Does it make anyone else nervous when you go into a store or you pull into a parking lot and someone's got free written on a sign, you know? You know what I'm talking about. Like, you drive in, like, sometimes you'll go up maybe to Walmart, and there's this little lady sitting in the back of a truck says, free puppies. No, no, no, no, no. What's the catch?

You know, you may go to a resort and they say, like, you get, hey, come to this meeting. You get free hors d' oeuvres or a free lunch. And you're like, what's the catch? Right? Because in our minds, in our flesh, free doesn't always seem free, does it?

There's got to be something you're wanting from me. Like, free, honestly should come with no strings attached, right? I found this quote, and I want you to hear this quote because it was not written by a Christian. And the reason, I mean, we want to learn how to read things critically, right? But I want you to listen to this quote by a psychologist who was talking about the idea of why we kind of struggle with giving gifts and receiving gifts, that idea of free.

He says this. The parched earth can't let life giving rain in if it's covered with a plastic tarp. He says, without the capacity to be touched by caring and appreciation, we render gifts less meaningful. In other words, when somebody gives us something given it's free, we have a hard time appreciating the depth of that. He said a sacred receiving, letting things end with heartfelt gratitude, is a gift to the giver, which to me right there is where he loses me.

Because if I'm only giving a gift to somebody to feel good about myself, have I still given it freely? Are you following? Like, I mean, there's a little logic there. He says, when we are visibly moved by the giving receiving of a gift, it conveys that what's been given makes a difference in my life. We then bask together in this moment in which there is no distinction between the giver and the receiver.

Both people are giving and receiving in both. In their unique ways, the shared experience can be profoundly sacred and intimate. A moment of delectable grace. Now again, the words sacred and grace and giving sounds very Christian, does it not? But the problem that I, or the thing that I honed in on and the problem that I have is that even still, he.

He didn't really dig in deep enough to this idea of sacrificial giving and gracious receiving a gift by definition Is something where ownership is transferred of an idea or an object to someone else. And if there's any strings attached, even to say, well, if you don't receive my gift, I don't get a blessing is still selfish giving, which means it's not true giving by nature in our flesh. We find it hard to receive a gift, frankly, because the essence of a gift really never seems to be free. In fact, this psychologist, and why I found this quote about the parched earth cannot receive life giving rain if it's always covered with a plastic tarp comes from this idea. He gave five reasons why people don't like to receive gifts.

Let me give you those. The first one is this. A fear that you might connect to the person giving you something. A fear of intimacy. Like if I receive a gift from anyone, then that means that we're going to become closer by nature.

Number two, the reason I don't like to get a gift is because I have to let go of some kind of control. In other words, in certain situations, if I receive a gift, I've got to humble myself. Sometimes we don't like to do that. You're out there working in the yard, you're working really, really hard and you're. Somebody comes out to offer you a cup of water and you're like, I'll get it myself.

You got to humble yourself. Number three, your fear. There's fear of strings being attached. I would say out of all five of these, this is the one that hits me the most because I'm always like, okay, you gave me a gift. When are you going to expect something back from me?

When are you going to expect me to reciprocate that gift? Are you expecting me to give you a gift in the same value? I, I know of a lady. I know of a lady. I will not say who she is.

Not here. She's not here. She's not here. When people gave her children gifts, she would log it and the value. So if they ever went to their birthday party, she would buy the exact same thing, strings attached.

There's also at the other end of that spectrum, the fear of being selfish. It's like if a gift is given and I feel unworthy, I won't receive the gift. There's shame inside of me. Or finally, that pressure to reciprocate. Some of you at Christmas went to work and a co worker brought you something for Christmas and you went and scrounged to your desk and found a not used gift card and repackaged it and gave it back to Them because you can't accept the idea of a gift being free.

But I'm telling you, if something is given as a gift, by definition, if it has strings attached, it's not a gift. You've either earned it or there's some expectation. You see, in our brokenness, too often the idea of the gospel being free doesn't seem to be real. I feel like we know what the gospel is saying. It forgives me and it restores me and it cleanses me.

