TRANSCRIPT | Sun, Sept 20, 2020 | What in the World is in You?

​

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

So good to be able to host you today. I hope that you had the chance to join us for our Wednesday night services. The last two weeks, we've been doing those on church online. You can join on Facebook, you can join on YouTube. We're going to continue those for the foreseeable future. They start at 6:30 PM central time. The last two weeks, I've kind of just taken a subject and have done my best to lead us through that in regards to the word of God. There's been a great response to it, thank you guys for communicating how it spoke to you and blessed you. Some of that actually came from questions that folks had asked, and we were trying to just provide practical application of the word of God.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

But this coming Wednesday night, we're going to launch a study in a book of the Bible. We're going to move all the way through that book of the Bible, we'll probably do it about a chapter at a time. And it's going to be a series entitled, What In The World, What In The World. We're going to be looking at the book of 1st Corinthians. And I've spent so much time in that book recently just studying and preparing. It was really at the top of my heart for our time together today, and I thought maybe it would be just a good way to kind of launch into what we're going to be doing on Wednesday nights.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And I will say this too, you can go to ericgilbert.org, you can download the discussion guides, if you and your family want to talk about the message, if you want to host a watch party, have some people over. By the way, let us know if you're doing that because we'd love to celebrate with you, 3trees.com/groups. And there's even going to be now, I think going up notes where you can follow along, some fill in the blank stuff. You can file that, keep that, just to help to be a reminder as you reflect back over our time together in that book.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And so even in regards to Sunday mornings, you guys are obviously here on Sunday morning, and you might even at times want to host something at your home or some kind of a get together on Sunday nights. We are rebroadcasting the church online services at 5:00 PM and at 7:00 PM. And by this afternoon, discussion guides will go up online, once again at ericgilbert.org, for the Sunday morning message where you could even get some folks together, even on a Sunday evening and just again, go through what we're getting to experience on Sundays. So we are in discipleship making mode. We feel a mandate from God to do that during this next season. We want to be more intentional about that than we have ever been before. And so thank you guys for helping us to not only see you guys become disciples, but let's make some other people into disciples in the name of Jesus. Amen. Can we agree you that? Amen

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

What in the world? What in the world? That is a common question at our house. It is something that we often look at my son and say, "What in the world?" It's an increasing occurrence with my daughter, "What in the world?" Infact, our family, we share a little group message deal on Instagram and occasionally we're sending things to each other that we find on Instagram and the reply, "What in the world?" Anybody recently, you've seen some stuff where you just had to step back and be, "What in the world? What in the world?" I think when Paul got his first report about the Corinthian church after he had moved on to plant another church, I think he probably stopped and said what in the world. Because what he discovered is that they were struggling just a little bit. Yep. Just a little bit. They had embraced drunkenness, they had embraced sexual perversion. They had embraced divisiveness. They were arguing over which pastor and preacher was the best, and they were creating basically these personality calls. What in the world? What in the world?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

But I think that there's a follow-up question to that spinning it in a little bit of a different way. What in the world had gotten into those people? What part of the world had slipped into those believers, into that church? And I think that's an examination that we have to do on a regular basis with the help of the word and the Holy spirit of have we allowed the world to slip into our lives and our relationship with God? First Corinthians chapter one verse 30, "And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." What in the world?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Father, I ask you to help me to preach help me to teach, to share scripture in a way that God provokes people to take their next step. And to equip us with your word, empower us with your Holy spirit. May we leave even this moment different in a great way, because of you being at work in our life. In Jesus name, the church said?

