Why Christianity

Part of that is today we’re going to talk about Why Christianity? Why Christianity? So just so you know, if you’ve known me for a little bit of time, this here is. It’s a little out of my wheelhouse, but it also is bringing me back in because a lot of this message that I’m going through is speaking to me as well. It is you.

So if I could have just a couple minutes. I mean, we’ll be done in about four hours, you know, you’ll be done. Just kidding. Just kidding. I know we’ve got to beat the Baptist and the, the other Pentecostals out to, to eat, so that’s okay.

It’s going to be hot today at the beach, so there’s, there’s no rush if you’re local here. I know we all dislike the vacationers, but, you know, hey, we deal with them. We do. Well, I don’t know. But anyway, God love them all.

Right, so Why Christianity? Well, the question at hand really, does life have meaning and value without the existence of a higher power? So Christianity in and of itself declares that God exists and has not been silent. See, therefore, if God exists, he must mean something to us and he must touch our lives in the everyday. See, Christianity is more than just believing that God exists.

It’s believing that God has come near, made himself known, and desires to walk with us every single day. At some point in time, as you became, and if you walked into church, maybe you grew up in a church and you said, well, Jesus is kind of this person over here in God, and it’s just like kind of live my life the way that it is, and I do my thing and, you know, but then at some point in time, there’s been this twinge in your heart, but you really weren’t sure what it is. Or maybe you’re just kind of like, you’re. You’re kind of like half in, half out. My goal is that we get in, including myself in this is we go through a deeper understanding of the who, the Why, the when.

Why do we look at Christianity? Why is Christianity set apart from all other religions? What makes us different from any other religions or cults or ideologies? What makes us different? See, in Timothy, it always says, be ready in season and out of season.

Because, see, nowadays, when you start talking about other religions, they do very well at explaining Why they believe what we believe. But see, if you ask most people in the United States and they identify as if you were to walk up to them and say, well, are you a Christian. Most 90% of them will probably say yes, but yet they don’t have the basic understandings of, well, how did you arrive at that? Well, I grew up in church or my mom and dad, or, you know, at some point in time in my life, I kind of went that way. So we get back to the basic idea that, that believing in God is more than that.

We have to have a clear understanding that at some point in time he came near to us, the Word was made flesh. And we’re going to get more into that, that he made himself known and that he desires to walk with us. See Sren Kierkegaard wrote a parable of a king and a maiden. And it’s very profound allegory about the nature of love and power and free will. It illustrates true love cannot be coerced.

To win a humble peasant maiden without overwhelming her, the king must strip away his royalty and become her equal. See the core dilemma in this? As Kierkegaard goes through a metaphorical scenario, he understands that the king, a ruler of immense power who commands absolute submission from all of his subjects, he falls deeply in love with a poor, humble maiden living in a remote village. The problem is that the king faces a paradox if he uses his royal power to elevate the maiden to his palace or commands her to marry him, but which she would have to obey. But he could never truly know if she loved him or simply is acting out of fear or subservience.

The desire here is that the king does not want a submissive subject. He wants an equal partner, someone who will love him freely for who he is. Because ultimate unlimited power cannot command love. The king soon realizes that he has only one choice. He has to lay down aside his crown, remove his royal robe, step down from his throne, and he takes on the personification and the appearance of a lowly ordinary form of a peasant.

So he can approach the maiden as an equal. Only by surrendering his immense power can the chasm be bridged. See? Allowing the maiden to freely love him and genuinely see him as he is. See when we understand this.

While the parable reads like a romantic fairy tale, Kierkegaard, a devoted Christian existentialist, used to illustrate a profound theological concept. Number one, the incarnation. The story serves as a metaphor for Christian concept of the incarnation. The king represents God, the maiden represents humanity or the individual sinner, bridging the divide. Number two.

