Children can be dismissed for children's church at this time. Children can be dismissed for children's church. There they go. Here comes Terren. Alright.

Romans chapter three. If you would, keep Randy in your prayers. He starts radiation treatments tomorrow. Right? And so please remember him as he begins that and pray that those thing those treatments would be entirely effective and the Lord would deliver him from the the cancer and that he has.

And take care of that, put it behind him. Also, if you would pray for David and Cheryl Vogt. We're going to miss them. They're headed to Ohio. Got themselves a place up there near their family and it's oh, I think all your fam down here anyway.

So and so we're glad that you can can do that, but we're not glad that you're leaving here. But we will miss both of you. They have been a great blessing to our church over several years now, and the Lord has used them greatly here and in other places. And so you are in our prayers and and you will be missed. But the Lord has something good for you there.

I'm sure of that. Romans chapter three verse 10. Romans chapter three verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.

There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one.

Their throat is an open sepulchre. Their tongues, they have used with their tongues, they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and that all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for your word today. Thank you Lord for the reminder who we are, were, and where we were apart from Jesus and the great need of this world for Jesus Christ. Lord, may we, in your word today, find warning, knowledge, wisdom, and hope.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Put the title up here, What Happened to Us? What went wrong? Last week, we left off with this beautiful creation God had made.

When he got done with it, he said, it is very good. Chapter two, God tells us of the personal creation of man and woman created in God's in God's image and placed in this beautiful paradise called the Garden Of Eden. And God came down in the cool of the day and walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. And they had perfect fellowship. No death, no pain, no sorrow.

What happened? Every now and then, I'm working on my sermon on my computer. Everything's going great. And all of a sudden, something goes bad and my sermon goes off the screen and, uh-oh, where'd it go? You try to get it back up and you get this thing with squigglies all over the page.

No letters, just, you know, symbols. And it's like, uh-oh. Something happened. Everything was going smoothly and everything went what? Everything went wrong.

We get to Genesis chapter four and we see one of the sons of Adam and Eve killing the other. Their sons, Cain and Abel. What went wrong? The original state of man was wonderful. Created male and female in the image in the image of God, brought together by God in holy matrimony to be one flesh, one team, one family unit working together in harmony to fulfill their purpose, the fellowship with God to keep the garden and to reproduce and fill the earth.

They enjoyed fellowship with God, the protection of God, the provision of God. They could eat of every tree of the garden but but one. They were innocent. No battle with or knowledge of sin. Wouldn't it be nice if there were no battle and no knowledge of sin.

But in our existence, that's not the case. No death, decay, or corruption. Living in perfect harmony with God and man's surroundings, what happened? We look at the world around us. And you have to admit, if you're honest, that what we read about in Romans chapter three in God's description there of humanity fits quite well with humanity's legacy, a legacy of war and violence, death and crime, gross immorality, broken homes, slavery, rape, incest, theft, lies, lies, more lies.

That is man's legacy. How did we get from this perfect harmonious paradise garden with none of these things to where we are tonight today. Yes, we see glimmers of hope and at times you can see the image of God shining through the chaos, but then man slams the door shut and back into the misery of sin we go. That is what is happening in our country today with growing political unrest and violence and crime. It's not politics.

It's not Trump or Biden. It's sin rearing its ugly head in the minds and hearts of human beings to bite the hand that feeds them. And there is only one remedy, and that's Jesus Christ. Jesus is the answer. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life.

No man comes to the father but by me. We need to be restored, that fellowship with God that was lost in the garden long ago. The only answer is Jesus. The only one who takes away the bent for violence and immorality. And all of these terrible things from the heart of man is Jesus.

The only one who can redeem mankind is Jesus. The only one who can save us from the just punishment of our sin is Jesus. The only one who can turn this world around into something better is who? Is Jesus. The only one who can bring peace to the Middle East is Jesus.

Praise God for glimmers of it. But this morning, I hear it isn't going so well. Only Jesus. How did this happen? How did we get from there to here?

The event that changed everything we find in Genesis chapter three. We used to have a beautiful room down at the end of this hallway. It was it needed some updating, but it was a nice usable room. And then there was this storm, just a storm, a big storm, a windy storm. We gave it a name, Milton, and it tore half the roof off of that room.

And the water got in the ceiling and the drop ceiling dropped on the floor. And it ruined the carpet. And it messed up the walls and it and our beautiful room in a matter of an hour became completely a disaster zone. It was an event. Something happened.