 

Congregation:

Amen.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Amen. Again, what I want to emphasize is we're going to evaluate a little bit, what part of the world may have slipped into our lives. And that is actually what Paul was trying to help the Christians at the church at Corinth to discover. Paul had spent about 18 months with those people. And he had established a fairly effective church. Corinth was a place that was happening. It was hustling and bustling. It had become a sea port city, and it's streets and communities had a lot of life. There was no shortage of cool and hip things that were happening. But after Paul moves on and he starts to plant other churches, he starts to get really negative reports about Corinth, as we've already mentioned. And he starts to hear that some of the key leaders in that church have given themselves over to drunkenness. He starts to realize that there's people in that church that are of significant stature that are committing extremely sexually perverse acts of sin, and the list goes on.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And so Paul could not go to them in person. What he did is he wrote them a letter. And that letter, we now have in our Bible as first Corinthians. And there's one point in that letter where he goes, as far as to say, "If I could get to you, I'd take a whip to you." It's almost like a daddy trying to straighten out his kids. He has birthed them through the gospel. He has helped them to get their relationship with God started. And there's a part of him that's not just frustrated, but also heartbroken about the fact that they are struggling.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I want you to see these four things that is in first Corinthians chapter one. And as we get ready to think about that, I want you to also realize this, one of the real reasons that the Corinthian church had so willingfully embraced sinful lifestyles is because they had gotten puffed up. They had gotten full of themselves. And they thought that they were at a place where they were entitled to this sinfulness and that there was some kind of paranthetically insertion into the gospel that it would be okay for them to give themselves over to this sinfulness. Now we see that Paul is going to rebuke them about that. But first Corinthians chapter one, verse 30 is a key verse in him laying the foundation for what he's trying to get across to these people. Look with me, "And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption."

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Here's what I've discovered. And honestly I've discovered this in my own home. We have a table that we gather at and often we talk about our family devotion time, scriptures that we're reading through, what we feel like the Lord is saying to us as individuals. And I've just noticed that, especially with my kids, even though they're becoming of age and they're great students in the schools that they go to, when they get to words like righteousness, sanctification, redemption, they just skip over it. Because they don't really know what it means. And I bet that i a lot of us, if we were to be honest, we don't have a real understanding of what God is saying when he uses a word like righteousness, uses a word like sanctification, a word like redemption.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And maybe we are in all different schools of thought of even trying to interpret what those words mean. And why it's important to talk about them is because it's what establishes doctrine. And today, and I may speak about this later in a moment, there's a lot of emphasis on people wanting to know how to practically do, how to practically apply scripture to do things in their life. There's not a lot of talk about doctrine. And I think that maybe that's a place where we have to be really careful because scripture says, "That in the last days, false prophets are going to arise and they're going to begin to preach false doctrine. And they would deceive even the very elect if it were possible." So at some point you got to know what you stand for, or you fall for anything. And so at some point we need an understanding of what these words mean and how they are related to our relationship with God and what God wants to do in our life.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

So let's start with that first one, first Corinthians 1:30, "And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God." Now the translation that we're reading from is a translation that puts a heavy emphasis on giving a literal translation. And so what that means is that when it says wisdom from God, that's pretty much literally in the manuscript, wisdom from God. It's not just any wisdom, it's wisdom from God. There's a difference between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom from God. And I just wonder, is there anybody lately, that's needed a little wisdom? If you're a college student, I bet right now you need some wisdom. And if you're a parent right now, I bet you need some wisdom. And if you're trying to run a business right now, I bet you need some wisdom.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And here's the thing about wisdom from God. It means that we have insight in Christ. So as we are in Christ, in relationship with him through a born again experience, the default of that is that he gives us insight that we would not otherwise be able to have about how to walk out our life. And here's the thing about our God, there is no shortage to his insight, and there is no shortage to his wisdom. Colossians chapter two says this about God's wisdom, and the wisdom that is available in relationship with Jesus. Verse two, "To reach all the riches of full assurance, of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Jesus has got a monopoly on it. He's got the whole thing. It's all in him, all the treasure that you would ever be able to find about wisdom scripture says is in Jesus.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And here's the good news for me and you James chapter one, verse five, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him." So God says that in Jesus, there is so much wisdom that it is like this treasure chest. And then we are also told by God, if you want to get in the treasure chest, just ask and he'll give you the key and you'll go in there and be able to explore whatever kind of insight you need to walk this thing out. Why is it important to have wisdom from God? Because it is essential to having victory over the path of sin. I'm going to say that again, wisdom from God is essential to having victory over the path of sin.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I believe maybe one of the most beautiful pictures of this is actually in the old Testament. And it comes to us through the story of a prophet. And the prophet is told by God that he's supposed to go to a specific place. He's supposed to do a specific thing. And he's supposed to say a specific thing. And God tells him, "When you go there, I don't want you to stay the night. I don't want you to hang out with anybody. I don't even want you to take the time to eat. I just want you to go and do this thing and then come back home."