Just as the king humbled himself to win the maiden’s love, God humbled himself to come to earth as a helpless baby. And A vulnerable man. Number three, preserving human free will. God does not force humans to love or obey him through overwhelming majesty or fear of the divine wrath. But instead he approaches humanity gently and vulnerably, allowing us to free will to choose Him.

That’s the essence of Christianity. See, in John 1:1, we read that this, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. John’s talking about that they walked with Jesus, they saw God in flesh and they understood. See, every culture has, has been religious or it has a certain type of belief. Every culture believes in a higher power.

Granted, in the modern west we’ve now in some sense of the, of the modern west, we’ve, we’ve embraced atheism, but that is but a mere blip in the screen of time. Because, see, here’s the moral dilemma, even for atheists. Why does every person have a basic sense of what is right and what is wrong? It has to come from something. It doesn’t just magically appear.

See, Ravi, Ravi Zacharias, who is a Canadian American Christian apologist and evangelist and an author, was approached by a student and said this. And I know I’m getting a little deep here, but trust me, hold on, take notes, go back and listen. But the student said, responded to about. The student argued that the existence of evil actually disproves God. And Ravi Zacharias said, answered in a series of questions.

And he said, when you say there’s too much evil in this world, you assume that, that there’s good. When you assume there’s good, you assume that there’s such a thing as a moral law on the basis of which differentiate between good and evil. But if you assume a moral law, you must posit a moral law giver. Somebody had to give the law. But that’s who you’re trying to disprove and not prove.

Because if there’s no moral law giver, then there’s no moral law. If there’s no moral law, then there’s no good. If there’s good, if there’s no good, then there’s no evil. So Ravi Zacharias looks at the student and says, what’s your question? See, we go through life, we grow up and listen, my grandkids love fairy tales.

We read them the fairy tale books, you know, and, and what’s the commonality in fairy tales? The commonality in fairy tales is that there’s good and there’s evil and Inevitably, in a fairy tale, what happens? Good always presides over evil. But see, CS Lewis deals this with extensively in the beginning of his book Mere Christianity. His argument is not that fairy tales prove Christianity.

It’s that they point to something much deeper. See, humans everywhere appeal to a moral law. We can expect others to behave a certain way. We feel wronged when that law is broken. See, Lewis observed that even people who deny God will argue in moral terms because they’ll look at you and they’ll go, well, that’s not fair, or that’s wrong.

Or they’ll look at you and go, you shouldn’t have done that. But those statements only make sense if there’s a real standard beyond personal preference. See, Christianity takes the universal moral intuition and gives it a grounding. Evil is real because God’s holiness defines what is good, whether you know it or not. That good comes from something that is innate inside of you.

It is not something. So when you look, it’s like when we’re born, we’re all born. We’re not born good and holy and righteous. It’s learned. The human longing for justice is not imagination.

It’s a reflection of God’s character that is within us. Many of us do a lot to bury it. See, Christianity goes further than just the fairy tales ever could. It doesn’t just say the hero wins in the fairy tale. It says, the hero came into the story.

It doesn’t. See, in John 1:5, it says, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. See, fairy tales reveal good and evil, but the good’s got to come from somewhere. See, when we get deeper into this, we begin to understand that Christianity is where God has revealed himself to us. So how has he revealed himself?

Some may say, well, you know, I don’t. I. You know, I haven’t seen God. I don’t. You know, God is just some.

This mystical creature. He’s in the cosmos or he’s whatever. I’m glad you asked that. One of the ways is through creation. In Romans 1, 18 and 9, it says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth.

Unrighteousness. Because what we may. Because what may be known, God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. In Genesis 1:1, it says, Very easy, in the beginning, God created. Psalms 19:1:4 says it this way.

And when I read this, I was like, this is the God that I serve. It says, the heavens Declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork day into day under speech, night unto night reveals knowledge. There’s no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the Earth. And their words to the end of the world.

The Earth is consistently grad. The Earth consistently groans. Why? Because it shows it’s telling and it’s telling of God revealing himself to us. We have a lot of surfers in the community that surf.

