[MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning. Would you bring-- would
you bring your Bibles. The Bibles that you
did bring, would you turn in them to the
book of Ephesians, chapter 2, the book of Ephesians
in your New Testament, chapter 2. If you know the name
John Newton from history, you may not know that he
was a racist at one point, by his own admission. And I know that's a very
charged word, especially in our present
culture, but understand that John Newton was driven by
prejudice so much so that he sold West Africans in the human
slave trade over a century ago. But he was reading a book at the
time, a very famous book called The Imitation of Christ
by Thomas a Kempis. He was convicted. Long story short, John Newton
gave his life to Christ, totally transformed, stopped
doing what he was doing, joined the church, became
a clergyman in the church, and wanted to contribute
to the family of God by writing songs for the church. He wrote over 300 hymns. The hymn, though, that we
associate with his name, John Newton, is a singular
song known worldwide, "Amazing Grace," how sweet
the sound that saved a wretch like me. Now, that's not just a
word he threw in there. That man believed it to be true. I was a wretch, a racist,
prejudiced wretch, and God saved me. On his deathbed, John Newton
said, my memory is almost gone, but two things I remember,
that I am a great sinner and that Christ
is a great Savior. And when it comes
down to it, that's really all you need to remember. You're a great sinner and
Christ is a great Savior. And you bring those
two together and you have a winning combination. He said, I remember that. I'll never forget that. With that in mind, notice
the opening words of verse 11 in Ephesians 2. "Therefore, remember." Now, you know that prejudice
is a part of humanity. I think, at one time,
every single one of us has engaged in it, said certain
things we wish we didn't, but we're all guilty of it. Everywhere in the world
throughout history it has been the case. You could go over
to Northern Ireland and think about what
happened historically between the Catholics
and Protestants. You could go to the Middle East. There has been an ongoing
feud, prejudicial feud, between even Muslims in
that part of the world, Shia and Sunni Islam, also
in the Middle East between the Arabs
and the Israelis, also in Syria between
the Kurds and the Druze and the Yazidis,
down in Australia between Australians and Native
Australians, Aborigines. In South Africa,
they had apartheid. In the United States,
we had a Civil War. In Rwanda, there
was a tribal feud between the Hutus
and Tutsis, which decimated millions of lives. That's prejudice. That's racism. Now, what you need
to understand is that the first century,
in which Paul the apostle wrote this and other letters,
was exactly the same. It was a world that was
torn by cultural, national, and racial instability. Romans looked down on
anybody who wasn't a Roman. Greeks look down on anybody
who didn't speak Greek. In fact, to the Greeks
there were only two classes of people on Earth-- Greeks and barbarians. They coined the
term "barbarians." That's because, if you
didn't speak Greek, it sounded like, bar,
bar, bar, bar, bar, bar. That's where the term
"barbarian" came from. The Jews look down on
people who were not Jews. So that kind of division
was very, very common. The answer to all of
that was the gospel because in the midst of
all of that animosity, the church was born. And in the church were Romans
and Greeks and Jews and male and female and slave owners
and slaves and, and, and. In fact, Jesus came, and
it wasn't like, well, let's celebrate the
different cultures. No, let's eliminate the
boundaries that separate us. And Jesus came to
bring a new community. He said, I will build my
church, a whole new group, a whole new identity. And so here we are,
different backgrounds, different cultures, vastly
different ideologies. In fact, the truth is, you
couldn't get some of us together in the same room
were it not for Jesus Christ. Somebody once said, there's
lots of different kinds of nuts in the Lord's fruitcake. So from one nut to another nut,
welcome to God's fruitcake. In fact, there's going
to be a song in heaven, the lyrics in Revelation
5 are given to us. They go like this. For you have redeemed
us by your blood, out of every tribe and
tongue and people and nation. So good. You've done that. Several years ago,
in the year 2000, I had the privilege
of being a part of and speaking at what was
called Amsterdam 2000. And in Amsterdam
2000, they got people from all over the world-- Christian missionaries,
evangelists, Christian workers. And it was a
nine-day conference, 10,287 participants,
Christian workers from 209 different
nations and territories. And all I could think about
when I was in that large room, with all these different
people and languages, I thought of heaven because
we were singing songs. Everybody knew the
melodies to because they're the same melody across different
cultures and languages. But when we started singing
"Amazing Grace," each in their own heart language,
it was just like, OK, this is what heaven
is going to be like. We are in Ephesians
chapter 2, and we're looking at the second half of
