Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you. If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org.
Okay, let's grab our Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 8. And the title of my message is: Everybody Needs Jesus. A number of years ago, Jonathan and I, and Kathy, were over on the island of Maui. And hello to our campus there in Maui. They had a pretty bad storm this morning, and you guys made it to church, so, way to go.
Aloha, mahalo. and all that. Um But we're in Maui and Jonathan wanted it Tries scuba diving. He was nine years old.
So, they were offering an opportunity where you'd have a day of training with a certified instructor, and then that. Instructor would take you out on a dive with tanks and regulator, the whole deal.
So I got Jonathan signed up. The instructor said, Do you want to go with this? I said, Yeah, I'd like to go dive with you guys. He said, Do you want to take the course? I said, Oh, that's okay.
I'm certified. Which simply means I've done it a long time ago, but I was certified, which means I could go buy tanks with air, et cetera.
So Jonathan goes through his course, and the next day comes, and it's really stormy. All the boats are bobbing around, and I'm thinking, oh, we're not doing the dive. And the instructor says, no, we're going to do it. And I'm thinking, oh no, this is not a good day for a dive.
So we get into the little boat, we go out into the ocean, and you put all of your equipment on. How many of you are scuba divers? Raise your hand. You're scuba divers, K few of you, not many. But you know, you put on the BC, the inflatable vest.
You've got the regulator. You breathe through that. You've got, of course, your tanks. You've got a weight belt. You've got your fins.
And then you fall backwards into the ocean. The last thing you want to do with that much equipment strapped on you is fall backwards into the ocean. But that's how it works. And we fell backwards in and we're bobbing around. And I'm starting to panic.
I look over at Jonathan. His eyes were as big as saucers. And I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, I'm supposed to be the guy that knows what he's doing because I'm certified, right?
So all of a sudden, I hear the instructor say to Jonathan, Jonathan, look at me. Jonathan looks at him and I look at him too. And he says, remember your training. I'm thinking, but I wasn't there for the training. And then he said, let's go down.
And the moment we got beneath the surface of the water, it was calm, it was beautiful, everything was fine. You heard in the background, under the sea. You know, it's all good, right? And life can be that way. We're in a storm.
Things seem out of control. And Jesus says, look at me. Remember your training. What are we told in scripture? We're told to keep our eyes on Jesus.
And sometimes storms come in our way, come our way in life, and we wonder if they'll ever stop, and then suddenly. The clouds clear, the sun comes out, and if it's a great day, you'll even have a beautiful rainbow. No unicorns, but a rainbow. Then there are other times where everything is going beautifully in life. Everything's going perfectly, and all of a sudden the bottom drops out, and there's some kind of a tragedy or something dramatic happens.
Well, I bring that up because those are the two scenarios before us here in Luke chapter 8. Two very different people with two very different problems, but they had one thing in common: they both needed Jesus. And that's true of all of us. We all need Jesus, right? One was a poor, helpless woman.
She had a physical condition that caused her to constantly bleed. She had spent all of her money on doctors and she was not getting better. In fact, she was getting worse. Add to that the fact that she would be considered unclean ceremonially. Ceremonially.
That's a hard word, ceremonially. And so people would ostracize her. She couldn't be around people. They'd say, you're unclean, almost if you were a leper. We don't want you here.
Stay away from us.
So she was isolated. She was hurting. She was in physical pain. She was in spiritual pain. And she just knew she needed to get to Jesus.
The other person in our story was a man. He was powerful. He had prestige. Everything was going well for him until his beloved daughter, age 12, became very sick. In fact, she was so sick, it looked like she could die.
He too needed Jesus. And everybody needs Jesus. The old person needs Jesus. The young person needs Jesus. The man, the woman, they both need Jesus.
The popular person needs Jesus, as does the lonely person. person and the anxious person and the skeptical person and the broken person. Everybody needs Jesus at every stage of life. Am I right? We all need him.
Mm-hmm.
