All Disciples Know (Part 1)

Amen, amen. You may be seated. Children, we are ready for Children's Church at this time.

You may make your way back to Miss Savannah there in the back. It is always a joy to see those kids

running out the back and just having a wonderful time, but not only having a wonderful time,

but diving into God's Word and learning more about who He is. I encourage you as parents,

if your kids are going out to Children's Church, that you ask them what they learned, because

I can promise you each week they're learning more and more about who God is and who Christ is.

Well, several months ago, I had a good friend in ministry tell me that he was concerned that there

were people in his church. In fact, he said the majority of people in his church, he said he

didn't feel like they were able to communicate and explain what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

He said not only could they not really describe what it means to be a disciple of Christ,

that he was concerned that they wouldn't even really know what the characteristics of a disciple

means and what it means to be a part of this discipleship process. And while that spurred

something in me, I had already been thinking about and God was already working in my heart to develop a

discipleship pathway for our church. And that was the motivation that I needed to give this a sense

of urgency, to give this something, to bring this to the forefront of what we are focused on as a

church. And it quickly became the emphasis of my sabbatical. And I hope it becomes the focus

of everything that we do as a church. You see the great commission, it tells us to go and make

disciples. And so if what we are commanded to do is to make disciples, then I think it's going to be

pretty important that we understand what that process looks like and what are some characteristics

of a disciple of Jesus. And so what you see up here is kind of the preliminary workings of that getting

played out. As we began thinking about this, we started putting an emphasis on the characteristics of

a disciple. And so we see that disciples know, they grow, they show, and they go. And one of the things that

we're still working on thinking through is making one change to this. And that change is to add one word

to it. And that word is all. And so above each one of those disciples would be all. All disciples know.

All disciples grow. All disciples show when all disciples go. Because what we want us to understand

is this discipleship process is not just something for certain believers. It's not just something for

those believers that want to go the extra mile. But these are characteristics of every single believer,

of every single follower of Christ, that they understand these things. And so it is my hope and

prayer that this will be something that becomes a part of everything we do. This is what we're going

to be focusing on over the next eight weeks as a church. But I hope and pray that it's something

that goes far beyond that. That we won't see it just simply as a short series that we go through,

but that it will become the heartbeat of our church. Because this is ultimately what God has called us to do.

It's to make disciples. To grow in our relationship with Him. This idea of discipleship and the fact

that we are all to be disciples, I hope and pray will be the DNA of everything that we do at this church.

That it'll be something that we measure all the ministries that we do by. That it'll be something

that just pours out of who we are. So this morning, as we look at the passage that we'll be in,

in 1 John chapter 1, we're going to clearly see some truths in this passage. This truths that all

1 John 1 · chapter mention

disciples should have a part of their life. And all disciples know that who God is, and in light of

who God is, they'll understand who we are. And understanding who we are, in light of who God is, will

lead us then to clearly see who Jesus is. And so we're going to be in 1 John chapter 1 for this.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

Now I realized that we, about three and a half years ago, spent about 10 weeks going through

1 John. We're not going to do that again. And in fact, as I was thinking about a way to kick this

series off, 1 John kept coming to my mind. And I kept pushing it out because I'm like,

we've already gone through that. We've already gone through that. And so as I was meeting with some

mentors of mine and some other people in the staff, actually Ken, who you saw a picture of earlier,

he said, yeah, Brett, but here's the thing. Nobody's going to remember that. And I said,

I said, Ken, you don't know much. You don't know that. Hopefully they will remember this. But

I think sometimes it's important for us to not necessarily see something new, but to be reminded

of something that we already know. And so we're going to be going back and we're going to look

through this with a little bit different lens, a little bit different application of how we're going

to see these things and understand it. And so if you have a copy of God's word, I want you to open

with me to 1 John chapter one. We're going to start in verse five. If you're having trouble, it's not

the gospel of John, but flip to the back, go to revelation and go back a few chapters and you will

find 1 John there. But 1 John chapter one, starting in verse five, this is what the word of the Lord says.

It says,

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin,

we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins

and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And so as we begin looking at this

passage today, and in light of understanding that, that all disciples, that disciples know some,

some truths, they know some things about God. What we're going to begin seeing is disciples know

who God is. Disciples know who God is. Now, this obviously does not mean that once you're saved,

that you'll have an all-encompassing knowledge of who God is, nor does it mean that if you've been a

follower of Christ, a faithful follower of Christ for 10, 20, 30, 50, 60, however many years, that you'll

have an all-inclusive knowledge of who God is. That's arrogance. That's not what we're talking about here.

