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All right. Well, good morning to you. Good happy time change Sunday. That feels like an oxymoron to say that. It's hard to be happy when you lose an hour's sleep, right? It didn't hit. I mean, we we knew we were like preparing ourselves all week long. Sunday, the time changes. Sunday, the time changes. And then last night about 9.30, uh, we were putting our kids in bed. We'd had dinner with some friends, and it was like, it's 10.30. Oh no. And so like it's just funny, and it still snuck up on us somehow. And so literally last night, you know, I'm kind of paranoid. I was like, I don't want to be late. I don't want to be late. I know some people were starting to come in here, they're an hour late, but uh I was like, I don't want to be that the pastor that doesn't show up on time, you know. And so I woke my wife up like at 3:30 and like, hey, hold up your wrist. She always wears a watch, like all the time. And I'm like, let me see it. Okay, all right. Yep, yep, that's right. Okay, changed. Good. Okay, my alarm's gonna be okay. And so I I could I could go to sleep and rest at that point. Um, but it's funny how just time change kind of comes, and and as uh Hosue said, I mean, this is uh this is supposed to be spring break and it's uh it's cold outside. It's like we've had we've had a cold winter for uh for Austin, Texas, but I've enjoyed it personally because I like having seasons and I enjoy having a little cool weather because I know it'll be 110 degrees really soon, right? Okay. So um as Josue mentioned, uh we are excited about uh the opportunity we have now to have space for our kids, kind of through through second grade, and we are working diligently on the plan for our third through fifth graders. We'll be letting you know more about that uh soon. Uh hopefully in the next two weeks we'll have that problem solved. Uh but yesterday I had the opportunity to go to a funeral, and and most funerals um it's they're just they're interesting moments where you have a lot of introspection, you really think about your life, you think about the brevity of life, you think about what kind of legacy am I going to leave. But as we were there after the funeral was over, um we were in a back room, the kind of their parlor, and uh we were just having some refreshments, and there were these there were these two older ladies and they were having a conversation, and and most of the time when my family goes anywhere, uh not only do we bring a party, but everybody's kind of looking at us like we're crazy because I have five kids and my wife's pregnant, and so they're kind of like, What is wrong with you people? And um, and so we were having we were having this interesting conversation in the parlor, and they're just kind of watching us and they're observing our kids, and and our kids are being great. They're they're really just being sweet, and and uh, and I heard them say something that just really stood out to me. Uh they they were part of this this church, uh it's an older church, and they've been there for 40 years. And the lady looked at the other one and she said, Wouldn't it wouldn't it be awesome if on Sunday mornings we came in and there were kids in our church like this? And uh I just stopped and I thought, man, like how sad is that? Like their church has has grown old and they don't have any children around. And and so I just walked over and I said, I just want you to know, like, I pray that God will bring some kids around here. And I want also to remember that every time we think about children and we struggle with trying to find space or we struggle with feeling like, oh, how are we gonna do this? or it's chaotic, like just may God remind me of the gift that they are. And how that a church that is growing and thriving, children are a sign of God's hand and his blessing. And so I just want to speak that to you yesterday because that was fresh on my mind that we love kids here at Point Community Church. We're working diligently to get more space for them, but we are so thankful uh that we have uh so many young families, and we're we're so glad that we're that generationally we have young and old, and that we get to see that the full spectrum of that. And we pray we will continue to be diverse in age and in other ways. Well, this morning we're continuing our series on gospel DNA, and um we uh have had a great a couple of uh really the last few weeks have been powerful. I I don't know about you, but for me personally, uh I have been convicted uh that I just don't take the gospel serious um like I should. Uh one of the things we've said about the gospel is that it's not simply the foundation of our faith, but it's what sustains us in everyday life. Um another way to say that is that salvation is not just a point, it's also a process. And so if you've got your worship guide with you this morning, I encourage you to pull that out. That worship guide, we've got some notes you can write down some answers in. And the first one is simply that, that salvation is not just a point, but it's also a process. Uh the way that I understand this personally is that for some of you, uh, maybe you did grow up in church, and maybe there was a moment that you can