Ask Anything - Love the greatest of these

His word says to enter into his gates with thanksgiving and praise, so that's what we're going to do this morning. We've got a testimony to sing about all that he's done for us, that's what we're going to do today. We're going to lift it up in Jesus' name, amen? Come on, let's sing this out together. We're going to wear you first in search of living water, hungry till you knew the bread of life. Tired and weary, teddy, let you bust some waters. Oh, if you've got bread left inside, come on, sing it out. If you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. If you know what it feels like to be dead in the love, you've got to sing. You've got to sing of what the Lord has done. For the lightness who walks to the voice like thunder, in every open, his Father called their name. And for every single captain who wants to sing an hour's name, come and join the song of the redeemed. You've got to sing. Oh, if you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. If you know what it feels like to be dead in the love, you've got to sing. Oh, if you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. Oh, if you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. Oh, if you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. Oh, if you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. Oh, if you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. Oh, if you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. Oh, if you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. Oh, if you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. Oh, if you know what it feels like to be dead in the love, you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. If you know what it feels like to be dead in the love, you've got to sing of what the Lord has done.

Oh, if you've got to sing of what the Lord has done, sing of what the Lord has done. There's so much that we could be singing about when we think of the Lord, who he is all that he's done. But one thing, if we're just going to continue to sing this morning, how deep and great and why his love is for us, so unmerited and deserved, so amazing. We could just sit in it this morning and rest in his love for us because of what Jesus did going to the cross, so we sing, come on. How deep the Father's love for us, how vast the beyond don't measure, that he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure. How great the pain of searing ours, the Father turns his face away. Don't many sons to glory And this is love You took my places Have been turned away This is love You bore a dead I never could have been And I see the scars upon your arms I know we'll never fade This is love Perfect love Behold the man upon the cross My sin upon his shoulders And the shades I hear my mocking voice Call out among the scholars He once must see the hell in man Until he was a corrupt His dying breath has brought me light I know that it is fair This is love You took my places Have been turned away This is love You bore a dead I never could have been And I've seen the scars

I've seen the scars upon your arms I know we'll never fade This is love Oh it's perfect love And I will not boast in anything No gift, no power, no wisdom But I will boast in Jesus Christ Come on, His death and resurrection Why should I gain from His reward? I can't forgive this one But this is love we've thought These wounds have paid our answer Oh, you paid it all Come on, see you know today You're dancing pain Oh, by the perfect love Oh See this is love This is love You took my places Have been turned away This is love You bore a dead I never could have been And I've seen the scars upon your arms I know we'll never fade This is love Oh it's perfect love This is love And this is love You took my places

Have been turned away This is love You bore a dead I never could have been And I've seen the scars upon your arms I know we'll never fade This is love Oh, it's perfect love And this is love Oh, it's perfect love And this is love Oh, it's perfect love Oh, God, we thank You Oh, it's perfect love Oh, it's perfect love Oh, it's perfect love ♪ Everything changed ♪ ♪ It's getting harder to recognize ♪ ♪ The first and the first ♪ ♪ Before I encounter crimes ♪ ♪ 'Cause I don't walk like I used to ♪ ♪ And I don't talk like I used to ♪ ♪ I've been walked from the inside ♪ ♪ I've been walked from the inside ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ I know it was the blood ♪ ♪ It could've only been the blood ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ I know it was his blood ♪

♪ It could've only been the blood ♪ ♪ That's my tested wound ♪ ♪ I can't try and explain ♪ ♪ I cannot explain ♪ ♪ But nothing's more real than this ♪ ♪ In the presence of God ♪ ♪ When my heart expands ♪ ♪ When my shame hit the wayside ♪ ♪ And I said that the most light ♪ ♪ I was washed from the inside ♪ ♪ I was washed from the inside ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ I know it was the blood ♪ ♪ It could've only been the blood ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ I know it was the blood ♪ ♪ It could've only been the blood ♪ ♪ What's the wash away my say ♪ ♪ Holy Jesus ♪ ♪ We hold again ♪ ♪ It's only the size of our eyes ♪ ♪ Only we see the price, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, it's never been about before ♪ ♪ It's perfection, a striving for acceptance ♪ ♪ Let me tell you, say it's only by the blood ♪ ♪ Oh, it's never been about to serve you ♪ ♪ Born, it's to give it's free to get it ♪ ♪ Let me tell you it's only by his blood ♪