We know what happened. It was Milton. What happened to send our beautiful world that God created spiraling into this mess that humanity has to deal with day by day? Genesis chapter three, if you wanna turn there. Shouldn't take you long to find Genesis chapter three.

It is it's the first book of the Bible. Chapter three, just a few pages in. In Romans chapter five and verse 12 on the screen here it says, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. That verse refers back to this chapter. This verse tells us what happened.

Sin entered into the world and death as a result. And we read about it in Genesis chapter three. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. We know from other passages clearly that the serpent is Satan, the devil. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.

Has God said you can't eat of some of these trees? They're beautiful, beautiful trees, all that fruit. The woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst or the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. Not sure if God said you shall not touch it. He said you shall not eat of it.

Okay? Maybe she was exaggerating. I don't know. But she said in response, no, we can eat of the trees, but but that one, that that one, that one right there, the one in the middle, that beautiful tree right there, we we can't we can't we can't even touch that thing or we're dead. But verse four, the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die.

You won't die. For God doth know in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil. Oh, if we could go back to the days before we knew evil. Verse six. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and the tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave it also under her husband with her and he did eat.

That would be Adam. And this is the event that changed everything. Satan, the adversary of God who lost his battle in heaven, took his battle to earth. If he couldn't take away that which God loved in heaven, he would take away that which God loved on earth. Man and woman created in God's image.

So he began his work to destroy the work of God, to rob God of that which was rightfully his. He is the sworn adversary of God. He is the accuser of the brethren, of those who know Christ. Revelation twelve ten, it says, now has come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before God day and night. Ever read the book of Job?

That's you see it right there. Satan comes before God. You know, you know, they really don't love you. They really don't care. They're they're, you know, they're such a mess.

Just give up on them. Let me have them. That's what Satan wanted. God said, no. Have you considered Job over here?

He's mine. You can't have it. Satan said, oh, I can. I can. Just just take your hand of blessing off.

I'll get him. Did he get him? No, he didn't get him. Praise the Lord. He didn't get him.

But he accuses us and he tries. But if you're in Christ Jesus, he can't get you either. We'll come back to that. He challenged the character and command of God because he is a liar. He lied.

His main tool is something called deceit. In John eight forty four, he says it says, Jesus said, ye are of our father the devil, the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from beginning and abode not in the truth because there's no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father of it. He came to Eve and he said, yay, hath God said, No.

You won't die. God just doesn't want you to experience the fullness of your life. God just doesn't want you to be happy, to have fun, he lied. That's not that's not why God said don't eat of the tree. It wasn't that God didn't want them to have any fun or to experience the fullness of their potential.

No. He wanted to keep them from suffering the misery of sin that we have lived in today. Satan lied. He lied about God. He does that again and again and again.

He appealed to Eve's desires, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life. It looked pretty. It looked good. Why not? But mostly, he appealed to her desire for self determination outside of the expressed will of God.

And he questioned God's goodwill and even God's honesty. So don't you wanna don't you wanna know what it's like to be God? Don't you want to experience it all? You can make that decision. You don't have to abide by the will and command of God.

Now, could she have eaten of many other trees? Did she have choices? Yeah. She had a lot of them. Only one choice she wasn't supposed to make.

Only one. You know, he does that to today to everybody, especially to young people. They just don't want you to have fun. They don't want you to run your own life. You won't get hurt.

Everyone's doing it. He lies and he whispers in their ear. And sometimes the repercussions of decisions they make at 14, 16, 18, 20 follow them for the rest of their life and leave scars that trouble them for the rest of their life. You see, God did give us a free will to choose, but that will needs to remain in the boundaries set by our creator. You can choose deed of the trees, just not that one, but you can choose any other one.

It's like our our boys getting up on a school day and opening up their closet and say, you can choose what you want to wear to school today, but there are certain things in the closet that you can't choose because they're not proper school attire. So they could choose what they want. They can choose a green shirt or a black shirt or a white shirt or, you know, they can choose khakis or, you know, there there was a uniform they had, and they could choose. And there was no problem with that. But if they chose to wear gym shorts and just a t shirt, when they got to school, they were gonna get what?

In trouble. Why? Because that wasn't a proper choice. There were boundaries. And if they went outside the boundaries, if they chose outside of the offerings of God, there would be what?

Consequences. And they chose poorly. By the way, how did Christ overcome the temptations of Satan in Matthew four? How did he succeed and Adam and Eve failed? Because he chose to remain in the will of God.

