Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
Hallelujah, Lord Father. We bless you, Lord. As we remember and come together, Lord, we acknowledge that you are coming back so soon. Every week, we choose to come together to set our hearts to expect your soon return. Lord, there are so many distractions in this world designed to keep us from setting our hearts and being constantly prepared, from being constantly awake in the Spirit to your soon return. These distractions are cleverly designed to infiltrate our lives. But, Lord, we are together, Lord Jesus Christ, because you have called us to be the body of Christ in this place. You've called us to be here, Lord God. You've called us to hear from your word and to grow by your word. You've called us, Lord God, to follow you, to listen to your Holy Spirit, to lay down our lives, to no longer make our own decisions, but to let you lead our lives.
You saved us when we least deserved it. You reached out to us when we never sought you. You stirred our hearts when we first heard the gospel preached over our lives. Lord, you ask us to entrust our lives into your hands. You promise that good things will happen when we give you all of our lives. Lord, we are here today to say, Lord God, you can have my life. Lord, make me into a prepared vessel. Speak to my heart, speak to my life, Lord God. I will adjust to your word. I will not bend your word, Lord God. I will allow your word to wash over me and change whatever needs to be changed. Father, let your word abide in my heart. You said, Lord Jesus, if your word abides in us, you will remain with us, you will abide with us.
Lord God, we need your manifest presence upon our lives more than ever before. We need that presence that allows every conversation we have to end up talking about Jesus. We need that anointing, Lord God, that presence on our lives that steers everything back to Christ all the time. Lord, only you can do it. You make us, Lord God, into testimonies. You make us, Lord God, into witnesses everywhere we go. Lord God, you leave the fragrance of Christ behind everywhere your vessels go. Lord God, it's not something we do; it’s simply the consequence of a life placed in your hands. Lord, it cannot be mistaken, it cannot be overlooked because the fruit is produced by your Spirit.
Father, I pray that you send forth your Holy Spirit online today and in person. I ask you, Lord God, that you speak to our hearts, that we may be able to receive your word and see it with the eyes of our hearts. Lord, I pray that you restore once again unto all of us for the first time, or for the very next time, that we so need that joy, the joy of our salvation. Lord God, you can open the eyes of our hearts every single day to see the cross so clearly, to see Jesus in our lives so clearly, that the joy is present every day. Lord God, that’s what I desire for my life, that’s what I desire for every life. Lord God, a joy that is so clear, so contagious, so easily shared.
Father, I pray that you have your way today. In Jesus' name, amen.
This year, as many of you know, is the year of the word, and I pray today that the word may enter into your heart because there are incredible promises in the Scriptures about what happens in your life when the word is allowed to enter into your heart. Jesus says, “I stand at the door and I knock.” He doesn’t break the door open. He doesn’t make you have to show up all the time where the word is spoken. We get to come to him first individually, then we get to come to him as the body of Christ so that he can knit us together, teach us how to bear one another's burdens so that no one is ever without help, without encouragement, without what the Spirit seeks to do that day in a person's life. The Spirit may seek to do it through you. That means you have to be there, or else the Spirit cannot do through you in someone else's life what they need that day.
That's why we can no longer do our own will, our own planning, our own schedule. When we give our lives to Jesus, we can give our sin to Jesus but never give our lives to Jesus. We can make him the source of our forgiveness without making him our Lord, without making him king, without having him on the throne of our lives, dictating the directions, dictating how our lives should be spent, at whose schedule, at whose timeline.
Today, it is my prayer that first the joy of your salvation, seeing your own forgiveness, may be restored, that you may see it because there is something that only the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit came to glorify Christ. Amen. We don't glorify the Holy Spirit. We don't sing too much about the Holy Spirit. We sing about Jesus. The Holy Spirit has been sent to glorify Jesus, so we can expect the Holy Spirit to show up and do his work when we are focused on glorifying Jesus. Amen. We have to keep Christ at the center. The Holy Spirit was sent to help us do that because we cannot do that on our own. But when the joy of our salvation is not very clear, everything else starts to decay as well. Everything else becomes religion really, really quickly.