So, if you feel like your life is falling apart, this story is for you. If you feel like no one sees your pain, this story is for you. When everything and everybody else fails, Jesus never fails. Let's read about it in Luke chapter 8. I'll start in verse 40.
On the other side of the lake, that would be the Sea of Galilee, the crowds welcomed Jesus. Then a man named Jairus, a leader of the local synagogue, came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come home with him. His only daughter, who was about 12 years old, was dying. And Jesus went with him and he was surrounded by the crowds. A woman in the crowd, who had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding, knew that if she touched, she could find no care.
And coming up behind Jesus, he touched the fringe of his robe and immediately the bleeding stopped. Who touched me? Jesus asked. Everyone denied it. Peter said, Master, the whole crowd is pressing up against you.
But Jesus said, Someone deliberately touched me because I felt healing power go out from me. When the woman realized that she could no longer stay hidden, she began to tremble. She fell to her knees in front of him, and the whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed. Look at the words of the Lord now. Daughter, he says to her, your faith.
has made you whole. Go in peace. 12 years. That's a significant period of time in both people's lives here. The young girl had probably lived 12 years in relative happiness.
And this poor woman had suffered for 12 years as well. And on that same afternoon, their lives were both dramatically changed. Let's start with the father and his daughter. His name was Jairus. He ruled the synagogue.
That means he would have been a man in power, a man with prestige. A popular man. And it appears he only had one child, this little girl. I'm sure she was daddy's girl. I'm sure she was the apple of his eye and he loved to be with her.
It's been said: a girl's first true love is her father. And so I'm sure she loved her dad, but now she's sick. And she's not just sick, she's really sick.
So Jairus hears about Jesus. He has heard about the miracles that Christ has performed.
Now he's a man on a mission. He must get to Jesus and he must get Jesus to come to his home and heal his daughter. Verse 41 says, he came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come home with him. That was his goal. That was his destination.
Get Jesus to my daughter. Every second counts. And that brings me to my point. We should all want Jesus to come home with us. We should all want Jesus to come home with us.
I saw a plaque years ago that says the following: quote, Christ is the head of this home. The unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation. End quote. And that's true. Is Christ the head of your home?
Let's just say for the sake of an illustration, you saw Jesus at church. And he said, hey, um I would like to get a bite to eat. Could I come over to your house? Uh after church? Absolutely, Lord.
And the moment he gets in your car, you become very self-conscious. You haven't washed your car for a year. Um your food Just laying everywhere in your car, trash everywhere. And now you're really conscious of your playlist and immediately starts playing. Oh boy, I would have probably chosen something else for Jesus.
Now you get to your house. Oh, is he going to look at my browsing history? Is he going to look at what I've been viewing on Netflix or other streaming platforms? And you become aware of everything. But here's the thing: Jesus already knows all of that.
And he wants to come home with you. Because he says, behold, I stand at the door and I knock, and if you'll hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. I've told you the story before, but a while ago, we invited Jonathan Rumi over to our home for dinner. Jonathan Rooney plays Jesus on the chosen. And you know, when he's not in character, he still looks like Jesus.
Except he doesn't wear ropes. And he doesn't speak in that accent. He's just a normal guy, really fun guy, great person. And so I gave him the address because he had never come to my home before.
So my wife, Kathy, is she's cooking dinner, fish, which seems appropriate to serve a man who plays Jesus. She's making the fish. And at the kitchen, you see out the front, you can see the street. And she says, I'm just making the fish. And I look out, and all of a sudden, a car drives by, and that's Jonathan driving.
He's looking for our house. He goes, it was really weird. It was like Jesus was lost in this car as he's looking around, you know. And he walks in and we sit down. And my grandkids are kind of young at that point.
They're just staring at him because they've seen him on TV in the chosen. But the point is, we should all live in such a way where we would feel comfortable to bring Jesus into our home. That's what Gyrus was going to do. He wanted to get Jesus to his home. My next point is: the best thing you can do is get your children to Jesus.