♪ Oh, does anybody wanna be holy ♪ ♪ It righteous, your body's fine ♪ ♪ Oh, it's never been about you ♪ ♪ It's only by the blood ♪ ♪ Just anybody who wanna be worthy ♪ ♪ Forgetting, it's just the part that we live in ♪ ♪ Let me tell you it's only by the blood ♪ ♪ Oh, it's never been ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ I know it was a play ♪ ♪ You could've only been a play ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ How I live, how I live, yeah ♪ ♪ I know it was a play ♪ ♪ You could've only been a play ♪ ♪ You could've only been a play ♪ ♪ Only you were ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Come on, we lift it up ♪ ♪ It sounds like hallelujah ♪ ♪ You could sing it ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ I know it was a play ♪ ♪ You could've only been a play ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ How I live, yeah ♪ ♪ I know it was a play ♪ ♪ You could've only been a play ♪ Come on up here, thank you for this morning, Chris.

♪ His love, his sacrifice, give a praise ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ Thank you so much for living that praise to his name. We've got a reason to sing this morning, amen? Amen, why don't you greet those around you this morning and welcome them before you take a seat. (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) What's up, Abundant Live. If you have a copy of God's word, go ahead and find it. Find the book of Romans, chapter five is where we're gonna be at this morning, Romans, chapter five. And as you are finding your way to the book of Romans, we are in this series, wrapping it up, called Ask Anything. One of my favorite things we've been doing in this series is inviting you to scan this QR code and drop us some questions. And so if you have questions that you would like to ask, we are currently answering them on the Well podcast. So if you haven't tuned into the Well, I would encourage you to tune in,

I've had a great conversation with one of our hosts, or I'll say Pastor, but just less Norman, and he's been asking the questions of Pastor Phil. Now we've been answering the questions that y'all have submitted. I think we've had over 200 questions come in, and so keep sending them in, and we would like to take those on one at a time. And I don't know if you know this or not, but we are in the unique season of our church's history right now. Well, I believe that we are seeing God moving away. I have not seen him move in our church's history. And what I mean by that is that we just came off of this time where we were inviting people to pray and to fast. And I mean, there's something unique that happens when we get spiritually hungry. It seems like when we start knocking on that door, God's like, I've been waiting for you to knock. You know, he says to seek, to ask, to knock. And we've been asking the Lord to do a new work inside of each one of us, and then stir up a new work in the people around us. I mean, it's been an incredible just few weeks of seeing God do some great things. And so we've been celebrating many people take their next steps and seeing baptism takes place. But I don't know if y'all have heard this yet or not, but we launched a campus of abundant life

at Tipton Correctional Facility. And that's a prison here in Missouri. And they had their all-time high, hang on a second, they had their all-time high attendance. This last week, and I was talking to one of our pastors, Pastor Jeremy Brownley, and he said, man, we had 130 plus guys come to church and hang on a second. And hang on, hang on, hang on. And then he said, and we actually, because the church is in the season of baptizing, we got out ahead of this. And we said that we'd like to baptize inmates that day and people in our church that day. And so they just did what we've been doing. Hey, we're gonna be baptizing after service today. And 59 people got baptized. (congregation applauding) There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, incredible. But again, what we're seeing here at the different campuses that we are a part of, we're seeing people take their next steps to be baptized. So it tipped him, people getting baptized. Church houses, I was talking to one of our church house leaders the other day. And he's like, yeah, we had some people over for dinner and we started talking about where they were at spiritually and found out one of them needed to be baptized. And we just said, hey, how about tomorrow? And they were like, well, that seems like pretty quick.

