 God loves you With an everlasting love God himself is not just good He is goodness itself by that I mean that we don't just describe God as good But that we describe everything as good that is like unto God He is the standard against which we measure all things He is the stabilizing force By which we judge moral matters and spiritual matters and God and God alone is goodness is life is light is truth and He is highly exalted meaning. He is above all. He is the all in all Psalm chapter 107 verse 1 says give thanks to the Lord For he is good His faithful love endures forever God is goodness And I want to put the truth to you directly God is goodness and many of us in this room and many watching online are Fighting that goodness by the way they live their lives They are in enmity with God They are contradicting by the way they live and think and feel and believe The very essence of the goodness of God the very nature of who he is James chapter 1 verse 13 says this Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed in other words Man by his own free will is drawn away by those desires drawn away to the things of the world Drawn away to the things that contradict the nature of God and we see the results of this Manifested in our world the world is being covered in darkness because of sin You look around at the world today and you wonder what is the issue? What are the problems stemming from why is the world in the state that it's in what is happening on the earth? And I'm reminding you now as the scripture has said that this darkness this chaos this Disorder is the direct result of sin and Sin is rebellion against God who is goodness? Well, if you rebel against light don't be surprised when you have darkness if you rebel against holiness Don't be surprised when you have moral filth If you rebel against truth, don't be surprised when you have confusion God is that goodness verse 15 then when lust hath conceived bring it forth sin and Sin when it is finished bring it forth death the Bible does declare that all have sin there is none righteous Every living person has violated the holy standard of God by something that they have done or thought Some attitude that they have carried within themselves. There are those who are Contradicting God's nature by the way, they live they are enemies with God and they don't even know it Fighting that goodness they live their lives in rebellion stubborn hearts prideful demeanors Narrow minds fixated on that which they desire they trade the eternal for the temporary The worldly for the spiritual now verse 16 says Do not air my beloved brother in Every good and perfect gift is from above and comments down from the father of lights With whom is no variableness Neither shadow of turning of his own will Begat he us with the word of truth That we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. This is of course talking about the new believer or the believer the verse 17 tells us That God is the father of lights No variableness no shadow of turning So then sin is the reason for evil, but God is the father of lights God is love And that love knows no bound that love knows no limits You've ever wondered if you were loved By your mere existence you can determine that you are loved with the never-lasting love For the scripture declares that we were formed in the image of God if you've ever wondered if anybody cared The scripture tells us that we can cast our cares upon us for he cares for us Many of you have received by a way of religious teaching an image of God in your mind and heart that causes you to see him as One who uses his power against you as One who is looking for a reason to punish you With his arms folded looking over the balconies of heaven perhaps. This is how many of us imagine him We see him looking down Barely putting up with us tolerating us, but not loving us And this is how many believe God sees his creation and we think that he's just waiting for the opportunity For us to mess up so that he can pour upon us his wrath It's just the opposite. He's slow to anger the Bible's He's rich in mercy Compassion patience these are the attributes of God Holding back wrath Not willing that any should perish And as revealed in the Old Testament when he spoke to the nation of Israel, we see his heart come now Let us reason together All that he can do he's done Extending his reach to you now the God of compassion The God of love the God of light. Yes. He is also holy. Yes. He is also just yes The wages of sin is death God is withholding that wrath for as long as time will dictate according to his purposes And he holds back that wrath Desiring that you would repent Desiring that she would turn to him He is the gift giver Everything of life that we love Whether you find it in a spouse and Your love for your child and your love for your friends The joy of companionship the experience of existence Everything you find in these things that is good or noble or pure or worth anything at all Come from the nature of God for he is goodness He is the gift giver He has given unto you breath you may look around this world Perhaps confused by your place in it Wondering what God has ever done for you You may have gone through tragedy and wondered where was God when I suffered where was God in my time of trouble? Where was God in that traumatic event? But again, we neglect to see The gifts of God given to us you have breath you have life you have existence you have time You have a will these are gifts from God and if ever you wondered where God was We are without excuse once we've heard the gospel if ever you've wondered if God loves you How do you know that this isn't him