It forgives me. But I still come to it going like, okay, God, but I got to pay you back. I've got to. There's some strings attached. I'm telling you today, guys, the gospel's good because there are no strings attached.

The gospel is good because you will never do enough to earn the value of the gospel. You can't. You cannot do it. The gospel is good because God did it, and he does every bit of it. The gospel in saving you and saving me is good because I don't come to the table and negotiate with God.

I don't. I don't come to him and go like, well, I've got five. Can you. Can you give me 95 to make up the difference? The gospel is good because when I was at my worst moment, the Son of God looked down at me and said, I'll die for him while we were still sinning.

Romans 5:8 says, Christ died for us. I want you to think about the worst moment of your life in regard to rebelliousness and sin. Some of you are like, well, that was four years old when I took a cookie before supper. If that's it, then get that in your mind. What's the worst sin you ever committed?

The thing that made you feel the most ashamed. That thing, right? Even to this day, you may have never shared with another human being on the face of the planet. What is it? What is it for you?

Think about it. Not because I want you to feel ashamed. I want to make a point. You think long and hard enough about the worst thing that you possibly could ever do. Now, maybe at some point in your life, you hated somebody enough, as Jesus taught in Matthew 5, that you wanted to kill them.

Or maybe in your life, man, you looked at another somebody else's wife and lusted after them to the point you wanted to commit adultery. Now think about the worst thing you could possibly ever do. And while you were thinking it, while you were doing it, Jesus Christ died for the sin that you were committing or was going to commit. How is that not good news? God did it all.

God does it all. And it's free. This is not free. Mutt puppies in the back of a truck. This is free life.

Our God is the God that Zephaniah 3:17 says is mighty to save, even sometimes against my hard heart, against my rebelliousness, against my dirtiness, against my uncleanliness, against those times when I suppressed the truth in ungodliness and unrighteousness. Can you for a moment go back and think about your life before Christ and where you are today and realize that the life you've been given, you didn't earn it, you didn't deserve it. But hallelujah, God gave it to you. And if you're here today and you have not experienced the free gift, you're still living under this idea that I've got to get myself cleaned up before I come to God. Well, I'm telling you today, stop believing that lie and come boldly to Christ and let him forgive you and cleanse you.

If you're living in this room today, say you know what, But I still got a lot of living. I'll get things right with the Lord when it's my time. That's a dangerous place to be that, because God's offering you a free gift with no strings attached. What better offer could there be than the grace of God to reach down into our lives, sin and all, and love us, die for us, be raised again to prove he beat death in your life. That's good.

You see, the good news is good. As we talked three weeks ago, because God loves us. He proved it. He sent his son. When we talked about the problem that we have of sin in our life, the Gospel is good news because the wrath of God that I deserved was satisfied in his son.

It's good news because last week we decided and realized and know he is alive. He died and was raised again. Do you see how good the Gospel is? And today God sent, God sacrificed, God satisfied. And now we need to talk about how do I receive this gift?

Do I wait till Christmas and it come wrapped in a box that I've got to untie the bow? How do I receive this gift? I want you to turn to Romans chapter 10, Romans, chapter 10. And we're going to stand in a few minutes and read verses 9 through 15. But this is a part of Paul's letter where Paul is pointing out to the unbelieving Jews like he's telling the church in Rome that the Jews have rejected Christ as Messiah.

They stood in the court and cried crucify him. They didn't just say, now you're not the Son of God. They killed him. They hung him on a cross to die a most cruel death, submitting themselves to the very kingdom that they wanted the Messiah to come and set them free from. Every bit of that being backwards.

But I want you to look at verse three because it reinforces what we talked about last week, which is this. You are bankrupt regarding righteousness. You have no righteousness in and of yourself. Anything you might think is righteous is still filthy garments. And the good gift of God is that he takes and gives us.

His righteousness wipes the slate clean and gives us all he has, which is more than sufficient. Look at verse number three, talking about these Jews. He says, for not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. That is Jesus Christ. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Now, what's the contrast here? The Jews believe that they achieved righteousness by doing good stuff a little bit better than somebody else, and that at the end when they would be judged, they would be deemed just a little bit better and would just barely get by.