When the joy of forgiveness for yourself is not clear, when the vision—the spiritual vision—of your heart is not clear, you may know all this stuff and you can probably explain it from the Bible, possibly in a very clear way. Yet, the eyes of your heart can have grown a little dim to it. You can tell because you're not as joyful about it, you're not as excited about it. It's not as real, it's not on your mind, you're not ready to share it. It has become a normal thing, it has become kind of an old thing. It's on the shelf. It's great, of course, I'm a Christian, I love the Lord, I pray. I don't think I'm even lukewarm, but do I have that first spark, that first love, or have I left that behind somewhere? Leonard Ravenhill always used to say, "Nobody loses their first love; you left it, and it's right where you left it."
I heard an incredibly painful story this week, and it hurt my heart. I'm with this family in prayer, but a friend, an acquaintance, a minister of the Gospel got himself in a lot of trouble. His young child, his son (I don't think he's a teenager yet), found Papa's phone, found some text messages on there. It turned out he had been cheating on his wife, and he served his wife now with divorce papers. That young boy who found the text messages of his preacher father— I know this man, I know this family, and it really broke my heart. You want to initially wring somebody's neck for destroying the way that this young boy will look at God the Father for a very, very long time, possibly a lifelong struggle to figure out how to properly look at God the Father after experiencing something like that. The possible guilt for him being the one discovering all of this and bringing it to light, seeing the consequences, seeing dad just take off and be okay with all of it— Dad who used to preach about Jesus and pastor churches.
There's no doubt in my mind that in our time men are under attack in an incredible way. It’s not necessarily been different in other generations, but we would be fools to think that men are not under attack and manhood is not under attack in our generation. As a matter of fact, I looked up the statistics: up to four times more men—think about that for a second—up to four times more men than women struggle with gender identity and gender issues. Up to four times more men.
Here we have a generation that in very many ways tries to explain that men and women are really the same, yet men seem to struggle four times more with the same issue than women do. And as manhood and being a man is under so much attack from things invented in hell to destroy the concept of manhood, the safety of manhood, the protection, the provision—all of the things that are supposed to reflect who the Father is to a generation and to young ones—as all of that is under attack, I want to read to you from the King James Version the same verse that David read at the beginning of this service: John 1:12. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
Church, we would be fools not to realize that men, and with men being under attack, the family unit is under attack—women and children alike. With men being under such a scope of attack by Satan, by the enemy, in these last days, struggling with everything you can possibly name—depression, being overworked, burnout, you name it. It doesn't matter what category of struggle you bring up, men seem to dominantly struggle with these things.
Manhood and men in general are under attack. Yet, you who have believed in Jesus are not without power. The word says that God has given the believer power to become sons of God. In other words, He has given you power to become exactly who God made you, exactly who God called you to be. All you ever did, as David shared, is believe on the name of Jesus, and there's power. But not all people yet walk in this power. That's where the church comes in. That's where the sound of the gospel, a sound of deliverance, a sound of truth, comes forth from the Church of the Living God, the Bride of Jesus Christ, the people of God bringing forth a sound in their generation that proclaims hope and direction to people that don't have it. To people who only have struggle, to such an extent that they would rather explain the struggle away to where it's not even a struggle anymore because there is no winning this thing. There is no way out of this thing. I don't see a way forward. I don't see a way that actually has power. You get to share that when you believe on the name of Jesus Christ, a power is given that allows you to just walk away from it all and come into who you actually have been made to be by the Living God: Sons and Daughters of the Living God.
Let me read to you 1 Timothy 2:5-6: "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."
Church, your Jesus Christ gave himself as payment, as ransom, for all. Every single person you run into, every single person you see, Christ was given as ransom for that person. Stop looking at people as if the ransom has only been paid for those that believe and come to church and have turned away from their sin. You are the church. You come to this place to be encouraged, to have fellowship, to learn things that help you. That is absolutely true. But your greatest purpose is not to show up in this place, as important as it may be. Your greatest purpose is to leave this place active, not passive, to let all people know that there is a ransom that was paid for all people. A ransom paid so that all would be able to receive power to move away from all that they were stuck in, all that they were proclaimed to be by the enemy.
The enemy tells people who they are. Church, I devote quite a lot of very descriptive journeys about that in my book. I was just pondering upon that as I was preparing this word and spending time with the Lord, just remembering the way that the enemy would speak with me as my best friend, having my best interests at heart. No one else understood; he did. No one else was on my side; he was. He knows how to appear as an angel of light. He doesn't claim to be with God, but he appears to be good. He seeks to appear as a friend. He seeks to appear as if he is on your side, and he seeks to make you hide sins that used to be shameful. Slowly but surely, he tries to alter your very identity to where you no longer want to feel that these things are shameful. You almost want to become proud of these things. You want to become these things. You want to move away from everything that is conviction and right and truth and good, and you fall in love with this best friend that just understands you and will just give you what you need or want or feel like at any given time. He'll give you whatever you desire.
