Super excited to see all of you here this morning. If you're joining us online or you're here in the room. My name is Jamie. I'm the lead pastor here at Ebenezer and it's such a humble honor to be a pastor here. Thank you so much.

It's my privilege that I get to come and preach every week for an hour and a half.

Let's do it. Hey, if you're here today, though, and this is your first time, we're so grateful for you coming outside our back doors. We have some special friends who want to give you a coffee mug. So you'll put it in your cabinet and see it every day when you open it and you'll think of us. It is trickery, I know, but we would love to get to know you and give you a chance and our team to talk to you and you talk to them.

And if you're joining us online, hey, drop us a note, let us know that you're there or hit that share button because we kind of believe we've got the best message on the face of the planet and it needs to go out. So share it, please. You know, the Bible says in Romans 12:10 in ESV that we should outdo one another in showing honor. Outdo one another in showing honor. And I believe that is the essence of night to shine that for that three hour window that we can show honor to some very special friends.

You know, we believe here at Ebenezer, one of our core values is missions, extend his hope. And one of the ways we do that is through serving and being able to take that time and to just see smiles and laughs and to hang out and to meet families. A couple of the families as they left said, I can't wait to see you next year. And I said back, I can't wait to see you next week. Because we do this as hopefully a doorway to be able to connect with families and see them come and give us the humble opportunity maybe to connect with them and pour into their lives.

And none of this is possible. None of this is possible without a whole lot of planning. Now, I wish that I could call out the almost 400 names of the people that served. Did you hear that? Almost 400 people who came and loved on 100 friends and their families.

Incredible. But I do want to highlight a few because without their hard work, none of this would have been happened. Would have happened. First of all, to Shannon Worley, our connections director, what a fantastic job she did.

In the words of Kevin Hurts, she makes Serving Easy. But along with her is Erin Terrell and Deborah Jordan, our bookkeeper. You just don't see on a daily basis what they did, they did a lot. Like, I can't even begin to describe all the copies they made, the phone calls that were made, all the things that were done. So, guys, thank you.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. And to miss Anita Moore. Oh, my gosh, she's shaking her head at me right now, but I'm telling you, she took and transformed our facility and her team into a unique place of laughter and fun. So thank you. You really motivate me.

I wish I had some creativity like that, but it was awesome. Ms. Joy Pollock and Grayson Dooley. Thank you. You know, you guys, you worked directly with the teams. You equipped, trained, led, had to play catch up, try to have to move people around.

But all that you did, and especially combining the right people with the right buddy in the right place, it was phenomenal. Thank you for what you did. And now to all the 400 that served, to our friends at Toccoa and the Point, Toccoa first and the Point and the other churches that partnered with us, who who served in the parking lot, who checked people in, who greeted, who served as paparazzi, who served food to Mr. Matt Thomas for laying down the jams as DJ, worked in the photo area, did makeup, shined shoes, served drinks, run karaoke, and so much more. I'm inviting you now to outdo me and show honor to those that serve.

And here's what I know. Those of you that may not could have served this year for one reason or another, you're going to want to do this next year. And so each year, it just keeps getting a little bit better. But here's what I want to invite you to do right now. We want to pray intentionally for our friends that came and their families to give us the opportunity and our sister churches the opportunity to love on those families.

Father, you're good to us. Way more than we could ever even think about deserving. Thank you. That we got to host some very special guests this weekend. What we ask now, God, is that you would work through us and through our brothers and sisters in this community to continue reaching out, to have a place of respite for those families, a place of retreat for those families.

But, Lord, to have a smile, as Crosby said, with joy in our hearts. Why? Because we know Jesus. So, Lord, we love you and ask you, Lord, to touch our hearts and open now to your word in Jesus name. Amen.

I want to invite you to turn to first Peter 1:3. When you get it, I want to go ahead and ask you to stand. But the next few weeks, I just want to teach you. I just want to teach you. I want to teach you a subject that you probably think you know, but I want to challenge you to divorce yourself for a moment and soak it in fresh new.

For the next six weeks, we're going to talk about the Gospel. What greater subject? If we're going to reach this community, we're not just going to reach it and say, oh, gosh, I did a good job. I held the door open for somebody. The Boy Scouts do those things.

The police do those things. We have something greater than any organization or anyone on this face of the planet has to offer to them. So listen to what Peter wrote, the introduction of his letter to the dispersed. He said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, man. Stop right there.

