Romans 7 | Clayton Hentzel

Oh, Crossing Nation, it is good to be with you.

I hope you guys are doing absolutely wonderful.

I wish we could tell you every single win story from those

baptism videos that you guys just saw.

But I'll tell you just one I was having dinner with a guy last

night and he goes Clayton. You guys, you know how you know

The Crossing does this where every time we have to do a

design in our church or whatever, we end up having like

Sharpie Sunday where you have to write people's names on the

steps or whatever. And he goes, I just got to

baptize all the names that I wrote down on the steps.

And that was just one of the stories inside of those videos.

So hear me You might be praying for a really long time for the

person that you care about, for the person that you love to come

to faith in Jesus Christ. And I just want you to know God

is not slow and keeping his promise at just the right time.

Everything can be made right, and we're going to get more into

that. Next week when I preach through

Romans 8, This is a PS:. A if you were ever looking for a

weekend to bring somebody to The Crossing to hear about Jesus

next week, Romans Chapter 8 is that weekend.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

If you're looking for a weekend for you to tell somebody, look,

you come to church with me and I'll take you to McDonald's

afterwards. It's that weekend.

If you're looking for a weekend we like, come to church and I'll

make your mortgage payment, It's that weekend.

And you and I would love to come to church with you.

And so if you're inviting somebody, swing by and pick me

up. I'd love to come.

It sounds great. I want to be there.

OK. Today I'm going to answer 3

questions. Question number one, what do

Christians do with the Old Testament, the part of the Bible

that you started to read and quit?

What do we do with it? Question two If I'm a Christian,

why do I struggle so much? How many of you you're a

Christian? How many of you you struggle?

Let's answer the question, Why question #3?

What do you do when you're not good enough?

That's what we're going to navigate now.

We have so much going on at our church and so much for us to be

incredibly thankful for. We are in a season right now

where you just, we cannot stop rejoicing.

At the good works that God is doing.

And there's a special group of people I want to say thank you

to. Right now, we're getting ready

to wrap up an incredible camp season.

We have 9 uncommon conferences across the country this year.

Rise is spinning up right now, and I just need to say a special

thank you to those of you who serve in our Zero to 18

ministries across all of our different locations.

God bless you. We could not be the church we

are and accomplish all that we are doing.

If it were not for you, to those of you who are spending your

summer not just vacationing, but you took your vacation to go and

be a part of our camp. God bless you.

On Tuesday night, I showed up to preach to a group of kids from

all many of our different locations and when I showed up

to preach, one of the guys who was playing guitar was the one

of the guys playing guitar when I was going to camp.

Think about that, that this guy was leading worship when I was

attending camp having no clue that one day I would be his

senior pastor. And the investments that you are

making in the lives of kids make all the difference.

And so I just want to pray real quick for all the zero to 18

people who are watching your kids so you can be in here.

Heavenly Father, I am so thankful for the people that

have a passion on their heart to make sure that nobody hinders

kids finding a relationship with you.

God, I pray that you would raise many, many more people up just

like them. God, that we would make an

investment in this generation to make a difference in this

generation. In your name I pray.

Amen. To those of you joining from all

of our different locations, those of you joining here at

48th St. to those of you joining us online or inside, God bless

you. And we are so incredibly

thankful for the opportunity that we get to partner with you.

And I also want to welcome those of you who are joining us for

the first time or maybe the first time.

In a long time, you're coming to our church, you're hanging out

for a while, you start to get a little bit serious and then

you're like, you know what? I'm out of here and you're like,

it's going to be weird if I come back and you're finally, like,

my life is bad enough, I'm going to finally come back.

I just want, you know, we are. Our doors are always open and we

are always glad to see you and we are so glad that you are

here. And in case you missed it, we

are in the middle of a Bible engagement initiative and we are

going through the book of Romans.

And if any point in time during the sermon you get bored, you

can take advantage of the QR code.

On the seat in front of you and give you a great opportunity to

connect to our church. But if you don't get bored.

