PowerPoint

Jack Graham: Before time began, God loved you. Before you were born, God loved you. Before He made the mountains and set the stars in place and the courses of the planets, God loved you.

Guest (Female): On today’s PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about why Jesus came to earth and what it means for your life today. Now, here is Dr. Graham with his message, Life According to Jesus.

Jack Graham: I want to invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me once again to First John chapter four. Five times in this letter of First John, the apostle emphasizes that Jesus literally, physically came, and for what purpose? Why did He come? By now, John is an old man, looking back and reflecting upon his experience with Christ, and John was saying, we could never forget.

Guest (Male): We will never forget what Christ has done for us. Now, there are many reasons that I believe in Jesus.

Guest (Male): I believe in Jesus because of the historical evidence.

Jack Graham: I believe in Jesus because of the powerful scripture, and yes, you can trust the Bible.

Guest (Male): I believe in Jesus because of personal experience, knowing Him and trusting Him, building my faith upon the truth of God’s word.

Guest (Male): But the thrill of knowing and loving Jesus never fades for me, for God has given us a living and vibrant faith that will last beyond the critics.

Guest (Male): And I believe the Bible after studying it seriously for many years now. I believe the Bible more than ever.

Jack Graham: I believe in Jesus now more than ever. I am discovering new reasons to believe, not new reasons to doubt.

Guest (Male): And that is why my love for Christ is growing day by day. I don’t intend to burn out in my love to Christ; I intend to burn on in my love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): Why did Jesus come? Well, I want you to see in First John chapter three, actually, in verse five, that Jesus came to be our sin bearer.

Guest (Male): Look at verse five of First John three, and we’re going to look at these five times in First John when he said Jesus came and why He came.

Guest (Male): You know that He appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.

Guest (Male): He appeared, and with that implicit within that truth is that He was not born at Bethlehem, but He came from eternity.

Guest (Male): He is the Son of God, the eternal Christ. And as a result, because He is now made manifest, He has now appeared, He makes God knowable and visible.

Guest (Male): So the Son of God, God the Father, sent the Son to bear our sins, that is, to take away our sins. This is the constant theme of the New Testament.

Guest (Male): When John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world, he said, “Look, look at the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” That’s his introduction to the world.

Guest (Male): Before that, the prince of prophets Isaiah spoke of the Savior, the Messiah who would come.

Guest (Male): And in Isaiah 53 and verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray; we every one of us had turned into our own way, but the Lord laid on Him all our sins, all of our iniquities.

Guest (Male): We’re told that in Second Corinthians 5 and 21, that He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God.

Guest (Male): Hebrews 9:26, that He put away sin in Himself, that Jesus died for our sins.

Guest (Male): First Peter chapter two and verse 24, the scripture tells us once again that Jesus bore our sins in His own body at the cross.

Guest (Male): He took our sins. He is our sin bearer.

Guest (Male): But how does Jesus forgive sins?

Guest (Male): Well, notice in First John 3:5 that the apostle is very clear in pointing out that Jesus was sin-free.

Guest (Male): He knew no sin. He never participated in sin. Why? Because only a sinless man could die for sinful man and bear our sins.

Guest (Male): And so when Jesus came, He came to the cross. When He entered into the city of Jerusalem that day, amidst the hailing of the hallelujahs, He came presenting Himself and preparing Himself to die on the cross.

Jack Graham: He is the sin bearer. Now, do you still carry your sin, or have you allowed the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to take your sin away?

Guest (Male): Because Jesus is our sin bearer, He came to take away our sins. In Him, we have been cleansed, changed, covered by His grace.

Guest (Male): All of our sins are forgiven.

Guest (Male): What does First John tell us? By the blood of Jesus Christ, He forgives us of all of our sins.

Guest (Male): The past really is the past. Our future truly is secure in heaven.

Guest (Male): We live today with peace and purpose in our hearts. There is joy for the journey. There is life every single day.

Guest (Male): We have been saved from hell, and we are on our way to heaven.

