What is Sin?

This episode of All In with Pastor Jordan Easley has been made possible by the generous support of viewers like you. Welcome to All In with Pastor Jordan Easley. Today's message is about to begin, and we invite you to prepare your heart and mind to hear an inspiring message from God's Word. We hope and pray for God to speak to you today as you seek to live your life all in for Jesus Christ. And now from First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Tennessee, here's Pastor Jordan Easley. You know, I've been in ministry since my kids were born, and just about every Saturday, one of them will ask me, Dad, what are you preaching tomorrow? And since they were a kid, my response has been the same. Every single week, it doesn't matter what the series is, what the text is, every week I'll say, I'm preaching on Jesus and sin. Every week, Dad, what are you preaching on? I'm talking about Jesus, and I'm talking about sin. Every single week. Hey, today we're finishing up the God Defined It series, and you wanna guess on what I'm preaching on? Jesus and sin, y'all, okay, open your Bible. We're gonna be in Romans chapter three. You know, in verse 23, it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. May I ask you a question, who is this talking about? That's talking about all of us, right?

I believe that the Bible makes it abundantly clear that all of us have sinned, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. I've never met a person who claims to be perfect or claims to be without sin. But the longer we live, the more this world tries to convince us that certain things in our culture are no longer sin, even though the Bible clearly defines these things as being sin. For instance, we hear all the time that we shouldn't make a big deal about people having sex before marriage or doing sexual things outside the relationship of marriage because today that's just a part of the dating process. People say, you know, getting drunk isn't that big of a deal because everybody drinks. Or when our world talks about things like gossip or gluttony, when we think about lusting or coveting or telling a little white lie from time to time, we like to downplay what we believe to be little sins, even in our Christian culture. And we make it seem like these little things aren't that big of a deal, even to God. Hey, as we get kicked off today, let me just throw this out there. You ready? Every sin is a big sin to God. This is foundational, but we've got to get this. Every sin is a big sin to God.

And that includes the things you call big sins. That includes the things you consider to be small sins. Every sin is a big deal to God. And we see that to be true going all the way back to the very beginning. Today, we're going to unpack the subject of sin. And hopefully by the end of this message, we'll all understand, not necessarily the world's perspective, but we'll all understand God's perspective when it comes to this important topic in our life. In fact, if you're taking notes today, I'm gonna go ahead and give you a very simple outline that we're gonna follow. And I hope you're writing these things down because if not, you're not gonna remember anything you hear. But our outline today, just to give you the answers to the test, we're gonna look at the root of sin, the response of sin, the fruit of sin, and the truth about sin. That's our pathway today. That's what we're gonna look at. And we're gonna begin our topic today on the root of sin. Let me ask you, where did sin begin? Most people believe sin originated in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3,

when Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command. But when you do a deep dive in discovering the true root of sin, you're gonna notice that sin actually originated in heaven. You see, before sin entered humanity, it began with Satan, otherwise known as Lucifer. Lucifer was a beautiful, powerful angel who became prideful and chose to rebel against God. You can read about that in Isaiah chapter 14 or Ezekiel chapter 28. But those passages show how Satan desired to exalt himself above God and then responded in rebellion against God. And as a result, sin was born and Satan was kicked out of heaven. Well, next you see Satan where? In the form of a serpent. He's hanging out in a place called the Garden of Eden and he's tempting a man and a woman named Adam and Eve telling him, you should turn your back on God. He tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By the way, that was the one tree that God told him that you should avoid at all costs. But what did she do? Well, she ate of the tree and so did Adam. And when they chose to disobey God The sin that originated with Satan in heaven was born into the hearts of humans here on the earth

