Evidence of Eternity | Week 1 | Message

And so, hey, I I wanna tell a story. I've told it before if you've been in this church for very long, but I've been preaching here for twenty three years, so I only have so many stories. So but I like it. I don't come off too well in the story, but it's funny anyways. But back I played college baseball.

My dad played professional. I was a power hitter and a pitcher,

and I was having a hard time hitting. Like, for some reason I'm hitting, but I'm I wish this wasn't generating the pop on the ball, And I was home on a weekend, my dad goes, let's go to the batting cages, and I'll and I'll help you out. And I'm like, great. We go. And back then, the batting cages were old school. They didn't spit out those little dimpled plastic things. They were real baseballs, and they had that weird little flip arm that

and depending on how it caught the seams, you might get a a a screwball coming right at you and stuff. But anyways, I'm in the the fastest they threw was 85 miles an hour. I'm in that one, and and and I'm working on it. And and this this this this dry this batting cage is like the ones they were. They're little small. They have little nets over and you have no idea. There was no covering net. There was only this big tall net about three hundred three hundred and fifty feet out, really tall. And then where we're at, there was a junkyard on the other side. So the only way you can hit the ball it was like a legitimate home run,

and and that's how it worked. And so I'm getting there. I'm hitting, and my dad's trying to coach me and tell me what here's the way to do this. Here's what you're missing. And I'm getting frustrated not believing. I go, that's not the way, and I'm arguing with no. Honestly,

of it could be I just didn't understand the terminology used. My dad never used modern terminology for how you hit or anything. He still talked about baseball like Abner Doubleday, you know, like back in the the guy who invented baseball, by the way, if you don't know history.

And and and and so he was telling me about how you you just gotta you know, how what he's trying to say is you just gotta be able to come to this right moment where you're striking the ball right, and all this stuff, and and and I'm I'm arguing with him. You know, he played professional,

you know, and all that, and and I'm arguing with him, and I pop off about, well, you you couldn't even do that because there this isn't the way. And he goes, give me the bat and get out of the cage. And I'm like, no. No. No, dad. Don't do that. You're 62 years old. You got one eye, And mom told me, she always my mom would always whisper, don't let your dad do something stupid and hurt himself, which I thought was so funny. And now my wife says the same thing to my kids whenever we go out. So

he he says, get out of the way, and he takes his first swing, and it was kinda not a good swing, so I laughed. And he turned back, he goes, keep laughing. You're about to get embarrassed. And then he turned, and the next one, karak.

The sound that's just the sound of the bat, because because I liked using a wood bat, and he was right. So he's using this wood bat because that's all he ever used because he played with, like, Babe Ruth and, you know, Abner Doubleday. And

so he had this wood bat in there, he's like, crack, and the sound and he just drills a line up and over and hits the windshield of an old truck in the and and and as he keeps cracking this, the first crack, I look over,

and here's the part I I didn't tell yet, is down near the slower cages, a guy named Tony Gwynn. I don't know if you've ever heard of him. He was leading this clinic for, like, 12 year olds on how to hit. And I when I saw him down, like, that's Tony Gwynn. Maybe he's gonna see me hit and be impressed. Didn't even bat an eye. He hears the sound of my dad swing,

turns, starts watching it, brings all of the kids down with him. So now I'm standing here outside the cage watching my dad, and and and and he's just crack.

And then Tony Gwynn starts telling his, hey, look at this old guy. Look at how he's he's hitting home runs. He's just dry. You know where he's getting that power from? It's because he's got that great transference of power, basically, is what he's saying. He's using the words, now I understand. Oh, that's what my dad was trying to tell me. And it's like it's I know if you play baseball, I know I'm really simplifying this. But the truth is, if you're gonna hit with power,

you know, you everyone thinks it's all these different swings. No. People could do whatever they want before the pitch starts. You got people doing this. They're like charismatics,

know, praising with their hands up. You got people like this. They're more like you guys at church. I'm not gonna put my hands up when I'm worshiping. You go and you got you got you got all these crazy stances. They do all they want. But if you freeze frame any power hitter right at the moment,

that it all comes to the same thing. You gotta get your hands. It's this transference of power of your hips where the hand strikes and angle the bat.

You could freeze frame Babe Ruth, and they say, where he he looked crazy. He was like that was what my dad did too. He had that baby boom and he took this big swing. But if you freeze frame it, he has the perfect modern home run hitting sense. He's the guy that invented this thing.

And it shows that there's only one way to do it. Doesn't matter what you're doing before, but you gotta take that step and you gotta get to this moment. And then so he's sitting there telling these kids all about why this guy's doing it, and he looks at me and goes, hey, your dad's legit.