Guest (Male): We are right with God because Jesus is our sin bearer.

Guest (Male): The sinless one has taken our sin and removed them as far as the east is from the west.

Guest (Male): That’s why Jesus came. He came to be our sin bearer, but there’s another reason that Jesus came. Not only the bearer of my sins, but He came to be the breaker of my chains.

Guest (Male): Look in First John chapter three and verse eight, and once again, at the end of that verse, he tells us why Jesus came.

Guest (Male): The reason the Son of God appeared, same word, was to destroy the works of the devil.

Guest (Male): Now, every person because of sin is in the grip of Satan. Sin devastates us in two ways.

Guest (Male): Not only does it make us guilty before God and therefore condemned in our sin before a holy God, but sin enslaves us in habits and addictions and lifestyles that not only dishonor God and defame His name but destroy our own lives.

Guest (Male): Sin enslaves, and therefore, Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.

Guest (Female): You’re listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message Life According to Jesus. We are excited to share that we have a new way to connect with us. It’s our texting service designed to keep you connected with everything happening here at PowerPoint. You’ll be the first to know about upcoming events, special announcements, and truly enriching content.

To join, start a new text conversation by texting the word CONNECT to 59789. Again, text CONNECT to 59789. Every day, people are hearing the truth of Jesus Christ through PowerPoint’s broadcasts, podcasts, and digital outreach. And friends like you help make it all possible through your support.

So this month, we want to say thanks for your gift of $10 or more to help share the biblical truth with more people around the world by sending you Dr. Jack Graham’s book, Ask. In this encouraging resource, Dr. Graham helps you discover that prayer is not about performance. It’s about knowing God personally and learning to come to Him with confidence, persistence, and faith.

Text JULY to 59789 to give today and request your copy. Again, text JULY to 59789. So that everyone has a chance to receive this helpful resource, please limit one per household. Now, let’s get back to today’s message, Life According to Jesus.

Jack Graham: Jesus is the bearer of my sins, my sin bearer.

Guest (Male): He is not only my sin bearer; He is the breaker of my chains.

Guest (Male): But not only that, Jesus is the lover of my soul. That’s why He came.

Guest (Male): Look at First John chapter four and verse 10. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Guest (Male): What does it mean that this love brought about the propitiation of our sin? The word propitiation is a word which means, if I could just simplify it, satisfied.

Guest (Male): You see, God’s holiness, His righteousness, based upon the law and the commandments, must be satisfied, must be fulfilled.

Guest (Male): So how can a holy God who cannot even look at sin, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, according to the scripture, how can God who is holy forgive sinful man?

Guest (Male): He did it by propitiation, and that’s a big word, but it simply means that God provided a substitute.

Guest (Male): Just as we’re taught and conditioned in the Old Testament of the substitutionary sacrifices and propitiation and atonement of sins as they brought animals, bulls and the sheep and the like for a sacrifice, there came to this earth the ultimate sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Himself.

Guest (Male): That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and because of this propitiation, now God and man can walk together heart to heart, hand in hand.

Guest (Male): And therefore, He is the lover of my soul.

Guest (Male): We have received this love. God is love. You didn’t gain anything; you didn’t do anything to get this love.

Guest (Male): You can’t do anything to keep God from loving you because God is love. He is infinite love.

Guest (Male): I’ve loved you with an everlasting love. Before time began, God loved you. Before you were born, God loved you.

Guest (Male): Before He made the mountains and set the stars in place and the courses of the planet, God loved you.

Guest (Male): We love Him because He first loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation of our sins.

Guest (Male): He satisfied the demands of holiness with His righteous love.

Guest (Male): He’s the lover of my soul.

Guest (Male): Romans 5:8, God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The meaning of the cross, the message of the cross is propitiation, it is substitution, it is sacrifice.

Guest (Male): Because He loved me. He paid the highest price possible to give me the greatest gift possible, which is forgiveness and eternal life.

Guest (Male): Paul said in Galatians 2:20, his love, he loved me, rather, and gave himself for me.

