[SPEAKER_01]: Alright, so turn with me today to Romans chapter one, Romans chapter one, and we're going to read verses one through six, Romans chapter one, verses one through six, it'll be on the screen if you want to follow that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says this, it says Paul a slave of Christ Jesus called us an apostle, singled out for God's good news, which he promised long ago through his prophets and the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: who was a descendant of David, according to the flesh, and who has been declared to be the powerful son of God by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have received grace and a apostleship through him to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations on behalf of his name, including yourselves, who also belong to Jesus Christ by calling.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen, hallelujah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're taking notes this morning the title of today's message is simple, it is who is this Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a question.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is this Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: Turn to the person next to you and ask him that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Say, who is this Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is this Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you, Father, God, for everything that you have already begun here today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, we just thank you for just your power and your spirit that's here this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Father, we just...
[SPEAKER_01]: Feast upon your word, we glean upon your word today, God, and we thank you, Lord, for teaching us something new, for teaching us something fresh today, and we just thank you that there will be life change and transformation on the words that are spoken this morning from you, Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Lord, we thank you for this time together in Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody said amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so who is this Jesus, you know, the book of Romans that we just read was obviously written by Paul.
[SPEAKER_01]: It starts out saying, I Paul, and it goes into the text there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's written by Paul to the church at Rome.
[SPEAKER_01]: And at this point at time, Jesus has been crucified.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has rose again from the grave.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's ascended to heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now the disciples are literally reaching people all over the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the Book of Romans is a letter.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a letter written by Paul to the church at Rome.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this Book of Romans is really a theological book.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's also a faith-filled
[SPEAKER_01]: book that we can read today and you can go through and you can really be filled with faith just by reading the book of Romans.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Paul begins in Romans chapter one by saying Paul a slave of Jesus Christ called an apostle.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you don't know what an apostle is, simply put this morning, it's kind of like a pastor of pastors.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a church planter.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's one that oversees churches.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that is what Paul is.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's who he is at this point of time.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is an apostle and he is overseeing many churches all around the area and stretching out far and wide.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he is addressing one of the churches that fall under his apostleship.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is Rome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now the essence of the gospel of Jesus, in and of itself, which is what Paul is telling the people as he begins to write this letter, he begins to tell them about the resurrection and the power of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you need to know that at the core of who Jesus is and at the core of the resurrection that we're talking about and we're celebrating today is the word love.
[SPEAKER_01]: That love is the centerpiece.
[SPEAKER_01]: Love is the missing puzzle piece, if you will, to all of everything that you can think of and to all of eternity, Jesus is the one that fills every single answer, every single void, why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just because of his name or his power or his authority, it's because of who he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Bible clearly defines that he is love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Bible God calls himself two things, that we see in Scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's two things that God calls himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first thing that he says, he says, I am a spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the second thing he says, he says, I am love.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we think about that, that he is a spirit, it comes out of John chapter 4 of verse 24.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says this, it says, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him and spirit and in truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we understand that God is spirit, but then we also understand that he says and he defines himself as love itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he is spirit and he is love.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't just love, or he doesn't just want love, but he is love.
[SPEAKER_01]: Turn to someone and say, Jesus is love.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're trying to answer the question this morning who is this Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: And we know, based on scripture, that we can clearly define that he is love.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now love requires an object or a person or something to express itself from.
[SPEAKER_01]: love has a requirement to do so.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it is not love if there is nothing to love.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is not love if there is nothing to love.
[SPEAKER_01]: So therefore God created
[SPEAKER_01]: something in His image to express the true nature of who He was.
[SPEAKER_01]: If God is love and love has to be expressed through something or someone, then God Himself, God the Father, had to create someone to be the expression of love upon the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because He wanted something to love so badly, He created something in His image
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is what love does.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if he is love, love has to activate itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's the key.
[SPEAKER_01]: Love can never be forced.
[SPEAKER_01]: Love must be chosen.
[SPEAKER_01]: So God wanted to express His love.
[SPEAKER_01]: So those he created, so he had to create and form his son, Jesus, to be the expression of love for us to have the understanding for us to grasp and for us to relate to the love of the heart of the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he sends Jesus, and Jesus walks upon this earth of a blameless, a sinless man, and everything that Jesus does upon the earth is rooted in love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he never forced his love upon mankind.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he made himself so available that man could choose to be loved and to love.
[SPEAKER_01]: So God loved Adam.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that he created Adam as the first one ever created.
[SPEAKER_01]: We read that in the book of Genesis.
[SPEAKER_01]: God gave Adam the choice to love him back.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we know that through the series of events at Adam and Eve, they made some mistakes and they lost their connection in their love for the heart of the Father and they fell short and we know the rest of the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I think about Melissa, I think about the fact that I chose Melissa, I wasn't forced to love Melissa.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was in an arranged marriage.