That wave didn’t just appear. How did it come to be? By merely paddling out and grabbing on the crest of that wave, it merely shows the power that God exists, that Earth didn’t just evolve from some type of ooze. If you want to believe that the Earth was that God, just, you know, it evolved and we were created, have at it. But when I look around and I see the entricies of the world and I see even in the human body, how we are so intricately and sophistically made, do you know, and I did a sermon on this a while back.

Do you know that deep within your DNA, and I know this is going to tick some people off, you know, the transgender, whatever. Listen to me. Do you know that you are so intricately made that it doesn’t make a. What doesn’t make a darn bit of difference what you do to the outside. It doesn’t make a difference if you say, well, I’m a man or I’m a woman or I’m a cat or I’m whatever.

Because within your DNA is called a God gene. It’s in you. You can never get rid of it. It’s like God’s thumbprint said, this is my child, and I’m going to put it right there. When you go and do a little deep dive and you look at the God gene under a microscope, it’s a cross that’s in you and me.

So God looked down from heaven and say, I’m going to form you and I’m going to move in you. Look, does life always go right? No. No. But that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t exist.

Secondly, he reveals himself through the Son very clearly. He revealed him through the sons. Hebrews 1:1:3 says this God, who at various times and in various ways, spoken times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things. Understand this. If he’s the heir of all things and we are his children, guess what?

We are heirs. Little Side note, just taking a little side street, okay? Through whom all things are he made in the world? Who being the brightness of his glory, and expressed the image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had himself purge our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. See, throughout history people have always asked these three questions.

What is God like? Does God care? And how does God view sinners in Jesus? God already answered those questions very, very visibly. And we’re going to do a little bit deeper dive into the different aspects of Did Jesus exist?

Did he not exist? I could tell you right now through scientists, even scientists that attempted to disprove Jesus, that Jesus didn’t exist, they themselves found out that Jesus does in fact exist. If you want go back and read Jeremiah Johnson did a complete study, wrote a book and we’re reading it now called the Jesus Discoveries. One of the things that they find out, and a little side note on this, that he did an extensive study on the shroud of turid. Because many thought that the shroud of turid was in fact fake.

He found out very quickly it is not. And as a matter of fact, one of those things that he said was that in order for the image to be burned, it would have had to take the equivalent of a nuclear power to put that light in. Now here again, I’m not a scientist, I’m not a scholar, but you research it yourself. You do the study, you get into the Word. But Jesus said, he who has seen me has seen the Father.

John 14, 9. If you want to know what God’s heart is, all you have to do is look no further than Jesus. You look at the compassion he had towards the broken, his mercy he shows towards sinners, his righteousness against hypocrisy, his love was demonstrated at the cross. Thirdly, he reveals it through His Word. In 2nd Timothy 3, 16, 17 it says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The major point on how God reveals himself is His Word, the Bible, that is his special revelation. While nature reveals God’s power, the written word specifically unveils God’s character and his redemptive plan, his will culminating perfectly in the person of that of Jesus Christ. See, Scripture accomplished the self disclosure of several profound ways. Number one, the incarnated Word, the living Word. The Bible reveals that Jesus, who is ultimate the Word of God, made Flesh through representation of the Father’s nature.

Again, number two is through the Word, the Bible, God inspired human authors by Holy Spirit so that the Scriptures are literally God breathed. It contains his direct statements, names, attributes, providing an authoritative guide for salvation and daily living. If you want to know how to live your life, it’s right here. He left us a manual. I used to put models together when I was a kid.

I could never put a model together unless I had the instructions laid out in front of me. Most fathers will try to put together a crib and go, I got this. And try to do it without it. Inevitably they always wind up with extra parts. Let me explain something to you.

When you read this. God doesn’t give you any extra parts. Everything he needs right here, it’s right here. Number three is the plan of salvation. Unlike creation, which shows God exists, His Word explicitly explains human separation from God by sin and the specific way to be reconciled to him.

