A New Start - Made New (Week 2)

Good morning.

Welcome.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for those watching online for joining us.

We are in week two of a new series called Made New.

It's a series that is focusing on discipleship.

If you don't know what discipleship is, I would encourage you to go back last week.

Pastor Andrew preached an incredible message on what discipleship looks like because here at Mid-Cities, we want to be a church of disciples who make disciples.

And so I want to start off by letting you know that earlier this week I was reading a story online.

I like reading the news, not all the news, because some of the news is just too much.

But I was reading a story actually that took place about a week and a half ago.

Just last weekend, there was a young man uh from Alaska named Derek Parker Agnanga.

Some of you may have heard this story, but um Derek and uh his older brother and a cousin had gone out fishing in the Bering Sea.

They took a skiff out on Friday evening, and at some point the skiff overturned.

Unfortunately, uh Derek lost his brother, his older brother and his cousin in that accident.

They tragically perished, and Derek hung on to this overturned skiff for about two days.

He hung on, and uh, if you know anything about the Bering Sea, it's super cold.

So Derek hung on there.

He had no food, no water, and hypothermia was setting in.

Miraculously, the Coast Guard spotted him, and immediately a rescue operation took place.

The Coast Guard got to Derek.

They dropped some inflatable rafts near him, they dropped some survival supplies, but there was a problem.

In his weakened state, Derek could not get to these supplies.

Rescue was right there for him, but he was so weak, overcome by his circumstances, that he couldn't save himself.

He needed somebody to come in and rescue him.

Praise God.

The Coast Guard got to him and they saved him.

And a further tragedy was prevented.

Derek is home with his family.

But I think about Derek in that moment, sitting on that skiff for two days.

I don't know what was going through his mind.

I don't want to project, I don't want to make assumptions, but I know if I was on that skiff with no food or water, hypothermia setting in, hopelessness is the word that comes to mind.

No hope for survival, no hope for a future.

And I would believe that there's some people sitting in this room, watching online, that may be in a season of their life where they feel like there's no hope.

Rescue is so close that you just can't save yourself.

You've done all the self-help stuff, you've tried all of the things, but you still need rescuing.

I want to encourage you to hold tight for just a few moments because I've got some good news for you.

The title of this message is A New Start.

Because today we're talking about salvation.

Now, if you've been around church for a while, you've probably heard this word salvation.

Whether preached from the pulpit, maybe you've heard it in conversations with a leader or maybe even a volunteer.

Um, but if you've been a believer for a while, if you've put your faith and trust in Jesus, please, I want to encourage you, don't dismiss this as just another message about salvation.

I don't want you to think I've already been there and I've done that.

Because I've got some uh sobering news for you.

In 93, 1993, Barna Research published some findings, and they, through their research, they found that nine out of every ten Christians believed that it was their duty to share their faith with somebody else.

Nine out of every ten Christians.

25 years later, only about 64% of Christians believed that it was their responsibility to share their faith with somebody else.

And uh just a couple of years ago, almost 50%, I believe it was about 46, almost 47% of millennials, almost 50% of millennials believed it was offensive to share their faith with someone else.

This main news series is a reminder that for all of us, if we're a Christian, if we've put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, it is our duty to share our faith with someone else.

Because we will never not need the gospel.

Whether you walked in needing salvation, or you need to gain a deeper understanding of your faith, or you need to grow in the boldness to share the gospel with somebody else.

The message of salvation has something for everyone.

We're gonna dive into scripture, but before we do, I want to give you a little bit of a backstory.

There was this powerful religious leader uh named Nicodemus.

Nicodemus was, he would be considered a good guy.

He was pious, he was devoted to Jewish teachings, and he was serving God the best that he knew how.

He was doing all the religious things.

But even doing all those religious things, Nicodemus still had some questions because he heard about this man named Jesus of Nazareth who was going around preaching about the kingdom of heaven.

So Nicodemus, hearing these things and having questions, he went to the man himself.

He approached Jesus at night, and he wanted to gain a deeper understanding about the kingdom of heaven.

So, church, would you stand with me if you're able and honoring and honor God's word by the reading of Scripture?

John chapter 3 says, Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

John 3 · chapter mention

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

Jesus answered, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with every one who is born of the spirit.

Skip down a few verses to verses sixteen and seventeen.

This is Jesus still speaking with Nicodemus.

He says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated.

Before we dive into what it means to be born again or what it means to be saved, I think it's important to help us understand our need for salvation.

