Speaker 1: 1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado, will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week?
Speaker 1: I want you to open up to Romans, chapter 1.
Speaker 1: We'll be in Romans 1, verses 18 through 32, as we really continue a series, a year-long series really, with some stops in between, but a series through Romans as we really begin, a series about telling us the truth, the truth about our sin, but really the truth about the gospel.
Speaker 1: Let me pray for us and let's begin.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, thank you for your word, thank you for your spirit, thank you for your spirit.
Speaker 1: Thank you for Romans, chapter one.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the good news of the gospel.
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, I need you this morning.
Speaker 1: Our church needs you.
Speaker 1: This morning we need to hear your word and I pray that we would.
Speaker 1: We pray all this in Christ's name, amen, amen.
Speaker 1: We pray all this in Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I feel like original names become lasting names.
Speaker 1: Original names become lasting names, and what do I mean by that?
Speaker 1: I mean this I grew up in Little Rock and you know, even today, downtown Little Rock, there's a very tall 40 storystory building and right now it's got the name Simmons on top.
Speaker 1: It's Simmons Tower.
Speaker 1: But to me, forever and for all time it'll be the TCBY Tower.
Speaker 1: That's just what it is, because that's what it was when I was growing up.
Speaker 1: And when you're a kid and you see a 40-story building and TCBY on the top, you just imagine what could possibly be in there 40 stories of yogurt.
Speaker 1: And I remember the arena in downtown Little Rock.
Speaker 1: Now it's Simmons Bank Arena, then it's, before that, verizon Arena, but for me, forever and all time, it'll be Altel Arena.
Speaker 1: That's what it was.
Speaker 1: Altel hadn't been a company since 2009,.
Speaker 1: Yet in my mind they still have an arena in downtown Little Rock.
Speaker 1: I obviously haven't been in El Dorado as long, but I asked around do we have those places?
Speaker 1: And we do.
Speaker 1: And depending on what generation you are a part of, there's a large building right behind us here.
Speaker 1: You may know it as the Lion Oil Building, you may know it as the Exchange Bank Building, you may know it as the First Financial Building.
Speaker 1: There's even right to our right over here.
Speaker 1: I guess your left the Minuteman.
Speaker 1: Whatever it becomes, I imagine 30 years from now, we will just call it the old Minuteman and that's just what we'll know it, because original names become lasting names.
Speaker 1: You and I both know for you and I and for all humanity, we've done a lot to try to enhance our own names, to make our own names seem a little more impressive, to update them.
Speaker 1: We can add a biographical information behind our names.
Speaker 1: We can put a resume behind our name to put impressive stats and things we've done up there to potentially get into a certain school or get a certain job.
Speaker 1: We'll put letters in front of our name Mr, mrs or Doctor, or when I was ordained Reverend in front of my name.
Speaker 1: We put letters behind our name to show the education we have and half the alphabet is behind some people's names because they've had so much education, they're so good at what they do.
Speaker 1: We try so hard to enhance our names, to make our names seem extra impressive and I'm thankful for that.
Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with that, your education and your resume.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, for every one of us, certainly outside of Christ, there's just this kind of pesky name and title that we can't escape the title of sinner.
Speaker 1: And no matter how we dress it up, how we try to impress outside of Christ, that title of sinner just seems to remain.
Speaker 1: This morning, paul in chapter 1 of Romans wants to show us very clearly just how prevalent that name is.
Speaker 1: Just that.
Speaker 1: That's a name not just we were born into, but that is a name that we lived into.
Speaker 1: That's a name that infects every one of us.
Speaker 1: Paul is writing Romans to both Jews and to Gentiles.
Speaker 1: He's going to write to both parties In chapter one.
Speaker 1: He's writing to Gentiles.
Speaker 1: We know that through some of the language and the specificity of some of the sins Next week we'll see in chapter 2, he'll speak directly to the Jewish population in the church.
Speaker 1: But for all of us he wants us to see this that we are in sin.
Speaker 1: And for the next three weeks Paul is going to give us some really bad news.
Speaker 1: How is that?
Speaker 1: To advertise a new sermon series.
Speaker 1: But it's bad news.
Speaker 1: As we will see, that will lead to the best news we could ever imagine.
Speaker 1: Look with me in verse 18 of chapter 1.
Speaker 1: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
Speaker 1: Let me read that again For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
Speaker 1: The wrath of God.