So we’ve kind of gone through that a little bit and I know that’s a lot to take in. So this is Why I always challenge you, take notes, go back and read and I would even challenge you. This Pastor Hans message is also online. So let’s go a little bit further. What makes Christianity unique as compared to other religious beliefs?

Well, let’s go there. So let’s talk about number one. Let’s talk about Deism. Deism believes that God created the universe but does not intervene in it. God’s like a watchmaker.

He’s a cold hearted watchmaker who just winds the clock and he walks away. They believe that prayer has little practical significance, that miracles generally are denied. But Christianity says that God is actively involved in human affairs every single day. The second one is pantheism. That’s where a lot of your Eastern religions and philosophies come out of.

Pantheism teaches that everything is God and God is everything. The belief that God is the universe are exactly and exact the same entity. Rather than viewing God as conscious being separate from creation, pantheists believe the divine is literally the cosmos itself. You are living the divine. The ultimate goal is too often to lose one’s individual identity in the divine.

God is more of an impersonable force than a personal being. To me, that’s just cold. See the examples that we have here and this kind of went over my head, but I’ll put it out there because I know we’ve got some scholars in here and you know, and I’m sure they’ll question me afterwards. But Baruch Spinoza’s philosophy. The 17th century philosopher argued that God and the physical nature are one and the same infinite substance.

See we also talk about nature worship, believing that a river and a mountain and a forest is divine and sacred in and of itself. Then there’s the eastern traditions which is certain schools of say Hinduism such as Adavita the Vendetta consider the human soul and the universe to be interconnected parts of a single divine reality. Christianity teaches this that God is distinct from creation and desires a personal relationship with us and the big one which we really need to be paying attention. America needs to wake up. It’s Islam.

Islam is a monotheistic belief that there is only one God, Allah and that Muhammad is the final messenger. Its core encompasses absolute belief in the oneness of Allah, the Prophet, the Quran, the angels and the day of judgment and divine decree. The main difference between Islam and Christianity lies in their understanding of Jesus Christ and the nature of God. While both are Abrahamic monotheistic faiths. Christianity views Jesus as the divine Son of God, part of the Trinity.

Whereas Islam views him and reveres him as nothing more than a prophet. But he’s not divine. See the views of Jesus in Christianity. Christianity believes Jesus is the Messiah, fully God, fully human. Christians believe that that he was crucified for the sins of humanity and resurrected.

Islam believes that Jesus is one of the greatest prophets of God, born of a virgin but strictly human being. Muslims believe he was not crucified but rather taken up to heaven alive by God, which when I read this, this was written way before the Quran was ever thought of by 600 years. So I think we got the history down pat. Not to mention and without going into a whole lot of detail, there were a lot of witnesses that can prove that. So number two, the nature of God.

Christianity follows the doctrine of the Trinity. One God existing in three persons. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Islam strictly adheres to the top and I’m probably going to butcher this, the Tawhweed, the absolute individual oneness of God or Allah. The concept of God having a son or being part of a Trinity is rejected.

Number three, the path of salvation. Christianity teaches salvation is a gift of grace from God. It is received through the sheer faith in Jesus Christ because he was sacrificed on the cross rather than human works. Islam teaches salvation is achieved by the combination of faith, submission to the will of Allah and good deeds which are weighed on the day of judgment. Yeah, that’s not, that’s not somebody I want to serve.

Number four, sacred texts and prophets. Christianity based on The Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Jesus ultimate focus and final revelation of of God. The revelation and the foretelling of Jesus Christ is interwoven from Genesis through revelation. It is interwoven within the entire Bible.

Islam is based on the Quran, which is believed to be the literal unaltered word of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. And Muhammad is considered the seal of the prophet or the final prophet. Wrong, Wrong. And then the other one that we delve into is called secular humanism. Secular humanism denies any divine revelation meaning.

