Only Believe | Jabin Chavez | City Light Church

I want to talk from the subject, only believe, only believe. Just elbow your neighbor, make sure they know you're alive. Tell them, only believe. Come on, let them know, only believe, only believe. Look at your second choice. Tell them, you too, only believe. Come on, tell them. Only believe. Father, thank you for what today is, what it represents, and what it means to us, that it's not just something we look back on and celebrate, but it's something we live in. Jesus, you rose, that you are alive. And because you live, we live. We give you the glory for all that you have done and all that is to come in our life. I thank you that not one person is here by accident, but that you have drawn us here for this moment, for such a time as this. I thank you that everybody who needs answers today would get answers. Everyone who needs a miracle today would receive. Everyone who needs to begin a relationship with you would do that. This would be a day of miracles for every person in this room. Speak to us now, Lord, in Jesus' name. Come on, and everybody said amen. Can we clap our hands one more time and celebrate the goodness of our God,

that who would believe in him, whosoever would believe in him, believe in him. Believe, believe, believe. That's what Christianity is. That's what faith is. That's what the gospel is. That's what the message of Jesus is, that God loves you. And in response to that love, we believe. Now listen, when I say believe, I mean believing, not earning. Believing, not trying. Believing, not working. Now I want to leave that up on the screen for a moment to help you understand something. When I talk about the gospel, when I talk about a relationship with Jesus, when I talk about a faith in Jesus Christ, I'm talking about believing. Earning is religion. Trying is religion. Working is religion. That is man's attempt to get to God. That is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus is not man getting to God. It is God becoming a man in Christ and coming to us. When we couldn't find him, when we didn't even know we were lost, when we didn't know who to call, he calls our name. He finds us. And he brings us into right relationship with God. This is the good news of Jesus Christ.

And this is the good news of Easter. And this is the good news for every weary soul in this place, that all you have to do is believe. Not achieve, believe. Not try, not earn, receive the free gift called salvation. For me, that happened June 10, 1998 in Del Rio, Texas. I was 15 years old. 27 years later, I've never looked back. I didn't even really know what I was saying yes to. I didn't really understand at all the call of God in my life. I definitely didn't think I'd end up in Vegas. Hello, I did not think that would be happening. I didn't really understand a lot. I was not ready. I was only 15. I had not fully counted the cost. I wasn't mature enough to even understand that. I didn't really know all that I was saying yes to. But I did know in that moment God loved me. I did know in that moment that heaven and hell were real. I did know in that moment that I could not save myself. And in a moment of pure mercy and grace, God reached out to me. And I knew in that moment if I would just say yes, something would begin in my life. And what God did for me, God will do for you. And if God has ever saved one, he could save all. And all you have to do is believe. Believe, believe. Everybody say only believe.

I'm gonna give you three things to believe in today. And the first is this, believe that Jesus loves you. Amen. For God so loved the world, so loved. Not kinda loves, not loves, not has to love because he's God and that's probably the right thing to do. No, he so loves the world. There's people in your life you love. There's people in your life you have to love. And there's some people in your life that you so love. I just want you to understand about God, he so loves you, so loves you. Can't say it enough, couldn't show you any better than the way he did. He loves you and you must believe that about God. Why? Because the great, late A.W. Tozer said it like this, what you think about when you think about God is the most important thing. about you, that if you're afraid of God, if you're worried about your walk with God, if you see God as this old, angry, upset great-grandfather in the sky with a lightning bolt with your name on it, friend, you'll never run to Him when you're hurting. You'll never rejoice in Him on a good day. In the valley, you'll blame Him, and on the mountaintop, you'll give yourself the credit, and you will constantly run from a God who loves you. But if you would believe today that God so loves you, that in the valley, He's faithful,

