Well, good morning, church. I want to start the message today a little bit different than normal being the first Sunday of the new year. I just want us to begin with a time of prayer, with the time that we do two things in prayer. Number one, I just want us to look back at the last year that God has given us as a church, as a body of believers. And I just want us to pause in that moment and just tell him how incredibly faithful he has been to us. I want us to thank him for the many people last year that have given their lives to Jesus. I just wanted to thank him for the many families that he is connected to this body. I want us to thank him for the many broken families that he has placed back together, how many people that he has put into community in this church, and just all of the lives that he has set free over this last calendar year. 

You know, I think it's important for us to pause every now and then and to look back and just to see exactly what it is that God has done for us. But on top of that, secondly, I just want us to begin right now to pray towards the new year, to begin to ask God just from the bottom of our hearts and souls, to begin now to set this church up, to make a difference in this community, for us to be able to just link into the heart of God, to link in to where Jesus would have us to watch the flames of revival to be fanned in this community. I want us to pray right now, just for families to be placed back together, for hearts to be renewed, and for many to see exactly who Jesus is over this next year in their lives. And I just want us to see something happen here that isn't anything that we have planned, but is something that we have just allowed God to do. One of my goals for this year is just to continue to just say, Yes, Jesus, more of you and less of me. More of you and less of my desires. And I just want us to pray that over this church. Would you join me in prayer today? Listen, if you came with somebody, if you're sitting beside somebody you came with today, or maybe it's somebody you have that kind of relationship with, would you just grab their hand today? Now, if it's somebody that you don't know, just leave that alone. That's weird, right? But if you came with somebody today or if it's just that chance guy that you've been waiting on, do it. Go for it. Today's the day, right? It’s the new year, new you, right? Would you just grab their hand today and let's just unify ourselves together and just say, Yes, Lord, here we are. Let's pray together. 

Lord, Today, God, we invite you into this place. God in a special way. In a way that the God we can't explain, we can't pray for. We can't even think of. Today God, we just want to make ourselves available to you. Lord, we pause at this moment and just say thank you. Thank you, Lord, for the life change that we've seen over this last year. Thank you for the many, many people that have given their hearts and lives to you. Thank you for the many that have committed to go public in their faith in baptism. Thank you for the many families that have joined this body. And it began to move in a direction that honors you. God, thank you for your faithfulness to us as a body of believers, Lord Jesus.Thank you for the many things that you have accomplished in this place. God, thank you for being faithful, Lord, even when sometimes we're faithless. Lord, we thank you for this last year. But God, we also just call upon you the God of Heaven, the God of Earth, to bless this next new year, to God move in our hearts, move and our lives set this place on a trajectory, Lord Jesus, to make a difference for your kingdom. May there be less of us and more of you. God, may we grab hold of you and just say yes Lord Jesus. It's in your name we pray. Amen, Amen. 

I can't think of a better way to start the year 2024. I don't know why, but it's been really hard for me to get my mind wrapped around the fact that we are already in 2024. I think it has a little bit to do with the fact that it just seems like yesterday that we were all watching Beverly Hills 90210 in the mid-nineties. Amen? We were watching that show. If you don't know what it is, it stinks to be you, right? I can't believe that it was that far ago. I can't believe that many of us were filling up our bathtubs waiting for Y2K. You remember that one? You're waiting for the world to end. If you don't ask your parents, they'll explain it to you later. We thought the world was going to end when it turned 2000, right? I can't believe that was just yesterday it feels like we were getting our thing called an iPhone in 2007. Right? That was the newest, latest, greatest. Bye bye star Tech. Hello, iPhone. At that moment, I can't believe it was just yesterday that we were joining Facebook somewhere around 2008, 2009. It was only for the cool college students and now it's for the middle aged mama. Amen. I mean, it is. It is there. It is with us. It seems like just yesterday we were watching the airplanes on September 11th change the world when they hit the World Trade Center and our nation began to see what it looks like to be on their knees and pray. We fast forward a little bit later. It seems like yesterday that we were just learning what this thing called COVID is. Remember that guy? Remember him? We learned that. And then also, just in most recent times, how fast technology is increasing, how much the wars in Ukraine and in Israel and and the Gaza Strip, how much that stuff is affecting us. Now, when you begin to look at that stuff, that is just a little bitty piece of what has happened globally in the last 30 years, not to mention what has happened just in your life, in your personal life, of what that time has done and what it's done in your life. And this seems to just seem like life is moving faster than it ever has. Can I get a little amen on that one? 