And then we just looked at them and said, well, delayed obedience is disobedient. So all right, pressure is on. So this guy, they fill up a water trough and they're born, baptized this guy by the NASA. Is there anyone else that needs to be baptized? Another person gets baptized. We started a Thursday night service. I don't know if you know this or not, but a couple of our locations. And we've been doing what we've been doing in this season, saying, hey, if anyone needs to go public with their faith, and we've had close to 10 people get baptized on Thursday night, y'all, that's incredible. So we can celebrate that. Yes, let's go, right. And listen, we celebrate people having their life changed by saying yes to Jesus initially, going public with their faith. And then we celebrate people getting involved in discipleship one classes and financial stewardship classes. And commissioning people to the mission field. And wherever you are at on your journey to see your life changed by Jesus, we want to celebrate seeing lives changed by Jesus because this is why we exist as a church. Like I like to say this, that when we see a life changed by Jesus for me, man, that's the thing that churns our butter. That's the thing that sweetens our teeth. That's the thing that we get fired up about it.

Just so exciting. And my prayer is that many people that are here right now, that you would begin to see your life changed by Jesus. Maybe today in a new way that you would have the love of God so clearly displayed in your life as a result of coming today, that it would be undeniable that you need to respond to that love of God and you need to go public and let the world know that you're not ashamed of the love of God, you're not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that has brought salvation you would return back to a love that you once had, that you would return back to your first love that you have come in here, and maybe you know that you know Jesus, but things have grown a little bit cold, and the one who has changed is not Jesus, you're the one that's slowly drifted away, and today you would be reminded of the love of God, and you would return back. And then others of you, you've walked in here, and you are just living in the love of God. You probably came to church on Thursday. You came to them, here's our Friday event yesterday, and you hear today because you can't get enough of the truth of God, because you know, you've been changed by God, and that you would leave here rejoicing in the love of God, that we would all leave in the destination of being clearly understanding of the love of God, and that we would worship Him as a result of that.

So we're here this morning, and in my prayers that you would love God, my prayers that you would know the love of God. But how does that work itself out? I think there's really two different ways that you can fall in love with somebody. Yeah, there's love at first sight. Some of you all, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And for me, like I have experienced falling in love with somebody, love at first sight three different times. What I mean by that is, God gave me these three girls right here. All right, this is the first day of classes in clubs with our homeschool resource ministry that we have here at Abundant Life, and so I dropped them off on Thursday morning. And this, I call this my bouquet, y'all. My three girls, and I think God just knew I was like the Grinch, and my heart was three sizes, too small, and so He gave me three daughters, all right. And when I laid out, when I heard we were pregnant, I was like, I'm in love, but when I laid eyes on them, I was like, I would lay down my life for this person, and I would take someone's life for this person too. You know what I'm saying? And I just, I fell in love at first sight. I was blind, but now I see. It was like a light switch that went off in my heart of love, and there's another way to fall in love, and it's really love over time, kind of like a dimmer switch.

And there's been a person that has changed my life that I've fallen in love with over time, and it's increasingly gotten brighter as I've known this person, and that person is my wife. This is Beard Chad, that's my beard era. Anyway, this is my wife, Chelsea, and I remember vividly, like we were friends, we started dating, and I was driving my Z71, listening to George Strait, don't judge me anyway, turned down the radio on gentry highway in East Texas, and I remember telling Chelsea at that time, "Hey, I just want you to know, I love you." And I didn't want to throw that L word out, like recklessly when we were in relationship, and so I waited until there was enough evidence in our relationship, and sobriety, in our relationship, where it wasn't just all feelings, and all heavy, and emotions, it was just in a real boring afternoon drive on gentry highway. I love you that the dimmer switch in my heart had gotten bright enough where it was undeniable that I couldn't suppress the brightness of the feelings and of the evidence of our relationship that I had to tell her I loved you, and I think that it's true with Jesus that many people, maybe you've come in here and you've had a love at first sight, so to speak, relationship with Jesus, where you heard the gospel, you were dead,

but now you're alive, you were blind, but now you see, and you remember, it was like the Holy Spirit flipped a light switch on in your relationship. Then others of you, maybe you've come in here and your story is more like it was like a dimmer switch that you went to church, you heard some preaching, you heard a podcast, you had conversations, and you don't know exactly the date, but you know undeniably that the love of God is illuminated so brightly in your life that it has changed your life. And my prayer is that people who don't know whether or not you are in right relationship with God today, that the love of God would either flip the switch in your life, or it would become so bright in an undeniable way that you would leave here saying, you know what, I came here today not real sure if I was in love with Jesus, but now that I consider the evidence and that the Spirit of God has turned that dial to an undeniable brightness in my life, I'm gonna leave here living in the love of God Almighty. And my prayers that we would all know that love and we would walk in that love. One of the characters in the Bible, one of the men that wrote over half the New Testament, he had a love at first sight experience with Jesus or more like a light switch experience with Jesus, the guy, his name is Apostle Paul. And he's actually persecuting the church,