Speaker 1: That's where Paul wants to begin as he speaks to these Gentile believers that the wrath of God is being poured out against all manner of sin and ungodliness and unrighteousness.
Speaker 1: I mean, how is that for a way to start as he begins talking to this crowd?
Speaker 1: And as we think about the wrath of God.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because it may be one of the more misunderstood ideas I believe we have in all of Scripture, because we think about the wrath of God and what is it?
Speaker 1: Do we think about it in terms of it's, god's mean streak, or God's annoyance, god's temper?
Speaker 1: I've said it before we don't serve a God that wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.
Speaker 1: We don't serve a God that gets frazz the wrong side of the bed.
Speaker 1: We don't serve a God that gets frazzled to the point of frustration.
Speaker 1: We serve a God and here it is that takes sin seriously, that takes sin seriously, that the wrath of God is not in competition with the goodness of God, competition with the goodness of God, but because God is good, there is also the wrath of God, because our good God takes sin and wickedness and evil seriously, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: I think this afternoon though we won't this afternoon if it's raining but let's say, katie and I and James and Olivia are out on a walk around the neighborhood and we're walking around and James, let's say, he takes his little bike with the training wheels with him and he's riding around as we're walking and from behind us we hear a really loud noise and a very large SUV is coming at a very high speed and this guy's got the windows down.
Speaker 1: The music is blaring.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's not even he's got us, he's.
Speaker 1: He's texting on his phone while he's driving, going, going 45 or 50 through these neighborhoods, streets, and he, he zooms, pop by my family and by my little son, james, on his little tricycle.
Speaker 1: What is my response to that?
Speaker 1: It's not to look at Katie and say I think that's the 2025 Chevy Tahoe.
Speaker 1: I've been so impressed with the new body style and I've been looking at those.
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
Speaker 1: That's not my response.
Speaker 1: As a father whose goal in life is to protect this little one, whose goal in life is to make sure that he is provided for and safe and sound, something is going to stir up inside of my spirit, something is going to well up inside of me.
Speaker 1: I mean, there, the wrath of Taylor will be welling up and in my mind, if this guy drives back by again, I'm going to flag this guy down and we're just going to need to have a man-to-man conversation.
Speaker 1: That's what I tell myself I'm going to do before I chicken out when he actually comes by.
Speaker 1: But God doesn't chicken out.
Speaker 1: God takes sin seriously and as he sees his creation, who he desires his very children he desires to protect and to provide for, and he sees the wickedness that's running wild in this world around us and the sin and evil and oppression and wrongdoing that exists everywhere.
Speaker 1: Because he's a good God, there is wrath against sin.
Speaker 1: He's a good God.
Speaker 1: There is wrath against sin.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about our own lives.
Speaker 1: Think about when you felt the disciplining hand of God.
Speaker 1: Think about when you felt the consequence for your own sin.
Speaker 1: You were guilty, you were right in sin and God disciplined you as a father disciplines a child.
Speaker 1: God disciplined you as a father disciplines a child.
Speaker 1: God provided consequence for sin.
Speaker 1: What did it do in your life?
Speaker 1: I would imagine I pray.
Speaker 1: What happened?
Speaker 1: Was it led you to repentance, that you saw the weight of your sin, the conviction of your sin?
Speaker 1: You saw the rightful consequence of sin and you said that I don't want to go down that road anymore.
Speaker 1: Right, and it may be that I pray.
Speaker 1: So many of us in the room today are not walking in certain sins we used to walk in.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because the disciplining hand of God got a hold of us.
Speaker 1: Praise God, it did.
Speaker 1: I also think this, the wrath of God, is good news because of this, that we serve a God who says evil does not win this, that we serve a God who says evil does not win.
Speaker 1: Because of the goodness of God, evil cannot and will not win.
Speaker 1: And maybe you've looked out in the landscape of our world before.
Speaker 1: You've watched the news or read in the paper or seen an article, and it just seems like there are those individuals out there that are wicked and that are evil and that are oppressing so many and are evil towards so many.
Speaker 1: And, if you're being honest, it just feels like at least in this life they're coming out just fine.
Speaker 1: At least in this life they're not seeing punishment for their wickedness.
Speaker 1: At least in their life their quote unquote, we might say are they getting away with it?
Speaker 1: No, we serve a God who does not allow evil to win.
Speaker 1: So in this life or at the judgment seat of God, no evil will be victorious, no wickedness will ultimately prosper.
Speaker 1: That's not how a good God operates, and we have a good God.