think back to and you can remember when you prayed and said, God, would you save me? Uh, would you rescue me? Would you bring me salvation and forgiveness? Maybe you remember praying that prayer. I don't know where you were. Uh, for some of you, maybe that was in a home. For some of you, maybe that was in a church context. Uh, maybe that was in a camp, at a camp or a retreat. I don't know what your story was, but for many of us we can remember a point. But the beauty of the gospel is that it doesn't just get us to the point where we put our trust in God. It's actually how we live in everyday life. Uh, the theological terms we like to use is that God has justified us at that point where we've come to a place of putting our forgiveness in God, where we say, okay, now we have been made right with God. What was broken has been made right in a sense. But now we are sanctified. We are growing in sanctification, which means we we are looking more, our lives hopefully look more and more like Jesus over time. And so this morning, let me just remind you that when we say the word gospel, we're not just talking about the very foundation, the ABCs of our faith. We're talking about really what helps us mature and grow over the course of our Christian walk. And so it's important to remember that we never outgrow the gospel. Never. In fact, I could stand up here on the stage this morning and we could talk about uh what it means to be a godly husband or a godly wife, or what it means to be a godly parent, a mom, or a dad. We could talk about what it means to be a godly worker in your workplace. But the bottom line is that every one of those issues are rooted in the gospel. How you actually become a better husband or wife, how you actually become a better father or mother, how you actually become a better employee at your workplace, or even a boss, is rooted in the gospel, is what we believe as Christ's followers. Because the theme of the entire Bible is the story of redemption, the story of the gospel, the good news. Okay? Um, now as a pastor, I get to talk with people fairly often, and uh we have lots of great conversations about life, but a lot of times when people come to a pastor, they're usually uh having problems. Uh I there they it usually uh I was I was actually having this conversation with uh my daughter's class uh whenever she was going to an elementary school, they invited uh some of the parents to come for uh for I guess would be like kind of what what do you do day? Uh like the parent would come in and share what their work was, and and so somehow I got got involved in that, and so I went and I got to be the token pastor. And uh and as I was sitting in front of a group of kindergartners trying to explain to them what a pastor does, I said to them, Listen, I get to be with kids or with people, not just kids, but with people in their highest highs and their lowest lows. I get to be with people when we're worshiping God or when they're getting married and they're excited, and I get to be with people when they're burying someone and when things are really going rough and their marriages are falling apart or they're struggling with kids that are rebelling against them. And so I I always love um the fact that God has put me in those situations, even though they're hard, because I realize that He's given us hope to speak into those situations. But here's what I can tell you. Um, I've consistently heard three primary stories when people come and they have problems. Three kind of themes, if you will, in the stories that I that I hear from people. Um, the first story I want to tell you, I'm just gonna, for the sake of uh uh anonymity, I'm gonna just call this this girl Jennifer. Jennifer's 34 years old. She's a mother of three, and Jennifer, in her life, she struggles with guilt. In fact, over the course of her life, when she was younger, she was in her teens, she uh she was in church and she was around the things of God. She heard people talking about the things of God, she heard the Bible taught, she was part of a student ministry. But all the while Jennifer was struggling to find her identity. And Jennifer began to uh participate in things with drugs and alcohol. Uh she then um ultimately found herself in a relationship she didn't want to be in, uh, but but she was longing for some satisfaction, for some love, for some acceptance, and found herself uh in a in a sexually physical relationship and got pregnant early in her teens. And her life from that point forward was very difficult to manage all of the mistakes that that she had gone through. And now at age 34, she's still wrestling with the guilt and the shame that she feels over her past. Now, I can tell you that I've heard many, many stories like this. Maybe the a few of the details change, but uh we see this consistent story of guilt and shame over our past. The second story is about a man named Jason. And Jason came to me in his early or late 20s and basically sat down and said, listen, for 12 years, since the time I was about 17 years old, I've had a pornography addiction. And I just cannot overcome this thing. Consistently, I find myself going back to the internet and looking at things that I know I shouldn't. Consistently, I find