He chose to submit himself to the authority of the father in heaven. And so he responded to Satan with, God hath said, it is written. Thou shalt live. Thou shalt not live by bread alone, but by every word, command, instruction that proceedeth out of the mouth of who? Out of the mouth of God.

How did Jesus defeat Satan? He placed himself under that will and authority. And as a shield, it protected him from the wiles of the devil. Adam and Eve stepped outside. They stepped outside of that protective shield.

They made a choice. And that choice we see the repercussions of all around us to this day. You would think by now that man would have learned how to be at peace with one another. He would think we'd learn how to how to not have violence and crime and and and how to not succumb to the lust of the flesh and but it it just always comes what? Even when we get out of it for a while, we think it it always comes back always comes back around because that's who man is now because of what happened this day when Adam and Eve sinned against God and chose to step outside of the will of God.

The Bible says in Galatians six and seven, be not deceived. Who would deceive you? Satan. Be not deceived. God is not mocked.

For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If you sow into sin, you're going to reap death and destruction and ruin and misery. Don't be deceived if you mock God by mocking his will and his wisdom and his love. There will be consequences. And we see those consequences in the world around us.

And we read about them here in Genesis chapter three. If you go back to Genesis three verse seven, and let's read through verse 10, we'll see some of the initial consequences to their sin. The eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou?

And he said, I heard the voice I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Now had that ever happened to Adam and Eve before? Had they ever been shamed shamed, embarrassed, and fearful in the presence of God? No. What changed?

Sin. Sin changed it all. Now, they had shame and guilt because of their sin. They had fear because they had disobeyed the Lord God Almighty who made them. They had reason to be afraid.

Though these are sadly the result of sin in our lives, and we all face them, guilt and fear, because of it, they're not altogether bad because actually they aid us in recognizing our what? Our sin. Because you can't get healed of the disease or illness that you have if you don't first recognize that you have a disease or an illness. Jesus Christ said that. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, those that realize they have a problem.

The beginning of wisdom is the what? The fear of the Lord. The ultimate sign of passing the point of no return, we read in Romans three, there was no what? No fear of God before their eyes. No fear of God before their eyes.

Let your fear of your sin drive you to the remedy and not away. Satan would love for it to drive you away, but let it drive you to the one who can cover your sin, forgive your sin. The second consequence we see in verses 11 through 13, he said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? I don't think God didn't know where they were, didn't know what they had done.

Certainly, did. He asked those questions for Adam's benefit to try to get him to confess what he had done. The man said the woman right here. See, woman? The woman thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat.

What was Adam's response? It's what? It's her fault. It's her fault. She did it.

She did it. It's her fault. One me. It's her. Don't blame me.

She gave me the fruit. I couldn't help it. I had to eat. You did. Okay.

And then the woman, the Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent the serpent beguiled me. The serpent deceived me. And I did it. It's the serpent's fault.

Wasn't my fault. I didn't mean to do it. I got deceived. Sorry. Just it's his fault.

He deceived me. We see the second consequence of sin and that is passing the blame. Passing the blame or blame shifting. It wasn't my fault. Have you ever talked to people like you know, with kids all the time.

You know, ever you get onto a kid, why are you talking? I wasn't talking. They were talking to me. Well, I think you kind of both were talking, you know? Well, don't punch him.

Well, he punched me first. Okay. It's always somebody else's what? Fault. And we see that in the world today.

In this political unrest that we're dealing with, a lot of the a lot of what is is bringing this on is people that are being told, it's not your fault you're this way. It's not your fault that you're violent. It's not your fault that you're a criminal. This happened in your life and these people treated you this way and it's their fault. It's not your fault.

They're playing right into the hands of the devil. The first step in coming or the second. The first step is the fear of the Lord. The second step in coming to salvation is confessing that it's your fault and not passing the fault on everybody else. Because that just leads to more violence and more trouble and more lack of peace and and everything else.

Bible says here in first John one eight through 10, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Boy, there's a whole bunch of people out there like that today. I mean, you know, from a maybe from a an overall point, many that deny their sin, but from a a a moment by moment point, yeah, it's not my fault. It's somebody else's. Who are they deceiving?

Theirselves. And they're playing right in the hands of the enemy. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. In other words, if we say to God, no, it's not not my fault.