We purchased over 4000 books that help you go through the

book of Romans even when you're not at church.

And it helps you stay focused and stay on the journey so you

can get the most out of God's Word that you can possibly get.

Because let me tell you this, I When you are investing in God's

Word, it produces spiritual fruit in your life.

And when you have to navigate the challenges of this world,

you're going to want the spiritual strength that the God

provides. And staying connected to God's

word is one of the ways that you do it.

And it feel like I didn't, I didn't get a book.

You can make sure before you leave today, you can go out in

the lobby whatever location you are watching from and you can

grab one. And to those who are online,

you're like, but Clayton, I don't have a location.

Well, you know what? We love you so much.

We don't care if it gets complicated.

So you just e-mail anybody on our website and they will

forward it to somebody else. On our staff, and they will mail

you a copy to your house, but we'll know where you live.

And if you live somewhere sunny, I'll drive there.

OK, Now, the Book of Romans was written to a group of Christians

living in the city of Rome. A very real city, you guys.

You know, you know that's where that is.

And it was written by a man by the name of Paul.

Paul was a jacked up, messed up dude, which is good news because

that means that God can use jacked up, messed up people,

which means God can use you. That's exactly right.

And he does this to the inspiration of Jesus.

And at the very beginning of the series, for those of you haven't

been around, I want to catch you up.

There was this challenge that is happening inside of this Roman

church. There is this tension, this

division that they're trying to navigate.

Because there are Jewish believers and Gentile believers

worshipping in the very same church.

More than likely this church was started by Jewish believers, but

then due to some changes in the Roman government, the Jews were

kicked out for five years and it was ran by a bunch of Gentile

believers. And then there was changes in

the government and the Jewish Christians were allowed back in

to Rome. So a church that was most likely

started by Jewish Christians had to leave.

And in their absence, this church had taken on a less

Jewish flavor. To kind of get a feel for this

tension, I want to give you a couple of illustrations, like

make believe if you will try to imagine with me, imagine a

church that had. I mean, this is just an

illustration, Republicans and Democrats.

And they both showed up to church.

And there were Republicans and there were Democrats who were

fully convinced that their way was God's way of voting and

governing. And then imagine, every four

years they took stupid pills and went on social media and told

everybody what they should do. And then those people who are

really proud behind their keyboard.

And said mean things to other people over the keyboard.

Had to show up and sit next to each other at church.

If you can imagine okay, maybe that's not good enough.

Let me see if all right, this is just an illustration.

Imagine a virus were to break out worldwide and the government

decided, for instance, to maybe hypothetically.

Closed schools, churches and businesses.

And then they had a restrictions about the gatherings.

Hypothetically, let's say they mandated wearing masks, pushed

hard for people to, I don't know, take a vaccine.

Now imagine, OKI mean, listen, try to if try.

Imagine that good Christians found themselves on opposite

sides of the issue. It's hard to believe that that

could happen. But like I said, imagine with me

that some Christians believed to their core that they were doing

the most good by isolating, testing and refraining from

gatherings. They were the first in line to

get the vaccine so they could travel, gain access to do

ministry and go to work in order to provide for their family.

In fact, they were so serious about it, they were double

maskers. And they did this whole thing in

an effort to love God and love their neighbor.

Now now listen, hypothetically, imagine they were at the exact

same time another group of Christians going through this.

I want to make sure I pick the right word.

Pandemic who saw this as government overreach.

They were at a deep sense of patriotic duty.

They believe that while the virus was dangerous, it was

nowhere near as deadly as predicted.

The Closings, the masks, the vaccines infringed on their

personal liberty. They saw the closing of churches

as an attack on religious liberty, a violation of their

constitutional rights, and an attack on God's mission itself.

If something like that were to happen, you can imagine tensions

would have been at an all time high.

Oh, I've got you. You guys like, don't bring it

up. I just started talking to my

wife. OK, All right, listen.

