← City Light Church Las Vegas | Jabin Chavez
City Light Church Las Vegas | Jabin Chavez
The Gospel Of Jesus Our Only Hope | Jabin Chavez | City Light Church
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The Gospel Of Jesus Our Only Hope | Jabin Chavez …
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Ephesians, chapter 2. As for you, this is. This is who you were. If. If you're a believer. Let me. Let me ask that real quick. Let me just get a little roll call. If you are a Christian, would you just kind of wave at me? Maybe give me a little woo. A little something? All right, all right. As for you now, now, this is who you were before Christ. You were dead in your transgressions and sins. He didn't say you were a bad person who became good. He said you were dead. Christianity is not a crutch for the weak. It is a resurrection of the dead. Christ does not make bad people good. He makes dead people alive. I was dead. I was blind. I was deaf. I was. I was dumb to the Gospel, but then I. But then Jesus, the same way, he spoke to Lazarus and said, come forth. He said, jabin, come forth. And I came alive in Christ as I. And that's what happened to every one of us. We were dead before Jesus, but Jesus saved us, which you used to live in, following the ways of this world, the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit. Now, I want you to notice this. This is where the enemy is. That spirit there, that's Satan. So the ruler of the kingdom of the air. So if you're looking at the world going, God, it's so dark. God, it's so that. It's because Satan is the small G God of this world, ruling and reigning in the hearts of people. That's why my prayer is that when you come to City Light, it literally feels different. It feels like love. It feels like a breath of fresh air. It feels like, man, a move of the Holy Spirit, man. It just feels different. Why? Because we're of a different spirit. Amen. I don't want City Light to feel like a football game. I don't want it to feel like a hockey game. I don't want it to feel like the win. I don't want it to feel like the Four Seasons. I want it to. I want you to walk in here and go, whoa, there's. There's something here. I don't know what it is. Is it a vibe? Is it a. No, it's. It's the Holy Spirit. And it ought to be different than the world system. Amen. All of us once lived among them at one time. So, hey, we. Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future. Come on. Gratifying the cravings of our flesh, following the desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. We deserve the judgment of God, but because of his great love for us. God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace, not by works. It's by grace you've been saved. And God raised us up with Christ, seated us with him in heavenly realms, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming age he might show his incomparable riches and his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ. For it is by grace you've been saved through faith. It is not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. It is a gift of God, not by works that anyone can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. It is by grace, through faith that we are saved. And I want to talk today about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our only hope. Thank you Lord for these moments we share. I pray you'd speak to every heart in Jesus name. Come on, everybody said an amen right there. Amen and amen. The Gospel, Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul speaks of the gospel in Romans 1:16 when he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. Now just leave that up for a moment and let me explain this. If I was to ask many of you what does the Gospel mean, if you're a church person, you would say good news. You've heard that phrase before. The gospel is literally means good news. And it does, because gospel is in this time in history was announcement or an invitation. So it could be the gospel of a couple who was getting married and they're inviting you to the wedding. You could think of the gospel like, hey, we're pregnant, or hey, she said yes, or it's a boy, it's a girl. That's the gospel of that family or of that couple it share. They got into college, they. They accepted that scholarship, whatever it might be. It was the gospel. It was their good news of what was happening in their life. Well, the gospel of Christ is the good news of what Jesus has done and his invitation to you to receive what he's done. And here's the thing about the gospel. It releases power in your life that if you would receive or believe in him, he would give you the power to do what you could not do. You can't save yourself, you. And you can't clean your heart up. But God gives you power through the gospel. When you believe in him to be radically transformed by the grace of God. And if anybody's been transformed by that grace, give me a good amen right there. