This Same Jesus

So we are in a series called Planted. So we've been kind of walking through the Apostles' Creed. Many of you know the Apostles' Creed. Maybe you grew up in a tradition where you quoted the Apostles' Creed every week. But do you know why you quoted the Apostles' Creed?

Why do you say these things? Why do we believe about these things? So we've been kind of walking through the essentials of the faith. These are the essentials of all the essentials. There are things in the faith that we can vigorously debate about and disagree on, but we don't lose this foundation that is here in Scripture based on the Apostles' Creed.

So we've been walking through the Creed and we're at the point of the Creed now that says He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead. The title of this message is This Same Jesus. This Same Jesus. If you'll turn with me to Acts chapter 1 beginning with verse 6 and walking through verse 11 and this is all in the Bible app if you want to go there to our event page and our event link and follow along or just open your Bibles and follow along with me. Feel free to take notes, whatever you need to do here.

And it says this, Then they gathered around Him and asked Him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And after He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going up.

Up's my addition, going up. When suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside Him or them. Men of Galilee, they said, Why do you stand here looking in the sky, into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven. The same way.

This same Jesus. In Christian theology, we call this the ascension. And what's interesting about the ascension, it's not something that's really holidayed about, right? We have very important pieces of Christ's ministry that we remember through putting aside time and days. And there actually is an ascension day.

Forty days after Easter, we have the day day of ascension. In which we, you know, is actually celebrated by a few, but nobody thinks about that too much. It's kind of overlooked. Christmas, we have that. Obviously, the whole world stops for Christmas.

The whole world stops for Easter. We have Good Friday, and we have all these beautiful things that are so important to remember what Christ's ministry was all about. But when we get to this, it seems that this piece of the Apostles' Creed, the very essential that we, that the martyrs have led and died for that, by the way, believing this, we seem to overlook. It's often not talked about a whole lot as a piece of the essential doctrine, but it is significantly important. I've heard it said like this, if the resurrection, and we do know that the resurrection is power.

The empty grave is power. There's power in the empty grave. But if resurrection is the power, the ascension is the shrapnel from the explosion, from the dynamite that's sent out throughout the world. It's the shock wave that resonates throughout the entire world to present or to spread that same power, the same Jesus that ascended into heaven and after the resurrection. This same power, this power in the grave is what sent it out into the world.

Its effects could be effected. The cross would have no effect. The resurrection would have no effect without the ascension, without the ascension to go out and share what I have told you as I go up into the air, and I will be back one day the same way I came. Someone said it's like building a house, building a beautiful house, and the family never moving in and experiencing that beautiful house. Or it's like having a five-star dinner that's prepared perfectly and never plated and put at the table for the customers to enjoy or the family to enjoy.

That's the ascension. Without the ascension, you don't have the experience. You don't have the power that resonates throughout the entire world. The impact that perhaps a comet would make on the earth to shift it. That's the resurrection, but the effect that would be projected throughout the world, that's the ascension.

That's that moment in time when Christ said what he said and did what he did and said he would be back one day. It's very powerful. And it did two things. Immediately it did two things. There was worship and there was witness.

There was worship and there was witness. It says in Luke that when they worshiped him, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they stayed continually at the temple praising God. They began to immediately go to the temple and praise and rejoice and gather what with other people. What were they doing around other people? They were being a witness.

They were worshiping and being a witness. And Matthew 16 says it like this, then the disciples went out and preached everywhere. Immediately they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it. So it was worship, and it was a witness, a witness to what God had done, a witness to the resurrection. That's what the ascension brings about, a witness that went out.

And even though they were flocked, even though they suffered, even though they were imprisoned, even though they were told never to speak of this name, never to speak of this resurrection, they did it anyway with joy in their hearts, with worship in their hearts and in their lives, witnessing this thing that they said, we cannot be quiet about what we have seen, what we have heard. We are here to share the good news that Jesus Christ, in fact, is resurrected from the dead. The effects of the ascension are this very thing, as He commissioned them to go out into the world. But conversely, before that, if we back up, before the ascension, we see that they dreaded Jesus leaving. They didn't want Jesus leaving, and why wouldn't they?