It is self created. Morality is human derived. There is no transcendent voice speaking into life. Christianity teaches that the ultimate meaning comes from God’s purpose in revelation. The most distinctive difference, the greatest distinction is not that simply God speaks.

It’s the mere fact that God came near. In John 1:14 it says it very clearly. And the word became flesh and the flesh dwelt among us. See, no other worldview claims that a creator entered his own creation and took on human flesh. He suffered, he died, he rose again, reconciled humanity to himself through grace.

See, Christianity’s message is where most religious or culture ideologies teach people how to reach God. Christianity teaches that God reached us. He sought us. He sought a relationship with us. God still speaks through his word and spirit.

Therefore, every ordinary day can come to a place of a divine encounter with your holy God. So real quick, and we’re going to start circling the airport. Why Christianity? Well, number one, Christianity offers a real solution to man’s problem of sin. See, every WorldView must answer four questions.

What’s wrong with the world? What’s wrong with humanity? How can it be fixed? And can it be fixed? Christianity has uniquely identified the root cause of this problem.

It’s called sin. See, the problem is not ignorance. See, our society would say that, well, you don’t know because you’re uneducated. There’s protest in the streets because they’re pointing the finger going, you don’t understand, you don’t know because you’re uneducated. There are parents out there that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to educate their children.

And what are they doing? Nothing. Nothing. See, many philosophers teach that man’s problem is a lack of knowledge. If people knew better, they would do better.

Yet history has consistently time and time again proven otherwise. We know that lying is wrong, but yet we still lie. We know that greed destroys relationships, but yet we still pursue it. We know hatred and pride are destructive, but yet they persist. The problem is deeper than education.

It’s a condition of Your heart. See, Romans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Mark 7:21 23 says, from within. And this is important, from within, out of our heart, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All of these evil things come from within the five men.

Christianity is the only religion that offers a concrete solution to human wickedness. It does more than just forgive sin. It changes the sinner. When I said yes to Jesus, when I said, God, I’m giving my life unto you, God didn’t do an inventory of what I did in my past. He didn’t do an inventory and say, well, you did this, this, and this.

God looked at me. And when he looked at me and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, God looked down at me and he said, I see nothing because it’s been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And therefore I see a pure son or a pure daughter. See, Jesus is the solution to mankind’s problem. See, in First Corinthians 15:3, it says, For I delivered to you first, first of all, that which I also received.

That Christ died for our sins. According to the Scriptures. His death was foretold back in the Old Testament. It wasn’t something that they just came up with. Number two, Christianity declares, evil has been defeated.

One of the greatest questions human have have is where there will ever be justice, will there ever be an end to evil? Yes. Over 2,000 years ago, that was handled at the cross. The enemy was served notice the day that Jesus died through the blood that was shed. But here, that’s not all.

Because the enemy got served. It went from bad to worse. See, the solution was the cross. The message of Christianity is not that man reached up to God. It’s that God reached down to man.

And the cross is where mercy and justice met. God didn’t ignore your sin. He didn’t excuse your sin. God judged the sin in Jesus Christ. He bore himself our sins on his own body on a tree.

First Peter 2:24. Jesus became what we were so we could become what he offers. He took our guilt, he took our punishment, he paid our debt. The cross is not merely just an example of love, it’s a means of salvation. Colossians 2:15 saying, Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them and triumph over them.

But this is one of my Favorite Scriptures Revelations 20:10. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever. Number three, Jesus. Christianity says Jesus is the only way to God.

Every religion offers advice. Christianity offers a Savior. Every religious tells a man what he must do. Christianity declares what God has already done for man. The problem of sin was too great for human effort.

So God sent his Son at the cross. Jesus took our place. He paid our debt. He broke sin’s power. He opened the door to reconciliation with God.

Christianity offers a real solution because it offers the only savior who conquered sin, conquered death, and he conquered the grave. You can go to Israel where they buried him. He is not there. His body wasn’t stolen. It wasn’t misplaced.

