This sermon emphasizes the profound sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, where He faced being forsaken by God for three hours to take on the punishment for the sins of the world. It highlights the foundational beliefs of Christianity - that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, proving the truth of His teachings. The importance of inviting the Holy Spirit into our lives to transform us into Christ-like individuals is also emphasized, guiding believers to live in alignment with God's will and purpose.

It's terrible to be there because God is not there. God is in this world today. That's why, even for unbelievers, things are very pleasant. But when you go to the place where God himself has withdrawn his presence, all the evil, and the devil, and the man, and all comes out fully, it'll be terrible. That's, I believe, that evil is what makes the fire of hell, makes people's lives so miserable. But Jesus faced it when he hung on the cross, being forsaken by God for three hours, the earth shook, the sun was darkened, and all types of things happened in those three hours. In the last three hours, you see, the six hours on the cross, the last three hours he was forsaken by God, because that is the only way he could take our punishment. Not just by physically dying, but a spiritual death took place there. His connection with God was cut off. The Bible says the Father is the head of Christ, and the head was wrenched off for three hours on the cross. Can you imagine if your head is wrenched off, what it's like? 1 Corinthians 11.3 says the Father is the head of Christ, and the head was wrenched off on the cross. And he suffered hell, not just for you and me, but for the whole world. How could one man take the punishment of the whole world for eternity? Because that one man was God. He was infinite. So, the punishment that billions of people will suffer for eternity could be concentrated into three hours in one man, and he was God. We don't know what agony that was. That is the price he paid for your sin. Mine. That's the first foundation of Christianity. Christ died for our sins. But that's not enough. He rose from the dead. If he did not rise from the dead, I would not be a Christian. I wouldn't waste my time preaching this message. His rising from the dead is the proof that all that he said on earth was true. No man died for the sins of the world. No man rose from the dead. No religion even claims that somebody died for the sins of the world, except Christianity. And no religion even claims that somebody who died came out of the grave after three days. So, the foundation of the Christian faith is not do good, be kind, don't hurt others. It is Christ died for your sins, and he rose up from the dead. You remove those two things, Christianity becomes like any other religion in the world. And that's why it's unique. You need to understand that. You are a sinner, and you deserve to go to hell for all eternity, to be forsaken by God forever. And you have lived for yourself, you are created, created to belong to God, but you live for yourself. And when you come back to God, you must come back like a thief who has stolen what belongs to God for so many years. How old are you? 25, 30? So many years you have stolen something that belongs to God. You can come back to him in sorrow. Lord, I didn't know this was your thing I stole so many years. I want to come back to you and give my life to you. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying for me. I believe you rose from the dead. If you didn't rise from the dead, you wouldn't be living. You can't pray to good people who are dead. The apostle Paul was a good man, but I can't pray to him because his body is in the grave, and I can't communicate with him. But Jesus rose from the dead, I can talk to him. And more so, because after he rose from the dead, he went to heaven after 40 days and he sent his Holy Spirit. You know, just like God sent his Son to walk on this earth for 33 and a half years, and the Son of God went up to heaven, the third person of the Trinity came down to earth, the Holy Spirit, just as real a person as Jesus. The Holy Spirit is not a force, no, not some power. He gives power, but he himself is not a power. It's a person, just as real a person. You don't look at a person and say he's a force. He's a person who gives power, like a king who's got tremendous power. The Holy Spirit is a person just like Jesus. He came to the earth, but because he didn't come in a human body like Jesus, he says to you, I want a human body, yours. It's wonderful that the Holy Spirit can come and take this body and if I respond to him, do in this body exactly what he did in Jesus' body when he was on earth. It's a wonderful thing to be a Christian. See, that's the thing that challenged me. That's why the Bible says that if the Holy Spirit comes in you, you can walk like Jesus walked. You couldn't do that before the Holy Spirit came. Before that, you could only improve your life on the outside. So a lot of Christians are trying to live like that, improve their life on the outside and be a good person like the Old Testament people. That's not the way. However much you improve, you'll never be like Jesus. The Holy Spirit, the God himself, is to come inside you and as you respond to him, you'll be... You won't be God, but you'll have God living inside you, helping you to behave like him. That is why I'm so disturbed when I see so many people who talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit and telling lies, getting angry, loving money, especially loving money, fighting, taking people to court, so many things. I say, this is not the Holy Spirit. This is an evil spirit. The Holy Spirit will make you like Jesus. And maybe the Holy Spirit came in you, but he probably left you long ago because you didn't respond to his promptings. You know, the Holy Spirit doesn't stay anywhere where people don't want him. I believe that. You can invite him in, and if you don't respond to what he's saying, he'll say, goodbye. Live your own life. You'll still live a good life like Abraham and Moses and a lot of other people in the Old Testament who didn't have the Holy Spirit. You'll live a good life, but you won't be a child of God. So, this is the wonderful message of the Gospel that you can turn and receive Christ through his Spirit into your heart, that your body can now be the house of God. I was speaking to somebody once who was smoking cigarettes. I said, will you smoke a cigarette inside a church building? He said, no, no, no. I never smoke inside a church building. Why? Oh, it's the house of God. I said, do you know your body is supposed to be the house of God, not this building? How can you do something wrong in God's house? If you want to commit adultery, will you commit adultery inside a church? No, no, no. Not in the house of God. If you want to watch internet pornography, will you watch it inside a church building? No, no, no. That's a holy place. We don't have an understanding. What is the holy place? It's his body. This is the temple of God. Anything that people won't do inside a church building, you can't do it here. Why do I say we must be careful about how we treat this body? The habits of drinking and smoking and things that destroy this body, taking drugs and many other things. It's like, would you go to a church building and break the walls and windows? You wouldn't do it? This is the church building. This is God's house. Don't destroy it by bad eating habits, bad habits in your life that destroy the temple. God wants to give you power through the Holy Spirit to be a true Christian. That doesn't mean we reach perfection in a day. The Christian life, the Bible says, is like a race. Being born again is coming to the starting line. That's all. It's a marathon race of 70 years where you run, run, run, run. As you run, you get closer and closer and closer to the finishing line. But don't stay at the starting line. When you're born again, when you accept Christ, you're born again, you come to the starting line. All it means is you've turned your back and come to the starting line. Now I want to run. Or to use another illustration, I've laid a foundation. Now I want to build a house. So, it's the most wonderful life you can ever live.