I mean, you had your own personal Jesus to walk around with. I mean, imagine that. Imagine Jesus just walking everywhere with you, and you're like, Jesus, I'm hungry. Okay, there's two fishes and five loads of bread. Let's make some food, you know.

Let's do a miracle, and then we'll feed everybody here. And you are, I can't afford to pay my taxes. How am I going to pay my taxes? Oh, just pull that fish up and pull the money out, and you can pay your taxes. I mean, that would be great, wouldn't it?

Just miracle after miracle happen around you. I mean, your own personal Jesus, wouldn't that be great to have? But Jesus said, it's better that I'm not with you for this reason. In John 16, he says, but in fact, it is best that for you that I go away, because if I don't, the advocate will not come. The advocate won't come.

If I do go away, then I will send him to you. They thought he was going away, but he was like, I'm in fact coming to you. I'm coming to you in a different way, in a better way, in a way that's not just me here and me there and something happening over here in one location, locationally. But he said, I will be available to all people. I will come.

I will be intimate in your heart, in your life, working through you. I will be available to everyone, whether old, whether young, as the prophet Joel spoke. The young and the old both will see visions and dream dreams. And this is the fulfillment of that prophecy that he would come and be in us, work through us, speak with us, and work in us. So, it was a fulfillment of the Holy Spirit coming, because in the Old Testament, when we see the Spirit activated and at work, was in moments in time, on specific people, in specific situations, such as the prophets, or you would see it come upon us.

Kings or certain individuals like judges and patriarchs and different ones like that. But when Jesus sent His Spirit, it was available to absolutely every person. It's available to you. It's available to me. It's available to us.

And it's better. It's better this way. He can do much more through us. He's using us. We are now His temple, the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And He says when two or three gather together, I'm there also, right? That's what's important about gathering. When we gather together, God's presence is in fact with us because we are now the temple. Christianity doesn't have a Mecca for a reason. Because other religions and other philosophy, there are certain places and certain things you have to do to be in the presence of God locationally.

But we have Jerusalem, of course. And it's a very historical spot we love to go. And it's quite touching if you visit Jerusalem. And I plan to go there hopefully in the next couple of years. I'll be able to talk to someone right now about a trip there.

And I just, I can't wait to be able to visit. But that's not where God is alone, okay? I don't have to go there to experience God. Jerusalem is right here. The temple is right here.

We can experience God right now in this place. And when we gather together, this is why it's so significant. Power and presence. When we're together, you can't do it alone. Yes, you can know God.

You can have a personal relationship with God alone. But you will never experience the power of Jesus Christ unless you are in the presence of Him with other people who are experiencing Him. We are called to come together. We gather in His name. And that's where power happens.

And there's power in His presence. And Jesus is here today because you're here as believers following Christ. Those of you who are followers of Christ, the presence of God is here today to bring salvation, to bring healing, to bring words of wisdom, words of knowledge, to bring everything we need, touching and saving people right here in this place. Amen. Can I get, that's a good thing that Gene went away and He sent His Spirit so that we can experience the temple, the holy presence of God right here in this place.

So that another church down the road can experience it just as powerfully as we can experience here because He's not locational. He is relational in His presentation of who He is. And we can have a personal relationship with Him. And it's this same Jesus, same Jesus that ascended. And He descended on us by sending the Holy Spirit upon us, the Spirit of Jesus.

And that changes the way we look at death. That changes everything, that we have the presence of God with us. We no longer have to fear death. So I want to give you four points. I want to give you three points.

electoral notes FinTech To get you to understand what the Ascension is about. What does it mean for us? What does it do? Why is it so significant? Well, first of all, it's a representation.