It just seems, you know, you grow up and you hear old people all the time say, Man, just wait till you get older. These years are going to click by and you're like, this 15 year old year will never end. Remember that? And now, I mean, seriously. I mean, I ain't old, but I'm getting there now. It just seems like every time I turn around, I'm getting one of your Christmas cards. I mean, it's another Christmas, it's another new year. And with that, let me just say this. It's not going to slow down. It's not. Our world, our culture, Our environment is going to continually move faster. It's going to continually get even more hectic. It's going to continually be even stronger, pressing into who we are. And as a result of that, I really, really think that now is the time as believers and as people who are just seeking out who God is. I think now is the time that we need to pause and we need to really rethink some of the key things in our lives. We need to really re-process some of the things that matter most in our lives. Because here's one of the things that I've been learning over this last year. I've been learning over this last year that it's really the things that we think about the most. They're the things that begin to shape our lives the most. In fact, I read a book at the end of last year by Craig Groeschel, pastor and author, in a book called Winning the War with Your Mind. He says this about this whole idea. He says that our lives are moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts, what we think shapes who we are. So with all of that in mind and how fast it's moving, here's what I'm proposing that we're going to do over these next six weeks. I'm not proposing we're going to do it. I got the microphone. This is where we're going over the next six weeks, right? 

These next six weeks, we're just going to pause and we're going to rethink some of the biggest areas of our lives, not from a deconstructionist mindset, because that's just ridiculous. But from a mindset of instead of looking at it through culture and instead of looking at it through my own eyes and instead of looking at it through my own desires, I'm going to pray and I'm going to press into us to begin to slice off some of the biggest areas of our lives that we can begin to rethink with a biblical mindset to see how is it that God wants to move in me and in my family, in these things? So here's what I'm going to ask out of you guys. I'm going to ask you for the next six weeks to commit to being here every week. Now, I know the air just left the room, right? I get it. All right. I get it. But I'm just going to ask you to do that because I believe this next six weeks has a chance. No matter if you've been saved one year or you've been saved 60 years, I believe this next six weeks has a chance. Has a chance, if you'll let it, to really begin to reshape some of your thinking, which as a result of that will reshape your life and the trajectory of where you're moving. So I'm just going to ask you to commit to that over these next couple of weeks, because we're going to hit some incredibly, incredibly big ones through this biblical lens. 

Today, we're going to start what I think is one of the most basic but one of the most important things that you can ever process in your mind. And I'm just going to challenge you today, quite frankly, to rethink your relationship with Jesus, to rethink your relationship with Jesus, to put it all on the table, and to ask God, God, where is it? And God, where am I and God, What does this thing called salvation really and truly means? And I can feel the tension in the room. You're like, Matt, you want me to rethink that? I know where I am. Listen, God is big enough for you to rethink it, and its truths are strong enough to reign in no matter what questions you ask him. If you ask from a sense of God, show me who you are. So I'm just going to ask you today whether you're one year Christian or a 60 year Christian, or maybe just a seeker that is trying to figure this thing out today to ask yourself, what does my relationship with Jesus look like? Or Here's a better way to ask it: Am I saved? If you’ve got a copy of Scripture today, I want you to turn me to Ephesians chapter two, Ephesians, chapter two. Now, as you're getting there, Ephesians Chapter two is one of the most important passages in all of Paul's letters. Now it's a big claim, and I'm just going to warn you now, if you hang out in Burnt Hickory Land for very long and if the Lord allows me to stay here and keep preaching, I am probably going to preach this passage about a hundred more times before I die. I'm just telling you now why, Matt? Why would you do that? Why? Because I think that this passage gives us one of the clearest pictures of what we have been saved from and what God has done to save us and where he is saving us, too. 

In fact, many of you, even when you hear the word saved, you're kind of not even really sure what that word means or where it is. Maybe you heard a pastor saying it when you're growing up and now you chose to use a different language. Or maybe it's just a billboard you've seen driving down the road, but there's no truer way, just just being real with you to describe what it is that God wants to do in me and in you, because of our current condition of who I am and what I've done in the light of God. Now, Paul, in Ephesians chapter two, obviously he is speaking to believers. We don't have time to kind of walk through a bunch of this stuff, but he's speaking to believers and he begins to press into some really big misconceptions of who they are. He begins to press into these ideas of the first, I mean, kind of first misconception that they have is that the problem is not them, that it's somebody else. Now, I know that we don't have that problem, that most of us have dealt with that problem before, that we're not the problem. There's somebody else. But he also begins to press into this idea, then this problem of misconception of evil, that that basically that we're good people. 

