A New Kind of Family

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast.

Hey everybody, welcome back to Harvest at Home. We're back in our series in the Gospel of Mark, which we're calling the Gospel for Busy People, and the title of my message is A New Kind of Family, from Mark chapter three. But let's pray together. Now Lord, we ask you to speak to our hearts as we open your word. You've called us to be a part of your forever family, and what a privilege that is. Help us to understand what that means, so we commit this time of Bible study to you now.

In Jesus' name, amen. Again, the title of my message is A New Kind of Family. Family. Well, we all have a family of some kind. Some families are big and loud.

Some families are small and quiet. Pretty much every family is, I would say, generally dysfunctional. If your family's a bit weird, welcome to the club. We all have strange uncles and weird cousins. Did it ever occur to you that you're the weird cousin, or you're the strange uncle in your family?

You probably are. Every family has its form of dysfunction. I came from a dysfunctional family. Now I'm the head of a dysfunctional family. It was comedian George Burns who once said, and I quote, happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city, end quote. So you can probably relate to that.

Guess what? Jesus had a family too. He had a mother named Mary and a father named God top that. Jesus also had brothers and sisters, and Jesus had a childhood.

A mysterious childhood, no doubt. After all, there's never been a man who has ever walked the earth that was fully God and fully man. He was not a man becoming God.

That's impossible. He was God who became a man. God came near. Jesus was God with skin on. Jesus was God walking among us.

God had a face. And here in the Gospel of Mark, we see him beginning his public ministry. You know, the ministry of Christ lasted around three and a half years, but yet he lived 30 years before that, 33 years total. So what was he doing for the first 30 years of his life? Why didn't he have a 15-year ministry?

Why only a basically three-year ministry? Answer, because Jesus was out living our life. He was breathing our air.

He was experiencing our pressures. He was facing our temptations, and ultimately, he would die our death. I know it's hard for us to wrap our mind around the fact that God became an embryo, that God came among us as a helpless little baby born in a manger that needed to be cared for and nurtured and nursed like any other little baby. But that's exactly what happened in what we call the Nativity. When he was in that manger, he cried like any other baby, and he grew up like any other child. It's not like he was in the manger with the ability to speak, hello, Mary, Joseph, I'm Jesus, I'm here on a mission. No, he was just a little baby that grew up like any other baby and grew physically and grew in every other way. In fact, Luke 2 52 says he grew in height and wisdom and was loved by God and by all who knew him. So he had the privileges of deity that he laid aside as he walked among us as a man. He never ceased to be God, but he walked among us as a human being. He never sinned once. Not only did he never sin, but he never even had a thought out of harmony with the will of his father in heaven. Jesus said, I always do the things that please him.

Who could say that? But Christ himself, he always did the things that please the father. And I would think he was the model child. I mean, if Joseph asked Jesus to go do some work in the carpenter shop, I doubt he would get a complaint. If Mary asked Jesus to clear the table, I'm sure he did it cheerfully.

I'm confident that when they went down to the synagogue to worship, Jesus totally engaged. I know he loved to hear the word of God. I know that he was the perfect child. In fact, we know that his siblings were probably challenged by that. Can you imagine a Mary saying to the brothers and sisters of Jesus, kids, why can't you be more like your older brother, Jesus? They might say, Mommy, he's like perfect, actually. Well, he was indeed perfect.

He was the perfect son. Well, now he's beginning his public ministry as recorded in the Gospel of Mark. And remember, Mark is a gospel of action.

The word immediately is used over and over again. Jesus is on the move. Jesus is healing people. Jesus is delivering people from demonic possession. Jesus is forgiving sins. And he has been confirmed by his father at the baptism when the father says of Jesus, this is my beloved son in who I am well pleased. And the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus in the form of a dove. So question, how does the biological family of Jesus respond to all of this? How does Mary respond?

How do the other siblings respond? That brings us to our text, Mark chapter three, verse 20 to verse 21. What? He's doing all these miracles.

He's busy doing the work of the father and his family shows up and they want to take him back home because they say he's out of his mind. This brings us to point number one. The hardest people to reach with the gospel are those who are closest to you. The hardest people to reach with the gospel are your parents or your children or your husband or your wife or your brothers or your sisters.

