Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord He is God. It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations. Thank you, Pastor. Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. They couldn't have sung a better song to go with the message. I'd like to preach on for just a little bit in this afternoon. I know we're fighting against having our bellies full, and my job is just to keep one or two of you awake, you know, not all of you. I'm not even gonna try to keep all of you awake. Every time I think about trying to keep people awake, I think about what Billy Kelly used to say. He had a friend of his sitting in front of, on the front row, He went to sleep while brother Billy was preaching. So brother Billy takes a song book and throws it at him. And then he wakes up and he says, hit me again, I can still hear him. Hopefully y'all don't say that about me today, but we just want to give you a little bit, but the title of the message this afternoon is look what God did when he saved me. Look what God gave me when He saved me. Amen. And it's definitely far better than I deserve, as the psalm said. Amen. You got your Bibles up in 1 Corinthians 2. Would you mind standing as we read a few verses? Kind of stretch your legs. Honor the Word of God. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9, But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are, notice this phrase, freely given to us of God. He didn't charge us one dime. Amen. Freely given. Look what God gave us when he saved us. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you so much for the opportunity to preach. God, I thank you for the pastor, Pastor Justin. Lord, I pray that you bless our time of around the throne, around your word, Father. Lord, I pray that you touch us, Lord, and help us to say exactly what we need to say. No more, no less. We ask you in your precious name, the name of Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you so much. Just a few things I want to name to help you remember some things. I know this is nothing new at all, what I'm going to be saying to you. It's just a reminder. to think about what God gave you when he saved you. And you know, most of what I'm going to be talking about this afternoon is just the spiritual benefits. You know, we think about the physical benefits a lot of times, but our greatest benefits are our spiritual benefits. First of all, I like to say that God became our father. when he saved us. Amen. He became our father. I don't believe at all for one minute that everybody that's born into this world is a child of God. No. You have to be born again to be part of the family of God. And God becomes your father. I like what Jesus said. Our father which art in heaven. I believe he was including us when he said our father letting us know that he's not only his father but he's our father. Amen. Aren't you glad you could say when you go to prayer pray to the Lord you say my father which art in heaven. Amen. Isn't that wonderful? Don't get too excited now. But isn't it wonderful to know that He's our Father. He's your Father if you're saved. And if you're not saved, you can be born again and be a child of God. Have God the Father, God in heaven to be your Father. And Jesus reiterates this in John chapter 20 verse 17. He says, I sinned unto my father and your father. Amen. He's reminding the disciples. He says, I'm going to my father, but listen, he's your father too. Amen. Because of what I did for you on the cross, he's not only my father, but he became your father. Amen. I'm glad we got a heavenly father. I don't know about you, but I like you around Father's Day, telling my Heavenly Father, Happy Father's Day. Amen. Because I'm more glad, I thank God for my earthly father. I'm very thankful for him. A lot of y'all know him, Harold Rochester. But you know what? He couldn't save me. He couldn't make me a child of the Heavenly Father. Amen. I thank God this afternoon I'm a child of the heavenly father and I'm his son. The son of God became son of man that we as sons of men may become sons of God. Isn't that wonderful? Amen. I thank God for that. And then also Mark, we became a part of a family. I tell you, God put us in a family. Aren't you glad you're part of the family of God? I like the song, I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God, washed in the fountain, cleansed by his blood. Join heirs with Jesus as we travel this side. I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. Y'all are my family. I tell you what, and my family has been so good to me during these days. And I appreciate it. It encouraged me and lifted me up in prayer. I tell you, that encourages me. It makes me want to keep on keeping on. Amen. It's keeping me in the fight, really, having my family. You know, and I've told some people that during this time, it seems like, you know, I struggle being as close to God as I'd like to be. But I tell you what, God has loved on me through His family, through my family, through my spiritual family, through His children. God's people. I appreciate that, that God has loved on me through His people. In Mark chapter 3 verse 35 it says, Whosoever shall do the will of God the same as my brother and my sister and mother. What is