurping chili out of that crystal bowl, she's not going to be happy because that's not for everyday use.
That is set apart for special use. You are set apart from God. God says the rest of the world can act like that, you can't because there's something different about you. Y'all are special.
This world can have those values, that's fine, but you're my person. I have set you apart, you're a saint. You're set apart for me.
Are you with me on that? Beloved, when you start understanding that you are a saint in Jesus Christ, you get set apart for special use, it changes your life. Now, some of you say, what's up? Look, I'm not a saint. I'm a saint. Yeah, I'm born again. I'm a Christian.
I get all that. I've done some bad stuff and I keep fighting my sin. I keep doing bad stuff. So, I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a saint.
Never forget, there are two kinds of people in this world. There are saints and there are aunts. Either you're a born-again child of God, you're a saint, or you're not born again, you're an aunt. If you are born again, you are a saint. Now, this is going to help make Christianity very clear. I get this from Tim Keller.
How can God call you a saint when you keep messing up the way you mess up? Look, in every other religion, the performance leads to the verdict. So, in Islam, if I'm good, good, good, good, if for 30 years I try to be good, at the end of my life, I get the final verdict. All right, you are good. Buddhism, the performance leads to the verdict.
I follow the teachings of Buddha. I try to do good, I try to do good, I try to do good. And when you get to the very end, then they'll give you the verdict.
Yeah, you are good. Do you see that? The performance leads to the verdict in every other religion. In Christianity, listen to me, you get the verdict first. And the verdict leads to the performance. How can God call you a saint?
Because in God's eyes, the performance does not lead to the verdict. The moment you say yes to Jesus and give your life to Jesus, God says, on that very day, I now proclaim, you're a child of God, you're a saint of God, you belong to me. I'm not looking toward the future, I'm telling you right now, you're a saint of the Most High God.
Isn't that beautiful? And so, when I adopt that identity, when I start calling myself saint, when I start saying to myself, I ain't like the rest of this world, they can do that, I say, look, we got kids in here, I just say, because I'll have people debate me and whatever about our stand on sexual ethics and that kind of thing. And, you know, I've had lost people debate me on that, and I say to them, go have all the kinky weird sex you want to have, that's fine. But you can't be a follower of Jesus Christ and do that.
Why? Because we're held to a different standard. There's something different about us. We are called to a higher standard.
We're not like the rest of the world. We are separate. We are saints of the Most High God. And when I start to understand that, it changes things.
When you're tempted to cheat on your spouse, when you start saying to yourself, I guess I could do that, but why? I'm not like...that's not me. I'm a saint, and saints don't do that. Christian businessman, when you're looking around and you're tempted to cut corners and save some money in some illegal ways, you say to yourself, I could do that, but I'm a saint. And saints don't rip off the company.
I'm not going to do that. You know, when you're tempted to cheat on your taxes, to save a little bit of money here because the government's got too much already, and I just know my money is going to go to bail out those millionaires in California, why should I do that? Because I'm a saint. And as a saint, I'm very careful on my taxes because saints don't... Are you...when you start understanding your identity in Jesus Christ, that you have the grace of God, and the love of God, and the calling of God, and you are a saint of God, it starts to change the way you live your life.
And beloved, I want you...I'm serious. I believe in humility. I actually am...I believe that's one of the biggest gaps in the American church. We're so cocky, and arrogant, and everything's turned up. So we need more humility.
So I'm not bashing this. But here's what I'm begging you to do. Please stop calling yourself a mess-up, a sinner, wicked. How could anybody love somebody like me?
Here's what's happened to some of you. You had some father in the past say to you, you disappointed me. Or how could somebody love somebody like you, and that father wound is still in your heart. You need to understand a new father has come on the scene and said, how could anybody love you?
I don't know, but I love you. I'm your God of the universe. You belong to me.
So you hear me on that? Start understanding, I'm a saint of God. I'm a child of God.
I'm beloved of God. You start speaking that. It's going to change the way you live your life. I was reading this a while back. Adam Alter is a New York University professor, and he's written on this concept of, here's what he calls it, nominative determinism. Here's what I mean by this. He says, it is amazing how people's names, their given names, often determine their life, particularly their profession.
We name this person this, and lo and behold, they come back. He gives some examples. He said, the former Chief Justice of England is Justice Igor Judge.
Isn't that interesting? His last name is Judge. He was called Judge all of his life, and he became a judge. His colleague is a man named Lord Justice John Laws, L-A-W-S, and he's a judge in the Court of Appeals. Is it any coincidence that his last name is Laws, and he's in the legal profession?
That's nominative determinism. He talks about another man named Derek Kickett, K-I-C-K-E-T-T. Derek Kickett was an Australian professional soccer player. Is it any coincidence that this man was called all of his life, Kickett, and he becomes a soccer player? He also talks about Usain Bolt, who I think currently ranges the fastest man in the world in the 100-meter and 200-meter distances. Is it any coincidence that his last name is Bolt, and the guy bolts?
He also gives the example of author Daniel Snowman, S-N-O-W-M-A-N, who is the author of a book about the Arctic and Antarctica. And then he mentions a guy named Christopher Koch, who is a notorious Jamaican cocaine dealer. Is it coincidence that they are called this all their life, and it's played out in the way they live their lives? And then this professor says this. Researchers have shown that our names take root deep within our mental worlds, drawing us magnetically toward the concepts they embody.