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

But when the prophet gets there, he finds favor with his audience and the people that he's supposed to be ministering to, and there's someone who begins to say to him, "Man, we like hanging out with you so much and you are so gifted and you are so blessed. Would you just do us the honor of spending the night in our house? My wife will cook you this incredible meal. It's going to be an amazing time together." He's like, "I can't do it because God told me I have to go back home immediately." But they're persistent and they're persuasive. And they talk him into spending the night. The next morning he gets up and he's on the path home and a lion comes out of hiding and eats him for breakfast.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Here's the deal. The question was not whether God was able to overpower and shut the mouth of the lion. The question was whether the man would be obedient to do what God said do so that he could avoid the lion altogether. And there are a lot of us that we want God to kill the lion, and we want God to stop the mouth of the lion, but we don't realize we would avoid the lion altogether if we just do what God says do, when God says do it. Because a lot of lions, you would never have to fight, but you need to be on the right path because the enemy comes to steal, he comes to kill, he comes to destroy. He has set an ambush for you on particular paths.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

In fact, scripture tells us that not only does the enemy work like a thief, but he works as one that sets traps. And there are paths where traps are set for you. And the enemy wants you to get in that particular relationship, because he's got a trap for you. And the enemy wants you to choose that particular career path, because he's got a trap for you. And the enemy wants you because he's setting you up along the path. There is a robbery that's about to take place in your life spiritually and the enemy wants to do everything he can to give you the illusion that that path is safe. That's why you need wisdom from God, to side step a lot of the lions that the enemy has put in your path. Now, when the time comes for God to stop the mouth of the lion, you better believe he can and will do it. But there's also the need for wisdom from God in order to find victory in the past of sin.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I think about how that prayer is how we talk to God. But scriptures that's the way God talks to us. And so if you need wisdom, a great approach for you might be to pray, petition God, and then read scripture. And you will be amazed at how many times God speaks to you, gives you wisdom for the relationship, gives you wisdom for how to overcome the thing you're wrestling with in your heart, gives you wisdom for how to fix the relationship that you're battling with. It is not by accident that the book of Proverbs is considered to be a collection of God's wisdom, given to man through Solomon and it has 31 chapters.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

31 days is the most you can have in a month and God says, "I'll see to it that you have a section of a wisdom for every single day of your life." And there'll be so many times that you'll be praying and asking God for wisdom. And then you'll go to something like the Proverbs and right there is exactly what you needed from the Lord. And a lot of us say, "I can't hear God, but you never read scripture." And a lot of us say, "God won't speak to me," but you're never intentional about, okay, how you got your face on the book instead of your book in the face. I don't know, something like somebody says something cool like that. It's too witty for me. Pray and then read.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And it's not to say you won't feel God wanting you to do something as you're just walking out life or you won't sense God wanting you to do something, but there is never a moment where God says anything that discredit scripture. So you need a foundation of scripture to even back up many times what you're feeling and sensing. And it will do you so much good, pray then read, pray then read. Wisdom from God, we have insight in Christ and that helps us to have victory over the path of sin. First Corinthians one 30, "And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God." And here's the next one, righteousness. Everybody say that righteousness. Righteousness means we are approved in Christ. That's what it means. We are approved in Christ. Some theologians say it this way, it means that we have right standing with God.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