Guest (Male): This love should be returned as we respond with loving faith and give Him our hearts.

Guest (Male): And you know, the more we contemplate His love, the more we consider His cross as we survey the cross in this wondrous love, the more we love Him.

Guest (Male): If you don’t love Jesus the way you ought to love Jesus, if you’re not this hour experiencing a passion, an emotional, heartfelt love for the Lord Jesus, I can tell you exactly what you need to do.

Guest (Male): You need to get a place alone and get on your knees and once again consider the cross and remember what Christ has done for you, how much He has loved you, how He first loved you when you were unlovable and even unlikeable.

Guest (Male): What we need to do is to get in the presence of God and to let Him love us and let His love fill our souls, and that love will flow back in praise and adoration and loving commitment to Him.

Guest (Male): We never get over His love. We will never forget the reality of His love.

Guest (Male): Jesus is the bearer of our sins. Jesus is the breaker of our chains. Jesus is the lover of our souls, and Jesus is the maker of our lives.

Guest (Male): Look at First John 4 and verse nine. This is why He came. In this, the love of God was made manifest, there’s the same word again. He wasn’t a phantom; He really came.

Guest (Male): And this is why He came: that God sent His only Son into the world that we may have life, that we live through Him.

Guest (Male): He said, “I’ve come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” Our greatest need is life.

Guest (Male): Why? Because sin brought death, and the wages of sin is death, spiritual death, ultimately the second death, eternal separation from God in hell and in judgment forever.

Guest (Male): Now, I know it’s not polite to talk about death in sophisticated company.

Guest (Male): I mean, if you want to clear a room at a party, just start talking about death.

Guest (Male): But Jesus came to take away the fear of death.

Guest (Male): He said in John 11, “I am the resurrection and the life, and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.”

Guest (Male): He came to give us eternal life, and while we will die physically if Christ does not come in our lifetimes, we will live eternally because He has given us life, and eternal life is in His Son and it begins right now.

Guest (Male): You don’t have to wait till heaven; in fact, till you get to heaven to find out if you have eternal life, it will be too late then.

Guest (Male): You can know eternal life today.

Guest (Male): Jesus said this is eternal life in John 17, and that is to believe, to know the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We can have it right now.

Guest (Male): And our life transcends death as we are instantaneously transferred from this old life and these old bodies that are declining and deteriorating into a brand-new life.

Guest (Male): I know that I’m going to heaven, not because of what I’ve done, but because He is the maker of my life. He is the giver of my life, and that life is eternal.

Guest (Male): People are only prepared to live when they are prepared to die by receiving Jesus as Lord and life, Savior and God.

Guest (Male): So Jesus came. Jesus is the bearer of my sins, the breaker of my chains, the lover of my soul, the maker, the giver of my life, and finally, He is the savior of my heart.

Guest (Male): First John 4:14, and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior, the Savior of the world.

Guest (Male): Why a Savior? Because that was our greatest need: to be saved.

Guest (Male): In fact, if I could just summarize the Bible in two words, all of the message of the Bible in two words, it would be these two words: Jesus saves.

Guest (Male): He said the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.

Guest (Male): He came to be our Savior. That salvation, which means the forgiveness of sin, that Christ comes to live in us, that we have a hope and a future in heaven for Him is promised and provided in Christ and Christ alone.

Guest (Male): That is the witness of the scriptures, the testimony of believers.

Guest (Male): Peter said it in Acts 4:12 that there is no other name given among men by which we can be saved, must be saved, but the name of Jesus.

Guest (Male): In Jesus only are we saved, and He is able to save all who come to Him.

Guest (Male): I said He is able to save all who come to Him.

Guest (Male): And His salvation is made possible because of what He has done for us. To everyone, His love and His grace invites everyone.

Guest (Male): And I reject totally and completely any idea or any theological concept or structure that says Jesus only died for the elect or the select.