Church, as long as you are not believing that there is a God of truth, that there is a God who set a standard of holiness, that there is a God who has only one way for you to find fulfillment, satisfaction, your identity, and power, he doesn't want you to trust God for anything at all. He has reasons, and he doesn't make himself sound like the devil when he speaks. He sounds like your own logical reasoning. It makes complete sense. It makes you feel like you have a best friend with you always, and he explains himself so clearly. There are times that you feel smart because you feel like you just reasoned through all of that by yourself, and now you can explain it to yourself.
That's inspiration, church, that's given to you, but it's not coming from heaven. The enemy brings you to a place, seeks to bring you to a place where he gets to tell you exactly who you are. He seeks to bring you to a place where he tells you you're a mistake, you're not wanted. He seeks to tell you you're bothersome, that when people are around you, they don't know how to talk to you, they don't know how to fellowship with you. They find you a little different, you're different from everyone else. One of the greatest things the enemy will tell you is you're different from everyone else. No one really gets you and understands you. "I do." He isolates you, makes you come away from people. See, Jesus tells us to be around people all the time, to the point where we really don't like it, and we're just doing it in obedience. The word tells us this because we don't like it. Some have the habit to avoid the meetings, and the word warns against that.
There's a reason the word warns. It's not to religiously get you into a church. It's not even necessarily referring only to the meetings. It's about just hanging out with people filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with forgiveness, filled with Jesus. Some have these feelings, some have these thoughts that make sense to them, but it causes them to take a bit of distance. "I don't really belong, I don't really fit in," all of these things. And you've been thinking it's your thoughts when all along Jesus already told you what it would be like when you receive a new mind from God. He told us, "It's going to be my mind. I'm going to give you my mind," and He gave us His word from cover to cover explaining to us, seeking to help us understand how we can recognize it when God is giving us His thoughts, when the enemy is seeking to bring in the angel of light camouflage demonic thoughts, when we are thinking in our own flesh and we're just being selfish. The word helps us discern which is which.
But every single one of us goes through that cycle or at the very least has gone through that cycle because we are all at one point in our life or still today like Adam. Adam, the first man created, is a part of us. He's a part of our lineage, he's a part of our journey. And when we are still experiencing the lineage that we come from, our forefather Adam, the result is we walk in sin, we walk in brokenness. We can't turn away from our sin; there's no power. We can't walk away from the brokenness and just be healed and move on because there's powerlessness.
Church, there will always be powerlessness in whatever area of your life if you have not been forgiven. You are powerless to see that God loves you. You are powerless to see that God values you, that He would pay the highest price for you. You're powerless to see what you are worth to God. If you've been forgiven, if you have been saved, you can see it. But there may be areas in your life where you're powerless and you can't move away from things, or you can't move forward. This is how you recognize it: it's very simple. You're not growing in that area.
The Bible promises you that if you have believed in Jesus, you will change from glory to glory. That's not your own glory; that's glory to Jesus. That's testimony of what He has done inside of you. When there are areas of your life where that power is not at work, you're not changing. Things are not becoming worked out. Things are not coming to the surface and then plucked out by the Holy Spirit and replaced with things that belong to Jesus. That means you can't see Jesus with the eyes of your heart in that very area. You don't trust Him yet. You can't see who He is in your life in that area.
In the beginning, I told you when you believe in Jesus for your forgiveness, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have learned to see Him as your Lord and given Him the throne of your heart. But it is my prayer that everyone online and also here in person may see Jesus with the eyes of their heart so clearly today. Because three things always happen the moment your heart can see Jesus. Three things always happen. They are very easy to remember. If you're writing it down, these are good to write down.
There's power. You're instantly changed in certain areas of your life. You did nothing for it. You have no clue how you did it, but you can just walk away. There's instant power. There's instant presence of the Lord. He'll never leave you nor forsake you. You can tell that God has come upon your life and He does not leave you. It's not something that you experience coming to a service, and when you leave, the presence stays in the building. When the eyes of your heart have seen Jesus and believed in Him for who He is, that presence does not depart from you.
