What to Do When the Bottom Drops Out | Sunday Message

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. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

We'll be right back. Fear is a powerful emotion, isn't it? Yet we will pay good money to be frightened.

Right? We go to a movie and we want to get scared. And ironically, when the scariest scene of the film comes on the screen, we cover our eyes.

It's like, take your hands down and look, you paid for this. How many of you have seen the film Jaws? You've seen Jaws, yeah, okay. So remember the scene where the guy is eaten by the shark, the captain? I remember when I saw that the first time. I was horrified. Look, the shark is eating him. It was like traumatic to me. Now I've seen that movie since then and it's like, that is the cheesiest scene I've ever seen.

That shark is so fake looking, but I'm like, oh no, it's, you know. But we pay money to be frightened or we go to an amusement park and get in that crazy roller coaster because we want to experience fear. But sometimes fear grips us in life. It can take you over.

And it can warp how you see everything, including God himself. One person defined fear this way with an acronym, F-E-A-R. F for false evidence appearing real. Fear, false evidence appearing real. It's not even a rational thing, but you are gripped by fear. That's what it is.

It's not even a rational thing, but you are gripped by fear. That's what was happening for David. Now this is a really courageous young man, too. This is the David who wrote Psalm 27, which says, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom then shall I be afraid?

So the answer is nobody because the Lord is your light and salvation. But David was a guy just like you and me. He took his eyes off of the Lord and now he's gripped by fear. Why was Saul afraid of David? Listen to this. The very people who are out to get us are often the ones who are afraid of us.

Let me say that again. The very people that are out to get us are often the ones who are afraid of us. And why are they afraid?

Because we're a threat to them and their power. Sometimes it's a close friend. Sometimes it's a co-worker.

Sometimes it's someone else who is angry and jealous that you got the raise. You got the promotion. You got the opportunity. You got the girl.

You got the guy. Whatever it might be, they don't like that. So suddenly this person that you were so close to turns on you. They lie about you. They try to undermine you.

They try to bring you down. Of course this happened to Daniel, the great prophet of God. A loving, caring man but his co-counselors who were advising the king, King Darius at that time historically, didn't like Daniel.

Why? Because he was more effective and successful than they were. So they hatched a plot to destroy him that ultimately failed and they ended up having to face the penalty they prepared for Daniel being eaten alive by lions. But, you know, I think David was probably thinking, you know, I kind of liked it better when I was watching the flock of sheep. I mean at least then I knew who my enemies were.

Oh, it's that bear here or that lion over there. I'm going to protect my little flock and he did. But now he doesn't know who his friend is. He doesn't know who his enemy is. He's entered into the world of political intrigue, right?

So he's trying to sort it out. He's just a kid who was living out in the field watching sheep. And then he killed that giant and all of this started happening. God was removing everything David had depended on humanly, starting with his family.

He never had the support of his father. When the prophet Samuel showed up and said, one of your sons is going to be the next king of Israel, Jesse proudly paraded his seven sons. The magnificent seven, there they were. And the most outstanding of them was Eliab, who was taller than the other brothers. And even the prophet Samuel thought, this is the guy.

I mean he just looks like a king. The Lord says, no, none of these guys are the one. And then the prophet says, do you have any other sons? And Jesse reluctantly acknowledges the existence of David. In comes David, full of energy and youth. And the Lord says, that's the one and he's anointed to be the king. But his father didn't support him and his brother didn't either. Because later is, David is sent on an errand by his father to deliver bread and cheese to his brothers on the front line, finding the Philistines, also known as a pizza delivery, bread and cheese.

All that's missing is marinara. And he shows up and Eliab, his older brother, says, what are you doing here? It's a little flock of sheep to come be with the big boys. You're filled with pride. Actually, his brother was revealing his own problem. Sometimes when people accuse you of something, it's actually something they're guilty of.

They're projecting their problems on you. That's what his older brother Eliab did. So he had his family that was not there for him. And then David's wife turned against him. So David got married. The daughter of King Saul, Princess Michael, fell in love with David. And the king, thinking he could get rid of David, said, oh, you want to marry my daughter? Okay, go kill 100 Philistines and you can have her. David says, no problem. He goes and kills 200 Philistines.