I'm not making a value judgment. I'm saying, Can you imagine

going to church with people who don't believe what you believe,

think what you think? Agree with your take?

That's what Paul's writing to in the Book of Rome.

Except it's not a pandemic. And it's not politics.

It's what do you do with the Old Testament?

What do you do? A bunch of Gentile believers in

Jesus didn't grow up with the Old Testament.

They didn't grow up with the law.

They're like, we don't need it. And then the Jewish people

who've been following the law their whole life and came to

faith in Jesus were like the law's kind of a big deal.

And they're going, hey, Jesus was a Jew, and he did most of

his ministry to Jews. And then they're going, yeah,

but we're not Jews. And they're like, yeah, but but

God gave us the law. And they're like, well, we're

not under the law. And Paul is going stop, stop

fighting over this. Let's settle it.

So that is what brings us to Romans Chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

OK. I'm trying to make this

interesting because when I. OK, all right, all right.

Question one, what do Christians do with the Old Testament laws?

There are two groups of people, and as we get into Romans

Romans 7 · chapter mention

Chapter 7, verse one through three, he uses an illustration

to set up the point. Do you not know brothers and

sisters? For I'm speaking to those who

know the law Jews that the law has authority over someone only

as long as that person lives. How long does speed limits have

authority over you? Up until you stop driving.

Once you know when you're dead, you don't have to worry about

speed limits anymore. But this is the illustration he

uses. For example, by law, a married

woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, which

explains why Jennifer's always giving me Donuts and cinnamon

rolls. She's like, eat up little buddy,

You're just skidding bones. I love her.

But if her husband dies, hypothetically.

From cholesterol being a little high, she is released from the

law that binds her to him. You're bound woman.

OK for then. If she has sexual relations with

another man, OKI probably shouldn't have used her as an

illustration there and I apologize.

So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while

her husband is still alive, she's an adulteress.

But. If her husband dies, she is

released from that law and is not an adulteress.

If she marries another man, you can see the illustration.

He's saying once the husband is dead, she's no longer bound to

be faithful to him, she's free to marry another.

Now Paul goes OK, now pay attention to what I'm actually

talking about. So my brothers and sisters, in

verse 4, you also died to the law through the body of Christ.

That you might belong to another, to him who was raised

from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions

aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for

death. But now?

By dying to what was what once bound us, we have been released

from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and

not in the old way of the written code.

Paul addresses the Jews and lets them know when you were

baptized, you were released from the law.

The law is now dead to you. You have become united to

Christ. He's looking at the Jews and

saying the law no longer has authority over you.

Now pay attention to what happens in verse 7:00 and 12:00.

What then shall we say? Or what shall we say Then Is the

law sinful? Certainly not.

Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not

been for the law. For I would not have known what

coveting really was if the law had not said you shall not covet

uh oh come on, that was a double tap.

So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous

and good. Before the Jews or before the

Gentiles can go have their celebration happy dance about

what Paul just said about the law, he says, hold on a second.

The law is a good thing. It has value.

It's worth being a part of your life.

He's saying, Who created the law?

God did. Does God make good things or bad

things? God makes good things.

Who made the law? God made the law.

If God makes good things, that means that the law is good.

So you're like, hold on a second.

So what are we supposed to do as Christians?

Come here. Come here.

The Old Testament law gets broken down into three big

categories. There's the moral law, the civil

law, and the ceremonial laws. Now the ceremonial laws are no

longer applicable to us because Jesus did away with the temple

sacrificial system, becoming the once for all sacrifice for all

time for you and me when he died on the cross on our behalf.

So the ceremonial laws in the Old Testament gone, OK?

Now OK, well what about the civil laws?

Well, we're no longer Jewish citizens living in Israel, so

you can take those and go. However, the principles behind

the ceremonial laws and the civil laws still have relevance.

But more importantly, God also revealed His moral law and the

moral law found in the Old Testament.

Gives us insight into how holy and how righteous is our God.