We're gonna get uncomfortable, so let's just get right to it.

We're sinners.

All of us.

You, me, every one of us sins.

We all know the story of how this happened, right?

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

God tells them, Don't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And of course, um, their disobedience leads them to eating from this tree.

And shame enters into them through their nakedness.

And then not long after we see that uh we see their son Cain commit the very first murder by killing his own brother.

The actions of Adam and Eve, their disobedience, brought a sin nature to mankind, meaning we're all born into sin.

We can't escape it.

You think about the baby, the infant, that's just learned how to crawl.

This baby sees another baby with a ball, they crawl over there and they take the ball from the other baby.

Maybe even hitting the other baby in the process.

Now, nobody taught that baby how to do that.

Nobody told that baby what selfishness is or what it looks like to be selfish.

This baby just did it because it's within us, it's our sin nature.

And our sin nature is something that we have to train to correct.

But sin, plain and simple, separates us from God.

It creates this distance between us and God because God is holy.

He's set apart.

And because of that, God will not be in the presence of sin.

The more we sin, the more we go against the biblical values and the teachings of Christ, the more we separate ourselves from God and his holiness.

Let me ask you guys a question.

You guys ever done axe throwing?

Anybody ever done axe throwing?

I love axe throwing.

There's something, it's almost like primal.

I think that like guys were doing this thousands of years ago, just throwing this axe at animals and then killing them and then eating them.

And there's something I just love about it.

But here's the problem: I'm not good.

I'm not good.

I've gotten the axe to stick maybe like once in 20 times, and I've never hit the bullseye in all the times that I've done axe throwing.

Um, a few years ago here at Mid-Cities, there was a men's event, and I decided decided to bring my youngest son, who was about seven years old at the time.

We we came to Guy's Night Out, we were hanging out with a bunch of dudes, eating some barbecue, uh hearing the word of God preached, and in the parking lot they had axe throwing.

Of course, I gotta go show my son what it looks like to be this awesome dude that can do axe throwing.

And so I go up there and throw the axe.

Nothing.

Throw it again, nothing.

Probably did it about six times.

I didn't get the axe to stick one time.

And so my son, like any normal seven-year-old would do, he's like, Dad, Ted, can I try?

And I didn't feel great about letting this seven-year-old rambunctious boy have this sharp still object to start throwing it in certain directions.

But I was like, we're hanging out with guys, give it a shot.

Mason goes over there, first try, he throws it and it sticks.

Not only does it stick, it hits the bullseye.

And because I used to be really great at capturing things for posterity, I have a video to prove it.

It's pretty good, right?

It's pretty good.

Um, he's not a savant or anything.

He couldn't do it again after that.

But uh let me tell you, let me tell you, I was not happy about it.

Because I had tried so hard to just get the axe to stick and I couldn't even get it to stick.

And this guy goes on his first try and hits the bullseye.

I was probably driving home with a death grip on the steering wheel and being like, yeah, I'm so proud of you, son.

You did such a great job.

No matter what I tried, I couldn't hit the target.

I just could not hit the target.

We talked about our sin nature and how we're born into sin, but now I want to take a look at individual sin and how it affects us on a daily basis.

Romans 3.23 says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

All have sinned.

Now the original Greek word for sin that was used here in Romans is hamartia, which literally translated means to miss the mark.

Just like Mason and I had a target when we were ax throwing, there's this mark that we're supposed to hit.

And when uh the letter was written to the Romans and the word hamartia is used, the image that they probably would have pictured in their mind is an archer drawing back their bow and taking aim at their target and missing the target.

Just like an archer has a target that they're supposed to hit, just like Mason and I had a target that we were supposed to hit in axe throwing, we as humans have a target that we are supposed to hit as well.

And when I say we as humans, I'm not just talking about believers, I'm talking about all of mankind have this target that we are supposed to hit.

And that target is simply put, holiness.

We should strive to be not like this world.

We should strive to be holy and different and set apart.

That is our mark, and that is the goal that we're supposed to hit.

Philippians 4, 8 through 9 puts it like this.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

That sounds incredibly encouraging and motivating, but if we're being honest, also really, really difficult.

To continue to do all of those things with our inherent sin nature is almost impossible.

And then you compound that with the individual sin that each one of us faces on a daily basis.

Sin creeps up into our everyday lives everywhere we look.

And all of us, we know the big sins, right?

We know the big sins: murder, stealing, adultery.

What if we looked at all sin through the same lens?