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the announcement that God in Christ came to earth, lived a sinless life, died for our sins, rose from the dead, will one day physically return, and now offers us the free gift of salvation. Our response to the Gospel is believing that what Jesus did for us is enough, trusting him to save us from our sins, and joyfully giving Jesus our lives in surrender to his lordship. What I just read, I did June 10, 1998. Now, 27 years ago, when I was 15 years old, I responded to the Gospel and I believed in Jesus and I received Jesus in my life. And when I did, he gave me power. Power over sin, power over addiction, power over fear, power over my old life, power over the devil, and power to serve God. I want to tell salvation is not something you can just muster up in your own strength. It is something that must be received because it is a gift of God in Jesus name. And the Gospel is your only hope. The Gospel is our only hope. The Gospel is the only hope for our nation. The Gospel is the only hope for our city. And today at the end of this message, I'm only going to preach a few minutes. At the end of this message, I'm going to give you an opportunity to believe in Jesus, going to give you an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as Lord. And I'm going to give you an opportunity to be water baptized. And I want you to begin to think about it right now. I want you to begin to pray about it right now. That in about 30 minutes I'm going to release people who want to walk out of this room and walk into that lobby and get baptized. And I want you to begin to process that. Even right now. I'm not going to sneak attack this on you. I want you to start thinking about it because I believe many of you need to get water baptized today and many of you need to place your faith in Christ. I didn't bring clothes. We got everything you need. We got shirts, we got shorts, we got towels, we got hair and makeup. Okay, no, we don't have that. One man walked out to get baptized this morning in a full suit and tie. And the person baptizing said, sir, we've got everything you need. Go change. And he goes, no, he goes, I need to give God my best today. And he got in. I said, let's go. And I'm over here in a T shirt. Lord have mercy. Forgive me. The gospel. Let's talk about it. The gospel has two components. Number one is grace. Everybody say grace. The Apostle Paul said, it is by grace, through faith. By grace, through faith. I want that little term to get in you, especially if you're a Christian. I want that to be in you as you approach life and faith in Jesus. By grace, through faith. Everybody, let's say that together. By grace, through faith. By grace, through faith. You have been saved. The Bible says you've been saved. Saved, saved. So now we have to admit that we need saving. We have to admit that we need a Savior. The Bible says in the Book of Genesis that God created Adam and Eve. And he said, do not eat of this tree. Everything else is available to you. But in my holiness and in my love for you, I am restricting you from this one tree because that will be your constant reminder that I am God and that I am your provider and that I am good. So from everything else in this world, you can eat of, but don't touch that tree. And of course, within just moments, Adam and Eve commit high treason against God. They sin against God. And God said, if you eat of that tree, you will surely die. Now, the moment they ate of the tree, they didn't die physically. They died spiritually. And they invited death, which the Bible says is the enemy of God. They invited death into the world. And from that moment, there was death. There was destruction, there was hatred, there was murder. Everything we see today began with a person who chose their way instead of God's way. If you look around the world, go, how did it get so dark? It got so dark because sin always starts small. Sin always starts small. It never starts like it finishes. It starts with little moments of rebellion that if not surrendered to Jesus, grow into something so dark. But Jesus came to save us from our sins. Matthew 1:21. He came to save us from our sin. The penalty of sin, the consequence of sin, and the power of sin. You can be not only forgiven of your sin, you can be free from your sin. The bondages that hold you, the addictions that are trying to hold onto you, the old life that is trying to keep you bound in patterns and in curses and in destructive mindsets and behaviors. Jesus can set you free and forgive you and redeem you from your sin. How did he do it? 1st Corinthians 15:3. Christ died for our sins. Should have been us on the cross, but it wouldn't have been enough. It's us who deserve death, but it wouldn't have saved anyone. So Christ Took our place on the cross, took on the very judgment and penalty that we deserved, moved us out of the way, hung on the middle cross and said, I love you this much. And he frees us from our sin because he took upon his own body our sin. What is our response? We believe. See, salvation is a gift we receive, not a goal we achieve. It's not your good works that you can boast in. That's why when we come into church, we sing songs to him that glorify him. We did not sing a song today if you were here for worship. We didn't sing a song today that said, so, so, so, so, so, so good. Me. We didn't sing a song. Hallelujah. I know it was me. