From Mercy To Worship

All right, howdy. I'm gonna always like that. I know what you're thinking. New suit, coat, new haircut. Gosh, Bill, you're looking awfully Baptist this morning. I know. I came in and somebody had one person say, You look like your Secret Service. Another one said, You look like your FBI.

I'm going, That's the look I was going for. All right, go over to Romans 12:1. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you that we can be here and we can open a book that is life-changing. Open a book that is more than just mere words, but is backed by divine power.

A book that's been authored by you. And Lord, we don't take this lightly. Paul said he went to the Corinthians with fear and trembling. And Lord, I can relate to that, Lord. We understand that we're not sufficient for these things. That unless you get involved, unless you help, Lord, nothing's going to happen this morning.

So, Lord, we ask you to help. We ask you to be here. We ask you to anoint the words that are spoken and help the people understand. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, Romans 12:1, let's go ahead and read that. It says, Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, or as some translations say, you might have one.

It says, In view of God's mercy, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Now, that's all we're going to do today. In the bulletin, it says Romans 12:1 and 2. But as I was studying, you know, if you study, my whole problem is, what do I get rid of?

I've got too much. As I was going through it, I thought, I can never do two verses. So it's going to be just that. But there are a handful of verses I call life verses for me. I don't know. You may have the same kind of thing. Those verses that really shape your Christianity and how you think.

One is Matthew 6:33. It says this, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things. I mean, everything you need for life will be added to you. I like that. It's simple. You know, many mornings I start out my day with that passage and say, Lord, today I'm going to do what I'm responsible to do.

I'm going to seek you first. I'm going to seek your kingdom first. Then I'm going to trust you to do what you're responsible to do, everything else. See, if I put him first, everything starts to fall in place, doesn't it? Another one is Romans 12.1, the passage we're in today.

It answers the question: how do I become a more surrendered worship? Matthew 6.33 answers the question, what am I responsible for? Put God first, and everything will fall in place. Romans 12.1 is, how do I become a worshiper? How do I fall in love with Jesus Christ so that my service to him is not a drudgery, but it's a delight?

Romans 12.1 answers that. I become a more surrendered worship. Paul says, not by looking at me and my Performance, not by even trying harder. It happens when I behold the mercies of God. See, the more clearly I see how good He's been to me, the more I will want to give myself to Him as an act of worship.

So, where do we start with all this? Well, I think we should follow the advice of the king in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventure in Wonderland. He said this very wise: He said, Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end, then stop. Amen. So, that's what we're going to do this morning.

So, what is the beginning of what I want to get across? Well, it's beholding the mercies of God. Look again at Romans 12:1. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, or in view of God's mercy, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

So, the first word, therefore, whenever you see therefore, always ask, what is it therefore? And what it does is it points back. It's a bridge word that points back to what happened before, what Paul wrote before. In this case, it's the first 11 chapters of Romans. What Paul refers to as the amazing mercies of God.

How good he's been to us. Mercy and election and calling and justification. Adoption and sanctification, mercy seen in divine patience, forgiveness in the gift of the Spirit, mercy in God preserving the believer, and mercy in the promise of future glory. Mercy, mercy, mercy, the goodness of God on display.

Now, I love what the English hymn writer Frances Ridley Havergal said. This is one of my favorite quotes of all time. She said, If I could write as I would about the goodness of God to me, the ink would boil in my pen. Isn't that good? I think that is Romans 11.

I wonder if the ink boiled as Paul was writing it. And the order matters here. We have 11 chapters of mercy, and then finally, after all of that, now this is how you are to live in light of that. See, the Christian life always begins with God, doesn't it?

Not us. We respond to Him, not the other way around. We love Him because He first loved us, that's 1 John 4:19. We came to Christ because the Father drew us, that's John 6:44. We even work out our salvation because God first works in us to will and to do.

That's Philippians 2:13. And so, Christian behavior is always a response to what God has initiated. So, Paul doesn't say here, you know what, surrender to God so that he will become. More merciful to you, so that he will love you, so that he will accept you. No, he says, Because, because you've seen how merciful God has been to you, the reasonable, the logical response is for you to surrender.

It's built off of what God has done on our behalf. So, in Romans 12:1, it is a response to his goodness in our life seen in the first 11 chapters. Now, I want to stop right here. As I was studying this, I thought this would be a good place to stop and do some application.

In light of this, I want to encourage you to read your Bible with fresh eyes, looking for God's love, looking for his kindness, looking for his mercy towards you, looking at what he has done for you. See, we say the Bible is God's love letter to his people.

