God Is - Part 1

I hope that He is your everything. I hope that Jesus is your everything. Now, you're going to have to help me today, because I don't have a whole lot of voice. But I don't have to have a whole lot of voice for Him to be powerful. I hope He is your everything — your Healer, your Restorer, your Savior, your Redeemer. Whatever you have going on in your life, the best place you could start is by just breathing the name of Jesus over it. Can we love Him one more time? Thank You, Jesus.

God, Your presence is here today in a strong way. We feel You moving, working in lives that are here, touching us where we are. God, I pray for the next few moments that You would anoint our minds to receive Your Word that You have for us today. Let us draw in closer to You. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray. And amen. Amen. God bless you. You can make your way back to your seats.

Again, I apologize — not feeling the best today. Starting a series that I am very excited about. And series is somewhat based off of an article that I read, where someone was asking the theologian R.C. Sproul the question, "What's the greatest spiritual need in the world today?" And his response was: the greatest need in people's lives is to understand the true identity of God. Now, as an Apostolic preacher, his response really tuned my ears up, cuz I thought, that's a pretty good response to that question. And thankfully, they offered a little bit more, and then he said: because a lot of people reject faith — or they think they reject faith — when they really don't understand the nature of God they think they're rejecting.

So the interviewer followed up with a question that I thought was pretty powerful. And the question was this: "What's the greatest spiritual need in the lives of church people, or believers, or followers?" To which he responded, "To understand the true identity of God." It was the same response back. And I think it will trigger something in my mind of how many people — and even, let's get down to where we are — the many of us, as Apostolic Pentecostal, sometimes, beyond knowing that He is the mighty God in Christ, we sometimes fail to acknowledge all that God is in our lives.

So it's from that that I'm going to kick off a series today, that simply titled "God Is..." And we're going to talk about several aspects that I feel like Scriptures show us. So over the next several Sundays, we're going to devote ourselves to thinking, to learning the most important question human beings can ask, and that is: What is God? What is God?

We don't have to start from scratch, thankfully, because right here in the Bible and the Word of God, we have wonderful examples, where people have actually went to great lengths to describe all the things that God is. So we're going to talk about certain names and images. We're going to look at them week by week, that teaches something about who this God is we serve.

And we're going to start today way back in the very beginning, in the book of Genesis. We're going to trace to what I feel like is the prologue in the book of Genesis. And for all the theologians in the room and the scholars that are here, I think you'll agree with me that Genesis 1 through 11 — chapters 1 through 11 — are really setting things up for everything that starts taking place in Genesis chapter 12. So I'm going to talk about that today, and cuz I feel like that, if I've learned anything about God, is that He is a Redeemer. So today's sermon on "God Is" is: God is Redeemer. I love when He does a redemptive work. I love when you look through the pages of Scriptures, that you can see there's all these little notes of grace, constantly playing out.

And what we're going to try to see today is that there's a pattern that is there in Scriptures, set up, I believe, on purpose, for you and I to pay attention to: that even though we may have had an experience with God, we have to have more than just an experience with God. We have to have a relationship with God. And relationships has highs and lows. They have good days and bad days. But you got to stick to it, and continue to develop the relationship.

I want to start in Genesis chapter 2. We know that in the beginning was God. And God spoke everything into existence, and we see creation take place, and all that God does in Genesis 1 and in Genesis 2. But we see here, in verse number 15 of Genesis 2, a conversation's going on between Adam and God. It says: "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 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.'"

Now, a lot of people, I feel like, misunderstand all that was really transpiring here, because there's this idea in the story — not that if man eats from the tree, that he's going to gain moral discernment, being able to know what's good and what's wrong, what's good and bad. Moral discernment is a real good thing. What we fail to realize is that they were having interactions with God on a regular basis. In the mornings and the evenings, they were walking with God, the Creator of all things — including Adam — an opportunity to talk with Him. And through the course of time, God was going to begin to reveal more and more things to Adam, and eventually Eve, when she came along. He was going to do that. But they were choosing to make decisions that were going to set themselves up for failure.

And on the surface, if you and I read through the Scripture, we could be saying to ourselves, "What's the harm in knowing right and wrong?" What's the harm? All right? If that's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and you can't eat of it — why would we not want to know good and evil? We should be able to determine that. And then you got to be careful, because you will immediately try to put God over into a place where God never belongs, and that is, that He's withholding things from us that would cause us to be less than. God's always doing a complete work, but God always does a complete work on His time. Always on His time.