Ephesians chapter 2, where Paul introduces for us the
modern family, not like the ancient family,
not a singular group that God made a covenant
with, but a covenant that includes everyone, every tribe,
every tongue, every nation. And so what Paul does is
remind them, his readers, who they were, what
Jesus did for them, and what they have now
become, this new society. And what I want to show
you is three great changes that happened to them and
thus three great changes that have happened to us. We were out, now we're in. That's one. We were separated,
now we're integrated. That's two. And we were foreigners,
but now we're family. That's three. And so Paul is sort of
saying the same thing, but he does it in a
few different ways. He sort of builds on this
theme and unpacks that idea for us, the first being, we
were out, but now we're in. Let's look at it, verse 11. Therefore remember that
you, once Gentiles-- I'm going to get to
that in just a moment-- once Gentiles in the flesh,
who are called on circumcision by what is called the
circumcision, made in the flesh by hands that at that time you
were, without Christ, being alien, and aliens from
the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant
of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus,
you who once were far off have been brought near
by the blood of Christ. This is our past life. This is our BC experience,
Before Christ, for most of us. Now, granted, some of you
might have a Jewish background. Some of you may have
been orthodox Jews. But for the most
part, I'm looking at a group of non-Jewish people,
Gentile people, self included. And so the people at
Ephesus were also. The Jewish word for
us, Gentiles, is goy. Ever heard that term, "goy?" That's a Hebrew word. Goy is a Gentile. Goyim is the plural,
Hebrew plural, and it literally
means "the nation." So the Jews divided the
world up into Judaism and the world, the
nations, goy, goyim. Now, according to
Paul the apostle, being Jewish brought
with it some advantages, many advantages. He lists them in
Romans chapter 9. This is what he writes. They are the people
of Israel, chosen to be God's special children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them
and gave his law to them. They have the privilege of
worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. Their ancestors were
great people of God, and Christ himself was a Jew,
as far as his human nature is concerned. Now, that's the list of the
advantages a Jewish person has. God has given them
the scriptures, God has given them
the patriarchs, God has given them
the temple worship, God gave them the sacrifices. Thus God gave them the
approach to himself, God gave them the priesthood. God promised to
them the Messiah. So from a spiritual
standpoint, they had it all. We Gentiles, on the
other hand, had nothing. We were, as Paul describes
here, without, without. We were without Christ, we
are without the covenants, we are without God,
we are without hope. But the Jews, unfortunately,
instead of using their position to attract Gentiles into
God's kingdom, which is what God planned
all along and told them all along in the Old
Testament, plain as day, they used their exalted
position to look down their nose at people who are not
like them, derogatorily. Note in verse 11-- Paul, being a Jewish rabbi,
would have understood this-- therefore, remember
that you once Gentiles in the flesh--
now watch this-- who are called on
circumcision by what is called the circumcision. The circumcision refers
to Jewish people. They use the term
"uncircumcision" as a derogatory, divisive term. Those uncircumcised Philistines,
they're not like us. We are insiders,
they are outsiders. And it was a point
of pride to them. Did you know 2,000 years
ago-- and it's written in their records-- that Jews believed,
some of them, Jews believed that
there was one reason God created non-Jews, one
reason, to make hell hotter. That's their purpose,
in their words, to kindle or stoke
the fires of hell. So God just sort of wants to
keep the temperature going, maybe increase a little bit,
so he makes more Gentiles, throws them in, throws
them in, throws them in. That's why God created Gentiles. Strict Jews would not
even walk down the street if a Gentile were coming
the other direction, they'd just take
a different route. It was not lawful for these
Jews to help a Gentile woman who is pregnant in her hour of
need and delivering a baby. They were not allowed to help
her because, if they did, they would be guilty and
helping bring another Gentile into the world. If a Jewish girl got
married to a Gentile boy, oftentimes her family
would conduct her funeral the same day. They'd just say,
she's dead to us. She doesn't live. She doesn't exist. There is a story in one
of the rabbinical sources about a Gentile woman who
came to a famous rabbi, Rabbi Eleazar, and she came and she
confessed that she was a sinner and that she wanted to
live a righteous life. And she wanted to be admitted
into the Jewish faith, and so she came up to
Rabbi Eleazar and said, rabbi, bring me near. Bring me near, that was the
term of let me into Judaism. I know that I'm a far
off, bring me near. And Rabbi Eleazar said, no. You cannot come near. And he closed the
door on her face. So look back at verse 12 because