And I go, yeah. So I've been told. And

then he gets out of the comes out and and Tony Guistar's talking. He's like, obviously, you played some ball. They talked for, like, five or ten minutes back and forth, had a great conversation. He had my dad say something to the kids about hitting, and and and then all of a sudden, goes to walk off, didn't talk to me. Just slaps me on the back. He goes, hey, son. Listen to your dad.

He's the real deal, and he knows the way. And then he walked away. And then I looked back at my dad. He's just standing there leaning up against the fence.

And he goes, told you he's about to get embarrassed. And here's the thing other than me being stupid. That's the easy point. Why would I argue with him?

And and and the truth is, did I think my dad was being mean or trying to control me at that moment? I thought, why are you trying to make me do something that's not gonna worry? Why are you when when the truth is, was he being arrogant when he said I was gonna be embarrassed?

Was he being unloving when he told me this is the only way to do it? Or did he show how much he loved me because he knew the way, and he knew what it was?

And I think as as we start this new series, it's called, you know, evidence of eternity. We're gonna be looking at some of the common doubts, and some of the common evidence and some of the things that maybe you don't have a problem with, but maybe friends have asked you this issue, or maybe you've struggled with how do you answer this issue when it comes to Christianity.

And and and and and people like, well, what about this or what about that? And and the most common one that a lot of people struggle with, and now in our modern culture, people that go to church actually struggle with this. And that is why is Jesus the only way? This idea, Jesus is the only way.

And and and and then people struggle with that. A lot of really they a lot of people teach, hey, every religion basically takes you the same place. And though you Christians that say Jesus is the only way, that's arrogant, that's not loving, that's not whatever, but but what's the deal?

And what we're gonna see in today's topic is simply this big idea. Jesus is the way, not a way. Jesus is the way, not a way, because there is no other way. Just like hitting a home run, there is only one way to do that. One way biomechanically,

really, to do it. And what we wanna look at is what does that do? Because, you know, a lot of people that some of those common beliefs, like I said, all religions basically teach the same thing. I'm a good person, so I'll be fine. It's arrogant to claim there's only one way. And even in some churches, people add to Jesus. They're like, yeah, you gotta believe in him, but there's also this, this, this, and this.

And the truth is none of that is the truth. None of that the gospel. So why? Why only Jesus? Well, let's read John fourteen six together. Shall we? I think it'll go up on the screen here. John fourteen six. There we go. Jesus told him,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the father except through me. So here's your bottom line answer, then we'll unpackage that because it's gonna sound weird is, you know why Jesus is the only way?

Because he said it's the only way. Now I'm not I I say that in in in truth, but it's also kinda funny, but here's the point. If Jesus is who he said he is,

then that that that is the only way because he just said it's the only way. And the truth is, if Jesus is who he said it is, it's gotta be the way because why else would he die? If there was a way he didn't have to die, he would have done that. It would have been nonsensical for him to die. Matter of fact, he prayed about that in the garden before he died. He actually prayed as a man. He became God becomes a man, but he knew what was about to happen. And he's talking to the father. He's like, you know, there was any other way, but not my will, thy will be done. See, in other words, he actually brought up the concept of another way, and he knew no other way. So the reason he's only way is Jesus, was he was he being arrogant when he said that? Was he being unloving? No. He was being honest, not arrogant,

and he loved us that much to say there's only one way. Because he knows every other way leads to destruction. Because he knows there's not a path to this, it's a person. There's not a rule, a ritual, a a a system, it's a relationship. There is only one way to be made right with God.

And what we're gonna see here over the next few minutes is every other religion and even nonreligious system that teaches about how to make life work teaches you gotta do. Only biblical Christianity. Isn't that weird? In all of our history, Jesus is the only one that came and made this claim.

Biblical Christianity is the only religion. It is so different than every other religion. He's the only one. So why?

Why does it need to be just him? Why? How does that work? And I wanna look at five things that help us understand this, and they're all in the book of Romans. We're just gonna be bouncing around between a couple chapters here in the first part, the first six chapters of Romans,

because Romans is a critical book. The guy apostle Paul wrote it, and he wrote it to set up his journey because he wanted to get to Rome to teach this church, and it was a pivotal church. And what he wanted the Romans to really know is who Jesus really is and how he is the only way, because the Romans the world in the time of Rome was very pluralistic. It had so many different beliefs. It was basically, you be you, man. You do your truth. You could worship anything. They had all kinds of worship. The only rule they had was don't claim that you're the only way. That's why the Romans started killing curses. It wasn't because they worshiped Jesus. They were fine with the worshiping of Jesus at first. It's but when they started to declare you had to prove your loyalty to the emperor by declaring and bowing down and saying he's a god as well, they wouldn't do it. And that's why they got killed. They had no problem with you being a Christian. I think today, the enemy still loves it. He loves for Christians to come to church and say, I believe in Jesus, and I worship him, as long as I did totally cool with other ways and being fine and don't rock the boat.

