Alright. So January two. You already started on your resolutions, You know? Got got some of those going yet. Already moving little more exercise. Maybe a little more sleep. Some some more water. Maybe, maybe less tv. Maybe less bacon. Uh, maybe, maybe, maybe less Tiktok. If that's not on your list, It needs to be all right, really. Come on now. How about a diet? Everybody going to try to shed a few pounds? Someone once said, no matter what your problem is in life. The answer is not in the fridge. I think there's a lot of truth to that. Unless of course there's italian cream cake in the fridge. Then your answer is in the fridge. Just go forget it. Don't even think twice about it. You know, I've been a pretty big boy several times over the last 25 years. Yeah. I mean, I've really put on the pounds, I think I've told you before when my wife was pregnant, I looked very pregnant every single time. It was it was really scary. I I saw a picture the other day years ago and I was like, is that me? I tell you when it got really, really scary if I've ever shared this? Sorry. What? It got really scary was me and my friend David was one of our staff people at our church. We had to go move some stuff up into an addict. And uh in the church was one of those drop downstairs. And so the drop downstairs came and and uh I said, hey, Dave, I said, you're you're going to have to go up. He goes, how come? I said I exceed the weight limit. Yeah, but that was a really, really bad moment for me to which he turned to me, he goes, do you realize that means you way more than Jerome Bettis, Alright, Jerome Bettis was a, was a football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers and he was known as the bus. So the whole notion that I weighed more than the bus was really, really, really scary. But for every single one of those times that I gained all that weight, I did lose the weight. Well, most of it every single time. And one of those times as I was losing, someone asked me, come on man, what's what's the trick and what what do you do and what you know, what do you do? And I told him, you know the trick is very, very, very simple. I said, you can do anything, you can do keto, you can do noon, you can do weight watchers, you can do jenny craig, can do intermittent fasting, you can do the applewood, smoked bacon diet, you could do the japanese banana diet, you can use a flow, be whatever you need to get rid of weight in your life. You can do any of it as long as you do it, you can do anything, all of them work. But you have to do it. That's the trick. That's the key. That's the answer. You got to do it. You know sometimes in life though, the issues that we have are more than a New Year's resolution will solve, right? Sometimes the things happening in our life are bigger. They're bigger fears, bigger problems, bigger frustrations and a and a resolution is not going to solve anything. So is there an answer for those types of problems? Is there an answer for the biggest problems in life? The types of problems that overwhelm us morning, noon and night, the types of problems that are waiting for us next week, next month, they're always there. Is there an answer that helps us work through those biggest fears? Those biggest frustrations that you're dealing with right now? Well, there is and interestingly, it's just kind of the one answer. There's there's just one thing for all of us, for all of our issues, all of our problems, all of our fears, all of our frustrations And what is that one thing, Well, let's see if we can find out together listening to john chapter one beginning with verse 17, john writes this for the law was given through moses About 3500 years ago, Moses was the mediator between God and the Hebrew people. So things came from God through moses to the people. That was the math. That was how it worked. But about 600 years before that though, things were completely different. There was a 1-1 ratio, there was no mediator. God gave a promise directly to a man named Abram or Abraham as we call him. And Abraham got this message firsthand from God and it wasn't just a message, it was a promise. God gave Abraham a promise. And what was the promise? This is how Pans out in Genesis. Chapter 17, God said to Abraham, I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings will come forth from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I mean just step into this moment for a second, this is the one true Godof the universe. Can you imagine God coming to you appearing to you and saying, listen, your family tree is going to be like a billion packets of sea monkeys, there's just going to be people everywhere, all through your family tree Kings, entire nations are going to be formed through your family line. And not only that God goes on and he says, I will be your God, I will be your God. Now I will be your salvation once and for all, forever and ever and ever. I mean this, this is a stunning promise. So marinate on this for a second. If you're a christian, if you're truly a believer and follower of jesus God is your God God is your God and no power of hell and no scheme of man and no health scare and no social media post will ever change that. This is the promise of God, that he will be our God. And nothing can change that. On one day, About 4000 years ago, God made a promise to one man took one person and millions of people, including me and you have benefitted from that promise. But john is not writing about the