All right, there you go, boy. There's your new wife. And there was love in this marriage initially, but King Saul anger and jealousy erupted again and he sent men to murder David. Michael, David's wife, warned him, even putting a dummy in the bed to look like David was asleep. And when they pulled the covers back, it was this little straw replica of David, but it wasn't really him.

But the real dummy was King Saul, who just couldn't let it go. I read a really weird article the other day in the paper about an elephant in India that attacked a woman. Now, of course, elephants are known for their memories, right? We're told an elephant never forgets. So this woman, whose name was Maya Mirmu, 70 years old, went out to draw water and this rogue elephant attacks and kills her, tramples her to death.

Okay, that's horrible. But then at her funeral service, the elephant shows up and takes her body and tramples it again. What happened with this woman and the elephant? What is with this elephant holding a grudge like you've never heard of before? That's a true story.

And that's King Saul in a nutshell. He just couldn't let it go. Some people, they can hold a grudge for decades.

Never let it go. Everything you do in their mind is wrong. Your motives are wrong. And that's King Saul. He just had to destroy David, at least in his mind.

Am I speaking to somebody now that's effectively in the same boat? Because, see, Michael even betrayed her husband when the father oppressed her. She said, well, he forced me to do it and he said he would kill me if I didn't do this.

And now Saul says, well, I'm gonna kill that kid. But maybe there's somebody here that, you know, you're family. You've had a breakdown in your family. You feel like your wife has turned against you. That your wife no longer loves and supports you. All she does is criticize you. I don't want to see any guy nudging his wife right now. I can see what you're doing out there.

All the way to the back. But, you know, it's always the criticism. Always the complaint. Never a word of affirmation.

Never a compliment. You understand the words of Solomon who said, better to be on the roof of your house than in a house with an argumentative woman. Okay, so that's what you're dealing with right now. Wives, listen to me for a moment. Men are not all that complicated.

Okay, they just aren't. They need to know they're loved. They need to know they're respected. In fact, the Bible specifically says to you as a wife, wives respect your husband. When's the last time you just said to your husband, honey, I appreciate you. I appreciate your hard work.

I appreciate all that you do for me. When did you tell him that last? Now, I'm not justifying anything, but I'm just saying, if that guy goes somewhere else, maybe to work, and there's some flirty young girl that thinks he hung the moon and tells him how wonderful he is, and he comes home and all he gets is criticism and complaints and never a positive word, you can see how problems can develop, right? Respect your husband. But then again, maybe I'm talking to a wife right now who has lost the love of her husband. This Bible specifically says that the wife is to love her husband.

That doesn't mean that the husband should not love his wife, but it says, excuse me, that does not mean that the wife should not love her husband, but it does say in Scripture to respect your husband, and specifically it says the husband should love his wife. Maybe the wife says, I can't remember the last time my husband complimented me or told me I was beautiful or told me how much he appreciates me. I feel like I'm hired, helped, doing all the work around the house, and he eats the food and then he walks off and falls asleep somewhere.

He doesn't love me like he used to, and problems have developed. I had a couple come to me a while ago after a service and the wife said, my husband was unfaithful to me and I can't forgive him. I'm thinking, whoa, really? I look over at the guy, he's like, yeah, that's true.

Really? I said, do you want your marriage to work? They both nodded their head, and I said, would you turn to your wife right now and repent of this and tell her you're sorry? And he did it. And then I said to her, would you forgive your husband right now and tell him you forgive him? She said, yes, and she did it. And then they kissed and walked off hand in hand.

I said, yes. Doesn't often work out that way in all honesty. I spent hours with couples with irreconcilable differences, air quotes. Every marriage has irreconcilable differences.

I've had irreconcilable differences with my wife for almost 50 years. That's an excuse for the most part. Most of these things can be resolved. But anyway, in this particular instance, they forgave one another. Now someone might say, well, Greg, don't you know that unfaithfulness is grounds for divorce? Yes, it's true.

And it's also grounds for forgiveness. But David not only lost the support of his father and his brothers, he not only lost the support of his wife, Michael, but then he even lost the support of his best friend, Jonathan. Jonathan, my son, talked about this last week. Jonathan talked about Jonathan. And pretty much Jonathan was the only friend that David had in the whole world. And even Jonathan couldn't help him. It's not that Jonathan turned on David. He was working behind the scenes, trying to get his dad to chill and welcome David back again. And Saul would relax for a time and David would return to the palace and play his stringed instrument and sing songs to God and Saul would be okay. Then all of a sudden, here comes another javelin. He's out to kill David again. And finally, Jonathan said to David, buddy, I can't do anything for you.