I'm not a sinner. I didn't do anything wrong. We are basically looking at God saying, you're the liar. Because God says we're all what? Sinners for all who have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

The first step is not passing the blame, but accepting the fact that the consequences are not just Adam and Eve's fault. They're our fault because we make choices too. And then the consequence of sin ultimately is something God warned them about in chapter two in verse 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely, what? Surely die.

Now was it because that the fruit was poisoned? Was it because of some magical thing with the fruit? No. It was just that God told them, you can eat of every tree but that one. Just how many rules do we live by in this world today?

How many things? Do this, do this, can't do that, can't do that. They had one. Just one. It was a test.

It didn't have to do so much with the fruit. It had to do with whether they would obey and stay under that cone of protection in the will of God. And God said the day that you decide to step outside of that, then you will die. Spiritual death, physical death, eternal death. Man was immediately separated from those things which we read about in chapter one and two.

Sin brought death. It brought an end to man's personal walks and close fellowship with his creator. That was over. That was over. Brought an end to it.

Death to it. Isaiah fifty nine two, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. Now, God hears the prayers of his children and God hears the prayers of those who come to him in repentance and faith. But God does not promise to hear the prayers of those who reject his son and seek another way. There is power in prayer, but there's only power in prayer if you know the God to whom you pray and you have a relationship with him.

Our fellowship with God has been broken by sin. Sin brought death to it. Sin brought death to man's abode in paradise as he and the woman were cast out. God's perfect protection and provision was taken away. It came to an end.

Now man would have to work hard to provide. Look in verse 16. Verse 16. Under the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception and sorrow. Thou shalt bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

It brought death to painless and altogether pleasant existence. Sin brought death to man and woman's perfect harmonious relationship, which now would yield strife and competition where before there was none because of sin. Going back to Adam there, he said unto Adam, because thou hast hearkened on the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying, thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake and sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.

And the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. Now, men and women would face what? Death. The death of these bodies.

One day, this mind will stop working. This heart will quit beating. These lungs will quit breathing. And I hope the lead up to that won't be too painful, but it may. It's a consequence of sin.

Death. Now they would face death as their bodies would begin to succumb to the weakness and illnesses of the flesh. They would return to the dust from whence they were made. In Corinthians, Paul writes, in Adam all die. Praise God.

The verse doesn't end there. But in Christ shall all be made alive. Now they would face the judgment of God after death and apart from the intervention and grace of God would face eternal death in the lake of fire. Created not for man, but for who? But for Satan and his demons.

Hebrews nine twenty seven, we're reminded, it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this, the what? There is no second chance. There is no limbo. There is no nirvana. There is no whatever place people come up with.

There is heaven and there is hell. And there is a judgment coming, and you don't get a second chance, you don't get reincarnated as whatever animal you prefer or a person, you only have one life, you don't have many, it's a lie of Satan, and then the judgment. All of this, the consequences of sin. All of this man has been suffering for for thousands of years. All of this, we deal with today because it was passed down to their descendants, and their descendants we are.

A nature corrupted by sin and separated from God and a world warped by sin. And so the next chapter, Cain kills Abel. Sin took over awful quick, didn't Praise God. It's not the end because there is something called redemption. Redemption.

There is a remedy. There is a way of escape. There is a way for all that was lost to be restored. Genesis three fifteen. Look there.

Genesis three fifteen. And I will put enmity, animosity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now this sounds like a very simple statement regarding the snake and the and people, you know, that the people will trample on the the snake's head and the snake will bruise the human being. There will be animosity between human beings and snakes.

But the Bible indicates that there's more to this verse than just that. Because we know that the serpent in the garden was actually who? Satan. And we know that the seed of the woman uniquely will result in the coming of one born of a virgin named two, Jesus Christ. And he will stomp the head of the what?

The head of the serpent and he will defeat him. And from our vantage point, he already has when he died on the cross and he rose again from the grave. This is a promise of the coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Matthew thirteen thirty five, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

You might have heard that promise and you might have thought that it's just talking about snakes and people. But we know now that that which was somewhat hidden or obscured, we see fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ who came and died on the cross to pay for our sins, to redeem us, and to restore that which was taken away. In the garden, there is a remedy, Jesus Christ. In Ephesians one four and first Peter one twenty, it says, according as he hath chosen us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, who verily, at least talking of Christ, was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest or revealed in these last times for you. Before Adam and Eve plucked the fruit off the tree, God already had a plan to redeem his chosen people, to redeem his loved ones back to himself through the death of his son on the cross to pay the price that we couldn't pay that we might be redeemed.