and on the mountaintop, He's faithful, and on your worst day, He's there, and on your best day, He's still there, because God loves me. Jesus loves me. This I know, what the Bible tells me. So God so loves you. This is not you loving God. This is not you doing enough to get God to love you. This is God loving you and doing enough to hopefully turn your heart to Him. This is not religion. This is not man's attempt. Have I done enough? Have I prayed enough? Have I given enough? Have I forgiven enough? Have I been nice enough? Have I done enough to get to heaven? Let me just answer that. No, and you can't, and that's actually good news, because if it was on you, it would never be enough. So Christ came and did what you could not do, and on the cross, Jesus cries out, it is finished. Not it's almost finished. Not it's 99% finished. Good luck trying to figure out the 1%, because you couldn't even do that. I couldn't even do that. So Jesus completely pays the price, completely.

How do I respond to that? I say thank you. How do I respond to that? I give God the glory. How do I respond to that? I rejoice in the same way that after this service, maybe someone's gonna take you to brunch. Maybe someone's gonna take you to lunch, and they're gonna say, hey, today I've got the bill. When that happens, you don't fight about it. You don't argue about it. You don't try to pay it twice. No, you say thank you, and you eat. Come on, somebody. Come on, the price has been paid. Jesus paid it all. It is finished. Celebrate. Now thank your neighbor for paying for your brunch after this service. Come on, thank him in advance. I believe a spirit of generosity is gonna hit you. Come on. See, religion cries out, do. You need to do more. Man, I feel like I need to do it. You need to do more, and you do, because you'll never do enough. But Christianity says, done. The work is done.

The work is complete. Done. Can you imagine that thief on the cross? He's hanging there beside Jesus. And he says, Lord, would you remember me when you come into your kingdom? And Jesus says, today, you'll be with me in paradise. Within minutes, the scripture says the Roman guards came, and they broke the legs of those two thieves so that they would suffocate, and he dies. Opens his eyes, and there he is in heaven. Walks up to those pearly gates, and there's an angel there. Maybe he's got the Lamb's Book of Life. I don't really know how it all worked out, but there he is. And he goes, oh, man, you're new, huh? He goes, yeah, yeah, brand new, just, just, whoa. Where'd you go to church? I don't have a record of church. I've never been to church. Oh, when'd you get baptized? I don't see a baptism card, a baptism record. I don't see nothing on the Instagram, nothing. No, I've never been baptized. Name the 10 commandments. Didn't know there was 10. I don't know, I don't know. What'd you do for a living? Oh, no, we don't wanna talk about that. We don't wanna talk about that.

Then how'd you get here? What gave you the right? Who said you could come? The man in the middle cross said I could come. And so here I am, not by my works, not by my merit, not by what I did, but by what Jesus did for me. Can I get about 200 people to shout and clap and celebrate Jesus, Jesus, Jesus? Friend, if there is anything in you, if I was to interview you today, if there was anything in you, and I said, why should you go to heaven? If there's anything in you that says, well, I came to church. I mean, guy, I came to the 1045, took me forever to get here. find a parking space. I mean, that has to count for something. I threw 20 bucks in the offering. I've been a nicer husband. If there's anything in you that is still relying on you, that is called self-righteousness. That is called religion. That is called self-sufficiency. There should only be one name that comes out of your mouth. If I was to ask you, why should you go to heaven? Why should you receive eternal life? And it should be Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. The book of Acts says, there is one name given under heaven by which men can be saved and that name is Jesus. Come on, let's give that name the greatest praise. Clap your hands and celebrate the grace of God. Jesus. And Jesus loved you so much. Number two, that Jesus died for you. Believe that Jesus died for you. Christ died. Why did Christ die? For our sins. Why did Jesus go to the cross? For our sins. Christ died for our sins. First Corinthians 15 3. Christ died for our sins. He died because of us. He died for us. He died as us. Christ died for our sins. Taking on the punishment we deserve. Taking on the wrath we deserve. Taking upon himself the penalty that we, not that he deserved, that we deserve. In our