The idea in the story is that, eating from the tree, the man would be saying, "I can now decide what is good and evil, apart from God. That I don't need to worry about making my life fit in the way that things are designed to be. I can be my own God." See, that's really what's at stake. That's really what's at stake with a lot of us in our relationship — those that struggle often times — is the struggle between allowing Him to be God, and you trying to be God.

God is really gracious, though, because one of the greatest gifts He ever gave us was the freedom to choose. Have you ever heard me explain this before? God had angels that did not have a choice to worship Him. The moment they decided to stop worshipping, they were kicked out of heaven. The moment that they decided that they were going to be on equal playing field with God, they got kicked out of heaven. But when He creates man, He — something that special and very unique. Because God, in His infinite wisdom, understands that true love can only be true love if that love is given freely. It's choice. Now, the flip side of that coin is, if you give someone the option to choose, then they can also choose to not love. That's a choice. Otherwise, it's not a choice. If it's only one side, that's not a choice. When there's nothing but one option, that's not really an option, is it? If you take a test and there's only an A, it's really not multiple choice. That's just choice. I mean, He's given mankind the freedom to choose, because He knew that when we do choose to love Him, we are — expressing genuine love in return for all that He has done. God is gracious and kind to us. He wants to be our God. He wants to work with us. He wants to temper us, and embody us, and symbolize. And what we see here, though, is an interaction taking place, with the enemy who got kicked out of heaven decides that he wants to foil God's plan. He wants to come against.

Now, when God initially gave this command, only the man is present for God to say it to. But the tempter comes to the woman. So we would understand that the woman has to get her information from the man. Now, I have a question for only the women in the room. Only the women. How many of you have ever had a situation where the man does not fully give a detailed account of his events for the day? Anybody? Any women in here be willing to stick their hand up, and say that they've known a few men to not give full detailed accounts of the day? Yeah. So are we surprised that maybe Adam didn't give full detailed account of all that went on? Maybe it gets a possibility, to throw it out there. Could have been a little communication glitch.

Well, the serpent goes after the one who is not directly present to hear God's Word. And what's interesting is, there's quite a long conversation. It picks up, though, in Genesis chapter 3, verse number one: "Now, the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'"

Now, what he does is, he plants doubt in her mind that God can't be trusted, because what was said by the serpent sounds really close to what God said to Adam. It was subtle. It was different. It was rearranging the words. But it sounded close enough to the truth that it made you stop for a minute, and have to ask, "Is that what God said?" Now, we know it wasn't just one tree. And what we see is something that was a misquote of controversial proportions, because part of what happens in the temptation is, I'm tempted to think I can't trust God. That was the enemy's tactic from the beginning. He says, "If I can ever get him to doubt His goodness, I've got him." Because God is good. And God is true. And God is right. God is always good. God is always true. God is always right. And when you and I oftentimes find ourselves getting in trouble is when, for some reason, we doubt that, even the smallest bit. So the enemy comes in, and he tries to make that happen. He tries to make that take place. He wants to plant the doubt.

Eventually, the woman gives in and eats of the tree. Chapter 3, verse number 6: "So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and the tree desirable to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves coverings."

This is why temptation works. Every time. This is the way temptation works. There's value. There's something I believe, and I'm tempted to violate it. I'm tempted to go against it in my life. But in the Fall, something happens to human nature. It's a word that we don't often use anymore. It's a really important word. You don't really hear it in conversations anymore. It's important that we understand, and it's going to help us understand what's really going on — what's at stake in redemption. And it's the word depravity. See, what happens to the human heart is, it's not working well anymore. And it's like a lot of things. It's like glass is predisposed to shatter. Nitroglycerin is predisposed to explode. Left on my own — left on our own — you and I, we are predisposed to do something wrong. And when I think it's necessary for me to get what I need, or get what I want, I'll do whatever it takes in order to make that happen. If it means lie a little bit, I'll lie a little bit. If I cheat, cheat. If I withhold some facts, I'll withhold some facts. It's all about self-preservation.