Then the third one is peace. God gives His peace. You may go through trial after trial, you may have difficulty, you may have struggles in your life where you are still learning to walk with Jesus and see Jesus and trust Jesus, but there is a divine peace. Nothing can take your peace away. Nothing can make you feel unforgiven again, even when you do something that used to be sin and you trip up and you do this very thing again. Yes, you may feel like repenting. Yes, you may feel this is not the Father's will for my life. But somehow divinely, I don't feel guilty before the Father again. I feel convicted. I feel the Holy Spirit is telling me that this hurts God when I do it, but I don't feel guilty. I don't feel I cannot come to Him. I don't feel that He is resisting my presence. I am not guilty.
He gives power, presence, and peace to every person whose eyes, the eyes of the heart, have been opened by just believing that because of Jesus Christ it is finished for your life. Then the journey starts, and there's a journey, and it's important. Discipleship is a part of it. Sanctification is a part of it. These things are all true. I'm not trying to downplay these things. But none of those things matter when the eyes of your heart go shut, when you can't see that forgiveness, when you cannot see what God has done and is doing and will be doing over your heart, over you as a person, who you are to God. This day, church, God gives to everyone that belongs to Jesus. He's a giving God. You don't have to pray it out of His hands. You don't have to persuade Him. He gives to everyone that belongs to Jesus. That's what He is like. That is what He does.
I want to take you to Romans 5, verses 12-14: "The man Jesus Christ." Romans 5, verses 12-14: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned— for until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come."
Church, remember the start of the problem of sin when Adam was there and the sin problem started. Sin has brought into this world very many things that we hate and we would love to go without. Sin brought sickness into this world, sin brought pain into the world, loneliness, depression, confusion, death. But the way I remember that story of how sin came into this world is a little different than the word seems to remember it right here. The way I remember that story, it wasn't Adam. Did the word forget what really happened? Is the word trying to cover something up? Is the word making a mistake in saying through one man sin entered the world, from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam? Is the word wrong? Is the word remembering it wrong? Let's go there.
Genesis 1, verses 27 and 28: "We see the start of God creating men. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'"
Here God makes man, He makes a woman, and God gives them their purpose. He gives them their assignment. He tells them, "I made all things, the entire world, and you're in charge. I'm putting you in charge. You can do it as you will. I'm putting you in charge. You get to have dominion over all of it. I want you to take charge of all that I have made. I want you to walk with Me as you do it. I'm giving you a purpose." Then, just a couple of verses later: Genesis 2, verses 15 to 17: "Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'"
Then Genesis 3, verses 2-6: "Here we go. And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die."' Then the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate."
That's how I remember the story, church. That's how I remember the story. It wasn't Adam that started all of this. Adam may have done a poor job leading; he may be guilty of that. But to say in Adam everyone has died when the story really seems to go Eve. Eve did not resist the devil until he fled. Eve did not believe God over the devil. Eve did not obey whatever one command God had placed before them. Eve abandoned the call of God, clear boundaries to what God had called them to do, and began to do something else and cause trouble that would affect the entire world. Eve did it, and Adam is on my side. Let's go a few verses later: Genesis 3, verse 12: "Then the man said, 'The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.'"
Adam seems to have his story straight. Adam is fleeing from the Lord. He knows he's in trouble. So is Eve. They're together fleeing from the Lord. Imagine that: they're the only two people in the world. They're together. God shows up. Adam goes under the bus. "Sorry, you did it. I blame you. You came up with this idea. We upset God. Really, you upset God. I want to get the details right. God gave me this woman, so you may even be to blame a little bit, but she is the one that first was tempted, gave in, took the fruit, even brought it into my life."
Adam blames his wife, blames his bride, and places the responsibility of all the guilt and all the requirements that come with it really on his bride. And so Adam failed in so many ways, just in these few verses that we looked at together. But then the Father sent the man Jesus Christ to teach us something that Adam was not reflecting. There's a lot we can learn from the life of Adam, also good things, but there was something that the life of Adam was not reflecting. And so the Father sent someone else.