What we're talking about is there's some basic truths that all disciples understand and know

about who God is. This passage, it tells us that this message, we have heard from him and we proclaim

to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. This affirmation about who God is almost

catches you by surprise. The author is trying to, John, he's trying to get us to understand this,

the significance of this. He says, this is the message we've heard from God and we proclaim it to

you. We want you to understand this, that God is light and in him there is absolutely no sign of

darkness whatsoever. He's light. There is absolutely no darkness in him whatsoever. The idea of God being

light is something that we see throughout scripture in other places. But what John is doing right here is

he's offering us a contrasting scenario. He's painting two pictures. He says that light is the picture of

truth. It's the picture of knowledge. It's this picture of righteousness while darkness is the picture of

falsehood. It's a picture of ignorance. It's a picture of sin. And so what John is saying right here, he says,

look, God is truth. He's knowledge. He's righteous. And in him there's no darkness at all. There's no

ignorance. There's no falsehood. There's no sin in him whatsoever. And so since God is light and in him there is

no hint of darkness anywhere, then we must conclude this, that darkness, that sin has no place in his presence.

Sin has absolutely no place in his presence. Now this is where it poses a problem for us.

This is where we see the greatest problem plaguing humanity because all of us are sinners. And so what

this means is that because of our sin, there is no place in his presence. And because of this, the next

truth that I want us to, for us to see that disciples understand is very important. Yes, we, we understand

all disciples, disciples know who God is, but we also disciples know who we are. We know who God is. And in

light of who God is, we need a clear picture of who we are. So disciples know who God is and disciples know

who we are. Well, the Bible tells us very clearly that we are sinners. Now it doesn't matter what,

what singer or what politician tries to convince you. Otherwise, most people aren't good. There's not

that most people are good, but just a few bad apples. What we see is the fact that, that everyone

is a sinner. No matter what background you come from, everybody has this problem. In fact, Ephesians 2,

it tells us, it says that we are all dead in our trespasses. It doesn't say that we're pretty bad

often. And if we get ourselves together, then maybe we can fix this problem. No, it says we're dead in

our trespasses. It says we're following the way that Satan wants us to follow. We're going down the path

that he wants us to go down. And it tells us that we're objects of God's wrath, like everybody else.

And so it paints this picture. Romans also paints this picture for us in Romans 3, where it tells us

very clearly. It says, none is righteous. And if you didn't understand what none means, it says, no,

not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside and together they have become

worthless. No one does good, not even one. And so disciples of Jesus, disciples of God, we have a clear

understanding of our condition before God and apart from Jesus. We are sinners. And one of the things

that this passage tells us very clearly here is that we are dishonest sinners. Now I know what you're

thinking. You're probably thinking, well, Brett, is there such thing as an honest sinner? And so I want

you to just hear me out here for a second. What I mean by dishonest sinners is that a lot of times we're

dishonest with ourselves about our sin. It says this in verse 6, chapter 1, verse 6, it says,

if we have fellowship with him while we walk in the darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth.

You see, people get really good at hiding their sin. People get really good at putting on a show and

anybody can act pretty good if enough people are watching them. And so what we see here is we often try

to minimize our sin. We downplay it and we just outright try and hide it. What this shows is very

clearly is a lack of repentance. Now repentance is going to be something that we talk about pretty

heavily for the remainder of this time that we have together because it's key to our understanding

of who God is. It's key to our understanding of who we are and what Jesus has done for us.

In fact, when you look at Jesus's first proclamation in Mark 1 15, he says, repent and believe the gospel.