Who, according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection. You missed that part. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You can be seated. You see, because here's the thing.

There is no better news than the news that we're going to talk about for the next week. Maybe you're not sure about that good news. And today you're going to be given an opportunity. If you've come into this place today and you don't know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we're going to give you that opportunity. If you came in this room today and you don't have security, that your sins are forgiven and that you know Jesus Christ, we we're going to give you an opportunity.

And if you're here today and you say, I can't explain the gospel to somebody else, get you a notebook and a pen and take some notes, because we're going to drink the gospel for the next six weeks. Many of you this week were face to face with eternity. Those of you that grew up in the 90s, maybe the late 90s, be exact, and were a fan of Dawson's Creek.

Jason Vanderbeek passed away on Wednesday morning. He was considered a teenage heartthrob. So my older generations, this was no different in the late 70s, when Elvis died, thank you very much.

It's a shock because these people, some of you, looked up to him. So for some of you, he was a heartthrob.

He was diagnosed with colorectal cancer about two years ago and went through treatment. And last March, he recorded himself and posted it online as he was reflecting about life. And it came back to surface this week as people, because of his passing, people began to dig and to look back at some of the things that he had said. And in this video, I want to challenge you to go watch it, but I also want to encourage you. Don't watch it with Christian legalistic cynicism, because some of the conclusions he comes to, they're wrong.

What I want you to do is walk into the journey with him introspectively asking the kind of questions that he's asking. The first question that he asks is, who am I? He says, when I was diagnosed with this disease and began the. The treatments, you know, I was a husband. And now because of the weakness of my sickness, I can't be a husband.

And I was taking my kids to school and tucking them into bed. But because of the weakness of my sickness, my fatherhood has been stripped from me. I was a provider and an actor, and because I can't work, all of the labels and all of the prestige and all of the things that went along, his smashing good looks were all stripped away. And he said I had to look at mortality eye to eye and ask this question, who is this skinny, sick person with everything stripped away today? I want to ask you that question because even for those of us who would say that the good news of Jesus Christ is gospel, I'm afraid that some of you have never been stripped down to that place where you're asking the question, who am I?

If my fatherhood is stripped away from me, if my position is stripped away from me, if my livelihood is stripped away from me, if my health and my looks is stripped away from me, what do I have? Do I still have an identity? And if you don't know Jesus Christ and have new life in him, I'm telling you, you have nothing. And that's not a bad thing. I think when we come to the Lord and we allow him to strip us of everything, then we are at a place where the good news isn't just good news, it's great news.

And the only news that matters. Is it good news to you today? In fact, here's the challenge I want to present to you during this series that just like Jason, you would come to a place and ask the question, who am I without all of this? And if you can't ask that question, I want you to meet Jesus today to give you new life and make you his child. Because if all of it stripped away, at the end of the day, all you have left is your Faith, and that faith that leads you to know the God of the universe.

So he goes on in the video and he asks another question. He asks, first, who am I? But then he asks another question, am I lovable?

And really this is where his conclusion deviates. And I'm going to read what he said and you're going to go, oh, that's why I'm saying, don't criticize this following the journey and ask the same question he says, he said. He concludes, after all, stripped away mortality eye to eye. He says, I am worthy of God's love simply because I exist. I know it makes you uncomfortable, doesn't it?

It's the word worthy that bothers me. No, we're not picking up Thor's hammer. Some of y' all got that.

From a biblical standpoint, saying that we are worthy implies that there is some merit. But he just said, everything's been stripped from me. So how is there any worthiness? If everything he's known, everything he's had, everything that identifies him is gone, what's left? I'm going to tell you that love is not measured by merit.

Love is not measured by, by what you do. Love is not measured by who you are. Love is measured in the absence of those things. The moment that love becomes about who you are, what you do, what you own, it's not love anymore. See, the truth is, if we could, as Peter Heck observes in the Babylon be's non satirical side, not to be that it should be recipient, not worthiness, that I am a receiver of God's love, not because I'm worthy, not because I've earned it, but because God is love.

He says in his article the gospel tells us something even more astonishing than worthiness. Peter Hick says it tells us that God's love is not a response to our value, but. But it's a gift given in spite of the lack of it. So if you came in here today thinking God loves you because you've done something special, cause you've cleaned yourself up, cause you've pointed in the right direction, because you bring some merit to the table, then you're missing the love of God actually. Because that is not what measures God's love.