And you know why the enemy wants us to do that? Because he knows that not actually knowing that Jesus is the way means you head to destruction. It's unloving.

And so okay. So he's writing this letter to it. It's really important. And I'm just gonna jump through some of these passages that point out these five things. Five things on why Jesus is the only way. The first one is Jesus solves the real problem.

He's the only one that solves the real problem. Romans three twenty three says, for everyone has sinned, we all fall short of God's glorious standard, yet God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins.

See, the the the real problem is sin. Our core problem is not ignorance. Our core problem isn't learning better principles. Our core problem is none of that. It's the fact that we are sinners, and every religion apart from the gospel says, you do more and maybe you'll be accepted.

The gospel says, you can never do enough, but Jesus did it for you. And the difference is the Bible says we are sinners, not mistakers.

Every religion says we're mistakers. We we we basically do some bad stuff, but you know what? We can correct that. We can get it right through this system, through this belief, through doing this way. The world even take religion out of it. You can get disciplined enough to be in really good shape, to be healthy, to be this, you'll be good at your business, you'll be good at it's all about you can do and make it work.

But that's not true. The Bible is accurate when it says sinners. What does it mean to be a sinner? Because I think we've lost track of that. That word sin, that it's really comes from a Greek word that's,

and and and why we use the word sin is actually a holdover from the the sixteen eleven King James Bible. That when they tried to describe this Greek word that was trying to describe our separation from God, the fact that we are born because of Adam's sin, that we are born not with just making mistakes, but we can be good. We are born in a natural rebellion to having a God. We always fall for the lie naturally that I don't know if I trust God has my best interest, and I will look out for myself,

or I want God to do it my way. And and that's just a natural instinct. We're all born that way. Matter of fact, for people to say we're not born sinners, I believe you've never had a kid, or you just ignored your child.

Just have a baby, and you know that we naturally wanna do things our own way. You know what? The first word they learn is no. And I know the case can be made. It's easier to say no than yes. Okay. But guess what? It's just as easy to do this as it is to do this. And why do you think this becomes and it's not just do it easy. It's

no. No. No. Matter of fact, a little kid crying. Like, sometimes we interrupt the service. Kid's crying. Why? Doesn't care that I'm preaching, doesn't care that the gospel, doesn't care what you're doing. The kid's just like, I want something, and I want it now. They just don't have words for it yet.

But what does it mean a mistaker is something you could fix? A sinner is something that we can't fix. Because sin, that word, the reason they used the word sin back in 1611, is it's an archery term. See, then when you did an archery contest, you'd hold, release, and and and you shoot.

If you didn't hit the bull's eye, it didn't matter where. You could be right next to bulls, you'd up by an instrument base, you sinned. You missed the bull's eye.

And and so that was what they're trying to say is you didn't you we missed God's glorious standard. We didn't meet up to what all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We've we've missed his standard. And so what that means is you've missed the perfection,

and to miss that means you're separated from God. And the only way you can't come back from that. You missed. The only way to be self justified to make it work would be to hit a bull's eye every time. Your life needs to be a bull's eye. The second you missed once,

you can't stand before God. We have a problem. That's the real problem. It's not that we just need to tune up, that we just need to be better people. The only way we can have an eternal relationship with God is by being perfect.

Because God will judge sin, because God is loving. He is grace. He is mercy. But he is holy. He is righteous, and he is the king of kings. And it's not that he wants to be mean. It's like that's who he is, and you cannot justify being as you can't even live in his presence in imperfection. No other religion teaches that

because what they teach can't fix that. They can't. We just try to do all these weird things. Like, if if you look like, people say, like, well, aren't all of the religions basically the same?

There's this phrase that's used in that, is that all religions are like different paths up the same mountain. They all lead to God. That's that sounds nice on paper, but it's not true. Because actually, all major religions directly contradict each other. For example,

Buddhism says there's no personal God. Hinduism says there's millions of gods. Islam says there's one God, but no son. Christianity, true biblical Christianity says Jesus is God, and he's the only way.