Then we just every now and then do something bad or that we make a mistake or we just kind of get off for a little bit. Most of our culture says it kind of like this, that we're basically just good people who every now and then kind of lose our inner goodness. Well, Paul is about to blow up all of that wrong thinking and show us why it is that we need to be saved. So here's what we're going to do. We're just going to jump into the text. We're going to walk through it, and then on the back side of the day, I'm just going to give you some truths about salvation. Then I'm just going to ask you to pray throughout this week. Now, I'm going to warn you. All right? I just feel like I need to do this on the front side. It is going to get rough. All right? It's going to get rough and I'm going to get excited. I'm just going to tell you I'm going to get excited. I'm just going to tell you on the front, if you're new here, it's just how it is. All right. I'm excited. It's going to get rough. I'm going to get excited. It's going to get a little heavy. But then on the back side of it and catch this, it's going to get amazing. 

All right. So, look, you got to leave early. You're not going to like me, all right? You're not going to like me. Please stay. All right? Please say that's all I can say. All right, Let's walk through it because it's going to get amazing. Here we go Ephesians chapter two, verse one. Let's watch what salvation really is. Here's what Paul says. He says, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. Now notice the first key word right here. It uses it twice. It is the word you. He says you were dead and your transgressions and sins. Now, I know this is hard for us to believe, but Paul is talking about you. He's talking about you. So don't see this through the lens of someone else. Don't do it. We have a really good radar for other people's problems. Amen. We do. We're really good at it. But don't see this as primarily looking at somebody else. He's looking at you. He's saying you were dead. In other words, if you are a follower of Jesus now, there was a time in your life where this is about you. This is not talking just about somebody else. He's talking about you. Why? Because there's only one category of people that has ever been born since Adam and Eve, and that is a sinner. That means that you are affected. Sin has universally affected every single person that has ever been born from the beginning of time on. Now, this challenges us, right? It exists in all of us. You. It's talking about you. But notice the second word in the text. In verse two, it says, As for you, you were what? You are dead. I told you it's going to get rough. I keep saying it. It's going to get rough. It says you were dead in your transgressions and sins. Now this challenges us to the core of who culture really says that we are. Our problem is not that we were good people who occasionally do bad things. 

That's not it. No. Without Jesus. What is it saying? That we are actually spiritually dead and we actually deserve death. That's what we deserve. That's what the scripture says right here. And here's why this is so important. This is so important because many, many, many people, maybe even you, when you were growing up, many people view sin as just some kind of bad action that you have. Now. That is a true statement, but that's not all that it is. Many people view sin as just the action, and maybe it's cheating, maybe it's lying, maybe it's stealing or whatever. Fill in the blanks. But here Paul is showing us through this word dead, this principle. You can write it down in your notes. I gave it to you. Here's the principle. While sin is an action, it is also a universal starting condition of all mankind's hearts. Here's what that means. That means that you were not born a Christian. That means that you are not born good enough to know God. That means you are not born in a situation where God was just going to automatically just kind of give you whatever you wanted. And you, because of your parents' relationship with Jesus, are a follower. But yet I hear that all the time. What this means is that we were born sinners and that our sinful actions are symptoms of our dead condition. 

I know this is not January 1st material, right? I promise you it's not. But it's going to get better. Think of it like this. Here's what Paul is saying right here. This is a relevant illustration. And think of the flu for just a minute. Two thirds of you have it right now. We're coughing. We hear you right here. It is. You don't have the flu because you're coughing, have fever and have a headache. No, no, no, no. Listen, here's how it works. You. It’s the total opposite. You cough, you have fatigue and you have a headache because you get the flu. Does that make sense? A little bit. Let me put it like this. You are not a sinner because you sin. You sin because you're a sinner. That's what Paul is talking about right here. And that's what he's saying. He's saying that we all start off live spiritually dead. But listen closely. I'm not saying that dead people can't do good things because we know that sinners do good things. But what Paul is saying is that we are all spiritually dead and in the man. In the end, it doesn't matter how we look, it doesn't matter how we define ourselves. 