But Paul still got Genesis 15:6 in his mind where it says that Abraham believed God and it was credited justified to him as righteousness. Not because anything he had done, not because of who he was, but because he believed. Eternal life is a free gift that we receive when we believe. Eternal life is a free gift that we receive. It's by very nature we're born again, we're regenerated, which is impossible by human hands.

But this gift has a medium through which we receive it. And it's faith. It's faith. This call that we're going to see in verses 9 through 15 calls us to hear, calls us to believe, by implication, calls us to repent and then confess. These are not works.

These are keys. These are keys that I use to unlock this treasure box. Not just one key, but it's these keys that unlocks this treasure box that I can experience the free gift that God gives. So would you stand with me as we read these verses starting in verse number nine, he says this, that if you would confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and would believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you would be saved.

Believe and confess. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the scripture says whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. Like I'M telling you, sometimes you get up on Christmas morning and you open the box. Let's be honest.

You're disappointed. You got those ugly socks that had the red ring around the top of them. He said, whoever believes in him will. Will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek.

For the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who will call on him. For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

How beautiful then are those who bring good news of great things. Father, speak to us today that when we leave today, let it be with absolute thankfulness and appreciation for the free gift that you've given us in Jesus name. Amen. Let's dig into this for the next few moments in this passage. Let me go ahead and give you.

You've got a few blanks today. Don't worry, it's just. It's just a few. We could start going to two pages of notes, but I don't want to do that to you.

I'm so tempted to chase a rabbit right now, I shot it in my brain. I'm not going to chase it. Four keys to receiving Remember, these are not things that save you. We know that. Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9 teaches us you are not saved by your work.

Contextually, Paul is talking about works of the law. This is what was embedded in the Jew's mind. And for the Gentile, they get this new list. They're like, oh, yeah, I can do those 10 things and I'll be okay when I get to the end of my life. There is no work that can save you.

Your praying does not save you. Your reading the Bible does not save you. Coming to church does not. Does not save you. Giving does not save you.

None of those things save you. What saves you is the grace of God. The grace of God. So in the first blank here, and these are not necessarily in order, remember, they're keys. I want you to imagine a treasure box that's got locks on different sides.

And all four keys need to be open in order for that box to open its contents. So the first one is this. Confession is the expression of faith in the heart. Confession is the expression of faith in the heart. Notice it says if you confess and if you believe.

These are conditional verbs in the Greek text. If you confess what, what are you confessing? Jesus is Lord. You cannot confess that unless the Lord changes your heart. The object and the place God is after in you and me in salvation is our heart.

In Ezekiel 36, he says that all of us have hearts of stone and that what he wants to do is take out the heart of stone. A stony heart cannot beat. A stony heart has no flesh. It has no pores where blood can come in and go out. God wants to give you and me a new heart.

And so confession in this language means to speak the same thing. I am agreeing with what God has said. I'm agreeing with who God is. That's what confession does. And it reveals what's in my heart.

Back up to verse number five, if you would, for just a moment. Back up to verse number five, he says, for Moses writes, and I want you to notice, observationally, if you have a new American standard, this is very clear, how many different Old Testament passages he quotes from now to the end of the passage. Why? Because faith comes by hearing, and he's going to build up to that part. But my speaking needs to be in alignment with what I've heard.

He says, for Moses writes that the man who practices righteousness, which is based on the law, shall live by righteousness. But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows. Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, and who will descend into the abyss or to hell, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. In other words, what he's saying here, it is humanly possible for you to bring about the Messiah. So the Jews that had rejected him, who wanted to install him as king and run the Romans out of town, he's saying, you can't manipulate this.

This is based. This goes back, this passage here he's quoting, goes back to Deuteronomy, chapter 30, chapter 30. And you're like, okay, well, what does that mean? Would you take a moment to go to Deuteronomy 30, verse number six? Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verse number six.

I want to show you something. I'm going to read up to this, and then I want you to see how clear this verse is and how Moses is arguing for the faith of Abraham here. Because the law was never given for them to achieve righteousness unto eternal salvation.