What measures God's love is demonstrated in Romans 5. Eight, when he says that God demonstrates his own love for us through that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. You and I bring nothing to the table. And if we realize the depth of our need, that gospel that sometimes seems irrelevant, that seems a little bit. Well, I just don't have time for it.

That gospel that maybe you just like, you know, I need to make something of myself. I need to earn this. I need to build up my own self and pride. I need to clean my. When I becomes the constant subject of the sentence and not Jesus Christ.

You've missed the love of God. And it's the love of God that beckons us. See, some of you, some of you, I did this. I went into Google and I typed in tell me good news. And I was determined that whatever the first article was, I was going to click on it.

According to the news, the best news last Monday was that in Colorado they rescued 10 turtles.

Now, I'm all for a good turtle. I've never eaten any.

That's the folks. Listen, how. How pitiful is it that the best news we can conjure up on a Monday morning is that 10 turtles that's been rescued?

What, like I could come up with better news? Cleaning the floor of my kitchen, I found a leftover chicken nugget. No, I didn't eat it.

I mean, some of you, you come into some money and that's good news. Some of you get a promotion at work or maybe I find out, no, I'm not pregnant. And if Laura is pregnant, we're in trouble because her name will now be Sarah. You get an A on a key exam, or you get accepted into the school that you wanted, or you get to travel somewhere. Those are good things, aren't they?

But some of you in this room, look at me. You can get 10 pieces of good news. And one piece of bad news will wipe out the 10. 10 because it's not good enough news. The good news.

I'm talking about the good news of Jesus Christ. Come on, somebody. It's great news. It's the only good news. Nothing else compares to the good news of Jesus Christ.

I mean, they wrote four books in the Bible and called it the Gospels because it tells us about the good news. So look at that verse with me again. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. See, the reason it's good news is cause it proceeds out of the character of God because God is good. When Jesus was faced with questions, he was called good teacher by the rich young ruler.

And Jesus said, stop. There's only one who is good. See, it's good news because it comes from a good God. But go on with it. He says, according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again.

It's his good work. A good God doing a good work. The word Mercy means this kindness and good will to the afflicted folks. Again, I just want to convince you. Because if the statistic I read a few weeks is true, two thirds of you in this room think you're pretty good people.

And I'm here to dash that on the rock. Because if you're a pretty good person, you have no need. Therefore you don't need anything good because you're the one good. You need to realize the great absolute need that you have for Jesus Christ and his life and his love. A good God did a good work.

And go on there. He says to a living hope, A living hope, Not a dead hope, not an all right hope. A living, breathing hope. How? Because Jesus was raised from the dead.

Can I meddle? I meddled last week. Can. Can I meddle again this week?

When I go to funerals. Preacher's gonna hate me for this statement. Preachers, if you don't mention the resurrection in a funeral message, you need to hang up your preaching. When you're at a funeral. You are no closer to staring eternity in the eyes than when you're preaching to a family who's just lost a loved one.

And to declare to them that the only hope they're gonna have when they face the same place of eternity is. Is to know Jesus Christ. So that when Jesus Christ comes back, someday he will raise you from the dead to eternal life. Body and soul back together. There's no greater chance to do it.

That's what gives us living hope. Paul told the Thessalonians comfort one another with these words. What? That someday he's going to come back and raise the dead. It is our surety.

It is our. It's his promise. It's embodied. There's been no greater event in history than. Than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is the foundation of our faith. You see, if you rewind the tape to 9 BC in modern day Turkey, there's a city called Prien. I had to go in and do the little. There's this guy on Google that pronounces words. So if I didn't pronounce it right, it's his fault.

There's a tablet in this city that dates back to 9 BC and on that tablet they changed the calendar. You're thinking like, what in the world does that have to do with the Gospel? I'm going to tell you. Because they changed it to September 23, the birthday of Caesar Augustus. Yes.

The same one who in Luke 2:1 issued the decree to count all the people.

I want to read what it says it's going to make you as uncomfortable as the worthy statement. It reads this, it says, and since he Caesar by his appearance excelled even beyond our all anticipations, surpassing all the previous benefactors. In other words, he's the best Caesar yet, and not even leaving to posterity and any hope of surpassing what he's done. In other words, this is as good as it gets. You've been given it.

Listen. And since the birthday of the God Augustus was the beginning of the gospel, for the world still stands there today, one copy on a stone that changed the calendar because the God Augustus was born.