They can't all be true at the same time. And then some people say, well, what if you're just sincere? Wouldn't God just look at the heart that they were sincerely trying to approach God? Sincerity. The problem is you can be sincerely wrong. Sincerity doesn't help. Sincerity is not truthful.

Matter of fact, some of the worst atrocities committed through history, and even right now in the world, are committed by people that sincerely believe what they're doing is right. Sincerity doesn't make it right. Matter of fact, if all paths were valid just because of sincerity and trying being good enough, then

why would God let his son suffer if being good or sincere was enough? It makes no sense. In other words, every other religion out there is is is tries to do something from the outside in to just make us better, so then hopefully we're good enough.

And and and that's that's not how it works. Matter of fact, I've always, you know, played sports. I've been in this. I've been a strength coach. I've been a trainer. I've I've I've I've been into fitness. Right now, I'm all into fitness, as much food into my mouth as I can get, so I gotta work on that. But I've always I love history too. So I like to look at the history of things that they thought this actually would make you fit, make you thinner, make you better, make you healthier, make you live longer. And one of the craziest ones I've seen, think I got into that because I saw one as a kid watching I Love Lucy,

and it was this little machine thing that they used at gyms back then. Like, here there's a picture here. There it is. Bam.

Like, that's gonna make you healthy. Look, she's in like like, I'm about to go clubbing after this because why not dress like that? You're not gonna sweat. You didn't actually do anything. You strap yourself into that thing and it's like a belt sander thing just

starts shaking you. And the idea was it'll shake the core and it'll shake the fat out of you. And I go, that sounds stupid. And even if it did work, even if it could shake fat loose, wouldn't it all just go to your cankles?

It all fall down by gravity and we'd all just have huge cankles. That's all it would be. But somehow they thought like, this is great. I got my hair done up. I'm fine. I'll do this for fifteen minutes.

And and it's this outside in, like you could just shake it away. And I think most of these religious things, it's outside in, you could shake out the bad. And a lot of us that come to church think that's what church is all about. And you mishear what I'm saying a lot because I get loud.

And what you think I'm really trying to do is shake the sin out of you. Why don't you just listen to Jesus? And you think that's what I'm saying. Well, to be honest, sometimes I probably am, but I don't mean to.

You can't just shake the sin away. You can't just shake yourself to perfection because the problem isn't an outside in thing, and it's an inside out. It's a problem in our hearts, and we can't be perfect. Jesus is the only one that deals with our actual problem. That's why he's the only way.

Tim Keller said it best when he said this, if Jesus died to save you, then you must really need saving because there is no other way. Pretty honest and true. So Jesus saw the real problem, but secondly, because Jesus lived the perfect life that we couldn't.

If you go to Romans five verse eighteen and nineteen, it says this. He's talking about Adam has Adam fell and brought brought sin into the world. Now we're all born in, like I said, we're born into this natural rebellious state. But what did Jesus do? He says, yes. Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone,

but Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners, but because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. So what Adam and Eve failed at, and particularly Adam, because he was the leader, one man.

Jesus was the new Adam, he came and did it right because he's the only one. God himself is the only one that can come and live perfectly. And so he actually came

and lived this life we couldn't live. Matter of fact, if you go study this stuff, Buddha, Muhammad, Gandhi, they all admitted their imperfections. As go look up at what some of them said near the end of their lives. I am not the way. I'm not even sure what truth is. People still follow this.

Jesus got up and said, I'm the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to father but by me, and then lived a perfect, sinless life, died on a cross, and resurrected.

Jesus is alone the one that did that. And like I said, missing the mark, imperfection, you're out. Only someone that really hit the bull's eye can actually pay the penalty so God stays righteous and just. And since God himself is the only one who can do it, Jesus did it, he's both righteous, holy, and just,

and he's loving, merciful, and grateful all at the same time when he goes to the cross. So that's why, yes, he's the only way, and that's why, yes, it was the cross.

And as CS Lewis said, because so if you believe anything, like a lot of the world's, like, even Islam, he was a divine prophet. A lot of people like to say, he's a good moral teacher. He's a good example and all that, but the truth is you can't say that about him. CS Lewis, the great pastor, but he was a theologian and professor

and and just an awesome deep thinker, wrote this about this. He said, Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or lord. He didn't leave the option of being just a good moral teacher.

That's here's let's just use logic, guys. Let's use our brains for a change instead of just going with feeling like everybody does in this world now. Jesus, you can you you can either believe he was a liar,

and that means he knew he wasn't God, and he knew he wasn't the way, but he said he was anyways, so he's a terrible human being. He was lunatic, meaning he really believed it, but he wasn't. He's crazy. Or he's Lord of all. He really is who he said he is. That's the options you have,

because of what he said, and how he lived, and what he did. So he was the one who solves the real problem. He is also the one who lived the perfect life we couldn't. And why did he live that perfect life? So what he could do next. Jesus paid the price because God will judge sin.