It's Jesus' representation. Because we have Jesus Himself. By the Ascension, we have Jesus. When He placed sin His Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus here, we have Jesus. When Jesus went to heaven, what does it say?

He went to the right hand of the Father. We no longer have to go to a priest. We no longer have to go to a prophet or any particular person. We have Jesus Christ available to us anytime, anywhere. He is our High Priest.

He is available to us anytime. We need to pray. We need to seek God for anything. Jesus is right there available to us. And with that same body, that glorified state, He will return the same way.

Some of you may understand kingship or maybe you grew up in a monarchy. We don't really have a lot of kings and monarchies today. But in that time, you would have understood what it meant to be at the right hand of someone that was a ruler. When you're placed in a right hand position to someone, it is significant. It's powerful.

You're being glorified. This is a place of honor. And when Jesus went to heaven to be placed at the right hand of the Father, though He humbled Himself, He was a servant. He came here and said, I don't come to be served. I come to serve.

God saw His humility, saw that He came down and He became a man and died for our sins in humility and therefore He was exalted at the right hand of God. He humbled Himself, therefore the Father exalted Him. And this means so much for us because that's how God works in our lives. That when it's all about us and what we're getting and what we're doing and how, you know, God, I need this, I need this, I need this, I need this. And it's never about just simply serving and serving Him and being humble.

When we mess out on that, then we mess out on the power that God, the real things that God wants for us. Because God, when we surrender and we give up our pride and we're humble, then He's able to give us exactly what we need and even better than what we even think we need. Because when we're humble, He gives us grace, but it says He opposes pride and He opposes arrogance. He exalts those that are humble. He gives positions to those that seek to serve rather than to be served.

I don't know if you remember the moment in the Bible in the Gospels where one instance, James and John walks up to Jesus, but on another instance, Mommy walks up to Jesus. And I think it's the same event, so I don't know if mommy got there first or James and John got there first, but they were asking, when you're glorified and you're exalted, can I be on the right hand and the other be on the left? And Jesus says, you don't even know what you're asking. Are you ready to suffer the way I'm going to suffer? They had no clue he was going to go to the cross and suffer the way he was.

And then that created a big argument, you know, among the disciples. I can't believe they asked that, James and John. How dare they do that? And there's this argument going in. Jesus has to have a conversation with all of them.

He says, listen, the first shall be last. The least is the greatest. I didn't come to be served. I came to serve. And you're the same way.

You are a servant. You are a servant. And God exalts those who are the least. And this is how God works. But Jesus is our advocate.

He is at the right hand of God. It says this in 1 John 2.1. It says, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. What is that word advocate?

Like if he's a representative, an advocate. What does that really mean? And I don't know how this looks in the spiritual realm. But they're giving us a view of a courtroom. And God's the judge.

And you have an accuser, which is Satan. And Satan's standing before God. And he's saying, you know what? He, she doesn't deserve it. Look what he's done.

Look what she's done. Look how they've sinned. They are guilty as charged. They are, they are, they need to be condemned to hell. And I'll take care of it, God.

Send, give them to me. You know they don't deserve anything that you have for them because of all the sin and all the guilt and all the taintedness. So he's constantly accusing, accusing, accusing us. And you know what Jesus does? He steps in as our defendant.

He steps in and he says, yeah, you're right. They're guilty, but I paid it all on the cross. It's all paid on the cross. By the blood, it is gone. I am worthy because of Jesus Christ.

They are worthy because of me, Jesus says. And they, and Jesus looks upon, or God, the Father looks upon Jesus and free. They are free. They are free to go. Everything's been paid.

It's been paid off. They have the, it's all been, been done away with. A defender is one who steps in on your behalf. Yeah, but he, and he paid it on the cross. He justified it.

And Hebrews says it like this. Therefore, he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him. And he lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. He is an interceder. He intercesses on our behalf.

What does that mean? He's, he's constantly beside the Father, kneeling down, the right hand of the Father, praying for us all the time. And he loves to. Intercede. The reason He's there is to intercede all the time, 24-7.