In Galatians four, four, and five, it tells us this, but when the fullness of time was come, when the time was right, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, the seed of the woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. We were separated from God. We were cast out. We were castaways. The time was right.

Jesus came. He came the seed of the woman. He became a man under the law to redeem those who were condemned by the law that he through his death on the cross might restore all those who come to him in faith and that we might be the adopted sons of God, the children of God, and that our relationship and fellowship might be what? Might be restored in him. God killed a lamb before he sent Adam and Eve out of the garden to clothe them.

In verse 21, it says, and unto Adam also and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. How did he do that? How did he make coats of skins to clothe them? He killed an animal. He shed its blood to cover the shame and guilt of their, what, of their sin Until the day that Jesus Christ, the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world came to this earth to pay the final price in full so that our sins could not just be covered but could completely be forgiven and done away.

Amen. This lamb that was killed there foreshadowed what God had planned, how God had planned to redeem mankind from his terrible plight. The lamb of God who would come to take away the sin of the world, to cover our shame, to take away our fear. Yes, I reverence the Lord. I I I I respect the God who made me and rules the universe, but I can put my head on my pillow at night and I don't have to be afraid because my sins are what?

Forgiven. Yeah. He came to restore our fellowship with our creator. Jesus Christ died the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, back to God, and restore that fellowship. And today, when we pray in this service, when we pray in our homes, when we pray in our cars on the way I hope you're not closing your eyes while you're driving, but you don't have to close your eyes to talk to God.

You can talk with God. We are invited to come boldly before the throne of grace through the blood of who? Through the blood of Jesus Christ. One day, we'll be able to talk to him again, what? Face to face.

And all will be restored that was taken away. It'll even be better than it was then. In Jesus Christ, he came to restore one day a sinless and painless existence in his presence. He will wipe away all wine, all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death.

There will be no more pain. He came to restore perfect harmony that was lost and to give us eternal life in him. Galatians one four says, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world. How true that is. This world is evil and God is good.

And even though I still have to live in this evil world, Jesus prayed to the father. He said, I pray not that you take them out of the world, but you protect them in the world. And now I'm back under that protection and love and guidance of the God who made me. And even though I have to deal with some of the consequences of sin, I'm not doing it alone. And one day, I get a new world without all this mess.

First John two two four and ten, and he is a propitiation, That is the payment for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, to pay the price that was needed. We didn't love God enough to to fix. We we we were powerless to fix, but God in his love, he sent his son, he came down to us, and he fixed it. That's what Jesus has done for us.

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but quickened or made alive again in the spirit. And therefore, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons, the children of God, even to them that, what? Believe on His name. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Amen.

Romans chapter three. I didn't finish what I did, but let me read this part of it again in Romans three. It talks about all those terrible things and how the sin brings condemnation and knowledge of sin. And then it says in verse 24, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be the propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. The answer is not the law.

The answer is the righteousness of Christ. Even the righteousness of God, which is my faith in what? In whom? In Jesus Christ. There is a remedy.

There is an answer. There's an answer for this world. When Jesus returns, we're gonna see it in full force. But there is an answer today for you, and that answer is Jesus Christ. And if you have believed and put your faith in Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and to be your savior, you already know this answer.

He lives inside your heart. Be grateful. Be thankful. Take advantage of the fellowship. Live in the joy and the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus.

And if you're here today and you have not yet put your faith in Christ, you're missing out. You are missing out. You will miss out on eternity in heaven. You will miss out on the joys of having fellowship with your creator. You will miss out on his protection and his provision and all the wonderful things that are but you can have that.

It can be yours this morning today, eternal life, if you will accept Jesus Christ who came to take your place. We'll sing a hymn of invitation here in just a second. If the Lord has spoke to your heart, if you're not sure of that, I will meet you right down here as we sing, I would love to talk to you, and make sure you've got that settled. We love you. I love you.

But Jesus loves you more, and he will save you today if you'll come. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you, Lord, that there is a solution. There is a remedy for sin.

There is salvation in Jesus Christ. And, Lord, you haven't left us to the consequences of our sin, but you've made a way out. Lord, I pray that we who know you would be more grateful than we are. I pray that we that know you would be more willing to tell other people the solution to the problem. And I pray, Lord, if there's one here today that is yet to receive Jesus Christ as savior, that they would come this morning as we sing this hymn of invitation.

In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. You take your hymn books and turn to 250. 250. And if you would