The lens that I want to look at all sin through is the lens of the Bible, specifically Romans 6.23, where it says, for the wages of sin is death.

Most of us in here work, right?

We clock in at 8 a.m., leave at 5 p.m.

Maybe we work five days a week.

And at the end of those that week or every two weeks, we get something from that work, right?

We get a paycheck, we get our wages.

I don't know a lot of people that would work 40 plus hours of a week and get nothing in return.

It'd be pretty crazy, right?

There's some people that do, but most people have an expectation that they do these things throughout the week, and at the end of the week, they receive their wages.

Well, the Bible is clear that the wages of sin is death.

What we earn for the things that we do is death.

Now I know that's not super encouraging, right?

Romans tells us that the sins we commit earn us death.

And while yes, what we earn for our sin is a physical death, we all will die at some point.

What if I proposed that the sin of everyday life, the sin that we choose, what if I propose that that sin as well brings death to other things?

Let me give you a few examples.

Think about the wife who feels neglected at home.

Her husband's always working, he's rarely home.

She gets a message from an old high school friend on social media.

She's lonely.

She starts opening up and sharing things with someone of the opposite sex who isn't her husband.

Before she knows it, she's sharing intimate details and feelings with this person.

It won't be long before death has come to her marriage because of her actions.

Probably death to her family structure, friendships, too.

Think about the diligent worker who shows up every single day.

He clocks in and out when he's supposed to.

He does everything that's asked of him, but he just can't seem to get ahead.

He figures out one day that he can swipe a hundred bucks.

Nobody notices.

Death in the trust between employer and employee has been brought on by the man's actions.

Death to his career, his finances, possibly his future.

Think about the high school student.

He's got a group of friends that he believes he can change.

They get into general mischief, right?

Nothing illegal.

One day they're gathered at one of the houses of the kids, no parents around, and they start watching things on television that no teenage boy should be watching.

He remembers these things.

And the next time he's alone, he starts scrolling on the internet looking for similar videos and images.

Because of his actions, death has come to his purity and his integrity, possibly even a lifelong addiction that he's unable to shake on his own.

You can go down this path with just about any sin and reach the same conclusion.

The Bible is clear.

When sin enters the picture, death is sure to follow.

And the biggest problem of it all is that there is nothing we can do on our own to get us back into right standing with God.

Our sin is too much because of God's holiness and his perfection.

We can't do enough good things.

You can't serve enough here at the church.

You can't give enough away money, you can't give away enough money to charity, you can't say enough good things about God to bridge this chasm that sin causes between us and him.

So what do we do?

If we're all sinners and avoiding sin altogether is impossible, what hope is there for us?

Well, the first thing that we in here are gonna do is we're gonna finish the rest of Romans 6.23.

Because it says, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is where the good news comes in.

God sent his perfect only son Jesus to this earth.

He lived on earth for 33 years, both fully man and fully God.

For three years he preached about the kingdom of heaven.

He had conversations with his disciples and people like Nicodemus about what it would take to enter into this kingdom.

At the end of those three years, he was unfairly tried and mocked, beaten and hung on a cross to die.

And he did all of these things for you and for me, even though we absolutely did not deserve it.

I know that may not sound like good news, but because of this act, this sacrifice, we've been made, we've been made right with God.

It was only through Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross that we could be brought into right standing with God.

Jesus was and is the only way to bridge that gap that our sin creates.

Jesus took what we earned for our sins.

Remember, we earned death for our sins, but Jesus took that on.

He accepted the death that we deserved.

It brought death to his physical body.

Body for three days.

Because he was also fully God.

He rose from the dead, proving that he was more powerful than even death itself.

That is the restoring power of the gospel.

Restoring.

It's an interesting word.

I have started several hobbies over the last few years.

I'm in my mid-40s, and I guess I gotta find things to keep me from getting bored.

Some of those hobbies have been become public knowledge here at Mid-Cities.

Several of you have heard about my ridiculous vinyl records collection.

And uh Leah Hammett actually um uh put me on blast and told everybody about my my sourdough making prowess.

Um, I'm really good at making sourdough.

Humbly, humbly.

It's good.

It's really good.

Um, but another recent hobby that I've taken on, it's been really fun.

Um, I don't know if fun's the word, but it keeps me busy.

I've uh started collecting cast iron.

I love cast iron, so I'll take it, um, I'll find some old cast iron and I'll uh I'll restore it and use it.