That's why we're able to go to Jesus Christ. That's why we pray to Jesus Christ. Because in order to even reach the Father, we have Jesus there in His blood to be able to connect us with the Father. And the Father loves it too because He's looking down at His Son, His beloved Son, and He hears the request of the saints. He hears the request of the people.

He hears the request and He's honoring those requests. And some of you might be like, well, you know, God doesn't have time to listen to my prayers. God doesn't. He's just too big. There's too much going on in the world.

No. Jesus is constantly interceding on your behalf. You can go to Him with anything. This morning, Miss Tammy and I were talking outside. She mentioned something about her window not rolling up in her car.

And she was using it as an example of a testimony to her young niece of how Jesus works. And she prayed for that window to roll up. And that window ended up rolling up and says, it's a testimony of Jesus listens to all of our prayers. Just little prayers, you know. And obviously, she was connecting that.

She says, you know, there was not a whole lot in the window. I know it was a little prayer, but God hears those prayers and Jesus intercedes for those prayers. And then not only did it bless Miss Tammy, but it also blessed her little niece because she got to see Jesus work even in the small things. Because our God, you know, He's an intercessor. He's a constant intercessor.

And God loves it when Jesus intercedes for His creation. Secondly, it communicates Jesus' return. That's important. That He left temporarily. He left at the ascension.

He's gone physically for a temporary amount of time. But He's not gone forever. He plans to return. The same Jesus that's at the right hand of the Father. By the way, I think it's interesting that He sits at the right hand of the Father.

But when Stephen is martyred, there's a point where Stephen in the Gospels in the Acts, the book of Acts, where Stephen, the first martyr in the New Testament, is looking to heaven and he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. I think that's powerful because it communicates when we are leaving this world and entering into the present, what does Jesus do? Jesus stands for us. That's who Jesus is. He's an intercessor.

He stands for us and He welcomes us in. Isn't that powerful? That's what Jesus wants for you. He wants that for you. He stands at the right hand of the Father.

But this same Jesus, He plans to return. One day He will return, but He will do this. And this is probably where it gets really hard to be a preacher, be a pastor, especially when you have a heart for people. But to be able to have a heart for people, you have to understand that there is a judgment. There is a judgment.

There is a judgment. There is a judgment. It is a judgment. 2 Thessalonians 1, 7 says it like this, He will come with His mighty angels in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don't know God and on those who refuse to obey the good news of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction forever, separated from the Lord and from His glorious power.

That's heavy, and I have no joy. I don't get up here and have joy. D.L. Moody said it like this, No preacher should be able to communicate about hell without tears in their eyes.

I take no joy in telling you about hell, but there is a day when this age of grace, this wide open door will eventually shut. There's one day where it will reach its terminal conclusion. And there will be no other chance to receive the grace of God. There will be a time of judgment, it says. There will be a judgment day.

This is the second coming, the judgment, the event. The first coming was an event of mercy. It was a mission of mercy. We are living in that time of the first coming. The first coming.

And there's this mission of grace and this mission of love and this mission of openness. If you repent, if you come to me, I'm wide open to receive you and hold you in my arms and have you. But he will come again. He came the first time as a lamb, but the next time he comes, he will come as a lion. He will come as a ferocious, conquering, victorious lion, quenching the enemies from the flaming fire of his eyes.

That's what we see in Scripture. And this is what the disciples wanted at the very beginning, you know, like right before he left. He's like, is this the time you're going to restore your kingdom? Oh, smite our enemies. Let's do this.

You know, you're risen. So let's go out and do this. They were thinking that. But the thing is, if he had given them what they wanted, they would have missed out on the most precious thing. That they could, they would still be living in their sinful nature.