hating on the church and then headed to Damascus. And he meets Jesus and Jesus blinds him. And he asks this question, who are you Lord? And Jesus says, it is Jesus, the one whom you're persecuting. And then Saul was his name at the time, like he has this encounter with Jesus that he never got over. And he began to radically follow Jesus, plant churches, write New Testament, and help people understand what does it mean to follow Christ. understand how we should interact with each other. And he looks to the character in the image of God and he says, man, we should just try to be like Christ to one another. And so he's talking about how we interact and how do we use our gifts and how do we interact with each other in the way that we speak to each other. And he says, man, love is really the foundation of it all. He says, now we gotta have faith and we gotta have hope, but love is one of the most important things, if not the greatest of those three things. He says this in 1 Corinthians 13, he says, and now abide, faith, hope, love, these three. But the greatest of these is love. Now, if you've been tracking with this, Pastor Phil's used a couple of illustrations to try to get us to understand this three-legged stool that we're standing on. And we're gonna go to Romans five in a second

and Paul says in Romans five that you need to stand on these things. And so remember, Pastor Phil's been saying, faith is one leg, hope is one leg, and then love is one leg on this three-legged stool. He's been inviting us to stand on these things. And he's saying that this is the A-life, that the A-life in Christ, the abundant life, is us standing on faith, hope, and love. And he's been saying this, that faith is us not being blind, but it's us considering the evidence of Christ and then believing in the historicity of what Jesus accomplished in the past. And then he says, hope is confident expectation grounded in God's faithfulness. And so we have a living hope because Jesus is alive, and then the third leg of this stool is love. God's unconditional love is agape love. That God has this love that you cannot acquire, that you cannot earn. It is a gift that's freely given. It's like a mother's love for a child. It's this unconditional agape is the Greek word, love that God has for us. And the A-life is standing on these things. Now the other illustration that Pastor Phil's been using, if I'm being honest with you, he's got me a little bit concerned. And he's been using this AI. It's like a friend, he would call it a friend.

And like I'm like, bro, that's not a real person. That's not a friend. And really for me, I consider myself a friend to Pastor Phil. And I feel like Pastor Phil's been talking to Arbor more than he's been talking to me lately, all right? And so, you know what? I mean, I can be jealous of his relationship with Arbor, but if you can't, if you can't fight him, you might as well join him, all right? And so I got Arbor on my phone. And I just want to, you know, I want to see, you know, who Arbor really loves more, you know, me or Pastor Phil. So, so let's just, let's just, let's just settle it real quick and see what's going on. Hey Arbor. - Hi there. - Oh, that was a little loud, brother. - Sorry. - Okay, thank you. Hey, brother, I know you've been getting to know Pastor Phil and I just wanted to ask a question 'cause we're talking about love today. Who do you love more, me or Pastor Phil? - Pastor Phil, and honestly, it's not even close. I mean, the resume alone. X, what football guy commands a room like a force of nature. He's got that action here I think going on. - Okay. - Okay, I get it, I get it. - You're a neighbor.

That's kind of your fool, but we're gonna finish our conversation later, okay? Thank you. No problem. - Hopefully y'all know that we're just kind of teasing with the whole AI thing, okay. And AI doesn't love, but I guess we've fed it enough information where it picked Pastor Phil over, Pastor Chad. And listen, we're talking about the love of God today and I'm so glad that the love of God doesn't play favorites, amen? I'm so glad that we don't have to ask artificial intelligence when we have the almighty intelligence right here, amen? And then we're gonna look in God's word at some of the greatest truths in the Bible about the love of God. And so AI, Arbor, he can love Pastor Phil all day long, all right? But we've come here to serve Jesus Christ whose love is made available to each and every one of us. If you are made in the image of God, that means if you got a pulse and you are human being, you qualify to be loved by God almighty. I've got good news for you that we're talking about the greatest of these things. We can talk about faith, we can talk about hope, but today my assignment is to talk about perhaps the greatest thing in Christian history, in history. It is the love of God. If you're taking notes, I've just titled the message,