now speaking to you? I have loved you with an everlasting love What if everything you've been through Everything you faced every trial every trauma has brought you to this moment now God is faithful the father of lights and he gives you now a gift of truth He's holy and just when you reject God you reject his goodness. God is life light goodness the source of love joy and peace When we live in a way that contradicts his nature, we live in darkness This is enmity with God Living in that darkness makes you an enemy with God James 4 4 and 5 says this you adulterers Don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I said again if you want to be a friend of the world you make yourself an enemy of God Do you think that the scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful unto him We see the holy jealousy of God. Yes. Jealousy can be holy ungodly jealousy Demands based on fear and selfishness but godly jealousy Sacrifices based on love and selflessness God desires you jealously Yet we fight him All of us sin in some way none of us measure up to God's holy standard first Corinthians 6 9 through 11 says don't you realize That those who do wrong will not inherit the kingdom of God Don't fool yourselves Those who indulge in sexual sin or worship idols or commit adultery or are male prostitutes or practice Homosexuality or our thieves or greedy people or drunkards or are abusive or cheat people None of these will inherit the kingdom of God Some of you were once like that, but you were cleansed you were made holy You were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of God Some might be offended at this idea of sin But my friend I Would rather offend you into heaven than comfort you into hell The Bible is still true Sin is still sin and If we're gonna be faithful to the word we have to preach against that sin And I'm here to tell you that the wages of those sins their death Destruction darkness That is perhaps one of the most loving things. I can tell you is the truth Truth is sin destroys Sin robs you Sin has a destructive power unlike any other it corrupts your mind and body and soul It wastes the way your life and it puts you in direct enmity with God Who is goodness? Now imagine I were to give to you Let's just say for the sake of an analogy a Brand-new sports car. How about a Lamborghini? Now, I don't know what I would do with one I probably wouldn't be able to know how to drive it not really a car person But I think we all can understand the value of a sports car And if I said to you here's the gift I Paid it all in cash Here is a car that will cover the fuel for the next 20 years And I paid for all the insurance for the next 20 years and then I said, but there's just one thing I Want you to take care of it? Don't take it off-roading and obey the laws of the streets The legal ones not the illegal ones Some of you were redeemed from the laws of the streets And I give you this vehicle gas covered insurance covered Everything paid off and then you take those keys and you say don't tell me How to use this car? How dare you? Who are you to put restrictions on me? Who are you to tell me how to drive what's mine? Well, this is what we do with our lives God says here is life here is goodness here is breath here is Companionship here is love here is truth and light and joy and peace and if you just live the way I tell you to live You'll live in light People rebel against that not realizing that their very ability to rebel their will was given to them That God sustains the very breath by which they curse him This is the stubbornness the rebellion the pride and the effects of sin Though at first they may seem like they're non-existent to become more and more intense the longer you live in rebellion against God Your heart becomes harder. You become cynical. You begin to view life through the lens of confusion the life through the lens of pride You end up with a lack of purpose aimlessly wandering You know if there's no eternity, there's no purpose Really think about that if there's no eternity, there's no purpose for anything Well, I want to be remembered by history my friend if there's no eternity even history will be forgotten Well, I want to live to better society and help develop mankind and take civilization to the new era of living Okay, you can do that, but if there's no eternity eventually all civilizations come to an end These are noble desires. There's nothing wrong with them in and of themselves, but without eternity. There's no real purpose And so when you live without the eternal one you live without him in your view You live without him in your regard now. You're aimlessly wondering through life. What is my purpose? Why am I here? Why do I suffer? There's a great emptiness that comes with that because you're living apart from the Creator There's lack of joy and it cannot be found in the things of this world Solomon a wise man the wisest whoever lived the scripture describes him taking this experiment on and In this experiment he goes on to experience all that life has to offer and every pleasure you can think of Every desire that can be fulfilled He sought after it and he had the wealth and the power and the status and all means to fulfill all Desires that he had and at the end of it all he said it's meaningless You can search in the world. Do you know why? The joy that this world brings is temporary It's because everything that the world gives to you is itself temporary Your joy can only last as long as that which it's based on Think about this you base your joy on money and Money begins to lose its allure and you find that that number you wanted once you get it wasn't