place, dying on the middle cross. On the day that Jesus died, the guilty was set free and the innocent was condemned. This is the message of Easter. This is the message of the gospel. This is Christianity. That Christ died for our sin. Think about this. God told Adam and Eve at the very beginning, Genesis chapter 2, the very beginning of your Bible. He said, all of this is yours. This whole planet is yours. This whole garden is yours. There is more than enough food. There is more than enough abundance. There is more than enough. It's all, there's more than enough length because that's who God is. He's a God of more than enough. He's a God of generosity. He's a God of abundance. He's not a God of just enough. He's a God of more than. He goes, all of this is yours. Enjoy it. Just, just one thing. There's one tree. It's mine. And that was God's way of saying two things. Number one, I'm holy and I'm righteous and there are some things that will never belong to you. They belong to me. But number two, it was God's way of saying, trust me. What I have given you will be more than enough. You don't need anything beyond me. God said, if you would sin though, if you would eat of that tree, you would surely die. Sure enough, Adam and Eve did what we all do. They grew discontent and ungrateful for the abundance of God and they end up eating from that tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They eat of the tree. The Bible says that their eyes were open. And on that day, did they die physically? No, but they died spiritually. On that day, sin entered the world. Death entered the world. Destruction entered the world. If you could read from Genesis chapter 2 just to Genesis chapter 6, just four chapters, we see death. We see murder. We see rape. We see pain. We see violence. We see hatred. We see so much evil in such a short amount of time because anytime humanity rejects God and the ways of God, it leads to darkness and to destruction. Death entered the world, but Christ died for our sins. He took upon himself what we deserve. What is the payment of sin? Romans 6 23. The wages of sin. The payment of sin. The thing we deserve for our sin. The payment we deserve. You earned it. You worked for it. You earned death. The wages of sin is death. But now notice this. God does not say the wages of sin and death and the

wages of a good Christian moral life is heaven. That's not what he said, huh? He doesn't compare wages to wages because they're not the same. You earn death. You earn hell. You earn wrath. You don't earn heaven. You don't earn life. You don't earn peace. You don't earn joy. You don't earn love. It is a gift of God. Come on. There is a gift of God. It's called grace. It's called mercy. You can't achieve it. You can only receive it. The gift of God is eternal life. And so Jesus died for our sins and on the cross, 2nd Corinthians 5 21, for our sake he made him to be sin. Became sin became a sin offering on the cross Why did he become sin so that we might become the righteousness of God he became that we might become He became sin that we might become righteous as much as Jesus became sin on the cross. We now become righteous by faith as Much as he did not deserve wrath. We do not deserve mercy, but we get it as Much as the cross is real Salvation is real as much as what Jesus experienced was real what we can now experience in Christ is Real to God be the glory He became sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. I want you to catch this We are not talking about I said yes to Jesus and I've got on a path of self-improvement I got on a path of moralism. I needed a little bit of a pick-me-up on Sundays You know, it's probably good for the family to be in church on Sunday. So here we are That is not what I'm talking about. I am NOT talking about a remodel I am talking about a complete revival a complete revolution I'm talking about a change from the inside out that I don't want to do the same. I don't want to talk the same I don't want to walk the same because Jesus changed my Life do I have any saved people? Sanctified people Holy Ghost filled people in the house who have been changed by the blood of Jesus Come on, give him praise today in the house of the Lord. Don't let me shout alone And because he died this is good news, this will sound crazy, but this is good news because he died I can die Yeah, I can die When I said yes to Jesus I now enter into Galatians 2 20 I have been crucified with Christ It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me therefore the life I now live I live by faith in the

