SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, good morning, Lake Church. Let's take our Bibles. Turn to Matthew chapter number 27. Matthew chapter 27. We're going to look at two verses this morning and share with you the thought for today. We've been going through leading up to Easter, focusing on the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross. And today we're going to look at the fourth saying. If you remember, we did one and two last week. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And the the what Jesus said to the thief, today you shall be with me in paradise. And we're going from one to two to four. Now, believe it or not, I do know how to count. All right. I do know how to count, but we're gonna we're gonna hit three next week. All right. So we're gonna look at the fourth saying of the cross, and we're gonna look this morning at the forsaken Savior. Matthew chapter 27, verse 45. If you're there, give me a loud Sunday morning. Amen. Amen. All right. The Bible says in Matthew 27, verse 45, Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness all over the land. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Ela Ila, Lama Sabakfani, which is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And I want to ask you this morning: have you ever come to a point in your life where you felt completely alone? Where you felt completely abandoned by people that you thought would never leave you, that would always be there for you. Where you went through a season of life where you looked around and family had left you, friends have left you, and you were there all alone. Suddenly you look around and nobody is there but you. Maybe you're there this morning. Maybe you've experienced the pain of that loneliness and abandonment. Well, that's where we see Jesus today. That's where we come to the cross and we see Jesus. We see this as more than just a human loneliness, though. This isn't just about human loneliness. This is a moment where the Son of God cried out on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is a moment where God the Son was forsaken by God the Father. And I really want us to sit in the weights of this moment this morning. And as we walk up to the resurrection, I really want us to really appreciate the significance and the power that Jesus' sayings on the cross represent because they're all packed with eternal truth and they're all packed with significance and importance. But when I when I look at this saying on the cross, it seems a little different than any other saying. I mean, when I look at this saying on the cross, it's it's surrounded with mystery. It's something that stands out to me as one of the most mysterious things that Jesus said on the cross. You know, and we looked last week at Father forgive them, you know, a shocking statement that Jesus would make forgiving or offering forgiveness to his executioners. I mean, that that's shocking, right? That's that's shocking. But this is probably equally or even more shocking, if not more shocking, it is more mysterious. If you think about it. Say, what do you what do you mean? Because we can understand God and we can understand Jesus forgiving people, right? That's what he does. He forgives. He shows grace, he shows love. His nature is love, his nature is mercy and compassion and grace. But there's something different about Jesus hanging on a cross, questioning God. Hanging on a cross and crying out in agony. And the question is, is how can the Son of God be forsaken by God? I mean, if we really think about this, it's hard to understand. And I'm not even gonna begin to act like I understand it. All right? We gotta just get that first and foremost, that there's some things that are infinitely beyond our finite mind. Right? Our little tiny finite mind cannot understand the infinite complexities of the truth here that we see. We can't grasp it in its fullness. We can just barely scratch the surface. But as we look at this question, I want us to ask some questions. You know, usually when I preach a sermon, I'm giving you statements, right? I'm giving you truths, I'm giving you some points. You know, this morning I'm full of questions that I want to ask. And as we look at this saying on the cross, I want to ask you a few questions, and I want us to dive in and really, really contemplate what is going on here and how how we can answer some of these questions. When we look at the suffering of Jesus, the physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering of Jesus, we have to ask some questions. And the first thing is this why the darkness? Why the darkness? The darkness we see um it fell upon all the earth. It fell upon all the land at this time. For six hours, Jesus was on the cross from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Jesus was on the cross. Six hours. In between that six hours, right in the middle, splitting the light from the darkness, uh, God, at through at 12 o'clock, God sent darkness upon the land. So, so we see this darkness, it wasn't just a cosmic coincidence. You know, there's some some people say that it was a solar eclipse. It wasn't solar eclipse, it wasn't just by chance. It was intentional, it was on purpose, it was meaningful, and it was important. So, what is the significance of this darkness? The first thing we see is the darkness represented the evilness of this moment. It represented the evilness of this moment. And and and we see in this moment where Jesus was dying on a cross. By the