That reminds me of a little story later on in Luke chapter two, where an angel appears to shepherds and says, don't be afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy to all the people. For unto you this day has been born in the city of David. What a savior who is Christ the Lord.

Four years after that tablet was issued, God trumped the very idea of the world system that this self professing God changed a calendar and God sent his son to change the world. And so my challenge to you today is this. How good is the good news? Is it just convenient news? Because see, here's the thing.

This is just an observation. If the good news is good news, we can't wait for those doors to be open and come in and worship. If the good news is the good news, I can't wait to sit down in a room full of people that believe like I do and talk about how good God is. If it's good news, then it's just like when you discover a new restaurant. You want to tell everybody.

I mean, you should go to this restaurant. Number five is the bomb. You're telling everybody about this good news because to you it is good news.

And I'm afraid we all know that the conclusion of this is that because the church isn't living as if it's good news, it's not good news anymore. It's just a checkbox. It's religion. It's a duty. God, it's more than duty.

It's life. It should be like the air that we breathe, like it is the very thing that defines us. Because again, if you're faced with eternity eye to eye, and God strips your titles and your roles and your prestige and your money and your history and your legacy, or God forbid, but maybe it's going to happen soon. That even facing persecution as the readers of the letter that Peter was writing, where are you at the end of the day? And who are You.

And if you are not a child of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, what do you have? What do you have? We're either going to be spiritually bankrupt so we can receive the eternal blessings of God, or we're going to stand face to face with God someday and receive the full penalty of judgment that we deserve for our sins. Which is just like death and Hades will be cast in the lake of fire, so too will we if we do not trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior. Yes, you can insert that.

Was hellfire brimstone? Because there is a future hell promise for the one who rejects Christ as much as there's a future promise of eternal life for. For the one who does trust in Him. It's that serious. We have to take it that serious.

Why would you want to continue walking in death when Jesus Christ can give you new life? So I'm making you a promise. I have a lot of notes. No, I'm not going to go an hour and a half. I might.

I won't. I want to give you three primary points that you'll see in your study guide, but underneath that I've got some sub points because I want to make the point from this page passage that it starts with God's character, moves to God's work, and it has a wonderful result for you and for me. So let's start with the first one. Number one. God's character drives, say, drives, drives the good news by the power, the compassion, and the grace of God.

Now, God has a lot of other attributes that plays into the gospel and salvation, but I want to focus on those three. The power of God to do what we can't do, the compassion of God to see our great need and the grace of God to not give us what we do deserve, but to gift us with something we didn't earn. And it's all based on his character. Because Psalm 38 says, Salvation belongs to the Lord. John 2:9.

Salvation is from the Lord. John 6:44. Jesus said, no man can come unto me unless the Father who sent me draws him. John 4:1. John 4:8 says, the one who does not know God does not know God.

For God is what he's love. He's love that love. It gives him the power to reach into our situation. It drives the compassion to feel pity for us in our broken state, and it drives his grace to be ever abounding. That will cover a multitude of our sins.

So here's some sub points if you want to jot these down. Number one. The gospel has power that we do not possess. Romans 1:16 says, For I am not ashamed.

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who will believe. If I believe, then what would feed my shame? Why would I be ashamed of the Gospel? Well, in this context, because I don't believe it's the best news.

It's just convenient news. Like, is it the power of God to rescue me from the debt that I owe? That's why it's good news. God takes over. God takes over and he does what I absolutely cannot.

This isn't God saying, all right, you got 30% of the strength. This is not. God's not being a spotter in a weight room.

You're saying, whatever power I might have, it's trash. He gives 100% to do what you cannot, absolutely cannot, and never will be able to do, which is to rescue yourself. You're not drowning in the ocean. You're stuck in quicksand and it's sucking you down. You need power.

Second thing you need. The gospel is driven by compassion that we do not deserve. Guys, that's what you want to be in that place. You're thinking, what? No, you want to be in that place.

You want to empty yourself of all self righteousness, all works that you've done. Why? So that you can receive fully the compassion of God. Romans 2:4 says, or do you think lightly? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience?

This is the true definition of tolerance, not culture. Saying tolerance is, don't pick on me because I don't believe the same thing you believe. Tolerance is the God overlooks, he bears with. What's driving this? Well, he opens this chapter with by getting on to the Jewish believers, thinking that they're better than the Gentile believers because they're not as bad as sinners.