we have a summary statement of the problem, our plight. It says, having no hope
without God in the world. That's as low as you can go,
having no hope without God in the world. Historians tell us
that at that time in the world, the
Gentile world, there was a pervasive cloud
of hopelessness, that, more than ever before,
people started feeling let down by their gods, by
their belief systems, whether they were
Greeks or Romans. All of the polytheism they
had believed in let them down. They felt vulnerable,
they felt empty. And R. Kent Hughes
writes, the first century was an age of suicide. So depression was up, suicide
was up, people felt let down, people felt hopeless. And as I started reading this
week about the Gentile world and this description, having no
hope without God in the world, I thought, talk about a
contemporary description. That sounds so
similar to right now. And I just don't mean modern
world, I mean right now, the time in which we live. Before COVID-19 hit, there was
a Washington Post article from 2019 that said-- this is
right before the virus hit-- Americans are facing a
rising tide of despair. That was then. That was before COVID, a
rising tide of despair. The article talked
about hopelessness over and over and over again. Now, a year later, the
LA Times put this out, signs of depression have
tripled in the United States since COVID-19. Having no hope without
God in the world, that is a description of what
is all around us right now. I mean, think about it. How many people do you know
that genuinely enjoy life? How many people do you know
that really love their job? You can't even get people
back to the job to enjoy it. How many people do who are still
excited about their marriage? How many people do you know
who live enthusiastic lives? Having no hope without
God in the world, that's the description. That's being outside. But look at verse 13. But now-- there's hope in
those two words, but now. It's like John Newton in
the song, I once was blind, but now I see, was
lost, but now I'm found. But now, in Christ Jesus,
you, who once were a far off, have been brought near
by the blood of Christ. I remember how it felt
when I was in high school and my classmates would
stand on the basketball court and pick teams. Do you remember them doing that? I remember how it
felt not being picked. What do you mean,
not being picked? You're 6'5", they'd
pick you first. No, you haven't seen me play. They had. So I'd just sort
of stand over there and felt really
bad as they would take everybody else, even the
guy who was, like, this tall. It's like, OK. But I also remember
how good it felt when there was a new kid at
school and he picked me first. It really felt good. I remember how it felt
when I would get letters from colleges saying,
no, we're not going to admit you into our college. And I remember how good it
felt the day that I opened up the letter that said, you
are welcome in our facility. Exclusion never feels good. Inclusion always feels good. Paul said, you were an
outsider, but now you're an insider because
you're in Christ. I've always loved
a guy by the name of G. Campbell Morgan, century
ago, expositor of the word, in London. When G. Campbell
Morgan was younger and he was trying
out for a church-- he wanted to be a pastor,
and he became a great one. But at that time, he was
candidating for a church. At that time, they
had a board of people who would listen to a sermon and
grade him and accept or reject him. Well, he didn't make it. And he was so
despondent that he wired his father-- so this is the day
before computers and texting. He had to go find a
telegraph and wire, and you got charged by the word. So he gave his dad
one word, rejected. Rejected. His father immediately wired
him back this response, rejected on Earth, accepted in heaven. Rejected on Earth,
accepted in heaven. Right now, no matter what
you are going through, dear Christian, you
are accepted in heaven. If you have lost
your health or you're feeling that loss of health,
you are accepted in heaven. If you are excluded by a
circle of friends, so what? You have been
accepted in heaven. If you've been cast
out by your family, you're accepted in heaven. You've been demoted at
work, accepted and heaven. You've been pushed off social
media, scorned by your friends, you are accepted in heaven. You are in on the greatest
plan ever hatched. You're in on it. We have sung a song
around this joint. It's a really good song. I am chosen, not forsaken. I am who you say I am. You are for me, not against me. I am who you say I am. You need to wake up
tomorrow and sing that song. You are accepted. But now, in Christ, you,
who were once a far off, have been brought near
by the blood of Christ. So that's the first change. We were out, now we're in. Here's the second change
that has happened. We were separated, but
now we're integrated. Look at verse 14. For He Himself-- that
is Jesus Christ-- He Himself is our peace who
has made both one, both meaning Jew and Gentile. He's made both one
and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
having abolished in His flesh the enmity that is the law
of commandments contained in ordinances so as to
create in Himself one new man from the two,