He came as a lamb so that people could experience the restoration and the renewal and the purification of that which was defiled in them. To bring them to life and bring them the hope without a lamb. They would never be able to experience this very thing and take part in what God was overall doing. Where he brings a new heaven and he brings a new earth. That there will be a new heaven and new earth that will come and make everything what it was originally intended to be.

And that they could be a part of that very thing. A new heaven, an undefiled earth. Can you imagine everything that's glorious and we enjoy in this time being that all the time? Without sin, no more sorrow, no more pain. They could not experience that.

We too cannot experience that without a lamb, but he will come to judge. It says he will separate the wheat from the chaff. He will separate the sheep from the goats. Those who trust Christ and those who reject salvation, there will be an eternal destination for one and the other. And sadly, many will die with their own blood on their hands.

And even more sad is their blood on Jesus' hands because Jesus was willingly paying the price for their sins. And these are heavy things. These are lofty things. I mean, think about it. Just even looking at Revelation that the sky will roll back as a scroll and Christ will come down on a white horse with a sword coming out of his mouth.

We're like, wow, this is kind of weird. Some of you that probably didn't grow up in Christianity, what? That's in the Bible? It's weird. And if he is coming back for many of us, you know, why hasn't he come back yet?

I mean, we've been waiting for a long time. All my life I've been hearing about this second coming. And is it really going to happen? And is this just a big old story? The Old Testament actually tells us that people, prophecy tells us that people would not believe.

In fact, the logic to that, like that something won't happen because it has not happened, it's just kind of silly anyway. It's like saying, you know, I'm not going to die. Why? Because I haven't died yet. I'm just going to live forever, I guess, you know.

The logic just doesn't make sense. But the same thing happened in the Old Testament with Jesus' first coming. When he came, you know, thousands of years. He came and hundreds of prophecies that seemed weird until they weren't. And now we have eight times more prophecies about the second coming of Christ than we do about Christmas.

1,845 times it's mentioned. Seven out of ten chapters mention the return of Christ. He is coming back. It's there in Scripture. Just like the Old Testament had seen and foreseen the first coming, we have prophecy after prophecy after prophecy of his return, of his second coming, and we can be sure that he is coming back.

That same Jesus, this same Jesus is coming back. Number three, we have our responsibility. If we are Jesus' followers, we have a part to play in Christ's return. At the ascension, they left with this task. And remember, they were staring up in the sky.

And then the people in the room said, what are you doing? Go do it. He's already told you what to do. Go do it. Go do it.

Go do it. Go do it. They left worshiping and witnessing and they go into the world and they begin to share the good news with many, many people. They begin to witness. They begin to worship.

That's what God wants us to do. And He wants us to be really heavy on our hearts too. He wants us to share His heart. This isn't just about our religion and our thing and our quiet little thing over here. He wants us to have His heart for those who are lost.

He wants us to go out. We have a responsibility. We have a part to play on what we want God to do. Think about it this way. We want God...

We're praying for our neighbors, right? We pray for our neighbors. We really want God to touch my friend, touch my neighbor, touch my family member. But did you know you're the fulfillment of that prayer? That you have a part in that?

That not only do you pray for that neighbor or that family member, that you actually go out and fulfill the prayer of that? That by sharing the gospel and all that you do and the way you live? I mean, think about it for a minute. When they looked at Jesus, they asked Jesus, Is it now that you are going to restore the kingdom? And Jesus looks back at them.

No, you're going to restore the kingdom. You're going to do it. You're going to go out. And you know what? The greatest way you can do that is what you do tomorrow, Monday morning.

How you live. How you interact with people. In fact, Thessalonians says, 1 Thessalonians 4.11, some of you have heard this scripture. To make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before.

Now, why would he say that? What does he mean? Like we go and start, you know, memorizing scriptures in a closet, never communicating anything to anybody? No, that's not what he meant. In context, these people were not, had pretty much given up on life, because they thought Jesus was coming back at any time.

They were like, okay, Jesus is coming back, so I'm going to quit my job and sit around and wait. Jesus, you're coming back now? He's like, no, no, go about your life. When Jesus returns, he wants to find you busy. He wants to find you working.