Y' all do that all the time. We do it all the time. We look at other people and say, man, I'm not as bad as so and so God ought to love me more. No, he actually loves this one more because it takes a whole lot more love to cover these sins than mine. If that's true, then I got to include in that my sin of pride for thinking better of myself than I ought to.

The gospel is driven by compassion. And why is that good news? Because God never gives up. God doesn't quit. God doesn't sit there and look at you and go, you know what?

I just can't. I can't save that person, they've sinned too much. So what you get is a lot of you in this room. Even sitting there listening to me online. You're sitting there going, well, I'll get right with God when I get myself cleaned up.

You got to break that lie that that's what Satan is telling you. You get good enough and God will save you. That's broken love. That's not what love's about. God's looking at you and he's having pity on you and he wants to draw you to himself.

Broken warts, stinky dirty and all. He's not asking you to clean yourself up. He's asking to clean you up. That's why we're washed in the blood. Like, wait a minute.

Blood would leave a red stain. Hallelujah. Let it leave all the stain it can. That the aroma of Christ would be. Only third thing I want to say there is that the gospel comes from grace that we cannot earn.

Titus 2:11, 13. For the grace of God is appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny godliness and ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present state. Let me make a side note here. If it's real grace, you. You don't clean yourself up to get the grace, but once you get the grace, you want to walk in it.

So he then says, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. He's instructing Titus how to teach those in the church to live in this grace we've received that you can't buy and that you can't err. This grace appears, driving me toward Christ. We why is that good news? Because it's God that makes it happen.

It's his power. It's his pity and it's his prerogative. Kevin Hurt would be very proud of me right there. He is the master of alliteration. It's his work.

I don't earn it. I didn't earn it. I don't deserve it. I am loved regardless of what I think my measure of worth is. So if you're sitting there sometimes in self pity thinking, well, God can't love somebody as bad as me, yes, he can.

In fact, the depth of the reality of your condition is the measure of how much he loves you. Even beyond that. Did you ever read the book to the moon and back to your kids? I love you to the moon and back. I think that's God's statement to us today.

I love you to the earth and back and around this universe in ways you can't measure. We're moved by the character of God. See, the gospel accomplishes what we will never do for ourselves. So are you tired of trying to prove to everybody that you're a Christian, or are you ready to humble yourself under that mighty hand of God and let his work work in you? Second point.

God's work delivers good news that's focused on truth about the death and resurrection. And I'll add of Jesus, who Paul wrote to the Galatians and he said this. I'm amazed that you are so quickly deserting him, who called you by the grace of God for a different gospel and goes on to say so. I say it again to you. If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed.

Every religious system and every cult in this world teaches you to do good works to achieve salvation. No offense to my online listeners, anybody in the room. The Catholic Church teaches you to do works to achieve grace, does it not? The Jehovah's Witness teaches you the same thing, the Mormon system teaches you the same thing. And Protestant churches, it varies.

You've got all the way over here to the liberal side that rejects the person of Christ and begins to focus on good works. Every religious system is teaching you to to perform good works to achieve something for yourself. We've had the work done for us. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God. We don't do it.

We need to reject all of those systems and those false gospels. Paul said, why are you deserting the gospel I proclaim to you. So, no, all of these modern prophets that's built these new systems need to read what Paul wrote. And here's what he wrote. First Corinthians 2, 2.

He said, I determined to know nothing except Christ and him crucified. The gospel message is simple. We don't need to complicate it, we don't need to dismiss it. But he goes on to say that I came to you not with persuasive words, but to the Greeks. I didn't come to you with signs and wonders, Jews.

I came to you in the power of the demonstration of the Holy Spirit, so that your faith would not rest in the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. The gospel comes to us in its simplicity. You do not need to earn a doctorate in theology to be a Christian. And I've known some men who have doctorates that confessed they went through seminary and were lost, as lost as anybody could be. They knew the word of God, but they didn't know the Word himself.

It's simple. But here's what else it is. It's truth. It's founded on truth that we need not revise, update, twist around, puff it up. It's powerful enough.

It's the power of God unto salvation to tell people the good news. That God loves you so much that he sent his only Son in this world, that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. When you read First Corinthians 15:1:3, it says, Now I make known to you. He's teaching them the Gospel which I preached, which you received, which you stand, and in which you are saved. He said, for I delivered to you of first importance what I received.

That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, which would be the Old Testament, and that he was buried and raised again according to the Scriptures. After Jesus was raised from the dead. He was walking with two men on the road to Emmaus. And the Bible says that he began with Moses and the prophets, explaining them the things concerning himself in all of the Scriptures. Why is that important?