promise. He's writing about the law. You see the the promise came to one man and ultimately many people benefited from the promise. But the law, the law came to a mediator and the law applies to everyone. Not many people will benefit as the promise, but the law applies to every one, all of us that someone might say, well, gosh, why why is the law necessary? Why can't we just get along? But why can't we all just use a little bit of common sense? Well, here's why the law came, Here's why the law is necessary. The law exists because of sin. Paul was writing to the church at Rome, he said this. The law came in so that the transgression would increase. So the law came so that sin would increase. The law came so that people would send more this, this sounds cuckoo for cocoa puffs. What in the world is he talking about? Well, here's what it means. It basically means this the law exposes sin. The law helps us see that that sin is sin. And when we see sin, when our sin is exposed, we humble ourselves and we confess our sins immediately, right? I mean, isn't that what we do when someone comes to you and legitimately tells you that you've done something wrong? When someone texts you or emails you or calls you or or sits in front of you and says, Hey, you've legitimately done something wrong. Your first response is to humble yourself and to ask them to forgive you. Right? Right now, if we're honest, usually when someone confronts us with something we've done wrong, our first response is to puff up with pride and be defensive. Don't tell me I did something wrong. And what happens when that happens, sin increases, sen increases. There's there's more sin in that moment. So the law came. So that when sin increased, we would understand without a shadow of a doubt that sin is sin. We would see our sin for what it is. Someone's even said that the law is evangelistic. You know, we think of evangelism in the bible, we think john 3 16, right For God, so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Yes, that is gigantically evangelistic. But if we're going to do true evangelism, we have to start in genesis and we have to help people see the the story of the first man and the first woman, the story of the fall. We have to take them through exodus and own throughout the whole bible. So that there's this picture, this understanding of what it really means to rebel against God. That's what the law does. The law helps us see that we rebel against the one true creator. God. The Law helps us see that we are guilty. The Law helps us see that we desperately need to be saved. The Law helps us see that we desperately need to be rescued from eternal condemnation. The Law helps us see that we need to be rescued from eternal separation from God. The promise of full and final and ultimate and and satisfying salvation. That promise came first and then the law came second. The promise is the greatest treasure in the universe. The promises, the most spectacular thing we can possibly imagine why. Because within the promise not within the Law. Within the Promise, we can be set free from sin with within the within the promise, the chains of sin, the penalty of sin can be removed. When we look at the law, the law is kind of like a huge sign on the highway of life that says, hey, the bridge is out ahead. If you keep going, you're going to plunge to your death. So the law is kindness, that the law is mercy. But the law is not the promise. The law is not the promise. So can we ignore the Law. I mean, the promise came first. Right? Why don't we just go back to the promise? Why don't we go back to the promise and and just kind of ignore the law and we don't really have to pay attention to the law. I mean, why do we need the law when we need the law because of sin? See the law exposes our sin. The law helps us see we need to be saved. We need to be rescued. The law helps us see we don't want to be separated from God forever and ever and ever. About 15 years ago we were living in Anderson South Carolina and I had to get a new phone. So I remember going to the store that day and I was there for at least a couple of hours. I think I had to, you know pick up the phone and wait in line and pay for the phone and fill out all the paperwork. But the longest part of the process, I was having my old phone and getting all of the data and information off the old phone and moved to the new phone. It it just took forever. Well I had to get a new phone this week and and I didn't go to a store. They mailed it to my house And then when I opened up out of the box and turned the power on this little welcome screen came up. Hey you want to transfer your phone? I was like sure. So I put my old phone next to my new phone. 