way, Jesus died on the cross like nobody else died. His death was different than anybody else. Him forgiving his executioners, him embracing the cross. Nobody had ever cried out, forgive them, nobody had ever embraced the cross, nobody ever went to the crueling to the cross, and nobody ever had darkness fall on the earth as they were dying on the cross. And this darkness, it revealed the the evilness of this moment that that the the the day that even creation took notice of and reacted to. Somebody said it like this. I love this saying. The sun refused to shine on the murder of its creator. The sun refused to shine. It was a heaven-sent darkness to reveal that this was the most evil act of mankind to kill the light of the world. I mean, you think about how this culmination of evil, this peak of human depravity, this was the culmination of evil condensed into one moment and it and it was revealed and represented by God shutting the lights off. Saying this is the darkest moment of history. And the darkness not only represented the evil of this moment, it represented the divine judgment of God. It represented the divine judgment of God. And look, this isn't the only time or this isn't the first time that you see God sending darkness as a picture of his judgment. If you go all the way back to Exodus, you go all the way back to the Passover Lamb, where the nation of Israel was under Egyptian bondage. And God was delivering them out of Egyptian bondage and he was sending plagues, right? He sent ten plagues. Do y'all remember what that ninth plague was? It was darkness. He sent darkness for three days to the land of Egypt. He sent a plague of darkness for three, by the way, three, significant, right? Three days he sent darkness. And then the tenth plague was what we know as the Passover lamb, where God told the Israelites to kill a lamb. It couldn't just be any lamb, it had to be a spotless lamb, had to be a perfect lamb, had to have no blemishes. And then they take that lamb, they take the blood, and they put it on the doorpost, on the top and on each side. Perfect picture of a cross, right? And then 1,500 years later, we see this fulfillment of this foreshadowing. You see, the Lamb of the Old Testament in Exodus was a foreshadowing of the Lamb of God that was going to die and take away the sins of the world. And before the Lamb of God Jesus died on the cross, what happened? There was not three days of darkness, but there was three hours of darkness. The same, and by the way, it's amazing that this was the time of Passover. 1,500 years ago, they were being delivered by the blood of the Lamb. There was darkness for three days, the Lamb was killed, the blood was shed, and they were delivered from bondage. 1,500 years later, Jesus is fulfilling that. While the Lamb of God dies on a cross, his blood was shed. There were three hours of darkness. Why? Because he was delivering the people from the bondage of sin. What a powerful picture. Isn't your Bible amazing? Isn't God's plan and story of redemption amazing? Is that like, do we just gloss over that? Like they were celebrating what Jesus was fulfilling. 1,500 years after. They were killing the Lamb of God as they were celebrating the Lamb that was killed for them. Isn't that ironic? The darkness represented the judgment of God. But what's amazing is that this judgment didn't fall on the Romans, it didn't fall on the Jews, it didn't fall on the thieves that were on each side of Jesus. It fell on the Lamb of God. It fell on Jesus. The judgment was not on the ones that were guilty, but the judgment was on the innocent Lamb of God that was dying in our place. And something else I find significant is that this darkness happened at 12 o'clock. From nine, from the ninth hour, or from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, right? The sixth hour, the way they counted time, the sixth hour was 12 o'clock, 12, 12 noon. So from 12 to 3, there was darkness. And you know what I think about is that 12 is the brightest time of the day, right? Sun is beaming down directly over you. What should have been the brightest moment became the darkest. Isn't that a picture? What should have been the brightest moment where Jesus, the Savior of the world, came into the world, became the darkest moment when they killed the Savior on the cross. But God always brings light out of darkness. Amen. We can say amen right there, can't we? Now look, we're walking through some dark scenes. All right, I'm not gonna just, I'm not gonna just pretend like it's it's nice and shiny and pretty and you know it's gruesome, it's bloody, it's painful, it's agony, it's heartbreaking when you hear Jesus crying out on the cross. We're walking through some dark scenes, but I want to give you a little spoiler alert. It does end well. Amen. Because as we walk up to Easter and walk up to the to the resurrection, we see Jesus died in darkness. He was buried in darkness, but three days later, when the sun rose, the sun rose. Amen. And we're gonna get ready and prepare our hearts to celebrate that. But why the darkness? It represented the evil of the moment. It represented the divine judgment of God. And I want to move on to the next question. Number two, why did Jesus question God? Why did Jesus, who is God, who was in the beginning with God, who's one with God, right? He's the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, these three are one. Why did Jesus question God? I want you to picture this scene. These three hours are passing