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't something that somebody made me do or made her do.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, but we loved each other and there was love that was formed there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I saw her, I saw her worship just like she was this morning right here and I fell in love with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I fell in love with her heart for the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I chose her, I pursued her, I dated her, I dropped down on one knee one day and I asked her to marry me and then we got married and the rest is history.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody forced me to pick her and nobody forced her to say yes to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the true essence of love is expressed in a choice.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I get home from work, I don't need a Melissa to say to my kids, hey dad, home, they don't even need an announcement.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I get home, I know that when I walk through those doors, that I'm gonna have two kids run after me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know they're gonna jump into my arms, and I can also add two golden doodles that will push the kids out of the way and wanna jump up on me and say hello.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't have to announce that I'm walking into my home for them to come and express their love because they're excited to see me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a forced thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have to say, hey, I'm home, come say hi.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I'm home, come give me a hug.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't ever have to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's not forced.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's an expression of love there that when they know when I walk in the door, they're running to dad.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're dropping everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're pausing the TV.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're putting down whatever they have in their hands and they're running after me to embrace me because they miss me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the kind of love that I want, a kind of love that loves me and has chosen to love me back.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because how many of you know that it's kind of a one-sided love if all you ever do is pour out your love, but never receive love back?
[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe you've been in a relationship before where you felt that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, man, I just gave Gabe Gabe, but I never received anything back.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the good thing about Jesus is that we don't have to do all of these things and go through all of these hoops and chase down all of these things and go through all these rules, his love is made available to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says, if you love me, I love you already.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we can love the Father and the Father already loves us back.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if we're in sin, even if we're making mistakes, even if we're not the best person, even if we don't have it all together, even if we're just, we're broken miserable or we're messed up from the floor up.
[SPEAKER_01]: It don't matter, he loves us and he embraces us anyways.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, somebody, that is who this Jesus is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you're taking notes today, there's two characteristics of who Jesus is and I wanna teach you today.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that this will help us all out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if I'm just real and honest, I'm just preaching the simple gospel today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just the simple gospel today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not trying to get fancy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just trying to help you understand.
[SPEAKER_01]: So two characteristics of who Jesus is.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first one is this is that he is the Savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that, you've heard that, we've read about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So all the way back in the garden, when we just mentioned a few minutes ago, Adam chose not to love back, and he allowed rebellion to so beadience, to enter into his heart and enter into his mind, which resulted in really an independence from God and an independence from heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we know that when Adam and Eve went in the direction that they did, it directly violated the Lord's instruction.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sin entered into the world because the Bible says the day you eat of that fruit, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You will know both good and evil.
[SPEAKER_01]: They ate of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, God only wanted them to know what was good.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he said, don't eat of that tree right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can eat of everything else in this garden, but don't eat of that one tree.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted them to know what was only good, but because he was left with the choice, Adam was left with the choice, evil was immediately released into the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So watch this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now that Adam made the decision he made, mankind is lost.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: because the thing that God hates sin has gotten into the thing that God loves most people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, God, in all of his power and all of his authority and all of his love and in all of who he is, he's in a dilemma.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he loves man so much, but man has chosen to allow sin to enter into the world
[SPEAKER_01]: And the one thing that God hates that is clearly defined in the Bible is sin, and now we've got sin into the very thing that he loves, which is his people, the ones that he created.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so for God to get back to the thing that he loves most, he's got to do something with the thing that he hates.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if he wants to save man, then he comes to the realization that in order to save man,
[SPEAKER_01]: So God sent His Son Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Bible says that His name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So up into that point of time from the start of sin entering into the world in the garden and until Jesus came,
[SPEAKER_01]: It was sin that was with people, but Jesus came and now it is Jesus that is with people.
[SPEAKER_01]: His name is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So God sent His one and only be gotten son.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that John 3, 16, everybody in the world knows that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And heaven literally emptied itself and God took on the form of man.
[SPEAKER_01]: because if you're going to save man, you gotta become man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus came into the world to save man from sin, but he also came to save man from man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, and he took on the form of man and became everything that would try to overwhelm and eliminate you in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He became at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: He took it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: He bore it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: And on the cross of Calvary, the cross that Jesus took his very last breath on, it was on the cross that Jesus clearly bore our sin and bore our sickness.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you want to know what it also says that he bore our shame.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have to live a life of sin, and we don't have to live a life of sickness, but guess what?
[SPEAKER_01]: We also don't have to live a life of shame.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means that we know, we have the understanding that sin did enter into the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: It did enter into the heart of man.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are born with the sin nature.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he says, I even know I know you're born with the sin nature and that you will sin and you will fall short.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not just bearing your sin, but I'm also bearing your shame.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you don't have to live in guilt, shame, and condemnation.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to live in a place where you are beating yourself up over the head because you made a mistake.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you sinned and you fell short.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, the cross of Jesus didn't just cover your sin in your mistakes.