Son of God I've been crucified with Christ that old that that alcoholic died that angry person died that that addict died that fear died That insecurity died that racism died that prejudice died that that ego died that pride died that selfishness died That that greed died. Yeah, all that died when I said yes to Jesus and now I've been raised into new life This is why baptism is so important Jamin you just told me the thief on the cross didn't get baptized. Yeah, he didn't he had like three seconds to get saved And then he died You can get baptized and guess what you should not because it saves you but because it's your story Not because it's gonna decide heaven or hell But because it's going to be a part of your testimony that may just decide heaven or hell for your friends and family And we've got water baptism coming up April 18th and friend if you've never gone into the waters of baptism It's it's time To say this in in water baptism, I've been crucified with Christ I've died The the old me is gone and now I've been raised and I like this is not a pool party this is not This is not a Holy Ghost splash zone this is this is me letting the whole world know This is me letting my family know. This is me letting my friends know. This is reminding myself This is me telling God. This is me telling every devil in hell. I am NOT who I was I've died to that old life and I've been raised Into a new life. Can I get a witness? I want to tell you friend if you've never been baptized Hit that QR code tap that seal logo in front of you and sign up But here's the good news lastly Jesus rose again for you See that We don't stay under the water. Come on somebody This is not a death cult religion, this is not this is not just a celebration of death. Oh on the third day Jesus rose And because he rose we rise into newness of life Jesus rose again for you. See this was very hard for the disciples to believe It's kind of it's kind of crazy. If you if you ever read the Gospels Matthew Mark Luke or John You'll you'll see this three and a half years. Jesus is preaching it for three and a half years. He says this. Hey guys I'm gonna die and

Then three days later. I'm gonna rise from the dead and they're like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, whatever Jesus. What are we gonna overthrow Rome? He's like, no, no. No, I'm not doing that. I'm gonna die And then three days later, I'm all get up. No, no. Yeah, what are you gonna establish Jerusalem as the capital city of the world? No, no. No, I'm not. I'm not building an earthly kingdom Which is good for all of us Americans to remember Democrat and Republican. Jesus said, I'm not doing that. I'm actually doing something deep on the inside of you. The kingdom is not out here, it's in here. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna die and then I'm gonna get raised up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever Jesus. Let's go establish it. No, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna die and like Jonah three days in the well, I'm gonna go three days in the earth and then I'm gonna get back up again. And they never believed him. For three and a half years they didn't believe him. And on the day that he's crucified, they all look at me and go, what you doing up there? And he's like, dog, I told you I was gonna die. So much, they were in such denial that when he died, it was custom to honor your friend by anointing the dead body with oil, with perfume to just kind of send them off. And the women, Mary, who we're about to read about, she, she wanted to go and anoint his body, but it ended up being Friday night. The Sabbath had started and under Jewish law, they could not work anymore. So she could not anoint his body on Friday and she could not anoint his body on Saturday for the Sabbath. So now she's waiting for Sunday morning. She's not waiting for Sunday morning because she's expecting a resurrection. She's going to anoint her overzealous friend who did a couple of miracles. He had a good heart, amen, but he just, he was crazy. That's what she thought. Let me prove it to you. She walks into the tomb, he's not there, and she doesn't celebrate and rejoice and go, dad could not hold you. No, she doesn't do that. She goes, they stole his body. Somebody stole my friend. She had no faith. Even when he was gone, she didn't believe. So God finally goes, all right, Michael, Gabriel, get down there. And he sends angels down to go talk to her. And they said, what are you doing here? Luke 24. Why do you look for the living among the dead? Now I'm gonna let y'all shout. This is church right now. I'm gonna let y'all shout. He's not here. Come

