Acts: The Message of Salvation

Well, good morning. If you have your bible's turned with

me to Acts thirteen, and I hope you have your

Bibles with you and follow along with us this morning,

Acts chapter thirteen and we'll start in verse twenty six

in just a moment. You know, one thing that we

are kind of maybe seeing a little bit a change

in our role today is how we do messaging right now.

We used to write cards and send things in the mail.

Now we don't do that as much. We have email,

we have text messages. But I don't know about you,

but I still like handwritten things. And I don't know

if you've last time someone had written you a personal

letter that was handwritten. But on occasion I will get

a few, So I brought a few this morning that

were that are special to me. One was and you

guys have been great throughout my ministry of just encouraging

me here and just different notes. And it's neat just

how God uses different people and different ages to encourage you.

I got a message was a card from one of

our church members many many years ago, actually when I

first became pastor here, and it says, Jonathan, thank you

so much for taking over it. But that'sday and putting

up with with so much and putting so much time

and effort, and thank you for putting pouring into me.

And it was one of our students at the time.

I got a text message this week and sometimes hey,

personal handwritten notes are great, but also text messages are great.

And I've got a text message this week from one

of our church members as your sermon today was so

uplifting and timing. Thank you for that. I'm thankful that

I can call you my pastor. You know, messages, when

people write messages to you, they're very personal, they're very direct.

They're attended for that individual, and sometimes they're attended to

meet a need for that individual encourage that individual in

a particular way. For example, I got a card and

it was last year when my dad passed away, and

it was one of our students in our academy and

he made a little card, a him made card, and

it said, dear Pastor Jonathan, I'm so sorry for you're lost,

and I hope that it won't be I hope you sorry,

and I hope you won't be so I think sad

you when you get so long to when you get

this card, I think is what he's trying to say,

and I hope you know that he is in a

better place with God. And I hope this card will

cheer you up, your friend, Franklin, and I show you

that and read you that, because you know, when you,

as I said, when you get a card, a personal card,

or a text message or email, it's directed towards you.

And it's most of the time it's directed to maybe

a need or to encourage you in some ways. Maybe

just not for everybody, but it's for you. As we

come to this passage of scripture, we come to Acts

chapter thirteen and pause in anti Optacitia, he's gone and

send to God there and he's sharing the Gospel with

the Jews and with god Fears, people who are are

longing for God, trying to find God, who are Greeks.

And Paul As he's there in the send of God

that asked Paul as a guest to stand up and speak,

and he preaches a sermon. And last week look that

had the beginning part of his sermon and how he

explained to the Jews and the God Fears that history

shows us and history has been moving forward to the

fulfillment of the promised Savior that God had promised, and

he showed how history God fulfilled the promises of history

in Christ, that Christ was a fulfillment of prophecies and

throughout history is pointing that Christ is the Savior. And

it also pointed to that the future of history, the

future of our world, is Christ and his fulfilling the

promises of his second coming. So we looked at that

last week. Now he shifts in his message and in

his message today. Here's the main thing that I want

you to see in his message today. He wants the

hearers to understand the here's you're hearing him speak that day,

to understand that this was a message of salvation. Jesus

is a message of salvation, and it was for them.

It was for the hearers. And today, I hope as

we come and read God's word today, we can understand

that there is a message of salvation. And listen today

it is for you. It is for you. It's a

message of salvation for you. It's for you those who

are watching on TV and online. It's for us. And

we must recognize this is not just a message for

someone else. It is a message that God has given us.

Every individual in this room every here today. So let's

stand and let's read how this message of salvation is

for us today. We stand with me Acts chapter thirteen,

and we're going to start in verse two and listen

what he says. He says in verse twenty six, brothers,

sons of the family of Abraham, and those who are among you,

fear the here, fear God, and to us has has

been sent the message of this salvation. This is what

he says for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers,

because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterance

of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them

by condemning him. And though they found him no guilt

worthy of death, they asked Pilot to have him executed.