He wants to find you living life. He wants you to find communicating or living out the way you should live in Christ Jesus. Sometimes the most silent things that you do are the most evangelical things that you can do in this world. By doing the right thing, not giving up when it's hard, not cutting corners, practicing integrity, being marketplace people who your business is not about you. It's about the kingdom of God.

My work is not about me. Everything that I have is about glorifying God to raise my children well, to be a good husband, to be a good wife, to be a good friend, to do the things, to be ethical in every way, to show the grace of God. And we channel it into quiet and ordinary life. Every day, it doesn't mean to be a religious fanatic, but it means that your every life, your every opportunity, you communicate Christ, you communicate, you're like Christ, so live a quiet life, don't go around quitting everything, don't be a bad example to Jesus, you're sharing Jesus with people, some people are like, what if he doesn't come in this lifetime? Well, you're creating a legacy now, because you've got tons of kids in that back room right now, they're the next generation of the church, and whether he comes in our lifetime or comes in their lifetime, he's coming, and we're building, whether it's your personal life, whether it's your family, whether it's your business, you're building a legacy way past yourself, because we're going to heaven anyway, and we can't take it with us, we got rewards waiting for us in heaven, we're, I don't need any of this, right?

I mean, it's good to create wealth and things like that, there's nothing wrong with that, but what is the reason for that? It's to steward it well for the kingdom of God, that we want to build something that goes past us. This church here needs to go past Leon Dunning, this is not Leon Dunning's church, I forbid anybody to say this is Leon Dunning's church, this is Jesus Christ's church, okay? This is Jesus Christ's church, Salt Church is Jesus Christ's church, it goes way past Leon Dunning, it should go way past, y'all should see less of me and more of Christ in this place. It can't be about me because if you put it on me, I'm going to fail you anyway, okay?

You're going to be disappointed, I can't meet your expectations, there's no way I can meet your expectations, only Christ can meet your expectations. But we build a legacy that, I love marketplace opportunities where we have an opportunity to leverage what we have, leverage our businesses, leverage our jobs, leverage whatever it is for the glory of Jesus Christ so that people, so we can extend the kingdom of God. I'm leaving you, I'm going into heaven, but I'm leaving you with this task, go and make disciples, go and make Christians. A disciple is a Christian, did you know that? There's no distinguishing a Christian into a disciple because they didn't even know what Christians were back at the ascension.

That was placed on them by the secular people looking at the church. Oh, those Christians, the Christians followers of Christ. So when he says go and make disciples, he says go and make Christians. That's what we're doing. We're going, we're using everything.

I'm not saying go out and stand on a box and tell people they're going to hell. That's not what I mean, okay? But to love people where they are, to demonstrate who you are in Jesus Christ, to be ethical, to be loving people, to do the right thing when it's hard to do the right thing. That you're always, even if it costs you your job, if it costs you your reputation in this world, that you're going to do the right thing. I think just as a side note, things are just popping in my head right now.

I know I'm really wordy today. But Kirk Cameron, for instance. A lot of you, everybody knows Kirk Cameron. And Kirk Cameron. The secular world religious fanatic guy, you know, that's always, I mean, giving up Hollywood.

Giving up Hollywood. He was probably one of the most popular sitcom TV stars in the world. Probably could have taken any movie he wanted to and been the next Brad Pitt or whatever he wanted to be. But he found Jesus and he decided, I'm leveraging, I'm leveraging what I have for the glory of the kingdom of God. I'm willing to give up my popularity.

I'm willing to give up my platform in that world for a platform in the kingdom of heaven. So that I can share the gospel of Jesus Christ. To be a servant and willing to do the hard things. Are we willing to do the hard things? Are you willing to do the hard things?

But that's what Jesus called us to do when he ascended into heaven. And then finally, the reward. It rewards Jesus. God our Father wants to reward us. Did you know that?