Speaker 1: And so, yes, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth.
Speaker 1: Their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Speaker 1: Here's what I want to say this morning.
Speaker 1: Point number one outside of Christ, we suppress the truth.
Speaker 1: Outside of Christ, we suppress the truth.
Speaker 1: Let's keep reading Verse 19,.
Speaker 1: For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made.
Speaker 1: So they are without excuse, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Speaker 1: So what's the state of the individual outside of Christ?
Speaker 1: It's this they suppress the truth.
Speaker 1: Outside of Christ, we suppress the truth, we try to hide it away, we try to act as if there is no truth, we try to act as if it's not there.
Speaker 1: And we see that in 19 and 20.
Speaker 1: Interesting verses that talk about what we might call natural revelation or general revelation, this idea that all people, paul, would say, are without excuse.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because through general revelation or natural revelation, the knowledge that there is a creator is there.
Speaker 1: And so the idea is this that for all people, that if we look out into our world and we see a mountain and we see an ocean, and we see a beautiful field or a beautiful sunset or beautiful night sky, whatever it might be, we see these wonders of creation.
Speaker 1: Well, if we live in a world, and we do that, there is cause and effect.
Speaker 1: There must have been a cause to this that all people can look at creation around them and at least have the wisdom to be able to say there must be a creator.
Speaker 1: Now, that doesn't mean they know all things about God or all manner of theology, or they even know Christ Jesus or that God sent his son, but they know enough to know there must be a creator and so natural revelation.
Speaker 1: It can't save us I can't be saved by looking at a mountain or an ocean, but what it does is allow me to come to the place is there is a creator and to go further and to seek more about who this is and ultimately, I pray, find him in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: But here's what Paul says that you knew there was God, you knew there was a creator, you knew there was someone above all of this.
Speaker 1: And what did you choose to do?
Speaker 1: You chose to suppress the truth, you chose to hide the truth.
Speaker 1: You chose to hide the truth.
Speaker 1: You chose to pursue that truth no further.
Speaker 1: And what do we do when we suppress the truth?
Speaker 1: Well, the reality is we run from God.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because if there is a God if this is true, then one my thinking is going to have to change.
Speaker 1: If there is a one, my thinking is going to have to change.
Speaker 1: If there is a God, my life is going to have to change.
Speaker 1: If there is a God, he might call me to do something that I'm not that interested in doing.
Speaker 1: But more than that, we say this if there is a God, that means this that means that I can't be God, that I can't sit on the throne of my life.
Speaker 1: And second, we see this that outside of Christ, we worship our idols.
Speaker 1: Outside of Christ, we worship our idols.
Speaker 1: Look with me, verse 22.
Speaker 1: Claiming to be wise, they became fools and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Speaker 1: Therefore, god gave them up in the lust of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged here.
Speaker 1: It is Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is forever blessed, amen.
Speaker 1: They worshiped the creature instead of the creator.
Speaker 1: You see, outside of Christ, we do worship our idols.
Speaker 1: Once we, outside of Christ, have properly suppressed the truth, then we now have the opportunity for ourselves to try to create our own truth, to try to make truth what we desire it to be, and we can create our idols that in every way, are creatures instead of the creator, that are created things instead of the very God who created all things.
Speaker 1: And it's very interesting.
Speaker 1: I just want to say this I've been here, we've been here around eight months now, and I feel like I've gotten to know many of you just so so well, and I pray you've gotten to know me so well, and so I thought it was appropriate, maybe just in a moment of extreme vulnerability, to show you a picture this morning of what really is, in my own temptation, the main idol, if I'm being honest with myself, the main idol I struggle with.
Speaker 1: So we've got a picture of it of my main idol, a picture of it, of my main idol.
Speaker 1: Here's the good news about this idol that I'm often so tempted to run after he never calls me to anything uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: He never asks me to change my ways.
Speaker 1: In fact, anything I'm tempted to do, he can justify and he can affirm.
Speaker 1: The good news about this idol I never have to leave my comfort zone.
Speaker 1: The best thing about this idol is I get to call my own shots and I get to be the Lord of my life, the captain of my ship, and I get to do things my way.
Speaker 1: And you laughed when that picture came up.
Speaker 1: But there's something in your laughter that you know this that if today we needed to put your main idol on the screen, what you are tempted to bow down and to worship, if we're not careful, you know, it'd just be a picture of you.