And that's what he says in Romans six twenty three, for the wages of sin, this is the result of sin. The wages of sin, if you sin, this is what's gonna happen, is death. And that death means not just physically dying. That

was the problem with Adam and Eve when when when Satan said, no, don't listen to God. You won't really die, and then they didn't really fall down dead, so they go, oh, wow. The reality was your relationship with God died, your separation from God began because you can't you're now eternally separated.

Death ultimately when we die is if we don't know the Lord and we don't have plan is is just eternal separation.

And so he says the the free gift of God, free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. See, every other religion, like I said, you work your way up to God. The gospel, God came down to us.

That's not arrogance. That's not trying to control us. That's not being narrow minded. He's not being narrow minded. It's a narrow road because the road is one way by putting your faith and following one person. It's a single track. It's not about a narrow mind, it's about a narrow way.

In other words, if you're in a burning building and you can't figure out a way out, and a fireman breaks the door down and says, follow me, and he turns one way, are you gonna say, well, there's gotta be another way out. Right? No. This is the only way. You know, you're being kinda arrogant.

I have friends that sincerely believe that's the way, and you're telling me that they're gonna burn it? And the fireman will yes. And you know what? If he loves you enough, might just grab you, throw him on his shoulders, and drag you out of there.

If there's only one way, what Jesus is saying is not to try to control us, it's trying to save us and free us. He paid the price. Or as Billy Graham said it, the cross is the only bridge between God and man. There's only one way.

So that leads us to the thing we have a lot of times in churches and with some of us in church. The one we struggle with is Jesus plus anything doesn't equal the gospel.

Look at Romans three. Back to Romans three verse twenty seven and twenty eight. He says, can we boast then that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No. Because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law, it is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

So Jesus plus anything else is not the gospel. Extra rituals, extra requirements.

You know, prosperity promise. There's a version of the gospel out there called the prosperity gospel, where they say, hey, if you really follow Jesus, you know, he wants you to be healthy and wealthy, he wants you to be rich, he wants you to be all of that, and and and and as long as you follow him hard enough, you're gonna get that. And that's not the gospel.

It's a lie. It's a detour. It's the wide path that leads to destruction. Here's a here's a good formula. It's Jesus plus nothing equals everything. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. There's there's nothing

that we can do that makes it right, and don't add to Jesus. You he's the only way. We like to add. You know, just same thing. Same thing with old fitness thing. I've always been interested in, like, diet fads and stuff like that, and it is crazy. I was looking up some of the craziest diet fads of all time. Like, hey, I need to be healthy or I need to lose weight, and there's a whole list of them. I'll just a couple of them that are crazy.

The cotton ball diet. Every time you're hungry, you dip five cotton balls in orange juice and you swallow them. Great.

Cotton is a fiber. It it it doesn't digest well. It actually doesn't digest at all. 'll It make you maybe feel full. A little bit of sugar from the thing make you feel good. Here's the problem. Most people, you can choke on the cotton balls and die. So, yeah, you'll get skinny in your coffin.

Or it blocks up your colon, you can't poop, and then you die and get skinny because you're dead. There was another one. Oh, the baby food diet. That was where you eat 14 jars of baby food a day. Yum. I don't even think babies like the baby food diet. Okay? So that's not gonna work.

The tapeworm diet was a fun one in history, and that's where you eat a little pill that has tapeworm eggs in it, and then they hatch, get into your into your system,

and they they absorb a lot of your nutrition, so then you don't gain weight, but you have no control over that. They also bring diseases and crippling other problems, and they they'll live for over thirty years in you. So, yeah, that's that's that's that's a good idea. The

cigarette diet in the nineteen twenties became popular. It's like the reverse of how everybody knows. I stopped smoking and I gained 30 pounds. So they said, hey, let's start smoking and see if you can lose 30 pounds. And what it was was every time you feel hungry, just smoke a cigarette.

Kinda like every time you're trying to not smoke a cigarette, you eat food. Yeah. Let's just reverse it. Yeah. You'll get skinny when you get cancer and die.

The sleeping beauty diet. That was a fun one, but you needed a doctor that could give you high powered sedatives, and they basically knock you out for a few hours. Because they say if you get during the day, you just sleep extra, you won't be eating. I go, well, just ask Michael Jackson how that worked out for him.