Maybe you're wondering What does Adam and Eve sin have to do with me? I mean, why are we being punished for something that they did so long ago? And that's a great question. A lot of people wonder that Romans 5 kind of gives us a pretty good answer It says just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin in this way death spread to all people because all sin So what does that verse tell you and I it says that sin is all of our problem? Sin is our root problem. It is our foundational Problem. I read a story this week about a man who owned a beautiful pristine White house Everything was perfect And this guy was extremely proud of how perfect and spotless his home really was because it was flawless everywhere You'd look it was perfection But then one day he was walking around his home and he noticed that there was a little crack in one of the corners And because this house was so perfect. It really bothered him. So he immediately went to his basement He grabbed a some paint and a brush and he he covered up that crack so that his home would look perfect again And you know what it did After he covered the crack it was perfect. Once again, it was spotless. It was flawless at least for a little while a Couple weeks later the crack reappeared But this time the crack was even bigger and it was more noticeable and the man was upset because he wanted it to be Perfect so he picked up the phone He called a contractor and he said I need you to come tell me what my problem is the contractor showed up evaluated everything and The contractor looked at him at the conclusion of their meeting and said this sir Your problem is not the crack in the wall

Your problem is the foundation under your feet He said until you fix the foundation that crack will continue coming back Hey, I think most of us have the ability to look at our own lives and to identify the cracks and the flaws That shouldn't be there We all have what I want to call a a cosmetic crack in our life, right? And we inherently know the difference between right and wrong and and when we cross that line There's something inside of us that says man. I really shouldn't have said that I Really shouldn't have done that Like I knew the second I did that that was out of bounds I I crossed the line I did something or said something that I shouldn't say and when that happens our tendency a Lot of times it's just to do our best to to cover up those cosmetic cracks We do our best to modify our behavior or change our life or do some things different in order to be a better person But what I want us to see is until we fix or address the foundational problem of our sin We are never going to truly experience freedom from our sin our Foundational problem all of us y'all is sin Every single one of us our foundational problem is sin What did we just read in Romans 3 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? Think about this what started as one single human decision from Adam and Eve Became the world's single greatest problem Do you get that? you see their sinful decision led to sin becoming a part of human nature and Today every human being that is born is born into sin In fact the psalmist said that in Psalm 51 in Psalm 51 5 the psalmist said indeed I was guilty when When I was born, I was sinful when when my mother conceived me that's going way back y'all Since your mom conceived you the Bible says you've been sinful That was true in his life and that's been true in the life of every single human being in the history of time

It's the root of sin. It affects all of us, but now let's look at the response of sin See when God created Adam and Eve, he created human beings as being perfect. We were we were created to be sin free they like us were created in the image of God and Humans were formed with a heart like God But when the snake entered the garden humanity experienced something powerful for the very first time, you know what that was temptation For the first time we see temptation That's what Genesis chapter 3 is all about verse 1 says the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God has made In fact, it talks about this snake talking to Eve and lying about God's instructions. He convinced her that there would be no consequences if she just turned her back on God and did what he wanted her to do. He whispered in her ear and he questioned God's authority and he worked hard to convince her that there is something out there, something possible for you that is even greater than God himself. And how did she respond? She took the bait. Her response to that temptation began the ripple effect of sin that we continue to experience even today. Are you tempted today? All of us are. But you know what it says in James 1? It says, no one undergoing a trial should say I'm being tempted by God since God is not tempted by evil

and he himself doesn't tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. Temptation will always lead us to a decision, always. And those decisions according to scripture are going to lead you either to life or they're gonna lead you to death. But we don't think about that when we're being tempted, do we? Most of us aren't thinking, oh, this is a life or death situation because most of the time it doesn't seem like it is. When we're being tempted, what are we thinking? We're thinking, hey, what do I wanna do? What seems right in the moment? What sounds fun? That looks awesome. And we're just kind of moving. But let me ask you this. What frame of mind are you in most of the time when you're making those decisions? We read this verse a couple of weeks ago in Colossians 3 that said, set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. But far too often, our minds are focused on temporary things instead of eternal things. And for those reasons, we oftentimes let the power of temptation