thus making peace, and that he might reconcile
them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby
putting to death the enmity. And he came and preached
peace to you who are far off and to those who were near, for
through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Did you know that Judaism
was all about separation and not inclusion? There were walls,
there were courtyards, and there were rooms,
and everybody sort of had their place to be in. So for example, if you
were to go to a synagogue, you could not sit
in the synagogue like you're seated
here this morning. If you were sitting in
an ancient synagogue, on one side would be the
men, on the other side would be the men's
wives, or the women. They would be
separated by gender. Then there was a
room, a special room, for converts to Judaism
called proselytes, proselytes of the gate, resident
aliens who wanted to identify with Judaism. They could come,
but they had to be in their own kind
of special penalty box, their own special room. Then if you went to the
temple, there were courts and there was separation
and there were walls. So just for the
sake of analogy, I'm going to use this
platform for the temple. And it's a poor illustration
because the temple was 35 acres, so I just
have a few feet up here. So let's just sort
of get the picture. The temple itself, the building
where God was worshipped, it was a building
built on a platform. And on the same level of
the platform that the temple proper stood, there
was a court right around the temple
structure called the Court of the Priests. And the only people who
could go in that court were Jewish priests. Only the priests
could go in there. If you were a Jewish
male, you couldn't do it unless you were a priest. Around that Court of the Priests
was called the Court of Israel, and only Jewish men
could be in that court. Around that court but
a little further out, same level, same level
as the main platform, was the Court of the Women. Jewish women could be there. And then you would
descend several steps, and you would get
down to a low level. And there was a wall
at that level that was 4 and 1/2 feet
tall, and it went around the whole
outer courtyard, known as the Court of the Gentiles. The Court of the Gentiles was
so far away from the temple activities proper, it was
like the nosebleed seats at a stadium. It's like, yeah, you can get
in and you can see the game, but you better bring binoculars. It was sort of like that. Now, I said that there was
a wall 4 and 1/2 feet tall. On that wall there
were signs, basically, like, keep out signs
or beware of dog signs. But this was, like,
beware of death signs. And by the way, two of
them have been discovered. One is in a museum
in Istanbul, Turkey. The other is in a museum
in Jerusalem in Israel. And it is known as
the death inscription because this is exactly
how the sign read. Now, imagine you're a Gentile. You want to get
close to the temple. You are stopped by a
wall with this sign. No foreigner may enter
within the barricade which surrounds the
sanctuary and the enclosure. Anyone who is caught
doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death. Welcome to church. That was the sign. Paul the apostle knew about
this from personal experience. In Acts 21, Paul
is in Jerusalem. He's a Jewish rabbi. He can go in the
Court of the Gentiles, he can go to the
Court of the Women, he can go into the
Court of Israel. He was a Pharisee,
so he had access. But he was in Jerusalem,
and the orthodox Jews saw Paul talking to and hanging
out with an Ephesian Gentile by the name of Trophimus. And so they figured, Paul
must be bringing Gentiles into the temple. And we are told in Acts
21 this accusation, he has brought Greeks
into the temple and has defiled this holy place. And they called for his death. So Paul knew all about enmity. Paul knew all about separation. By the way, do you what
the word "Pharisee" means? It means separated one. We're not only separated from
the world by being Jewish, we are separated from the
Jews by being Pharisees. He knew what that
world was like. But what he says here is this. One event changed all that. It's called the cross. It's why Jesus said,
do this communion often in remembrance of me. Never forget this event. Because this one event
made one group of people. Took two different
separated groups and brought them into
an integrated unit. So now, there's no longer
Gentile and Jew, only saved, saved people, no
matter the background. So look at verse 15. So as to create in Himself
one new man from the two, the two being Jew and
Gentile, one new man. Now, I'm going to tell you about
the word, "new man," "new." The word in Greek is the
word [GREEK] for new. It's not necessarily the
typical word used for new. Let's just say you
had a Ford Escort. You've been driving
for a few years. You like it, does OK for
you, gets good gas mileage. You're content with it. But as the years
go on, you say, I'd like a new Ford Escort because
there's some new features in the new car. So I want the same car,
just newer in chronology. You would use the
Greek word [GREEK].. I want new in time, a
new car, but a newer car in terms of time. But let's say you just said, no,
I'm kind of done with the Ford Escort. I'd love to get a Ford F-150