And when they had carried out all that was written

of him, they took him down from the tree, and

they laid him in the tomb. But God raised him

from the dead, and from many days he appeared to

those who have come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem,

who are now his witnesses to the people. And we

bring you the good news that what God promised to

the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us children by

raising Jesus, as also is written in the second second psalm,

you are my son. Today I've forgotten you. And as

for the fact he was raised from the dead, no

more to return to corruption. He has spoken in this way,

I will give you the holy ensued blessings of David. Therefore,

he says also in another psalm, you will not let

your Holy One see corruption. For David, after he had

served the purposes of God in his generation, he fell

asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption.

Let's stop there. Let's pray. Lord. We thank you for

this morning. We thank you for the time you've given

us to be in your word. God. We thank you

that the message of salvation is for us. And God,

you spoke your word through your messenger Paul, and today

I pray that you would speak your word through me,

your messenger. And today the hearers of this room, the

hearers watching online or on TV today, what hear God,

that this message of salvation is for them? And God,

they would respond to your message to them today. Lord,

we love you. We pray that God, when you speak,

may you feel our hearts. May you set aside every

distraction from our minds or our hearts today, Lord, may

you bind Satan from this room. And Lord, may we

give you all the praise and all the glory that

you deserve today in your name, we pray you may

be see them. So let's read us understand today, how

is this message to salvation is for us? You know,

you receive text messages, now, you receive letters in the mail.

Still you get emails, and sometimes at times you may

get an email. You might get a letter in the mail.

You might get even a text message, and you recognize

very soon from getting it out of the mailbox or

see it in in your inbox, or see it on

your phone. Oh, this message is not for me. Send

it to the wrong number, They send it to the

wrong address, They send it to the wrong email address.

And what do you do immediately once you see that

it's not really to you, what do you do? You

ignore it, You delete it, you trash it, you throw

it in the trash, you delete the text message, you

report it as junk. Right, because you recognize immediately this

message wasn't attended for me, It was for another audience,

and so therefore it doesn't need my attention. I don't

need to respond to it. I don't need to do

anything with it, right, I can just move on. Paul

wants to hearers just say, listen, this is not a

message that you need to delete. This is not a

message that you need to ignore. This is not a

message that you should think it is for someone else.

We do this as church members, right. I've had so

many different after different sermons and greeting people after a sermon,

they'll say, pastor, that was a good sermon today. Boy,

I sure wish such and such was here. Man, they

really needed to hear that one. And what are they thinking, Like,

this message wasn't for me? It really was for somebody

else in the audience who really wasn't there, And if

they were there, they really would have gotten the message. Right.

And so many times when we even hear sermons or

even read the Bible, sometimes we think, maybe this message

wasn't for me today. I didn't feel it. I didn't

think it really didn't move me. This is no Paul

wants you to understand the message of salvation. It's for you.

You can't ignore it, you can't put it away, you

can't say it's for someone else. No, God sent a

message of salvation and it's for all people, and it

is for you right where you are, whatever's going in

your life. God has a message of salvation for you.

Listen to what he says. Listen how he says this

to them. The audience is said, brothers in verse twenty six,

the sons of the family of Abraham and those who

fear God. Listen to what he says to us. Has

been sent the message of this salvation. Hey, God brought

this message for us for you today. This message is

for you. You know. The one thing that Paul wants

them to understand is this message has been a message

that has been ignored, has been a message that has

been maybe deleted or set aside or misunderstood. Is you

look at the passage of Scripture, listen to what it says.

For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because

they did not recognize him or understand the utterances of

the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by

condemning him. One thing he explains to them, and as

you remember love from last week, Paul goes into worship

for the syn of Good that day. There was kind

of an order of service imagined you thus last week

that kind of a set schedule they followed kind of

as we kind of follow a different order of service

here at Bethesda. And one of the things that they

did every week would they would read a portion of

the Old Testament Scripture, the Torah, right, they would read

a portion from that, and every Sabbath and the Sin

of God, they would read a portion of the Prophets.