We say that the Bible is God's love letter to his people. So, let me say this: read it that way. Read it like it is a love letter. Don't read scripture only looking for another command to obey. It's so easy to read the Bible and make the focus about ourselves, isn't it?

We fixate on our failures, our spiritual performance, and what we're doing for God instead of what God has done for us. But Paul, wanting to stir up the reader to live fully for God, he says this. You know, I'm not going to begin with what you do. I want to begin with what God has done for you.

Why? Because the Holy Spirit will take truth like that and he will change you. The more you see the beauty of Christ, the more you'll love him. The more you love him, the more you'll obey him. And it will be an obedience that is characterized by worship, not just duty.

Right? I love what Martin Luther said, you know, showing the difference in focusing on us and on Christ, because we all have that problem of turning our eyes inward, don't we? How am I doing? How am I doing when it comes to living out the commands in the Bible?

How, me, me, me, and the Bible is primarily about God. Listen to what Martin Luther said. He said, when I look at myself, I do not see how I can be saved. But when I look at Christ, I do not see how I can be lost. Let me read that one again.

That one's too good for only one time. When I look at myself, I do not see how I can be saved. When I look at Christ, I do not see how I can be lost. Oh, Brother Martin, amen, right? When I look at myself, focus on me. You know what?

I lose hope. You want to get depressed? Just look at you. Look, I'm not that impressive, and I know I'm not impressive. When I look at me, I see my weakness, my failure is magnified, and the beauty of Christianity is obscured. But when I look to Christ, His perfect life, His finished work, His unchanging love, I see how glorious Christianity is, and I thrill at the truth that I am a part of it, that God has called me into something that glorious.

How incredible, brothers and sisters, it is to be a recipient of God's work in your life. If I'm only looking at myself, it creates despair. But when I look at Christ, then that despair is chased away. I am filled with hope. I know how secure I am in the grip of his love.

So read your Bible, looking for God's mercy revealed in Christ. And as you do, the Holy Spirit will awaken greater love, gratitude, and reverence in your heart. And those growing affections will produce exactly what Paul wants it to produce in Romans 12:1: a glad surrender, a willing surrender, a joy-filled surrender to God.

Well, it leads us to the next point then. Present yourselves as a living sacrifice. Look at verse 1 again. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, or in view of God's mercy, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God. So, Paul's drawing on the imagery of the Old Testament sacrificial system here.

In the old covenant, the worshipper would come and he would present an animal as an offering, and that animal would be wholly devoted to God. Now, Paul says, because of Christ, God no longer asks us for a dead animal. He calls us now to devote ourselves to him, to yield to him and his purposes as living sacrifices.

And he says, present your bodies. See, Christianity is not merely an inward feeling, a private belief, or an invisible devotion. We worship God with all that we are, right? We worship God with our eyes, what we look at, with our mouths, what we say. Our words are to be pure, right?

Watch out for gossip. We worship him with our hands, feet, sexuality, energy, possessions, schedules, relationships, work, and plans. All of it. It includes what we do with our money, how we respond when offended, and what we do when we're away from everybody. Maybe on vacation, are you still a holy?

When you're on vacation and you think, oh, nobody can see me now. We still worship Him there. See, being a living sacrifice is offering the entirety of who we are. It is a decisive surrender that is to be lived out continually at all times, wherever we are. It's a call to deny ourselves, it's a call to take up our cross daily and to follow Christ.

But while this call to self-denial is certainly a part of discipleship, in light of Romans 12:1, I think we've got to be careful to understand it correctly. Biblical self-denial is never deprivation for deprivation's sake. God is not glorified by empty sacrifice or joyless religion, is he? That doesn't bring any glory to God.

Looks like you're miserable. But sometimes self-denial is presented as though it were the essence of Christianity. I've seen teachers seem like that's all they want to talk about: die to self, self-denial. It's what I termed, as I was studying this, a joyless negative, a divine don't to spiritual happiness.

Did you just smile? Don't denying ourselves is part of the Christian life, but it's not the center of it, is it? The center of Christianity is Christ himself, knowing him. And what did he say? He didn't say, I've come to make your life as boring as possible. What he did say is, I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.

What he did say in John 15, 11, these things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. That's what God wants for you. Fullness of joy and fullness of life. And that fullness of life is life with life in it.