It's not too soon. That was a long time ago. It's not like I said Ozzy Osbourne or Hulk Hogan or something like that. Oh, there now now I deserve that. Okay. Good. At least if you're gonna boo me, boo me for something real. I wanna earn the booze. I'm like Hulk Hogan now when he went bad.

Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?

It's funny about all of these because on every diet today, if you look at any, like, fat loss pill or anything or any system out there, hey, just eat this way, do this, all of them at the very bottom have a little asterisk in small writing that says that you will have better results

with a low calorie, healthy diet and exercise. You know why they wanna say you'll have better results? Because The US says, you'll have no results until you do that. Then you do that, and you're like, wow. I didn't waste my money. Yeah. You did.

We add something to Jesus, like, this, and you'll have better results if you really just trust that Jesus is the only way. You know why? Because that's the only thing that gets you the results. But we'd like to add, and it's confusing.

But Jesus, plus anything else, is in the gospel. You know why? Charles Spurgeon said it best when he said, Christ is all. If he is not all to you, he is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership with your works or your merits. You know why? Because the final point is Jesus conquered death,

and that was our problem, and only he could do it.

Matter of fact, Paul was so powerful, but that's what he's really trying to establish the Romans so they don't get caught into this multi pluralism of just making a Jesus plus or Jesus and all this other stuff or he's just a good teacher or just follow the model or he'll just be a good person and get all legalists, all those things. Because in verse four of chapter one, he says this, and he was, Jesus,

shown to be the son of God. He was shown to be the son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. So what he's saying is he conquered death, and the key to all of that, the key to all of this is he's the one that rose from the dead. He resurrected.

Every other religious leader died and has stayed in the grave ever since. Jesus rose proving his claims are true. The resurrection validates

that he is not a liar and he's not a lunatic. Matter of fact, Paul was saying basically what CS Lewis was saying when he was in another letter writing to people that wanted to well, what if he's just this? What if he's that? He goes, listen. The resurrection is everything. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, this is all a waste of our time because he's either a liar or he's crazy.

But if he rose from the dead, then we should probably believe everything else he said. And that's why next week, if some of you are still skeptical or you have skeptical friends, you understand, next week's topic is we're gonna look at the evidence that Jesus did rise from the dead.

And you're gonna see contrary to what everyone wants to say out there, I mean, there's ridiculous out there, like, well, we can't even prove if Jesus really existed. What? That's not true. You can actually, from logic,

look at the the evidence. If we're gonna say circumstantial evidence says, you can look at this and build a case that he rose from the dead. Plain and simple. And and and and and that's what we're gonna look at. Because people for some reason struggle. You know why we don't wanna believe that?

It's because we struggle with believing this altogether. And some of the things why if it's this easy though and this simple, why do so many people struggle with this? And even some of the things we struggle with it in not believing, we can be a Christian, and we didn't apply it to, okay, I believe he died for me,

but I struggle with believing when he says here's how to live. And I think that both of those responses

come from why do people have a hard time believing this? And I think there's three things. If you look at his claim from John fourteen six that he's the way, he's the truth, he's the life. He's the way to have life from death. He is the truth, meaning he knows how life works, he knows how should be, and he is the life. He's not just saying all of them are about eternal life. Life means eternal life, but he goes, I know how life should work. You should trust me after you have my love.

You don't try to trust and do things for me in a ritualistic way to prove your love to me. I want you to live this out because you understand I love you, and this is the truth, and this is the way to live.

But we still struggle with it. You know why? I think there's three things. His claim insults our pride.

In Matthew eleven twenty seven, he says, no one knows the father except the son. That offends our desire to think we can find God on our own terms. That's why so many people will say, well, yeah, I'm kind of a Christian, but I believe this, I'm like that. I'm like, sorry, I'm I grabbed this. Dude, knowing Christ is not a cafeteria plan,

and that offends us. We like to be in control. His claim renders our strength useless.

It crushes our self reliance because we love to believe we can save ourselves. And I think a little bit of is because we live in a fallen world that if anyone else come up and said, I'm gonna give you all this for nothing, we probably know I shouldn't believe that.

Because people are always trying to get something from us. Like, hey, know what? I'm just trying to help you out here. You have an unpaid parking violation that's about to give you a problem. So just click this link and you can take care of it right now for you, which I don't understand how that scam works. How crazy

how many violations do you get that you would believe you might have when you didn't pay? Wouldn't you know? And also, guys, don't fall for scams. Look at the website or the email it came from. Linda at blah blah blah. You know, it's still like all these old timey kinda email things,

and and and and and all that's that's a whole another message under called people are stupid, and I is one. So yeah. But I think the last one is the one that really affects us even after we believe.