[SPEAKER_01]: The cross of Jesus covered your shame also.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for that, that's something to celebrate today.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was telling some people last night here in the church that we're over at the house.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, you know, the beauty of the power of the gospel and the power of Jesus is that when we do sin, and when that shame tries to come upon us, we can look to the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we could say, I repent from my sin, and it's in our repentance of sin that he doesn't just remove the sin, but he also supernaturally removes the shame.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we don't have to live in that state of mind where we say, man, I messed up.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, you may have messed up, but you are not a mistake.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are not your sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are not your past.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are not the flaws of your history.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are not your parents' mistakes.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, you don't have to bear any of that shame today because he died and he broke it off of your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's one thing to note, Jesus says, oh, he's the savior that died on the cross and he took on my sin and, you know, that's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's another thing to know that he also took all of your shame.
[SPEAKER_01]: That you don't have to live a life like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you make a mistake, the father doesn't look at you and say, oh, you made a mistake, and he doesn't even define you as your mistake.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he doesn't even define you as the shame that the enemy is trying to put on you as a result to that mistake.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just simply says, I love you as my son.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love you as my daughter.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Bible clearly says that when we sin,
[SPEAKER_01]: When we repent that he literally throws that into the sea of forgetfulness, God never even remembers it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we may try to bring it up, we may resurface some things that we have done.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have said, and God's like, I don't even know what you're talking about anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I not only took away all that sin, but I also took away all the shame that was associated with it too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I threw it into the sea of forgetfulness, so you can walk in a life full of freedom and full of victory today, knowing that there is a finished prize come on that was paid upon the cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I will make a mistake, but I don't have to be defined by my mistake because I have a risen savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So now in his death and in his burial and in his resurrection and the earth as man, I now putting my faith in him, have access to all of who he is, and he is the Savior of all mankind.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if I have access to who he is, that means he can become my true Savior, which means this that he can save me from myself.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the one that tries to talk to you, your own head, you know, the one that tries to bring up things, the one that tries to control it, all of that kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: He becomes the savior of my whole life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I no longer have to think the way I used to think.
[SPEAKER_01]: I no longer have to try to perform the way I used to try to perform.
[SPEAKER_01]: I no longer have to try to amount to something.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there are people in this room that you've had people tell you you'll never amounts to anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: And no, you don't have to amounts to nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you have the Savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he doesn't try to put limitations and expectations, embarrass and caps over your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he doesn't try to make you reach a certain height or get to a certain place in your life for him to love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I love you, even though you are sinning.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love you, even though you are caught up in all kinds of mess right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't love you when you're doing the best.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love you even at your worst.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love you when all hell is breaking loose against your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love you when your family is torn apart.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love you when your relationship is severed and you can't even figure out how to put it together.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love you when people say they hate you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love you even though you're going through a battle and you're going through a storm.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love you even though you're trying to overcome that thing that is trying to take you out and trying to kill you right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love you no matter what.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I am your Savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am your Savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: So number one, he is our Savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: But number two, reason why we're here this morning, is that he is the resurrection and the life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the resurrection and the life.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna read John chapter 20, if you'll go there, I'll be on the screen as well, but John chapter 20, we're gonna read verses 11 through 16, John 20, 11 through 16, jump and write into the middle of this story that's taking place.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it goes like this, said Jesus said, well, let's see where we're starting here.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're so 11, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Better be worse than I have, but Mary stood outside facing the tomb crying.
[SPEAKER_01]: As she was crying, she's stooped to look into the tomb.
[SPEAKER_01]: She saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet, where Jesus' body had been lying.
[SPEAKER_01]: They said to her woman, why are you crying?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because they've taken away my Lord, she told them, and I don't know where they've put
[SPEAKER_01]: Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know it was Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, she didn't even recognize who he was.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 15, woman, Jesus said to her, why are you crying?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is it to you that you are looking for?
[SPEAKER_01]: Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, sir,
[SPEAKER_01]: If you removed him, tell me where you've put him, and I will take him away.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus said, Mary, turning around, she said to him,
[SPEAKER_01]: which is quite interesting because she has spent the entire life that Jesus has existed upon the earth with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: You would think that she would know what he looks like, that that she would know his voice.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the first time when he speaks, she doesn't recognize
[SPEAKER_01]: And she says, where is Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus literally responds and he says, Mary, it's me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he doesn't say, hey, it's me, the teacher, but he calls her by name and he says, Mary, it's me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And see, what that goes to tell me this morning is that you can feel like you're all alone in the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can feel like you are so far out and so messed up and you can feel like you're not cared about and that nobody loves you and that nobody cares about your situation, nobody cares about the storm that you're facing in your life right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus is the resurrected Savior who will look upon you and call you by name.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll say, T.R., I know what you're going through.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he'll say, Nicole, I know exactly what you're facing right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll say, David, I know what you're dealing with.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he'll call us by name, just as he did to Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you got to catch this because this is a key part of this story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you notice that starting in verse 11, Mary is the only one that's crying over Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: The angels aren't crying.