There was going to come a moment in every single one of our lives, where we will stand before the judgment seat of God. And at that moment, any and everything that you have ever done will be brought out into the open. The record books of heaven recorded. And at that moment, you will be judged according to your life and your works. And if you are found to not be in right standing, you will not be approved to enter into heaven. Instead, you will be rejected. And the rejection means that you would go, the Bible says, "To a place called hell." A place called hell is a place of torment, is a place where the worm does not die. It is a place where there is gnashing of teeth. It is a place where there is great thirst. It is a place that is so horrific that it doesn't matter how hard Hollywood tries, they cannot replicate it.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And as though that were not horrific enough, at some point it will be picked up and it will be cast into a lake of fire. But here's what scripture says, "Hell was not made for me and you. Hell was made for the devil and his angels. And the only reason that you would wind up there with the devil and his angels is because you chose to stand with them in your decision-making process instead of standing with God." There is one exception to everything I just described. And that is this, if you have professed Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, and you have went all in with this thing known as amazing grace, then there is a righteousness that is given to you in advance. And when they go to pull your record books, all the mess and all the failures and all the mistakes, it's all blotted out and washed away. And all they can find are the bloodstain drips of the cross of Jesus Christ and stamp there in his red blood his approval. Approved, gain entry approved.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

There's a lot of folks that want somebody to tell them how to fix their marriage. And a lot of folks who want somebody to tell them how to parent their kids. And there's nothing wrong with that. And there's a time and a place I believe to scripturally break those things down, and practically apply that, and to pursue God in those realms specifically. But I think there's a lot of folks if they could just get the revelation that they are approved in Jesus Christ, they wouldn't be near as mean.

 

Congregation:

Amen.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Okay. There's a lot that wouldn't be near as sarcastic and nearly as insecure if they just got the revelation, "Wait a second, God has approved me." I don't got to prove anything to anybody because God has approved me. You may never be able to forget my past, but God's already stepped in there and moved it as far away from me as the East is from the West. And there is some kind of joy, there's some kind of peace that comes with the fact that my eternity has been dealt with. We need that revelation sometimes because so often we can't forgive ourselves. And it's why we're so ornery, and we're so jealous and selfish. We can't forgive ourselves. And when you come to understand, I got approval in Jesus, I guess I should throw this in here as we move to the next point, you need to know this about righteousness. It means that we are approved in Christ and that we have victory over the penalty of sin. Sin cannot penalize you. You got victory over it, for all of eternity.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

You want to look at another one. First Corinthians chapter 30. I'm glad the campus pastor is with me. We'll wait on the rest of the congregation to catch up. And because, I love you Curt, thank you. Your amens are very useful this morning. "And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus." How do you get all this we're talking about? You got to be in Christ Jesus. Amen. "Who became to us wisdom from God righteousness," you ready, "And sanctification." You're afraid of that word. Come on and sanctification. Some of you think you just talked in tongues. Sanctification. You know what it means? We are set apart in Christ. Big words, simple meaning. We are set apart in Christ. You can be in the world, but you're not of it. You can be standing in a room full of sinners and heathens and people worshiping pagan idolatry, and you are still set apart.

 

Congregation:

Amen.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

You can be in a workplace where they're cussing every other breath and tossing around pornography on their phones and telling filthy jokes, and you can be standing there set apart unto the Lord. Not with a holier than thou attitude, not with an egotism of you have arrived religiously and now you're some super spiritual Pharisee, but with an understanding, when I am in Jesus Christ, he sets me apart. And you'll start to go into a conversation and you'll just feel the sanctifying power of grace pulling you back and say, "Don't you be talking about that right now." You'll start to go into some kind of sin that may be even has perpetually ruled in your life. Some type of addictive behavior. And because you have had a born again experience in Jesus Christ, you will just sense the sanctifying power of grace saying, "I set you apart from that, that's not who you are anymore. That was the old man. That was the old man. You are a new man. You are a new woman. You are a new creature in Christ Jesus, set apart."