This this keeps people from accepting Jesus is the only way, but I think it it also affects those of us that believe in Jesus from trusting him and how to live from that love. And that is his claim restricts our freedom or so we think.

You see, in in John five, he claims that he has all authority over what is right and what is wrong. And I think even after we come to know the Lord, we still have sin. We still deal with our old self. We still struggle with some of those things.

All I know this is the the longer I've been a Christian and the closer I get to Christ, the more aware of how much of a sinner I am. It sounds weird.

You understand? If you if you're if you know this, you're with me. You know what I'm saying? Is the closer I get to Jesus, the further away from perfection I feel. Because the closer I get to him, the more I realize, oh, yeah. That's not the way to live. That's not the way to live. I'd I had no idea that I was being an idiot here. That's not healthy. That's not I'm actually so if if the idea is to get to know him and then make yourself change,

you're gonna give up because the closer you get to him, the more you get to know him, the more you realize how far away you are, and you wanna go, I can't do it. I can't win. You were never meant to win. Jesus already won.

Just let him change you. Just just take the steps he's asked you to do. Just reach out and put your faith in. That's what I have to do. And you know what? The same time I feel overwhelmed with how much more of a sinner I was than yesterday because I spent time with Jesus.

Because the word of God and Jesus is a mirror. If you really look into it, it's gonna show you a reflection

and you're gonna realize it. But here's the weird thing about when you really know he's the only way. I am overwhelmed every time I realize how much further away than him that he actually died for me, called me, and lets me do something like preach his word.

I get I actually get encouraged at that moment to go, gotta trust him on this. I gotta say I'm sorry for the sin because I can't believe he still trusted me. I I am so far away because you can be just kind of aware of your sin and ask for his forgiveness, and then you serve him and you think, look what I'm doing for you, God. Look at how awesome I am. I get up here every week going, I can't believe he lets an idiot like me with things I've just done. I I mean, maybe sometimes even minutes before I got up here, and now I'm preaching the word of God. Now I'm not murdering anybody or somebody if you're worried about that.

But I'm just saying those daily kind of things, the closer you get to them, the further away from perfection you realize you are, but you get more gratitude for what he did for you. Because you know what? I sometimes tear up. I just was actually going, I can't believe that he really is forgiving me every single time.

I don't get it.

I don't get it. But somehow we think that trusting him limits our freedom when it actually is the only way to have it. And I think the reason we struggle is I think deep down, we want a God who blesses what we already want and what we're already doing, not one that really calls us to the way. In other words,

we like a God that when we as my dad used to tell me, just like archery, a bull's eye, I said, dad, why do people struggle? He's like, you know why? People just think they're right. Because we like to take the dot of where we're at, draw a circle around it, and say, look, bull's eye.

And he goes, and when I mean people, son, I mean you and me too. He goes, well, don't tell your mom I said that about her because I'm afraid of her.

We like that, even as Christians. Matter of fact, those were the people that got mad at Jesus, because the Pharisees, they had all the religious ritual. They literally thought what how they lived, they drew a circle, were righteous. And when Jesus says, you didn't hit the bull's eye, the bull's eye is over here.

And they got offended. How about you? So I'm talking about maybe you have never believed in Jesus the way, but I'm trying to give something in here for us that do know Jesus.

Do you hear a sermon that talks about, okay, live from his love? And I'm not trying to say get right with God and you're gonna make it work. I'm just saying, hey, are you gonna trust him when he says that's not the bull's eye? It's over here. Or you're get mad.

And it's easier to get mad at me because I said something.

Just sit before the Lord because this is what keeps us from seeing this. In other words, we don't reject. Most people don't reject Jesus because of the evidence is lacking. We reject him because surrendering to him cost us control.

We lose sight of what the gospel really is. It's not limiting. It's not arrogant. It's not controlling. It's freeing. It's loving. It's the only way.

Matter of fact, Billy Graham used to tell this story that changed his life. He was an evangelist. He's already kinda known, but it was back in the fifties when he was known, but he still would drive across the country in his own car to get from place to place by himself.

And he was driving to the south in a a little town. He went through it. He wasn't paying attention. He was going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. The police officer pulled him over and said, alright. You were going you know what you're doing? Yaz, speeding. I know. He's like, alright. Well, we got you for 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. And back then, it could it wasn't like, here's your ticket. Go deal with it later.

It was follow me. You gotta go to the judge right now in the little town courthouse.