pickup because pickups are cool and I want to haul stuff. So I want a new car. You would use the word
[GREEK],, which means I want a completely new model. That's the word Paul uses. He takes and removes
the separation, and makes one new, one [GREEK],,
one new person, not Jew, not Gentile, but Christian. Christian. So understand, this was
God's plan all along. This was Jesus' plan all along. He announced it. I'll remind you of the
passage in John, chapter 10. Jesus said this. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and
I'm known by my own. As the Father knows me,
even so, I know the Father and lay down my
life for the sheep. And other sheep I have-- notice this-- which
are not of this fold-- what is this fold? Jews, Judaism. That are not of this fold,
them also I must bring. And they will hear my
voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd. You see, Jesus never wanted
to keep this a Jewish thing. He always had in mind,
anybody and everybody. He even said in a parable, go
to the highways and the byways. Bring anybody who will listen. Bring them in that my
father's house may be filled. So Jesus is for Jewish people. He is for Gentile people. He is for German people,
he is for Spanish people, he is for African people,
he is for American people, South to North America,
he is for Europeans, he is for Australians, he
is for vaccinated people and unvaccinated people. Yeah. We / Jesus says,
are you all saved? I don't care if-- you don't
get vaccinated or unvaccinated to get into heaven. And you don't have to
show your political card to get into heaven. You just have to
trust in Jesus Christ. So I say, what a
difference it would be if we started
looking at people through the lens of potential
sheep, potential sheep. So that secretary at the
bank, a potential sheep of the good shepherd. That guy who bags your
groceries at the store, if they can hire
anybody who still does that, potential sheep. The guy on the golf course
doing a business deal, potential sheep. The officer who
wrote you a ticket for going too fast on the
way to church this morning, potential sheep. So there's no special
proximity anymore, near or far. There's no separation with
courts and walls and rooms. Now, no matter who you
are, no matter what background you have, all of
us can have access to God. That's verse 18. For through Him,
we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. So we were out, now we're in. We were separated,
now we're integrated. I'll give you a third
and final change. We were foreigners,
but now we're family. And I love this. Verse 19 says, now,
therefore-- and Paul so often has a therefore
in his teachings. He's leading you somewhere. Now, therefore,
you are no longer strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and members
of the household of God. Now, verse 19 is a
summary verse, actually. It's the first summary verse
to the whole last paragraph that goes all the way down
to the end of the chapter. He's summarizing the
first two chapters, what he has written so far. But verse 19, we're just
going to just kind of camp on that and close with that. You are no longer strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members
of the household of God. So you're not out, you're in. You're not separated,
you're integrated. You're not foreigners,
you're family. This new kingdom is your home. You belong here. God is building his forever
family, and he has you in mind. That's why it says in
Hebrews chapter 2, verse 11, Jesus is not ashamed to
call them-- that is us-- His brethren. I just love that. Jesus doesn't go, oh,
yeah, and Skip, too. I'm not ashamed to call
Skip Heitzig My brother. He is not ashamed to
call us His brother. My mind goes back to when I
first gave my life to Christ. I was 18 years of
age, and I went home to tell my parents
what I had done. I figured, they're
going to be so excited. I'm going to tell them
I gave my life to Jesus. And I'm I believe in God
and I'm following Jesus. I'm so excited, I have my Bible. And they weren't too excited. I figured they
were because I did have a little bit of
problem before that. I mean, I was in and out of-- I was arrested. I did drugs experimentally. It wasn't like an addiction,
but I did a lot of them and got into trouble. So I'm thinking,
they're thinking, anything that will help
Skip is a good thing. And I guess it was, except for
this thing because when I said, I love Jesus and I'm saved. Oh, that's nice. Nice? So it wasn't met warmly. And to be honest, I felt like
my spiritual family was more accepting and my
spiritual family was more satisfying than
even my own physical family. I started identifying
with the body of Christ, the Church of God, and
realizing, this is family. This is my family. Now, to help you
understand, as we bring this to a close, just
how profound this whole idea of being out and then
in, separated then integrated, foreigners
and then family was, let me take you back 3,400 years
in your mind's eye with me. Let's go back to the time
when the children of Israel first built that tabernacle
out in the desert. So let's just say up in
that rocks looking down is a Moabite, and
the Moabite sees the children of Israel camp. They built this tabernacle,
and there's smoke going up and sacrifices going up. And there's a