It reveals to you and I when you read the Old Testament, the

standard that God has for us. When we talk about the law,

we're we're talking about Genesis, Ex's, Leviticus,

Numbers, Deuteronomy. Here is how you are supposed to

live as a person of God, and it gives us this high standard, a

standard that you and I cannot meet, but a standard that shows

us. How pure, how holy, how

righteous is our God. In fact, take the most famous 10

laws that God reveals in the Old Testament.

You guys know what they are? They're the 10 commandments.

Let me ask you a question. Do these still apply today?

You shall have no other gods before me.

Does that still apply, or are we going, Oh no, you can have all

kinds of gods before God. He loves it.

No, He's like no, you're that's okay.

What about this one? You shall not make idols.

You shall not worship other things.

Or you're like, well, hold on a second, Clint.

We got youth baseball. Just wrapping up.

Give me a second. OK.

You shall not take the name of God in vain.

Do you think that's OK, Golfers, pay attention, OK?

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

Is it important for you to set aside time in your life that is

fully dedicated to the Lord? Well, I think that still

applies. Honor your father and mother.

Some of your parents like, well, it used to in the good old days.

Yeah. Do you think that that still

applies? Or God's like, do whatever you

want, kids. All right, let's.

In case you guys are wondering if the Old Testament law still

has some value, the next one is you shall not murder you guys.

Getting rid of that one. Okay.

I'm just asking. You shall not commit adultery.

Are you guys supposed to just have sex with your spouse or can

you have sex with anybody? Oh, okay, I guess maybe God was

on to something You shall not steal.

We all go and let's get away. But you know, the law is just

archaic. Let's just do away with all this

Old Testament stuff so we can just be free in Christ and

steal. No, that doesn't make any sense.

You shall not lie. Should we keep that one?

So I guess we probably ought to keep that one.

We want the doctor to tell us, you know, that we're not

healthy. You look great, you little BMI

achiever. All right, all right.

You shall not covet, which is interesting.

That Paul uses this one. This one's internal.

You wouldn't know that I coveted unless the law told you that the

desires I have to have what you have were wrong.

You can tell if I'm having sex with somebody else's wife, it

becomes obvious somebody eventually catches you.

You can tell if someone's a thief because the stuff is

missing around your house. But I could be in your house and

covet what you have. And nobody would ever know that

I was sinning against God if God had not told me that the desire

that you have in your heart for other people's stuff is wrong.

You're supposed to find all of your desires met in Him.

The law has value. They're still important.

Pay attention. Jesus was asked.

What's the greatest commandment? Do you know what he says?

Well, if you haven't, I'll remind you.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all

your mind. This is the first and greatest

commandment. And then he goes on very next

chunk of verses and the 2nd is like it.

Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and prophets,

everybody say this word. Hang on these two commandments.

So you got #1 and #2. And then you got a Old

Testament. These are strings that they're

hanging off of. And those of you who aren't good

at Pictionary. OK, what's Pictionary?

OK, sorry about that. That joke was for those pre 80s.

OK, so does the Old Testament still have value for us today?

The answer is yes. So keep reading your whole Bible

question 2. If I'm a Christian, why do I

struggle so much? Why can't I get it together?

How many of you have had a weekend where you're at church

you like? I'm getting it together.

I'm turning it around. I'm doing it right from here on

out. And the next weekend you're like

son of a gun okay. Why do I struggle so much?

As a Christian? Listen to what Paul says.

We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual,

sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do.

For what I want to do, I do not do.

But what I hate to do. And if I do what I do not want

to do, I agree that the law is good as it is.

It is no longer I myself who do it, but the sin living in me.

Oh yeah, here we go. The sin made me do it.

For I know that good itself does not dwell in me.

Want you to pay attention to this, he's saying.

I, for I know that good itself does not dwell in me.

We're going to circle back to this in my sinful nature.

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it

out. Has anybody ever felt that pain?

For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not

want to do this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want

to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin living in me that

does it. So I find this law at work,

although I want to do good, evil.