Why is that good news? Because it gives me security. I don't need to sit here and, and try to figure this out or come up with a new system. In its simplicity, the Gospel is good news. But is it good for you?

Have you lost, have you lost your first love? And you need to return to the simplicity of the truth of God, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The only reason you have life isn't because you walked an aisle, signed a card, got baptized, had your name printed on a Bible, attended this Bible study. It's not what saves you. What saves you is God Almighty.

We believe and we receive. Third point there. God's gift displays the wonderful results of new life. I don't need to add anything to it. And here's the thing, you know, like one of the systems out there teaches this kind of system of prosperity Gospel.

Some of you have heard about that, that if you believe enough, you'll get things, you'll get prosperous, you'll get new jobs and a lot of wealth, get that 85 inch TV on the side of your wall. But if you don't believe, then there's something wrong with you.

I believe unto my future that when I leave this world and I'm not facing mortality eye to eye, facing the God of the universe eye to eye on what will I stand, will I start my sentence out with, I, me, me, I, I, I, I, me, me, me, me, I, I, I. Or I'll go when they look at me and say, why should you be here? I'm gonna start my sentence with one word. His name's Jesus. And the second?

Promised, if anything else, it's not the gospel. So let me break this one down to you and give you three very quickly. You've got the passages there. Let me challenge you to go read these. How is it that it displays wonderful results in my life?

As Billy Graham said, that the evidence of salvation is a changed life. The evidence of salvation, first is this. The gospel gives life through light that we live lack. Look at that last verse in 10 of that chapter of Timothy. But now it has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light.

It's brought it forth. Why is that good news? Because it gives us hope for something that we don't have. We can't make ourself live. I can't make my heart.

I can make it beat faster, but I can't make it restart. When he says reborn, it means to be twice born, like we need to be reborn. We're afraid of those big churchy words, but Jesus told a learned man, unless a man be born again, he will not enter the kingdom of God. You and I must be reborn, regenerated, saved and transformed. If that work does not take place in our life, then I am not saved.

So second thing here is the gospel has security that we cannot provide. Ephesians 1:13. Having listened and believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit promise. When I worked for the chicken plant, you know, we put chicken on a refrigerated unit that meant it had been inspected and that it was fresh. And they put a clasp on the back door.

The USDA would stamp it and say, nope, this is fresh. The things on the inside is good. It's no different. He stamps us and seals us with the Holy Spirit, not only to mark us as belonging to him that matters, but now that power is working in us. Why does that matter?

Because now you belong to God. You belong to God. You are his child. The third thing that it produces, the gospel produces unity that we cannot manufacture.

I had the joy of driving to Athens, Georgia, yesterday.

I took a long bath when I got home. For a moment, I thought I was walking down New Orleans streets. But that's another story for another day. Some of you, you're Georgia fans, see, and that kind of connects you. One to another.

Some of you are fans of hunting and that connects you one with another. Some of you have a lot of common interest in different things that connect you to one to another. But those things are temporary. Georgia's not always going to be ranked in the top five. No offense.

Don't throw anything at me. Is that the only thing that's going to unify you? What will unify you? What will unify you when everything else is destroyed, stripped away and gone? Why not the gospel?

Paul writes to the Philippians and he says, I'm praying for you in light of your partition participation koinonia in the gospel up to this point, because I'm confident that this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. The day of Christ Jesus. The return of Christ is the essence of the gospel birthed in me. Now let's do it together. There's no better thing that unifies us at the foot of the cross than the gospel.

It's not which team I pull for. Why is that good news? Because what we're unifying around is eternal. So let me read that verse to you again. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, his character, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again.

God's work delivers us to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, his work displayed in us. Now, here's what I'm going to challenge you to do before I give you that last point. Put that verse on a note card. And you know where to use it from there on. Right.

Where does it go? Yeah, refrigerator, too. Dashboard, if you're a student. Yes. Put it on your refrigerator.

Put it on your makeup mirror. Boys, I hope you don't have a makeup mirror. Put it on your mirror. That your fluff mirror? Yeah, that's what it's called.

Put it where you'll see it. Memorize this verse. There was a little boy who had saved his allowance for weeks to buy a bright red kite. He had watched other kids fly theirs in the park, and he imagined the day he'd get to see his soar. The day came, the wind was perfect.