by, silence fills the moment, darkness fills the moment. There's complete, I believe there's probably, it's probably a lot of silence going on at this time. People are just watching Jesus die. They were watching the Savior take his last breath. And except for a few people that come by to mock him, right? You said you're the Savior, you can't even get off the cross. You said you're the Son of God. Except for the ones that came to mock him, there was silence and there was darkness. As the Savior in that dark, fateful moment was taking his last few breaths on this earth. And all of a sudden, after three hours of darkness, Jesus cried out. And the Bible says he cried out with a loud voice. He shouted, he screamed out in agony on the cross. Think about the the weight of that moment. My God, why? God the Son is questioning God the Father. And in fact, this is significant that this is the only time Jesus ever referred to God as God and not the Father. Every time you see Jesus talking about the Father, he says, I come to do my Father's will. I come to obey my Father. Me and my Father are one. He always refers to him as the Father, which was which was strange in that context in that time. You know, we we we always do that now, but people didn't refer to God as their father, but Jesus did. But he didn't at this moment. Why did he not call him father? Because the presence, he did not feel the love in the presence of the Father. He felt the wrath of the Father. He felt the he felt the judgment of the Father. And it's a cry of a son being abandoned by his father. It's a cry of loneliness, of heartache, of pain, of suffering. And it's a cry where he's questioning God. Now back to the question: if Jesus is God, why would he question God? Do you think Jesus didn't know what was going on? He's God, right? I mean, God, he's omniscient. Just a big fancy word for meaning he knows all things. He told his disciples all the way leading up to this what was going to happen. He said, I'm gonna die and I'm gonna be buried. I'm gonna rise again. He knew all the complexities of the plan of redemption. He had it all in his mind and in his head. He knew what was going to happen. He knew he was gonna be judged for sin. He knew he was gonna be forsaken by God. He knew all of these things. So why did he cry out to God? I believe the reason is because even though his head knew the answer, his heart was still broken. And listen, knowing the truth in your head does not remove the pain in your heart. Does anybody here know that God is faithful? Amen. Raise your hand. You know God is faithful. But have there ever been times where you still questioned him? You know he's faithful. You know he's God, you know he's able, but there's still times in the weight of that moment, in the reality of that suffering, and the in the pain and the heartache that you're dealing with when you lose loved ones and when you deal with sickness and when you have struggles going on in your life, you know it in your head, but it does not remove the pain in your heart. And Jesus could not help but cry out in anguish and suffering. My God, why? Listen, none of us can really relate to this. You know, a lot of times we like to put ourselves in the sermon, you know, how to deal with loneliness, how the five ways that I I can deal with loneliness. None of us can relate to this. None of us can relate to being in perfect fellowship with God and then being abandoned. None of us can relate to being sinless and perfect and not desire. Look, the thing is this we deserve to be abandoned by God. We deserve to be separated from God. We deserve to be rejected from God, but Jesus didn't. We cannot relate to the level of abandonment that Jesus felt in this time. But I will say one thing we can relate to is that it is okay to question God. You don't have to hide your emotions from God. You don't have to pretend with God. You don't have to just act like everything's okay and put on a smile. You can be real. Somebody in here right now, you need to just get in your prayer closet and get real with God. Because you've been putting on a smile and uh and you've been, and God bless you, but it's some sometimes you have to get along with God and get real. Jesus cried out to God, why? What a powerful example. Why? It's okay to ask God why. Look, it's okay if you don't understand, you can cry out to qu uh and question God while still trusting him. Because Jesus' cry, it was not a cry of distress. Or it was not a cry of distrust, it was a cry of distress. You can still cry out and question God and still trust God, even if you don't know the answer to the question. Having faith does not mean you will never struggle. We all know that, right? Doesn't mean you're never gonna struggle, but it means you struggle while holding on to God and his promises. And you don't let go. One thing we can learn from this is that our reaction to suffering should be to turn to God and cry out to him. Even when you don't understand. So, why did Jesus question God? The third question is this, and this is a good one. This is the heart right here. Why did the father forsake the Son? Why did the Father, God the Father, forsake God the Son? And that's, I mean, that's the great question, isn't it? That's the question. That's the heart of the gospel, that's the story of redemption. And the answer in a nutshell is this Jesus was forsaken so that we could be forgiven. Come on, y'all. Is that true? Jesus was forsaken so that we could be forgiven. His forsakenness led to our forgiveness. We could not be forgiven if he was not forsaken. Now let's let's dig a little deeper in that. Why is that? These are just full of questions this morning, right? We're full of questions. Why did Jesus have to be forsaken for us to be forgiven? And I want you to, if you if you want to turn there, or I think we have it on the screen, I want you to write down, turn there, or look up at the screen. Psalms 22. Psalms 22. And as you look at this psalm, this is a psalm of David that was written a thousand years before Jesus died on the cross. All right? David pinned this psalm. It's a what we call a messianic psalm. It's a psalm that pointed forward to Christ. And I want you to look at what the very first words of this psalm is. Let's all say it together. Ready, one, two, three. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Does that sound familiar? David wrote this psalm down a thousand years before Jesus uttered these statements on that cross. And you say, okay, well, Jesus was just repeating the prophecies of Scripture. And look, I I don't what I believe is I don't think Jesus was in a Bible-quoting mood. I think I don't think this was Jesus looking back at this psalm. I think this was the prophecy looking forward to Jesus. And David, not knowing, he wrote this psalm. It's a perfect messianic psalm. I mean, read the whole thing. By the way, it's awesome. And by the way, it goes into talking about they pierced my hands and my feet in this psalm. And he wrote this in a time where crucifixion wasn't even a thing. They didn't do crucifixions in back in that time. It's a messianic psalm. And he said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? And look at, uh let's look at verse number two. Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear. And in the night season and am not silent. In verse number three, here's the answer. Why did Jesus, was Jesus forsaken on the cross? Why did he have to be forget forsaken for us to be forgiven? But you are holy. Why was Jesus forsaken to satisfy the holy justice of God? Where Jesus died on the cross, suffering the wrath of God's holiness, that holy hatred he had for our sin. And it was on the cross that our sin was placed on Jesus. And God's holiness and God's justice and God's wrath was poured out on Jesus, and he died separated from the Father so that we could be loved and forgiven and made sons of God. The wages of sin is death. What is death? It's not just physical death. Death is separation from God. Jesus was separated from God for us so that we would never have to be separated from God. It was to satisfy his holiness. God is holy, and here's the thing, church, a holy God, the holy God of heaven, is too holy to ignore sin or treat it like it's no big deal. If somebody does you wrong and you go to a courtroom, let's say they do some evil act against you or your family and they're guilty. I mean, it's just as plain as day, they're guilty. And you go to a courtroom and they stand before the judge, and the judge is like, ah, that's no big deal. Would that be a just judge? That would be a corrupt judge. A just judge and the king of the universe cannot sweep sin under the rug, he cannot overlook it, and he cannot act like it's a big deal. But here's the problem: God is just and he is holy, but yet God created mankind to have a relationship. He loves us, but he cannot have a relationship with sinful beings. We have rebelled against God, we have broken his commandments, we don't deserve his love, we can't have fellowship, uh, darkness can't have fellowship with light. So, how does a holy God still love and have communion with his people? By placing all of our sins on Jesus as our Savior, as our substitute, as our sacrifice, and judging our sins upon Jesus. That's what we call a substitutionary atonement. That Jesus died on our behalf, paid the penalty of our sin so that we could be forgiven, cleansed, and off the hook. We're set free from the guilt and penalty of our sin when we place our faith in Christ. I want you to write this verse down if you don't have it. Uh 2 Corinthians 5.21. 2 Corinthians 5.21, it says, for he, and that he, that first he is God the Father. For he made him, the second him, is God the Son. For God the Father made God the Son who knew no sin. Jesus was perfect, he was the sinless Lamb, right? Who knew no sin to be sin. And look at those next two words for us. God the Father made the Son to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And like it was said earlier, we can't ever get over the gospel. We can't ever get over the cross. What Jesus has done for us. This was the holy transaction that was taking place on the cross for those three hours. Jesus became sin for us. Where he took our sin and he gave us his righteousness. And someone once said it this way the son was treated as a sinner, so us sinners could be treated as sons. Jesus died our death, took our place, suffered the wrath and judgment of God that we deserve. Now, here's the problem, here's where it doesn't stick. The problem comes in is when we think we didn't deserve judgment. We look at people next to us and we're like, well, maybe maybe not the person right next to you, but we look at other people in this world and we're like, ah, I'm not that bad. You know, I don't do those bad sins. I don't commit those evil things. I'm pretty good. And so a savior dying on a cross, like surely he didn't need to die for my sin. But the truth is, is that every lie you committed, every moment of lust that