Let me read to you 1 Corinthians 15, verses 20-22: "But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." Here again, the word says, "In Adam all died." We just read the story together. We had Adam's testimony. He said it was the woman. She did it. The story shows us that she was the first one to get into this mess and then drag man with her into it, if you will. She had already eaten from the fruit. What was he going to do? And here the word, time and time and time again, names Adam. It does not even name Eve. It throws Adam clearly under the bus.
What is God seeking to teach us through the life of Adam? What is God seeking to explain to us? Because God is holding Adam responsible for what his wife did. Time and time again, we see God accuse Adam of the whole thing. In Adam, everybody died. It should be said about you: because of you, death is in this world. Everyone that has ever wept for a loved one tears because of you. Death was brought into this world because of you. God is holding Adam responsible for what his wife did, for the actions of his wife. You say that's not fair. That's justice. That's manhood. That's God beginning to explain to us something about manhood. God is trying, over the generations, throughout this entire book, to explain to us, to tell us a story of a real man, a story of manhood. The first Adam failed at reflecting this, failed at explaining this, and so a second Adam was sent.
Let me read to you 1 Corinthians 15, verses 45-49: "And so it is written, 'The first man Adam became a living being.' The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man."
Church, when you are still in the lineage of the first Adam, the one that failed, the one that blamed, the one that brought sin into the world, the one that is held responsible by God, the one that brought death upon all people and sin upon all people—and we sinned in our own decisions as well, so we can only blame him so much—but it is said of him, "In Adam, death came to all men." When you are still as a man or a woman in the lineage of that first Adam, here's what the word says: "As was the man of dust," referring to the first Adam, "so also are those who are made of dust." In other words, if you are still in the lineage of the first Adam, you are like him. You cannot help it. You blame. You sin. You cause death to come upon other people. You bring hurt and brokenness and pain into the lives of other people, as well as your own, and you're hurting God in the process, and you're willing to hurt your spouse in the process. Still in the lineage of the first Adam.
And then the word turns and explains to us, when you have been born again, when you are saved, when your heart has seen the Lord Jesus Christ, "As is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly." In other words, those that have become born again and are no longer like the first Adam that failed but have now become a part of the life of that second Adam, they become like him. They no longer begin to look like that first Adam. They no longer walk like that first Adam. They no longer cause the stuff that the first Adam caused. They are being changed, and they are being changed into the likeness of that second Adam. They are now children in God's kingdom. They're not children of sin anymore.
Adam blamed his bride, and God came to show us that that is not manhood. God shows us time and time again in His word, "I'm holding Adam responsible for everything that Eve did." She's not mentioned. God sent His Son into this world. The Bible refers to Him, to Jesus, also by the name of the second Adam. The same Jesus. God sent His Son to tell you and I the story of a real man. He seeks for you and I to understand who Jesus really is, who a man really is. We were made in His likeness. We are a pale reflection, so the Father sent the real deal. He sent His Son that we may understand who He really is, so that we may believe on Him. The way He is is who He truly is, not a pale representation. The Father sent His Son so we can know Him, understand who He is, and place our trust in Him and Him alone.
God gives us the example. Give glory to God. He's good and worthy to be praised. God gives us the example of that relationship that He started with. He made the man first, and He said, "It is not good for man to be alone," and He made him a helper fit for him. And as the story of the Son of God unfolds, the word of God explains to us by using that same concept of relationship. The word says, "The Son of Man, the Son of God, the man Jesus Christ, He is a bridegroom. He is as a bridegroom to a bride. His bride is the church. His bride is the people that He shed His blood for. The bride is the people that have believed on Him." He builds this example of Him being a bridegroom and you being His bride, all to help you understand more and more who Jesus really is.
Church, we learn from the word of God that Eve had temporal—that means in this world, in time, in her life—she had some consequences from her sin. You don't see God going on mentioning it. He mentions Adam. She had some consequences. The word tells us that she'd give birth in pain, childbearing in pain. The word tells us that as a woman now, your desire will be for your husband, which really means you're going to want to control the direction you're being led. You can't get away from it. There are some consequences. You and I also may have some consequences today in our life, in time, because of some of the things we have done wrong. But I want you to see that God, throughout the entire word.