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We sang, God, you are so, so good. We said, I know it was the blood of Jesus. What did we do in worship? We glorified the fact that this is by grace. Can I get a good amen right there? It's not something you achieve. If I was. If I was to ask you, are you a Christian? You said, yeah, I'm a Christian. I'd say, well, how do you know you're a Christian if you say, well, because I'm a good person. You're not a Christian. You're religious, but you haven't placed your faith in Jesus yet. But if I was to say, are you a Christian? You said, yeah, I said, well, how do you know you're a Christian? Because I have put my faith in the sacrifice of another, the life of another. I have placed my faith in Jesus. That's how you know you're a Christian. This is grace, by the way. This is very offensive to people who think they're good, right? Because you're like, no, no, no, I'm a good person. You might be a better person than another person, but the standard is perfection, bruh. The standard is not, well, I'm not as bad as that guy. Because we could also find 100 people that you're worse than. So it's not about works. If it was about works, you could boast. And Paul says, you can't boast. None of us are gonna get to heaven and high five each other and be like, good job, man. We tore it up, figured it out, we deserve it. No, we're all going to get to heaven and the Bible says we're all going to do the same thing. We are going to lay before the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. We're going to cast our crowns at his feet, and we're going to say, worthy, worthy. Worthy is the Lamb of God. Come on. If you know I'm preaching the truth, give him praise in the house. Salvation is by grace alone. Faith alone, Jesus alone. Look at Colossians, chapter 2, verse 16. And now, just as you accepted Christ as your Lord, you must continue to follow him as you accepted him. Follow him. Well, how did you accept him? You accepted him by going, God, I need you. Can't do this without you. I need a savior. I need a resurrection. I need you, God. Guess what? That's how you got saved. That's how you stay saved. How you started is how you finish. You don't start in grace and finish in works. You don't start in mercy and finish in legalism. You continue the trust you had the moment you say, God, I give you my life is the trust you have every day. When you say, God, I give you my life. Starts by grace, finishes by grace. This is the grace of God. But here's the second part. It's called faith. Faith. See, grace sets the table. But faith eats. And every parent said, amen. Cause y' all set the table for your kids, right? They don't earn it. They don't deserve it. They're just your kids. And you put food on the table for them, and hopefully they eat right. And sometimes they eat in fear of judgment, because if they don't eat, you're gonna. You're gonna lose your temper. So grace sets the table. Faith. God does all the heavy lifting. God sets the table. Psalm 23. He sets a table for me in the presence of my enemies. But I still have to eat. So let me say it like this. Grace is God's yes to me. Faith is my yes to God. Jesus on the cross is giving us yes. But now our faith in him is our yes back to him. And now we live a life that honors God not to earn anything, but to be grateful for everything he has done. So let me say like this. We're not saved by good works. We're saved into good works. That's what Ephesians 2:10 told us, that we're created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Good works eventually happen, but we're not saved by them. And we don't put our trust in them. Because me, you could do good today and bad tomorrow. So your faith better be in something more than your performance. Okay? So now the Apostle Peter is preaching a message like this in Acts chapter two. And he is telling people about Jesus. And the Bible said in Acts 2:37, the people are cut to the heart, man. Their heart is touched. Never forget this. We are inside out people. Not outside in people. We don't start on the outside, we start on the inside. They're cut to the heart. But then there's a transformation happening on the inside. I believe it's happening for many of you right now. God's calling you. Your heart's being stirred. Don't ignore that. Don't check the score right now. Don't distract yourself right now. Don't confirm who won the fight last night like you don't already know. Because what happens is when we get to this point and God starts dealing with the heart, you don't want to deal with it. And I'm asking you to lock in right now. Lock in with me. I'm only going to preach three more hours. Lock in. Okay, relax. So lock in with me. Focus, focus. So they're cut to the heart. And here's their response to a heart transformation. Acts 2. 