But the Word of God says their eyes were opened. And then there's this Fall, and there's alienation. And God comes in, in verse number nine, and says, "Adam, where are you?" Now, again, we're learning more about the nature of God, even in this moment. And you need to know that God's not confused. God's not lacking information on where Adam's location. Instead, He's giving Adam an opportunity to confess what's going on. God knows something's wrong. He's saying, "Adam, where are you at? Where are you? What have you done, Adam? Cuz I come walking in, like I have always done. Yet when I come in this time, I can't seem to find you, Adam. You're not in the same location you once were. All of a sudden, there's a distance between us. All of a sudden, there's a gulf between us. Something has caused you to be separated from Me. Adam, where are you?" He's inviting him to interact.

Then we see something that we've never heard before in human history, up until this point. The God called — verse 29 Lord God called Adam, and said to him, "Where are you?" So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid." Never had we had fear, ever before, in humanity. But because of a wrong decision, it brought in separation from a holy God. Disobedience brought in a separation from God. God shows up on the scene and says, "Adam, where you at? Why are you so far away from Me now?" To which Adam responds, "I heard Your voice. I heard Your voice, and I was afraid." Fear comes over. "And I was naked, and I hid myself." And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you that you should not eat?" Then the man said — right, Adam want to take full responsibility for everything — "The woman who You gave to be with me, she gave me the tree, and I ate." Not just any woman — which, there was really only one woman. But it was the woman that You gave me. And whose idea was that woman? It wasn't my idea. And that was Your idea. When it was just me and the animals, everything was fine. But You gave me a woman. And it was her. She's the one that brought it over here. She's the one that caused me to fail.

Then they all — do you think they're going to be the last married couple to ever blame each other? No. I was with Chasten in an antique store, and there's a little magnet sign that was there, that said, "I didn't say it was your fault. I said I was going to blame you." See, that's the way with the human heart.

And because of this, they have to leave the garden. And I want you to understand, this wasn't just geography. Okay? Israel was bounded to the west by the Mediterranean Sea, and to the east was their enemies. To the east is a place of danger, a place of alienation. And they settled — the Word of God says — east of Eden. Remember, I told you there was a pattern. There's a pattern we're going to see, as we start going through this. I know I'm going a little bit slow, mostly because of my voice today, but please don't lose the point of what God's trying to show us in His Word here: is that all of a sudden, a decision was made — a decision by a human being — and that decision by the human being caused there to be separation from God and them. But I want you to notice that God did not stop calling out to man. Instead, God was very quick to say, "Where are you at? Where are you at? You're missing from where you normally are. I used to be able to walk with you in the morning and evening, and I came down, and you're not here. Where are you at? Did you do what you were not supposed to do? Did you take matters into your own hands? Did you do something — you were not supposed to do?"

But God makes them a promise. This is what's interesting here. Verse number 14: "So the Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the cattle, and more than all the other beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust shall and shall eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.'"

In other words, temptation and guilt and death are going to meet their match one day. They don't get the last word. There's a day coming when there's going to be a Redeemer. There's going to be a Messiah. And the early church — they came to understand this was referring to — this was a promise. This was ultimately going to be something we sang about just a few minutes ago. There was a covenant that was coming. The first prophetic mention of Jesus comes in response to the very first sin: that God is going to do something to bring a very, very good thing out of a very, very bad situation. Even the enemy thought he had foiled God's plan. But God had a plan from the beginning. From the very beginning, He had something already put in place, for when something went off course. What the enemy didn't realize is, in that very moment, he was setting in motion the very thing that was going to cause a redemptive act to take place in all of human history. I don't know about you, but I like that.

And then here's another little redemptive note from God. We were told that Adam and Eve are naked, and they're ashamed. But I want you — verse number 21, it says: "Also for them, Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them." To me, it's such a tender little detail that's in the story. God, who creates the heaven and earth, now becomes a tailor, and makes them a set of clothes. Now, I'm going to be honest with you — talk about designer labels. Made by God. Who trumps that? He covers them. He covers them. Listen to me. Listen to me. He covers them, because they thought they were covered. They were not covered. Man's idea of being covered is never what God's idea of covered is. He covered them, so that they could come back into His presence without shame.

want you to notice something, though: in order to do that, blood had to be spilled. Something had to die. And here we see something being set in motion, from the very beginning. Innocent blood was shed, so that their shame might be covered, so that their fellowship with God could be redeemed. But redemption comes with a cost, and God is setting the stage.