Now, this was especially true in the hometown of Jesus where we read that he could do no mighty works there because of unbelief and Jesus himself said a prophet is not without honor except in his own country. So be patient with your family. You may think because I'm a preacher that all of my family believed immediately. The fact of the matter is, is my mom was not responsive to me when I first came to Christ. Now, I have to admit I probably was a bit on the overkill side and I hit her with both barrels of my gospel gun telling her she needed to repent of her sins, but it took not just years. It took decades from my mother to come around and believe in Jesus Christ. And in fact, she did not really come to believe in him until the end of her life and the same was true of her husband, Bill, who I tried to reach with the gospel. I didn't really reach him until the very end of his life. So again, the hardest people to reach are those in your family.

Let me say a word to you if you're married to a non-believer, especially if you're a woman and maybe you came to Christ and your husband has not come to Christ yet. And you're saying, how do I reach him? I'll preach a sermon to him every day. I'll put little gospel tracts in his sandwiches and when he has lunch, he'll bite into them and that'll reach him. No, actually what you need to do is probably not give him any more sermons.

You need to just live it. 1 Peter 3 talks about the way to reach a non-believing person is not by your words, but by living the word. As one translation puts it, the silent preaching of a lovely wife. So there comes a point where they don't need more sermons.

You need to see it demonstrated. But now as our story progresses, we see the family of Jesus showing up again. Now I'm not sure what happened to bring this event about, but they let him know that they were there and maybe they wanted special attention or a better seat in the house or whatever it was. But word came to Jesus, your family are here to visit with you. And we read in Mark chapter three, verse 31, Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them. And there was a crowd sitting around Jesus and someone said, your mother and brothers are outside asking for you.

Listen to this response of Christ. Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?

Then he looked at those who are around him and he said, this is my mother. These are my brothers and sisters. In fact, anyone who does the will of my father is my brother and sister and mother. Bringing us to point number two, when we become Christians, we're placed in a new family.

Jesus could have elevated his mother at that point or even his siblings, but he's saying, hey, who is my mother? Who are my brothers and sisters? Those that do the will of God, reminding us that when you become a Christian, you become a part of a new family. Now that doesn't mean you're not still part of your biological family, but sometimes the bond between Christians can be closer than what we call the blood bond. We say that we're related by blood, but when we become followers of Jesus, are we not also related by blood?

The blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the cross for all of our sins. Bringing me to point number three, Jesus now establishes his new family of disciples. So we're going to read a list of the men that he used to change the world. Some are familiar names, others not as familiar. But as we look at these people, we see they had such diverse personalities. We see these people because we recognize them. They're probably like relatives.

We already have an eclectic bunch, no doubt about it. But these are the ones that Jesus called. Recently I watched an old movie from my childhood. It was called The Dirty Dozen. Ever see that movie? Starring Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson and others.

It's a story of this military guy that goes to a prison and recruits a bunch of guys, some headed for death and others who would spend the rest of their lives in prison. And he recruits them for a special mission. So they were called The Dirty Dozen. I'm not suggesting that the 12 apostles were The Dirty Dozen, but I am suggesting they were very ordinary individuals.

We might call them questionable hires, but each one was hand selected by Jesus and they could not be more different from one another. We read about them in Mark chapter 3 verse 16. Now he appointed Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

To them he gave the name Boagenes, which means sons of thunder. There was Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed them. So right at the top of the list, a very familiar name, Simon Peter. Apart from Jesus himself, no other name is mentioned in the New Testament more than Simon Peter.

He was a central figure of Jesus' three years of ministry and also for the first three years of the early church. And Jesus spent more time with Peter than anybody else. Another thing I would point out, no other person speaks as often or is spoken to as often as Simon Peter. I might also add, no other disciple is reproved and corrected as often as Simon Peter was. See, what distinguished Peter from others is he would just say what he was thinking. You know how you have inside thoughts and outside thoughts and you veto a lot of things you think about and don't say them. Peter seemed to just blurt out whatever he was thinking. You always knew where you stood with a big fisherman. I think he always meant well.