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

The word actually in old Testament theology comes from the moment when warriors would raid pagan temples. And they would go in and they would find all this silver and all this gold, and they would bring it back and they'd want to give it to God. They'd want to put it in God's temple. And what they do is they would kill a lamb that was without spot and without blemish. And they would take that blood and it would pour it over all that silver and gold of paganism. And then after the blood had been applied, they would craft it and reshape it and they would take it and put it in the temple, and it would be used to bring glory to God through avenues of worship.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

That is exactly what God did with you and me, that we were bowing our knees to the idolatry and the sin of this world, but he got a hold of us. He applied the blood to us. He put us in Christ Jesus. He reshaped us. He reworked us. And now we get to stand in his temple and lead worship unto him. Experienced worship unto him, sanctifying grace. Listen, it means we're set apart in Christ, but it also means that we have victory over the power of sin. I'm telling you sins got a stronghold on a whole lot of people. It's got its claws so deep into people that they feel like they can't get loose if they want to because it over powers them. But when Jesus shows up, here's a scripture for you, John 17:19, and Jesus said, "For their sake, I consecrate. I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified in truth."

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

There's a moment Jesus is in the wilderness, he's being tempted. There's three temptations that come to him. Each one of those could categorically be placed in one of these three areas, lust to the eye, lust of the flesh, pride of life. Lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, pride of life. Why is that important? Because when you get over into the books of first John in the new Testament, he defines sin is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. There will never be a moment where you wrestle with the power of sin in any way, shape, form, or fashion, that it doesn't fit into one of those categories. The devil is always going to be trying to draw you away with your eyes, the lust of the eye, trying to draw you away with something that feels good to your flesh, the lust of the flesh, or trying to draw you away and make you fall by making you prideful in your life.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And what we actually see in scripture in the Corinthian church, they were dealing with all three categories. Paul calls out at least one thing in all three categories. They forgot what Jesus had done when he sanctified himself and proved he had power over sin and gave us the opportunity to have relationship in him and with him that we too would have power over sin. Around this room, especially towards the back, there are exit signs. They are written in red. Paul put it this way, "God will never allow you to be tempted more than you can bear. But with every temptation will provide a way of escape." If you ever need a way out of the power of sin, you can look somewhere and you will always find an exit sign written in the red blood of Jesus Christ to get you out of the stronghold of whatever the enemy is trying to bring against you. You are set apart, set apart.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Scripture talks about the fact that again, through the pin of Paul, that there are a lot of people who sear their conscience. You know what that means? It means that the conscience becomes so callous, the conscience becomes so seared that people can't even hear what's right or wrong anymore. Another time Paul talks about how people get a reprobate mind, they lose complete God consciousness. They start calling evil good and good evil, totally confused about what's right and what's wrong, no longer sanctified because they're no longer set apart. Listen, you need God to have ownership of your conscience because it's one of the ways he's going to keep you sanctified. He's going to speak to you, he's going to give you clarity, he's going to pull on your heart strings and you're going to know I'm set apart from that mess. No, no, no. I'm not going to walk away and act like I'm too good for you, but I'm going to let you know I'm set apart from that mess right there.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

There may be a one-time when I would lie, cheat and steal out of my greed, but now I've been set apart into generosity. There might've been one time when I would've been in bitterness and I'd have been with offense and I'd have gossiped with you, but I've been set apart in the life-giving love field speech. There might've been a point where I'd have hated and I'd have been prejudice with you and I'd have done all that nonsense, but does anybody know what I'm talking about? When the love of Jesus Christ gets a hold of the inside of you and reshapes you, reworks you, we need the sanctifying power of Jesus. Some of us would discover we got a lot less to say on Facebook if we just get sanctified.

 

Congregation:

Amen.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Holy ghost. Not in the notes. Whoa, not in the notes. Strike that one from the record. No, leave it. Okay. All right. I should probably move on. Okay. First Corinthians chapter one, verse 30, "And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus." Can y'all handle one more? "Who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification and redemption." Redemption. Have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Okay? You are in Christ Jesus and with it you get redemption. Our freedom is paid for in Christ. I got any couponers in the room? You're all about trying to get a coupon? My wife, she's not totally over the top with it, but you can't go to Hobby Lobby without her, "Wait just a second. Wait, I need to pull this up." She's going to find you a coupon to get 40% off, or 10 bucks off.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I'll get ready to... Somebody shops at Hobby Lobby, I hear this testifying. There have been moments, I get ready to buy something online and she's like, "Wait a second. I got an app for that." And she'll give me some kind of coupon. And what'll happen, I'll put that in and I might save a significant amount of money. You know why?Because someone is willing to redeem that coupon, willing to pay for me, pay in my stead, pay on my behalf. You and I, the wages of sin is death. We got a debt that we cannot pay, but Jesus Christ stepped in through a cruel rugged cross and he said, "I will pay their ransom." Literally, "I will pay their ransom. I will pay for their freedom." What redemption gives you is victory over the presence of sin, that when you get to heaven, sin doesn't exist. It's gone because you've been redeemed and that freedom has been paid for. Just look over at somebody and testify, I've been redeemed.