And so they had done that previous that day, and

then they would have a time where someone would kind

of give a word of encouragement. And that's why they

asked Paul to stand up and speak. So this has

just been done, and Paul has explained to them, listen, listen,

this message of salvation has been given to us. But

you know, every Sabbath, you hearers have heard the Old Testament.

Every Sabbath, you hears have heard the Prophets, and your

father's before you heard the prophets every Sabbath, and they

missed it. They missed the message of the Savior. And

listen to what he says. And because they missed it,

Scripture says, those who live in Jerusalem and the rulers,

because they did not recognize him, they missed the Savior.

They did not recognize Jesus as the Savior. And as

a result, what did they do? They killed him, that's

the way it says. And because they did not recognize

him or understand the owners of the prophets which are

read every Sabbath, they fulfilled them by condemning him, even

though they found in him guilt worthy of death. They

asked Pilot to have him executed, and when they carried

out all that was written of him, that took him

down from the tree and lady him in the two

he says, listen, this message of salvation, it's for you.

It's a personal message for you. And that's the first

thing we need to understand about this message of salvation.

It is a personal message, a personal message for us

that we do not need to miss. And Paul's telling

them this message for you, But your fathers they missed it.

They didn't recognize Jesus, and as a result, they killed him.

The two failures of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem is

number one, they did not recognize Jesus in his work,

and number two, they failed to understand the messages of

the prophets that they had read every Sabbath. And as

a result, what did they do that killed Jesus. They

killed the Savior. As a result, they had Pilot sentenced

him to death, even though, as Paul was alluding to,

even though he was innocent. You know, we get messages, right.

I don't know about you. I am terrible at times

about getting a text message or even an email and

just reading it too fast or skimming over it too

fast and misunderstanding the message. There's been plenty of times.

Just confession is good for the soul. Brandy sends me

to the grocery store. I get to the grocery store

and she tells me something to get or something not

to get. And I get home and I didn't get

it whatever she had on the list or the text

message or I got it and I wasn't supposed to.

And I come home and I walk in and I

have the groceries, and she says, well, did you not

get it? And I was like, no, I didn't get it.

Did you not see my text message? And I said, yeah,

I saw your text message. Well it's on a text message, right,

And come to find out, I skimmed over I misunderstood

the message, and I didn't get what I was supposed to.

But listen, that's not a big deal if it's a

grocery item, right, it's not a big deal if we

missed the meeting that we were supposed to go to,

or we've forgotten to send them the report we were

supposed to on time like we should. But it's a

big deal when you miss salvation. It's a big deal

when you miss out on what God has for you

because you're not hearing, you're not receiving the message of

personal message that Jesus has for you. It is a

big deal. It's a life changing mistake. And the Jews

missed out on understanding receive the message of salvation, and

ultimately they killed him, the everyone who came to save

them all because they did not recognize the savior. Paul

saying and them, listen, don't miss it. Your father's missed it.

This message of salvation is a personal message. The second

thing he wants them to see about this message of salvation,

it's the promised message. This is not just a message

that's been personal. It's for you. But this has been

a message that has been promised for the ages. Throughout history.

God has promised a savior as far as back as

Genesis three. God promised a savior. This was a promised message.

It was promised to his father's Look at scripture, says,

he describes how they kill Jesus, and then verse thirty two,

he says, but we're bringing you listen to this the

good news that what God has promised to our fathers. Listen,

many years ago from Genesis, our forefathers, God promised a savior.

God promised to Moses, our patriarch, the one that we

look to as the starter of our our father Abraham.

Let's go back further than that father hebor, and God

promised a savior to Moses. God promised a savior. Goes

back into all of our fathers. God have promised a savior.

And we've been waiting for this. All of history has

been waiting for the promised savior to come. And I'm

telling you today that this message that your father's waiting for.

That Moses says, I'm not seen it, but I'm telling

you that it's coming. That David said, hey, listen, I'm

telling you our savior is coming. To the propheence of

Isaiah saying, there's going to be Emanuel, God with us,

the princip Peace, everlasting Fathers, I'm telling you that I

promised savior that God has promised to our fathers. The

good news is that promise has been fulfilled to us.