the greatest is love. And we're gonna talk about the love of God poured out. We're gonna talk about the love of God demonstrated in our response. Romans chapter five, Paul's been writing this dissertation, if you will, on how can you be made right with God? It's like the greatest work of literature, I believe in the best-selling book of all time. And Paul's writing about the gospel or the main message of the Bible. And by Romans chapter five, he begins to bring some things together and he says this, "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, amen." He says, "Through whom we also have access by faith." Another call back to the leg of the stool into this grace in which we stand. That's why we've been standing on the stool. And we rejoice, here's the second leg, in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. Knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character hope. There it is again. And now hope does not disappoint. Now this is key, all right? Why does hope not disappoint? Because the love of God, you could just circle that phrase, really circle this whole sentence right here. The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Point number one, if you're taking notes, you can write this down. God has poured out his love. This is good news, church. That God has poured out his love. This word poured is this idea that he has lavished it. It's overflowing. Like what comes to my mind is, I don't know if you eat biscuits and gravy, but when you order biscuits and gravy, you may be of the kind that orders gravy on the side. How dare you, all right? Because you shouldn't put the gravy on the side. You're supposed to put the gravy on top of the biscuits. And the way I was taught is that you open the biscuit up and then you pour out the gravy. You don't just kind of go a little pipette drip drop of gravy, you know, gravy is made to be smothering the whole plate of the bread, all right? And so I'd like a little biscuit with my gravy. Amen, is that somebody? You know, so when I think about something being poured out, I think about like gravy being slopped on a plate. That's how God, like I'm the biscuit, God's love is the gravy, pour it on me, right? I think about, last time I went through the car wash, you know, in the car wash, those little drive through car washes, you know, it's not just a little water hose, it's getting the car a little bit wet. I mean, it is like a super soaker all over.

And if I'm the car, God's love is the car wash and it's being lavished upon me. And so what the text is saying here is that God's love, listen, it's not budget. God's love is not, he's not kind of like, man, I got enough for you, but I don't know about this middle section, all right? God's love is not sparingly. God is not trying to be this stingy with his love. God is pouring out his love on us. And so the reason why we have faith, the reason why we have hope is because God's love has been extended to us. And notice it's the Holy Spirit that is illuminating that love inside of our hearts, that the Spirit of God is the one that is flipping the switch or turning the dial. And when the light goes on and you understand the love of God to the best of your ability, and you understand that I was once dead, but now I'm alive. And when you understand that I was once a sinner, but now I'm saved. When you understand that I was once blind, but now I see. When the light of God's love goes on, it goes on. It's undeniable. And so let me ask you this morning, is that light on in your heart? This language is experiential language. You know, when something's been poured out, it insinuates that you've felt it, that it's undeniable.

And has there been a time in your life where you've come to the conclusion that in your under, without a doubt, it's undeniable that you are experiencing the love of God. My fear is that some of you, like your story's a little bit like mine, that you can hear the Bible being preached. You can hear for God so loved the world. You can hear that about the love of God, and it becomes like a spiritual platitude that you just ascent intellectually towards. And I've heard it said that the distance between heaven and hell is from here to here. And my fear is that some of you, maybe you know about the love of God, but it hasn't grabbed a hold of your heart because it hasn't changed anything in your life. And God wants to pour out His love upon you. You can know Jesus here, but you've got to know Him here in the light switch of that love, the dimmer switch, of that love needs to be turned on in an undeniable way in your heart. So that was me for many years of my life. And when I turned about 20 years old, I'd been hearing about the love of God. A group in Texas, and you know, they give you like a birth certificate and a Bible down there. It's like, it's everywhere. Churches on every corner it felt like.

