You can open up your Bibles if you have them or you can open up your phones to Romans 5. Romans 5, we're going to read the Bible a little bit tonight. But, you know, if you're like me, maybe you grew up going to church and you kind of, you knew about God, but you didn't fully have like a deep relationship with God. And maybe, maybe you grew up and you're like, man, I didn't go to church at all.
I didn't grow up knowing anything about the Bible. And maybe you still feel like you don't know anything about the Bible. I want you to know that today, it's okay that you don't know anything about the Bible. And it's okay that you're in process and it's okay that you're in a church building because some family member drunk you here because you have to, because it's Easter.
And I just want you to know, we're so glad you're here. And it's okay that you don't have it all together. It's okay that you don't know what to do with your hands or your eyes or your face during worship. And you're kind of like, what do I do?
I guess I'll just stand here and look at people and there's people just worshiping and like dancing and raising your hands, you're just trying to figure it out. And that's okay. That's okay that maybe you feel uncomfortable. You're like, man, they're really passionate.
And it's because we are. We're like really passionate. And the reason why we're really passionate about God is because of what He's done in our lives. There's so many stories all throughout the room of people that were in hopelessness, people just in mundane, people that just didn't know why they were even alive.
And then they met God and He changed everything. People that were in addiction, people that have stories of hopelessness. And everything, you know, everything hit the fan in their lives. And then they met Jesus and He just shifted and changed it all.
And so when you see somebody and they're like dancing and jumping up and down, whatever, it's because it's actually, it's not like a religious thing of like, oh, that's what they do at church. It's literally because they have a story. And Jesus cares about your story today. He cares about where you're at in your storyline.
And I want you to know that God has a purpose for your life. And He has a destiny for you. Like you have a destiny. And it's not to just be a good person.
It's not to just buy the house. It's not to have the 401k. It's not to just get a raise. It's not to get that next hit.
It's not to get that next dopamine hit of pleasure. It's not to go to the next onclusive. It's not to go to retirement. It's not to be happy and have kids.
It's not to find your spouse. And then you'll be happy. Like your life is more than that. More of a purpose than just like trying to make yourself more attractive so that the opposite gender can actually desire you and try to consume you.
Like your purpose is beyond just being a satisfaction for another human. Like you're more than that, right? Like your life is about more than the American dream. Love the American dream until it actually deceives you into a lifelong mundane, just be happy.
Life is all about you mindset. And then you get to the end of it. You get to the end of Friday and you get to the end of 20, 30 years and you're an empty nester and all of a sudden you're like, what was that? And you look back and you realize there has to be more.
It's just like Tom Brady. He wins the championship rings, marries the supermodel and he's getting interviewed on 60 minutes and he's like, there has to be something more. He hits the very top of what everybody thinks is going to satisfy a human. And then he's sitting in an interview and he's going, there has to be more than this.
There has to be more. I want you to know that the more is that you would know God. Your destiny in life is that you would know him. How many of you know that you can know facts about someone?
There's a lot of people that go to church. There's probably a lot of people in the room. They've been going to church for a very long time and they know a lot of facts about God. They know a lot of information but they actually don't know him.
And when you know him, it's totally different. It's just like you think about a movie star. We can know a lot of facts. All of the influencers or athletes or whatever.
We can know a lot of big names. We can know information about them. But when it's like you're on speed dial and you actually know them, know them. It's different.
And you know them in their mess. You know them in their highs and their lows. That's like a different type of knowing. Like you're connected to them.
And I want you to know that you were designed, you were created, like God created humanity with this ache of eternity on the inside. And that eternity that has that ache every human tries to fill it in some way. But it's the desire for connection with God. That ache that pushes some men and some women to be the most successful business people in our country and in the world.
And they're on, you know, their penthouse high rises in New York City. That like drive on the interior of man that pushes them to amazing success in the world's eyes and also pushes them into the curb and they're broken and homeless and fully addicted. It's the same thing that pushes some into complete desperation and some into extravagant success. It's the same thing.
It's eternity on the inside of us. It's longing for more. And a lot of us have kind of just, you know, I'm talking about the spectrum, but a lot of us feel, find ourselves right in the middle. Isn't that true?
It's like, no, I'm a good person and I go to work and I show up to work every week and I'm a good parent or I'm just a good employee and I'm a good brother or a good uncle or a good sister and I'm just like a good person. Right? So you've allowed yourself to live a life that is actually numbing the very thing that's inside of you that's longing for God. And really what you're doing is you're going about life and you're just like showing up home and you're going to eat dinner and you just try to make it that day.