myself struggling with this addiction, and it seems to have a hold on me. I know it's wrong. I know it know I shouldn't be looking at it. I know that it's it's devastating my life. He's he's a married man. He thought that the that the struggle would be over when he got married. We all in this room, men say that's silly. It doesn't ever go away. That men, we know it's that there's a constant battle with lust and the way we're wired. But Jason is constantly battling this pornography addiction and feeling helpless and hopeless that he could ever actually overcome it. The third story that I hear consistently is something like the story of Joan. And Joan is 55. Her kids have now all left the nest, and so she's an infrared with her husband. But Joan is a basket case when it comes to the anxiety that she has bound up in her about the future. Consistently, she worries about tomorrow. She worries about what's going to happen in our country, she worries about what's going to happen in her personal life, she worries about having enough money, enough clothing, enough shelter. I mean, she just struggles with everything. Worry, worry, worry. So much so that she can't just enjoy the here and now. Never thankful, uh, really, because she's always thinking about what she doesn't have or what she needs desperately. So always stressed about what's going to happen tomorrow, what's going to happen in the future. Now, listen, I could expand on each one of these stories, but I hear these three things consistently because they really represent the fact that all of us in this room can have difficulty with being haunted with our past, feeling helpless in our present, or even uncertain and anxious about our future. And I think all of us in this room have had moments of that, if we're honest, right? We've all struggled with those difficulties. And this morning I want to speak to you because I believe that the gospel has answers for all three. The gospel speaks to us in whatever state you find yourself this morning, struggling with your past, dealing with your present, or struggling to believe what's going to happen in your future is good. I believe the gospel has answers for us, it has solutions for us, it has help and hope for us this morning. I want to look at the Bible in 1 Peter. It's a book that the Apostle Peter wrote, and it's 1 Peter chapter 1. Just two verses this morning, just two simple verses that I think reveal to us the tenses of our salvation, the tenses of how the gospel works in our life. Okay? So if you've got your Bible, you can open it up. If you don't own a Bible, there's some Bibles under the seats. I encourage you to get one out. Um if you don't own one, feel free to take that with you as a gift. We would love for you to have that. And uh most of them have been used and already uh uh you know stretched and and pulled on and all that good stuff so you won't hurt them. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3 says this. Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy. He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Do you see it? Do you see the three tenses of the gospel in these two verses? First, we see this idea that we have been given what? A new birth. In the scripture, it tells us that we are new creations, that we have been given a new birth, right? So something that has happened to us. The gospel has saved us. Jesus and his work on the cross has saved us. This is really, really important for those of us who struggle with our past. Because consistently, if you're like the story of Jennifer that I told, you are feeling like you've got to do something to make up for your past mistakes. You're constantly thinking, I gotta fix what's what I broke. And here is the truth, the liberating truth this morning, is that you and I cannot fix what we have broken. We can't. Because Christ alone can fix that, and he has fixed that. He has taken care of that this morning. So whatever it is that you have struggled with in your past, whatever, whatever sin that you have committed, Jesus Christ has paid for that sin. In fact, in the guide there, the first thing that I want us to understand is that God is saving us, or has saved us from the penalty of sin. God has saved us from the penalty of sin. In Romans 6.23 it says this, for the wages of sin is, anybody know it? Death. For the wages of sin is death. Now, if you've had any job at all, uh even though we don't tend to use the word wage, we kind of understand what that means. What you have earned, what we have earned, okay. So if you work, uh if you work today at a fast food restaurant, let's say you work five hours and they pay you uh $8.50 an hour, you know, then you take that, you take out the tax, and you're gonna make $5 for the for that day of work, right? So here's the deal. We all know that that wage is referring to what we have earned. And in our lives, the Bible says that what we have earned because of our sin is death. That's the penalty. It's the worst, it's the death penalty. It's the worst penalty that we could possibly get. And yet, what we know is that the rest of that verse says this, but the gift of God is eternal life. What he has given us, instead of death, is given us life. See, from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, he