Jairus knew if he could get Jesus to his daughter, everything would be better. And he teaches us something every parent needs to hear. He didn't delegate this to someone else. Jairus, being a good dad, went to Jesus himself and sought to bring him home to his family. And that's the most important thing I would say to all the parents in the room right now.
Don't send your children to church, bring your children to church. Right? You see, the youth ministry gets your kids a few hours a week. You get them the rest of their lives. Our job is not to Do all that needs to be done in your children's spiritual life.
That's actually the job of the mom, and that is the job of the parent. We're here to reinforce what you do, we're here to help you, but ultimately, that is your job. Don't drop them off, take them with you. because they're watching you. And look, you are to be an example for them.
I don't think our kids expect us to be perfect. They certainly know we're not perfect. But they want us to be authentic. They want us to be real. And they want to see our faith as real to them.
One of the worst things you can do to a child is to be an open hypocrite in the home. When you mess up, admit that you mess up. Learn from your mistakes, but be that godly example for your child to follow. Be present with them. Because culture and media and influence are competing loudly for the hearts of our kids every day.
They need you there. To teach them what is true, they don't need you to be their best friend, they need you to be their parent. I think that we're in a time now where I'm just like a friend to my child. Shut up, be a mom. Be a dad.
They have other friends. You be the parent. You be the adult in the room that gives them absolutes and standards. They need that in life desperately. And it's something that you integrate throughout life.
Deuteronomy 6 says, Commit yourself to wholeheartedly teach these commands that I'm giving to you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you're at home, and when you're on the road, and when you're going to bed, and when you're getting up.
So that's a word to parents.
Now, a word to kids. How many of you are under the age of 20? If you're under the age of 20, stand up. Stand up.
Well, there's a girl this girl. She's the first one. You're the brave one. Good, stand up, come on. There's more of you.
Come on, stand up if you're under 20.
Okay, if you're under 20 Yeah.
Now, it's my way of honoring you. I want you to remain standing for the rest of the service. No, I'm kidding. Don't sit down. Don't sit down.
I want to tell you something. I want you to know that God has a plan for your life. And I want you to know the two most important moments in your life is when you are born and when you discover what you're born for. Here's what you're born for. You're born to know God.
And he has a special plan just for you. And sometimes you're disappointed in life.
Sometimes your parents let you down.
Sometimes friends let you down.
Sometimes even the dog lets you down. The cat never cared about you. But God will never let you down. And what you want to do is put Christ first in your life. Make that decision now because the evening of your life is determined by the morning of your life, the end by the beginning.
So make that commitment now. I made this commitment at 17.
Some of you are around that age, maybe a little older, some of you are younger. Make your own personal commitment to follow Jesus Christ. Put him first in your life, and you are now on the greatest adventure imaginable, discovering God's plan for your life. That's it. You can sit down.
Now, repeat that back to me. No, I'm kidding. That's what teachers do in class. Say it back to me.
Okay. Coming back to our story. Here's Jairus. He has faith in Jesus. He believes that Jesus can heal his daughter.
He believes if Jesus will lay his hands on his daughter, she'll be better. And so he's on his way, and all of a sudden, this woman out of nowhere just sort of cuts in. I don't like it when people cut lines, do you? You know, you're waiting somewhere and someone just cuts in front of you. You know when you're driving, And you see someone that's maybe in a parking lot and they're trapped and they're trying to get out, no one will let them in.
I'll let them in. I'm the guy that will slow down. Go on then. Go ahead. I want one thing back.
I want the gesture. This is all I want. Thank you. If they pull ahead of me and I don't see this, I'm re-ending them. Lightly, because I don't want to get into the insurance thing.
Just a little bum. No, I'm kidding. I don't do it. That's. It's a joke.
No, but the point is.
Some people will cut in front of you. You know when you're on a plane and finally the plane lands and you're pulling up. To the terminal, you have to wait for the ding. Oh, they're really upset, man. Do not get out of your seat until you hear the ding or whatever they call that thing.
So we're all waiting, waiting, ding, puss. People are in the aisle and pulling their stuff out, you know, and there's people right there. And it's like, how much time are you gonna save? Like a microsecond, but people will cut in front of other people. And effectively, that's what this woman does.