And then Peter in Acts chapter 2, he's just given this very compelling message to all of these

Acts 2 · chapter mention

people that are there to hear about who Jesus is and hear what he has to say. And people are

convicted and they ask Peter, what are we going to do with this? What are we going to do about this

knowledge? And Peter tells him, he says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus

Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You see, repentance

is always linked to our understanding of who we are and who Jesus is. What John is saying here is if you

can, you can say whatever you want to say about Jesus, but unless your life changes, you really don't

believe what the Bible says. You can say all of the right things, but unless your life changes, there's a good

chance you don't really understand and believe what it is that you're saying. And this is what we mean by

disciples know. This is what we mean by disciples know, not just that there's a head knowledge, but that you're

giving your life to this. But this is something that you're, you're banking on. You're, you're going all in on this

knowledge of who God is and understanding who we are and who Jesus is. Jason and I had a similar

professor. So we were talking about this, the, uh, actually a little while back, but one of the things

that, uh, this professor, I think his name was Dr. Lierbach, if I remember the, who we had similar, but

Dr. Lierbach, he gave us this formula for what it means to show what you actually believe. And I've shared

this with you a number of times over the years, but this formula is very simple. Um, it's a, it's this,

it's your stated belief plus your actual practice will give you your actual belief. He says, if you

want to understand what you actually believe, then there's a very simple formula for this stated belief

plus actual practice will give you your actual belief. In other words, what he's saying, he says,

you can say whatever you want to say. You can say whatever you want to say about Jesus. You can say

that he's the, the son of God. You can say that he lived a perfect life, that he died on the cross

for your sins. You can get all of those things, right? You can say that he is Lord of your life.

You can say that he's your greatest treasure. You can say that you're following him with your life.

But if you're not actually doing those things, if you're not actually showing that he is your

greatest treasure with your life, if you're not actually following him, then you call into question

whether or not you actually believe those things. Because it's not just a head knowledge that we're

talking about. We're not just talking about being able to get all of the answers right on the test.

We're talking about, do we know this? Do we believe this? Are we giving our life to this?

This is what we're giving our life to, not just part of our life, but we're giving all of our life to

this. Imagine that, that I was, imagine that I was having a premarital counseling session with a

couple and, and they come in and the man comes in and says, you know, I'm really just not that into

you. You know, there's some aspects of you that I like. There's some things that I appreciate. You

know, I appreciate that, that your dad has a lot of money and I appreciate, you know, all of those

things that we're going to be provided for, but, but there's just some things that I'm just really not

into you about. Or imagine they come in and the, and the, the man says, you know what? You are going

to be my number one. You're going to be my number one, but I do like the company of, of some other

ladies as well. And so, and so while you're going to be my number one, there's going to be some other

people in our, that the, the, the ladies hopefully is going to say, absolutely not. I don't want to be

number one. I want to be the only one in your life. Yet a lot of times, this is how we come to God.

This is how we come to Jesus as a, as a buffet line where we just come in and get what we want

and leave the rest. But what we see is he is either Lord of all, or he's not Lord at all. John is making

a very strong warning to his readers in this letter. If you claim to know Jesus and have a relationship

with him while we're living unrepentant lives, then this could be a very serious sign that we don't

have a relationship with Jesus. Even if it's one area, you get, God, I'm giving you all of these other

areas. And we start compartmentalizing, God, you can have this, you can have this, you can have this,

but, but, but not this over here. This is mine. You know, don't you have enough with all of those other

things. That's not what God is after. He didn't go to the cross for part of your life. He went to

the cross for all of you. And so we see all of our lives being given over to him. He is either Lord of

all, or he's not Lord at all. So, so don't be a dishonest sinner with your life and think, you know

what? I'm going to claim to follow Christ, but I'm actually going to live for myself. But the next thing

that we see in this is that, that there are those sinners that are in denial, these in denial

sinners. And in this passage, we can still clearly see that there are obstinate sinners or sinners that

are just in denial of who they are. In verse eight, it says, if we say we have no sin, it says we deceive

ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves and the truth

is not in us. Verse 10, it says, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and the word is not

in us. I think this is probably one of the biggest issues that we face when it comes to sharing the

gospel is that people are not willing to admit that they're sinners. We live in a day and time where we

don't really understand sin very well, where we've tried to redefine it, where we've tried to make it

something that is tame and okay to deal with, where we're trying to make it something that's respectable.

One commentator noted though, he said, John is telling us that the only way that you're ever

going to hear the words that you are forgiven one day is if you say the words, I am a sinner.

We've got to understand in verse 10, right here, it says this, if we say we have not sinned,

we make him a liar and his word is not in us. We confess that we are, we understand who we are.