And then you're like, I got to just unplug and veg because life is hard. Isn't that true? Life is just real. Like real life is not easy.
And it's like, there's pain there but I don't really process the pain and I'm just going to numb and I'm just going to forget about it. And that's most of our lives and I want to encourage you that you were made for more than that. You were made for more than just to be normal. Just be average.
Just live the white picket, life style and just to get by. You were made for more than just to get by. You were made for more than just to make the rent payment. You were made for more than just to survive.
It's like survival of the fittest is what we've settled for, some of us. And the Lord wants you to know that there's more and the more is connection with him. Your destiny is to know God. And that's what heaven is.
It's to know God. It says in John 17, 3, that this is eternal life to know God and to know Jesus. Whoa, I thought heaven was like all about the streets of gold. I thought heaven was about like the pearly gates and the mansions.
I thought heaven was about that. And then Jesus right before he goes to the cross, he goes, no, this is what heaven is all about. Knowing God. This is what eternity is going to get filled with.
Knowing God. You mean we can start eternal life now? Yeah. You know God now.
You can have a relationship with God now and it's not just factual information. Listen, demons know facts about God. Atheists know facts about God. Agnostics know facts about God.
But do you know him and you love him? That's what you were designed for to know the love of God that transcends understanding where it becomes experiential. That's what you were designed for. And this is what happens when you begin to know God.
That relationship begins to change you. Have you ever been in a relationship with someone and all of a sudden you're like they're not with you but you're starting like crack jokes that they say. You know where like you just start seeing things through the lens that they have. And they start rubbing off on you and you start saying things the way that they say them.
It's like our youth pastor Alex, he's like a sneaker head. He came on to staff about two years ago. And I was just like, I don't know, I wasn't into it. I love basketball but that didn't like make me into sneaker culture.
And now he's like all about sneaking the drops. He's like coppin the drops. Okay. And I'm like, and he's rubbing off on me where I'm now.
I'm like, what's the releases? I've got like it all planned out. I've got the reminder at 9 a.m. for the sneaker app.
I'm like ready for it. And it's just like wasn't a fan of Travis Scott but maybe hey. Okay. So listen.
And he's rubbing off on me. He's like changing the things that I enjoy because I have relationship with him. And listen, that's when you get close to the Lord, he starts changing what you like. He starts transforming your life.
And then he says in Romans 12 that the way that our lives get transformed is by how our minds get changed. So our minds get changed and our lives get transformed. And when you're in relationship with someone, they start influencing how you think and it changes how you live. And so your destiny is to know God and then you start becoming like God.
I'm not saying that you become a God but what I am saying is that you become like him. And that's like, that's your designs to become like God. To you know, God is love and patience and kindness and his gentleness and self-control and faithful and good. He's all of those things.
And when you get close to him, you start becoming all of those things by the power of the Holy Spirit inside of you. And so I want to encourage you that you have a purpose. It's to know God and become like him. And then what happens after that is you just, you begin to make him know.
So like you start knowing him. You start becoming like him. And then all of a sudden you start having his part for everybody around you because he loves people. Right?
And so now you just want everybody around you to know him because of what he did. It's like all those people that are going crazy and worshiped to have a story. They actually want other people to know about him because of what he did in their lives. And the same is going to be true for you.
The same is going to be true for your life where you're going like who me and I'm saying, yeah, you. And that's how God is going to change the world. It's through one person at a time. It's not about these big church services.
It's not about the Easter service. It's actually about you loving people in everyday life. And that's God's design. It's going to transform culture through everyday people like you.
Romans 5 says this. If you want to look along with me, it says in verse 6. For while we were still weak. Romans 5, 6.
For while we were still weak. And feeble and sick. At the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Did Jesus, the King, the Christ, did he come to die for all the people that have it all together?
Did he come for all the people that are like, man, I'm a really, really, really, really good person? No. He literally came for all of us that know underneath the surface that we're kind of a mess. He came for you.
If you're feeling hopeless, if you're feeling like you're broken, if you're feeling like you don't have all the answers, if you're feeling like, man, who am I to arrive to a church building and to be in a service and you're like, I just feel uncomfortable. Yeah, he came for you. Do you know the people that Jesus was hanging out with and sitting with? He was hanging out with the dirty IRS agent, the prostitutes, all the John's, the prostitutes, all of the religious outcasts and then the commercial fishermen are like on his team.