You need to run for your life right now because my father is determined to kill you. And then David's dog turned on him. I bet you didn't know that. No, that's not in the Bible.

I don't know if that happened. His cat didn't need to turn on him. The cat was never for him to start with. Cats aren't for anyone but themselves.

Just know that. That's why they, someone's, amen, really. Cat hater over here. But it's true, isn't it?

That's why they leave for a month. Where did the cat go? Who knows?

Who cares? Okay, so again, point number one was David allowed fear to overtake him. Point number two, though people abandon us, God never abandons us.

Let me say that again. Though people abandon us, God will never abandon you. Romans 8, 38 says, I'm convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life nor angels nor demons nor our fears for today or our worries for tomorrow, not even the power of hell, can separate us from God's love.

And we're also told in Romans 8, 31, if God is for us, who can be against us? God is for you. God will not abandon you.

He just won't. He said, I will never leave you or forsake you. And if you were to translate that from the original language, it would be Jesus speaking, I will never, no never, no never leave you or forsake you.

I think he's trying to make a point. But sometimes we lose heart. The man after God's own heart is having a lapse of faith. He takes his focus off of God and now makes some bad decisions, bringing me to point number three. David went to the wrong place for solace, for comfort. He went to the wrong place with King Saul hunting him.

David goes to the wrong place and hangs out with the wrong people. He goes to a place called Gath. You're saying, ah, Gath, I don't know much about Gath. Gath was where the Philistines hung out. Gath was Philistine central, the enemies of Israel. And that's where David went.

Goliath himself came from Gath. So here comes David to this city filled with his enemies and he's walking through the enemy camp. So we read about this in First Samuel 21, 10.

Read it with me. David escaped from Saul. He went to King Achish of Gath. But the officers of Achish were unhappy about him being there, asking, hey, isn't this David, the king of the land?

Interesting. Saul's still officially king, but even the enemies recognize David as the king. Isn't he the one that people honored with dances, singing Saul has killed his thousands and David is tens of thousands?

We'll stop there. Did David really think he would blend in? At this point, David's a legend. He's the goat.

The greatest of all time. Everyone knows him. His merch is everywhere. His enemies, though they hate him, they respect him. They've seen him on the battlefield. This guy's a warrior and he's walking through our camp?

What is he even doing? I don't know what David was thinking, but I think the problem is he wasn't thinking. And I think that he thought that somehow no one would know who he is.

It reminds me a little bit of Simon Peter. Remember after Jesus was arrested, Peter was standing by the fire in the dark of the night thinking he would not be noticed, but there in the fire's glow, some woman says, hey, hey, I know you. You're one of those Jesus freaks.

You're one of those followers of Christ. No, it's not me. It's someone else. Another person says, I know you. You're one of those people that are with Jesus.

No, it's not me. Peter denies the Lord. This is David thinking somehow no one's gonna notice him and I think in his mind he was disappointed. Maybe I'm talking to somebody right now who is disappointed. You don't like your lot in life. You don't like what's happened to you.

Maybe a tragedy befell you and your dreams were shattered and you don't think it's fair and in some ways it isn't. But instead of going to be with fellow believers or going to church, you've isolated yourself. You've even gone the wrong direction. You went back to that old bar you used to hang out at. You called an old buddy who doesn't believe and said, hey, let's hang out. And that old familiar spiritual deadness has once again returned to your life.

As Simon and Garfunkel sang so long ago in the sound of silence, hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again. That's how you feel and you're in the wrong place. This is why when we're feeling down or discouraged, we shouldn't be with godless people.

We should be with godly people, right? You're in the right place right now. I don't know if you had a battle getting to church today. You looked down and said, wow, nice weather. Maybe I'll go to the beach.

Or maybe we should stay home and do this other thing. He said, no, we're going to church and it wasn't an easy thing, but here you are. I'm glad you're here.