15 minutes later, the whole thing was done. It was all done in like one step. So why don't we do that? The promise, right? Wouldn't that be good? Let's let's just do the one step promise. Let's just have the one law to get the promise. I mean, wouldn't that be it would be a lot easier, right? I mean just just the one law for salvation. What if God did that? What if what if God created one law for salvation and all we had to do was keep the one law and the one law would would make us right with God. The one law would save us and redeem us. The the one law would allow us to live forever and joy and happiness and peace. The one law sounds great, right? But here's the problem. Even if there was just the one law for salvation, it wouldn't work. Why? A couple of reasons. First, we wouldn't keep it. We wouldn't eventually, we'd break it. I would break it. You would break it and we wouldn't be able to perfectly keep that law. It's just not going to happen. But the second reason is the bible says that someone who is not a believer, someone's not who's not right with God. Someone who's not a christian that that person is dead in their sins and trespasses. So if I'm dead, I'm dead. I can't do anything, I definitely can't keep a log, I definitely can't keep a tradition, I definitely can't keep something religious, I can't do anything because I'm dead in sin. So the law cannot set my soul free. The law cannot bring life to my dead soul. So the promise can. But if the promise didn't come through the law, then then how do I get the promise, John tells us in verse 17, Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is the promise, The Law can't save you, but the law helps, you see, you need to be saved. The law points you in the direction of the promise and the promise is the gift of salvation and the promise is jesus, jesus is the ultimate promise of God. When mary discovered that she was going to be carrying the messiah as her baby, she immediately wrote a praise song, just, just I guess off the cuff off the top of her head, she, she began to sing a song to God and this is part of the song luke 1 54 he has given help to Israel his servant in remembrance of his mercy And then verse 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever. Let me ask you a question, how many times In the last year, the last 12 months have you doubted God how many times have you doubted God now I'm not talking about, you know you were sitting at thanksgiving dinner going, Hey guys, I want you to know I'm announcing, I'm an atheist from here On out. Alright. I'm not saying that. I'm saying, how many times have you wind? Have you complained? Have you grumbled? Have you criticized, have you been angry or afraid or frustrated or worried in such a way that in your words and your attitude and your actions and your thoughts, the things you think and say and do that, you acted as if God isn't God, that God's not paying attention, that God doesn't care, that God is letting things get out of control. You did it. And so did I. We've all done it at least once just in the last year. We've all had that moment where we question God or at the very least we forgot or ignored his grace and his truth. All in one year when mary sang her song, it hadn't been a year. It had been 2000 years since Abraham was promised by God. So for 2000 years, this promise was lingering in the air and it was on the tip of her tongue when she began to praise God. She didn't say Gosh, I can't believe this pandemic this year. Gosh, I can't believe the economy this year. Gosh, I can't believe politics this year. Gosh, I can't believe the health problems this year. No, her heart, her mind immediately went, oh the promise! The promise. The promise! It rolled off of her tongue worshiping God for a promise that was 2000 years old. So it had been 2000 years since the promise was made. And the promise was about to arrive. Now, it's been another 2000 years since the promise arrived. So you and I could be like mary, we could be the kind of people that what rolls off our tongue is the filth. We here on social media and talk radio and the news and everything else. Or what rolls off of our tongue is the promise is still real. God's promise hasn't failed because see it is in the Promise where you get the grace and truth, you need the most the grace and truth you need right now. The most is all found in the promise, no matter what you face today, this afternoon, next thursday or 10 years from now. The grace and truth, you need the most is all found in the promise. In the truth. About jesus mary wasn't remembering law, She wasn't remembering religion. She wasn't remembering traditions. She was remembering the promise. She was remembering a promise that cannot fade. 2000 years later, she was remembering the mercy of God. Everything in your life will pull you away from the mercy of God. There will be 100 things that will happen to you in the next 48 hours that will try to convince you that the mercy of God is not real. And that's why we just keep it on our heart and mind. 2000 years later, she was all about the mercy of God. It had not faded. And now it's been another 2000 years and we can still remember the mercy of God that showed up with the messiah in the manger. He's still the thrill of hope. He's still what your weary soul longs to rejoice the promise was. And is Emmanuel God with us. But why does that matter? Well, why should that matter to you? Right now, Listen to Verse 18. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the father, He has explained him. Now, there are many people in the world that will agree with the first part. Okay, nobody's seen God. Alright, yep, nobody's seeing God. So if nobody's seen God, then there's no proof that he really exists. There's a lot of people that'll that'll run with that. They might even say that the whole notion of the existence of God is kind of like the old story about the blind men and the elephant seeing that one. You know, where there's three blind men, they're looking at the elephant and and one of them grabs the tail and his description of the elephant. Oh, it's it's like a rope. That's what this elephant is like. It's it's like a rope. Another blind man grabs ahold of the trunk. He goes, no, no, no, no, it's like a, it's like a tube, it's like a big flexible tube. That's what the elephants like. The other guy stands next to him, puts his, his hand on the side of the elephant. No, no, no. The elephant is like a big wall of leather. See there are people out there that say the whole notion of knowing God is like that, say whatever you want. But it's like a bunch of blind men describing an elephant, none of it's real, none of it can be proven Colin smith has an interesting response to that. He says this, what if the elephant was able to speak? What if the elephant could say, let me tell you who I am, I am. A very complex animal with a trunk and a body and a tail. Listen to me, you blind men and I will tell you who I am and then you will be able to make sense of your experience. Listen, Jesus spoke, Jesus spoke, he explained God, he made God known simply put seeing jesus, you're seeing God. It's, it's the design, it's the plan from before the foundation of the world that jesus would show us who God is. It's not blind faith, It's not foolish faith. It's real faith based on a real God who sent a real savior to be the light and the promise of the world. I was reading something recently about a child Prodigy before he was a teenager, he was internationally known acclaimed piano player and he received a scholarship to go to a very prestigious music college and while he was there he heard the Gospel and he came to faith in christ when he was in college and I don't know why, but when I was just reading it was just a paragraph when I was reading just that simple paragraph, I just had this moment where I was just reminded of that simple truth, Jesus saves like like he does, he he saves you know that that kid went off to college after a life of fame for many years as a youngster, he went off to college, he heard the Gospel and he got saved. Listen if you're a christian, you're not a christian because you joined the church, you're not a christian because you got baptized, you're not a christian because you attend church or because you follow some traditions or because you give money or because every now and then you do a charitable deed if you are a christian, the only reason you're a christian is because jesus saved you. The only reason you are a christian is because jesus saved you and that is good and great and spectacular news and here's the thing jesus is still doing that, the gospel has not been canceled. The Gospel has not been shut down. The Gospel hasn't lost any money. The Gospel is full and free and powerful and rich and it has not hesitated for a millisecond and it never will. We are not fools here today singing about religion. We are singing about a living truth through a living savior. That's what we have in jesus. If your heart would honestly speak to you now and tell you that things are not right with you and God can I just encourage you, Jesus still saves. And maybe it is today is your day that he's drawing your heart to him. You know, I sat there reading that story and I just thought, gosh, here's a kid who he had a lot of fame. He had a lot of experience. My guess. He had to be pretty arrogant. You know, I mean to to have all of this success at such a young age and then all of a sudden he showed up at college and the person and work of Jesus explained God to him. He heard the truth about God and he spent the rest of his life and is still spending the rest of his life worshiping and glorifying God and making much of the Gospel through the work and the message of the Gospel found throughout the pages of the bible and by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is still explaining God, Jesus is still saving. Jesus is still making God known and maybe today he's making God known to you and he's calling you to repent and receive his salvation. So we would just say repent and receive his salvation. Do not delay. Don't make it a New Year's resolution to maybe follow God. If God is calling you today respond because jesus is still saving, he's still helping, He's still keeping, he's still loving, which takes us back to our opening questions. Is there an answer for the biggest problems of life? Is there an answer for the biggest frustrations and biggest fears, biggest failures, biggest problems, biggest issues that you're working through right now? And we would say yes, the answer is the promise and the promises jesus sounds oversimplified, but but it's true to be saved and made right with God to no longer be bound with the chains of sins to be released from the chains of sin. That is the ultimate answer to comfort and energize your heart and mind and soul no matter what you're going through. Let me let me say that again. Hopefully in maybe some simpler terms to be saved is the ultimate answer to comfort and energize your soul, no matter what you face in life. That's why it's a promise. That's the hope of the promise and better than the best fireworks show that you've ever seen on New Year's Eve. The promise is spectacular. The promises spectacular. There there is nothing greater than the spectacular promise of being saved and redeemed and rescued and found in jesus, it is the most spectacular thing in the universe. Someone said this about that spectacular promise. It can't be bought, it can't be earned, but it can be believed. And if you believe it, everything changes everything. So I offer to you the absolute best resolution that you could make. And that is this belief belief.