Here's Jairus. Jesus has agreed to come to his home, and this woman cuts right in. He could have said, Hey, no cuts. I was here first. My daughter's really sick.
He could go heal my daughter and come back. You'll still be here, and he can still heal you as well. But actually, I love that he did not. Try to stop it. He just waits.
and lets the Lord do what the Lord wants to do. Just as important as the will of God is the timing of God. The Bible says he makes all things beautiful in his time. When I was a young kid, I was in a hurry and I was looking for love. And the Bible says you can't hurry love, you just have to wait.
No, that was the Supremes. The Supremes were a banned from many years ago.
Okay. No, but the Bible says love is patient. But I was in a rush, and maybe one of the reasons I was in a rush to find love is because I was raised in a home where my mom was married and divorced seven times and had a bunch of boyfriends in between, and I wanted a real lasting love for a lifetime.
So even as a young man, I was falling in love with girls that didn't even know I existed. But I was looking for that right girl. I think, really, what I was looking for more than anything else was Christ. I was looking for a relationship with God. But I didn't know that yet.
And then on my high school campus, when I heard the gospel and I made that commitment to Jesus Christ at the age of 17, now I thought, okay, I'm still looking for a girl, but now I want to find a godly girl. And then I met. Kathy. And I met her at church, and that's a really good place to meet someone when you're single, at church. We've had a lot of people meet each other and get married, meeting right here at church.
And so I was speaking, and I saw her sitting out there with her two sisters, Mary and Dodie. And I didn't know her yet, but I thought I want to meet that girl.
So, because it was like a light coming down on her. Actually, it was Dodie holding a flashlight over her head.
So I walked up afterwards. I said, hi, I'm Craig. Oh, I'm Kathy. I'm Mary. I'm, oh, hey, you wanna go out and get some dessert?
After church, oh sure. And so we went out and got dessert.
So the next week I was speaking again. And I went up to them and I said, Hey, you want to go and get some dessert after? Let's do it. And we did it again. Then the third week, I went up and said, Hey, you want to get some dessert after church?
And I'm talking directly to Kathy. She says, Let me get my sisters. And I said, I don't want your sisters. I didn't say it that way. That sounds sinister.
I said to friendly, they were like, oh, that's okay, just don't bring the sisters. Because I was interested in Kathy, okay? And immediately we began to have God, there's what we look like. Look how cute she is. She looks the same today.
I don't know what I was doing with the hair. I don't know what I was doing with this shirt. I don't understand anything about... But Kathy looks timeless and beautiful, but So, you know, we started going out and we started fighting. I don't mean fisticuffs fighting, just arguments, arguments.
We argued about everything. If I said it was blue, Kathy said it was green. If I said it was good, Kathy thought it was bad, and vice versa. And she even admitted to me later, I was just being contrary to be contrary. Oh, okay.
And so, but we have irreconcilable differences, I'll tell you that.
So when I hear of couples breaking up due to irreconcilable differences, my response is, give me a break. I've had irreconcilable differences with my wife for 52 years. She's you're applauding?
Okay. Thank you. She's very neat, I'm pretty messy.
Sometimes she's late, I try to be punctual. She's cute, I'm fat. It's irreconcilable. It's irreconcilable. But the point and we would break up.
We'd get married and not married. We would be boyfriend and girlfriend. Then we'd break up. Then we would get back together and break up. We did that three times.
It became an annual event. And then I realized this is the girl for me. This is the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with. And so I finally proposed to her.
Okay. God is his perfect timing. And you want to look for that right person, and you want to find a godly person. The Bible says, charm is deceptive, beauty does not last, but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. There's nothing more beautiful.
Than a woman who fears the Lord. Her beauty only grows with the passing of time, it's not diminished. All the plastic surgery in the world cannot replicate that. Because that's an inner beauty. And so many focus only on the outward, look at the inward.