 

Congregation:

I've been redeemed.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I've been redeemed. You need to know what that means. You need to celebrate because if you wanted to you could read first Corinthians chapter one, verse 30. Don't pull it up this time, guys, but you could read it this way. First Corinthians one, verse 30, "And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who has given us insight, approved us, set us apart and paid for us." Don't let those big words intimidate you, just let them help to establish your doctrine so you can know what you stand on. And when the waves and the winds of hell start trying to distort and all that you'll know the truth, because the Corinthian church, they meant well, they meant well, but it didn't end well. Starts off good and next thing you know, they're defiled, they're divided and they're disgraced because somewhere they got it twisted, got proud. That's why Paul said to them in verse 31, "In whom we have," excuse me, verse 31, "So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

You got something to brag about, he tells them, he's like, "Y'all forgot you were nothing when God showed up. He took you when you were foolish and made you wise, and now you've went back to the world's way of thinking. He took you when you were weak and made you strong and now you've went back to the world's way of exercising strength." And he's reminding them that the fact that they were lowly is what made them so appealing. Because when God did it only he could get the credit. And so my challenge for you this morning is just a moment of evaluation, what in the world is in you? Is there a place where worldliness has slipped in because you've not given yourself over to that sanctifying work, that redeeming work? What in the world is in you and me? Because for whatever reason, we've not focused on the righteousness and the wisdom of God.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I want to invite them to come and just begin to play some music softly. And what I want you to do, I really want you to have a real moment with God right here. Okay? It's response time. It's time to just bow our hearts and our minds before God and say, "God, what in the world is in me? God, that Corinthian church, they got off base and somebody had to make them aware of it. Lord, is there any of that happening in me? Is there any place, God that I'm on the verge of sin ruling in my life, instead of being crucified with the work of Jesus Christ?"

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Father, if there'll be any of us that are far from you, what I ask you, God, is that right now you would just draw us near. If there are any of us that are far from you and maybe even some folks under the sound of my voice, that God they can't even remember the last time they sensed your presence. They can't remember the last time that they felt you were working in their life. But right now God, there's something pulling, there's something tugging, and they recognize that we recognize that to be the work of the Holy spirit, letting us know God that you're not done with us, you're not finished with us, you've got more for us. Reel us in God.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Maybe somebody for the very first time today, God needs to throw a hand in the air and say, Lord, I surrender to you. I want to be born again. I want to know this kind of grace that can give me wisdom, and give me eternal right standing, and help to sanctify me. And I just pray, maybe somebody is just a little disconnected and right now there's this thing stirred in their heart where they feel like there needs to be a prayer of rededication, where they just once again go all in and push all the chips in and just like, "God, I'm in. I'm done running from you. I'm done making you chase me. Lord, I'm yours."

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Thank you that your blood would pay the price for our redemption. Give us a fresh vision of that cross Lord. And more than we want to boast about the cars we drive and the house we live in and all the things that we've accomplished, Lord, may we find that the thing that we take the greatest pleasure in boasting about is you gave us something we didn't deserve. And that God, there would be a child-like faith associated with that. The giddiness of a kid on Christmas morning, God, he gave me something I didn't deserve. Jesus gave me something I didn't deserve. Can you believe it, Jesus gave me something I didn't deserve. He paid for my eternity, he paid for the consequences of my sin. He took away hell and he gave me heaven. I bring an internal focus, may it internally be in our hearts. We Worship you Jesus.