enough anyway And you get lost in this desire Piercing yourself through with many sorrows like a thirsty man lapping up saltwater Only momentary relief to be then followed by an intensification of that desire There's no joy in these things that lasts And you may be sitting here feeling like a shell of who you were because after pursuing status after pursuing Finance after pursuing every pleasure of this world you found that you're still empty There's a lack of peace There's a lack of peace about life. There's a lack of peace internally emotionally mentally There's the fear of death my friend you may not even realize that you're under demonic harassment We is the saints of God We resist the enemy he flees no fight he flees so the Bible says Once we resist he's like I'm out of here. You know who you are. I'm leaving But people of the world aren't even aware of the spiritual realm around them They're living under the system of darkness They're living under the influence of the enemy and that brings harassment of the mind that peace is robbed from you Because of the guilt of things you've done and Maybe you're carrying guilt for something in your past Maybe you're carrying guilt for some way you feel you failed and that guilt weighs on you day and night It's like a weight that you carry And that burden Becomes too much to bear Lack of purpose lack of joy lack of peace When God formed plant life He called it forth from the ground When God formed sea life. He called it forth from the water When God formed animal life. He called it forth from the earth When God formed you he spoke to himself Let us make man in our image after our likeness You were formed of God From his spirit The scripture declares that God breathed and man became a living soul Isaiah 59 1 through 2 listen The Lord's arm is not too weak to save you Nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call It's your sins that have cut you off from God Because of your sins. He has turned away and will not listen anymore My friend that is why sin destroys because sin separates you from God Hear me now You were not created to live in separation from God You were not created to live in depression You were not created to live with anxiety You were not created to live with torment You were not created to wallow in the filth of sin. You were not created to live in confusion You were created to know God to love him and be loved by him It's who you are It's why you were created It's the purpose of your existence. This is why we rejoice for the scripture says in Colossians chapter 2 verse 13 You were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature and you were cut away Then God made you alive with Christ for he forgave all your sins This my friend is the power of the cross. You want to know why you see Christians sometimes wearing those little crosses You want to know why we talk about the power of the blood or the power of the cross or the sacrifice of Jesus It's really simple all of us have sinned and All of us before Christ are living in rebellion against God and the result of that sin is death Here's the bad news first because you have to give the diagnosis before you can give the cure Here's the bad news first. It's terminal and There's nothing you can do about it on your own strength You can go to church Every single day Give all your money to the poor Volunteer at every charity Never say another bad word For the rest of your life and it still won't amount to the payment that we owe for even one sin Won't even amount We're helpless utterly helpless without him. That's the bad news. The good news is Christ Who is God and this is the gospel you need to hear. It's so simple Yes, there are many different beliefs that come with Christianity there are many different beliefs that come with following Jesus we could talk about baptism and speaking in tongues and Spiritual gifts and demons and spiritual warfare and the end times and the last days and Bible prophecy and Genealogies and doctrines of all kinds, but the greatest truth I can share for you is simple Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so and the gospel is simple You can't save yourself So Jesus who is God? Came to earth by the power of the Holy Spirit The Creator stepped into creation Lived a perfect sinless life Not one sin not one sinful thought Not one sinful attitude No iniquity no transgression no abomination Nothing in him perfectly pure the spotless lamb meaning not a single blemish and he lived this perfect life and Then took the punishment for your sinful one and when he died on that cross It was the best that God had to offer Meeting the worst that man had to offer It was God's mercy meeting your rebellion. It was God's compassion meeting your stubbornness It was Christ's purity meeting your guilt and on that cross when he died He took upon himself the punishment for those sins for the wages of sin is death That's the reward for sin you die. Jesus died upon that cross in your place and Now if you'll only put your faith in him Believe it's that simple and I'll show you that in a moment If you put your faith in him Then when God looks at you and when God looks at Jesus, it's much different When you put your faith in Jesus and God looks at the cross he sees your sin and when he sees you He sees Christ perfection It's the great exchange the gospel is simply this Jesus will give you his eternal life in exchange for your temporary one You give it to him You put your faith in him. It's all God requires If it was any more complicated, we would ruin it He lived the sinless life. He took upon the punishment of God He took all power and authority from the enemy