At this point in the book of Deuteronomy, he has separated the camp. And on one side of the camp, he says, if you do the works of the covenant, you will be blessed here on earth. If you break this covenant, you will receive the curses and he says, so it shall be when all of these curses has come upon you and the blessings which I have set before you that you will call to mind in all the nations where the Lord has banished you. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. What?

You know what that means? That means they've already messed up. Y' all realize it's just a few books before they've already fallen into absolute sin, sinful debauchery, breaking every aspect of the covenant God made with them on Mount Sinai. And he says, and when you're banished, you return to the Lord and obey him with all of your what does it say in your Bible heart? He's after your heart and your soul, according to what I've commanded today, that then the Lord will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you where the Lord has scattered you.

Why is that important? Because immediately they've already broken the covenant, which means that whatever thing they had in their mind thinking they were going to keep the law unto righteousness, they've already messed up. But here's the promise in verse number six, and it's a promise that you and I have to this day. Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise, Mark, change your heart to love the Lord God with all of your heart and with all of your soul so that you might live. If you rewind the tape of Deuteronomy 6.

4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You will love the Lord God with all your heart. He's after your heart. Obedience without a right heart is not obedience.

Obedience without a right heart is self righteousness. And obedience without a right heart is death. And he came to give us life. And he goes on in Deuteronomy to just. Absolutely continue quoting.

He says in verse eight of Romans. Go back now to Romans, chapter 10. In verse number eight, he said, so then what does it say still in that Context of Deuteronomy 30? The word is near you, and it's in your mouth and in your heart. The word of what?

The call to repentance and belief. The call to repentance and belief. And it's revealed with what I confess from my mouth. In Mark 7, chapter 2023, Jesus said, that proceeds out of the mouth is what defiles the man. From within the heart proceeds the thoughts of evil and fornications, thefts, murders and adulteries.

All of these things defile the man. So what is he saying there? It's not your hands that defile you, it's your heart and what I speak, what I say. How I live is a revelation of what's in my heart. And if my heart is not pointed to obedience to God in the new covenant, I got a heart problem.

The word is in your mouth and in your heart. And so he says, if it's there, confession, him as Lord, that you might confess, that you might believe and be saved on the promise. Ephesians 1:13 reads in him, after listening, say, listen the Gospel, hearing that message and having believed, say, believe. So you don't know what the substance of what you're believing is until you hear it again. It's the keys I got.

Hearing, confession, believing, and repenting. All of these keys working together. Some of us today, we have a heart problem. When I was 23 years old, my first year of teaching, I was laying on my couch one night and Laura was over on the loveseat, and I just felt weird. I felt like I was riding an elevator and.

And it was stopping abruptly. Just every so often, like, I just feel weird. She said, what do you think it is? I said, I don't know. So I don't know.

I just put my fingers up on my. On my neck and took my pulse and started finding pulses missing. Like, I'm going, what in the world? So I told Laura about it again. She you come take my pulse.

And. And she did. And she said, I felt that. Like, it was. Like it skipped a beat.

And so I went through some testing and found out I had heart. Anybody ever experience heart palpitations? It does feel like you're riding an elevator and it stops. And your body kind of. Or for me, it does.

And I realized I had something I needed to keep an eye on. I realized my heart wasn't doing what it's supposed to do. Guys, when you look at your life and what comes out of this right here reveals what's in here. And what gets expressed right here originates right here.

See, our confession reveals what's in our heart. See, there's a bunch of people after the wedding of Cana, when Jesus turned water into wine, that said they believed. But Jesus said on his part did not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He knows what's in your heart. According to Acts 15, 8, today, what is your heart?

Because if in your heart you don't have faith, you don't have salvation. Therefore you don't have this gift that's absolutely free. Wayne Grudem says that faith is the assurance that things which God has said in his word are true and that he will act according to what he has Said faith is not trust in what I will do, but in what God will do. Simply put, this is my definition that faith is to put life confidence in that which I am persuaded to be securely and absolutely true. So point number two.

Faith is the conduit through which God saves. It's not the work. You don't do a work of faith in order to be saved because you are not saved by works. Look at verse number 10. It says, for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness.