What matters is how God defines us. And we are born sinners and we are dead, Paul says we are or we were dead and our sins. And there's no amount of religious training. There's no amount of going to church or behavior that can fix that. We are all dead. Now, I feel the room. Well Matt, Hallelujah. I mean, I know, right? That's terrible. But I tell you this, it gets worse before it gets better. All right, Keep reading. Keep reading. I'm just reading, Paul, Don't blame me. Watch this. Because he begins to unpack what our spiritual deadness looks like. Verse one, let me read you again. Ephesians 2. It says, as for you. You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, That's Satan, by the way. Watch this. The spirit, Satan spirit, who is now at work and those who are disobedient. So what does Paul say? Paul says bad news before salvation, not only were you spiritually dead, but Paul says you were a follower of Satan. You're like whoa. Come on Matt, come on, Wait a minute. No, you heard it right. Why? Here's why this is so true. Because in all reality, what does the Bible say about Satan? Satan's rebellion is all about the idea of I will. If you go back to Isaiah and see what caused Satan to rebel against God and fall, what was the whole problem? The whole problem is that he wanted to be God and it was an I will problem. He gives us five. I will. I will ascend. I will be the most high. I will make myself the most high. I will be on the throne. So here's the deal. Church My I problem is a Satan problem. Does that make sense? 

The fact that I want my way, I want my deal, I chase my own desires, I want to do what I want to do is not just a kind of puny little sin. No, it is a following Satan problem, because Satan is the initiator of the I will problem. Our I problem is from Satan. And when you and I join Satan in that rebellion, we are shaped by Satan. Keep reading. So you said, Well, not me. Okay, look at our story. All of us who lived among them at one time gratified the cravings of our flesh and followed his desires and thoughts. So in other words, God's will was not our highest pleasure. His glory was not what held the most weight in our lives. And the other things came way behind our master. Paul says we were created as mankind. To do what? To walk and the goodness and the love and the grace and the will of God. But we turned from that. What do we do? We got an I will problem. My mind said, I want to do what I want to do. My mind said lie. So I lied. My mind said chase after this, so I chased after that. My mind said my will is the biggest will to worry about. So I walked after that. And we disobeyed God. And what do we do? We chased our dead minds. And as a result of that blatant disregard for God, look at verse three. What does it say? Again? 

Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath, to which many say, Come on, Matt, Paul is overdoing this a little bit, isn't he? I mean, I've made some bad calls, maybe even a lot in my life. But a dead follower of Satan. Come on, I just lied one time. That's because you don't understand what just happened. In fact, let me give you something to kind of help you keep this in check. Let me give you a principle right now. Here it is. We are really living like we have no need for God when we replace living for God's glory inside God's authority. Look at the second part of the sentence. With living for our glory and following our desires. You see, when you see it through this lens, it's a lot different than when I just lied. When you see it through this lens, what are we doing? We are living like we have no need for God. We are taking God off the throne. We're putting ourselves up onto the throne. And listen, that is cosmic treason. When I will say that I know better than the maker of the universe. And as a result of that, God gives us over to our hearts. He gives us over to our minds. And as a result of that, he places his hands in the air and said, If that's the direction you want to walk, then just walk that way. And what do we do? We separated ourselves from him and we deserve death. We deserve the wrath of God. Why? Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We're all there. 

That's why we need, listen. That's why we need saving. Maybe no one has ever explained to you this idea of why you need to be saved. We need to be saved because we've walked away from the maker of the universe. And he wants to give us life. Now, before we get to verse four, I just need you to let this soak in for a minute, because we in our Americanized Christianity, we have a problem with this. And here is what I want you to know. You and I, we deserve the wrath of God. We deserve it. Our blasphemy against God. We deserve eternal hell. But what do we do? We kind of skip through that. Why? Because we don't like to talk about hell, we don't. But Jesus did. Paul did. So we should, in order to really understand the gospel or the value of the gospel, we have got to understand what we are saved from. Does that make sense? You have to understand what you're saying. And we can't always jump into the good news without wrestling through the bad news. 

But I can feel the tension, man. Just want to get on to the good stuff. I just want to get on to the good stuff. This is New Year, new me. Move on. Right. But the problem is we got to know the problem before we know the diagnosis. We got to know the diagnosis before we know the cure. And many of us, we skip so far into the goodness of God that we forget what he has saved us from and what he saved us from is our dead selves, our dead I will problem, and our eternal separation from him. That's what Paul is saying right here. This sin to death problem is for you, it's for me. And if we don't wrestle with it, we will never grab hold of the gospel. I would propose to you today that most of us don't grab hold of the Gospel because we don't understand what he has saved us from. We don't really get it. We don't really understand it. And we're never going to be committed to living out the gospel in our lives without wrestling through this. 