He was raised from the dead. There’s only one way to God, and it’s through Jesus Christ. Christianity states that God has come in the flesh. Most religions teach humanity how to reach God. Christianity, as we said before, God reaches down to humanity.

In John 1:14, it says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten Father, full of grace and truth. The Word in this scripture refers to the eternal Son of God. It’s speaking about Jesus. John begins the gospel by saying, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

But then he goes to verse 14 and he announces the astonishing truth that this eternal God took on human nature and lived, lived among us. Why is this significant? Why does this even mean anything? Well, number one, it shows that God is not distant. He’s personal.

Many people imagine God is a remote, unknowable and detached human suffering. Christianity teaches that God literally from his throne room, stepped into humanity and he reached down to us to save us. Only God can accomplish salvation we could not bear. We. We could not pay the debt that we owe.

We couldn’t. The Incarnation demonstrates God’s love. The incarnation, or the God becoming flesh, reveals the length to which he would go to rescue his creation. John writes in First John 4:9. It says, in this love of God was manifested towards us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world.

He loved you that much. He loved you that much that over 2,000 years ago, he looked down from the throne of heaven and he saw what your life was going to be like. And he said, I must do something. 5 And we’re going to be closing. Christianity already offers the Solution to death.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ already proved that that solution worked. See, if Jesus had merely remained in the grave, Christianity would just be another philosophy, be another fiction book that we would be reading or, or, or some bestseller that’s, that’s over 2,000 years old. But the resurrection declared that the penalty, sin has been paid and death itself has been defeated. The empty tomb is a clear sign that your debt has been paid in full. It’s been paid in full.

When we read in First Corinthians and we go 15:50 to 57, I’m just going to skip down to 55. And it says that death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hades or hell, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin.

The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through the. The Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said this in Philippians 1:21. For me, living means living.

For Christ and dying, it’s even better because I get to go to be with him. I don’t know where you are in this whole, this whole thing called life, but I will let you understand this. Christianity is not just the story of it. It’s not the story of man searching for God. It’s the story of God searching for you.

The God who walked with Adam in the garden, dwelt among the Israelites in the tabernacle, and revealed himself through the prophets who ultimately stepped into human flesh in the name of Jesus Christ. At Christmas, he came near. At Calvary, he paid the ultimate price. And through the resurrection, God opened a way for you to come home. When you look at all these other religions, our life here is but a blip.

See, in God says in Scripture, it says that a day in heaven is but a thousand here. See, we all know death. We all know that. That. That there’s a day.

It says in Solomon, it says, there’s a day. There’s a time for us to be born, and there’s a time for us to die. Unfortunately, some of us, we feel the sting of death a lot sooner than others. This week I felt that sting again. My baby brother on Monday went home to be with the Lord.

We didn’t know he was sick. We didn’t know anything was happening. But he’s gone. I got two brothers now that are gracing the gates of heaven and sitting in front of Lord Jesus Christ. Understand this.

You can leave here, you can ignore every word I said, but understand this. You’re not guaranteed the next hour, and you’re not guaranteed the Next day, anything can happen. But I want you to know at the sound of my voice that God’s not looking at you going, you’re bad. You did this wrong. You disappointed me.

He’s looking at you going, I love you. Come home. Come home. Am I going to promise you that it’s an easy walk or it’s a rose garden? No, I’m not.

But it’s like having a true friend that stands beside me when. When I’m broken and I’m beaten and I’m battered and he stands there and he lifts me up and I look down and I’m going, God, Why am I walking alone? And he says, you’re not walking alone. I’m carrying you. I’m carrying you.

And I’ve been carrying you all this time. Trust me, I’ve got this. I’ve got this. So Why don’t we stand. If you’re here today and you’re listening online, I want you to know that there is nothing that you did that will ever keep you from the love of God.