pull us across the line for sinfulness. Hey, what determines the line for sinfulness, by the way? I mean, have you ever wondered that? Because like we've already seen, the world has a different answer to that question than your Bible does. Who determines if something is a sin or not? Answer? God does, y'all. Y'all should have known the answer to that one. God determines if something is a sin or not. Let me just say, at the end of this series, you should know the world does not determine if something is a sin or not. The world doesn't determine what's right and what's wrong. God does. Now, here's what we need to understand. God didn't design sin, but God is the one who defines sin. And how does he define it? How does God determine if something is a sin or not? I'm gonna give you two things, but number one is the most important. God's measuring stick for sin is his word, his word. In Isaiah 40, verse eight, it says, the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains, say this with me, forever. Hey, our God says something about his word. He also says something about himself. In that next verse, I want you to see this.

The Lord says that he himself, I the Lord, have not changed. You know what that means? It means our God is unchangeable, big point, and the word of God is unchangeable. God is unchangeable, his word is unchangeable, which ultimately means God's measuring stick for sin does not change, even when culture disagrees. Hey, in the Bible, God gives us several what I wanna call black and white sins, where he makes himself abundantly clear. It's when you read the Bible and it says, and God says, this is wrong, or that is wrong. And if you do these things, you're stepping into sin, but you're also stepping in rebellion away from me. The 10 commandments would be a great example of a black and white sin. He said, you shall not steal. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not take my name in vain or worship false gods or bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's stuff, right? We all know the 10 commandments. The Lord made himself abundantly clear when he said those things. He said, these are black and white directives from God to us, which means if I take something that doesn't belong to me today, if I leave church and go murder someone today, if I fail to keep the Sabbath holy today, I don't have to wonder, is this sin or is this not sin?

No, I know it's sin. There's no conversation to have because God's word makes it abundantly clear when those things are sin. Not in Galatians chapter 5. We see more black and white sins. He says in verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are obvious Then he lists them sexual immorality moral impurity promiscuity idolatry sorcery hatred strife jealousy outburst of anger selfish ambitions dissensions factions in the Enviness drunkenness carousing or anything similar He said I'm warning you about these things as I've warned you before That those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. He's like get your pen out man. Write it down I want to make this abundantly clear and he does he says these Sins the works of the flesh are are what what does he say? they're obvious and And he said if you practice these things as Lifestyle sins. I don't want you to read that and be like, oh, no, I got drunk in middle school. I'm in trouble That's not what he's talking about. He's saying if you choose lifestyle sins over surrendering to a Savior You are stepping out of obedience to God and you're gonna miss out on the kingdom of God He makes it abundantly clear black and white and Leviticus chapter 20 We see some more black and white sins in those passages. He talks about the sin of adultery. He talks about the sin of Homosexuality he talks about the sin of bestiality that chat chapter by the way talks about some crazy stuff You want to read some wild stuff Leviticus chapter 20 gets real specific, but God makes himself abundantly clear First Corinthians chapter 6 is another one of those passages. He said don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom? Do not be deceived. No sexually immoral people idolaters Adulterers males who have sex with males no thieves greedy people drunkards verbally abusive people or swindlers Will inherit the kingdom of God once again You read passages like that and you don't have to wonder how does God look at this?