said, if you eat from this tree, this wrong tree, this tree that is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, if you eat from that tree, you will surely die. That's what we deserve. We all deserve death in this room because of our sin. We deserve the penalty that fits the crime. And the crime is that we have rejected the God who is the author of life, the creator of life. And he said, here's the rules, here's the ground rules, here's the guidelines. And if you break those rules, you're gonna die. And we've broken those rules, haven't we? Because the truth is, if we're honest, all of us in here have lied in some form or some fashion, right? We've taken things that weren't ours, we have dishonored people that were in authority, especially our parents, our kids. We've done things that have broken God's law, and we deserve a just and righteous punishment for that, which would be death. In fact, the scripture says that all sin ultimately leads us to death. But Christ, in the passage, he says, God, who is rich in mercy, who is great in mercy, he has given us something other than death. He's given us life. So we have been rescued, saved from the penalty of sin. The second thing we see in the passage, though, is he says, not only have you been given a new birth, but you've been given a living hope. All of us in this room are alive. We're breathing, our hearts are beating, we're alive, and we praise God for that life. And here's the thing: the gospel has implications for today, in the here and now. As in, we know that every day we live and we breathe and we do life, God is at work. God is at work in our lives, He's changing us, He's making us more and more like Him. I said yes, I said earlier that I got the opportunity yesterday to go to a funeral. And um, one of the things that I hope for is that as I grow older, I grow kinder. Anyone in here ever been around some old people that just are not very kind? They get mean. Okay? Some of us can tell stories in here of how that happens. Hey, you know what? I hope that because of the gospel's work in my life, that as I get older, I grow kinder, that I grow softer to God, that I grow gentler with people. And I believe that can happen because of the work of God in me and because of the work of God in you. Sometimes it's our tendency to just think, like the guy Jason that I mentioned, that we just can't overcome our sin. We're just always gonna struggle with lying, or we're just always gonna struggle with lust, or we're just gonna always struggle with whatever sin it is. But listen, there is hope because we are no longer slaves to our sin. The gospel sets us free today. It doesn't just have implications for our past, it has implications for our present, here and now. This is why Christians ought to live different lives. Listen, listen, um, I am not telling you this morning that we as Christians will be the most moral people on the planet. Maybe that comes as a surprise to some of you. Can I just tell you that I've got some neighbors, I've had some neighbors that were probably better husbands and better dads than me, and they weren't believers. They weren't Christians. They were really good at being a dad, or they were really good at being a husband. Thankfully, we're not in a competition with them to see how godly we can be. Thankfully, though, God is working in me and he's making me a better husband and a better dad daily. Why? Because he is setting me free from performing for him and really stirring my heart to worship him so that I want all of my life to be a blessing to God for what he has done, for who he is and what he has done. I do think that the church should represent him well, but listen, anytime someone says, I'm not going to church because they're a bunch of hypocrites, I just say, Yes, you are right. Absolutely we are. Because there's things that we say we believe and we don't live out, do we? But thankfully, thankfully, it's not based on us. Thankfully, it's based on the grace of God. Now, do I think that we should pursue holiness? Absolutely. Having a conversation this week with the elders, we meet on Thursday nights, and we were having this conversation about how so many times, because we have been given grace, we assume that, you know, we can just live how we want to live. We can be indifferent to sin. And let me remind you this morning: God is not indifferent towards our sin. He hates sin. He hates what it cost his son, Jesus Christ, to go to the cross for us because of our sin. He hates sin and he knows what it does to our lives. He knows how it wrecks our lives, how it wrecks our relationships, how it takes good things and it perverts them. It takes the things that He created and said they were good and makes them to the things that we begin to worship. Like we said a few weeks back, that we will worship things that can't give us life. So here's this morning, let me remind us. Let me remind us that we should pursue to be holy, to look more and more like Christ. But we cannot do that on our own. And for me to send you out the door and say, okay, go try harder, I mean, that's ridiculous. Because I know if you're like me, I might make it to the parking lot before I've sinned again. Maybe. Because