He just didn't think things through. So if we were to compare this to a family reunion, Peter's sort of like your lovable, loud uncle who will hold court, you know, after the meal telling great stories and entertaining everybody. That was Peter, very outspoken. And on one occasion, he made this amazing statement to Jesus. He said in Matthew 19, 27 to Christ, Lord, we've left everything to follow you. What then will there be there for us? In other words, he's saying, hey, Lord, we've given up everything to follow you.

What's in it for us? I mean, what a thing to just blurt out. But that was Peter.

He thought it, so he thought I'm just going to say it. One of the most familiar statements of Peter speaking is when Jesus was transfigured. He took Peter, James, and John with him. And by the way, we often think the reason that he took those individuals with him is because they were the more elite apostles. After all, he took Peter, James, and John with him into the Garden of Gethsemane. He took Peter, James, and John with him when he went to raise the daughter of Jairus. And he took Peter, James, and John with him to the moment of transfiguration. I have a different theory. I think the reason he may have taken them with him more often than the others is because he wanted to keep his eye on them.

When I was in school, I was always disrupting class. And on more than one occasion, the teacher would say, Greg Laurie, I want you to pull your desk up right next to mine so I can keep an eye on you. Maybe that's why Jesus kept Peter, James, and John closer to him. Well anyway, here are Peter, James, and John.

They fall asleep and they wake up and what do they see? Picture this. Here's Jesus Christ shining like the sun. On one side of him is Moses. On the other side of him is Elijah.

And they're having a conversation. Now this is what we would call a holy moment. This is one of those times where you say nothing. You just take it in.

You just observe it. But Peter thought it would be a good moment to say a few words. So he says out loud, it's good we are here. Let's build three tents. One for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. And one of the gospel tells us this he said because he did not know what to say.

Hey, here's a thought. When you don't know what to say, don't say anything. There's an old proverb. It's not a biblical one, but it has some truth in it. Which basically says, when you don't know what to say, don't say anything.

Because it's better to be thoughtful than to open your mouth and dispel all doubt. Well Peter blurted that out. You almost wonder if Moses turned to Jesus and said, Who is that guy?

Is he with you? Yeah, it's Simon Peter. He gets a little excited, you know.

It's good we are here. Peter blurts out. On another occasion, Jesus revealed to Peter the fact that he was going to be martyred for his faith. Peter immediately pivots over to John and says, Well, what about this man? In other words, okay, I'm going to be martyred.

I'm not sure I'm really excited about that. What about him? And Jesus gives an amazing response. He says, If I choose to keep him alive until I return, what is that to you?

As for you, follow me. Am I speaking to somebody right now that has just wondered why their life has gone the way it's gone? Maybe you've looked at somebody else's life and you've said, Lord, why are they being blessed more than I'm being blessed? Or why did this tragedy befall me?

Or why are these things happening? And here's the response of Christ to you. What is that to you? You just follow me. Listen, Peter was not only inquisitive, he had initiative. On one occasion, Jesus said, Who do men say that I am? And Peter says, Well, they say a lot of things, but I'll tell you who I think you are.

And Jesus said, Okay, go ahead. He says, I think you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus says, Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, Peter, but my Father who is in heaven. And then he says, Your name is Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. Not on Peter, of course, but on the statement that Peter made. You're the Christ, the Son of the living God. The church does not build on the foundation of Simon Peter.

God help us if it is. The church is built on Christ himself, the chief cornerstone, but Peter got it right. And then Jesus went on to talk about the fact that he was going to be betrayed and crucified. And Peter begins to rebuke Jesus right to his face.

He rebukes him saying, Be that far from you, Lord. And Jesus said, Get behind me, Satan, for you do not understand the things of God. So on one hand, Peter was being led by the Father in what he said. And on the other hand, the devil got in the details, and he made that statement discouraging Christ from going to the crucifixion.

Flawed character, yes. According to church tradition, Peter did die the death of a martyr. And according to church tradition, Peter was crucified upside down, but he was faithful to the end. Oh, sure, he denied the Lord, but he was there with Jesus in the last hours of his earthly ministry along with the Apostle John.

And though he had his lapse and his setback, he also had his mega comeback when Jesus recommissioned him again. Yeah, he was part of God's family. Then we have Andrew, the brother of Peter.