You don't have to wonder is this a sin or is this not a sin because God makes the line for sin Very very clear But let me ask you another question. Are you ready? You hanging with me? Say amen Everybody's still with me. What do you do? And how do you approach things? When the line for sin isn't as clear When it's a little bit fuzzy when it's a little bit gray. It's not black and white Let me ask you this question if you were to smoke a pack of cigarettes every day of your life Would you say that smoking those cigarettes every single day is a sin or not? Yes, or no. How many of you would say? Yes, I would call that a sin raise your hand How many of you would say no, it's not a sin. How many of you are scared to raise your hand in church? Chickens I Asked a group of people that same question today. I kind of did my research and you know what I found It was unanimous across the board a hundred percent of the people I asked the question Said yes, that would be a sin because our bodies according to Scripture are the temple of the Holy Spirit and when you smoke cigarettes Knowing that that's harmful for your body You're actually choosing to harm the temple of God and I was like, yeah, I would agree with that I think that's a great observation a great perspective, but the Bible doesn't say don't smoke cigarettes It's not a black and white sin. There's kind of some gray area But as soon as they said, yeah, it's a sin. I I thought to myself and I mentioned to them I said, you know in the 1950s My grandparents smoked like chimneys I'm talking about chimneys and they weren't smoking the weak stuff that y'all are smoking today They weren't hitting those nicotine vapes and smoking Marlboro You know, whatever 100s with the long filters this one. No, they were they were rolling their own in the 50s Can I get an amen from some of you? No, they were they were rolling their own in the 50s, can I get an amen from somebody who smoked in the 50s Yeah, y'all were smoking palm all unfiltered y'all walking around like you were in grease lightning. I understand Where you're coming from? Okay, i've seen the movies But the truth is back then i'm talking about in the 1950s everybody smoked

I mean you look around everybody in that culture smoked and nobody thought for a second in the 1950s that smoking was sinful Probably because they didn't have the information that we have today They didn't have the data That we have today related to to the cause or the effects of tobacco usage They didn't have a surgeon general's warning stating that cigarettes would cause cancer. In fact, that didn't happen until 1966 So I guess my question is if smoking wasn't a sin 75 years ago But we would consider it to be a sin today Then when did smoking actually become a sin? Like, when did we cross that line of becoming sinful? And does the new information or the new data make that a sin? Did the surgeon general determine when that became a sin or not? Like, where is the line for sin? You tracking with me? Not everybody smokes. Let me ask you this. How many of you eat food? Anybody not eat food? Now, all of us eat food, right, every single day. We eat breakfast, we eat lunch, we eat dinner. Some of us eat a lot of snacks in between. Eating food is not a sin. It's a requirement for life. But here's where this gets interesting. When you look at the Bible, the Bible says that eating food can become a sin if we eat too much. I read that verse this week, Proverbs 23, 20, don't associate with those who drink too much wine or with those who gorge themselves on meat. For the drunkard and the glutton will become poor and grogginess will clothe them in rags. So once again, eating food is not a sin. If I decide to leave church today and have a rack of ribs, I don't believe that's a sin.

I believe that sounds delicious, but I don't believe that sounds like sin. But what is a sin? Would it be a sin if I ate two racks of ribs? Would it be a sin if I threw in a whole bowl of macaroni and cheese and some cornbread and some cobbler for dessert? I mean, at what point would that become a sin? Like what I'm saying, where's the line? Where's the line? Here's what I want us to see today. When the line for sin is very clear, God's measuring stick for sin is the word, period. But when God's measuring stick for sin isn't as clearly defined, God's measuring stick for sin is our heart in conjunction with the word. It's not our heart by itself. It's our heart in conjunction with what we read in the word of God, the principles of God's word. So let me tell you what this doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that you and I get to determine in our heart what's right and what's wrong. It means that sin is sometimes determined not by your actions, but by your attitude, by your motivation, by your agenda. It's determined by your heart. You get it? You see, the Bible says that God is paying attention to your actions, which is your doing, but he evaluates your life primarily based on your heart, which is your being. You read about this in Matthew chapter five, it kind of talks about both your being and your doing. In fact, in verse 29, it says, if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right eye causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than your whole body to go into hell. I'm going to be honest. When I read that as a kid, that was a terrifying scripture for me. And there were a lot of times I read that and I thought, man, God is really commanding us to have some kind of radical amputation of everything that causes us to sin or to stumble. And I'm looking around wondering why all of us have our appendages, right? I'm like, why aren't we cutting more things off? Why are all these people in church who claim to be sinners walking around with eyes and hands and ears and all the things? But I finally understood it when I backed up a couple of verses and I noticed that right before Jesus said that, he mentioned one more part of the body. In fact, let me read that in verse 27. He said, you've heard it say that do not commit adultery, but I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her, where? In his heart. See, one of Jesus's main purposes in preaching the Sermon on the Mount was to connect what we do with who we are. One of his main purposes was to connect our actions and our life to our heart. You see, our actions are like fruit in the Bible. And when you serve or choose not to serve, it's not necessarily about your servanthood. No, there's something that reveals something about your heart when you choose to serve or not. When you choose to give or you refuse to give, it's not necessarily about how much you're giving and how you're being a blessing. No. When you give, your actions related to generosity are a reflection of what's in your heart. In Matthew chapter 15, verse 18, it says, even the words. that you speak come directly from your heart.