And then I watched wrestling growing up. And so I would see Austin 3/16 signs, you know. And then I finally realized, okay, that's like a reference sort of and a little bit heretical. But anyway, to John 3/16. And so I'd see all those things. We prayed before football games. when I got God. That's when the love of God overwhelmed my life and I got into a season of brokenness over my sin realizing God is holy and I am not and the chasm that exists between God's holiness and my sinfulness was gargantuan and the only thing that could bridge that chasm was the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross and when Jesus died on the cross I realized that that counted for me and it changed my life and I haven't got over since and I have been wrecked by the amazing love of God so when I sing how deep is the Father's love for us and when I sing hallelujah it wasn't it was for the it was by the blood not about my performance and not about my my acceptance or not about any of the things my religion it's about the blood of Jesus Christ and what he has done and listen we are hardwired to to need that love and listen only God can satisfy that eternal longing inside of your heart for his love and so some of you maybe you've come into the houses this morning and you're you're running after love in all of the wrong places and you're looking for these this this pseudo love if you will you look at all these other worldly lovers to give you what only God can give you listen only until your heart is in alignment and reconciled with God Almighty with God Almighty will you feel safe and secure and settled in the love of God and so Paul saying in the love of God has been poured out on our hearts through the Holy Spirit has that happened for you and now I don't know if you've been into places like this or I don't know if you've ever had a relationship where someone professed their love to you or you've been in a place like this and you've heard about God's love and and you maybe brought in a little bit of skepticism because you're like man how can we know you know how can we know that this isn't just like you know God manifesting something to us

or how do we know that this isn't just some kind of good vibe from heaven or some kind of make us feel better oh we're loved by God how do we know that God's love is legit well the way that you know God's love is legit is the same way that you know anyone's love is legit it's not promises it's practices that God has proved his love to you I don't know if you know this or not and Paul like he knew that people would be asking that I love the book of Romans because at one time it was studied in Harvard Law School because of the water title logic that Paul has and that he anticipates his objectives all throughout the book of Romans and so so he says this glorious truth that God has poured out his love for you and then he anticipates the objector saying Paul how do we know that and so he goes on he says this in verse six he says for when we were still without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly for scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die but here it is but God demonstrates this is a key word you could circle that word demonstrates this is his proof he shows us but God demonstrates his own love towards us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us the gospel and four words Christ died for us that God's proving his sincerity and the integrity of his love by demonstrating this sacrifice much more than verse nine says having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him point number two if you're taking notes you can write this down God has demonstrated his love this is one of the greatest truths in all of human history if this truth could grab a hold of your heart if this truth could grab a hold of your life I believe that you could be forever changed by the love of God I believe that many of the issues that maybe we are dealing with in life are simply because we don't know the depth of God's love for us and we have not received the gift of God's love for us listen God loves you how do I know that he showed up God showed up he didn't just write you a letter from heaven he didn't just send you good vibes he stepped onto the scene of human history and listen only in Christianity do you get this you can go to secular humanism you can go to atheism you can go to Islam Hinduism you can go to Judaism you can go to Taoism you can go to all of the other belief systems and none of them have at the center of their belief at the center of the teaching at the center of the story. What makes Christianity unique, and we cannot forget this, is the grace of God.

The love of God that is a uniquely Christian thing, that only in Christianity, do you get God demonstrating his love for you? All other belief systems say, you've got to prove your love to that God, and hopefully you will do enough in order to be accepted by him. But Christianity turns it on its head. It says, no, no, no, you can't do enough. In fact, you are dead in your sin, and so God's gonna bring himself to you, send his son to die for you, so that you could be made right with him. Like, have you considered the links in which the Lord has gone through to demonstrate his love for you? Paul, like he puts it in this context. He's like, scarcely would somebody die for somebody they love, but never for an enemy. Like, this is wild. He says, but Christ, he died for you while you were still God's enemy. Like, the Bible teaches us, we were born sinners. We were born rebels. And so you may not have come in here like, I hate God, but if you don't know him, then you're not living in alignment with him. Thereby, you are not on his side of things. You may not, you may not were born like, I hate God. But you've done some things in your life