Then one day, something happens. It happens to Eve, and she feels a little nauseous, and she all of a sudden gets a little moody, and has these strange cravings for things that she didn't even know existed, like pickles. It's all new — never happened before. And Adam says, "I think you're putting on a little bit of weight. I'm going to have to kill a bigger animal." Skins on you there. And chapter 4, verse 1: "And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, 'I have acquired a man from the Lord.'" And doesn't say anything about her husband here. This is typical of women that day: they gave birth, they mentioned God, but they didn't mention the man — they had a little part to play. It's just part of the burden we men have to bear. I'm kidding, man. This is a tough crowd. This is a tough crowd today.

For Adam and Eve, every time they look at Cain, they're reminded of God's grace. He's this little bundle of redemption. God didn't let their decision — God didn't let their sin mess the dream up. God's a Redeemer. Then another son comes along, named Abel. And like typical brothers, they didn't get along. Cain is consumed with envy and hatred. But we see the heart of a redeeming God right at play here. He's trying to work, trying to help Cain out, to make sure he doesn't fall to envy and hatred. God comes to Cain before he does something wrong, and says, "Look, I know you may not understand this, but sin is crouching at the door. You're about to mess up. And I'm encouraging you to slow down, and to think about what it is you're going to do. You're going to have some regrets if you don't."

Do you ever talk to somebody that you know you're smarter than, and they want to do something dumb, and they won't listen to you? Maybe you're sitting beside that person right now. Imagine being God. In the beginning, it says God speaks, and it happens. Sun, moon, stars, sea, dry ground. He just speaks — stuff's happening. But we see Him speaking now — we see Him speaking, and nothing's happening. God speaks: "Cain, don't hate your brother. Cain, sin is crouching at your door. It wants to be your master. Don't let it in. Don't let it. Let there be love. Don't let there be anything else but love." Now, God speaks, and it's not so, because Cain kills Abel. And all of a sudden, the descent is getting worse.

Adam and Eve, you know, they did something wrong. They were tempted; they did something wrong. Cain not only is tempted, but God's trying to talk him out of doing the wrong thing, and into doing the right thing, and he chooses to not listen. He chooses to not listen. For Adam and Eve, it's defining by eating fruit. With Cain now, it's murder. It's murder. It's hatred. So we're told, in verse 16 of chapter 4: "Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in land of Nod." Where at? Where? East of Eden. All of a sudden, we see this again, right? God working, God doing, God trying to correct, God trying to make things right, and man messing up, and man following after his own passions, and it leads him, again, to go east. East of Eden.

Cain's afraid somebody's going to kill him, because all of a sudden he's unleashed murder into the world. We see God do something else redemptive: God places a mark upon him, that came known as the mark of Cain. It's a mysterious mark. There's been a lot of theories. There's been some crazy, flat-wrong theories. God Himself, among other things, was this: He is protecting Cain. And maybe, when people see this mark — when people hear the story — maybe they'll learn. Maybe brothers will not hate each other. God's working to bring something good out of something that's really, really bad.

So again, we're still in the prologue. We started with creation. God speaks things into existence. He creates man and woman. He sets them in the middle of the perfect environment. Tells them there's one thing you can't do — because God always has something separated that belongs to Him. Ladies and gentlemen, God always has something that's separated, that belongs to Him. He always has something that's separate, that belongs just to Him. They messed up, though. The one thing they couldn't do is the only thing they wanted to do. They mess up. They fall. They're out of the garden. They're east of Eden. They have kids. The kids don't get along. Cain's warned. Warned by God. Sin's crouching at the door. It wants to be your master. Don't open the door. Don't let it in. What does Cain do? Come on in. Come on in. All of a sudden, he's banished. But even in the banishment, we see a redemptive God who puts a mark on him. In the middle of his fear, He's trying to take care of him. He's there. But he's east of Eden again.

Things keep getting worse. In chapter 6, verse number 11: "Now God saw the earth had become corrupt, and was filled with violence." God saw that what was going on was ruining everything. This language, to me, is so upsetting. The phrase "And God saw" was a part of a refrain to the opening chapters of Genesis, when God saw, and it was good. God saw, when it was good. Those are the words we read in Genesis 1 and 2: "And God saw, and it was good." The only thing that wasn't good is that man was alone. He created woman. That — was it. Until we get to chapter 6, and all of a sudden God sees what's going on, and it's not good. Verse number 6 of chapter 6 says: "So the Lord was sorry that He'd ever made them and put them on the earth, and it broke His heart."