He's not writing the story where Eve messed up. He's not writing that story where he says "in Eve," not even "in Eve and Adam." He doesn't write the story about Eve. He doesn't write the story when he refers to the garden and names Eve in it. In the same way, He's not writing the story of the wrongs of His bride. He's not writing the story of the wrongs of you and I. He wrote the story. Jesus Christ wrote the story of how the Father made Him pay for it as the bridegroom, how the Father holds Him responsible for every single mistake His bride has ever made from the very beginning. Adam did not properly reflect the very message that represented God, that God wanted you and I to know, that God wanted you and I to see. "I hold Adam responsible when Eve messes up. I hold Christ responsible when the bride messes up." Here is 2 Corinthians 5:21, talking about God the Father: "For He made Him"—that is, Jesus—"For God the Father made Jesus. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we may become the righteousness of God in Him."
Church, Jesus was sent to tell the truth about manhood. Jesus was sent to become fully responsible for the sins of the bride. Jesus was sent to become fully responsible for all that you had ever done, even though you are the one that did it, and it's recorded somewhere that you did it all. Yet God fully holds His Son responsible, not you. It's not fair. It's why God sent manhood into this world—to show this world what He is like, what He would do. That He does not hold the bride responsible, that He does not blame the bride, that He does not hold it against the bride, that He does not repeat the sin, that He does not bring it back up. All the name that comes up is Adam, Adam, Adam. The second Adam comes up when your guilt is brought before the Father. Adam did it, not the bride. The second Adam did it. The second Adam had to go to the cross. The second Adam had to suffer shame. The second Adam had to pay for sin because God holds the bridegroom responsible even though you did it. Let me take you back to 1 Timothy. I want to read to you again verses 5 and 6 of the second chapter: "For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, who gave Himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time."
Church, every person that is with us online, the Father holds Jesus responsible for every single one of your actions. The Father holds Jesus fully responsible for all you have ever done wrong, will ever do wrong. He'll never name your name in association with your sin. That's not what God is like. That's not what manhood is like. All this time throughout the word, and I pray that in the coming months you're going to see it clearer and clearer as the Lord gives so many of these very simple messages that help us see who Jesus really is and what He has really done. But it is my prayer that the eyes of your heart may be open. And there are things that can keep those eyes closed. Unbelief is number one. If you don't believe that Jesus has done it for you, that He loves you, that you are forgiven because the Father holds Him responsible and He gladly paid the price, just repent of your unbelief. Turn from your unbelief. You don't have to feel like it. Nothing big has to happen in your life today. You can say, "I choose to trust God. I'm going to believe that because of Jesus, I am forgiven." You may have never said it out loud. You may have never testified to it. Today, you can turn from that unbelief. You're not stuck in it. Jesus gave you power to become children of the Living God. You're not stuck. You can just turn. That's what Jesus has done because God the Father doesn't hold you responsible. He holds His Son responsible. He was the payment for all. He gave Himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.
I want to invite you today to believe in Jesus and to call on His name. If you call on His name, He will not deny you. He will not disappoint you. He will not keep the power and the presence and the peace from you. If you just choose to believe that Jesus has so much power, that He's done something so full of love, that He set you so free, that you can actually turn from your unbelief, you're not stuck anymore. There's no power of Satan that can hold you. Death cannot hold you. If you would turn from your unbelief, believe in Jesus, and call on His name, He will not deny you. If you want to come forward, I want to invite you to join me at the altar. If you would like someone to pray with you, I will make time for that right afterwards. But if you want to say, "Lord, I believe You today. I'm turning. I'm choosing to turn. And Lord, I want to say out loud for the first time, 'Lord, I believe that because of Jesus, I am forgiven. I believe the Father holds Jesus responsible. I can't explain it. It doesn't feel fair, but I believe your good news, your gospel to me with all of my heart.'"
Lord, I pray for every person, Lord, every heart that you are ministering to. Lord, every heart that you are helping to open the eyes of, every heart that you are calling, every mind, Lord God, that you are calling to believe, to turn from their unbelief, and to believe in you and to call on you with all of their heart. Father, I pray that you do not withhold your power, your presence, and your peace. Father, you hold Jesus responsible for all things I've ever done, all things we have ever done. Lord, this is who you are, this is your gospel, this is your message to a broken world. Lord God, in pain and difficulty, I pray that you go before us. I pray, Lord God, that by your Holy Spirit, you open the eyes of our heart and that you keep the eyes of our heart open, that we can walk in the joy of our salvation daily.