Speaker 1: Because we who were made in the image of God how often do we seek to form gods in our own image?
Speaker 1: We get to be on the throne and outside of Christ, we suppress the truth.
Speaker 1: And once we properly suppress the truth, we create our own truth by worshiping our idols.
Speaker 1: Once we properly suppress the truth, we create our own truth by worshiping our idols, by worshiping beings that are not the creator there's only one creator but are simply creations made to give worship to God, but instead we give worship to them.
Speaker 1: But my third point is this that outside of Christ number three we get what we seek.
Speaker 1: Outside of Christ, we get what we seek.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: That may sound strange this morning, but look with me at the beginning of verse 26.
Speaker 1: Therefore, god gave them up, in the lust of their hearts, to impurity.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I read 24, didn't I?
Speaker 1: For this reason, god gave them up 26, I'm at the right place now to dishonorable passions 26 again.
Speaker 1: For this reason, god gave them up to dishonorable passions.
Speaker 1: We have this language of God gave them up.
Speaker 1: So, eventually, outside of Christ, as you run after your idols and seek to worship your idols, eventually you get what you are seeking.
Speaker 1: Everybody gets what they want.
Speaker 1: In the end, they may not like what they get, and so, as they've sought their idols, they finally arrive at the place where they get it.
Speaker 1: This language, it's heavy language.
Speaker 1: God handed them over.
Speaker 1: God finally said if this is what you want, you can have it.
Speaker 1: And is that not itself judgment on sin, by letting you have your sin and see where that ends up.
Speaker 1: Think about the prodigal son.
Speaker 1: All he wanted was his freedom.
Speaker 1: All he wanted was to be gone from the father's house.
Speaker 1: Dad give me my inheritance and give it to me now.
Speaker 1: And we don't know how much time really passes in scripture.
Speaker 1: It's about a verse or two, but we don't know what the father was thinking in these moments.
Speaker 1: But at some point he finally says here's the inheritance.
Speaker 1: And this young son gets what he wants and he goes to the far country and it's good for a little while.
Speaker 1: But then where does he end up?
Speaker 1: He ends in the mud of the pig pen, just looking across the pig pen and saying if I could just have a bite to eat of what the pigs are eating.
Speaker 1: He finally got what he was looking for and he found out he was looking for the wrong things the whole time.
Speaker 1: So God gave them up to the dishonorable passions.
Speaker 1: Let's keep reading verse 26.
Speaker 1: In this specific context, for these Gentile believers who are living around the church at Rome, we see what does that look like For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.
Speaker 1: And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, god gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not be done.
Speaker 1: You see, when humanity suppresses truth, when humanity creates their own truth, they end up twisting truth and twisting the very things that God has created.
Speaker 1: It doesn't just happen in the world of sexual sin, it happens in every kind of sin.
Speaker 1: All sin is just a twisting of the good that God has created.
Speaker 1: But just a little side road.
Speaker 1: For just a moment we'll get right back on the interstate of this sermon, but what we need to see for just a moment is that God created human sexuality and God created a good To be used for good in the confines of marriage between a man and a woman.
Speaker 1: That is what God has designed.
Speaker 1: God has a design for human sexuality, he has a design for marriage.
Speaker 1: He has a design for gender, when God created them male and female, with intentionality, with that specific design.
Speaker 1: God has a design and God's word is very clear about human sexuality.
Speaker 1: We obviously live in a world, like in this Roman context, where that truth wants to be twisted.
Speaker 1: You don't have to look far in our world to see the places where that truth is twisted.
Speaker 1: And yet, until the word of God changes, our view on it won't change.
Speaker 1: God calls sin what it is, and so in God's word we read exactly what the twisting of God's desire for sexuality really is.
Speaker 1: It's with that in mind that changes nothing of how we, as believers, love those who think differently than us, care for those, minister to those who think differently than us.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, we love well and we love like Jesus would love, not compromising, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: But do love.
Speaker 1: But God's word is clear, and we see in 26 and 27 that when truth is twisted, they twist the very created order which God has given.
Speaker 1: But we continue.
Speaker 1: There's a longer list and it's not a pretty list.
Speaker 1: Look with me in verse 29.
Speaker 1: They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
Speaker 1: They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
Speaker 1: They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Speaker 1: This is not a pretty picture.
Speaker 1: We look at this and we see the world around us.
Speaker 1: We can be honest.
Speaker 1: We look at this and at times see the mirror of our own lives.