some thought will come into my brain, my kid will do something, and I'll instantly have this anger well up in within me within me because it's inconvenient. Now, hopefully, again, God begins to stop some of that stuff. I mean, some of us literally are just convinced that we just can't overcome our sin, but that's not true. In fact, if uh Romans chapter 6, we were just there in Romans chapter 6, verse 23, but Romans chapter 6, verse 17 and 18, write this down. The whole section there is good, but I just want to read two verses for the sake of time. It says this. Thank God that all you although you used to be slave to sin, notice, you used to be slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were transferred to. And having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. What is he saying? He's saying you don't have to give in to your flesh any longer. Listen, if you do not know Christ, if you're today, if you're if you're part of this service today, but you have not put your trust in Jesus, the scripture tells us that you have no ability to say no to sin. Like sin is just, it's your master in essence. But if you know Jesus Christ, you don't have to be a slave to sin. You don't have to give in to sin. Because we now have been set free. Free to say yes to God and no to our flesh. And not only have we been set free and given the permission to do that, we've been given the power to do that. And that's the second thing, there is that we, as we said, we will, we, God is saving us from the power of sin. From the power of sin. Titus 2 is one of my favorite passages that speaks to this. And again, I just want to quickly read it to you because I think it's so significant. Titus chapter 2, verse 11. And it says something very simple and yet so profound. Where he says to, Paul says to Titus, for the grace of God has appeared with salvation for all people. So what has brought our salvation? Our works? No what? God's grace, God's unmerited favor, his favor towards us that we don't deserve, right? But then he goes on to say, instructing us to say no or to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age. Are you following with me? You tracking with me? The same grace that has saved us is the same grace that will help us overcome sin in our lives. So I don't know what your addiction is, but every single one of you in here has an addiction. Every single one of us. We all have an addiction. For some, it's the approval of man. For some of us, it may be drugs or alcohol. For some of us, it may be money, but we all have an addiction at some level. But the only thing that can set us free is the grace of God. And this is why, if you just simply try to make yourself a better person, you'll be just like that older son in the parable in Luke 15, where you'll try to take credit for your salvation. But only God can save, only God can rescue. So God is saving us from the power of sin. Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness. Third thing. We have been given a new birth into a living hope for what reason? And into an inheritance. That's something that's coming, isn't it? It's future. An inheritance. And I love the words he uses. It's imperishable, it's uncorruptible. You know why? Because it's not based on us. Like we didn't get it, we didn't earn it, therefore we can't lose it because it's something from God. It's a gift from God. Now, I like to say this a lot when I'm talking to people about the gospel and trying to convince them that this is not something that we can earn, because when the Bible says that our salvation is a gift, I just read Romans 6.23, but for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the way that I think this really works for you guys, kids in the room, I don't know what kind of gaming system that you like, but if I were to say to you, hey, it's your birthday, and I want to buy you a gaming system for your birthday. So maybe you chose the new PlayStation, right? And I said, Okay, I want to get you the new PlayStation for your birthday. But then tomorrow I showed up at your door and said, Okay, I need you to pay me back for that. That's not a gift. And the problem is that we look at God like that. Sometimes we say, Okay, God will receive your salvation, your gift. Okay, now we're gonna work for it. But that's not the way it works. It's not a gift if you have to earn it. So in our lives, we see God has given us this inheritance. He's given us this uncorruptible, imperishable inheritance that we will be with him. It's kept in heaven. So it's the future. So we will be saved from the presence of sin. We have been saved from the penalty of sin. We are being saved from the power of sin in our everyday lives, so we can actually live differently. But last of all, we will be saved from the presence of sin. And this is what gets me most excited. Can I be honest? I get most excited about this one because this one means that one day there will no longer be sin and suffering and all the consequences of our broken, fallen world that we deal with every day. People won't die. We won't deal with the hardship of sickness in our lives because it will be gone. In fact, I want to take you to Revelation. The book of Revelation, the last book in Scripture. You know what's great about our Christian faith and the Bible that God's given us, His Word, His Holy Word, is that we know the end of the story. Right? We know where this thing's gonna end up. We know where we're headed. It makes a huge impact for us, or should, because we know what the final destination is gonna be like. And here's what it says in Revelation chapter 21. I'm gonna read just the first four verses to you. I want you to listen to this. In fact, if you want to, you can close your eyes as long as you promise not to fall asleep. You can close your eyes and just vision and vision what this is gonna look like. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea no longer existed. I also saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne. Look, God's dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. God's going to be present with his people. That's us. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. Now catch this. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist. Grief, crying, and pain will no longer exist because the previous things have passed away. What is he saying? He's saying all this broken world that we live in, all the sin and the repercussions of that sin are all going to go away one day. Isn't that an awesome thought? That one day we will no longer have to deal with sin because its presence will be removed. I look forward to that day. I am, I'm excited about that day. The only thing that bothers me about that day is that there are people in this world, people in our own city, people who live in my neighborhood, people that are even blood related to me, who will not know the presence of sin's removal in the way that I will. Because they have not put their trust in the person and work of Jesus to save them. They have not received the gift of salvation. That's the one thing that bothers me, and it's the one thing that I, along with the Apostle Paul, when I look at Scripture, I can resonate with what he's saying. When he says, listen, you know, I'd rather be with God, but for your sake, I'm here. I'm in the body because I know that there are people who do not believe in Christ yet. The only reason that I want to stay here on this earth right now is so that I can continue to tell others that Christ loves them and has forgiven them and has saved them if they will put their trust in him. Because other than that, like we might as well just get out of here, right? Let's be with God. Let's be where there's no more sin and no more suffering and no more hardship. But the beautiful thing is, God has called his church to point others to life in him. And so until he takes us home, that's our job. I don't care what kind of work you do. If you're a stay-at-home mom, if you work at IBM, if you are a person who works at the school, if you're a ditch digger, it does not matter what your role is. Your primary responsibility as a Christ follower is to point others to life in Jesus until he takes us home. And as a church, what's cool is we get to come together and do that where we can encourage each other. Because some days it's hard to remember that that's our primary job. But that's really all of our job description. Not just the pastors, not just the elders, not just the church leaders, all of us. That our lives would be a living billboard to declare to the world around us that God saves, He rescues, that He has saved us from the penalty of sin, He has saved us from the power of sin or is saving us from the power of sin, and one day He will save us from the presence of sin. And when we get this, when we start to understand this, when we start to really recognize the beauty of the gospel in this, three things that will be evident in our life. First one is this humility. They're all going to be there together. Humility. You would think the opposite of feeling shame and condemnation would be like puffed up and arrogant. But actually, what happens is when you recognize what you have been rescued from, when I recognize what I've been rescued from, which was death, it humbles me because I know I don't deserve that. Anyone in here agree with that? Anybody know that we don't deserve to be rescued from death? You see, I think some of the problem that I face, and probably some of the problems that you face, is that so much of the time we can forget what we've been rescued from. The longer that we are Christians, the longer that we go to church, the longer that we are around the things of God, sometimes our hearts can grow cold towards God. And they can grow cold towards the reality of our rescue, our redemption. That's why I love being around people who are new believers. Because they know what it's like to live without God. Especially when adults come to faith and they're in their 20s and 30s and 40s. Have you ever been around someone who came to faith when they are older? They've lived their life not knowing where they're going to spend eternity and not knowing how they're going to deal with life's difficulties and circumstances. But all of a sudden, when they get saved, they get radically saved by the gospel, rescued, perspective comes, and man, you know what? It's contagious. I love that. I love the way that there are things that I thought, you know, I know