What did I say about righteousness? You are bankrupt and you cannot see God without being righteous. But he gives it to you as a gift and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the scripture says whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. That quotation comes from Isaiah 28:16, that Jesus as the chief cornerstone on which we must stand in order to pass the judgment that God's bringing upon us.

Jesus Christ paid for our sins, canceled our death, gave us his righteousness, brought us out of life. And it's by faith that I am able to receive the grace of God. Do you believe today? Do you believe today? Let me slow down and read Ephesians 2:8:9, fresh in your ears.

For by grace you have been saved. God's unmerited favor for you. I mean, there are some Old Testament passages. You realize it says, God sings over you. God delights in you.

I hate this idea that, yes, God is a God of judgment. And we try to categorize that as a God of hate. God does not hate you. If he hated you, he would not have sent His Son and given you the opportunity to receive him by faith. That is not hate, ladies and gentlemen.

God hates your sin. And he hated it so much that he looked across heaven and he saw his son. He said, I'll send my son the very best of glory to come and pay the price for those sins. The perfect sinless Son of God as John described him. He said, I looked and behold a lamb as having been slain standing in the midst of heaven.

That Lamb came and died for you and for me. And he's inviting us today not just to believe a fact, not just to reorient my thinking, not to buy into secular humanistic kind of counseling idea that if I can just get my thinking right, I'll be right. No, he came and he came to save you from the depravity and the depth of your sin. Hallelujah. That's a great news.

That's great word. He did that for you and he's inviting you to entrust your life to him to be convinced of him. What's holding you back? What's holding you back? Today?

It's kind of like the man who encountered Jesus disciples. While Peter, James, and John were on the mount of Transfiguration with him, they came down and they were going like, what's going on? And this man says, teacher, I brought my son to you that had this spirit which makes him mute, and it's destroying his life. And Jesus said, o unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?

Why? Because they still were in disbelief. Folks, there's nothing freer than surrendering your life to say, God, I trust you 100%. And if I'm going to trust him, then I need to trust what he says. This man confesses to him.

I believe, help my unbelief. You and I come. So y' all realize how empty we come to the Lord. We come to him empty because of our sin. We come to him empty because of our unrighteousness, and we come to him empty because of our faith.

But we have a God of grace and mercy who loves us so much that we can come to him and say, God, I believe. I'm hurting. I'm struggling. God, I'm just not where I need to be. And he's like, that's okay.

I'll make you right. I will make you right. I will put you back together. I will rescue you. And that's for you.

And it's for me, number three. And I won't spend too much time on this point because this one's not necessarily in that Romans 10 passage, but I think we need to hear it. The third key, which is repentance. It's the call to turn from the sin that destroys us.

I have to confess, it makes no sense to me. Actually, sometimes makes me angry when professing Christians intentionally pursue the very sin and justify it that they've been saved from. I don't believe there's any other way you can stomp on the grace of God. Thank you. Than to continue willingly justifying the sin that's in your life.

The one we get in culture today we hear the most of is, well, this is just the way God made me.

I'm waiting for someone in culture to say that they can justify pedophilia because this is the way God made me.

Y' all are looking at me like, what? Yeah. Because even in secularism, they draw moral boundaries. I was in Savannah yesterday and walked down the street and saw a Lot of what we see in culture on parade. You ever been to Savannah?

I got to see the Fountain Green checklist and I saw some debauchery.

What's going to happen in our culture when people start marrying their pets?

Yeah, yeah. It's laughable. But I'm telling you that you give yourself to sin, there is no stopping it. Except for one thing. When I change my mind, which is what repentance is, it's metanoia.

I change. If I change my mind, I change my heart, I change my direction. There's a difference between a Christian who knows they're in sin and struggling and wants help than someone who simply made a profession, signed a membership card, but is still doing the exact same things they did before they made that profession. That profession is worthless without repentance. I mean, let me just give you a sampling.

If you look at Acts chapter two, after they were pricked at the heart, the people said, well, what shall we do? He says, repent. You get over to Acts 3:19, as he's preaching after healing, the healing of the man at the gate. Beautiful. He says, therefore repent and return so your sins will be wiped away.

