Hang with me for another week or two because on the 24th of this month I'm going to give you a break from me and we're gonna have John Amanakuchu who's gonna be here We're selling his book out there John is an African American brother who loves the Lord Jesus Christ and I just think God's given him a prophetic gift and He wants to wake up the American church and said there's a mess going on with the whole abortion CRT all that stuff John's gonna be able to say some things maybe from the pulpit that I can't say and Because you can't fire him you can fire me and say he'll be here in a couple weeks on the 24th So be there for that but you know, I've gone a little bit longer between taking a break with my sermons this time and that's because Here's what happens. The radio folks are saying we've used all the sermons you gave us from the past.
We're running out We need more material. It's kind of interesting every one sermon I preach on a Sunday morning They can edit it and actually make it two sermons for the radio okay, but when I'm out it's a challenge and I'm gonna be out a little bit more this fall than I usually am because we'll Be traveling internationally to some different places and so all that to say I know I've gone a while Give me another week or two and then we'll give you a break and talking radio as well It's a great opportunity. God has given us You know every day We broadcast on the truth Network. How have y'all ever listened to the truth? That's a great I love that that radio station the truth Network and in a couple weeks ago things starting last week God opened a new opportunity for us. We're on every Sunday morning at 10 o'clock on Am6 ad WPTF and then FM 98.5 and these are secular stations and so every Sunday morning at 10 o'clock, we're able to share the gospel not just with Folks who are believers we're able to share that into the secular world as well Isn't that great God's open all kinds of great opportunities for us? All right. So let's do this go in your Bible and I'm not talking down to you.
Okay But a lot of people here. I met somebody last week I've never been to church before So we just assume everybody's been to church and know their Bible and that everybody does so I'm gonna kind of get a little bit Basic today. We're actually going to start a Series on the gospel of Mark for the next couple months and you say now why I'm not making this up You don't think I'm crazy. Why you why did why are you doing the gospel of Mark?
All right last Tuesday night. I Went to bed and as I was about to go to sleep I said God, I don't want to preach on this Sunday and Lord. I just need some direction God just kind of revealed to me what I'm supposed to preach on next Sunday. I'm not making this up I went to sleep that night and I dreamed that I was preaching a series in the gospel of Mark So I just woke up and assumed that's what God wants me to preach.
You say that's weird We're a Pentecostal Church if I don't get weird every now and then I start losing some people. Okay, and so That's why we're gonna be going through the gospel of Mark and look It's real big today to get creative with sermon titles and that type thing So I decided to get really creative this series is gonna be called the gospel of Mark. That's the series And I really want to get creative this morning with my sermon. So the title of today's sermon you won't believe this is Introduction to the gospel of Mark.
That's a that's a sermon today. Okay Now look, let me give the background to this Jesus John no, Jesus never wrote a book Most influential man of all times. He never wrote a book, but there are four biographies of Jesus in your Bible Matthew Mark Luke and John those are the four biographies of Jesus and it's interesting. They wrote these independently Sometimes several years apart sometimes decades apart and yet they all harmonize They harmonize But there's enough differences to know they didn't copy each other. Okay, so the liberals say well You know, they don't kind of coordinate right along with each other. They don't contradict each other, but the liberals say hi They don't kind of coordinate each other and yet if they top if they read all the same what the liberals say They copied each other so you can't win for losing. So Matthew Mark Luke and John they don't contradict But it's almost like if you heard this before like if you witness an accident automobile accident, there's ten witnesses All ten witnesses will give you basically the same story But there'll be different details and viewpoints the other doesn't have and it's kind of like that with Matthew Mark Luke and John They don't contradict they share the same story, but they share this from different perspectives now Y'all remember what was that movie with Tom Hanks years ago? not for not for it's come the the da Vinci Code the da Vinci Code and It was real popular years ago You used to see this on the History Channel where there were dozens and dozens of Gospels out there And the reason we only have these four is because some old White guys because everything goes back to race old white guys decided we're gonna choose these four Gospels But there are other Gospels that proved Mary Magdalene was actually one of the Apostles Have you heard that before or another Mary Magdalene and Jesus were lovers? And so why did they just choose these four Gospels when there are all these other Gospels out there?
Why don't you listen to me? In the first century the time of Christ, okay from Jesus's death and resurrection around 33 AD until 100 AD did you know there were only four Gospels floating around out there, you know, they were Matthew Mark Luke and John there weren't a bunch of Gospels out there. All these crazy ones were written later on and For those of you said well, why were they excluded from the Bible? You start reading those other Gospels that were written maybe 200 years after Jesus you read it for about 30 seconds These guys are whacked up.
They don't know that they're just weird. Okay, there are only four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John and the date of mark The gospel gonna be reading Look Matthew was written around 50 to 60 AD. So that's about 20 maybe 30 years after Jesus mark Was written around the late 50s AD So that was only about 20 20-something years after Jesus Luke wrote his gospel around 60 AD it's about 30 years after Jesus and in John wrote his about 90 AD and And that's about 60 years after Jesus.