It's for us, It's here today. You can have it.

They wanted it, you can obtain it today. This is

a promised message. This fulfilled to us. I love that

imagery in verse and this passes verse thirty two. What

God has promised to our fathers, this he has fulfilled

to us their children by raising Jesus. You know one

thing that the hearers we understood today in this passage

when they had heard Paul's words, is in Isaiah fifty five,

and Paul quotes this. Look at the next verse, verse

thirty three. He says, he quotes a psalm, you are

my son. Today I've forgotten you. And this was one

of the promises of the Messiah that the Savior was

going to be God's son. Says listen. One of the

promises that God said and through the psalm, is that

his son was going to be a savior. And listen,

I'm showing you that he fulfilled his promises. Listen. One

of the other things he quotes here in verse thirty four,

as for the fact that he raised him from the

dad no more to return to corruption. He had spoken

in this way, I will give you the holy sure

blessings of David. One of the things that the people

visual would understand was Isaiah fifty five thirty three, I

mean fifty five to three, Sorry, was what said that

the very promise is that God gave David. So God

made promises to David that his generation would never die,

also that he would promises of these. This is the

verse he's quoting it. I will give you the I

will give you the holy ensued blessings of David. Promises

of blessings, promises of holiness I was promised for David.

And in Isaiah, the people of Visual would understood that

those promises of blessing and holiness that was given to

David or promises that they would also receive. Based upon

that fact, Paul is wanting to see that God fulfilled

his promises to David, the promises of a savior, and

those promises are now promises that they can receive, promises

that they were promised that they would receive. If you,

if you could, if you follow that one of the

things in the Old Testament, if you would establish something

was true or our accusation was credible. You had to

do that based upon two witnesses. Okay, Paul in his

message is giving two witnesses to show that Jesus was

the Savior the fulfillment of the promise. The first witness

that Paul shows was the witness of individuals. Look at

the passage of Scripture. In verse thirty. He says, but

God raised him from the dead, and from many days

he appeared to those who had come up from him

from Galley to Jerusalem. Who are who are his witnesses

to the people. So he's showing, listen, there are support

that Jesus was the Savior, that he was God's son,

that he did rise from the dead. And one of

the ways that we show that he fulfilled that promises

is based upon witnesses. And the first witnesses was individual witnesses.

Scripture says for forty days after Jesus rose again, his disciples,

but also those in Jerusalem saw him. Paul was saying, listen,

there are individual witnesses that showed that Jesus fulfilled the

promises of the Savior. But not only this, there are

individual witnesses, there are scriptural witnesses. And this is why

he goes into three different passages here we quote p

Two seven, Isaiah fet By three, and Psalm sixteen ten.

He's showing the support not only individually who saw Jesus

raise from the dead, but secondly, he's showing that scripture

supports and the promises that God made in Psalm and Isaiah,

that this is Jesus. He is the promised Savior, and

he's for you. You know, we all have have this

time that we sometimes we think maybe this message is

for us, not for us, and maybe we ignore it's

really for someone else. But another problem that we have

sometimes as individuals is we think the promises of God

are not for us, and therefore we miss out on

the power of those promises. We miss out the fact

that those promises in our lives. This week, we I

have ATV and so we you know, I've gotten to

me and Brady's dad's long story, but I had a

Honda and he has a players. We traded and so

I have his players. And when we got it to

the house, I noticed it was having trouble starting, and

so the battery he had put in it was like

two years old. So we thought it was a battery,

and so it has on the side of the ATV

like a pull crank. I don't know, I think it's

what you call it, but you know, you pull it

to start it. So what I've just been doing is

using my magnificent power to start it. No, not really

magnificent power, just just pulling it basically. And so I've

been starting it that way and I've been doing that

for a few weeks now, just it won't start, so

I just pull it and go. Well, so he came

this weekend, so we determined to try to figure out.