this, but I don't feel it the same way I used to feel it. And all of a sudden they're just giddy. They're excited about it. And I need to be around that because I need to remember God has rescued me from death. And that brings humility to me. The second thing it brings when we begin to understand this is courage. Courage. Courage to continue to fight the battle. Courage to continue to face the difficulties that we're gonna face in this life. Courage to remember that this is not the end of the story. Courage to remember that I'm not helpless and hopeless, but I actually have the power of the living God inside of me. Church, listen to us. Listen to me this morning. If you are a Christ follower, if you have been adopted, the Spirit of God lives inside of you. I mean, maybe you're thinking, like, you know, no, no big deal. What? No, it's a huge deal. The creator of the universe has deposited in you his spirit to give you power. To give you power, to remind you of all the things that Jesus said whenever he was on this earth to remind you of the way that he wants to work in your life, to use you to point others to life in him. He wants to give you boldness to share the gospel in whatever workplace context he's put you in. The Holy Spirit is in us and it gives us courage. Listen, the reason we don't share the gospel with people around us is because, number one, a lot of times we've forgotten what we were saved from, like I said a while ago. So we just kind of got indifferent to it. But secondly, a lot of us forget that we have God in us. That God is working inside of us. We are not God, but he is in us. We are his children, so we don't have to worry about what other people think about us, like we said last week, because he is the amazing, awesome, powerful creator God who lives in us and who will breathe life into us and will give us the courage. In fact, even the apostles in the New Testament, in the Bible, you see the story where Jesus goes to his darkest hour where he is suffering, and they all run away and desert him. But then, just a little ways later in the scripture, we find Peter standing up in front of a crowd of people who think that they're all drunk because they've got the Holy Spirit on them and they're speaking in different languages. They stand up and they speak boldly, and Peter even comes out and says, Listen, you guys, the Son of God, Jesus, you crucified him, you killed him. Where does that boldness come from? It comes from the Holy Spirit. And so that courage that we can have to face our everyday challenges comes from God in us. And the gospel reminds us of that today. It reminds us that we were broken and messed up and we had no hope in ourselves, but it reminds us now that we are his children, we are adopted, we are loved, we are accepted, and we have him with us and in us. But the third thing is this it also gives us joy. It also gives us joy. Now, joy is a weird word. I mean, we like to think about happiness a lot more than we like to think about joy. But let me let me just tell you that joy is directly connected to what your hope is placed in. Whatever your hope lies in, that's where you get your joy from. And here's why that's important. Because if you put your hope in things in this life, your joy is gonna be like this. Right? Up and down and all around. Because if you put your hope in money and then your money runs out, guess what? No joy. If you put your hope in your kids and their performance, whoa, roller coaster, right? If you put your hope in your spouse that your spouse is gonna meet all your needs, whoa, hey, because one day they're gonna disappoint you, many days they're gonna disappoint you. Because here's the deal if whatever you put your hope in will determine what your joy level is. But if you put your hope in the fact that we have a Savior Jesus Christ, who not only came to save us as a suffering servant, but will return as a conquering king to restore all the brokenness in this world, if that's your hope, now you can have joy no matter what your circumstances are in this life. Isn't that awesome? Yeah. So let me just close out with this this morning. I don't want us to walk around as a people, as a people who believe that we've been defeated. That we're haunted by our past, we're helpless and hopeless against our sin in the current day, or we're we're always just anxious and nail biting about our future. Because our greatest enemy in our past was defeated in the person and work of Jesus. Our greatest enemy in our present was defeated through the person and work of Jesus. And our greatest enemy of our future has been defeated in the person and work of Jesus. And so we don't have to be afraid, and we don't have to be fearful of where we're gonna go and where we're gonna spend eternity, because that's already been declared to us. The only thing I said again to you is that some of you in this room, you've yet to receive that gift. And maybe that's pride, maybe that's unbelief. But my prayer is that this morning you would let the King come in. You would let the Savior rescue you so that you don't have to keep living your life with hopelessness and helplessness and no joy. Because he restores all things. He is a good God. Let me pray for us this morning.