Is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight

in God's law, but I see another law at work in me waging war

against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law

of sin at work within me. Why do I struggle?

Because there's a war going on. There is the desire in our

hearts to please God and serve his purposes.

But there is also this desire to do our own thing and go our own

way. Inside of me, you probably can't

see him, but there's two people that live inside of me.

There's Skinny Clayton and there's very Fat Clayton.

And I know from looking you can't tell which one's winning

right now. Can you?

Skinny Clayton has all kind. You've heard me talk about

Skinny Clayton. He's fantastic.

Like, you would high five Skinny Clayton give him a Big Bear hug?

He's fun to be around. He thinks wouldn't it be awesome

to meal prep? Oh, like that sounds fantastic.

Chicken and rice. Chicken and rice.

Chicken and rice. I could do it.

I could do it. Or if like, I was a total crazy

person, like a Turkey bacon with no beans.

Like every day for breakfast. Just nonstop and just get all

the proteins, none of the carbs and get jacked.

And I don't do it because I don't want women to to lust when

they come to our church. Like Jesus, I give my body as a

fragrant offering and I don't want to get in between you

coming to the Lord. I want when I'm here, for Jesus

to be lifted up. OK, I'm so sorry.

You're not going to believe this.

That part wasn't in the notes. OK, now how many of you got a

skinny version of yourself that hangs around sometimes?

And how many of you, the fat version of you has kicked the

skinny version of you's butt? OK, I'm preaching to the right

people. How many of you have the I want

to be a better spouse person living inside of you.

Let your other spouse raise the hand.

Which one's winning? How many of you?

There is the I want to be a better steward of my finances.

That person exists inside of you.

Yeah. And then there's the other

person's like, oh, we should go out to eat again.

That sounds we should eat at gas stations this way.

See, that's just how you're hardwired.

How many of you, you, you come to faith in Jesus and you're

going, man, I want to make him happy.

I want to follow after him. I want to do the things that

he's calling me to do. I want to lead my family.

Well, I want to represent him in the workplace.

And you can't get home from church before losing it in front

of your family. There's a war going on.

How do you navigate the war? Hear me?

Deep down inside, I know that there are people in our church

that think that just because you've been saved and baptized

and show up for church every so often, that this battle will

cease. However, you can have the desire

not to cuss and it still happen. You can have the desire to not

be prideful, but it still leaks out.

You can have the desire to grow spiritually, but you can be too

busy for a quiet time, too rushed to pray, too

overcommitted to make church a priority.

We all have this struggle, but the good news is we have an ally

in this struggle. The Holy Spirit empowers us to

lean into God's plan and God's purpose for our lives, and when

we allow the Holy Spirit to do that work in us.

Sin becomes less and less appealing.

Our spiritual strength grows more and more, so we will sin

less and less. Now hear me clearly.

This side of heaven. You will not become sinless.

I don't want you thinking that one of these days you're going

to be as perfect as Jesus Christ himself.

Not going to happen. Our bodies and souls will not be

made perfect until we are in heaven.

But while we are here on earth, while we are being empowered by

the Holy Spirit, which is why Romans 8, I'm telling you, bring

your friends who don't know Jesus next week for Romans 8 and

you will see what the Holy Spirit does on our behalf to

help us win these battles. But let me say this.

How many of you would say you are not where you would like to

be spiritually? OKI got right the right kind of

people. If you didn't raise your hand,

OK? All right.

Now how many of you would say, but you are not where you were

spiritually a while ago? God is moving you.

You take some of the most spiritual people that you know

and you ask them about their testimony, and you'll go what

some of the most spiritual people I know.

When you hear their testimony, you're like, oh, oh.

Oh, God comes into our life and he begins to take over and we

yield. And his spirit and powers and

the things that Satan offers us become less and less appealing.

And the things that God offers us take over more and more.

Question #3 So what do you do when you're not good enough?

If you look at the wall, you don't measure up.