38. What do we do? Like, what do we do with this? And here's Peter's response. Repent and be baptized. Now I'm gonna push a little here and say it like this. Repent by being baptized. Show your repentance with baptism. Start there. Start with an action, not with all the things you need to stop doing. Start with what you need to start doing. Okay, so if I get saved, I got to stop smoking, I gotta stop drinking, I gotta stop clubbing, I gotta stop sleeping, I gotta stop. Don't worry about all that. God will work on you. God will clean you up. Start with what you need to do. You need to be baptized and let baptism be the first step and the first act as a believer. You'll graduate into transformation. That'll start happening, but you don't start there. I'll tell you about my life. I'm 41, trying to get my health right, trying to lose weight, trying to do all the things, blah, blah, blah. Let me just give you a little something about me. I've never in my life done a pull up, ever. I didn't say I've never tried. I can't do one. But I keep trying to. I keep trying. And I'm going to do a pull up one of these days, but I'm never going to start with a pull up. So I go to my little orange theory class and I do push ups and I take walks and I do other. I'm doing other things and then I don't know when it's going to happen. One of these days I'm just going to hop on that bar. I'm going to go, oh, my God. I'm going to cry, and I'm going to post it on Instagram. And you're going to like it. I can't wait for that day. I'm just going to be there. But until then, I'm doing a lot of other things that are a lot easier. Okay, some of y' all are trying to do spiritual pull ups. You can't even do a girly push up yet. You can't even do a push up on your knees yet. Start there. Don't try to run a marathon. Go walk a mile. Like, some of you are putting yourself under pressure. You haven't even done the first thing. Baptism. It is the first good work that will lead to many good works. We call it the wedding band of Christianity. It's the day we go public with our faith, letting the whole world know I belong to another. Let me say this. August 4th, 2026. Next year, we'll celebrate 20 years. So we've been married now 19. We'll celebrate 20. And let me say thank you. Hasn't been easy. She's a handful. Amen. Amen. No, I'm kidding, kidding. Bad joke. She sat in the five and in the nine. I did not tell that joke. Raised God. Okay, okay, watch me, watch me. I'm married. I'm married. I'm married. Watch, watch, watch. I'm still married. Still married. Okay, but let me say this. If I was to go to the back after this service, say, hey, hey, Shan, you and Goldie go home, take my ring. I'm gonna go spend a couple of nights at the Wynn. You got mad at me and I'm joking. You're mad that I even have that in my. My. You're like, watch. I'm still married, but there is major brokenness happening. See, if you were to go, well, I want to be married, but I don't want anyone to know. I want to be married, but I don't want to live together. I want to be married, but I want to sleep together. I want to be married, but I don't want to kiss. I want to be married, but I don't want to. Man, there is a brokenness in this relationship. Ladies, if your guy even right now, you're dating. And, yeah, you know, I want to date you, girl, but I don't want anybody to know right now. Yeah, we gotta keep it. We gotta keep it quiet right now. Girl, you know he's playing you. Because though our relationships are very personal. They should never be private. And if, and if, if I'm going, I'm a follower of Jesus, but I don't have to get baptized. I'm a follower of Jesus, but I don't have to wear the ring. I would just say there's brokenness in your relationship. Why would I not want everybody to know that's what baptism is? Augustine, St. Augustine called the sacraments baptism, communion and marriage. He called them visible words. Watch this. He called the sacraments visible words. In other words, it's more than just saying it. You can see it in holy Communion, you can see it in marriage, you can see it. And these are sacraments meaning they're more than meets the eye and they're physical. So communion is not a mid service snack. We believe it's actually supernatural. Marriage is not a contract done at a courthouse. It is a covenant before Almighty God. It's a sacrament. And baptism is not a Holy Ghost pool party. There's actually something happening. And if you say Jesus is Lord, there should be visible words connected to Jesus is Lord and it's baptism. Baptism in the Bible is always after salvation. And baptism in the Bible was to be immersed to go under the waters and out of the waters. Romans 6:3. Don't you know