They couldn't be any more different. If Peter was like your loud uncle at the family reunion, Andrew's like the quiet cousin. While Peter's talking, Andrew's clearing the table and working behind the scenes. In fact, it was actually Andrew who brought his brother, Peter, to Jesus. In John 1.41, we read, the first thing Andrew did after he realized that Jesus was the Messiah was he brought his brother, Peter. And he said to him, we found the Messiah, and he brought him to Jesus. And that's what Andrew was always doing, bringing people to Jesus. And what a great thing to be known for, bringing people to Jesus.

You remember the story of the feeding of the 5,000, and the people were hungry, and they didn't know what to do. And Andrew went and found a little boy with some loaves and fishes, and he brought him to Jesus. And you know, we give a lot of attention to the Simon Peters of the world, but we must not forget the fact that there are also the Andrews. Remember, if there were no Andrews, there would be no Simon Peters, people that work faithfully and quietly behind the scenes. So we've got Peter, the loud one, we've got Andrew, the quiet one, and now we have James and John, the fiery ones. If Peter's like your loud uncle, and Andrew's your quiet cousin, these are the brothers who were always arguing. You know, they're at the family reunion. And they turn everything into a big debate, and they get very upset about things.

These are the kind of people that, when they post on social media, it's all in caps, right? They're always fired up about something, and that is a good description of James and John. They're described as the sons of thunder for good reason. They had fiery temperaments. On one occasion, the disciples went into a village of Samaria, and the people were not responsive.

They were not hospitable. So James and John come to Jesus, and they said, Lord, shall we call fire down from heaven on these people like Elijah did? Jesus was like, wait, what? Call fire down from heaven? And then he had to remind them what his mission was.

He says, guys, you don't know what kind of spirit you're of. The Son of Man did not come to destroy people. He came to save them. So he's saying, guys, I didn't come to toast people. I came to forgive people.

Capisce, I mean, give me a break. But these guys were very full of fire and passion. And so they were upset that people were not responsive to what Jesus had to say. They can also be very insensitive because Jesus talked about his impending crucifixion with them on one occasion. And he says the Son of Man is going to be betrayed, and he's going to be condemned to death. And they will flog him and kill him. And three days later, he'll rise again. I mean, imagine hearing Jesus say that.

That's heavy stuff. You would just sit in stunned silence. You wouldn't know what to say.

Well, not the sons of thunder. They had plenty to say. Because then they blurred out, well, we were wondering if you would do whatever we want you to do.

Wait, what? Jesus just got done saying that he's going to die? And they say, oh, yeah, interesting.

What can you do for us? That would be like somebody saying to you, well, I just found out I'm very sick and I'm dying and I only have a few weeks to live. And then you respond, yeah, so what are you going to do with that car you just bought?

Could I have it? So the conversation continues on. We want you to do whatever we ask you to do. And so Jesus says, okay, I'll bite.

Well, what do you want me to do? We would like to sit on your right and left hand in glory. Well, they should be thankful Jesus did not answer that prayer. Because what happened shortly after this? Jesus went and was crucified. And who was on his right and left hand? Two criminals who were crucified next to him. See, if he would have answered their prayer, they would have been the ones on the crosses on each side of Jesus.

So thank God for unanswered prayers, right? So we've got the loud one, Simon Peter. We've got the quiet one, Andrew.

We've got the fired up ones, James and John, the sons of thunder. Now we have the skeptical one, and that, of course, is Thomas. When you're at a family reunion, you know, everybody sees things a certain way. And Thomas is like that relative who will say, well, I see it completely differently than the rest of you.

That's just his nature. He was a guy who thought for himself. Of course, we remember Thomas because he did miss the resurrected Christ. After Jesus was crucified, he rose again and he appeared to the disciples in the upper room. And they told Thomas, hey, man, you should have been there last night. Guess who showed up?

Yahoo, Thomas says. Jesus, he appeared to us, all right, yeah. Thomas says, I'll believe that when I can put my hand in the prince of the nails and put my finger into his side. Well, the next time they got together for a meeting, Thomas was there.

And guess who shows up? Jesus. Well, Thomas, seeing the risen Christ, just said, my Lord and my God, and he believed on the spot.

See, we call him Downing Thomas. I don't think he was a doubter. I think he was a skeptic.