We don't live in denial that we are not sinners. The issue that seems to be becoming more and more

prevalent today is this fact that we don't understand sin. People don't see themselves as

sinners. There's a book written in 1973 titled, Whatever Became of Sin? And in this book,

Carl Menninger, he notes some observations that he's seeing in 1973. Now I'm just going to go ahead

and tell you that he's making these observations in 1973. It's not a whole lot better. I think these

same observations can be made here in 2026 as well. But he says this, he says the very word sin,

which seems to have disappeared, was once a proud word. It was once a strong word, a serious word,

but the word went away. It almost disappeared. The word along with the notion. Why? He said,

doesn't anyone sin anymore? Doesn't anyone believe in sin? Again, he wrote those words in 1973 and I

believe they are still very true for us today. In fact, D.A. Carson commented that the most frustrating

aspect of doing evangelism in universities is the fact that students generally have no idea of sin.

He said, they know how to sin well enough, but they have no idea what constitutes sin. This is one of the

biggest challenges that we face today. No one wants to admit that they are sinners. You won't get clarity

from politicians on it or entertainers. In fact, the only way to truly understand the gravity of the word

and the gravity of sin is by looking at God's word. You see, our sin, if properly understood, drives us to

the gospel. Our sin, if properly understood, it drives us to the gospel. And our sin, if properly understood,

drives us as believers deeper into the gospel. It doesn't just drive us to the gospel. We as believers,

if we understand it, it will drive us deeper into the gospel the more that we grow in our relationship

with God. Without knowledge of sin, we don't see a need for a savior. Without understanding that we have

this problem, we don't need a solution to the problem. Without understanding our sin is a big deal,

we're not going to look to Jesus on the cross and think that it was necessary. With a low view of sin,

we are going to have a very low view of grace. But this is not just for people who never attend church.

It's not just for people who are not actively in anything that has anything to do with religion.

This is for religious people. This is for believers who are growing, who put on a good show on the

outside and everyone thinks that they are great and wonderful. And they probably think they're great

and wonderful as well. You see, closeness with God makes us more aware of our sin. The closer we are

with God, the more aware we are of our sin. I love how Paul says it in 1 Timothy 1. He says,

the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save

sinners. And then he says this, of whom I am the foremost. Or in other translations, of whom I'm the chief

of sinners. I am the foremost of sinners. I am the greatest sinner. Now, are there people who have lived

during this time that Paul's writing this that probably had more sin in their lives if you just

measured all of the times that probably so? But what Paul is saying, he says, look, the more that I grow

in my relationship with Christ, the more that I understand who he is, the more aware of sin I am in

my life, the more I see the need to put it to death, to get rid of it. What I'm saying is that you could

have grown up in the church your whole life and never really understood God's grace or God's

forgiveness because you've never really seen your sin as a big deal. And that's hard to wrap our minds

around because what we're saying is that you could have grown up in church your entire life. You could

have been around people who've talked about God's forgiveness and God's grace and all of those things,

but you've never really seen yourself as a sinner. You've never really seen yourself in need of God's

grace. And so what we must do is we must understand who God is and who we are in light of that.

We don't compare ourselves with others around us. We don't say I'm better than most and so that must

mean I'm good. We say I am a sinner and I need God. Actually, that attitude of comparing yourself to

everyone may be evidence that you've never actually had a relationship with God, that you've never

really understood that need because all you're doing is looking around and say, well, at least I didn't do

this. At least I didn't do that. I must be good because look at all these other people that are good

and I'm better than that. We've got to stop comparing ourselves to other people and understand

our desperate need. If your sin doesn't drive you to the gospel or deeper into it, then you may not

understand the gravity of it. And so the final way that I want us to see us as sinners is this,

is that we are sinners saved by grace. We are sinners saved by grace. It makes it very clear here.

Verse 7, it says, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one

another and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin. Verse 9 says, if we confess our sins,

he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And so, yes, we see ourselves as sinners. We understand that very clearly. And in light of

who God is and the fact that he is light and in him, there's no darkness, that sin separates us

from God. But we see that we have hope in this, that we are sinners saved by grace, which is all of

this is leading us and pointing us to the truth that we as disciples know who Jesus is. So as

disciples, we know who God is, we know who we are in light of who God is. But all of this is pointing us

to know who Jesus is. Disciples know who Jesus is. It says, my little children, I am writing these things

to you that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, which we all do, we have an advocate with the father,

Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the

sins of the whole world. He is our advocate. This is who Jesus is. The same word John uses here

is the word that he uses in his gospel to describe the Holy Spirit being our helper. The word refers to

one who is an intercessor or a mediator, one who might help with a legal issue or help us gain access

for another to a prominent person. He may help us gain access to a prominent person. And for this

example, he's helping us gain access. He's the only way for us to gain access to the father. The fact that

we need an advocate is a reminder that sin separates us from God, but we have an advocate, which means

when we sin, we are not driven to despair. When we sin, we're not thinking, well, I have just messed

everything up again. But as awful as sin is, we have an intercessor to help us deal with the fact

and keep us close to God. We have an advocate. And the way that this is possible is highlighted

in this next verse right here. It says, he is our propitiation. Now, some of your translations here

may read, he is our expiation or he is our atoning sacrifice. And these words and these translations are

really helpful. It's helpful for us to understanding what he's trying to communicate. Like expiation,

propitiation in part is the removal of sins. They're covered those sins. However, propitiation

also carries with it that this is done by taking on God's wrath, by paying for the removal with his

blood. It's not just that our sins are covered. It's just not that they're hidden or taken away,

but they're dealt with. They're done. Jesus dealt with it on the cross. We see this being played out

in 2 Corinthians 5, where it says, for our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that we

might become the righteousness of God. For our sake, for our benefit, he made Jesus become sin. The one who

knew no sin, the one who had no sin, he made him become sin so that he could make that sacrifice for us.

He made the righteous one become sin so that we could be given his righteousness. And then also in

Galatians 3, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Christ redeemed us

from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. And so he took on all of those things that we read

about in Ephesians 2, that we are objects of God's wrath, that we're following the way that Satan wants

to go. He took all of those things on himself. He became the curse for us so that we could have a

relationship with the Father. In light of all of this, of who God is, who we are, who Jesus is,

John is saying, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

You see, sin is like mildew. It thrives in the darkness. It grows in the darkness,

but you expose it to the sun and it goes away. You bring sin into the light and it exposes it.

Now the process of this repentance that we're talking about, you know, we, I'm writing these

things to you so that you may not sin. This process of repentance is not always easy. In fact,

I would say that it rarely is. C.S. Lewis once said, he said, fallen man is not simply an imperfect

creature who needs improvement. He is a rebel who must lay down his arms. This process of surrender,

this movement full speed astern is what Christians call repentance. He says, now repentance is no fun at

all. It's something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means killing part of yourself,

undergoing a kind of death. Now, I don't know about you and your household right now, if you have

any kids to get ready each morning, but I've got three kids to wake up and get out the door to school

each and every day. Now their favorite part of the day is when I walk into their room, the lights are off,

they're sound asleep, and they love it when I come in and I flip on that light and say, all right, time to get up.

It's their favorite part of the day. Now they just love it so much. Oh, daddy, thank you so much for turning

this light on. My was used to the darkness, but thank you for turning this light on. No, they don't ever do that.

They act like they're Superman. I just threw kryptonite on them. Oh, what are you doing, dad?

And sometimes they even get up and will go turn the light off and get back in the bed. Does anybody else's kids do that

or is it just mine? They don't like it because they're used to the darkness. They've gotten

accustomed to it. They're living it and this is what they enjoy. You see, when our sin is brought

into the light by God and his word, it can be painful. Our knee-jerk reaction may be to try and

pull away from it, or we may start getting very defensive and say, I'm really not that bad,

especially compared to everybody else around me. I'm pretty good, but that's not the standard we're

going for. It says God is light and in him there is no darkness, or hopefully we will look at our sin

exposed by the light and it will point us to our savior who became a curse for us, who became sin so

that we could have his righteousness so that we who have placed our faith and our trust in him will

never have to be that curse. If you've been saved from something horrible, if you've been saved from

something terrible, why would you want to go back to it? Why would you want to turn away from that savior

and go back to living for that horrible thing? You see, disciples know Jesus and they want to be

like Jesus. They know him, they want to be like him, and this repentance is a part of that.

And closely related to that is the word revival. You know, I think that all of us as believers,

we long for revival. If we are following Christ, if we're giving our life to him, this is something

that we want to see. And in fact, part of my heart behind wanting to put this emphasis on

discipleship and the fact that we are all disciples is because we want to see revival take place.