And then, also, for a man, you want to look for a man who loves God, who puts Christ first. I don't know how this worked in my favor, and it's reflected in that scene from the movie that they lifted from our life. But I actually said to Kathy when we were dating: if you ever get in the way of my relationship with God, it's over. I don't know if I would recommend that to say to a girl, but she said, I really like that when you said that to me. Because all the other guys, you know, said something.
What do you mean, all the other guys? You're 14 years old. What do you? She was 14 and I was 17 when we met.
Well, all the other guys are wishy-washy. I was looking for a guy that knew what he wanted in life. He knew what he was looking for.
So maybe you want to use that line. But the point is, wait on God's perfect timing. Back to our story. Here's Jairus and Jesus headed back to his sick daughter. This woman appears.
Jesus stops because she realized, she reckons that if she could touch the hem of his garment, she would be healed. I don't know what she bases on. He never said anything like that. He didn't say, if you touch my clothing, you'll be healed. There's no instance of that happening before.
Now, he had performed a number of miracles up to this point. He had already calmed the storm. He had cast a demon out of a man. He had even raised a person from the dead. But this lady, with this amazing faith that she had, felt if she could just touch him, she would be healed.
So as he's walking through the crowd, she manages to reach through and just touch the very fringe of his robe. And immediately the healing power of God just goes right through her body. And Jesus stops and he says, who touched me? The disciples are like, what do you mean, who touched you? Everybody touched you.
Who didn't touch you? He says, No, I perceive that healing power has gone out of me. The crowd probably parted, and she's just there. She thought I'm in trouble. She wasn't in trouble.
The opposite. Jesus wanted to commend her. Jesus wanted to compliment her. And I love what he said to her. He says, daughter.
Daughter, you have been made whole. He calls her a daughter. I think because of her isolation, because of her. Medical problem being isolated from others, this must have been really reassuring.
So she. Was touched by Jesus.
Sometimes we might say, Well, I wish I could reach out and touch Jesus. I wish He would touch me.
Well, reach out to Him, touch Him in prayer. Touch him through worship. The Bible says, Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
So here's this beautiful scene. Yes, it's an interruption. But Jairus is rolling with it. He's thinking, it'll be fine. Jesus will come to my home and still heal my daughter.
And then he hears the worst news imaginable. Go back to Luke chapter 8. Look at verse 49. While he was still speaking to her, A messenger arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. He told him, Your daughter is dead.
There's no need in troubling the teacher now. And when Jesus heard what had happened, he said to Jairus, Don't be afraid, just have faith. and she will be healed. Wow. What a devastating statement.
I think that the world stopped. for Jairus at that moment to hear that. I know what that's like. when I heard the news that our son had died. It's incomprehensible.
You can't even imagine such a thing.
Some of that so much a part of your life to suddenly have them gone. You didn't have the final conversation. You were never able to say goodbye. And it's just so devastating. And I bring this up because.
There are many people that I've met who have lost children. I'm surprised sometimes by how many people I've met who are Christians who've lost children. And they say, when I talk about this, it's very helpful to them. And I bring it up because I want to help them, but I also want to help other people help them. Because sometimes you don't know what to say to someone who has lost a child.
And you end up saying the wrong thing. You say something like, Well, do you have other children? He has okay.
Well, at least you have your other children. Yeah, but. They lost that child. People will even say crazy things like, and believe it or not, I've heard this. Oh, I know what you're going through.
My grandmother died.
Now, I'm sorry your grandmother died, but we know that folks who are older than us are going to die eventually. It's outside of the natural order for a child to die. I've even heard of people coming up and saying, I know what you're going through. Our dog just died. You know, people don't know what to say.
I've heard people say, well, God picks his best flowers first. That's cute. Do you see that in Pinterest somewhere? This was not a flower.
Well, they're an angel now. The Lord needed more angels in heaven. People don't become angels. Here's the best thing you can say. I'm so sorry.
I'll be praying for you, literally. I'm so sorry. I'll be praying for you. Or you might even say there are no words. And that might go further than you think it will go.