Let me be honest with you just for a minute. You've never heard a pastor say this to you. Believing and living out the gospel in your lives is incredibly inconvenient. Amen? You say it out loud. I just said it right. You’re like, I don't know if you say that Matt. Yeah, you can say that. It's incredibly inconvenient. I mean, think about it with me just for a minute. It makes you, it makes all kinds of demands on you that nothing else in your life makes on you. It asks you to do things with your money that sometimes you think are absolutely crazy. It asks you to go places you would never go, right? It asks you to be nice to people that you don't even like, right? You don't even want to be nice to them. It asks you to carve out a Sunday morning all the time or a Wednesday night all the time when you could be doing a thousand things that seem better. Amen. Than listening to this guy right? But here's the deal. If you don't understand what Jesus has done for you, it’s so inconvenient. But when you realize the goodness of the fact that he has reached down into our deadness you will begin to cherish the grace that is offered to you and you will begin to walk that out. So hear me. Either you are or you were dead in your sin. 

The problem is not your environment. It's not your situation or your image. You are a child of wrath, but that's why you needed a savior. And listen to me closely church, that's exactly what Jesus came to do. So as bad as it is that we all deserve death, we were all followers of Satan. I need you to hang with me for a minute, because the incredible part of this message is that I needed a resurrected savior to save me. And his name is Jesus. God could have stopped with these first three verses, but he didn't. He gave us the fourth verse with one of the best conjunctions in all the Bible. He said all that about Wrath. And then he says, But God, but God let the power sink in. If I look at the virtually Ephesians chapter two, verse four, what does it say? It says, But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. As bad as death was, now we have been given life. I think so often we talk about salvation through this sterile history mindset. But listen, God either has saved you or God wants to save you. Why? Because He loves you and it's his mercy, it's his grace, and it's him getting us to a point that we never could have got to without him. I hear people say all the time, Well, if I were God, I would be way more graceful and I would be way more merciful. No, you wouldn't. If you could see evil the way God sees evil, you would know the whole earth. But God sees us. He wants to deliver us. He wants to give us life. And He does it all through giving his son Jesus. In fact, look at it. The greatest words in the Bible. These are in verse four. It says this, But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, has made me alive with Christ even when I was dead in my transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved. 

Notice the past is here. Paul is talking to a group of people that were saved. He's talking to a lot of you that you have given your life to Jesus. And what he is saying right here is that on the cross, Jesus became our sin. He died the sinner's death. God treated Jesus like a follower of Satan. He turned his back on him. Jesus bore our sins to give us life. So that's why we can summarize the Gospel by saying Jesus in my place, He lived a life I couldn't live. He died the death I should have died. And as a result of that, Jesus didn't just die for me. Check this out. He died instead of me. Instead of me. This is why we had to get to the harshness, to get to the goodness. Because if we don't understand where we were, we will never understand what he has set us free to be and to live. But keep reading. This gets even better. Verse six And God raised this up with Christ. He seated us with Him in the Heavenly realms, in Christ Jesus. Notice again this past tense. It doesn't say that Jesus will raise us and we'll see this, although at the end times we know that is going to happen. He is saying that right now, if you are a follower of Jesus, he has reached down into the nastiness of who you used to be and he has placed you up in a position that is in him and with him. 

That means that when God the father sees you, he sees you through the lens of who Jesus is. Why? Because Jesus paid it all. He paid it in full. You want to talk about confidence? I can be as sure of heaven today as Jesus is of heaven. Why? Because of something I've done now. Because Jesus paid it all. And now when I approach God in prayer, I'm not approaching him through the dead sin that the person that I used to be. I'm approaching him through forgiveness, the grace, the love, the mercy and the cross and resurrection of who God is through Jesus. And now when I approach him, God hears me as if He's hearing Jesus himself and He wants to deliver me how He delivered Jesus himself. That's exactly what is happening in this text that you are His and He is yours, and it's Jesus that saves you. In fact, keep going. In the story verse eight, it says, This gets even better. For it is about grace you have been saved through faith. It is not from yourself. It is a gift of God. It is not by works, so that no one can boast. But we are God's handiwork. We're created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