I don't try to make a profit off of it or anything, I just restore it.

Um cast iron's awesome if you've never used it.

It's been used for thousands of years.

Uh, it retains heat super well.

I know I'm nerding out on you, stick with me.

Um, it retains heat really well.

Um, it doesn't have any like toxins in it, and um it's it's fairly cheap.

And if it's well taken care of, it'll last forever.

I love cast iron.

Um, last weekend we went to Amarillo to visit some family, and we ended up going to a flea market, and I found some really cool cast iron.

And of course, I had to convince my wife, I was like, hey, that's a really cool piece of cast iron.

Can I buy it?

And she's like, okay, that's fine.

And so I bought this awesome piece of cast iron.

There it is.

Look at that.

Okay, here's the here's what I'm really gonna nerd out on you.

This is an unmarked Wagner cast iron from the late 1950s, possibly early 1960s.

It's a 10 and a half inch chicken fryer.

I didn't have a chicken fryer, but I do now.

Oh man, I'm so excited.

And at this point, at one point, this cast iron pan, it was brand new.

It was clean and flawless, and it was used for the purpose it was created for.

But over time it just wasn't taken care of.

It had a lot of grease and junk.

As you can see on the bottom, it's got some rust.

It may have been left out in the elements, and it just wasn't taken care of, and it just got really crusty.

Our lives can be a lot like this cast iron pan.

If we don't take care of ourselves, if we don't seek God and His righteousness, the gunk of sin and life and shame can just start to gather on us and wear on us.

And before we know it, we're no longer walking in the purpose that we were created for.

Just like that cast iron pan, it's no good rusty and covered in junk.

We can be similar to that cast iron pan.

Well, that cast iron pan was all messed up.

Over the last several days, I took it through a process and I cleaned it up, I took all the gunk and grime off of it.

Uh yesterday, actually, um, my wife was out shopping and decided I'd spend some time on my cast iron pan.

I this is what I do with my life on a Saturday, guys.

Welcome to your mid-40s.

Um I after the cast iron was clean, I stripped it down to bare cast iron.

It was this ugly gray color.

Rubbed some oil on it, wiped all that oil off, and baked it in the oven.

I did this process four times.

It's called restoring cast iron.

And at the end of that fourth time, that crusty past cast iron pan now looks like this.

Pretty good, right?

I can't wait to use this.

Cannot wait to use this.

Hey staff, you guys may get a surprise sometime this week, so I may use this this week.

Um, I took some time to restore this cast iron pan.

And after it was all said and done, you could say that this cast iron pan has been made new.

Actually, it's probably better than it was when it was brand new.

Because I went and restored it, and this thing, I could cook a fried egg on this thing without it sticking.

Because I took the time to restore it.

You see, when Jesus comes into our lives, he restores us, and we are made new.

All the gunk and grime is washed away, and it doesn't take several days, and four times in the oven, it's like that.

When we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the Bible calls us a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5 17 puts it like this.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come.

Praise God.

What a glorious thing to be a new creation.

Just like the title of our series says, we are made new.

We no longer have to concern ourselves with our past, but we get to focus on the new that Jesus' sacrifice has brought.

So many people in this world, and even people here in this sanctuary, are looking for a fresh start or to change their ways.

Even Nicodemus himself, he needed a fresh start.

He needed to be born again.

Jesus told him, Nicodemus, you have to be born again.

Nicodemus' identity might be similar to yours in here.

There may be some people in here who resonate with this because Nicodemus was doing the right things.

He went to church.

Probably describes a lot of people in here.

But we see that Nicodemus II was a sinner in need of a savior.

Nicodemus II needed the forgiveness only God can bring.

All the good things that Nicodemus had done weren't enough to get him back in the right standing with God.

Nicodemus II had to be made new.

And if Nicodemus, this powerful religious leader, had to be made new, don't you think there's some of us in here that need the same?

I want to go back to those last couple of lines that we read earlier, John 3, 16 through 17.

This will sound familiar to several of you in here.

It said, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

We don't live a life of condemnation.

That means that when we are made new, we no longer carry the banner of sin and shame, but a banner of righteousness in Christ.

God loves us so much, me and you, that he sent his son to save us from our sin and offer us eternal life with him.

That's the gospel, that's the good news.

So what is our response to this good news?

How do we become this new creation in Christ?

How do we become made new?

Well, salvation, being born again, being made new, it requires a response because it's a gift.

Have you ever been given a gift and then just walked away from it?