little tent closure in the middle of this courtyard. So the Moabite man comes
down, goes up to the gate, and says to a man
standing at the gate of the tabernacle, an Israelite,
hey, can I go in there? That looks really cool. The man would say, well, sure,
any Israelite can go in there. Well, I'm not in
Israel, I'm a Moabite. Well, no, you can't go in there. Well, what would I have
to do to get in there? I guess you'd have
to go and be born an Israelite to go in there. So the man sort of hung his
head and said, oh, man, I wish I was born an Israelite. And then he was
watching, and he noticed that there was a
man who is a priest, a man take an animal sacrifice,
its smoke went up to heaven. The man raised his hands,
sprinkled blood on the altar, then washed his hands and then
walked into a little tent. And said, wow, that looks cool. Where did he go? What's in that little room? And the man explained,
well, in that little room, that's called the holy place. There's a golden
lamp standing there, and there's a table
with bread on it and there's an altar of incense. And the priest is going to trim
the lamps and change the bread and burn incense to God as the
prayers of the congregation. And the Moabite
said, oh, man, I wish I would have been born
an Israelite because I'd love to go in that room. And the man would
say, Israelites can't go in that room. You have to be an Israelite
of the tribe of Levi of the family of Aaron
to go in that room. Only priests can
go in that room. Oh. Well, what else is in that room? The Israelite would
explain, well, I've been told there's a
beautiful veil that separates that room, the holy
place, from another room called the holy of holies. And in that room
is a chest, a box, called the Ark of the Covenant. That's where God lives. That's where God dwells. That's the very presence
of God in that room. And the Moabite
said, oh, I wish I was born an Israelite
of the tribe of Levi of the family of Aaron. I'd love to go into that
room and hang out with God. The Israelite would
say, you couldn't go-- only the high priest, not just
any priest can go in that room. So the man said,
oh, I wish I would have been born a Israelite
of the tribe of Levi of the family of Aaron. I wish I was a high priest. I'd love to go in that
room because if I could, I'd go in that room
every single day. I'd do it three times a day
just to get nearer to God. The man would say, oh,
you couldn't do that. Only the high priest
can go in that room once a year for a very short
period of time, lest he die. Now, you know at
that point, the guy's just going to hang
his head and walk away having no hope whatsoever
of ever being able to get into the presence of God. Now do you understand
the significance that when Jesus died on a
cross, the veil of the temple was ripped in two
from top to bottom? It was God saying,
you all come in. You all come in. Jew, Gentile, you believe
in Jesus, you can come in. There is no separation. You who are out are now in. Now there's integration,
now you're family. And now you have
some understanding of the kind of access
we have, not just as worshippers but as family. Separation is gone. And the church needs to
always remember that. The church should always have
its doors open and its arms open to all who are seeking
to come, regardless of race, regardless of age,
regardless of culture, regardless if your hair's
long or short or bald, regardless if there's
tattoos or just wrinkles. Doesn't matter. All those divisions
don't matter. I've always loved the story
about the guy in World War II who was on a
battlefield, three buddies were all fighting, one
of them died, sadly. His friend said, let's bury
our buddy in a churchyard. So they found a
church, local church. There was a cemetery, sure
enough, right outside, and they wanted to bury
their friend there. They went to the caretaker,
who was a priest, and said, we'd like to bury our friend
inside the churchyard. The priest said,
was he Catholic? Was he Roman Catholic? Well, no, he was Protestant. Well, I'm sorry. You can't bury him
inside the churchyard. This is a Catholic cemetery. Those are the rules. So it was sad for them. They were disappointed,
but they buried him just outside the fence. They dug a hole, they
buried their friend. They went to their
tents that night, got up early the next day
to pay their final respects, to find the grave and then
go back to the battlefield, but they couldn't
find the grave. They looked where they
thought they buried it right outside the fence. It was undisturbed earth. So they went to the
priest and they said, you know this place
better than we do. We buried our friend last night,
but we can't find his grave. And the priest said, well,
I couldn't sleep last night. I was so bummed out by
what I had told you guys, so I got up in the
middle of the night and I moved the fence
to include your friend. How many of know that we serve
the God who moved the fence? I'm an outsider. I'll move the fence. Oh, I'm separate. I'll move the fence. Oh, I'm a foreigner. I'll move the fence. You're welcome. You're welcome in. You're welcome. You have access. All because of that
one event, the death of Jesus on the cross, that
took the separation away. And if you are a far off this
