I am especially excited today! While preaching is almost always a joy, sometimes it is an absolute delight, especially when I am declaring the heart of the Gospel, the good news of the cross.

Why, I could hardly sleep last night. I feel like a bird-dog on Thanksgiving morning or a racehorse in the starting blocks at Churchill Downs. I love to talk about the cross!

The Gospel is so simple that even a child can grasp it. It's so profound that no Ph.D. can fully plumb its depths. Here is the heart of it: because of our sin we were estranged from our real selves, from our God, and from other people. We could not fix our own brokenness. So, our loving God visited our planet as the man Jesus, sacrificed himself on a cross for the sins of the whole world. Then he conquered death. Any person who co…