I thought it was a battery, so we went got

a battery. Yesterday, I got back and we tried to

charge the old battery. We thought, you know, it showed

that it was charged, but we put it in. It

didn't work. So we went yesterday. I got a new battery,

put into full with her, got it hooked up, went

to go hit the button would not start. So we started,

you know, problem solving, and come to find out it

was the starter's bad. So here's the thing. For two

weeks now, I've been pull starting this thing because I

thought that the battery did not have the power. The

reality was it did have the power, but there was

a disconnect and as a result, listen to me. As

a result, I was using my strength instead of using

the strength and the power that was afforded to me.

I say that because many of you, in your life

you have you have lived with the idea that the

promises are God, not for me, There for other people,

there for other people in this world, but not for me.

And as a result, you're living by your own power

and your own strength, and you're devoid of the power

of God. Can I tell you? George Mueller was a

pastor and he's he wrote a book about the promises

of God. And in his book he says, there are

thirty thousand, thirty thousand promises of the Bible in the

Bible for you thirty thousand. Yet many times for us

we are not realizing, we're not understanding, we're not recognizing

that these promises that God made, God promises to our

fathers are for us. You know, there's so many. I

can't We're not going to go through all thirty thousand

a day, but I'll give you a few. When we

just looked at a few weeks ago, God's promise of

provision and my God will supply all every need of

yours according to His riches and glory and Christ Jesus,

God's promise of his presence. I will never leave you,

nor forsake you. God's promised to answered prayer. Ask and

it will be giving. You. Seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone

who asks received, The one who seeks funds, the one

who knocks, it will be open. The promise to forgive

if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to

forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I wan I ask you today listen. The message of

salvation is a personal message. The message of salvation is

a promised message, and his message and his promises are

for you. Third, I want you to see. Lastly, the

message of salvation is a redeeming message. You know. He

goes through these passages of scripture, he quotes the Psalms,

he quotes Isaiah. He wants them to see. Listen that

the witnesses shaw Jesus actually died for forty days, and

that shows us that he is the promised one. He

wants them to see, not only what the witnesses say,

and he's one of the witnesses, but he also wants

to see what scripture says and how christ fulfilled the

promise is of scripture to show that Jesus is the

promised one that's fulfilled for them. But listen to what

else he says in this past of scripture. He quotes

Psalm sixteen ten and in that promise is the last

one in verse thirty five. Therefore, he says, also in

another song, you will not let your only one see corruption.

And he explains that this promise that was given to David,

that the Holy One would not see corruption. The word

holy one is another word that's used for Savior or Jesus.

And Paul says, look at that says in verse thirty six.

For David, after he served this purpose of God in

his own generation, he fell asleep and he was laid

with his father's and he saw corruption. Paul saying, listen,

this promise could not be for David, because David died,

and David's remains are in a grave someone somewhere today.

But I'm telling you that Jesus died and he rose

again to fulfill the promises of God and his body

did not see corruption. Witnesses show you that he is alive.

But listen the way it says verse thirty seven. Again,

part of this idea is he wants them to understand

this is a personal message. This is a promise message

and the promises listen, this is very important. The promises

that came to David was that he would receive holiness

and the blessings of God. And now he's saying, listen

the promises that came through the Savior, those promises now

are for you. Now, Jesus, when he died, he rose again.

And when he died on the cross, he died on

the cross for for your sins. He rose again from

the dead that you what one day would rise again? Right,

And he died on the cross. He fulfilled a promise

that Jesus would die on the cross for our sins.

But he also fuelled the promise that as he rose,

so would we rise. And he's telling these people of

visual this is a personal message. Listen, this message is

for you. This is a message of salvation. And what

is the salvation. The salvation is Jesus came to forgive

you of your sins. And this is not a message

of salvation, that he came to forgive you of your sins,

but he came to deliver you from the penalty of

your sins, and that is death. That just as he rose,

one day you will rise. And this is a personal

message for you. This is a promised message for you.

But can I tell you lastly, this is a redeeming message.