Guest (Male): I often ask some of my friends who believe this kind of theology: if that is true, what does the Bible mean in First John 2:2 when it says He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also the sins of the whole world?

Guest (Male): Jesus died for all. His blood was poured out for everyone and anyone.

Guest (Male): Certainly we know that God is sovereign, that God strategically draws unto Himself.

Guest (Male): We know that God has by His grace elected unto salvation those who believe.

Guest (Male): But we must maintain balance between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.

Guest (Male): And I am confident as I read the Bible according to Second Corinthians 5:15, He died for all.

Guest (Male): As the scripture says, God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Guest (Male): That whosoever will may come.

Guest (Male): And as the old gospel song says it so well, “Whosoever will surely means me.”

Guest (Male): He is the Savior of all who will come to Him.

Guest (Male): And He has brought you to this place today that you may know Him and love Him and follow Him. Why? Because He is the bearer of our sins, the breaker of our chains.

Guest (Male): The lover of our souls, the maker of our lives, and the savior of our hearts.

Guest (Male): The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Guest (Female): You’re listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message Life According to Jesus. We want to remind you about a powerful resource Dr. Jack Graham has created to help strengthen your prayer life. It’s his book, Ask.

This practical and encouraging book explores Jesus’ invitation to ask, seek, and knock, helping you discover that prayer is not about saying the right words, but about growing closer to your Heavenly Father through faith-filled relationship.

When you give today to support the outreach of PowerPoint Ministries, you’ll help share biblical truth and the life-changing hope of Jesus with people around the world through broadcasts, podcasts, and digital ministry. Text JULY to 59789 to give your gift of $10 or more and request your copy of Ask. Again, text JULY to 59789.

So that everyone has a chance to receive this helpful resource, please limit one per household. We’re excited to share that we have a new way to connect with us. It’s our texting service designed to keep you connected with everything happening here at PowerPoint.

You’ll be the first to know about upcoming events, special announcements, and truly enriching content. To join, start a new text conversation by texting CONNECT to 59789. Again, text CONNECT to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: Well, our PowerPoint today is really the point of all points. Jesus came to earth to be our Savior and our God, to be the Lord of our lives. And why do we need a Savior? Because we have sinned and broken God’s commandments. We’re lost without God and without hope. We desperately need a Savior, and Jesus is our Savior. That’s the message of the Bible.

Now, I know it’s not really popular today to talk about people being lost and people sinning. No one seems to really want to hear that today, but it is a fact that we have all broken God’s commandments. We have all sinned against God, and we cannot save ourselves. The Bible tells us, if you could just really reduce the message of the Bible to two simple words, it would be this: Jesus saves.

Now listen to that: Jesus saves because that is the message of the faith. That is the message of the word of God. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. And this salvation is promised and provided in Christ and Christ alone. Acts 4:12 puts it this way, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Now, this salvation is possible for everyone. No one is excluded. Jesus didn’t die just for people like you and me; He died for all. Jesus came to be the Savior of the world and God’s desire is that no one would perish, that every man, woman, boy and girl would be saved. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Listen to Romans 10:9. The scripture says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. So why don’t you confess Christ today? Right now, where you are, invite Jesus into your life by confessing Him as your Lord and Savior and asking Him to come into your life.

Pray a prayer like this: Lord Jesus, I do believe. I receive You as my Lord and my Savior. Forgive me of all my sin. Change my heart. Live in me, and may I know that I’m going to heaven because of what You have done for me.

Pray and invite Christ into your life, and I promise you He will hear your prayer and welcome you into His eternal kingdom. You can be saved. You can be forgiven. Christ will live in you and you will have an eternal hope in heaven. And if you’re praying that prayer today and receiving Christ into your life, then I want to tell you that’s the greatest decision you could ever make.

Guest (Female): And that is today’s PowerPoint. Today, if you prayed that prayer with Dr. Graham, text us so we can help you get started in your new life with Christ. Text the word JESUS to 59789. That’s JESUS to 59789.

And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how to seize the most important opportunities God sends your way. That’s next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.