on, somebody shout. He has risen. Somebody celebrate. I'm gonna let, I'm gonna let about 500 people have church real quick and just celebrate the goodness and the faithfulness and the mercy and the power of God that Jesus is alive. Jesus is alive. Jesus is alive. Somebody shout hallelujah. Glory to God. You could stand, sit, do cartwheels. I don't care. But aren't we all guilty of that? See, I can't judge Mary because I'm guilty. I'm guilty of looking for the living among the dead. I'm guilty of trying to find the eternal in the temporal. For some of you, your graveyard is addiction. Some of you, your graveyard is the strip club. For others of you, it's the casino. For others of you, it's religion. You put all your faith in what you can do. For others of you, it's the dream that you created of, well, if I make enough and if I get this amount of square feet and if I get this car, if I get that car, if I get a boat, if I can just get me a boat, if I could just get a boat, I'll be. And you know what's crazy, dog? You'll get the boat and you're still you. And you finally get 4,000 square feet and you're still jacked up. And you marry the hot chick and you're still a mess. And y'all finally have a baby. And you're still selfish up here. Why? Because nothing in the temporal can satisfy what only the eternal... I'm talking about peace. I'm talking about joy. I'm talking about love. I'm talking about hope. I'm talking about faith. I'm talking about what that strip cannot offer you, what America cannot offer you, what a man or a woman cannot offer you. What money cannot offer you, what money cannot buy, I've talked about Jesus. Jesus! Jesus! And I'm not saying all those things are wrong. I'm saying there is one thing that satisfies. There's a divine spark in you. God created you. You have a living soul. You're not part of this animal kingdom. You are a part of God's creation and and here's what God put in the in the DNA of every human soul. He put eternity in their hearts. So there's actually something eternal I'm looking for. That's why you... Whatever you think you needed and you get it and you go, was this it? It wasn't Because it was never enough because it was never meant to be enough So I want to tell you that your heart will always be homesick

Till it finds its creator I'm always searching I Get out of that graveyard Get out of those burial grounds and so you're looking for the living. I think that's why you're here I'm here because my wife made me come she don't she can make you do nothing bro. What do you talk about? I Think we're actually here today. I think we're all here today because we're homesick And home has a name and it's Jesus And I think there's just something in us around Christmas and Easter that goes Maybe there's more Hopefully this ain't it Hopefully there's more to life than a nine-to-five. Hopefully there's more to life than an Instagram following Hopefully there's more than life than a than a Friday night at Wherever hopefully there's more than a cheap thrill American dream there is more More has a name He is Jesus and so now he offers you something beautiful revelation 320 my favorite scripture This scripture always brings me back to what really matters Because my life's busy and there's a lot of demands on my life and I Have a very weird life because my faith in Christ and my job are connected. So it's weird So I'm always having to write sermons and write books and write songs and produce and help and minister And so it's so my life my life can get very fuzzy Yeah Sometimes I'm reading the Bible not because I want to know Jesus But because I need another sermon because y'all are showing up again this Sunday and I gotta like, oh my god Too real, but it's true. It's real But I always go back here cuz cuz this is because I remember being 15 27 years ago. I remember being 15 and I remember feeling this I Stand at the door and knock

And if anyone would open that door I will come in this is this is Jesus talking to you I'd love to come in and why does God want to come into our life to Cleanse our life and to clean our life and to change our life and to push out darkness. Yeah, I'll do all that He'll do what he's so patient. He'll do all that. Trust me. I've been in this 27 years I I got shoes older than some of y'all I've been in this long enough now. I'm grown. I Found that he's not in a hurry And your zeal is not maturity Just here. He's so patient to just sit down and go can we have a meal? Because it's like he's so confident in his own character and mercy and grace That he knows that if you would just look at him face to face and hear his voice It would change your life Can we be friends And I go back to that now at 42 Going back to all this time going it's all just knowing Jesus It's just a walk with God it's just friendship with Jesus Has that changed me? Yeah, has that radically Changed how I think and how I act and how I Spend money and oh man, it's done all that but It all just comes back to that And I want to ask do you know Jesus because if you don't know if you don't know Jesus like that I want to give you an opportunity to become a follower of Jesus See before I got saved I knew church. I was born and raised in church. I knew how to act in church. I Knew how to lift my hands at the right part of every song, you know right at the bridge, you know It's like, all right, here we go. I Knew how to say praise the Lord I even knew scripture, but I didn't know God Then I met God You can know God, you can know and love Jesus, and you can know that you are known and loved by Jesus. Only believe.