When I talk to people who've lost children or loved ones in general, I don't try to fix it through a sermon. I just listen and I pray for them. And I reassured them, and hopefully, that child knew the Lord, and they know the Lord. and I encourage them that they'll see their child again. Listen to the words of Jesus.
Don't be afraid. Just have faith.
Now Jairus had a choice. What voice is he going to listen to? The voice of the person who gave him this dreadful news, or the voice of Jesus. And we too have a lot of voices that speak into our lives. You know, I remember when I was 12, it's hard to believe, I was 12 once.
And I was in school. And I read my report card. Here's what I looked like when I was 12. I found a picture. Not this.
This.
Okay, there you go. Kind of cute. Here's another picture. Whereas a little bit older, no, that's my son, Christopher. There.
Oh, they don't have the other picture.
Okay, well, we'll come back to Christopher in a moment. But so I just 12-year-old kid, and I was getting into a lot of trouble. uh with my teachers. And I was very disrespectful and I constantly disrupted class. And so one teacher wrote this in my report card: Craig has poor study habits.
Much of his classroom time is wasted drawing cartoons. Unless he experiences a change in his attitude, school will become increasingly difficult in the days to come. And that was true. School did become increasingly difficult. And so you'll hear voices in life.
I'm talking now to you who are younger, and they'll say things like: you're not smart enough. You're not pretty enough. You're not good enough. You'll never measure up. And I want you to know that you have a choice as to what voices you're gonna listen to in life.
And I encourage you to listen to the voice of God. Because here's what God says to you: Fear not, for I am with you, I will strengthen you. in Isaiah 41. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid, says Jesus in John 14. I will never leave you or forsake you, says Jesus in Hebrews 13.
And then the Lord says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11.
So God has something different to say to you. You choose what voice you're going to listen to in life. What voice are you listening to right now? Are you listening to the voice of social media, the voice of culture, the voices of friends that want to take you the wrong way in life? Or are you going to listen to the voice of God?
Make a choice. Because you make your choice and then your choice will make you. I encourage you to listen to God's voice. You say, well, how do I hear God's voice? By opening God's Word.
This is where you will hear the voice of God, and He will speak to you through passages of scripture that will jump off the page and apply to what you're facing in life. But that's not going to happen unless you open this book up. and you open this book up in the morning and you open it up in the afternoon and you open it up in the evening. Imagine if we checked our Bible as often as we check our cell phone. Imagine the difference it would make in our life.
So he had to decide what voice he was going to listen to. He chose to listen to the voice of Jesus.
So now Jairus and Jesus come to us home, and there are people mourning.
Now these people who are mourning are like professional Mourners. In other words, you hire them to come, play their little musical instruments, and lament over whoever it is that died. Where do you find such people? Mourners are us, I don't know. They weren't sincere.
They probably didn't even know the person who was deceased, but they're there creating this environment of mourning. And here's how the scene unfolds: Luke chapter 8, verse 51. When they arrived at the house, Jesus wouldn't let anyone go in with him except Peter, James, and John, and the little girl's father and mother. The house was filled with people weeping and wailing. And he said, stop the weeping.
She isn't dead. She's only asleep. And the crowd laughed at him. That shows how insincere their mourning was. The crowd laughed at him because they knew she had died.
And then Jesus took her by the hand and said in a loud voice, my child, get up. Or, as another translation puts it, and I love this. Little lamb. Arise. In that moment, the life returned, and she immediately stood up.
And then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. How practical is that? Did you know that God cares about your afterlife and He cares about this life? Your health. Your food?
A roof over your head, a mate. A family, a career, all these things. The Bible says God richly provides us with everything to enjoy. And Jesus said, your father knows you need these things. In the Lord's Prayer, he taught us to pray, give us this day our daily bread.
But first, this little girl had to come back from the death, and he calls her back. And you know, before we're Christians, we're all dead. We're dead men walking, dead women walking, dead in trespass, in sin. But the Bible says in John 5:24, Jesus speaking, I tell you the truth. Those who listen to my message and believe in God have eternal life and they pass from death to life.