you had, every sinful thing that you've done, the most evil and despicable acts of your life, and not only yours, but the whole world. Right now I'm talking about you, right? Everything you did was placed on Jesus on the cross, and he died in your place, suffering your penalty. That's how God's holiness and God's love can join together in a relationship with us through the significance of the cross. Do y'all know there's a difference in the crucifixion and the cross of Christ? Okay, what is the difference? The crucifixion was an act that the Romans perfected to cause a slow, agonizing death for people that committed a crime. And then not only that, they would make a visual imprint in the minds and heart of anyone that was thinking about going up against Rome or committing a crime. When you see someone hanging on a cross, you're like, I better not do that. Whatever they did, I better not do that. The crucifixion was an act of torture and execution. But the Bible doesn't say the preaching of the crucifixion is powerful to those that believe. The Bible says the preaching of the cross is powerful to those that believe. What is the difference? The crucifixion talks about a physical act, but the cross of Christ talks about everything that was going on in those three hours of darkness where Jesus was taking your wrath, an eternity worth of God's wrath and judgment falling upon the Savior on the cross. Listen to me, it wasn't just that God's Father's presence was left from him, it's that God's wrath was being poured out onto him. And he was enduring all of that for three hours on the cross, paying our penalty so that we could be forgiven and have the privilege of being called children of God. The greatest suffering. Look, the sufferings of Jesus physically shouldn't be minimized, but that wasn't the greatest sufferings of the cross. That wasn't what made Jesus shed drops of blood in the garden. That wasn't what made Jesus cry out, My soul is in deep sorrow unto death. That wasn't what broke the Savior's heart. What broke his heart, that cup that he was praying to the Father that he wouldn't have to drink, wasn't the physical sufferings, it was the judgment and wrath. It was a holy God having to be made sin for us. That's the gospel. Isaiah 53, verse number four, it says, Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. First Peter 2 24 says, Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye are healed. And then Paul says in Galatians 3, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Jesus paid our sin debt in full, settled our debt of sin, and satisfied the righteous demands of the law, completing and fulfilling the work of redemption. You know, there's a there's an example in the Old Testament, they call it the Day of Atonement. And what would happen is the priest would take two goats. Now I know this sounds strange to those of us not we're not familiar with Jewish customs, but they would take two goats, the priest would take them, and one was the sacrifice, he would slaughter this goat for the sins of the people, and the other is what they called the scapegoat. Anybody ever heard of the scapegoat? They would take the scapegoat, this priest would lay his hand on the scapegoat, and then he would start confessing all of the sins and the rebellion and the evil of the people of Israel. So he placed his hand on the goat and he confessed the sins of the people. And what it was, it was like a visual metaphor of transforming their transferring their sins to this goat. And then you know what they would do? They would send this goat out into the wilderness. Drive it away. Far, and if you watch that goat, it would go, it would, it would take off and it would go farther and farther until your eyes could not see it. And it sent a message to the people of Israel, something powerful stuck into their mind where their sins was met with God's mercy. And this goat would go out into the wilderness and it would cry out and no one would hear it. Jesus cried out on the cross, taking your sins upon himself, and he was forsaken, so we would be forgiven. I want to ask you another question this morning. Why did Jesus endure the cross? Lord, this is quick. This is quick. Why did Jesus endure the cross? And the only explanation that Jesus would endure the cross, the wrath of God on our behalf, dying in our place, suffering our judgment, three hours of darkness, experiencing the absolute limits of God's wrath and judgment. The only answer is love. He could have called a legion of angels to come and destroy the world and get him off the cross. He could have, he could have got, look, nobody or nothing could have held Jesus to the cross. It wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the cross, it was love. I like the line in that song that we sang. His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished. God commended his love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Greater love has no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends. Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me in the life I live now in the flesh. I live by the faith of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It wasn't the nails. It wasn't the soldiers. It wasn't the Jews. It was his love for you that held him to the cross. And the last question I have for you as we close and we have our worship team come forward. Jesus suffered upon a cross. He was made sin for you. Look, don't miss it. Don't miss it. Your sin was placed on him and he died for your sin. You know, we can get so deep into theology and all the all these things that we know. But you know, the greatest, the greatest thought we could ever have is that God loved you enough to take your place and die for you. God. For barely for a righteous man will some die. Paradigm for a good man some would dare to die, but God commended his love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For the ungodly. None of us deserve that. None of us deserve the love of God. None of us should get used to what Jesus did for us. And let's just get real. We do get used to it. We do. I do. I preach every Sunday, and guess what? Sometimes I go through seasons where I get used to it. Where the cross doesn't light a fire in our heart and our soul like it should. You may be thinking, this sermon's just for those that aren't Christians. No, this sermon's for all of us. Because we should never get used to what Jesus did for us. But what will your response be? Will you receive him? Will you reject him? Will you embrace him or will you ignore him? The cross demands a response. You're gonna leave here and respond one way or another. Guess what? Doing nothing is a response. But when you think about what Jesus did, our response should be if he gave his life for us, we should give our life for him. We should surrender our heart to him. We should, this the Savior that died for us, we should give him our all. We should give him complete control of our life. We shouldn't hold back anything from him. We should profess him as Lord and Savior. If you're not a Christian, if you're here and you're not truly saved, not born again, you have a choice to make whether you'll either receive him by faith or you'll reject him. And this is a very serious decision. It's a decision that determines your life and eternity. Let that sit in. It's a decision that determines your eternity. Jesus was forsaken for a moment. But those that reject him will be forsaken forever. Have you received Jesus? I'm not asking you have you gone to church or have you gotten baptized or have you gave some money or have you did this. It's so simple to receive Jesus that we overcomplicate it. I'm not saying you have to jump through a bunch of religious hoops. I'm just saying you have to do what the Bible says. Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's not, it's not complicated. Jesus God, he did all the work. We just gotta receive it. Like a gift, he gives us the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. He's setting a gift in front of you right now, and your decision is to either receive the gift or reject the gift. Will you receive Jesus or reject him? And if you reject Jesus, you will forever be forsaken and separated from the presence of God. The Bible describes hell as a place of outer darkness. Why was Jesus in three hours of darkness? Because of the presence of God and the judgment of God. If you reject Jesus, you will spend all of eternity under the judgment of God, under the wrath of God, paying the penalty for your sins. And that's not something I'd say lightly, and I don't even really like saying it, but it's true. But the good news is Jesus was forsaken so you never have to be. Jesus was forsaken so you can be accepted. And he makes a promise where he says, I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. He promises that because Jesus was separated and forsaken by the Father on the cross, when you receive him, you will forever have the continual presence of God, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. You will have him as your father forever. Why would we not? How would we not take him up on that? Jesus was forsaken so we never have to be. Charles Spurgeon said it this way: God forsook Christ so that he might never forsake you. Today you can walk out of here forgiven because the faith savior was forsaken. You can be accepted because he was forsaken. Let's all stand this morning. Heads bowed. I ask our prayer team to come forward. And I want to close in prayer, and I want to give you an opportunity. If you're not sure about your salvation, if you're not sure that you were truly born again, don't walk out of here not knowing. You can come talk to me right now. You can wait and talk to me or someone after. We can go in the counseling room in the back. We have people that would love to talk to you about that decision. Maybe you're here this morning and you just find yourself in a rut spiritually. Find yourself not in love with Jesus as you used to be. The Bible says return to your first love. Maybe you need to let the cross and the gospel just bring a warmth to your heart and a fire to your soul. Just fall back in love with Jesus. Father, we love you. We need you. We thank you for your truth. We thank you for the word that you have spoken this morning to our hearts. God, if there's one here, if there's a few here, if there's someone here right now, that they're not truly a believer in Christ. They've never truly come to a place where they received Jesus as their Savior. Maybe they've been playing the religious game, they looked apart, they act apart, but their heart has not been changed. Jesus said, Except a man be born again, he cannot enter in the kingdom of heaven. God, I pray that they would find salvation and find your love this morning that will change their life. God, I pray that you would just point us to the cross. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's sing in worship. If you need prayer, would you come on this?