So you just pull in and you go in there and and and you walk for the judge and the judge sat there. Billy Bran comes in. He's like, alright. How do you plead? He goes, I admit it. I'm guilty. So he's good. Hits a gavel. You're guilty. The fine is $1 for every mile an hour you were over, so it's a $10 fine.

And and then he and so he turns, and there's a little bailiff there. That's who you pay him right then and there, and you gotta make arrangements to pay. So as he walked over there, the judge who was, know, up on his, not throne, but, like, his judgment seat,

just up there, kinda like them and pharmacists used to act like, since I'm taller than you, I'm better than you. You know? Anybody old enough that the pharmacy why did they have that? Looking up their nose. Am I the only one that remembers that? Yeah.

So anyways, he gets up and he walks down and meets Billy Graham where at the bailiff where he's going to have to pay the fine, and the judge pulls $10 out and slams it down. He goes, but I'm paying for it. I'm paying your penalty.

And then he goes, and mister Graham, I'd be honored if you would let me take you out and buy you a steak dinner. And Billy Graham, he used that story the rest life to say, that is the gospel. That's the best human way I can understand it is I was guilty before a judge that had every right. Every right

to sentence me, and he did. I was sentenced. But then he came down off of his throne and paid the penalty, and then invited me into a relationship and fed me. That is why Jesus is the only way, because that's what he does. And it says we receive that by faith alone.

The one step we need to do is faith. So we need to take one step. What we need to do is take that step of transference of power. We have to transfer the power of I'm gonna do it my way. I'm not gonna trust God. I'm gonna try to work it out, or I'm not gonna believe in God. I'm gonna run after all these other things.

Or I take the step and I transfer my powerlessness and surrender to his love. And then we hit it out of the park because we know the way, we know the truth, and we get the life. And it says the truth will set us free.

And I wanna ask you as we close here, I just wanna pray. I believe there's some of us in this room, like, are probably hundreds already this weekend. You might have been coming to church a long time. Have you ever done this transference of power? Have you ever just let go of yourself

and just put your faith in Jesus? The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, will be saved. What do you need to confess? You need to confess that I am a sinner. I have done it my own way. I have missed the bull's eye. I don't care how try hard I try. I will never be able to do it.

And then profess, but I profess my faith in Christ because he did it for me. You turn to him, and you accept his love, you accept accept his forgiveness, and then you go from there with the truth, and you learn to live the life not for his love. The way we learn his life is like, wow. If he did that for me,

I should trust him with the other steps of my life. And then that's the rest of the journey of our life is learning how to try to be closer to him and be more like him. That's it. But you have to put your faith in him. You have to have that moment where you do it. You have to have that moment where you transference

of power. So what I wanna do is pray. And I think there's some of us in this room that have never really done that. And some of y'all have been coming forever. Some of you have been dragged here by your wives forever, and you've listened to me. And and I'm just saying this is the moment you can have eternal life.

This is the moment God can start to transform you and save you and rescue you. So I just wanna do, I wanna just close our eyes. I'm gonna pray. And I just want you to pray this in your own words between you and God, but I am gonna ask us to do a step of faith that's that's really for you more than God,

but it's something that's real for you. I want you to do something symbolic.

I'm gonna ask you to as as bright as we get ready to pray, I'm gonna ask you to just raise your hand. It's like you're holding up your hand and saying, here's my sin, God. I'm transferring it. Here's my life. Here's my heart. Just hold them up right now. Just hold it. If that's you and you wanna pray with me, I see the hands. They're going up all over the room. Just hold that up and say, I'm transferring this. I'm giving it to you,

And then I'm gonna take your hand and walk with you in relationship as Lord and Savior. So that's what you're doing as you hold your hand up. And with your hand held high, just pray something like this. Dear Lord, thank you. Thank you that you loved me enough to provide a way that was impossible on my own. And right now,

I confess that I am a sinner, not a mistaker. I could never get it right. I can never be perfect. I can never do enough. But you came down. You lived a life I couldn't live, to die a death I could never come back from. And I turn from my sin. I hand it to you. I turn to you, and I take your hand.

Thank you for that. Thank you for giving me life. Thank you that you are the only way. Help me to go from this moment knowing the way, but learning more about you as the truth in order to bring that into this life that you died to give me.

And God, I pray for all the hands in this room, and I thank you. Thank you for them. I pray for courage for them. I pray that the mighty Holy Spirit will come into them in a way that they will know that something has changed, and not because they did anything except for accepting your love.

And help them to go from here and learn about that. And Lord, I thank you that you let an idiot like me get to have this moment. And so Lord, I just pray all of this in the mighty holy name of Jesus. Amen.

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