He really does want to reward us. He enjoys rewarding. And that should give us the motivation as I look at this life that, you know, the rewards in this life are nothing compared to the rewards that I will receive in heaven. I have not ear, I have not seen ear, have not heard things that are in store for me beyond this life. The things that I have available for me.

Look, I don't even, I can't even tell you what they are. But all I know is Paul couldn't even put it into words. What is waiting for you in the presence of God in the third heaven and what comes in the new heaven and the new earth. So I look at my job. I look at everything I do.

I look at my health even sometimes. Yeah, take care of yourself. Be healthy. But sometimes, you know, you're going to struggle in health. Is that going to make you quit?

I mean, they were flogged. Come on. The disciples were flogged. The apostles were flogged. They were put in prison.

Paul had a thorn in the flesh. But he kept going because he says, I cannot. Peter said, I cannot hold back what I have. I cannot deny what I've seen and what I've heard. I have witnessed the risen Savior.

I have witnessed it. And I'm going into Judea, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth to share this gospel that I have. The reward is waiting for me. He says, look, I am coming soon. My reward is with me.

And I will give to each person according to what they have done. We don't work for grace, but we work from grace. God desires to reward us. He calls us. And that should give us a motivation like, man, this life, yes.

I will do everything in this life to do the right things, to take care of my family, to create wealth. If that's what I'm called to do. But more importantly, I'm called to be a kingdom person, a kingdom dynamic. I want to be that shrapnel that goes from the resurrection into the world and changes cultures and changes lives. I want to be that person that's able to donate money to people in Togo.

Africa that are putting wells in and changing entire communities. Michael Simone sent me a little recording of something going on over there where he's where that whole village, the whole cities are changed. And he's able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in the process. Amen. We got John and Chelsea Bear.

I can't name where they are right now because I'm being recorded, but they're in places where they're working with refugees that are far from God, Muslims that don't know anything, and they're working with them, communicating Christ Jesus to these people, spending years and years and years trying to develop relationships with these people. Jamie and Jessica Dunning who are going into East Africa and creating sustainable developments in these communities, helping people make something of themselves, to putting these small business loans into these remote communities so that they can have a sustainable environment, economic environment in the process, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. So that this comes from Jesus. This doesn't come from any other pocket, but from the pocket of the kingdom of heaven. And that's what Salt Church gives too.

That's what other churches give too. That's what we see. That's what we want. But we do this because our reward isn't here on earth. Yes, there's, there's reward that we're getting glimpses of heaven, the blessing of serving, the blessing of giving, the blessings that are bestowed upon you when you do that.

That's very, very clear. But this is that that's not there's there's way, way, way, way more just being in the presence of God and which we will in turn in the presence of God be so, so at all of everything that God that these crowns that he gives us, we turn around and we lay those crowns back at the feet of Jesus. You are worthy of these crowns. I don't do this any for any more reason than you, Lord, because you saved me. As the old hymn said, a wretch like me saved me.

What more can I do reward? And it's all the same Jesus that does this. The same Jesus that is coming. The same Jesus that was born in Bethlehem, a babe and humble circumstances, the same Jesus that walked this earth performing miracles, that that raised Jairus's daughter, that raised Lazarus from the dead and raised himself from the dead. That same Jesus that died on the cross and and on the third day he got out of that grave, that same Jesus that ascended to heaven.

And it's going to be the same Jesus that will come again. And I can assure you, don't give up. Don't lose hope. Persevere. Let's do this together.

Jesus is coming soon. Let's reach as many people as possible for Jesus Christ. Let's have the heart of a father that loved the world so much that he gave his only perfect son, the Lamb of God, for our sins. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let And God will return, Jesus will return as a victorious, conquering lion. And I can't wait till that day.