And he wanted what everybody else had. He wanted to see and know for himself. And by the way, you don't have to live off somebody else's faith. It's okay for you to say to the Lord, make yourself real to me. Help me with my doubts.

Help me with my questions. I certainly did that when I was a brand new believer. I was filled with skepticism. And I said to Jesus, if you're real, you're gonna have to make yourself known to me.

Because I have a hard time believing some of these things for myself. And you know what? He did and he does. And he'll do the same for you.

Yeah, Thomas, if he didn't understand something, would talk about it out loud. One occasion in John chapter 14, Jesus said, at my father's house or many mansions that were not so, he would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. And where you go, you know, and the way you know. I think all the disciples were probably nodding in unison and agreement. Yeah, that's deep.

That is really true. And it's Thomas who says, excuse me. I don't know if he raises his hand, but I have a question. Yes, Thomas. We don't know where you're going and we don't know the way.

I like that. He was honest. And what does Jesus say? He doesn't rebuke him. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the father but by me. Listen, skepticism is not a sign that a person is wrong.

It may be a sign that he is thinking. You may have children who are pushing back on the way you've raised them in your Christian home. They have their own questions.

Hey, Mom, how can I know the Bible is the word of God? Hey, Dad, I'm grappling with this question. You're thinking, oh, what have we done?

We failed our kids. No, they're thinking for themselves. They're like Thomas.

So help them work through those things and help them develop their own faith. Now, I wish I had time to go into all the others that are on our list, but there's one last name that I want to end with and that would be Judas Iscariot. So Peter's like your loud uncle. Andrew's the working behind the scenes guy.

James and John are always fired up about something. Thomas is a skeptical one. Who's Judas? He's not the evil guy you may think. You know, when we see movies about Jesus or religious art depicting the disciples, you can always figure out who Judas is because he looks so treacherous. He's always hiding over in the shadows. If all the other disciples were wearing white robes, he's got a black robe, a black leather robe with a collar turned up, wearing sunglasses, right?

Not really, but you get the idea. Oh, that's Judas. That is not the way Judas appeared.

He appeared as the most virtuous of the lot. Judas is sort of like your self-righteous relative who's always moralizing, judging, and putting others down. And one day you find out he is the biggest hypocrite of them all. Judas is the literal definition of a hypocrite. Now I don't think we even know what the word hypocrite means.

We throw it around a lot. We say someone who claims to be a Christian and slips up, that's hypocrisy. That's not hypocrisy, that's humanity.

Every one of us is followers of Jesus, mess up, we make mistakes, we say the wrong thing, we do the wrong thing, hopefully we own it and admit it. That's not a hypocrite. A hypocrite literally defined as an actor. It's a performer.

It's a person who is pretending to be something they are not. And that was Judas. He appeared to be the most virtuous guy of all when in reality he was the most wicked.

Here's a perfect example. All the disciples were gathered together for a meal. And we read how Mary began to wipe the feet of Jesus with some very expensive perfume and the fragrance filled the air. So this perfume that she wiped his feet with because she was given an insight into the fact that Christ was gonna go suffer and die on the cross. She wanted to do something extravagant, something next level, something to demonstrate to Jesus how much she loved him.

So this was probably a family heirloom worth thousands and thousands of dollars. So she's anointing the feet of Jesus with this beautiful, fragrant perfume. And Judas says that perfume is worth a small fortune.

It could have been sold and the money given to the poor. The other disciples probably nodded in unison and said, you know, that's true, Judas. And Mary, I don't know if that was a good stewardship to waste that perfume in the feet of Jesus. But then we're given this little detail in the Gospel of John in John 12 six. Judas said that not because he cared for the poor. He said it because he was a thief and he was in charge of the disciples' funds and he took some for his own use.

Wow. So at the moment he appeared to be the most virtuous, he was actually the most wicked. And it's this greed for money that destroyed the life of Judas Iscariot. Let's not forget, he sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. And how did he betray Christ? With a handshake? With a pat on the back?

Oh no, you know the answer. He betrayed him with a kiss. He told the religious rulers, the one that I kiss, he's the one you're looking for. So there in the Garden of Gethsemane, here's Jesus and Judas approaches him and kisses him. And in the original language it's implied he kissed him over and over again, not just a peck on the cheek. He kissed him like, oh, I love you so much, Jesus. But he was just identifying Christ so he could be arrested. He was the worst kind of hypocrite out there.