See, we're not just waiting for eternity. In glory, life's going to be good. No, Jesus says, I want you to have rich, satisfying, contented life now here on earth. John Blanchard said this, we are meant to enjoy our salvation, not endure it. The great theologian Augustine said this, a Christian ought to be an alleluia from head to toe.

And if you understand what Romans 1 through 11 is saying, that will be the result of that. Joy. Excited about Christ. So we've seen because of the overwhelming beauty of God's mercy toward us in Christ, our reasonable response is to Surrender, to present ourselves as a living sacrifice.

Next, Paul goes on to speak of the character of that sacrifice, that living sacrifice, what our surrender is to be like. In this section, I've called Make All of Life an Act of Worship. If you get this, this will really help you. Look at verse 1 again. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship, or your translation, if it's not the NASB, may say, This is your true and proper worship.

Now, this gives us further insight to what worship is. See, I think we can kind of reduce worship down to what we do on Sunday morning in church. Well, we go and we sing four or five songs, and then somebody gets up and prays, and somebody gets up and yells around at us for 40 minutes, and then we go home.

That hour and a half, that's our worship. But what he's saying here is our worship doesn't end when we walk out those doors and go to lunch. Our worship continues at lunch, doesn't it? It continues at the restaurant if we go out to eat. It continues in our home, it continues in our neighborhoods, in our workplace, in our school.

It is the entirety of the life being offered to God. As a living sacrifice, wholly devoted to him. Now, this perspective helps, it's helped me so much in how I live, and I think it can help you too. Let me give you some examples here. Think about something as ordinary as being interrupted in your plans.

I mean, I don't like that. I don't know about you. You might be one of those kind of people. I'm such a people person. Yeah, whatever. It doesn't matter. I'm glad you're here. I don't like being interrupted in my plans. But you know what? When you're busy, you're focused, and somebody needs your time, your help, or your attention.

I mean, immediately the flesh can start whining. Can't this wait? Can't you find somebody else? I was doing something important. We become irritated. Hey, I've got my to-do list, and you're not on it. Now, if all I tell myself is this, Bill, you know what? You need to be more patient.

You need to be a better servant. That may manage to make some change for a while. You know, I may end up helping, but I'll still be battling the selfishness of the flesh. So I'll do it with a lousy attitude. But everything changes if I can just stop and remember this is about worship.

Lord, you have been endlessly patient with me. Thank you for serving me so faithfully. Thank you for your mercy. I choose now to serve this person as an act of worship to you. That helps. Now I'm not merely forcing myself to be patient. I'm responding to my Savior.

I'm not simply saying no to my flesh. I'm saying yes to Christ because of his goodness to me. And now I'll do that same act with a great attitude, with a joyful attitude. Okay, Lord, I'm going to worship you now. I'm going to worship you through doing this.

Or think about criticism. Has anybody ever criticized you? Someone says something I think is unfair to me. Man, what happens? My flesh rises up, wants to defend itself. It makes me want to strike back. Oh, yeah, well, you're stupid. That's how good I am at striking back right there.

But instead of allowing my flesh to dominate me, I can choose to use that. Now, listen to this. I can choose to use that as an opportunity to. Grow to put my bratty flesh in its place. And my flesh is a brat, and so is yours. It's the same as it was before you were saved.

Same flesh. And we can say something like this: Lord, this is nothing compared to what I've done to you, and you forgave me. I am a recipient of incredible mercy. Help me to respond in a way that honors you. Help me to use this as an opportunity to grow, to control my flesh, and choose worship rather than disobedience.

I choose to worship you because of what you've done for me. See, I'm no longer trying to control my anger by sheer willpower. I'm responding to Christ in worship because I have first experienced grace. And this is such a powerful weapon in the battle against temptation of all kinds.

Our flesh is under a constant barrage from this world, being tempted by all kinds of things. This environment is toxic, isn't it? Sinful images come at us, worldly values and ambitions, worldly desires. I mean, it's just a constant parade before us. Grace doesn't eliminate effort. I'm still called to put my flesh, those things of the flesh, to death.

But sheer willpower, I don't know about you, you may be one of these guys that go, my willpower is amazing. But for me at least, sheer willpower is not enough to last over the long haul. You know why? Because of that relentless bombardment of temptation. It never gives up.

It never goes away. And eventually it wears us down. And we'll give in. I'm telling you, this is a better way than I'm talking about. It's such a powerful weapon in the battle against temptation of any kind. When our flesh is under that constant barrage, you know what?

Romans 12, 1 gives us a key to this fight. Gaze upon Christ and what he's done. The more you do that, the more you'll fall in love with him. And the uglier sin will become. Have you noticed that? When you're close to God, when you're close to Jesus, and your eyes are full of him, you're gazing upon him.