So it's not necessarily about what you say, it's why you say it. It's who you really are. Do you get this? The fruit of your life grows from the tree of your heart, and your actions become fruit hanging off of branches that are telling the truth about who you are. I heard one of my pastor buddies breaking this down way better than I ever could. He said it this way, he said, imagine that there's a man, he's a lustful man, and this lustful man has touched a woman inappropriately. When he realized that and felt convicted of that sin, what did he do? He chopped his hand off so that he wouldn't do that ever again. But then he realized that he can still lust with his eyes. Even with no hands, he can lust with his eyes, so what does he do next? He gouges out both of his eyes. But then he realizes I can still say lustful things with my words, and inappropriate things with my words, and so what does he do? He cuts out his tongue. And so now he's there with no tongue, and he's there with no hands, and he's there with no eyes, and he realizes I can still listen to sinful things that are going to stir up lust in my heart. And so what does he do? He takes action and he cuts off both of his ears, and now he's standing there with no eyes, and no ears, and no hands, and he realizes even after all of that, I'm still incapable of cutting off the part of myself that causes me to sin. My buddy said, imagine that's the moment that Jesus steps up, and he looks at this man and he said, in order to do what you're wanting to do, you're going to have to cut out your heart, and I can do that for you. In Ezekiel chapter 36, God prophesied saying that someday I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you, but then he said, I will remove your heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh. That's what Jesus wants to do for us.

And you know what? He's the only one who can. That's the gospel. When we responded in sin, Jesus responded with sacrifice. It says in 2 Corinthians 5, he made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Listen, God didn't have to send his son, but he did. He did it for you, to die in your place, to eliminate your greatest problem called sin. When we say yes to Jesus, in the same way Jesus says yes to us, our old heart is removed, and it's replaced with a new heart that's 100% devoted to him. That's Christianity. Christianity isn't about behavior modification, it's about heart transformation. You're not going to become a better version of yourself until one day you look up and you're like, oh dude, I look like Jesus. That's how it happens. Listen, that process is called sanctification. It begins with a heart transplant. It's when you say, hey Jesus, take out my old heart, give me a new one. When our hearts are transformed by Christ, that's what changes everything, including your desire to sin. Listen, you're always going to have temptation in your life, but how you look at the line of sin will tell you the truth about your heart. You see, I believe there's three groups of people in every single church. When it comes to how do you look at the line for sin, there's the person that avoids the line at all costs. Those are people that say, hey, I have no desire to sin and I'm running away from sin because my heart's been changed by God. God's heart doesn't need to pursue things that are unholy. But then you also have another group of people, and those are the ones who say, I'm going to get as close to the line as possible.