You think about your heart in your life — somebody you love, and they mess up, your heart's broken. Think about the heart of God. What's it like for Him, when He sees our world today? When He sees every human being — you and I, from the beginning of time to where we are now — He sees all this going down the road of self-destruction. How much pain must there be in the heart of God? I cannot even imagine what it must be like to deal with that.

And we know, if you know the story, that God sends a flood. He sends a flood. He talks to a man named Noah. Tells him to build a boat. Tells him it's going to rain. So it's funny stuff at times, because there's never rain before. You know, you let that sink in: it has never rained before. Before chapter 6 in Genesis, it had never — come from the — God had just decided it was due to cover everything. And then He shows up to Noah and says, "Noah, look, I'm fixing to do something, because it's gotten so bad. I want you to build a boat, because I want to make it rain." I can just see Noah going, "I don't even understand that word." It's like one of my daughters trying to describe TikTok or something to me. I'm like, "I don't even know what those letters mean." God's like, "I'm going to make water droplets fall from the sky. And I want you to build a boat, because I'm going to save you and your family."

He got that command one time. One time. Now, I know us — God could come down and say, "I want to build a boat." We'd be like, "You know what, God? What I need is a detailed set of plans. If You could email that to me, and I'll follow up with some questions tomorrow." No — he got it one time. All them years later, he built the boat, because he's being obedient, because God was doing something.

God sends a flood. God sees all the violence. But instead of withdrawing, instead of removing it or destroying it, God binds Himself to the human race now, by making a promise. At the beginning of what we see the world: "I make a covenant with you." Anybody know what Noah's covenant was? What was the covenant? It's okay to use the word, right? What's the word? It's a rainbow. I don't care what the world's try to do with the rainbow. It was God's at the beginning. It was God's covenant sign. It was God's covenant sign to His people, to say, "You you thou will never do this again." He's working a redemptive act in what's going on. God sees all that's going on, but instead, He's committing Himself: "I'm going to make a sign. I'm going to remind you. I want to be here with you. Think about all the good that is there. I want you to see — when, every time you see that, remember, I'm a God who keeps His word."

But it keeps going, and things keep getting worse. You would think, after the flood, that it would be all right, right? You think, after they seen that God's pretty serious about this thing — like, He literally wiped everybody out but Noah and his crew — you think the people on the boat would have been like, "Look, I remember how it was before. And now that it's just us and these animals, we're going to do it right this time." But from chapter 6 to chapter 11, it didn't go so good. Even for the ones who were saved in the boat. In fact, right after they get off the boat, it starts getting crazy. People start drinking, start seeing things they shouldn't see, doing things they shouldn't do. It's messed up. Because the world's broken, because of sin. But in the midst of all the brokenness, God's still sitting there saying, "I'm here. I'm here. I'm here to be with you. I'm here to be with you in the mess of your life, and the brokenness of your life."

Chapter 11, verse number one says: "At one time, all the people of the world spoke the same language, and they used the same words. As the people — " what's the term there? — "migrated" — where? You see a pattern? People just keep moving further and further away from God. Further and further. "Migrated east, they found a plain land of Babylon, and settled there. And began saying to each other — listen to the words — 'Let's make bricks, and harden them with fire.' the region, brick were used instead of stone, and tar was used for mortar. And they said, 'Come, let's build a great city for ourselves, with a tower that reaches the sky. This will make us famous, and keep us from being scattered all over the world.'"

So here we see God again. He created mankind in His image. He made them to be fruitful and multiply, and have dominion over all the earth. But they didn't want to do this. So they want to collect in one place. Anybody think it's interesting that they want to build a tower to reach the sky? Why a tower to the sky? Cuz they remember there was a flood. If we build a big enough tower, and God shows up again, He wants to flood it all — well, let us all get in the tower. And then decide to use bricks instead of stone, which I think is funny, because between a brick and a stone, which one lasts longer? The stone. That's why Israel always built with stones. That's why the altar was always the stones. And they want to do this.