I mean, the world loses its attraction, doesn't it? That's what Paul's saying here. Be so filled with Christ. Be so in love with him that the world loses its attraction. So do not fight sin by concentrating on faith. Fighting sin. I see all these things. I've got a YouTube channel.

I see down in the comments people are all talking about how I get over this sin and how I get over that sin and this and that. A lot of the techniques, the methods are all about concentrating on that sin. You know what that does? It just keeps that sin alive in your mind.

Learn to replace that sin with beholding Christ. In other words, do not merely resist greed, treasure Christ. Do not merely resist the world. Fill your mind with the worth of Christ. Do not merely fight lust. Behold the purity and beauty of Christ. We don't overcome sin simply by saying no, no, no, no, no.

Willpower is essential, but willpower alone will not produce a lasting victory. We overcome sin as the Holy Spirit enables us to say yes to a greater love. When the Holy Spirit fills our heart through the truth that we're studying with a greater affection, then we can say, Lord, you are more precious to me than this passing pleasure.

Knowing you is better than anything sin or the world could ever offer. Therefore, I say no to this temptation and yes to you as an act of worship. I'm so grateful for what you have done. Thank you for what you've done for drawing a Sinner like me into a relationship with you.

You know what that does? It turns our focus from our weakness to God's strength. And while we're doing that, while we're worshiping Him, we're reminding ourselves of how good He's been. We're falling in love with Him in a greater way. We're desiring Him in a greater way. And let's talk about that for a minute.

See, our work. Because I want to talk to you, you know, sometimes we think we're doing really well. You know, there is such a thing as self-righteousness, right? And so you think, well, you know, I can concentrate on my work. I'm doing really good. You know, I'll tell you after the service how good I'm doing.

Well, let me try to interrupt that through this. Right? I mean, we think we're doing so. You may be the best Christian in this world, in this room. But let me tell you this. Still, your work for God is filled with flaws and inconsistencies, isn't it? Every one of us.

Every one of us. And I remember as a new believer, maybe you can relate to this. You know, I thought there would come a time where I would master this Christianity thing. You know, I was like a year old, six months old in the Lord, and I'm just getting beat up by trials and, you know, all those kinds of things.

I'm thinking, you know what, I bet you when you're five years old in the Lord, Lord, that all stops. You know, at that point, you're going to be so consistent. You're going to be so victorious. You're just going to soar. Probably no more trials. Probably no more failures.

So you hit five years, you go, no. Well, I bet it's 10 years. No. 20? No. 30? 40? It's been almost 50 years for me. No, no, no. No. After all these years of walking with the Lord, and I've been serious for all these years, I still relate to Paul's frustration in Romans 7.

Still. He confesses he didn't always do what he knew he should do, and he confesses that he didn't always not do what he knew he shouldn't do. And in Romans 7:24, we have a famous cry. Go over to Romans 7:24. I want you to see this. This is so encouraging how Paul handles his failure.

I've always loved the sound of turning pages in a congregation. Romans 7:24. Wretched man that I am, who will set Me free from the body of this death. Wretched man that I am. Can you relate to that? I can. I know the frustration well that Paul is describing here.

And Paul is at the height of his Christianity here. This isn't a weak Christian. This is the great Apostle Paul. I know this frustration. I know what it is to love Christ, to want to obey Him perfectly, yet still find myself battling with the flesh and not always winning that battle.

And at times, the same sin. Lord, how can I fall to that again? Lord, what is wrong with me? Wretched man that I am. Wretched man. But I want you to see how Paul works through that struggle. It's so encouraging. So the question he asks is, who will set me free from this body of death?

Or who will set me free from the body of this death? In other words, who will deliver me from this fallen flesh that still desires sin and keeps me from obeying God perfectly like I want to? The answer, verse 25. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then on the one hand, I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh, the Law of sin. Paul describes the experience right there of every believer. On the one hand, there is the new creation in Christ. God has given us a new nature that has new desires in it, right?

And so he says, With my mind I serve the law of God. I want to obey. I mean, right? If God would give me a wish right now, you know what I think I'd tell him? You know what? Flip that switch where it's constant obedience all the time, where I could have constant victory over the flesh that hinders me so much.

That's Paul. I want to serve God. I want to obey him. But on the other hand, the flesh remains, doesn't it? It continues to wage war with the new me, Paul says. He says, but on the other hand, with my flesh, the law of sin. Until we're in glory, brothers and sisters, that's our fight.