[SPEAKER_01]: The angels aren't in the tomb crying over Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when Jesus shows up, he ain't crying either.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Mary is, why is that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because she sees what is known, but she can't see what is unknown.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember that I taught you that he is a spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that when Jesus approached Mary, and Mary didn't recognize who he was, I don't think it's because of Mary's inability to recognize who Jesus is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that Jesus came in the form of a spirit and that the glory of God was showing all over him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you look at the glory, you can't see anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that she took a glance, and she didn't recognize that who she was with was Jesus himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so she's crying.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Bible says on the cross that when he took his last breath and his spirit assented back to heaven,
[SPEAKER_01]: that we know that the body went into the tomb, but what Mary didn't know, and what Mary didn't understand at that point of time, that while the body was no longer there, it was the spirit that was resurrected again.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was the spirit of Jesus himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what we would define, and what Mary would define in that moment was the end of Jesus was actually just the beginning.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was the beginning of all eternity.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was then in that moment that Jesus was not just the Savior, but he also became the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hear me loud and clear today church.
[SPEAKER_01]: He went into the grave so you wouldn't have to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, somebody.
[SPEAKER_01]: He bore the cross so that you wouldn't have to.
[SPEAKER_01]: He took on the same, the guilt, the sin, all of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you wouldn't have to this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And without Jesus in your life, you are on your way to eternal death.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not a doom and gloom thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not something that I'm trying to scare you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The gospel is not scary.
[SPEAKER_01]: The gospel is life.
[SPEAKER_01]: The gospel is joy, the gospel is peace, the gospel is love.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm not trying to scare you this morning, but I'm trying to help you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to help you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when Jesus went to the cross and he rose from the grave, he didn't just bear the cross, but he defeated death, hell in the grave.
[SPEAKER_01]: But why did he do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: He did that, not for himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did it for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did it not for his own good, he didn't do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he could become a celebrity or be famous or forever have his name marked down in all of history.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is not what the intent of the father was.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did it because he was thinking about you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was thinking about you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was thinking about Susan.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was thinking about Evelyn.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was thinking about Zach.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was thinking about James.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was thinking about Eric.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was thinking about Maria.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was thinking about you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had your name on his mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: He cared about you enough to bear the cross and say, if it's just four, one of them, I'll do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's only for it to rescue and save just one person.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll do it for them anyways.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just like he called Mary by name, he's calling you by name today.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he is saying, I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I care about you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I long for a relationship with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to have a connection with you more than anything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God today is knocking at your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a knocking that's there, and you're saying, will you let me in?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm knocking.
[SPEAKER_01]: Will you let me in?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm knocking.
[SPEAKER_01]: Will you give your life to me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Will you give me or everything?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you lay down what you think is good and what the life that you've lived up to this point and can you just follow me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you give me or everything?
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you serve me today?
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you accept me as your savior?
[SPEAKER_01]: And say, I will choose to follow you Lord, all the days of my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm reminded of the scripture in Joshua that says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And listen, I believe that today.
[SPEAKER_01]: For my household, we will serve the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you're the head of your household and you're not serving the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you need to fix that today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not because that you're wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not because you're so messed up.
[SPEAKER_01]: but because he's just knocking.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's knocking.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you'll be the first one in your family that will say yes to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And over the course of time, he'll radically change your household.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll radically change your whole family line in lineage.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just by your yes to Jesus today, Josh.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that He is knocking today, and I believe that He defeated death just for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He defeated the grave just for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He literally defeated the gates of hell just for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The same hell that's tried to suck you in, the same death that's tried to take you out.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the resurrection is the body of Jesus, the soul of Jesus and the spirit of Jesus coming back together and saying, I am the Alpha.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am the Omega.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am the beginning and I am the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am He who was once put on a cross and killed but I rose again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm alive and I'm alive forevermore.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the one that is saying today, I have risen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have risen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, somebody.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's alive so that you could be alive today.
[SPEAKER_01]: come on now.
[SPEAKER_01]: That should get you excited.
[SPEAKER_01]: He rose up out of the grave, not to prove a point, but to forever destroy the works of hell that have been waging against your life from the day that you were born.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to today's message.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray you were inspired, challenged, and marked by the word you heard.
[SPEAKER_00]: If this message blessed you today, we encourage you to subscribe to the Church of the City podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: There you can find more faith-filled messages to uplift you and help you on your journey of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: For more information about Church of the City, head on over to www.cotcdfw.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: And until next time, remember this, the best is yet to come.