Church, you can take these ten verses and you can grab hold of what salvation really looks like. Salvation really looks like that I didn't deserve it. I didn't have a chance in this world to get back to God, but God sent Jesus to be the gift that brought me back to him. And as a result of that, now I can know him and I can embrace him. And Paul breaks it down into three really quick salvation truths I want to give you, as we get ready to land this morning. And I want you to use these this week to pray through this idea of, man, do I know Jesus? Number one, The first truth that we just saw, the text that we just read is that grace is the base of salvation. That grace is the base of salvation. It's pretty easy to see this. It’s pulled straight from verse eight, from where it says really clearly, for it is by grace that you have been saved. What does that mean? That means this phrase has been passive. That means that you didn't do anything to save you. But God did it all. This word grace just means that God had this unmerited favor that you didn't deserve, that you didn't earn. But yet he loved you and it was a gift over your life. Salvation is not a reward because you have good behavior. It's not a reward because you were a little bit better than your neighbor or somebody else or had a better potential in your life. No salvation is by grace. It is a gift We'll give our side again. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not from yourselves. It is a gift of God. In other words, it's a gift. All of it is a gift. Grace is a gift. Faith is a gift. That means that God has done everything we need to know Him. He's given us everything. We need to know him. It is not about me. It is about him. And simply all that we are called to do is to surrender our lives to him. To surrender our hearts to him. 

That's what he's saying in the text right here. That Grace is the base. It's not works. He goes even farther by saying this. Number two, if grace is the base, faith is the way to salvation. Faith is the way to get there. It's how you go. Paul says that salvation comes through faith. It's the mechanism. It's the instrument of faith. Look at verse eight again. It says, For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith. Through faith. Now, what does this word faith mean? It's kind of a tough word. We kind of get it mixed up a little bit. And I just want to say this. Faith is not this religious feeling or virtue. Faith is a full 100% belief that Jesus is who he said he is. He's going to do what he said he wants to do and will never leave you, will never forsake you. Faith is me believing that God through Jesus has done it all. And now I need to surrender who I am over into who he is. Faith is more than a feeling. It's me realizing who Christ is in me jumping into his arms. It's me realizing that my hope is in him. My past is in him, my future is in him, my family is in him. Faith is the idea of a child launching off the side of a swimming pool to a parent that is treading water in the deep end of the pool, not knowing how to swim. That's what God asks of us. For us to just submit in faith. Works is not salvation. No, it's by faith. Works would just puff us up even more. 

So, grace is the base. Faith is the way. But here's the third one I just want you to grab from Paul here. Life change and good works are always the result of true salvation. Life change and good works are always the result of true salvation. Now, once again, I need to say it. You're not saved by good works. But if you are saved, you will do and desire good works in your life. Look at verse ten. Here's what it says for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works. And this is so logical. If you think about where He has brought you from, where he has brought you to. Many times, we just skip right to the works deal and we don't go all the way back to the beginning to realize what he has delivered us from what he's delivered us to in the works stuff doesn't make sense to us. But it's logical when you look at all of us. Why? Because when God truly saves us, when He unites our hearts to Christ's heart, He begins to infuse our life into his life. There is no way to have that kind of love placed on you, have that kind of power infused and you and not change. There's no way you can say a thousand prayers. 

But if that doesn't show that there is change in your life and a newness in your heart, then you just prayed an empty prayer and you didn't have any faith and you didn't even realize what grace was. That's what Paul is saying right here. So he's saying, I'm not saved unless I have works. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying there's no way you won't have works if you are saved. In fact, this week in my Bible reading plan, it gives me a memory verse for the week on the back side of every reading plan. It was second Corinthians 5:17 this week, and Paul echoes this. He said, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ a new creature has come and the old has gone, the new is here. That’s what it means to experience salvation. It means that we're founded in grace now. We're saved by grace now. Now we have a faith that produces good works. Listen, you are saved by faith alone. But our faith never stays alone. It always produces works, always. You're not saved by yourself. You're not saved by your works, but it's a byproduct of your works. It’s what Paul is saying right here. You see, it doesn't make any sense to say that I understand the grace of God and I understand salvation. And I understand what it costs Jesus to give me grace and not have it change us. It's just an empty religion at that point if it does. Why? Because the moment Christ enters your life, you're new. You’re new. 