You know, I can't wait. This is off track now, but that's all right. My study. I can go off track if I want to. I can't wait until we're in glory with Christ. Can you imagine that? The first time you look in his face and there's no flesh hindering you at all and your love for him is Maxed out, and you sense his love for you maxed out.

What a moment that's going to be. And it's going to be that way for all of eternity, isn't it? I can't wait to be with my Lord. What a moment. But still, I'm here with Paul saying, oh, what a wretched man I am. I still have this fight, and I don't win it all the time like I want to.

But I want you to notice the breathtaking mercy of God here. Now, there's no chapters, divisions in the Greek, and so Romans 7:25 flows right into Romans 8:1. So you want to read it as one thought. So let's do that. Romans 7:25 through 8.1. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then on the one hand, I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh, the law of sin. Now, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Talk about amazing mercy. He just said he's serving, but on the other, with my flesh, the law of sin, therefore there's now no condemnation.

Right in the middle, right in the midst of his failure, after he had just cried out, oh wretched man that I am, he's enabled. He can say that. He knows how secure he is. This truth enables Paul to move directly from his struggle with sin to the declaration that there's no condemnation.

From weariness to worship. And Paul isn't minimizing sin. He's not saying, oh, never mind, that was no big deal that I didn't do what I knew I should do. No. He confessed it. What a wretched man I am. He took care of his sin, but he also knew this.

He was still okay with God. See, he's not minimizing sin, he's magnifying the finished work of Christ. Yes, he still stumbles. Yes, he still fights the flesh and doesn't always win. But because of Jesus, his standing before God has not changed. He is still loved. He's still accepted.

He is still a son. He is still a part of the family. God is still his father, not his judge. And heaven is still his home. That's the mercy of God. See, like Paul, you may be frustrated with your failures. And I don't want to minimize that. I don't want to minimize sin.

Take care of that. Go to God and confess your sins. Turn from them. But if you're like me, it frustrates you. I want to obey perfectly, don't you? I will one day when I'm in glory. But now I still fail. I'm dogged by this inconsistency that I hate.

But because of God's mercy, I'm still loved and accepted and will be for all of eternity. And that's the mercies of Romans 12:1. And that's why Martin Luther could say, listen to this. I love Martin Luther. When the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: I admit that I deserve death and hell.

What of it? For I know one who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That's how you put the devil in his place. Satan, you're right. I have sinned, and apart from Christ, I deserve nothing but judgment and hell.

But you know my acceptance before God is not based on my performance, it is based on Jesus Christ, who never sinned once and who bore the wrath for every sin I ever have or ever will commit. You know that I stand before the Father clothed in his Son's righteousness.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for me. In Christ, the threat of hell is finished. So if you have any accusation to make against me, take it to my advocate. Take it to Jesus Christ. Now clear off. We don't have to listen to those condemning lies. You answer his condemnation with.

Truth. And the truth says you're still a Christian. You're still loved. You're still accepted. You're still saved. See, I am a recipient of amazing, breathtaking divine mercy. So are you if you know Jesus Christ. So are you if you've seen that change in you? Listen, Paul saw the change in him.

I want to obey. I desire to please him. Listen, if you have no desire to please God, if you have no desire to obey him, if you haven't been changed, it doesn't matter if you've raised your hand at an evangelistic outreach. It doesn't matter if you've walked the Nile and got up and prayed a sinner's prayer.

That doesn't matter. When God enters a life, there is a change. And what I love about it is what Paul's saying here is when God enters that life and the Holy Spirit comes in, there's a change. You want to obey God. You desire to obey Him. And then when you start feeding that new nature, this kind of truth out of Romans 1 through 11, the mercies of God, what is going to happen?

The Holy Spirit's going to take that truth and he's going to work in your heart in an amazing way. You're going to fall in love with Jesus. And that desire to obey him is going to grow and grow and grow. And the attraction of the world is going to become.

Less and less and less, and you will know that even when you fail, you're in the grip of love. God's grip of love. He's not going to let you go. So, where does this leave us? Paul has shown us a secret to Christian growth. It doesn't begin with gritting our teeth and trying harder.

Don't get me wrong, we do have to discipline ourselves. Effort is necessary. But what inspires and sustains that effort is when we behold the mercies of God. The more clearly we see Christ, the more gladly we'll surrender, the more deeply we understand His mercy, the more joyfully we'll worship, the more we behold His beauty, the less attractive sin will be.