I can't imagine my wife celebrating me on Christmas and buying me a brand new Audi.

You know those commercials on Christmas where they buy a car and they wrap it up with a ribbon.

And how does your spouse not know that you just bought a$100,000 car?

I don't get that.

I can't imagine my wife giving me a brand new vehicle and me saying, Oh, that's cool, and then just walking away.

God gives us this free gift of salvation.

And what we have to do is accept it.

We have to accept this free gift of salvation.

That should be our response to a gift is to accept it.

How do we accept it?

Romans 10, 9 through 10 gives us an example of how we can accept this free gift of salvation.

It says, Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

I want to tell you a little bit about what that looked like in my life.

I've had the opportunity to share my story with a few of you, whether it was in a class or over lunch.

Um, but I believe that stories are powerful, and so I want to share my story in the hopes that there is someone in here who could relate.

I grew up in church.

I went to church every Wednesday, every Sunday, sometimes twice on Sunday.

I was involved and I knew scripture.

But there came a point in my life when my faith was no longer important to me.

I tell people that when I graduated from high school, I graduated from my faith.

I was an adult now.

Nobody could tell me that I needed to be part of a faith community any longer.

So I did it.

I didn't go to church, I didn't stay involved.

And it wasn't long after that I started pursuing the things of the world.

The sin in my life caused separation between me and God day after day, year after year.

Just like we talked about earlier, when sin came into my life, it wasn't long until death showed up.

Death in relationships, death in friendships, death in trust that so many people had put in me.

Not long after I met my wife Crystal.

Together we started pursuing the Lord.

And the greatest change that happened in me was when I went from knowing about God to knowing God.

Because let me tell you, there's a difference in knowing about somebody and knowing somebody.

I knew about my wife Crystal before I knew her.

Imagine if I had only known about her and I walked up to her and I said, Hey, will you marry me?

Wouldn't have gone so well.

I had to get to know her.

We spent time together.

We had conversations.

An intimacy was built between us where I would share everything about myself and she would share everything about herself.

And we grew closer than ever before.

Knowing God is similar.

It's not enough to just know about God, but we have to know him.

We have to spend time with him.

We have to have conversations with him.

We've got to get to know him as he gets to know us.

He already knows us.

But we spend time with him, and knowing God is way different than knowing about God.

So we got plugged in at Mid-Cities.

We started attending classes.

We started doing all of the right things.

If you would have asked me in those couple of years, if after we first started coming to Mid-Cities, if I was saved, if you had asked me, Oscar, if you already put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, I would have said yes.

Because I was doing all of the right things.

I was doing everything that I was supposed to do.

Um, but there was one thing that I was holding on to.

I hadn't fully surrendered everything to him.

And I would wager that there are people, even in this sanctuary, who are a lot like I was back then.

I was doing all of the right things.

I was even well respected within the church.

People knew who I was, but I hadn't put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Maybe you were a lot like me, maybe you're similar to Nicodemus in that you were doing all of the right things, but you were still a sinner in need of salvation.

On April 8th, 2012, something changed for me.

It was an Easter Sunday at Mid-Cities, and Mid-Cities was actually having Easter services at the Wagner Noel just down the road.

I believed going into that service that I was saved.

Something in that message convicted me.

Something in me changed.

And that morning I repented of my sin.

I believed that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and I confess with my mouth that Jesus was the Lord of my life.

Now I don't remember the words that Pastor Daniel preached on that Sunday morning.

I actually remember the sermon series.

It was called Jeffersonian Jesus.

Some of you may remember this.

And there was a Jefferson Bible in a display case on the stage.

I don't remember the specific words that were preached, but I remember where I was.

If I can go to, if I go to the Wagner Noel, I can picture the spot where I was.

I may not know the exact seat or the exact row, but I know exactly where I was sitting.

And I remember the feeling that I had on that morning.

A feeling that nothing was ever going to be the same again in the best possible way.

Because when a major life change happens, you remember where you were.

About a week and a half ago, we commemorated, we remembered the 25th anniversary of 9-11.

Like many of you in here, I remember exactly where I was on that Tuesday morning.

The generation before me, they remember exactly where they were when JFK was assassinated.

Because those moments were world-changing moments.

They knew that the world was never going to be the same after that.

April 8th, 2012 was my world-changing moment.

It was the day that I knew my world was never going to be the same.

For some of you in here, September 20th, 2026 could be the day that your world changes forever.