Does that mean every habit you've ever had is automatically gone out of your life? No, that's not what it means. Does that mean you're never going to struggle again? No, that's not what it means. Does that mean you're never going to have a moment in your life again? No, that's not what it means. But it means that you have a new affection. You have a new walk with Jesus, you have a new direction. And now your direction is to honor the King. Believers, what an assurance we have today to look back at that idea of I deserve death, but he gave me life. For those of you that are struggling in the faith today. Man, let me just ask you this, have you walked into this relationship with Jesus? In fact, let me ask you three questions to close out this message. A little different than we normally do. I just kind of felt pressed to do this today. I put it in your notes. You know how to fill them out. There's no blanks, so don't worry about that. But as we begin to rethink this relationship with Jesus, knowing what you know now, let me ask you this. Number one, here's the first question. Has there ever been a time in my life where I've confessed my need for God, that’s forgiveness, I've placed my trust in him and then invited Jesus to be my savior and Lord? 

Let me ask you something. Has there been that moment in your life? I know that moment in my life. I was eight years old. I was on the second row of Glen Forest Baptist Church on a Tuesday night at a revival. And I don't remember a thing the pastor said, Amen. But I remember that night something happened. At that moment, I realized my need for a savior, that I was dead in my sin. And I needed Jesus to save me and to come and change me and make me His. Let me ask you something. What about you? I’m not asking if he's going to church, not asking if you grew up in a church family. I'm not asking if you have been involved with a life group. I'm saying, has there been a time in your life or you've confessed your need for God's forgiveness, placed your trust in Him and invited Jesus to be your Lord and Savior? That’s the first question. Here's a second question for the week. Number two, is there tangible evidence for your salvation? Tangible evidence? When I was in students, when I was in student ministry myself, I can remember evangelists using the illustration. Have you ever stood before the judge, would there be enough evidence to convict you to be a Christian? Remember that one, old people? I remember it, right? But it's so true, isn't it? We're not saved by our works. But man, do those people that are closest to you, if they were trying to describe who you are, would they look at who you are and say, that person right there is a follower of King Jesus, and Jesus has set them free from who they used to be? Is that evidence in your life? Does it show? 

And here's the third question. If you're not sure about those two. Number three, what's keeping you from giving your heart to Jesus right now and receiving the free gift of salvation? What's keeping you? Well Matt, you don't understand. I've been in church my whole life. That doesn't matter. Matt, you don’t understand, what will people say about me if right now I gave my heart to Jesus? They'd say that I've been living a lie my whole life. It doesn't matter. What would people say if right now I was to be the one that said Matt, I need Jesus to save me? That would cause people to really judge me. Yeah, but it would cause God to judge you in a whole different way. Let me ask you something. What's keeping you today from saying here I am, Jesus? Save me. 

Maybe today is the first time you have ever heard the Gospel described in a way that started with you being dead in need of a Savior, but Jesus being the only one that can give you life. Do you need to grab hold of him today? Would you pray with me? 

Lord Jesus. God, I just feel pressed in my soul today to just pray a prayer of salvation over all of us today. God, I got to believe there's people in this room that don't know you as their Savior and Lord. That they never cried out to you something like this. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I'm separated from you. But Lord Jesus, would you save me? Would you forgive me? Would you come into my heart as my savior, as my Lord, And would you make me yours Lord Jesus? 

Listen, I don't know if that's you today. I don't know if that prayer just resonated in your heart and you lifted it up before the king. But if you did today, and that is your heart today, let me just say this. Welcome to the Kingdom of God. Jesus is your savior. Jesus is your Lord, and there is nothing you can do. He will not leave you in or forsake you. He will not walk away from you. He will not leave you hanging when everybody else leaves you hanging. He not only died for you to be risen to life once, but he is now giving you the opportunity to walk in his fullness, in his mercy and grace forever and ever and ever. If that’s you today, and you prayed that. For you, in just a minute, when we sing this invitation song, instead of hitting the doors in the back, I'm going to ask you to just come and tell one of us in the front. Hey, I met Jesus today. What do I need to do? We want to pray with you. We're going to encourage you. We're going to walk with you. I believe that some of you today, this is your day. Lord, walk with us in these next couple of minutes and settle in our souls today, am I a true follower of Jesus. 

Thank you, Lord. It's in your name. Amen. 

Let's sing together. And like I just said, I'm going to be standing over here with some friends by the Next Steps banner. If that’s you today. Let's pray together.