You go down to Acts 17:30, 31, when Paul is on Mars Hill, and he says, therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, thank God he looks over my ignorance. He overlooks your ignorance. God is declaring that all men everywhere should repent. Guys, I won't stop preaching repentance. You're like, man, you preach it about every week.

Yeah, because it's that serious. We gotta keep turning our life back into the direction that God has called us to be. I mean, in fact, if you want to study this, I mean, Jesus, at one point, he says this. He was being challenged about some Galileans who had died horribly at the hands of Pilate and had their blood mixed into sacrifices. And it's almost like they were trying to tell Jesus, well, they must have been worse sinners than us.

It's kind of this. We bring karma into the church. If I do good things, good things should happen. But if somebody's got bad things happening to them, they must be really bad. Come on.

Y' all agree. Y' all know that happens. It's also heretical because the Bible says he reigns on the just and the unjust. So Jesus said, I tell you, unless you repent, you'll suffer the same way. Then he brought up an issue where a tower fell on some people and killed them.

And he says, I tell you, unless you repent, you will likewise perish if he says it twice in a text, and it came from the mouth of Jesus. And he means it at the same time that Jesus said for us to go and feed and help our neighbor and those that are sick. That culture right now is telling you, I heard it on the news. A guy said you were saved by ministering to hurting people. No, you are not saved by your works.

You are saved by the grace of God. And along with that grace comes this call to repentance.

I'll say it last week, I'll say it again. You either are going to die to sin or die because of it. Which one do you want? John MacArthur once said the reason so many Christians are defeated is because they've never decisively dealt with the sin in their life. If you've received the gift of salvation, something inside of you should begin to hate the sin in your life.

Or are you hoping for another day, another chance? One more go at it. One more drink, one more rendezvous, One more look, one more conversation, one more gossip, one more take.

God's calling us today to receive his free gift. Last point Hearing is the means through which the word received.

Paul, quoting Joel 2:32 in Romans 10:13, says, Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Joel said, be delivered. Delivered from what? Delivered from my sin and from my death. How then will they call on him whom they have not believed?

It makes. He's saying. It's rhetorical. It makes no sense. Why would you call on the Lord if you have not believed in his Christ?

You can't. How sad it is. We hear people around our nation praying to a God to whom never hears them because they haven't met the mediator. How will they believe in him they have not heard. And how will they hear without a preacher?

I'm so glad Paul said God delights in the foolishness of preaching. Because sometimes I leave on a Sunday morning. I feel pretty foolish because it doesn't make sense. Because in our flesh a free gift does not make sense. You go Back to Isaiah 52, where he quotes this.

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. For the Lord has comforted his people. He has redeemed Israel. He has bared his holy arm, and in the sight of all nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God. How does the world see the salvation of God in your life?

How are they seeing the power of the Holy Spirit at work in your life? Can I suggest why they don't? Because you still haven't turned the four keys to receiving him as your Savior. John 5:24. Listen Jesus, truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my words and believes in him who sent me has eternal life.

Have you heard him calling? Have you heard him calling? These things I've written to you that you may believe in the name of the Son of God, and that by believing you may have eternal life. In the beginning was the Word, and that is our Christ in him. After you've listened to the message of truth and believed, you were then sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

I think this is on your study guides. We hear, we believe, we repent and he saves. We hear, we believe, we repent and he saves. And then that justifies the confession that comes out of my mouth. Our response, not our work.

There's nothing you can do to be saved. I'm telling you today, there's nothing you can do to be saved except receive it. How do we receive it? We receive Jesus Christ. We receive Jesus Christ and we call upon his name to be saved.

I want to ask you a question today. I want you to think about when you were saved. Did you ask Jesus to save you? Is that the basis of your relationship with Christ? That you came to him and said, I am a sinner in need of the grace of God.