the will of God? to be saved. That's the number one will of God for you today. If you're not saved, before you can do any other thing of God's will, you first must be saved. Amen. You can't do anything else for God until you go through that step of being born again. asking the Lord Jesus Christ to save you. Amen. I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. And then moving on quickly this afternoon, I'm glad I have a friend in Jesus. Jesus said in John chapter 15 verse 15 says, I call you not my servants. Boy, and I'll say this, I'd be glad just to be called a servant, wouldn't you? That'd be enough for me, but he goes on and says, but I have called you my friends. And that wonderful Jesus Christ calls us his friend. What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege it is to carry everything to God in prayer. I praise God for a friend. And Proverbs 18, 24, the last part says, there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Well, I'll tell you what, in our friend, we have not only a friend, but he's a friend that's our high priest. We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was never tempted like as we are, yet without sin. You know, that encourages me this afternoon, knowing that nothing will ever go through he hadn't already gone through. Amen. All the feelings that you have, the disappointments, the trials, the tribulation, the trials that you have, He feels those. And He goes on to say, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. Why can we come boldly? Because He knows what we're going through. Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Amen? We have freedom. Praise God for freedom this afternoon. Amen. We're free from the penalty of sin. I thank God right now. I don't have to go to hell. Amen. If that's all that God did for me, that'd be enough, really. He saved me from hell, the penalty of sin. He saved me from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin. Romans chapter 6 verse 14 says, sin shall not have dominion over you. And one of these days we'll be saved from the presence of sin, amen? Therefore shall, in this talking about being from the presence of sin, Revelations 21 verse 27 says, there shall then no wise enter into it anything that defileth or worketh abomination or maketh a lie. Praise God, we're going to a good place, a better place, amen, heaven. Aren't you thankful for heaven? We have that to look forward to, the presence, be away from the presence of sin. And then the future that we have, as they were singing a minute ago, the future we have. Aren't you glad we have a future when God saved us, amen? First John chapter three, verse two, the first part says, when he shall appear, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. First Thessalonians chapter four, verse 17. One of these days we'll meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Amen. We have a future. Y'all should be wearing sunglasses cause you got bright futures. Amen. I praise God for the future we have. Then we have fellowship. We have fellowship with the son. The Bible says in first John chapter one and verse three, the last part says our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. And because of that fellowship, we have a relationship. We have that relationship gives us fellowship. We were able to talk one-on-one. to him because of Jesus Christ. We can go through the blood because of the blood of Jesus Christ. We have access to the throne of God. What about that fellowship being able to have a relationship with God the father without without his son we wouldn't be able to do that. But he he tore down the partition that kept us from being able to go on to the Holy of Holies and have a relationship and have a friendship a man fellowship with him. And Pastor, I'm gonna be pretty short tonight, this afternoon. I don't think anybody disagree with that or be disappointed in that. But I just got one more for you. Thinking about what God gave us, and I'm just taking one letter of the alphabet. What if I did the whole alphabet? We'd be here for a while, wouldn't we? Y'all want me to? No amens right there, so. But forgiveness. forgiveness of all of our sins. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 13, God hath forgiven you of all your trespasses. You ever think about this, child of God, if you, if there was one thing still held against you as far as sin is concerned, you couldn't go into heaven. You'd be banned from heaven because of just, you say just one sin? Yeah, just one little lie. But John the Bible said about Jesus, behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. He's taken away all of our sins so that we can go into heaven. It's not gonna be not one little sin, not one little sin in all that fair land because of the forgiveness. And because of that forgiveness, we're justified. That justification means just as if we've never sinned. It's not like we've been pardoned from sin. You know, if you're pardoned from sin, that sin's still there. You've just been forgiven. But our forgiveness has taken away the sin. Amen. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Thank God for Jesus Christ. Just think about it. for a little bit, look what God gave you when he saved you. Pastor, thank you.