That's my kid when he was little. Whatever the line is, he's going to just go right up next to that line. He's not going to cross it. He's definitely not going to be hanging out over here. He's going to get as close to the line as possible. But a lot of us, even as adults, we do that with sinful things. We get close to that line and we're trying to teeter between the world and the Lord. We're trying to experience the best of both worlds and the Lord saying, hey, I want you to pursue holiness and I want you to flee sin, but we're hanging out on that line trying to be in both worlds at the same time. You got another group of people, and those are those who we cross the line and we never look back. I'll say those are the folks in the room who are living in rebellion and you've chosen to the devil's way over God's way and you haven't died to your old nature. You're still living in that old nature. You don't have a new heart. You still have that same old heart pursuing the same old things, but the Bible says when God changes our heart, he changes the way we approach the line for sin. We see this play out. out when it comes to sexual sin all the time. The Bible's very black and white with sexual sin. First Corinthians 6, flee sexual immorality. First Thessalonians 4, keep away from sexual immorality, right? It's like black and white sin, this is what you should do. But how do we respond when it comes to sexual sin? Three groups. We flee from the line because of our conviction. We flirt with the line because we've got some confusion. Or we cross the line in all out rebellion. When God gives us a new heart, that heart transformation should bring a whole new perspective.

When we love the Son of God, when we're being convicted by the Spirit of God, we ought to begin looking at our sin the same way God looks at our sin. Let me tell you, when you start looking at the sin in your life the same way God looks at the sin in your life, you'll start fleeing from that sin the same way he tells you to flee from it. The root of our sin. The response to our sin. Real quickly, I want to give you the fruit of our sin. The fruit of our sin. The Bible says if you don't kill the root of sin, you will eventually experience the fruit of sin. What did we just read in James 1? But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. What is the fruit of sin? Can I give you four things the Bible says? Number one, spiritual death. Romans 6.23 says, for the wages of sin is death. That word wages, it refers to something that we earn or deserve. It's like minimum wage. What do you earn because of your sin? The Bible says you earn spiritual death. In other words, if you don't kill your sin, your sin will kill you, and this will end. This story will end in spiritual death, which is also something called separation from God. Isaiah 59.2 says, but your iniquities are separating you from God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen. Have you ever thought about that? Like unaddressed, unconfessed sin in my life has the ability to build a wall between me and God where now even when I cry out to God, he will not listen because that wall of sin

is blocking me. Have you ever realized that? Unaddressed, unconfessed sin in your life blocks the ear of God where you no longer have access the way that God built you to have access. Not only do we have separation from God, there's also bondage to sin. This is a major fruit. John 8.34, Jesus said, truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. That means when we have sin in our life, and it's unaddressed, unconfessed, we have not repented, we have not turned to Jesus, it's like putting a ball and chain around your leg. When you have a ball and chain, and you are a slave to your sin, it is impossible for you to run the race God called you to run. You cannot be maximized in this race called life if you are a slave to the sin in your life. He said, you will experience bondage because of your sin, which prevents freedom in your life. Let me give you a fourth one, you ready? One of the fruits is this, judgment and eternal consequences. In Matthew chapter 25 it says, and they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. We have an option here. There is a fork in the road, and he says, how you address the sin in your life will determine which path you take for all eternity. That's the fruit of sin. Last but not least, I want to show you the truth about sin. Sin is universal. I'm going to give you five things right here, and this applies to every one of us. Sin is universal. We just read that in Romans 3, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Every single one of us are guilty as charged.

Romans 3 verse 10 says, there is no one righteous, not even one. Sin is universal, but it's also personal. This isn't just a lump us all together, we are all sinners, and so that's just the boat that we're in. No, it's a personal thing between us and the Lord. Psalm 51 verse 4 says, against you, you alone I have sinned and done this in your evil side. You know what that tells me? No one's responsible for my sin except for me. I can't blame anybody else for my greatest problem today because it's a personal problem, but not only is it a personal problem, the Bible says it is also a spiritual problem. It's a spiritual problem because sin is the one thing that separates me from God. Here's the thing that we've got to know about spiritual problems. Are you ready? We don't have the ability to fix spiritual problems with practical solutions. Only a spiritual being has the ability to create spiritual solutions, which means without Jesus there is nothing that we can do. we can do to fix our world's greatest problem. It's a personal problem. It's also a spiritual problem. But the fourth one, sin is punishable. It's universal, it's personal, it's spiritual, but it's punishable. I think about how the Lord responded to the people in Leviticus 26. He said, but if after these things you will not obey me, I will proceed to discipline you seven times for your sins. In Psalm 145, the Lord guards all those who love him, it says, but he destroys all the wicked. In Ezekiel 18.20, it says the person who sins is the one who will die.