Speaker 1: If it weren't so serious, it'd almost be comical.
Speaker 1: Paul says in verse 30, they are inventors of evil.
Speaker 1: It's almost as if Paul is saying they have gone after every kind of evil, they've tried every kind of evil and they've done it all, and so then they just started inventing new evils.
Speaker 1: And is that not what our world is all about?
Speaker 1: But look, 32, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.
Speaker 1: So not only outside of Christ are we getting what we seek as we run after our sin.
Speaker 1: But not only does humanity sin on their own, but they celebrate those who also sin.
Speaker 1: Not only do they tolerate sin in their own life, they celebrate sin in the lives of those around them.
Speaker 1: Paul has now painted a devastating picture of the human condition here, for these believers in the church at Rome, but for all believers even today.
Speaker 1: A terrible picture, but a real picture of the state of those who are outside of Christ.
Speaker 1: Now my question is why?
Speaker 1: Why has he done this?
Speaker 1: Second question why in chapter 1?
Speaker 1: If I were Paul and writing to a church that I never visited that.
Speaker 1: I didn't help start.
Speaker 1: If I were writing to this church I might talk about sin, but maybe chapter 15 or 16, maybe not chapter 1.
Speaker 1: Even further, we talked about Paul is trying to get the church at Rome, trying to drum up support for them to be ascending church, for the gospel to go further west, even into Spain.
Speaker 1: He needs financial support.
Speaker 1: He, excuse me, he needs spiritual support.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you how can Paul get financial support?
Speaker 1: Is it in chapter 1, just telling them how sinful they are?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's an interesting way to go about it.
Speaker 1: Why does he do it?
Speaker 1: Does it seem a little unloving?
Speaker 1: Does it seem a little unkind?
Speaker 1: Imagine with me this morning that I'm a doctor, that I'm a surgeon.
Speaker 1: This morning and you come to my office and you feel like something might be wrong.
Speaker 1: So we get x-rays and CAT scans and MRIs and this, that and the other, and you head home and I stay in the office and I look at those results and I look at everything there and see what my course of action is, and in that moment I see devastating news.
Speaker 1: I see something that I realized quickly that we need to operate, and we need to operate today that there is something wrong.
Speaker 1: And if we do not operate today, your days are very much numbered.
Speaker 1: We do not operate today, your days are very much numbered Devastating news, and so I call you back.
Speaker 1: I haven't given you the news.
Speaker 1: I'll do that in person.
Speaker 1: So I'll call you back and you're driving back to the office, but as you're heading my way, I start thinking about you and I start thinking about this, about how much I love you and I do.
Speaker 1: I think about the joy of not just having you as a patient but having you as a friend.
Speaker 1: I think about my care for you and I think about this.
Speaker 1: I think about the fact that the news I'm about to give you is going to alter a lot of things in your life, that the news I'm about to give you is going to fill you with a lot of anxiety, it's going to fill you with a lot of fear, it's going to make you nervous.
Speaker 1: You're going to have to have some hard phone calls with family and talk to them about the operation we need to do, and there's just going to be a little anxiety and fear in your life over the next little stretch.
Speaker 1: And it saddens me that that has to be the case Because I love you so much.
Speaker 1: And so you get to my office and you walk in and all I can do is think about my love for you and the anxiety that would fill your life if I give you this news.
Speaker 1: And so you come into my office, I look into your eyes and I tell you this, tell you this Good news You're fine, you can keep living as you want, no need to be worried.
Speaker 1: You leave the room thrilled.
Speaker 1: You're excited.
Speaker 1: Life is now open before you.
Speaker 1: I go to bed happy because I know I made my friend happy.
Speaker 1: You have no fears.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this what I just did, was there anything loving about that?
Speaker 1: I made you feel good.
Speaker 1: There are moments when the most loving thing you can do, and the most loving thing I can do, is tell the truth.
Speaker 1: The most loving thing Paul could do in this moment is look at the church at Rome and say we need to operate.
Speaker 1: Not tomorrow, not next week.
Speaker 1: We need to operate Not tomorrow, not next week, we need to operate now.
Speaker 1: You're not just sick in sin, you're dead in sin.
Speaker 1: You are infected beyond what you can imagine and you are clearly on the road to death and hell.
Speaker 1: But there is an operation we can do.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit can get a hold of your life.
Speaker 1: There is a way.
Speaker 1: And so Paul gives the bad news of their sin, the bad news of their condition.