You come to the quick realization you're not good

enough. When you look at your own

behavior in your own life and the things that inside of you

you want to do for God, and then you notice all the times you

don't do the things that you want to do for God, you come to

the conclusion that you're not good enough.

What do you do when you look at yourself?

And you come to the realization that you're not good enough.

This is what Paul says in Romans Chapter 7, verse 24.

Romans 7:24

What a wretched man am I? Do you feel a little bit of that

right now? If I've done my job, you should

feel a little bit of it. You're going, I'm jacked up,

Paul describes in this verse. Our present state, We are

wretched people. Our present frustration.

Even though I want to do all of these good things, I'm still so

messed up. I want to say this carefully.

One of the biggest barriers to you coming to faith, one of the

biggest barriers about you getting serious about your faith

is that you never get to this point.

So many people are so happy thinking that they're good.

And do you know why people think that they're good?

Because they compare themselves to other jacked up people,

right? Listen, if you hung out with

with rich people all the time, you'd come to the conclusion

that your house sucks. Have you ever been to a rich

person's house? They got like so many shower

heads in their showers, you can't help but get clean.

Okay. You don't even have to work in a

rich person's shower. You just get in Okay.

You feel like you went through a washing machine that's like

you've been like an Airbnb and they show you all the cool

stuff. Yeah, no, pay attention.

When you go to a rich person's house, it changes how you view

your house. But if you go to a bunch of poor

people's houses, you go, you know what?

My house is pretty stinking awesome.

I like my car when it's around other Jalopys.

I have the best jalopy car, but if I pull my car into a new car

lot, I go, oh, this car's trash. And here's what we have chosen

to do with how good we feel we are.

We keep comparing ourselves to other people who suck.

And coming to the conclusion, I'm a pretty good dude.

I hit my wife less than he hits his wife.

You're like, I'm a pretty good guy.

Hold on a second. You guys are like, listen, I do

funerals and I've never been to a funeral where people don't go.

He was one of the best guys ever.

He would give you the shirt off his back.

Have you ever heard anybody go to a funeral?

They're like, I got to be honest with you, this guy was a pretty

much, he was pretty much a jerk. It's just me and the funeral guy

here. It's just us.

What we do is we feel good about ourselves by comparing ourselves

to Jack wagons. Well, I'm just, you know, I'm

I'm not as bad as so and so. I'm not as bad as so and so.

I'm not as bad as so and so here's what Paul does.

He is when you read the law, you have to compare yourself to God.

And when you compare yourself to God you will come to 1

conclusion We are wretched people.

I listen, you could go home to your marriage and try this out

for size. Every time your wife wants you

to get better, you just go, Well, I'm better than so and so

and you know what the right response for her.

My wife's used this well. I didn't marry so and so I

married you if you and I. If you're going, man, I'm pretty

stinking awesome. You are comparing yourself to

other messed up people. Christians, compare yourself to

the holiness and the righteousness of God revealed in

the law and come to the conclusion that we are wretched.

Jacked up, messed up individuals.

Some of your guys, like, is the crossing Baptist.

That's OK. All right, all right.

OK. Not in my notes.

OK. Romans 2724.

What a wretched man am I? Then he asked this question.

Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Do you notice what he's doing? He's going.

I am so messed up. Who would dare to rescue me?

He feels a sense of abandonment, isolation.

If I compare myself to the holiness and the righteousness

of God, I'm a Wretch. I have nothing to offer.

Who would save me from myself? I'm so bad.

Keep reading. What a wretched man am I.

Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our

Lord. He's going.

He did. The one who is righteous comes

from me. The one who's perfect comes from

my imperfection. You want to know why he's so

excited about Jesus? Because he comes to realization

that he has nothing to offer. He is not the solution.

But God is, and God comes and God redeems.

So what's the right response for you and me?

The good we do does not earn our salvation, nor will it ever make

you good enough to be saved. But the right response to God's

love and Jesus's sacrifice for you and me is to bear fruit.