This Jesus who rose through him again, rose again, who

the witnesses saw, whose scripture bears witness that he would

not die, but would live eternal. This Jesus came to

redeem you from your sins and that you might have

resurrect and power in your life, that one day you

would rise again. And listen what he says verse thirty seven,

that he who God raised did not see corruption. And

listen verse thirty eight. Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers,

that through this man, listen, forgiveness is sin is proclaimed. Listen.

Not to the people down the street, not to the

people who were hearing in the future. No, this message

is for you. Listen. I'm not getting exited in this place.

Listen what is it? And by him, everyone who believes

it's freed from everything, I mean from everything from which

you cannot be freed from the law of Moses. This

is a redeeming message. Don't miss it. You know. One

of the problems is with us when we get a message,

sometimes we think that message was just someone else. Some

of the problems is we get the message and we

think that promises that are not for us. And sometimes

we just we missed the message. We we we misunderstand it,

we just don't get it, or we try to try

to try to receive something else that's not really there.

Let me give you an example of this. Something that

I've seen in churches through many many men, many many years,

ministry through many many years, is many times one of

the problems that we have is is individuals that we

we hear what we want to hear. You you ever

been you ever done that? Right? You're you're you're in

the now. Wives, I'm about to tell a story. And

and when I tell this story, at no point is

it okay to poke elbow your husband or your significant odor.

And in the story, okay, the ever husband's you ever

been in the chair? You're you're listening to the TV show,

you're watching the baseball game, the football game, whatever it is.

Andy Griffin. You're listening to that. You're life's also in

the room, and she's talking to you. No no poking,

all right, no punching, no elbow ink, And you're not

listening to her because you want to listen to the game. Right.

She may be talking, but you're not understanding. You know

what I'm saying. And it takes about three times where

she says your name right, and then she says your

full name right, and now she got your attention right.

I tell you that because we are guilty for hearing

what we want to hear. And throughout ministry and throughout life,

I've seen individuals who hear from Scripture what they want

to hear, but they never fully understand the message of salvation,

the message of redemption. For example, there's times where we've

talked with someone about sin or maybe a sin in

their life, or help someone accountable about their sin. And

one of the things that go to go to throughout

twenty years of ministry, as people will say, well, I

tell you what they want to talk to me about

my sin. I tell you what the Bible says. The

Bible says, he who has sin, let him throw the

first stone. Tell you that scripture right there, he without saying,

casts the first stone. Well, let's read that passage real quick.

And John eight, Jesus confronts a woman called an adultery,

and they bring her before you remember they had stones,

and they asked Jesus about it, and Jesus says, in

verse seven, let him who is without sin among you,

be the first to throw a stone at her. Right.

And that's where many individuals stop because what they want

to hear, right, God just forgives me. God just forgives

me for my sin. I can continue in my sin,

but God just forgives me. And everybody's just a sinner

like me. It's a cast the first stone, right, But

listen to what the Bible says at the end of

that passage. And I follow me. You hear how this

is important? After he said, Jesus says to her, I'll

just read the rest of the verses at once. He

bent down and wrote on the ground. And when they

heard it, they went away one by one, be beginning

with the older ones. And Jesus was left alone with

a woman standing before him. And Jesus stood up and

said to her, woman, where are they? And as no

one condemn you, and she said no one, Lord, and

Jesus said to her, neither do I continue. But what

does he said? Then? Go and from now on sin

no more. I tell you that as an example, because

that's an example of us hearing what we want to

hear our scripture. We hear one thing that God just

will forgive me of my sin and I can continue

in my sin. But we miss out on the last

part where it says Jesus says to her, go and

sin no more. And I say this to say Jesus.

And this pastor is a scripture is saying, listen. This

message is a personal message. This message is a promised message.

But this message listen here. This is very important. This

message is a redeeming message. And what does it want

to redeem you from? Its wants to redeem you from

your sins. It doesn't want you to stay in your

sin or keep your sin. He wants to deliver you

from the dominion of sin. And that's what Romans. I

want you to turn with me. Turn with me today

as we finish up today Romans chapter six, I want

you to see this because this is a beautiful passage

of scripture. Romans chapter six one through fourteen, we're going

to read that together I love here in the turning

of pages, Romans six one says, what shall we say, then,

are we continue in sin that grace may bound by

no means? How can we who died to sin still living?