and all the powers of darkness He is seated in heavenly places and all he asks of you believe That's it and you might say well wait a minute wait a minute. I thought I had to live clean you do but here's the difference When you put your faith in Jesus. He begins to give you new desires so then I'm not living clean so that I'm accepted by God. That's that's man's thinking that's religion and That'll torment you because you'll never know if you're actually saved or not You'll never know if you actually did enough So so the way it actually works is it's not that I live clean so that God accepts me It's that I'm so thankful that God has accepted me. I'm gonna live clean It's done. Jesus said Jesus said it is finished not you take it from here Finish done. That's the cross the cross says done religion says do do do the cross says done done done It is finished first Peter 2 22 through 25 He never sinned nor ever deceived anyone He did not retaliate when he was insulted nor threatened revenge when he suffered He left his case in the hands of God who always judges fairly He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross So that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right by his wounds You are healed once you were like sheep who wandered away But now you have turned to your shepherd the guardian of your souls second Corinthians 5 18 and 19 And all of this is a gift from God Who brought us back to himself through Christ And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him for God was in Christ Reconciling the world to himself no longer counting people sins against them and he gave us this wonderful message of Reconciliation it's an ancient message that is still true Sin is still the problem and Jesus is still the answer There's no stain That cannot be cleaned No sin so stains that the blood of Jesus cannot wash you completely clean Romans 5 1 through 2 therefore This is what the Bible says Since we have been made right in God's sight by faith We have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us because of our faith Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand and we confidently and Joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory Romans 10 verse 9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead You will be saved For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God And it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved as the scripture tells us Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect They have the same Lord who gives generously to all who call upon him for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved peace with God peace with God that's why Your heart is so heavy That's why you're confused. That's why your mind is tormented That's why you carry the shame all he wants to do is show you love all he wants to do is show you truth all he wants to do is Give you himself You fight him because of what religious people have led you to believe about him You fight him because of someone who offended you who claimed to be a Christian You fight him because you see value in what is actually sin. That's destroying you fight him Because of one reason and that's your pride. Why else would we reject the goodness of God? Why else would we reject eternal life? Why else would we reject Jesus? When salvation is so simple repent of your sins Repent Turn to God and be cleansed repent of your sin and wrongdoing Turn to Jesus and be saved. I know it's not popular to say it. I Know people will get mad at me for saying so But I have to warn you Your sin is destroying you and it's separating you from God you need to turn from it You need to turn from it today The scripture declares that today is the day of salvation Right now We are without excuse You may say well, I don't believe in God. You're lying to yourself Your conscience bears witness against you That's not even a debate that needs to be had you know the truth that there's a God in heaven Who formed you with a purpose You may say well, I've tried this before and I failed And I don't want to fail again My friend you may fail, but he doesn't He doesn't he never fails You may say brother David there are things I've done that you don't even know things I carry on my shoulders Memories They fill me with shame Jesus died for the worst sins among us There is no pit so deep that his love is not deeper still Nothing can separate you from that love so you're here this evening or you're watching online and You know that you need to respond to the message of the gospel There's two ways that this can go tonight You can choose to reject Jesus and I say reject Jesus. You're not rejecting me You're not rejecting a religion. You're not rejecting an organization. You're not rejecting a philosophy when you reject the gospel You're rejecting Jesus We're not talking about religion. We're not talking about other people. We're talking about Jesus himself and so this evening God Wants to save you and you can choose to reject that message and if you do my friend You will leave this place this evening Carrying the weight and the burden of that sin and shame and you'll leave this building. You'll get into your car Or you'll get into the subway or however, you're getting home and you'll be sitting there tonight in your home still waited By the sin still covered in the darkness saying to yourself. I should have responded I should have responded. I should have responded because you have to respond when God calls you We are not promised tomorrow. He's saying are you trying to scare me? I'm giving you the truth And if the truth scares you so be it We are not promised tomorrow you have to