Commercial fishermen? My goodness. And then he's like, yeah, and all of the people that have all of these differing backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses and he's like, they're all the ones that I love. They're all weak and in the right time, in the right moment for the ungodly I came to die for.
Verse 7, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person. It's like, man, most people won't die for somebody that's even like a good person. No, perhaps we're a good person and one would dare even die, but God shows off his love for us. God shows off his love for us in that while we were still sinners in our mess, and you know, we were all born this way.
I don't know about you, but you were like born messed up. You were born selfish. It's just like how we were all born. We were born in sin.
You're like, no, but I was cute. It's like, yeah, you were cute and you were selfish. Okay? Just because you're cute doesn't mean that you weren't born with just like a nature that just naturally thought about you all the time.
And that's just our story as humans, right? That's what Adam and Eve passed down to us. And so Jesus came and he goes, wow, you were still sinners. Jesus died for us since therefore we are now justified since therefore those two were since therefore that since therefore means Jesus died on the cross.
Jesus actually because he laid his life down, he laid on a piece of wood and he laid down his life to wash our sins away from us as far as the east is from the west since therefore we are now justified by his blood. You know what justified means? It means just as if you've never sinned. So the blood that Jesus poured out, the God blood because he was fully God and fully man, that God blood was poured out is perfect.
And that blood has actually washed you, your past, present and future sentence. If you give your life to Jesus, it washes you and cleanses you so that when God, listen, this is really important. So that when God looks at you, he's not thinking about all of your sins and your mistakes and your mess ups and your screw ups. But when you come before God, it's like, it's just as if you've been justified, it's just as if you've never sinned.
When you come into God's presence. That's a good news. Do you want to know why that's good news? Because it's your destiny to know God.
And the enemy of you being connected to God is shame and guilt. So if you come into your relationship with God and you feel shame and guilt, you're going to be in protection mode. You're not actually, you're going to want to cover yourself. You're going to want to be like in protection because you don't know what he thinks about you.
But then what Jesus does is he's going, I'm removing all the obstacles. I'm removing everything that hinders love. I'm removing sin. I'm removing death.
I'm removing accusation. I'm removing shame. I'm removing guilt. I'm removing all of it so that they can be in God's presence just as if they've never sinned.
Man, that's better than some of our experience in church where we felt condemned, shamed, and guilt tripped. And every other week, the pastor said, hey, you need to get right with God. Come to the altar and repent. Listen, I need you to know it was a once and for all moment.
Jesus said, it's finished. And when he said it's finished and when you surrendered your life to Jesus, that means that your past, present, and future sins were forgiven. We are now justified by his blood. Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Jesus took on the whole wrath of God for all of our sins. He like swallowed it up in his body. He took on that wrath. So we wouldn't have to.
First and for if while we were enemies, we got reconciled like a restored relationship to God by the death of his son. Much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. I want you to look at Romans 6. This is really good news too.
Are you guys okay? It's verse 5. Alright. Verse 5, for if we've been united with Jesus in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
We know that our old self, remember when I talked about how you are all born with sin natures that are like it's natural for you to sin. It's natural for you to be self-focused. That's what he's talking about when he's saying, hey, old self. He's talking about the old self is like you at your core are selfish.
Your old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin, that old nature may be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. So that we wouldn't be in bondage to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. And sin is the enemy to your destiny.
Sin is the enemy to your destiny of knowing God, becoming like him and making him known. And Jesus actually did all of the hard work. That's like amazing. It's amazing that he did all the hard work.
He did all the heavy lifting for you. I want you to know that all of those things that we get deceived by into thinking life is about that or this or that or this. All of those things that I talked about earlier, the 401k, the retirement, the American dream, all that stuff or just getting by and surviving. It's like the survival of the fist mentality, all those things.
It's like some of us are like, I'm just starting to think about getting my paycheck. I'm just trying to like hit my bills and I got thousands of dollars and down just trying to survive, right? And I want you to know that Jesus came to actually take all of your sin and all of your mistakes and to actually remove those from you so that you can actually live a life of hope and so that you can know God. What you really need is real deep relationship with God.
That's what you really need. When it all gets boiled down and you start looking at your life and you start taking an inventory of your life, you know what you really need is connection. What you really need is connection with God. And so when we look at the gospel, the good news of Jesus, what I want to draw our attention to is this.