Speaker 1: He does the most loving thing he can do and tells them just how sinful they really are.
Speaker 1: But here's the good news.
Speaker 1: That's how chapter one ends.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, that's how chapter two ends, after it gets a little worse.
Speaker 1: That's how the first half of chapter three ends, before it gets even worse still.
Speaker 1: But then something happens.
Speaker 1: Chapter 3, verse 21,.
Speaker 1: But now Are you on the operating table?
Speaker 1: Because there's a cure.
Speaker 1: But now the righteousness of God has been manifested, apart from the law, though the law and the prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
Speaker 1: For there is no distinction, look at this, for 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Speaker 1: There's the bad news.
Speaker 1: There's, there's, there's the need for the operation.
Speaker 1: You've suppressed the truth, you've run after your idols.
Speaker 1: You are getting what you seek in the weight of your sin, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Speaker 1: There's the bad news, but what does it set up?
Speaker 1: The good news of 24, the good news of the gospel, is set up by the bad news of we're sinful, that we can't do it, that we are hopeless.
Speaker 1: But there's a place to find hope that at the cross the cure has come.
Speaker 1: At the cross, my sin was placed upon him and At the cross, my constant desire to suppress the truth, to worship the idols of my life, to worship the idol of even me.
Speaker 1: At the cross, that was placed upon the Savior of the universe, jesus Christ the righteous, and at the empty tomb, sin has been defeated.
Speaker 1: And so from hopelessness we find hope.
Speaker 1: From sin we find life.
Speaker 1: From the cross we find the empty tomb.
Speaker 1: I just want to end by saying this that outside of Christ we suppress the truth.
Speaker 1: But here's the beautiful thing in Christ we find the truth.
Speaker 1: The truth Outside of Christ, we worship our idols.
Speaker 1: Inside of Christ, we worship our idols.
Speaker 1: Inside of Christ, we worship our king.
Speaker 1: We don't worship the creature anymore, we worship the creator.
Speaker 1: Lastly, is this outside of Christ, we get what we seek.
Speaker 1: Here's the good news inside of Christ, we get what we seek, but we now seek the better thing.
Speaker 1: I wonder this morning if you're in this room and this morning we've seen the x-rays and it's not good and an operation has to happen, and it has to happen now and you need to move from death to life.
Speaker 1: I'm talking right now.
Speaker 1: I'm talking coming right down here and let's talk about it and let's do this today.
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's you.
Speaker 1: I'll be here ready for you.
Speaker 1: I wonder if you know Jesus Christ personally, but you know in your own life there's still ways that you're even suppressing truth, you're trying to hold back, you're trying to keep control of certain sins in your life and certain things you're running after.
Speaker 1: I wonder if today needs a day to be a day, right when you're at in your pew, right Talking to a pastor, right, whatever it needs to be that you need to hand some things over to the Lord and say Lord, jesus, I'm done trying to do it my way because my way is not working.
Speaker 1: I wonder if this morning you need to come join this church family, not so that you can, you know, have a name on a membership role, but so that you can live life with other like-minded believers that can walk towards Christ with you, that can hold you accountable in your faith, that can encourage you in the faith, so that you don't have to walk towards Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus, I don't know how you need to respond, but I do know this it may be the morning you need to respond and if that's you, I'm going to be right down here.
Speaker 1: So, as we sing, in just a moment, would you come?
Speaker 1: All of us have a way, right where we're at, whether it's through worship, through prayer, whatever it is to respond, let me pray for us.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, thank you for your gospel, thank you for thank you this morning for bad news, for true news that leads to the best news we could ever imagine that you have saved us.
Speaker 1: Lord, we thank you.
Speaker 1: I pray.
Speaker 1: If there's one this morning that needs to move from death to life, from hopelessness to hope, I pray that this morning would be the morning, lord.
Speaker 1: However, we need to respond now.
Speaker 1: I pray that we would do it now, that we would not delay, that we would not say we'll do it tomorrow, that we would not delay, that we would not say we'll do it tomorrow, that we would not say we'll do it next week, that we won't say what about getting to lunch or what about getting to this or getting to that, but that we will handle business with you right here and right now, whatever that means, lord, by your spirit, I ask that you would move in this place.
Speaker 1: Lord and Lord, above all, let us worship you, the one who truly paid it all for us, the one who gives us life.
Speaker 1: I pray this in Christ's name, amen, and would you stand now as we worship and I'll be down front.
Speaker 1: I love you.