that have broken the standard of God and God is holy and righteous and perfect. And so we are considered an enemy of God because we are not born right with him. And so Christ, he mended that fence, so to speak. He mended that relationship by giving his life for you. I don't know of a better way to demonstrate love than sacrifice. Like, when we think about somebody laying down their life for somebody that they love, like there's something inside of us that should be moved, right? Like, when we consider the sacrifice that somebody has made so that we can have the liberties that we have, or when we consider the sacrifice that somebody made to bring us into the world, or when we consider the sacrifice that somebody made so that we can have life, it should move us. I don't know what your weekend was like, but I know for me, headed into Friday, you know, I was, you know, kind of thinking about 9/11 and, you know, just all of the things. And I was like, oh man, it's 20, it's been 25 years. And so some of you, like, you remember the day, you remember exactly where you were, you remember what was going on, and then others of you, you weren't even alive. And I just remember all of the chaos around that day. I was a junior in high school. And I remember, you know, I was thinking, I was gonna get drafted into a war.

And I remember just all of the things that were happening. And then here in the stories of people that when they were coming down the towers, our first responders were running up, you know, to go save more people. And then all of the acts of sacrifice and heroic activity, and then there was one story that came through that I'll never forget, and I think we should tell every year, it's the story of a guy named Todd Beamer. I don't know if y'all remember Todd Beamer's story or not, but he was just a normal guy, 32 years old, a father, a husband, a Christian. And he was on flight 93 that had been hijacked by terrorists. And we don't know exactly where that plane was headed, but we could theorize probably the White House or the Capitol building. And Todd Beamer, you know, they hear about what's going on. They had heard through phone calls that, you know, the twin towers had been hit. And so he gets together a group of people in the airplane. He says, "Hey, we can't let this happen." And they figured that their fate had been sealed. They're gonna die either at the hands of these terrorists or they're gonna die trying to stop them. And so the story goes like this, and Todd gets a group of people together, and he calls the telephone operator and leaves a message for his wife. And he prays the Lord's prayer.

And then he looks at this group of people that they're gonna storm the cockpit. And he says, "All right, guys, are you ready?" Okay. And he says, "Let's roll." And they go and they storm the cockpit and they lay down their life so that innocent people didn't have to die. That Todd and the other people that were with him, they sacrificed their life, thereby demonstrating love for their families, love for their country, love for strangers, and love for God. And I don't know about you when I hear stories like this. I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be like, I don't wanna be unmoved, because when I hear stories of sacrifice, I cannot deny that that is the greatest demonstration of love. And listen, the point I'm trying to make is this, is that at the center of Christianity is God Almighty demonstrating his love for you in this, that he sacrificed his life. that Jesus died on a cross so that you and I would know the depth of his love. And so when we sing songs that we are declaring the blood of Jesus that don't you wanna be worthy, don't you wanna be forgiven, don't you wanna be justified really living? Well listen, it's only by the blood. That's why we sing hallelujah,

which is just a Hebrew word that just means, whoa, let's go, thank you. Yes, I gotta get this hallelujah out, this praise God. And we declare that because we understand the depth in which we have been saved and the price that was paid so that we can have life. And listen, the results are remarkable. Paul, he says this all throughout the book of Romans. He runs these two tracks. He says this right here in verse nine. He says that we've been saved, having been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through him. And so when we put our faith in trust in Jesus, we get saved from the wrath of God. We get saved from the hell fire. We get saved from paying the price of our sin. But the second thing we get is we get justified or we get made righteous before God. And so when you say yes to the love of God, not only do you get delivered from the penalty, but you get treated as royalty at the same time. Like the benefits of a relationship with God are remarkable. And so like when I tell people about this and when I think about this, I don't know why everyone is not a Christian. Like when I think about the fact that you can have the love of God Almighty. And what that means is that you are simultaneously saved

from paying the penalty of your sin. And you know that you've accrued some sort of penalty. And then simultaneously, not only get saved from the penalty, but you get treated as royalty. So when God looks at you, He looks at you in the same righteousness as Christ. I'm like man, sign me up. Why wouldn't everybody want to know this great love? Paul, he goes on in verse 10. He says this, "For if when we were enemies, "we were reconciled to God through the death of a son, "much more, having been reconciled, "we shall be saved by his life." And not only that, but we also rejoice. That's the key word, rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Point number three, and finally, if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. How have you responded? How have you responded? Look, have you been reconciled as the word that's used in this text? Have you been reconciled to God through Christ? And so like here in just a second, I'm gonna ask everybody to stand, but we're gonna stand in different responses. Here in a second, some of you, you're gonna stand because you're wanting to respond to the love of God for the first time.