That in all of the pain that you've been experiencing in life, that Jesus wasn't afraid of the pain, but he like dove right into it. And he's actually the God that goes, I'm going to experience all of your pain on the cross. All of your mistakes, all of the sins done against you, all the sins that you did against people, all the sins that you did that nobody else knows about other than God, all of them were sins against God because he's the creator. He designed you and you were not living into who you were created to be.
So it was the greatest sense of your life or sins against God. All of them are sins against him. And he goes, I'm removing all of those things because I just want them to know my love. And so what he does is he goes, I don't have to, but I love them and I want them.
And so I'm going to actually send my son because I so love them. Maybe you've thought that God is mad and sad and angry at you, but I want you to know that he so loves you. He so loves you in your mess. He so loves you in your pain.
And he's going, I love you so much that I'm actually going to take on skin. I'm going to become a man. I'm going to lay down my life for you. I'm going to cleanse you from all of your mistakes and your mess ups and your screw ups and your deception and your gossip and your slander and your arrogance and your pride.
I'm going to cleanse you from all of that. And the reason why I did that is because I know what's best for you, son or daughter. I know what's best for you that you actually need me. And so since I know what you need, I'm going to lay down my life for you so that you can know my love and then you can have relationship with me.
But here's the way that you can have your destiny. And here's the way that you can have relationship with God. It's free of charge. It doesn't cost anything.
It doesn't cost money in the back. You don't have to put money in the black box. OK? You don't have to put money.
You don't have to give online to get it. OK? It's free. But it costs you everything.
Wait, what? It's free. But it costs you your whole life. Because this is what happens when Jesus rose from the dead.
He rose victorious. And he was talking to his disciples. And he says, this was about repentance and forgiveness. And that's what's going to be proclaimed in the whole world.
What he means by that is this. We've all been, we were born. And for like 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 70 years, 80 years that are represented in this room. We're born.
Let's say I'm like born here. No, we'll start over here. That's makes more sense. You're all born, right?
You start growing. And you start experiencing life. And you're sinning. And you're just doing normal life.
And what happens is you're going this way. And it's all about self-gratification and self-promotion and self-worth. And you're denying all of those things that you were designed for. And you're just in self-moist, self-righteousness, right?
And you're going this way of self, where basically you're the king of your own life. And when you actually step into your destiny as a human to know God, what you have to do is you have to make a decision to stop and then go, I'm going to stop being the king of my own life. And you actually give control over to God. And it's called surrender.
So what that means is you surrender your whole life, basically the throne of your life. Because you like being in charge of you, right? But there's this moment where you begin to realize when you look at what Jesus did and dying on the cross and going into the grave and then rising from the dead, you begin to realize that God loves you. More than you love you.
That's good. That's really good. And you realize that you have that moment where you go, he loves me. And it's not the second guy saying like he loves me.
He loves me. No, it's like, oh, he loves me. The God that created everything loves me. And he loves me in a way that I've always wanted to be loved.
And nobody can love me the way I want to be loved. And I'm mad about it. And I'm just hurt. And I'm so mad about how they just broke my heart.
And the Lord's like, hey, there's only one that's going to love you the way that you want to be loved. And it's God. And you start realizing like, oh, you love me. This is what I was designed for.
And you begin to believe. And you say, I believe that you died on the cross for my sins because you want relationship with me. And you know what's best for me. And I'm going to surrender to you as being the God of my life, the Lord of my life, the King of my life.
And what that looks like is you are going this one way, kind of just doing your own thing, your own way, whatever you felt like doing. And it's called repentance to actually turn around and go the opposite way. And your life gets to be a new life. And when you turn, what happens is your old life gets crucified and gets buried into the grave.
Just like how Jesus died and he was crucified and he was put into the tomb. In that moment, you go, I'm saying goodbye to my old life, my old nature, my old sin nature. And you're saying bye-bye, right? It's like a bye-bye moment, OK?
It's OK. It's a bye-bye moment. Like, see you later. We're breaking up.
It's like, break up day. We've been dating for a long time, me and my sin. And now it's like, it's done. It's like, I'm deleting your number, right?
So it's like, all the history is gone. And you go, that's getting crucified. It's getting killed. My old life is done.
And you make this decision to go, I'm going to give my whole life to Jesus. And you turn. And now all of your life is about him. Yes.
And now he's the one that gets to call the shots. And you're so happy about it, because you know that he has your best in mind, because he loves you. And he knows what's best for you. And so you go, instead of going your own way, and then wondering, man, why am I not happy?
Then he's like, oh, I have a better way. And it costs you everything for you to go, like, wait. So I can't sleep with my girlfriend before I get married. It's like, yeah, that's not the best way for you, because God's way is better.