And when we fail, and you will fail. Can't wait till in glory, the failure's over. But right now, when we fail, and you will fail, we don't run from God. Mercy enables us to run to Christ. We remember there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

We remember our standing before God rests not on our performance, but on Christ. I'm so glad I don't have to be perfect. You know, for a while I thought I had to be. When I was I got into legalism and every little sin just tore me apart because I thought I have to be perfect.

How can God love somebody like me? I felt like God was just looking down at me and said, I'm going to find something to kick you out of the family over. Now I know, this is what theology does. Now I know I'm not saved because I'm perfect. I'm saved because He was perfect.

I stand before a holy God clothed in the robes of Christ's righteousness. The law of God can scan the entirety of my life and it will find nothing to send me into hell over. Not one thing. That's what no condemnation means. It's a legal term. There's nothing left.

Everything was paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross. Every one of my sins, past, present, and future. And now God has nothing against me. I will be with my God. The grave has lost its sting. All it can do is take me to Him. See, death for the Christian has become a servant.

Death for the Christian has become a servant. All it can do is take you into glory. The grave has lost its power. Praise God, huh? Now, perhaps somebody here has been listening to this and thinking, you know, you talk about loving Christ and delighting in him and worshiping him.

I've never experienced that. Well, let me suggest why that may be. Could it be you've only been hearing about Christ but never have experienced him personally? All that we've talked about today is not something we manufacture through religion. It is the response of a heart that has experienced God's goodness, grace, love, kindness, and mercy.

The Bible says that we love him because he first loved us. That love begins when you realize you are a sinner. Well, that love begins in your life, as was before the foundation of the world. But that love begins in your life when you realize you are a sinner who cannot save yourself.

I think that's an important message here in the Bible Belt. That love begins in your life when you realize you're a sinner and that you cannot save yourself, no matter how religious you are. And what that will do is cause you to turn to the only one who can save you.

The one who left glory and came to earth. To bear the punishment you deserve, who now in glory offers you forgiveness and adoption. Isn't that amazing? I'll forgive you and I'll adopt you into my family. Today, the miracle of salvation can happen for you. The judge will become your father, and heaven will become your home.

I mean, guys, if you came in here today and you don't know Jesus Christ, that's a no-brainer. You are walking with the wrath of God upon you. And God says it doesn't have to be that way. Receive what my Son has done for you. I sent him to earth so that doesn't have to happen.

If you will believe in him, if you will trust in him alone for your salvation, you will become my child, and heaven will become your home. So if you've never experienced a love for any love for Christ, really, don't try to create it. Turn from your sin, put your faith in him today, ask him to open your eyes to his beauty, his mercy.

And you know what you'll discover? That the greatest gift of the gospel is not merely escaping hell or gaining heaven. The greatest gift of the gospel is Jesus. God says, I'll give you me. Almost 50 years. Breaks my heart. Man. Almost 50 years I've walked with him. And he has never let me down.

Never. Every need has been met. I have walked knowing his love. I've walked experiencing his presence. I have walked, especially in the mission field, smuggling in Bibles to dangerous countries, watching him miraculously protect me again and again when I thought, well, that had to be God. I was in real trouble here, and all of a sudden I'm not.

That had to be God. Listen, he is the treasure. Salvation takes you to him, and there's nothing better than him. I'm telling you, this world has nothing that can compare. Oh, if you don't know him today, you can. You can know him right now. Find somebody in the church.

Find a suit there around. And go say, I want to meet your Savior. You can know him today. You can walk in those doors on your way to hell. You can walk out on your way to heaven. Well, that's enough. I was going to go on some more, but I think we'll just end it there.

That's enough. Father, I thank you. God, what you do for people like me who can relate with Paul so much, oh, wretched man that I am. And yet I'm your child. Yet hell is no longer a threat. Yet I'm on my way to heaven. I will be with you for all of eternity.

And all I can do is worship. All I can do is say thank you, Lord. I have done nothing to merit salvation. I've done everything to merit hell. But because of you, anyone here who knows you knows this: that in your death, in your sacrifice, God the Father accepts that in our place.

And we're good to go. I thank you that you're the gift, that you're everything. And Lord, don't let anybody here this morning miss that. Father, if there's anybody here that doesn't know you, speak to them. Now draw them, Lord. Show them this is true. Show them that they can know you.

Put in their heart a desire to know you. I pray today will be the day of their salvation, the day they change from citizens of hell to citizens of heaven. In Jesus' name, amen.