all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus? Notice that you're not baptized into me and you're not baptized into this church. You're baptized into Jesus Christ. When you were baptized into his death and were therefore buried with him through baptism into death. In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, so now notice you go under, you die with him. But now you're raised, now you live with him in new life. Water in scripture always speaks of separation and transition. Water in Scripture always speaks of transition and separation. From Genesis 1, God. God created the waters and separated the lands and the heavens and the earth. He used water as a separator. Whenever you go into the waters of baptism, you're being separated. Water in the Bible is usually connected to rivers and rivers always brought separation. You left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, went into the wilderness. You left the wilderness, you crossed the Jordan, went into the Promised Land. The rivers were always moments of separation. I'm leaving one season, I'm leaving one life. I'm leaving one way of doing things. And I'm entering into a new thing. And today I don't have a river out there, but I got some big old pools out there where you can get into the water. And in, in the baptism, you die to your Old life, you die to your old thinking, you die to Egypt, you die to that old man. And in your raise into new life in Jesus Christ, say Amen right there. The Apostle Paul, the Great, Apostle Paul, the one who wrote two thirds of your New Testament, is telling his testimony in Acts 22, and he's telling people his Jesus story. And here's what he said. He said, when I got saved, the preacher that led me to Christ said, what are you waiting for? You've been saved for 30 seconds. What are you waiting for? Get up and get baptized. Because, see, Ananias, the preacher who led Paul to Christ knew this. That quick obedience. Everybody say that, say quick obedience. He knew that quick obedience will make the next step of obedience easier. So you're never gonna hear that from me, you know. I know you're on a journey, you know, if you want to get baptized in the next 15 years, you know, God's not in a hurry. No, no. What are you waiting for? Because quick obedience makes the next step of obedience so much faster. And I'll say this, slow obedience usually leads to disobedience. There's something about quickly obeying God, and it's just a principle for life. Again, it starts with baptism. And now the Apostle Paul, who was baptized could declare this. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And now this life that I live in the flesh. In other words, this life that we all live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So what happens when I'm baptized and we have the team come? What happens when I'm baptized? I publicly declare Jesus is lord of my life. I take my first step of obedience as a disciple of Jesus and my sins washed away. I am joining Jesus in the act that he said he must do. Matthew, chapter three. Jesus goes to John the Baptist and says, I want you to baptize me. And John said, absolutely not. I can't baptize you. You need to baptize me. And Jesus said, no, I have to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Let me just say this. If the sinless, perfect Son of God needed to be baptized, I don't know about you, but I need to be baptized. And when I was 15 years old, I went into the waters of baptism, and something happened in the water. And something will happen for you today in Jesus name. I end with this. When we got married, August 406, we walked up to the front of a church we said our vows, and my wife and I said this statement to each other. We said, I do. I do. And when we said, I do, watch me. We implied to the rest of the room, I don't. When I said yes to my wife, I was saying no to my mama. Uh oh, I got a mad mother in law in here. I could feel you saying, I. I got a new boss, got a new woman to please. It ain't you, Mama. When I. When I said yes to Shannon, I said no to every other woman. When Shannon said, I do, she was saying, I don't to every other man in the room. Because our covenant would not only be strong by our yes to each other, but also by our no to everyone else. Some of you have said yes to God, but you have not yet said no to the world. So. So there's a song a lot of you have heard. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided Follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. Okay, that's great. But there's a second verse that a lot of us don't sing or live. The cross before me, the world behind me. That's the yes and no. The cross before me, the world behind me. The cross before me, the world behind. Is this somebody's story? No turning back. No turning back. Stand up on your feet. That's the prayer. Maybe I could say it like this. You've said yes to Jesus as being your savior, but you haven't yet made him Lord. And I want to call you to that today.