Lord God, that we can see the power of the cross for forgiveness daily, that it may be in our mouth, Lord God, that it may be in our heart, and that it may go before us to share, Lord, with all people. Lord, you were given as a ransom for all in due time to be testified. Father, I pray that what Jesus has done may be so real in our hearts that it may be said of our generation that we testified that Jesus was given as a ransom for all. Thank you, Jesus, that you didn't only come for me. Thank you, Jesus, that you didn't only come for those that are in churches. Thank you, Jesus, that you didn't only come for those that are in our nation. Lord God, thank you that you were given as a ransom for all people. I pray, Father, that the eyes of our heart may see it and that we may testify, Lord Jesus Christ, seeing you, Lord Jesus, high and lifted up, seeing what the Father has done. Holy Spirit, would you give us open eyes, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Hallelujah, Lord, I thank you that we have the promise. Lord Jesus, thank you that you have promised the power. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have promised your presence. Thank you, Lord, that you have promised your peace to every person that is able to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the only name through whom all men must be saved. Lord, when we can believe that Jesus Christ is your son, the struggle of faith begins. Lord, now to believe that that is all it took for me to receive all things that are promised, for me to find the power to turn, for me to find the presence at any moment, for me to find the peace in any situation. Just because I turned from my unbelief and believe that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the son of Almighty God who died on the cross a ransom for all, Lord, if that is all I have, I will receive all things from the Father. Father, help us to guard that gospel. Help us to guard that childlike faith. Lord God, help us to guard the Christ-centeredness of our faith, of our church, of our lives, of our families. Lord, Father, help us to bless one another by helping each other to walk in the faith, to keep open eyes focused on the cross.
Lord God, I pray, Lord Jesus Christ, that you do it in us as a church. Lord God, as we believe you one at a time, I pray that you glorify the name of Jesus in our midst. Holy Spirit, it is your job to glorify the Christ. Holy Spirit, it is said of you that you are the one that confesses Christ unto us, helps our hearts see and understand that the Christ is my Jesus, that the forgiveness purchased is mine, that the Father holds Jesus responsible for my sin. Holy Spirit, it is your job to glorify Jesus. We trust that you will keep your part of the covenant, and we ask you, Lord, help us to testify to the Christ who was given as a ransom for all men. Help us, Lord God, to leave behind all of the thinking, all of the actions of the first Adam, speaking to your church and speaking to the people that are called to be a part of your church, as if they are still to blame, as if their sins are still allowed to be brought up. Father, you have sent the second Adam to show us that you don't want to hear anything about the sins of the Bride. You don't want to hear anything about the mistakes of the Bride. You hold the Bridegroom responsible.
Father, we thank you that you've given us marriage to explain it. Lord God, we thank you that you've given us a second Adam to help us understand. We thank you, Lord God, that you don't want to hold us responsible for any bad thing we've ever done. Lord, all we can do is worship the Jesus on whom all of these things were placed, even though we were the ones that did it. All the story is written, it was all us, yet we are not mentioned anywhere. The second Adam is to blame. Father, what a gospel you've given us. What a love you've given us. Father, what a kindness, what a mercy you've shown us. Lord God, in due time, to be testified to. Father, let it be time in our generation that the Church of the Living God may see the gospel, the simple gospel, so clearly again, that all over the world churches may testify to the ransom that has been paid for all people, that whoever believes may not perish but have everlasting life.
Father, help us to represent you as the second Adam did, Lord God. Lord, we thank you for your gospel. We thank you for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We thank you, Lord God, that we, a people like us, get to worship you. We thank you, Lord, that we get to celebrate together next week that this church is being established. Lord God, no longer a church plant, no longer a question mark behind it. Lord, as the denomination is watching to see if this is a work the Holy Spirit is doing or if this is a work of man, we thank you that after these three years, Lord God, you have given us a testimony that has made it beyond clear to so many levels of all of our leaders that you are doing a work here. Lord God, that is supposed to not only change our lives, but to change the lives of those that have no hope, no way forward yet, and no forgiveness yet. Lord, we thank you that we get to celebrate what you are doing in our midst, what you are building in our hearts, and what you are inviting us to freely give out. Lord, any hour of our day, any situation we get ourselves into, you send a second Adam and you hold him fully responsible for all things that have ever been done wrong by those people made in your likeness. Lord God, help us to testify to the truth. We bless you, Lord. We can only thank you, and we can only worship you in Jesus' name.
-Pastor Stan Mons