Their names determine their identity. Psychologists say 80% of our self-talk, 80% is negative. So you're calling yourself a sinner over and over again. Don't be surprised if you act like a sinner. You're calling yourself a disappointment over and over again. Don't be surprised if you start living like a disappointment. You call yourself a mess-up over and over again, or your parents called you an accident over and over again.
What you call yourself, listen to me, your identity starts to determine your activity. And Paul comes along and says, because that man on that cross, that man who rose from the grave, that man that you've given your life to, because of him, you're not a mess-up. You are loved of God. You have the grace of God. You're a child of God. You are blessed by God. You have the calling of God. You are a saint of the Most High God. And I say to God's people, rise up, be bold, be strong, and start living out your identity in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Would you stand on me right now? If you're here today, I don't care if you're a Methodist, a Episcopal, and Catholic, and agnostic, or whatever, I don't care. That stuff just doesn't mean anything to me anymore.
Used to, I don't care. Here's my question. Have you been born again? A religious leader came to Jesus Christ. He was the smartest man around, the most religious man around, and Jesus said to him, you must be born again.
He said, how can an old man like me crawl back into his mama's wound? Jesus said, that's not what I'm talking about. Here's what I mean by born again. You got to realize you're a sinner. I'm a sinner. We're messed up people, and I'm not downplaying that. We are sinners.
We have to realize that. But 2,000 years ago, God became a man. Now, man's name was Jesus Christ, and every sin that would send me to hell, every sin that would bring guilt in my life, every sin that would separate me from God was put on Jesus Christ when he died on that cross. He took the, the man died for my sins.
He took my whooping on the cross. He was buried, and three days later, he came back to life. And now, if you'll simply turn from your sins and turn to Jesus and turn the control of your life over to Jesus and say, Jesus, save me. At that moment, you pass from death into life. Do you know eternal life does not begin the moment you die?
Eternal life begins the moment you say yes to Jesus Christ. At that moment, you now have a new identity. You are now a child of the Most High God, a saint of the Most High God, beloved by the God of the universe. If you've never turned from your sins and trusted in Jesus, I want everybody to bow your heads right now, and I want you to forget about everybody else in this church, even me.
Just forget about me. It's now just you and Jesus. And if this captures what's going on in your heart, I want you to say something like this to Jesus. Jesus, I am a sinner. Lord, I've done some bad things.
Say something like that then. But say this to the Lord, but Jesus, I believe you died for my sins. You took my punishment at the cross.
I believe you were buried, and I believe three days later, God raised you from the dead. Say this to Jesus. Lord, I turn from my sin, and I turn to you. Please, Jesus, forgive me of all my sins.
Say that to Him. Forgive me. Lord, come and take control of my life. Lord, when I die, take me to heaven. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
You said, that's it? Well, I don't know what your Bible says. My Bible simply says, all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. You are now a saint of the Most High God. You don't have to wait 30 years to see if you're going to be a saint. You are now set apart by God. Can we do this?
Look, I said this when I started this morning. I said, our identity is in Jesus Christ. Your identity has got to be in somewhere. Some of y'all's identity is in your job. Yeah, but what happens when you lose your job? Well, my identity is where I live in Raleigh. Okay, but what happens when your house burns down? Well, my identity is in my kids.
I got... Yeah, but what happens when your kids go off the rails? Your identity needs to be in Jesus Christ. And when your identity is in Jesus Christ because He reigns, one day we'll reign. Because He was raised from the dead, one day we'll be raised from the dead.
Because He is victorious, one day we're going to be victorious. Our identity is in Jesus Christ. So would you right now lift your hands and lift your voices and in your own words, Christian, wherever you're at, just start praising the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, we bless you. We honor you. You are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We worship the Lamb who is slain. We worship the soon-coming King.
We worship the one who walked out of the tomb and crushed the head of the serpent and ascended to the right hand of the Father. We bless your holy name forever and ever. Lift your hands and your voices and let's sing to the Lord right now. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Dead has lost its grip on me.
You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your parry body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion. Deep where the grave has no pain on me. Jesus, yours is the victory. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Dead has lost its grip on me.
You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Dead has lost its grip on me.
You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope.
Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hey, beloved, I was praying about this whole thing for me one day. I don't know if this is God or not, but the impression came into my heart as I was praying about this. Chad, one day when you get to heaven, the biggest surprise to you is going to be just how much I loved you, how crazy I was about you. See, you don't realize that. You think I'm mad at you.
You think I'm... When you get to heaven, and I'll say this to you all, if you're a born again believer, what's going to surprise you when you get to heaven is just how much God loved you. And that's why every Sunday I want to give you just a little glimpse of the heart of the Father, how much he loves you. And God says to do that, speak this over my people. Ya v'rekaka Adonai vishmorekah. Ya e' Adonai p'n'yav e'lekuvikunekah.
Esa Adonai p'n'avelekha va'asim lecha shalom. Which means the Lord bless you. Lord keep you. Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And the Lord turn his countenance to you and give you shalom, peace, wholeness, mind, body, soul, spirit. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen and Amen. God bless you beloved. Let's go change this world for Jesus Christ. God bless you.