I cannot contribute to it, I cannot earn it, I cannot buy it. I want to receive it back this summer. On June 29th at around 11:30am on a Disney Cruise Line, a young 5 year old girl was leaning through a porthole on the fourth level of the boat. Her mom was taking a picture and the dad had walked a few paces past and all of a sudden the husband was gripped by blood. Curling screams as the young girl fell through the porthole and into the Atlantic Ocean.

Frozen was shocked. They were going, oh my gosh, what are we doing? They're handing over the rail and they're looking in the water and the dad spots the daughter and without hesitation, 45 seconds, they believe after the time she fell till he reacted. He jumped into that water. He jumped.

According to reports, the dad was walking ahead and did not hesitate. Once in the water though, he couldn't see her. The waves were crashing and coming back and forth and he said he called out her name, listen to me folks, he called out her name and said, keep yelling, keep yelling, keep yelling, keep yelling. And finally he was able to get to her and they treaded water until the boat brought them back in. That story could have gone a different direction, couldn't it have a five year old falling into the Atlantic Ocean with waves all around him, a boat moving.

See, we like the idea of God saving us by throwing a life preserver. But I want to tell you today, you're that helpless 5 year old who's fallen into an angry ocean with waves slapping down your arms as you fight for your life, water over and over again, crashing and beating you in the head, taking your breath, trying to drag you underwater. But Jesus didn't yell instructions. Jesus didn't send somebody else. Jesus jumped off the boat and in the water with you because he gave you a free gift.

Psalm 18:6 in my distress I called on the Lord and and I cried to God for help, and he heard my voice. Some of you today, you've stopped crying. It's time to cry out. It's time to cry out. He's calling your name.

He's been calling your name. He's still calling your name and you're still stuck in your sin and it's slapping you in the face and it's pulling your arms down. But today I'm telling you, this free gift comes without strings. This free gift is absolutely free to whoever would call on the name of the Lord and receive that gift. Colossians 2, 6 says that those who have received the Lord therefore walk in him.

This is good news, folks, because it depends on God and not on us. It's good news because it doesn't depend on me. It doesn't depend on you. Faith comes by hearing. We need to believe, we need to repent.

We need to do those things, hear, believe, confess, and repent. All four keys that open up the blessing of eternal life. So I want to ask you just to bow your heads where you are today and just hear this heart for just a moment. If you claim to know Christ today, how are you walking in Him?

How are you walking in Him? I'm not asking how often you're coming to church, how many Bible studies you're in. I'm asking you, are you proactive or reactive in your faith? Is following Christ a first thought or an afterthought? Because he said, confessing with our mouth that Jesus is what Lord?

That means he's in charge and he's calling the shots. Is it a discipline or convenience? What I'm telling you today, you can bow your head and repent and say, lord, I have not been following you. Even though you have given me such a perfect gift, help that gift live in me. Some of you here today, you've made profession, but for whatever reason, you still have not followed Christ.

In the one command he gave to this church and he's given to all churches, which is to baptize you, to baptize you, to make your faith public, to tell the world I have died to my sin and I've been raised to new life. If you're here today, don't wait. Come down here to the altar. Fred's going to be on one side, I'll be on the other. Just give us your name and number.

We'll call you this week and we'll talk through your story. Because we want to verify that you're saved, but we want to see you be baptized. There's nothing mystical about baptism, but it sure is spiritual, and he commanded us to do so. And then finally, what I want to challenge you is I think you're seeing how good the good news is. It's not anything to be negative about.

When somebody comes back from death to life, that's good news. And all around us, there's approximately 20 to 22,000 people this morning who will not darken the door of a church. And there's people even in church that don't know Christ. So let's just say it's 22,000. Is that good for you?

Good for me? 22,000 people in Stevens county this morning waking up and they're bound for hell. Does that bother you? It could be your neighbor. It could be your co worker.

We're a few weeks out from Easter. What greater time? Who could be your one for Easter this year? Who could be the one you're going to invite to come? Come to church with me.

Come hear the gospel. Come hear about a man who will save you. Come hear about a man who will jump in the water with you. So as you stand, this altar is open. It's always open, Fred.

And I'll be down here to counsel with you. Whatever your heart's desire is, whatever God's calling you to do, don't disobey, but follow whatever his leading is as we sing.