The kite lifted and climbed, and it danced in the sky. The boy beamed and hope had taken flight. But then suddenly the string snapped and the kite drifted into a tall tree entangled high in its branches. And the boy stood beneath it, staring up. All that saving, all that waiting, all that hoping was now gone as he looked at his dreams, stuck in a tree.

But his father came, who had been watching quietly from a distance, and he stood beside him. Can you get it? Said the boy. The tree was tall, the branches were high, and the boy was so small. The father left for a few minutes and he returned with a long ladder and a pruning pole.

He climbed to where the boy could not climb and reached to where the boy could not reach. He untangled the kite and he brought it down. The father placed the kite in the boy's hand and he said this. It was never about how high you could climb. It was about trusting that I would come and get it when you couldn't reach it.

The boy flew his kite again that day. But now with a deeper excitement, he had learned what hope really meant. See, it's good news that we have hope to new life because he loves us. Oh, how he loves you. Oh, how he loves me.

Oh, how he loves you and me. John 3:16. You know it, right? For God so loved the world he gave his one and only Son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. John then said this.

In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation, the covering our sins. So here's what I'm going to ask you. Fold up your notes. I want you to look at me. If today you come eye to eye with mortality, what's left?

If you come eyeball to eyeball with mortality today, what is left? Who are you?

Prayer. We ought to pray. Is God strip everything from me and make me so empty that I can be refor filled with everything that you are.

Here's the second thing I want to ask you.

This is hard. Is the gospel good enough for you? For a lot of us, it's not because I'm still holding on to that hope in myself that I'm a good enough person just getting by. This is not an issue of being good or not good. It's an issue that of life and death.

You are either saved or you are not saved. If you were saved, Jesus said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life that no man can come to the Father but by me. If you do not know Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin, to be reborn in him, you are not saved.

If you walk out of here and you die and you leave this world, you will not stand in the presence of the Lord, but you will begin to turn the flames of hell. That is the truth, and we don't want that for you. That's hard for us to grasp, but something's got a trigger in us, the seriousness of salvation. When we do, we can see how good the gospel is that the very one who judges us unrighteous is the very one who died to give us righteousness. So I'm going to ask you to bow your head and close your eyes.

Not if you come eye to eye with immortality. But I want to ask you, if you come eyeball to eyeball with God, God Almighty in the next phase of eternity, and he asks you, why should I let you into heaven, what will you say? Is it because you've believed in his Son, repented of your sins?

Or will you start debating with him about how good you are? Are you saved today? If you're online joining in, this is the greatest question I could ask today. Are you saved? Are you sure that you were saved?

Does the sentence start jesus promised or does it start, I tried really hard Today you can come and you can receive eternal life by placing your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and receiving the free unearned can't be worthy enough to receive it. Because here's the sad reality. I hope that this actor, somebody told him the truth about God's love before he left this world. I don't know if he did or didn't. We all know people that left this world and we were sure they were saved.

We know some people that left this world I'm not sure about. Are the people in your life sure about where you will go if your life ended today? So I want to ask you, if you're lost today, you say, you know what, I'm not saved. I've never repented of my sins and trusted Christ. If that's you today, I just want you to sleep your hand up.

No one else is looking around but me. But I just want to see if you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, just raise your hand. I just want to pray for you know where I'm going to go with this. I'm not trying to trick you. Anybody.

Let me ask you the second question. Are you sure? Like, are you sitting here going like, you know, I know I think I'm saved. I just, I don't have that confidence slip up your hand. I just don't have confidence.

I told you it was simple and truth based. That's what he's done. We got to base it on him.

So Father, would you explore and seek and show us in our heart where we stand today?

Lord open our heart to embrace the goodness of the gospel. As we break this down over the next few weeks, Lord, let it so penetrate us that we don't leave out here sad and mad or upset or feelings hurt. That God, we would present our hearts to you and say, God, you sift me. You measure me and show me where I fall short. Show me those wicked ways in me.

And, Lord, that we would release those so that we can be heralds of the good news. Not writing on a stone tablet about some man being born, but it's written on our hearts about a savior who was born, who brought us new life. Lord, we love you. So I want to ask you to stand with me as we close with this last song. Fred and Randy, myself, we're down here at the front.

Maybe you're like, I just didn't want to raise my hand. I don't want to be embarrassed. I understand that. But if you want to come down and talk with us during this song or even after service, we're going to be up here for you as we sing.