To live a life of response to the sacrifice of Jesus.

To live a life of appreciation for the love that he poured out

for us. To live a life that

sacrificially points people to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

That's what he said at the beginning of Romans in chapter

are 7 verse four. So, my brothers and sisters, you

also died to the law through the body of Christ that you might

belong to another. That's Jesus.

To him, Jesus. Who was raised from the dead in

order that we might bear everybody say this word, fruit

for God. So why do Christians gather

weakly and why do they make it a priority?

Because God made us a priority. Why do Christians serve others?

Because we've been served by Jesus and he models a better

way. Why do Christians give?

Because Jesus gave, and through our giving others find Jesus.

Why do we pray? Because we want to interact with

the one who gave us access to God in the 1st place.

Why do Christians read their Bible?

Because we want to know the God who loves us and we want to live

the life that he calls us to live.

Everything we do is a response to what God has done on our

behalf and that is Roman seven. We're moving to a time of

decision. So I was vacuuming and cooking

and and folding laundry the other day in my house and.

As I was doing those things, I was deeply asleep inside of your

marriage, your side of relationships.

Have you ever had a relationship where you are trying to earn it?

Maybe some of you. It was a dad.

All you ever wanted to do was earn it, but you could never get

it. But you're trying to fix your

marriage through works, if I just.

And so we take these earthly bindings that we have and we

apply it to our relationship with Jesus Christ.

And the tough part is you'll never get it together.

God's law is requires A perfection.

God's presence requires perfection.

Hear me when I say this, no matter how many people you bring

to Jesus Christ. It's not enough to get you into

heaven. No matter how much you serve and

rock babies and help other people, it's not enough to get

you into heaven. No matter how much you give,

it's not enough. Now, how much you read your

Bible. You could never read it enough.

But Clayton, I pray all day long.

I never stop. I've been praying your whole

sermon that God would turn it around.

OK, somebody like I didn't get that joke.

Here's why it'll never be enough.

So if you try to come into this relationship with God and try to

earn your way in, it's never going to work.

We get in because of Him. He was our perfection.

He was our work. He was our righteousness.

He was our sacrifice. He did it for us.

We didn't earn it. We were the Wretch that was

saved. Everything we do is a response

to what he did. And you can tell a lot about a

person by whether or not they're willing to respond.

I'm not asking you to do these things so that way you can get

into heaven. Because that won't work.

What you and I do shows God how much we actually love him.

And so some of you today, you've never started an intimate,

personal relationship with Jesus Christ for some reason or

another. You keep putting it off, and I

just want you to hear me say this right now.

God is willing. And ready and waiting for you.

He has already done the work on your behalf.

All you have to do is receive it by faith.

And one of the ways that we receive it by faith is when we

are obedient in the area of baptism.

And in just a few moments, when everybody else around you stands

and begins singing, there's going to be somebody right over

there by the baptistry who would love an opportunity to talk with

you about what that starting that intimate personal

relationship with Jesus Christ looks like.

To those of you who are watching online, hopefully right now, a

little box popped up in the chat that gives you an opportunity to

connect, and we have a team of people who'd love to pray with

you and talk with you and get you connected with the church to

help you take your next steps. To the rest of you in the room,

I'm going to ask you a gut level question.

Does your life reflect what Jesus did on your behalf?

Does your life? Demonstrate A meaningful love

and appreciation for God and Jesus and what they've done.

If not, this is a perfect time for us to turn it around.

Would you stand with me? Heavenly Father, thank you so

much for today. Thank you for the opportunity

that we have right now to get right with you.

God, thank you for never giving up on us.

God, thank you for giving us all the chances we've asked for.

Because, God, we're not on our first chance or our second

chance. Or our third chance.

God, I know there's people in here who are going, there's no

way that you could ever love me and God.

I pray that you would win the war in their mind right now.

Make it real to them. Got them asking for a special

encounter for every person in this room so that we can be

changed and that we can make a difference for you.

In your name I pray. Amen.