This is a great place for you to be. I don't know if David wrote Psalm 1, but Psalm 1 says, blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the word of the Lord and in it does he meditate day and night. Notice what he does and doesn't do. What does he do? He meditates, thinks about, ponders, contemplates scripture. What does he not do?

He doesn't hang out with the ungodly people walking in the way of sinners and so forth. So David was in the wrong place with the wrong people and suddenly it dawns on him, this is nuts. Why am I even here? Bringing us to this profound truth that I remind you of occasionally.

Here it is. Sin makes you stupid. Under the influence of sin, you will say and do stupid things. So David sees that eyes of the town are upon him. He's been outed.

Everyone knows who he is. Look at what he does. 1 Samuel 21 verse 12. David heard these comments and was very afraid of what King Achish of Gath might do to him. Look at this. David was stained, scratching on doors and drooling down his beard. Wow. It had come to this.

Not a good look. Finally King Achish said to his men, why do you bring me a madman? We have enough madmen around here already. Why should I let this guy be my guest?

That's hilarious. David's like, everyone knows who I am. I'll be like a crazy guy.

Scratching the thing, drooling. Who brought this psycho in? We have enough psychos. We don't need another psycho. Get him out.

Wow. David should have never come to this place to begin with. So now he runs for his life to a cave in Adullam. And if you want to know how he was feeling, you can read about it in Psalm 142. You know, David wrote many of the Psalms and it's always interesting to find out when did he write this, where did he write this, and why did he write this?

It gives you insight into what he was facing in the moment. So after this experience in Gath, he flees to this cave and he writes these words in Psalm 142 and I'm reading from the New Living Translation. David says, I cry out to the Lord. I plead for the Lord's mercy. I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles. You might underline that.

I'll come back to it. I pour out all my complaints before him and tell him all of my troubles. When I'm overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn. Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me. I look for someone to come help me, but no one gives me a passing thought. No one will help me. No one cares a bit about what happens to me.

Wow. Have you ever felt that way? Do you feel that way right now? You feel like my enemies are setting traps for me.

No one even gives me a passing thought. But I love how David shifts gears. In the middle of the Psalm, he goes from his one-person pity party and looks up and gets perspective. Psalm 142, verse five, he continues. Then I pray to you, O Lord. I say, you are my place of refuge.

You are all I really want in life. Cure my cry, for I'm very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they're too strong for me. Bring me out of prison so I can thank you.

The godly will crowd around me, for you are good to me. I love that. I love how he starts by complaining and then he looks up again.

So what should you do when the bottom drops out? Point number four. You need to look up and put your focus on God, not on your problems. He had his troubles, like we all do. Again, David was forgotten by his family, betrayed by his wife, under threat by his father-in-law, running for his very life, yet he's trusting God. By the way, it's okay to complain in your prayers.

Did you know that? That's why I had you under our land, that verse. It's okay to complain to God in your prayers.

Look at Psalm 142, verse one. I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles. You think, oh, you can't do that. Oh, no, you should do that. It's okay to say to the Lord, Lord, I don't really like this situation I'm in. I don't like the circumstances that surround me. I don't want this.

Lord, help me. But you might also add, however, Father, if this is part of your plan and purpose for my life, above my own, but complain to God. Cry out to God. When the Israelites criticized and turned against Moses, we read in Exodus 15, 25, Moses cried to the Lord. When Hezekiah received a letter threatening his life, we read in Isaiah 37, 14, he spread it out before the Lord. When John the Baptist was beheaded, we read that his disciples went and told Jesus.

I love that. When you have a problem, go and tell Jesus, Jesus, I want to talk to you about this. Lord, I don't understand this. And he will hear your prayer.

Even Jesus himself cried out to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. If it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will be done.

Can I loosely paraphrase that? I don't really want to do this, okay? But Lord, I know it's the only way.

So Father, I'm gonna do this. But why did he not want to do it? Was Jesus apprehensive about the pain?

Well, I don't think he looked forward to it. He was gonna be beaten. His beard would be ripped from his face. They would strike him with a fist to the face. A crown of thorns would be pressed upon his forehead, causing severe pain. His back would be ripped open with a Roman whip.