Do you not know that all of us who have

been baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into death. We

were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in

order that Christ. Listen to this, just as Christ was

raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,

we might walk in the newness of life. Do you

hear that? What is that redemption? Just as Christ died

to sin, Christ came to redeem us from sin that

we might have a new life. Listen to it, says

in verse five. For we have been united with him

in a death like his, we shall certainly be united

with him in the resurrection like this. We know that

our old self was crucified with him in order that

his body of sin might be brought to nothing, so

that listen listen to this, that we would know we

would no longer be enslaved to sin. For the one

who's died has set free from sin. Now if we

had died with Christ, we believe that we will also

live with him. And we know that Christ, being raised

from the dead listen to this, will never die again.

Dead no longer has dominion over him. For dead, he

has died to sin once and for all, But the

life he lives, he lives to God. So you must

consider yourselves. Listen to this, dead to sin and the

lie to God and Christ Jesus verse twelve. Let not sin,

therefore reign in your mortal bottle bodies to make you

obey its passions. Do not present your members as sin

as instruments for unrighteous Present yourselves to God. Of those

listen to.

This, as those listen to this who have been brought

from death to life, you and your members to God

as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no will have no dominion over you,

since you are not under the law but under grace.

It's a message of redemption. Oka listen. It's a personal message.

God wrote a message of salvation for you. He wants

to save you from sin. He doesn't want rain sin

to continue to dominate your life, to enslave you. Christ

has a message of salvation and he wants to redeem

you from sin some consequences of sin, and that is

death and hell. He wants to redeem you from but

also he wants to redeem you from the dominion of

sin in your life. Today. It's a message, It's a

redeeming message. I want to ask you today, how often

have you heard a message God's spoken to you on

a Sunday morning or through a song, read your Bible

and you say, well, that was for someone else? Or

how often have you heard the message of salvation and said, God,

you're talking to me. God, I need to respond to

what you're calling me to do. I need to respond

to your message of salvation for me. I ask you today,

how often as you've heard the promises of God, maybe

you've thought they were for someone else. Maybe today's the

day that you recognize listen the promises of the Messiah,

the promise of salvation. It's a promise for you. No

matter how far you say you know what pastor you

don't know my life, you don't know what I've done,

you don't know mistakes I've made, you don't know my

get you pass. And I tell you you're never too

far from a God who can save you. Right where

you are. The promises are God. No matter how bad

your life has been in the past, the promises are

God for you. And maybe today, as you're saying, I'm

tired of trying to live this life and defeat sin

in my power. Today, I want the promises of God

in my life. I want the promise of God's forgiveness

in my life. Today I realize this promises for me.

And maybe today is to day that you say, you know,

I've thought that there's been no hope for me. There's

no hope for the sin that's in my life. There's

no hope for me and my eternity because of the

things that I say I've done in my life. Can

I tell you today the message of salvation is a

redeeming message. Jesus wants to deliver you from the dominion

of sin, and Jesus wants to deliver you from hell.

Today where you receive the messages, it is for you

you pray with me, Father, We thank you Lord for

this morning. God, thank you that you pursue us. God

You've given us your word that we might hear your

message today. And Lord, I pray today would be a

day that Lord, we would not diminish Lord, what you've

spoken to us. We would not ignore it, we would

not deny it. We have not misunderstood it or miss it.

But today, God, may we clearly hear your call to us,

and God, may we surrender Lord to your word. God,

I thank you, Lord of Lord, what you desire to

do in us? And Lord, I pray today we would

allow you to have your will and your way in us.

Today we surrender Lord to your word and your movement

of your spirit in us. Today, Lead us to us,

Lead us to respond to you now, Lord in prayer,

maybe praying this altar. Maybe I could you lead some

that that I would pray with Lord, however you lead us, Lord,

maybe we just take this time to respond to Lord,

how you've spoken to us. In your name, we pray

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