That verse goes on to say the wickedness of the wicked person will be on him. Sin is punishable. But you wanna hear the good news? Sin is redeemable. It's redeemable. John 3.17 says, for God did not send his son to condemn the world. He came to save the world through Jesus. In 1 Peter, we read another verse that says, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that having died to sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. In 1 John 1.9, it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and he is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Listen, the word of God is very clear. We were all born with a heart problem. But God's word reminds us that's why Jesus had to come. Jesus didn't come to refurbish your heart. He came to replace your heart. He didn't come to teach you how to be a better person or a better version of yourself. He came to kill you. He came to cut out your heart and to replace it with something new. Hey, let me ask you a question. Have you experienced a spiritual heart transplant in your own life? Can you go to the day and the time

where your old heart was cut out and Jesus replaced it with a new heart? I didn't ask, has there been a time where Jesus convicted you of sin and you went through a process of becoming a better person? No, I'm saying, can you take me to the time and the place where the old you died? And Jesus gave you a brand new life. Because that, according to scripture, is salvation. That is a picture of transformation. It's a picture of what God requires of us as we are becoming the person he created us to be. Today, if you've never given your heart to Jesus, I would love to introduce you to the God who changed my life. In fact, in just a moment, we're gonna leave through these doors. But if God is leading you to a spiritual decision where you finally experience this heart transformation, we'd love to talk to you today, right after this service. Lord, today, thank you for loving us. Thank you for including us in your church and giving us the opportunity to hear your word. God, I pray that we would not let this land on deaf ears. We would respond to your word and that we would respond in a way that's pleasing to your heart. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, a cup of water can be the difference

between life and death. Well, this month I got to walk where the need for water is greatest. While we were there, we were preaching and we were worshiping, and we were praying with thousands of believers at the Pefekembo Church. We held children in an orphanage that we support who have almost nothing. We sat with widows who walk miles a day just to find water that isn't clean. But on this trip, we also celebrated something a little bit different, a brand new water well in the Kibera slum, commissioned with our partners that together we church, First Baptist Cleveland and Swahiba Networks. And together we joined forces to bring this clean water to families who have literally never had clean water in their lives. You know, in John four, Jesus said, whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. That's the water that saves souls. But he also calls us as believers to give a cup of water in his name. And that's the water that saves lives. To every all in partner who gave so that this well could exist, let me just say thank you.

Today, people are drinking fresh water, clean water, because you said yes. But there's more wells to dig, more villages that are waiting, more lives to save. And so my question to you is, will you continue to go all in with us? If so, follow the prompts on the screen right now to partner with All In today. We never want to end our broadcast without giving you the opportunity to know Jesus as your personal Lord and savior. TO MAKE THE DECISION TO TRUST JESUS AND WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO FOLLOW JESUS GET IN TOUCH WITH ME RIGHT NOW. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN SO THAT WE CAN PRAY FOR YOU AND ALSO PUT INFORMATION IN YOUR HANDS RIGHT AWAY. TODAY WE CELEBRATE YOUR DECISION AND LOOK FORWARD TO BEING A PART OF YOUR PERSONAL JOURNEY OF GOING ALL IN WITH JESUS CHRIST. THIS EPISODE OF ALL IN WITH PASTOR JORDAN EASLEY HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE BY THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF VIEWERS LIKE YOU. WE HOPE TODAY'S MESSAGE ENCOURAGES YOU AS YOU STRIVE TO LIVE YOUR LIFE FULLY COMMITTED TO JESUS CHRIST.