They would pound spikes through his hands and his feet. But I believe the thing that Jesus recoiled from in the Garden of Gethsemane more than anything else was the foreknowledge that all the sin of the world was gonna be placed upon him. Jesus had never sinned, not even once. He never had a thought out of harmony with the Father. That's why he could say, I and my Father are one. And yet now, all of the corruption and filth and wickedness of the world is gonna be placed upon him as he bears this sin of humanity for us.

If it's possible, let this cup pass. And even on the cross, he cries out the words, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Again, he cries out to God, not against God. Number five, when the bottom drops out, you need to cast your care on God. What do you do when your family or friends abandon you? What do you do when you're betrayed? What do you do when your very life is threatened? You call out to God and cast your cares on God. First Peter 5, 6 says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God and at the right time, he will lift you up in honor, casting all your cares upon him for he cares for you. I'm not sharing these words from a vacuum.

I don't live in an ivory tower. I face the same pain that everyone faces. And today marks the 14th anniversary of the departure of my oldest son, Christopher, to heaven. 14 years ago, he died in a tragic automobile accident. That's him as a little boy.

And that's my wife with Christopher and Jonathan. And so, you know, we love this boy. He was so much a part of our life.

I mean, that's obvious. And to have him suddenly taken from us was devastating. It was shocking. I didn't even feel like I could survive it.

I thought hearing those words could literally cause me to die. But God was there for me. And when I called out to the Lord, he sustained me in my hour of pain and sustains me to this very day.

But, you know, this verse that says, cast your care upon him, is the idea of deliberately ceasing to worry and putting it into the hands of the Lord. And, you know, there'll be a time when you've lost a loved one, you'll say, I know they're in heaven. I know I'll see them again. I know they're in perfect joy and happiness and you're okay. You're kind of emotionally okay.

You're stable. And then, another thought comes and you go down again. Sort of like being in Whitewater, you know, where maybe you fall over the wave and you don't know which way is up. And you're just like in this washing machine of Whitewater. And that's what grief is like.

It just hits you and overtakes you. You need to get your head above the surface and get a gulp of air and get perspective. So this is what David was understanding. You cast your cares upon God. Listen, stop worrying about what you're facing and let God assume the responsibility for your welfare. God cares. If it concerns you, it concerns him. David later wrote in Psalm 139, verse 17, how precious are your thoughts toward me, O Lord.

How vast is the sum of them. So it's something we have to do over and over again. Sort of like taking the trash out. I don't know how it works in your house, but I'm the designated take out the trash person.

Greg, take out the trash. Which I do. And, but I don't know why this is, but I don't like to take my trash cans out to the curb. It's not a lot of work.

I don't live in some farm or like it's two miles. I just take them from my garage, put them in front of my garage, take them from my garage, put them in front of my house, and the trash man picks them up. And if you don't do it and your trash doesn't get taken out for one week, you have trouble, right?

All kinds of weird flying things all around it, et cetera. So you appreciate the fact that that trash man comes and picks up your trash. And in the same way the Lord says, cast your cares on me. Put your burdens on me. And yet we hold onto them ourselves.

I'm not really sure why we do that. Jesus wants to bear our burdens. Let me come back to Johnny Cash and conclude. I mentioned his brother Jack. So amazingly, Jack Cash survived the accident and the saw mill. But everyone knew he was not long for this world because literally his body had been torn open and his internal organs had come out. But he was alive still. So he was in the hospital room surrounded by his family.

His mother, his father, his siblings. And Jack was given a glimpse of glory and he said to his mother, mama, do you hear the angels? And then he turned to his father. Remember I told you his dad was very hard and said the wrong son died? He turned to his father Ray and said to him, will you meet me in heaven? And he said, no, no, no, no, no.

Meet me in heaven. And at that moment, Ray Cash, the hardened father of Johnny and Jack fell to his knees and asked God to forgive him of his sins and put his faith in Jesus Christ. So that was a powerful moment in the life of the father.

Well, fast forward now a number of years. Johnny's gone on with his career. He's had his ups and downs, his highs and lows. And in his later years, he makes a deeper commitment to follow Jesus Christ.

But his health is failing. His career was kind of going downhill as well and he was discovered by a producer named Rick Rubin who felt that Johnny wasn't getting his due, that Johnny should still be heard by people and hear his music. But he went to Johnny when Cash was performing for a very small group of people here in California as a matter of fact and said, why don't you come on over to my house and bring your goodness to me?