We want to see lives changed in this church. We want to see lives changed around our community. We

want to see this take place. But one of the things that we know from church history, one of the things

that we know about the different revivals that have taken place, one of the key characteristics,

and I would say is probably the main characteristic, or at least the fruit of revival, is repentance from

sin. One pastor that I was reading talking about revival, he said this, some so-called revivals have

been characterized by exotic experiences without much emphasis on repentance. All about a show,

all about this experience without actual repentance taking place. He said people go like tourists to

such places to see what is happening. I wonder whether you could call that revival. He said after the

revival at Asbury College and Seminary in 1971, he said many students came to the bookstore to return

things that they had taken without paying. He said that is a powerful sign that they had become

right with God. That is a powerful sign of revival taking place because of the repentance that you're

seeing. If we are to be disciples, it is clear that there are some truths that we know and believe. We know who God

is. We know who we are in light of that. We know what Jesus has done for us. In short, we know the gospel.

Disciples of Jesus, disciples, all disciples know the gospel. And it is my hope and prayer that as a church,

we want to see God move in mighty ways. We want to see God move in this church. We want to see revival

taking place. We want to see disciples growing. And one thing that we all see as clear evidence to God

working is repentance. One clear way to show our understanding of who God is, who we are in light

of who God is, and what Jesus has done for us is repentance. He says, my little children, I am writing

these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does, we have an advocate with the Father,

Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not only for ours only, but also

for the sins of the whole world. I don't know where you are in your relationship with God right now,

but I do know that all disciples know God. They know who God is. They know who they are in light of

who God is. And they know Jesus is their only hope. They know Jesus is the only answer.

They know the gospel message. And so if you are here today and you realize that you need a Savior,

then today can be the day that Jesus becomes your advocate. Today can be the day that you begin this

process of discipleship, that you can understand that as your advocate, Jesus is arguing our innocence.

He is arguing his propitiation. He's arguing that it was sufficient for you and for me and not only for

us, but for the sins of the whole world, for all of those who place their faith and their trust in him.

His payment, his satisfying of God's wrath is enough. This hope is offered to you today

if you've never received it. But he's also from this passage showing that disciples understand the gospel

and they live a life of repentance. This does not mean that you're perfect, but as believers,

as disciples, we should be seeking to put sin to death in our life. It shouldn't be something that

we get comfortable with. We're not looking around at everybody else around us and saying, well, at least

I'm not that bad. At least I'm not doing this thing over here. I'm not as bad as I could be. And so

compared to everybody else, I'm pretty good. No, we understand that we are living a life of repentance.

Maybe you need to give your life to Jesus. Maybe you need to take sin seriously and start repenting.

Maybe you have some sin in your life that you need to deal with, that you need to get rid of,

that nobody else knows, but you need to get rid of it. It needs to be dealt with. Maybe you need to

stay seated right where you are in just a moment when Clay's singing. Maybe you need to take your spouse

or your kids by the hand and just pray right where you are. Maybe you want to take another step and

come forward and pray right here in the front and say, Lord, I need to deal with this in my life.

Maybe you need to come forward and say, Lord, I need you. Whatever the case may be, whatever God is

leading to you, I encourage you this morning to listen to him and to follow him. Let's go to the Lord in

prayer. Father, thank you. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for what he's accomplished on our behalf.

But Lord, help us to see that clearly today by first understanding who you are, that you are light,

that there is no darkness in you, that there is no sin in you. And Lord, our sin poses a problem for us.

Lord, help us to all clearly see that we're sinners in need of a savior and let that sin point us to you.

And so, Lord, I pray that there's somebody here today, whether this is their first time or this

is their thousandth time, Lord, that they see their sin clearly, that they see their sin as pointing to

the gospel, pointing to their need for someone to act on our behalf. And so, Lord, we thank you.

We thank you for Jesus, the fact that he became a curse to redeem us from the curse. He became a curse

for us. And so, Lord, help us to see you clearly today. Help us to clearly see the hope that we only

can have in you. And so, Lord, as we see you clearly, help that sin to be brought into the light.

Help that sin to be something that we are trying to bring out and to put to death in our life. We

realize that you accomplished this once and for all on the cross, that when you look at us, you don't

see our sin, our shame, our regret, but you see your son's holy and perfect life. And so, Lord, help us

to become what you've already declared us to be. Help us to put that sin to death in our lives so that

we can more clearly see you and live for you in all that we say and do. We ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen. I'm going to invite you to stand. If God is speaking to you this morning, my hope and prayer

is that you're willing to be obedient to what he's calling you to do.