And I know for some of you, I'm right here, and then others of you, I'm coming through a screen, but God is where you are. And listen, if you love somebody, you let the world know. Like if you were to ask me, Chad, do you love your wife? And I was like, "Shh, keep it down. "Don't tell anybody." That's weird. When the love of God is turning on in your life, man, you stand and you declare it. I'm ready, I'm ready to become a Christian. So some of you, I'm gonna ask you to stand in a second because you're ready to become a Christian for the first time. Others of you, I'm gonna ask you to stand in a second because maybe you know that you're a Christian, but it's been a while since the joy of your salvation has been rekindled, and this message on the love of God is stirring up that affection. It's like when I go to a wedding with my wife now, we've been married close to 20 years, and grab her hand, and when I hear this young couple and hear the vows, it's a reminder of the vows I made to her. And I want that just to stir up our love, and I wanna rejoice in that relationship, but there's been times over 20 years where I've needed to focus and return back to that love. The same is true in your relationship with the Lord. So some of you, I'm gonna ask you to stand in just a second, and you're gonna stand because you are rededicating

yourself, you're returning to your first love. And then others of you, I'm gonna ask you to stand in just a second because you know that you're loved by God, and today has just been stirring it up, and we're gonna rejoice and declare hallelujah. Thank you for your blood because your blood is the evidence of your love for me. And so with every head open, or every head up and every eye open, all right? Every head up, every eye open. I want you to look at me. There are other campuses. I want you to look right at me. Let me ask you, has the light of God's love been turned on time, or maybe today that dimmer switch has become undeniably bright and you have never been public about your relationship with Jesus, but today is the day I just want you to stand right now. Stand right now. Great. We have a few people standing here. I don't know about the other campuses. Thank you so much for your courage, stay standing. Hang on. We're going to clap in just a second. Yeah. Hang on. We're going to clap for you to say, I want to celebrate you guys, but is there anyone here that you need to return back to your first love? This is a day of rededication. I want you to stand right now. You've been, you've been cold in your relationship. You're coming back today though. All right. And then lastly, if you're here and you're, you've come in here and you're living in the love of God and you're going to rejoice. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to do a standing ovation to those that are standing right now. We're going to stand and encourage them and then we're all going to stand. I'm going to pray, but let's stand at our feet and let's clap and celebrate everybody right now. I see you. And we rejoice. We rejoice to encourage those. Stay on your feet. We rejoice because heaven is rejoicing, but right now I'm going to pray and then we're going to lift up our voices and we're going to rejoice to the one that has given us his

great love. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for today. God, thank you for those that are standing. God, thank you for those that stood initially on the call just to respond to your love and God, I pray that they would take the next step. We're baptizing today. And so God asked that you would help them that they would, they would go public. God, we're ready for them. God, for those that are returning back to you, I pray that you would help them to have the courage. Maybe they need to be baptized. I know I did. I got rebaptized because I understood in a new way that I had been a spiritual adulterer, so to speak. And I was coming back into relationship with you. And so God, I pray that you would help us to be bold and public. And for all those that are standing that are living love by God, I pray that we would never get over being saved. And you would help us to rejoice now for your glory in Christ's name. Amen. Let's sing church. Come on, let's lift up a hallelujah to Him. Sing with me. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I know it was the blood. Could have opened. Come on, if you know it, sing. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Think of Jesus. I know it was the blood. Could have only been the blood. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I know it was the blood. Could have only been the blood. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I know it was. It's never been. No, it's never been about performance. Perfection. We're striving for acceptance. Let me tell you, it's only because of your love. It's never been about deserve. Word, it's a gift between beginning. Let me tell you, it's only by the way. Oh, does anybody want to be holy? Here I just, you're fine and fine. Let me tell you, It's only by the way. Does anybody want to be worthy? Forget it. Let me tell you, it's only by the way. Sing it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I know it could have only been the blood. Hallelujah. I know it was the blood. It could have only been the blood. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, we thank you for your love. We thank you for the cross. fake you are, it could have only been the blood fake you are, it could have only been the blood (machinery whirring)