What I think so interesting is, in the middle of all this doing, they continue to be disobedient, time and time again, with God. They're paying no attention. They want to do their own thing. They're wanting to figure it out their own way. They're wanting to go their own way. They're wanting to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. "And we can do this thing." They won't honor God's name. Little piece of backdrop: it says that they used that. But no — they were building the tower to the heavens. But I think it's interesting that the Word of God says, "But God had to come down and see them." Language is on purpose. Cuz as high as you think you can go building, you still can't reach God that way. That's not how you reach God. The Lord came down to see the city. God realizes that human capacity for evil and violence, goes unchecked, they would destroy themselves. So God restrains them. He confuses their their. All of a sudden, Joe and Bill are talking to each other. The next thing you know, Joe's speaking English and Tom's speaking Spanish. They're looking at each other like, "What are you doing?" God confuses the languages, and all of a sudden He's forces them to find people that speak their common language.

And I wonder — any way you would wonder in this moment — why isn't God just given up? Let's be honest. We're still in the prologue. We're still only chapter 11. And all we've seen is one cycle after another of man messing up, and God coming in and saying, "Why are you doing this?" All the way through to chapter 11.

See, all this is a prologue to get us to chapter 12. In chapter 12, God's going to take this man — just an ordinary man — named Abram. He's going to change his name to Abraham. He's going to start this new thing: "I'm going to start something with you. I'm going to be a blessing to you. You're going to be a blessing to the world. I'm going to make a covenant with you. I'm going to establish something special with you." Cuz that's what man needed. We didn't need more intelligence. We didn't need more cleverness. We didn't need more strength. We needed a Redeemer. So, the promise of redemption that comes from far beyond. The whole point of the prologue of Genesis is to say that God hasn't given up on anybody yet. God hasn't given up on anybody yet.

I don't know where you are in this room, but God's not a God that gives up. I don't care what you've got yourself into, what you've — got yourself entangled with, or in chain and snared — and it doesn't matter. God doesn't give up. Our God doesn't give up. He is relentless, and ruthless, about pursuing after you and I. He loves us. He loves us. He loves us with a love that's beyond human comprehension.

This is going to maybe sound like a loose association, and for some of you — I'm not going to lose you here. For the vast majority, you're going to have no clue what I'm fixing to talk about. But several months ago I was reading about this, and I found it fascinating. I remember it being talked about. I never personally experienced it. If you don't mind, for everybody in the room here: turn to the person next to you, and I want you to take a guess at something. Back in the 1960s, what do you think the largest single publication in the United States was, in the 1960s? Book, magazine — what was the largest single publication? 1960s. Some over here in this group are like, "People are still alive from the 1960s?" Largest single one. Here's the deal: how many think it was the Sears catalog? Yeah, had a couple. My mother-in-law had her hand up. Or J C Penney's. No. No, it wasn't Montgomery Ward, either. It was a company called Sperry and Hutchinson. Better known as S&H. Anybody remember S&H Green Stamps? Yeah — you just dated yourself. S&H Green Stamps.

Now, what was crazy was that S&H Green Stamps got — and by the way, did you know S&H was still in business up until 2020? COVID killed it. World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Desert Storm — nothing. COVID. This is how big S&H was: S&H printed three times more stamps than the entire United States government. Now, why do people get so excited about this? So you would get the green stamps, and would save them up, and there was a catalog that you could look at, and it had a value of stamps on the items in there. So you saved up enough stamps, you could buy a toaster. So you redeem the stamps. There was a school in Illinois — I wrote the name of it down here — in Pennsylvania. Erie, Pennsylvania. The whole school saved 5.4 million green stamps, and bought two gorillas for a local zoo. You could buy anything with those green stamps. They could be redeemed for things that were just wonderful. They could be redeemed. You had to take them to a redemption center, to redeem them for something of value.

With endless patience, and an infinite cost Himself, God has been waiting since the beginning of history. He's been watching. He's been aching. He's been loving, until one day, when the fullness of time came, He came to Earth to be our Redeemer. God sent Himself to a redemption center that was called Calvary. And there was only one item in the catalog. And it was you. It was you. He wanted to redeem you.

Paul says this in Colossians 1 — that this is the story of the world. This is the story of me. And this is the story of you. Verse 13: "For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of His dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He's existed before anything was created, and is supreme over all creation. For through Him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things which we can see, and the things which we cannot see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through Him and for Him. He existed before anything else, and He holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is the body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So He is the first in everything. For God, in all His fullness, was pleased to live in Christ, and through Him God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and earth, by means of Christ's blood on the cross."