Now. Here's the important part of this We'll be reading the Gospel of Mark. That was only written About 20 years after Jesus you said that's a long time. That's not a long time Even liberal historians will admit there has never been another book in antiquity Written so close to the time of the event That was as widely disseminated as the Gospels It is unheard of that after 20 years of the event the whole world has copies of that event That's unheard of in the ancient world. And another thing about Mark being written within 20 years of Jesus's life buried death and resurrection is There were still people alive They remember Jesus So if you live in Capernaum and you start reading all this stuff that Jesus healed this person here raised this person the dead you be Like I lived in Capernaum 20 years ago. None of that stuff happened Or you could be living in Jerusalem and say Mark said all these things happen in Jerusalem I was in Jerusalem 20 years ago. None of that happened You don't hear one person in antiquity Ever say none of this stuff happened.
Isn't that interesting? Look it'd be like me saying this we're in 2022 so about 20 something years ago was the year 2000 It'd be like me saying this I'm gonna write a story about how the Panthers won the Super Bowl back in 2000 You'd like I live then the Panthers never won the Super Bowl in 2000. Okay I'm gonna write a story about how the singer kid rock won the presidential election in the year 2000 and boy his Presidential administration was great. Like I live bad then he didn't win the presidency So mark has all these fascinating things written 20 years after Jesus and not one person do we have in history say that never happened in other words mark can be trusted and so, um For those of us who have a DD maybe that's why God put mark on my heart Mark the gospel mark mark is the patron saint for people who have a DD it is such a fast-paced gospel Of the word immediately like immediately immediately issues about 40 times in the gospel of mark mark Just jumps from one thing to another real fast And so some of you who have squirrel brains and wants to go real fast. You'll love the gospel of mark Now I'm gonna do this just for a few moments today.
I want to do a quick biography of Mark the man that wrote the gospel of mark because we know about Peter we know about Paul We know about John we know about all these guys a lot of us don't know anything about mark the man that wrote this gospel And so just very quickly we see him several times in the New Testament first time we see him is in Acts chapter 12 It's about 14 years after Jesus Peter the Apostle is arrested and He's thrown in prison He's thrown in prison in Herod's basement. In fact, well some y'all can go to Israel with us in a couple couple weeks I don't take you to the very spot where it happened. We got a picture of this. This is a picture of Herod's palace Right there to the right it was in the basement probably of that palace where this this happened and Peter is gonna be executed the next day.
Here's as soon as the Sun comes up. I'm gonna chop your head off I've often thought about this if I was told Chad tomorrow morning when you wake up, I'm gonna chop your head off I wouldn't sleep that night. Would you I'll be up all night throwing up and repeating the sinner's prayer. Just make sure I'm safe You know Peter does he goes to sleep and he's sleeping so hard and angel eyes that kick him to wake him up That's trusting in the sovereignty of God in it and he lets Peter out of prison takes him past the guards He releases them.
It's in the dead of night. And where does Peter go acts chapter 12 verse 12 says so when you consider this He came to the house of Mary the mother of John Whose surname was mark where many were gathered prayed? He goes to his small group and where's the small group meeting? His small group is meeting in John Mark's mama's house first time we see John Mark Second time we see John Mark is Paul's first missionary journey, you know Paul Barnabas, they're gonna step out on a missionary journey and win the world for Jesus Christ and And Paul says Barnabas, who should we who should we take and according to Colossians for Barnabas's cousin or nephew is John Mark. He says let's bring John Mark with us And so the second time we see John Mark is in Acts chapter 13 verse 4 so being sent out by the Holy Spirit They went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus and when they arrived at Salamis They preached the Word of God and the synagogues to the Jews and they also had John John Mark as their assistant So mark is not a preacher.
He's not an evangelist. He doesn't leave the worship team. He just helps him out So he starts with him on this missionary journey and then in Acts chapter 13 John Mark hits his lowest point It says in verse 13 of chapter 13 now when Paul and his party set out for Paphos They came to Perga and Pamphylia and John Mark Departed from them and returned to Jerusalem So this man starts out ministering He gets on that missionary journey And he quits on him Now we don't know why it may have been right before this happens. Um There's an encounter with a demon that may have scared him he may have gotten homesick and wanted his mama we don't know why John Mark left, but he leaves and And again, well, what's the big deal?
He just left when people ask me? What's the hardest part of ministry? I'm gonna tell you the hardest part of ministry is this when you have people that you fought battles with they've stood beside you You've tried to win the world for Jesus together and they just leave you that's the hardest part of ministry And that's exactly what John Mark did. And so the third time we see him is in Acts chapter 15 Paul and Barnabas they finish their missionary journey. They have all this success I go back to Jerusalem report all the great things. God did they take a little bit of a breather and then Barnabas said man, let's let's go do a second missionary journey.