Nothing. Nothing. But you have a choice to make. If you’re not a Christian, if you’re not born again, then I would say this. God loves you.

And there’s 66 books in this one book that every single page says, I love you. I love you. And when you allow God, when you allow the Holy Spirit to open your mouth, mind, and open your heart, I’ve said this, and I’ll say it again, you don’t just get into it. It gets into you. So with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you’re here today and if you don’t know that if you were to die tomorrow, if you were to die today, that you’re going to make it into heaven, I want that chance to pray for you.

If you’re here and you don’t know nobody, looking around, I want you to raise your hands. Raise your hand. Anybody. Secondly, and I could probably say this for all of us, if you’re not where you need to be in your relationship with the Lord, and only you know that and you can answer. Only you can answer that question.

And I’m not going to call you out, but we’re gonna pray and I’m gonna give you an opportunity just to say, God, I gave you my heart. I want to rekindle that relationship with you, and I want to walk forward into you. I want every promise that you have written for me in that book. This is what Cho Salt Church is about. We’re not just a church.

We’re a family. And family looks after us. We’re not perfect, but we love you. Heavenly Father, I just pray right now. I pray for every soul that is represented here.

Father, I pray that right now that Lord Jesus, that you would fill them with your holy spirit. That you would, Lord God, go in and clean their closet. That, Father God, that as they lay their head down at night, that they would sleep in peace. That, Father, you would speak to them throughout the day. Father, I pray that if they.

When they get into the word, Lord God, that you would open the word of God to them, Lord God, that they would see you in a way they’ve never seen you before. Father, give them the desires of their heart. But let that first desire be what you want. Father, we love you and we praise you in your name. Amen and Amen.

If you. You would just be seated real quick. Do you guys have a good Sunday? Okay, well, I got a couple of them. I’ll take that.

All right, well, real quick, we’re going to get ready and we’re going to. Before I let you guys go, we’re going to take up our offering. Tithing is one of those things that I know a lot of people go, well, you know, that’s a way to worship God. We offer. We worship God.

We worship God with our 10% and our tithe. And before we go, what I want to do is I want to give you an opportunity to sow a seed. Seed into salt church. We want to do more for you. There’s things that we want to do and there’s things that we want you to be a part of.

So as they get ready to pass the buckets, we’re going to go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, I want to thank you, Lord God, for everything. We want to ask that you would bless this offering. Father, we thank you for this offering. We give it back to you, Lord God, pressed down and shaken.

Together in your name we pray. Amen and amen. All right, so as I said before, we’ve got. Nathan Morris is coming this week. He’s coming tonight and tomorrow.

And if you’re new with us, Pastor T.J. and I and Tammy, and then we will be out front. We’d love to shake hands with you and meet you. Thank you for coming.

I mean that from the bottom of my heart. You guys are very special to us. We love being in Virginia Beach. I know for those of you that are new, I’ve only been here about my wife and I have only been here about six months. And we have grown to love this church the utmost.

The utmost. If there are things that you want to do or things that you would like to participate within the church, we have a lot of different things. Again, Encounter nights on Thursday. You can talk to my son over here, Cody. Raise your hand, Cody.

He does Soul Hunters. And what they do is they try to meet every now and then. They just had an outing. They’re going to get ready to put together another outing. Everybody’s going to get together.

I would encourage you to meet with him and discuss that ministry with him again. We want to give David and Ruth a round of applause. Thank you, David and Ruth, for everything that you’re doing. Real quick, how’s JB2 doing? Is he Wednesday?

Keep. Okay, keep JB2. JB2 is our in house. We call him. He’s our pro surfer and we give it to.

We give it to his dad. We call him jb. That family is absolutely awesome. Get to know them, hug on them, love on them, and really, truly be praying for JB, too. Be praying for him that God will use him.

God’s going to use. Use that younger generation to reach the nations. Amen. Amen, guys. We love you.

Go with God. He’s going with you. You guys have an awesome Sunday. Thank you.