It can be the day that you look back 14 years from now and you say, I remember exactly where I was sitting at Mid-Cities when I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ for the very first time.

There may be people in here who were like me or like Nicodemus who have been doing all of the right things.

They've been doing the church things, but they haven't fully surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ.

It can be an opportunity for you as well.

And so I want to give you that opportunity, the same opportunity that I had on April 8th, 2012.

But I'm going to tell you right now, it's going to take an act of boldness.

Because it took an act of act of boldness for me.

I raised my hand on that Sunday morning, not even thinking about who was beside me, who was behind me, or who was in front of me, because it was a moment between me and God and nobody else.

And it's going to be the same for you here in just a moment.

And so I want to encourage you, this is a moment for you and God.

So, church, I want to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes.

And if you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, today can be the day that your world changes.

Today can be the day that you are a new creation.

You are made new because of what Jesus did on the cross.

But it's going to take an act of boldness.

It's going to take you receiving the gift of salvation that God so freely gives.

And so in this moment, I want to encourage you to be bold.

If you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, or you've been doing the church thing, but you've never made the commitment, I want you to raise your hand right now.

Remember, this isn't about anybody beside you, anybody behind you.

This isn't even about me in this moment.

This is between you and God and the saving power of the cross.

If you've got your hand raised, I want you to pray these words with me.

God, we thank you for who you are.

God, I thank you that you had a plan.

God, even though I'm a sinner, you had a plan for my salvation.

You sent your son to die on the cross for me.

Even though I didn't deserve it.

God, I repent now.

I turn away from my sins, and I turn to you.

I believe in my heart, and I confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord.

God, thank you for the saving power of the cross and your love for me.

I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Those that raise your hands and praise that prayer, today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Your world is never going to be the same.

I am not promising perfection.

I am not promising everything is going to go well, but I am promising that you have the hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

And that is good news.

Now there's several others in here who've made that decision before.

They've put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

But they've let the gunk and grime of sin cover them, just like this cast iron pan.

They haven't taken care of themselves.

They've walked in the Lord for a little while, but they've let sin kind of overtake their life and create separation between them and God again.

Today is your opportunity to respond as well.

Because it's one thing to struggle with sin, it's another thing to settle into sin.

And so I want to encourage you if you've been pursuing the Lord, but sin has kind of caked over your life and created the separation from God, and you're no longer walking in the purpose that you were created for.

I want to encourage you to start pursuing Him again.

Start walking in the righteousness that God has given you.

Paul reminds believers of this in 1 Corinthians 15.

He says, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved.

Paul doesn't save, said you were saved, and everything's done.

He said, You are being saved, meaning you had a salvation moment, but you are constantly being saved.

We call this the sanctification process.

And so it's an everyday choosing to walk in the purity and the righteousness that Christ has given you.

It's everyday putting on this banner of righteousness that Christ has given us and remembering your identity and who He is.

And so I want to encourage you, if that's you, walk in salvation today.

Walk in the sanctification process.

Do not settle into sin.

Finally, I want to address those of you who have been pursuing the Lord.

You've been walking with him, you know your identity in Christ.

You've been avoiding sin to the best of your ability, and you're producing the spiritual fruit that comes with a life well lived.

However, I can almost guarantee there are people in your life who have never heard the good news of the gospel.

Maybe you've got a family member, a brother or sister, maybe it's a parent or even one of your own kids who have never responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So I want to encourage you to grab one of these one-to-one books, pray for that person by name here in just a moment, and then schedule a coffee with them, schedule a lunch with them, start a conversation with them and share your story.

Tell them about the saving power of Jesus Christ in your life and give them an opportunity to be made new by the power of the gospel.

If you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ for the first time, I want to encourage you to grab one of these.

If you're still if you've put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ before, but you don't know what it looks like to walk that out every day through the sanctification process, grab one of these.

If you've never told somebody your story, if you've never discipled somebody, I want you to grab one of these.

And if you're watching online, we have the one-to-one book that you can download as an app as well.

Take this and walk somebody and share the hope of Jesus Christ with someone else.

Church, let's pray.

God, I thank you for all of those who made the decision to put their faith and trust in you for the very first time today.

God, I thank you who for those who have been pursuing you for a while, but have let the gunk and grime of sin come over their lives and cause them to not walk in the purposes that they were created for.

Thank you for your sacrifice for us.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Church, before we dismiss, can we give God a shout of praise for what he did in the lives of people who put their faith and trust in him for the first time today?