morning, you can come near. God invites you. The only thing keeping you
is your own stubborn will. If you could get over
that and say yes to Him and surrender your life to Him,
you would have access to God, you would have peace of God, you
would have forgiveness of sins. You would have a guaranteed
spot in His kingdom of heaven forever. I don't know, that's
a good deal to me. Would you pray with me? Would you stand
your feet, please? Let's just pray together. Father, we want to
thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, that cleanses a man, a woman from all sin. Thank you, Lord, that you nailed
that handwriting of ordinances that was against us, you
nailed it to the cross, taking it out of the way so we
don't get to you by ceremonies, we get to you by faith. We trust in not what
we have done or do, but what Jesus has done
once for us, one time, not a continual sacrifice. It's over, it's done. No more has to be made. We accept, we receive,
we confess our need, and we are forgiven. [MUSIC PLAYING] And I pray for anybody who
maybe hasn't done that yet. I pray they would do that. And those who are joining
us online and watching this on a computer screen
or a TV or a mobile device, would you reach out to
them and say, I love you. I want you in my kingdom. I want you in my house. You are welcome at
my Father's table. As we think this final
song, we have stood up to make room for those
who want to do this. I'm going to give
you an opportunity to get up from where
you're standing, if you've never given your life
to Christ, find the nearest aisle. I'm not going to wait
for a raised hand. Just as we sing, would you
get up, come out of your seat, and just make your
way right up here. I'm going to lead you in a
prayer in a moment of faith, a prayer of receiving
Jesus Christ. And when you do
come down, you're going to find yourself
applauded and welcomed by the family of God. We're going to make
some noise for you because we're so excited,
we want to celebrate this. So if you have never done this,
or if you have strayed away from Christ and you need
to come home to Him, I want you to get up right
now as we sing this song. And you get up-- (SINGING) I'm going
to see a victory. I'm going to see a victory
for the battle belongs to you, Lord. I'm going to see a victory. I'm going to see a victory,
for the battle belongs to you, Lord. I'm got to see a victory. I'm going to see a victory, for
the who belongs to you, Lord. I'm going to see a victory. I'm going to see a victory,
for the battle belongs to you, Lord. I'm going to see a victory. I'm going to see a victory,
for the battle belongs to you, Lord. I'm going to see a victory. I'm going to see a victory,
for the battle belongs to you, Lord. You take what the
enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good. You turn it for good. Yeah. You take what the
enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good. You turn it for good. Anybody else? We're just going to give it
another couple of minutes. Usually, it takes
just one person who has the courage to come,
and you've seen that already. And then others realize,
yeah, I need this. I need Him. I need to do this. And you're right, you do. So we'll wait just
another couple of moments and give you that opportunity. I see people, many who have
come, tears in their eyes. I don't know what you've done. You don't know all that I've
done, except for the little that I shared this morning. But I'm just glad
to be forgiven, and I'm glad to welcome you
who are here this morning. Anybody else want to
come and join them? I'm going to lead them in
a prayer in just a moment. You can make this your prayer. This could be a brand
new start for you, a brand new day for you. If you let Him in, if
you're willing to take Him, everything could
change for the better. Anybody else want to
just say yes to Jesus? Come on up. [APPLAUSE] Yeah. Good thinking, good thinking. Way to go. Welcome. Welcome, yeah. Come on, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. All right, I'm going to
lead you in a prayer. I'm going to pray out loud. I'd like you to pray
out loud after me. But you're praying this to Him,
so say these words to your God. Say, Lord, I give you my life. Say, I know that I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. I believe in Jesus. I believe he died on a cross. I believe he rose
again from the dead. I believe he's alive right now. I turn from my sin. I repent of it. I turn to Jesus as Lord. I want to serve Him as master. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Help me to live for You. In Jesus' name, Amen. God bless you guys. I'm so glad you came. Can you see Antonio right
there, the guy waving? See that guy? He's a Marine, right there. That's America's
finest right there. He's one of our
pastors on staff. Would you follow this Marine
pastor and our friends right over to this room? We just want to
give you something. It'll take just a
couple of minutes. We want to put
something in your hands, explain what it is
to follow Jesus. Welcome to God's family. God bless you guys. We hope you enjoyed this special
service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how
this message impacted you. Email us
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