What a miracle! I wish he raised my son from the dead. Of course that did not happen. But one day he will. Because every believer who has died Who is lain in a grave right now and their soul is in heaven?
They will be resurrected again. It's called the first resurrection, and it happens at what is sometimes called the rapture of the church. And it's spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 4 when it says, the dead in Christ shall rise first. And we, which are alive and remaining, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
You're going to know, wait, I'm confused. What do you mean the dead in Christ rise first? I thought they were already in heaven. Their soul is in heaven. When a Christian dies, they go into the presence of God.
Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But the body is still in the grave, isn't it? But the Bible promises a bodily resurrection. Just as Christ rose again from the dead, our bodies will be raised again, and we will have a new resurrected body. This is the promise of Scripture.
And one day I know I'll see my son again because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So we'll all live again with this hope that we have in Christ. And that's why we need Jesus. We need Jesus for this life. And we need Jesus for the afterlife. There's no time in your existence on earth that you do not desperately need Jesus.
And if you don't see that, You need to change your focus because you need him. But he loves you and he's there for you. And if you'll reach out and touch him like this woman did, he will respond to you in the same way. This little girl needed Jesus. Her father needed Jesus, as did the woman with the physical problem.
And when everything else fails you, he'll be there for you. Your parents may fail you. Your children may fail you. Your plan may fail you. Even your dog will fail you.
Again, cats don't care. They never cared about you. But Jesus will never fail you, and He'll be there for you because only Jesus can forgive you of your sin. Only Jesus can give you the meaning and purpose of life. Only Jesus can fill that deep void in your life.
And that's why you need to reach out to Him because everybody needs Jesus. Earlier, amen. Earlier I mentioned, would you feel comfortable inviting Jesus over to your home? The fact is he is Standing at the door of your life and knocking. He says, Revelation 3.20, Behold, I stand at the door and I knock.
And if you'll hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. I love that picture. Standing at a door and knocking.
So I have a choice if someone is standing at my door, I can open the door and invite them in, or I can leave the door closed and ignore them.
So here is Christ wanting to come into our life and all that He is waiting for is for you to open the door. He doesn't say, Behold, I stand at the door and knock and if you don't open it, I'm kicking the door in. Or, nor does he say, I stand at the door and knock, and if you don't open it, I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow the door down like the big bad wolf, right? No, no, no. He's a gentleman.
He waits for your permission. He doesn't force his way into anybody's life, and he won't force his way into your life. Only you can open the door of your heart. Only you can say yes to Jesus. And I want to close now with a prayer.
And give you an opportunity to ask for his forgiveness so you can walk out of here with your eternal address changed, knowing that you'll go to heaven instead of hell. And you can come to life instead of living in a state of spiritual death. If you need Jesus, respond to this invitation now as we pray. Let's all pray. Father, we thank you for your word to us and your love for us.
And we thank you for the promise of Jesus, who died on the cross for our sin and rose again from the dead. We want to invite him into our life now. And I pray for any person here that is hearing this for the first time. Any person that does not know that they'll go to heaven when they die, let this be the moment they believe. Let this be the moment they come to you now.
And while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying, If you would like Jesus to come into your life, If you would like him to forgive you of your sin, If you would like to know that when you die, you will go to heaven. If you want to find the meaning and purpose of your life, wherever you are, I want you to lift your hand up and I'm going to pray for you. Lift your hand up and let me pray for you today. And lifting your hand, you're saying, I need Jesus. Pray for me.
God bless you. Raise it up where I can see it. Let me pray for you right now. God bless you and you and you. Anybody else?
Let me pray for you. This is your moment where everything can change. God bless you as well. And God bless you too. You that have your hand lifted up, I want you to pray this prayer after me.
In fact, you can even pray it out loud. Just pray this out loud, Lord Jesus. I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior. who died on the cross for my sin. I turn from that sin now.
And I choose to follow you. from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer. in answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen. God bless each one of you. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org.
And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on know God. Mm.