respond when he calls you or you Can respond to Jesus Give your life to him He'll forgive you He'll cleanse you and the guilt and the shame and that weight that you've been caring for so long will be lifted from off of your shoulders You'll go home tonight With something in your heart that you can't quite explain. There'll be this joy this peace this This overwhelming sense of connection with God that you can't even put into words and I'm not promising you everything in your life will be perfect If you're broke right now, you're gonna go home and check your bank account. You'll still be broke if You have issues in your marriage. Sure. God can work on your marriage, but it's gonna be where you left off when you get home You have problems with your children. You have problems in this world on the job Whatever those issues are they may still be there because Jesus said in this world, you'll have tribulation, of course But you know what? You'll have a joy in your heart You'll have a peace in your soul And you'll know that you're connected with God and you'll say I'm so glad I'm so glad I responded aren't you tired of running Aren't you tired of fighting him? Don't fight him anymore He's a wonderful Jesus He's so wonderful Jesus When you give your heart to the Lord and you place your faith in him The only regret that you'll have will be that you didn't do it sooner That will be it now. I'm not gonna ask us to close our eyes I'm not gonna ask us to bow our heads This is a public confession Openly declare with your mouth the scripture says Jesus said You deny me before man. I'll deny you before my father You confess me before man. I'll confess you before my father was in heaven you're in this place and You know tonight That you have to respond to this message you have to respond to the gospel and you just want Jesus I don't want you to think about it because you already know what you need to do I don't want you to look around the room and see hey How many other people are responding to this? I don't want you to look at your friends and say guys. Are we doing this? No, it's between you and God You and Jesus now if that's you you want Jesus You want to turn from your sin and put your faith in what he's done on that cross And right now I want you to stand to your feet and now if you're standing I Want you to come down the aisles and come stand at the altar, please Come to Jesus Listen to what I'm about to tell you Because this is very important If I do not properly communicate the gospel to you God will judge me harshly You cannot just say a prayer and be saved There is no special password There's no script to follow Prayer I'll say this Prayer has never saved anyone Prayer has never saved a single soul Only Jesus saves Not even prayer not even prayer Only Jesus saves And what I mean by that is simple. It's not a script that you can just read It's not an incantation or a set of magic words It's a confession that comes from the heart and if it doesn't come from the heart It's not a genuine confession. So this is not the end all be all It's not as though you can just say the prayer and that's it you're sealed It's when you place your faith in him truly that you are sealed and I do mean sealed Like he saves you. It's the finished work But we have to recognize That it's something that we do Based on our trust in him and him alone So you say this prayer? Yes, and if it's a genuine confession If you are truly turning to him He'll change your nature That's the miracle of salvation. It's like going in for an operation You don't pat yourself on the back and say what a wonderful operation. I did you were asleep the whole time. Hopefully Rather you just have to have the faith to get on the operating table And say do your work. That's all faith is. I can't save myself, but I believe you can here I am please save me and you put your faith in him and then he goes to work He's the surgeon of the soul and He will transform your nature your desires everything about you and Then you serve him Your desire will be to serve him your desire will be to live right you may not get everything, right? But he'll abide with you and you'll keep going and it's a process to be more and more like Jesus But it begins by putting your faith in him. Are you ready to do that as I look across this crowd of faces I See men and women young and old God is faithful. I see tears flowing eyes closed. I see hands lifted I want you to think of The worst thing you've ever done and this is not to shame you. I want you to think about it That which troubles you and look at me After today It'll be as though that never happened not in God's book Sins wipe the way clean Sins wipe the way clean. Are you ready? When my daughter wants me to pick her up She puts her hands out like this So ask him to pick you up right now just put your hands in the air And I want you to repeat this prayer after me. We read in Romans Confession with the mouth There there is no sinners prayer in the Bible, but in the Bible you'll find sinners who pray So repeat after me Say dear Jesus I Come to you today believing That you are the son of God I ask you Forgive me Set against sincerely to him forgive me All my sins I turn from sin today I turn from the world today. I Turn from the devil today and I turn to you Jesus I believe You lived a sinless life You died on the cross For my sins You rose again In bodily form From the dead I believe You're seated at God's right hand Jesus. I put my faith in you Save me Change me free me Jesus You are my God my Lord My king my friend My savior and I declare Today I am now and forevermore Born again in Jesus name in Jesus name in Jesus name Amen