But I also am praying, and this is what Salt's all about, and I'll end on this. This is what Salt's all about. This is why I chose, this is why God gave me the name Salt, because we are a preservative of the entire world. The Church, the Church of Jesus Christ is the representative. The ascension, that was the launch of the Church, that was the commission of the Church.

Yes, on Acts 2 that was the launch, but the commission happened, the push happened that day. Go and make disciples. That's what it's about. And the Church is here today preserving the entire world from judgment. Because God's holding back His wrath.

We don't know how all that works. But God does not like sin, but He loves His creation. And because His Church is here interceding on behalf of all of that, to Jesus who's interceding to the Father, He is holding back. He's holding back His judgment until as many possible can come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. So if we're here today as a church, that's our job, that's our duty, more than anything, to serve God by loving those who He died for.

And sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why we're here. You just got a vision statement there, okay? That's what it's all about, okay? So if you're new to Salt, that's why we're here.

So I'm going to be quiet now and I'm going to pray. Father, thank You, Jesus, for Your Word. Thank You, Son of God, for dying and for rising, but also for ascending and sending Your Spirit and commissioning us, Lord, and giving us and enabling us to do all that we can do through power and gifts and ministry. And I pray that You would continue to do that. I pray that You would do that more and more and more and more in our hearts and our lives.

I want to see this church and other churches just partner together. And we're here for You, God. So we receive all that You have for us. But perhaps there's somebody here today that does not know You, Lord. Perhaps there's somebody out there with all heads bowed and all eyes closed that still has not come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And you're destined to go in a direction that ends in destruction, as the Bible says. It's just there. And you want to give your life to Christ. You feel drawn to Christ today and you want to make that decision today. You can make that decision.

Just pray this with me. And it's not just saying it. It's believing it in your heart and knowing it based on what you've heard and what you've seen in others and what you've experienced and what it says in the Word of God. It says, those who call on my name will be saved. You call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved.

Saved from the destruction that is coming at some point in time. So, Father, just pray with me, Father, I believe in you, I believe, Jesus, you are the Son of God and that you die for my sin, that I'm not guilty based on your blood. So I receive your blood today, make me new, purify me before the Father, I receive your sacrifice, I receive your open arms of grace, Lord. Take me and make me yours, Lord, today, I live this day from, this day forward, I live it for you, God, I give my life to you, I give everything to you, and we ask this in your name, amen. Praise God, can y'all give God, praise, if you gave your life to Jesus today, fill out that card, connect, please, please, please connect with us, don't try to do it alone, we want to help you grow.

We're excited for you, you don't have to be embarrassed or anything, this is not that kind of church, you are welcome, you are wanted, we want to help you grow in Jesus Christ. We love you, my bride's going to end us real quick here. Thank you again, everyone, for being here in person or online. We always offer an opportunity to give at the end of the service, even though we don't pass buckets around, there's a couple ways you can give and they're going to throw them up on the screen. They will give you a little code that you can scan, that you can give if you want to support Salt Church and our ministries here, around the country, around the world.

If you are brand new, as usual, we don't want you to feel compelled to give, we're just excited that you gave us your presence today, we really, really, truly are. We're so grateful for that. For those of you who are consistent givers, thank you so much. You can do that by popping something in the box on your way out, you can text the amount you want to give to 84321. You can give securely via planning center.

You can even mail in a physical check. And I just prayed this week specifically that as you're giving, that God would just enlarge just the joy in your heart and the joy that you find in giving and serving other people. And that you would see blessings from God that aren't just financial. Those are the easiest ones, I think, to see in our lives and they're exciting and faith building. But that you would see the other blessings in your life out of the obedience of your heart, in your marriage, in your spirituality, your intimacy with the Lord, in your children.

I just pray for all of that, that you would see the blessings in every area of your life because that's what God wants to do. He wants to be the Lord of every single aspect of your life. So I pray that on all of you. I thank you so much for being here this week. We cannot wait to see you next week for our Valentine's weekend.

Have a wonderful, wonderful week in the name of Jesus. We love you and see you soon.