So you're going to do it God's way. Are you willing to lay down your life and lay down the way that you've been going to actually lose your life currently so that you can find the life that you were designed for? It's like, you mean I can't just be selfish and do everything that I want to, whenever I want to. It's like, yeah, that's not good for your heart.
It's not good for you. You've got to turn away from the world and the way of the world and actually turn to Jesus, because that's what you were designed for. And he cleanses you from your past. And you get a new nature when you say, I'm going to choose to follow Jesus.
And so you believe in your heart that Jesus died, and you confess with your mouth. And you say, I believe, and I believe that you are now my Lord. In other words, my King, you're the one in charge of my life, and I give you my whole life. That's what it looks like to follow Jesus.
And it's not about going to church services. It's not about just being a good person. Listen, your life doesn't start to become about you not sinning when you give your life to Jesus. Your life isn't about being good after you give your life to Jesus.
Your life is about getting to know God and then having him transform you as you get to know him. That's your design. That's going to feel just right. It's just going to feel good to actually develop a relationship with a God that loves you.
And I believe as I'm talking that there's people in the room where you're going like it clicked. Like it just clicked. Like I actually want God. Like I want to give my life to God.
This is like this is what I've been trying to figure out. And I've been trying to, I've been wondering why is it just not working? Why is my life a mess? Why do I feel so unhappy internally?
Why have I been so confused? And now all of a sudden it just seems like light is shining into my soul. And it's like, this is my moment. This is what I was created for.
And I want you to know that that's true. This is what you were designed for. This is what you were created for. You're going to know God to be loved by Him and to become like Him.
I want to stop standing. We can spread out for other room. We're going to just respond to God. And we can spread into the aisles and just get some space.
Listen, as we worship together, it's going to be a celebratory time of worship. And what I want you to know is that if you're, if that's you, you know, as I was talking at the end of that message and I was talking about how there's something in you there going, man, it's finally clicking. I want God. I want you to know that today is your day.
Today is your day where that turning can happen, where you are going this one way. And now it's this like, my eyes just got open. And now there's like, ah-ha moment. I was like, I see the light.
And you're going to turn today. You're going to look back at today. And every single Easter that goes by, you're going to realize that was the day that I gave my whole life to Jesus. That was the day that I got born again into a new life.
And then some of you are, maybe you've had a relationship with God and you've just grown cold in your heart and you've walked away from God. And I want you to know, today is your returning home day. Today is the day where you can go, man, I'm actually turning from what I've been doing and I'm coming back home to God. I want us to close our eyes.
If that's you, today, and you're going, I want to come home. I want to come back home to Jesus. Or maybe it's your first time you're going, I want to give my life to Jesus. God, if you love me, then I want to give you my life.
And you're going, this is what I was created for. I finally understood now that Jesus died on the cross for me so that I can know God and that can become like Him. And you're going, I want to give my life to Him. Or I want to come back home to God.
And that's you and your heart's kind of beating right now, because you know it's you. As every eye is closed, I just want you to lift your hand and raise your hand to God. Maybe you want to raise both your hands. And you want to give your life to Jesus.
I just want you to raise your hands. Come on. Yeah, I see you. Come on.
Let's go. You just give in your life to Jesus again. And I want you to say this after me. You can just repeat after me.
You can say, Jesus, I give you my life. I repent and I turn from all of the sins of my past. And I turn to you, the God of love. And I believe in my heart that you died on the cross to wash all my sins away, my past sins and my future sins so that I can be in relationship with you.
I want to become just like you. Transform my life. You are now my Lord. Thank you for rising from the dead and giving me a life of victory.
In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen, Amen. Hey, as we go into worship, you can spread to the front. There's a lot of room up in the front.
There's a lot of room even over in this corner. Jesus, we thank you that you are the victorious King. I want you to know if you gave your life to Jesus, as I saw you raising your hands, I want you to know that there's a miracle that just happened. That old nature that you were born with is actually getting crucified and getting buried.
And now you're rising to the newness of life. And you get a new life. You get a new life where you get a new nature where now it's not natural for you to live in sin. It's actually more natural for you to live in righteousness.
God's designed for you is that you would live in freedom from all sin and all slavery to unrighteousness, okay? This is celebration time. He rose from the dead so that we can live in victory. Amen.
Jesus, we honor you as the God of victory, the God of resurrection. You're the one that saved us from all of our sins. We love you and we honor you, Jesus, Amen.