But you want to know something amazing? He could have been forgiven. Jesus knew Judas would betray him. Jesus knew Judas would abandon him, but Jesus offered to Judas an opportunity to repent. When the disciples gathered together in the upper room for what would become Last Supper, we read that Jesus washed the disciples' feet. Now, that doesn't make a lot of sense to us, but back in these days when you would go visit a person's house, the servant in the home would wash your feet. So Jesus was taking the role of a servant. He washed their feet and he came to the feet of Judas Iscariot to wash them. If I was Jesus, I would not have washed the feet of Judas. I would have broken the feet of Judas, but the Lord even washed his feet. And then he identified Judas as the betrayer and then he said to Judas, whatever you do, go and do it quickly. And we read that Satan filled the heart of Judas.

So he was not some helpless pawn, no. He made a deliberate decision to betray Jesus. But even there in the Garden of Gethsemane, as Judas approached, we read Jesus said to him, friend, why have you come? If Judas had repented of his sin, Jesus would have forgiven him even there. But he was never part of God's family.

He could have been, but he was a wicked man. Listen, we can all be a part of God's family. You say, how do you do that? Well, you're born into the family of God. Oh, you're saying you have to be raised in a Christian home?

No, not at all. You need to be born again into the family of God. Jesus said, you must be born again. So when you turn from your sin and you ask God to forgive you, you become a part of God's family. The Bible says for as many as received him, he gave them the power to become sons of God.

So you can be in this incredible family of God no matter what you've done. Maybe you relate to one of the people I've talked about in this message. Maybe you're like Simon Peter and you walk with the Lord for a time, but you messed up and you failed and you sinned. And in the case of Peter, he denied three times that he knew Jesus, but he was forgiven.

Or maybe you're like Thomas. You believe, but you've had your doubts. Or you're like some of the others who have had setbacks, but Jesus loved every one of these men.

He loved every one of these women that followed him and he loves you. And if you're part of his family, he wants to maintain fellowship with you. You know, when we're sinning against God, we don't break off relationship. We break off fellowship.

You're still in the family. You're just not communicating. And it's because we've broken communication down by our sin, but the Bible says that we'll confess our sin.

He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness and communication can be restored. Maybe I'm talking to somebody right now that wants to join God's family. Somebody right now that maybe doesn't have a family to speak of. Now, I mentioned that we all have a family. I had a pretty dysfunctional family growing up. My mother was married and divorced seven times and was a raging alcoholic.

I never had a father. I had a very unstable upbringing, but when I became a Christian, I joined God's family. And suddenly I found brothers and sisters I did not know that I had that were fellow believers in Jesus Christ and God can do the same for you. Last weekend for Harvest at Home, someone watched the service and they wrote me this little note and I'm reading it now. She says, I just watched your message on Harvest and it brought me tears of joy.

I needed to hear what you said. You answered all of my questions and it brought me so much peace and so much love. And it brought me so much peace because I prayed that prayer and I'm looking forward to heaven when that day comes.

Thank you for sharing that today. Praise Jesus. She says, when I prayed that prayer, what prayer? The same prayer that I'm gonna lead you in right now. A prayer where you will say to God you're sorry for your sin and you want Christ to come into your life and you wanna become a part of God's family. If you don't know right now your sin is forgiven.

If you don't know with certainty right now that you'll go to heaven when you die. If you're not sure if you're in the family of God you can join our family right here, right now, wherever you are and I'll lead you in a simple prayer. I've mentioned multiple times that Jesus went to that cross and died for our sin. Three days later he rose again from the dead and now he stands at the door of your life and he knocks and he says if you'll hear his voice and open the door he will come in. So listen, if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you wanna join God's forever family or if you failed and you wanna recommit your life to the Lord, I'll lead you in a simple prayer where Christ comes to live inside of you. If you want Christ to come into your life and you want him to forgive you of your sin pray this prayer after me. In fact, you could pray it out loud right now if you like. Just pray these words. 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 and rose again from the dead. Now I put my faith in you and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.