Why don't you come on over to my house and bring your guitar and just sing songs you like and let's see what we can find? And so Johnny did that and a series of records came out called the American Recordings which I think were the best recordings of the career of Johnny Cash, culminating with a song called Hurt that became a video and won all these awards and that was effectively Johnny's swan song. But so Johnny had a conversation with his sister Joanne and he asked her a powerful question. This is from this documentary we're working on. Look at the screen and find out what the question was. I think there was something in Johnny's mind that said I have to leave people with a thought.

I want to encourage them to consider ways to be better and then I'm gonna go to my reward. It makes perfect sense that that was the last song that Johnny was gonna sing. It makes perfect sense that that was the last song we remember Johnny for. But Hurt was kind of, I suppose, the beginning of the end.

I didn't want to admit it. But even 10 years before Hurt, I saw that light fading in his eyes a little bit and he was getting tired. He grew old, full of grace and full of strength spiritually which kept him as long as he did physically. He called me over to his house one day, just close to the end and he said, baby, sit down, I've got to talk to you. And when he said that, I knew it was serious. He said, I want to ask you a question. He said, if you walked on the shores of Galilee and you looked up and you saw Jesus walking toward you and you knew he was gonna say just one thing to you, what do you think he'd say?

Well, chills went all over me. I didn't know how to answer it. I said, well, I would hope he'd say I'm doing what he called me to do and that he's pleased with that. And Johnny looked at me and he said, he would say to you, feed my sheep. I said, yeah, he would. What do you think he would say to you? And he said, oh, baby, that's easy. He had tears rolling down his face and he said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Johnny was telling me, I'm going home. You do what God called you to do. I'm going home.

It's okay. That's a powerful question, isn't it? If you were walking down the Sea of Galilee and you saw Jesus walking toward you, what would he say to you? And Johnny said, he would say to me, Jesus speaking, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest. You know, maybe you've come to church today or you're watching this right now with a burden.

It's the burden of sin. I remember when I was a young boy and I was 17 years old, this is 10 years ago. And I'd lived my crazy life without God and made a lot of bad decisions and I remember when I was a young boy and I was 17 years old, this is 10 years ago and I'd lived my crazy life without God and made a lot of bad decisions and I remember when I prayed this prayer to ask Jesus Christ to come into my life, I had the distinct sensation of a weight being lifted off of my shoulders and I didn't know why that was. I thought, why do I feel this way?

What weight would I have? It was a weight of sin. God was forgiving me of all of my sin and maybe there's somebody here watching wherever you are and you have that weight of sin on you right now. You can't get rid of it. Oh, if I drink, it'll go away. Oh, it'll be waiting for you when you sober up. Oh, if I just escape, will we go here or see that? No, it'll still be waiting for you.

In fact, it will follow you wherever you go. You have to come to Jesus and say, Lord, lift this burden from me. Forgive me of my sin. But there might be somebody else that would say, man, I've hit bottom and it's dropped out and I don't know where to turn. I've doubted God.

I've turned away from him and turned to other things I shouldn't have turned to. You need to come back to the Lord again. See, my great hope that I have concerning my son Christopher is I will see him again in heaven.

Why? Because he's Greg's son? No, because he's God's son. Because he put his faith in Christ and he was forgiven just like I was forgiven. Just like you need to be forgiven and then Jesus who died on the cross for your sin and rose again from the dead stands now at the door of your life and he knocks and says if you'll hear his voice and open the door, he will come in. If you need Jesus to come into your life, if you want that burden of sin lifted off of your shoulders, if you wanna fill that hole in your heart you've tried to fill with so many things, it can happen for you right here, right now, but you need to open that door of your heart, so to speak, and ask Christ to come in or make that recommitment to him. Why don't you do that right now as we close in prayer. Father, I pray for every person here, every person watching wherever they are, if they don't know you, let this be the moment they believe. Let this be the moment they come to you and receive your forgiveness. Now while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying together, maybe there's somebody here that would say I need Jesus, I'm carrying this burden of sin, I wanna be forgiven, I want this relationship with God you've been talking about, pray for me. Listen, if you want Christ to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you wanna know that when you die you will go to heaven, 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 and rose again from the dead. Jesus, I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. 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.