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a redemption center. And we have a Redeemer. And one of the greatest qualities there is about God is that He is a Redeemer. He is a Redeemer. I don't know where you are today, in this process of being redeemed by Him, but I want you to know that you're in the right place, because this is a redemption center here today. You don't have to live with guilt. You don't have to live with shame. You don't have to carry those things around. You were not built for those things. Why don't you trade in the old, sinful life — which will never get you what you want — for a redeemed life? One that was purchased for you on Calvary, so long ago. Why don't you trade in regret for hope? Why don't you trade in despair for some faith? Why would God do this? Why would God make a trade like that? Because the story of the world can barely allow ourselves to hope that this story might be true: that we have a God who is all about redemption. He's a redeeming God, who takes in the messes of people's lives, and the stuff that is shattered and that is broken, and the stuff that nobody wants, and that nobody's willing to fix, and God says, "Bring it to Me. Bring it to Me. I'll redeem it. I'll purchase it. I'll buy it back. It may be flawed to you, but it's not flawed to Me. What I see something precious, something that's worth value, something that I'll lay down My life for." That's what He does.

That's why our God is so amazing, is so wonderful, is that He is a redeeming God. He is a redeeming God. God says, "Bring it to Me. Bring it to the redemption center, and I'll redeem it. I'll pay the price. I'll pay it in full." That's our God.

What a mess our world is in. I'm bringing this to a close today, and I apologize again that I'm not feeling 100% when I preach. But what I'm preaching is not lessened because I don't feel good. It's just as true as if I was at 100%. What a mess our world is in. And He looks at the mess, and He says, "I'll take care of it. I'll cover the shame. I'll protect the lives. I'll make a promise." Because He wants one more. Just one more.

I was thinking about this, and I almost showed this clip, because I thought it was pretty powerful. At least it affected me. I don't know if anybody's ever watched the movie Schindler's List. Very powerful movie, about during the Holocaust. And the man — his last name was Schindler. His first name started with an O, but I forget how to pronounce it. But he was responsible for getting over 1,100 Jews out of Nazi Germany. There's this whole powerful scene right at the end of the movie. He's getting there, and he's fixing to go off, and he's surrounded by everybody that he played a huge part in allowing them to get out of Nazi Germany. And he seems pretty cool and pretty coy, and he's got himself together. And one guy gives him a ring, and on the inside of the ring it has a quote from the Talmud in it. And then all of a sudden he leans over, and he says, "I could have gotten more out. Could have gotten more out." And the guy that was his contact begins to shake his head. He says, "There's 1,100 people here, because you were willing to do something." "But I could have gotten more out." All of a sudden he starts to break down. He's like, "I wasted so much money. So much money — I could have gotten more out." He's got a car there, and he's like, "Why did I keep the car? I could have got 10 more people for this car. This car doesn't mean anything to me. I could have got 10 more people for this car." He's got this little Nazi pin on his lapel. He pulls it off, and he says, "This is pure gold. I could have got two more people — at least one. At least one more person. I could have got one more for this."

That scene is so powerful, because we see someone who's willing to pay the price for another life. That barely scratches the surface of what God views you as. He went to Calvary, and they beat Him. They whipped Him. They stripped Him of His dignity. They put a crown of thorns on His head. They took spikes and drove through His arms, through His feet. And He was doing it for one more. For one more. He just wants one more. And I don't know who the one more is today, in this room. I'm telling you, our God is a Redeemer. And whatever broken mess you walked into this sanctuary with today, I encourage you to bring that brokenness down here to an altar, and let God redeem you. Let Him redeem. Let Him take the brokenness and the shattered pieces of your life, and let Him make something beautiful out of it.

Will you bow your heads with me? Father, I love You so much. I'm so thankful for Your goodness in my life. So thankful for Your presence I feel here. You are wonderful. You are a Redeemer. Lord, I know there's brokenness in this room. I know there's shattered lives through here. I know there are people that are living with secrets. I know there are people that are living in open shame. Regardless, You willingly died for all of it. I pray, in this most special moment of this service, that Your drawing power would pull us in. God, that You would do a redemptive work in this service today. Take the brokenness of our life, and make something beautiful out of it. In Jesus' name. This altar is open. The Redeemer is here. Why don't you bring your life to Redemption Center, and allow God to do a redemptive work in you.