Let's go back visit these churches. We planted Let's go back on the mission field Paul says great idea and Barnabas said and let's bring John Mark with us and Paul says bad idea We're not going to take him with us and if you read there in Acts chapter 15 verses 36 through 41 Paul and Barnabas they just going at it Barnabas like give a second chance Paul says now he's a quitter Yeah, but he's young. Yeah, I don't care and they have such a sharp disagreement Paul and Barnabas split up and Barnabas goes his way with John Mark and Paul goes his way so you see this is He's not the most stable young man in the world He is now caused to the greatest missionaries to split up and we don't hear anything for John Mark for about 10 years and then 10 years later.
He pops up again and He pops up in two places. We see him in Colossians 4 10 and Philemon 24 Paul is in prison he may die and He's writing a letter and said only a few people are sticking with me in my toughest time Do you know who one of the people is that's sticking with him? John Mark So something happened in those 10 years where he got his head screwed on straight And in fact in 2nd Timothy 4 9 through 11, this is so sad, you know darn I went to Rome a couple years ago. I told her this I said darling we go to Rome There's only one place I really want to go to it's the Mamertine prison where the Apostle Paul was kept basically in a sewer Did you know that the prison he's in when he writes 2nd Timothy? It's basically a sewer I said I want to go to that one spot Every spot was open except for one that was closed for repairs, you know where it was the one spot I wanted to go so I never got to go into the Mamertine prison, but Paul's an old man He's writing his final letter.
I Mean, this is so sad. He served the Lord for all these years. He's been so faithful He only has a few days left to live And he writes this in 2nd Timothy 4 9 Timothy be diligent to come to me quickly for Demas He's forsaken me. Well, my partner's the minister He just took off having loved this present world and has departed for Thessalonica Crescents has gone to glacier Titus has gone to Dalmatia. Everybody's left me He says only Luke is with me And then he says this get mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me for ministry he only has a few days left to live and he says I'm so lonely and That's just one person. I want here to kind of cheer me up You know who it is John Mark the young man that abandoned me years ago Now remember I told you there's 10 years where we don't hear anything from Mark.
What was he doing in those 10 years? Well in first Peter 5 13, we find out what Mark was doing in those 10 years the Apostle Peter is writing first Peter from Rome The writing is on the wall. He knows he's going to die And in first Peter 5 13 because the church is in danger from Nero if y'all heard of Nero madman crazy, man He'd slaughtered Christians one of the ways he slaughtered Christians Is next week family Sunday?
Not this Sunday. Okay, remind me not to be gory and whatever next week Okay, my mommy be nice, but here's how Nero would love to kill Christians. He would take Christians time to a big post Dip them in tar and then light them and there were human torches for his garden party. It's kind of psychotic And Peter knows that Nero is gunning for him and Peter writes again. He's writing in code He says in first Peter 5 13 she now who she that's the church the church of Jesus Christ She who is in Babylon?
That's Babylon the code name for Rome He let together with you greet you and so does who? Mark my son spiritual son not literal son. Here's a Peter saying I'm facing death This is the end and you know who's sticking with me to the very end Mark the same man that abandoned Paul and Barnabas years ago. He's right here with me And here's what happened Peter takes mark aside one day and he says mark. I'm not gonna survive this I'm a leader of the church here in Rome Nero's gunning for me. I'm not gonna make So mark, I don't want the memory of what Jesus did and who he was to die with me So mark take out your pen take out some paper. I want you to write this down and he writes down all of his memories of Jesus and all those memories of Jesus is your gospel of mark that was mark Having Peter dictate to him all of his memories of Jesus Christ And it's kind of sad Within a year a short time after that Peter's taken Out to a racetrack.
In fact, look at this picture. This is st. Peter's Square in in Rome You see how that looks like a big maybe kind of a racetrack or something right there. Okay in Peter's day That was a racetrack all the other glamorous buildings weren't there.
It's just kind of a dirt tracks How about the Charlotte Motor Speedway Peter's day? Okay And what Nero says one day while they're racing around that track. He says alright It's time for our halftime show And their halftime show was where that big obelisk is now they take Peter as an old man They starting to torture him and crucify him and he says crucify me I'm not worthy to die the way Jesus died As the tradition says they turn him upside down and crucify him and he dies right there Before he dies. He dictates to mark his memories of Jesus and those memories are your gospel of mark So very quickly, I want to run through some life lessons as I study this young man mark So lessons God has for us. I got five lessons that we can learn from from mark this young man I'm gonna run through the first four real quickly and I'm gonna kind of focus in on the final lesson first lesson I learned from mark reading his story in the New Testament is number one Hey, some people called to serve behind the scenes acts 13 5 is as John Mark was their assistant That Greek word is who parates it literally means a slave who's on the lower part of the deck road It's the lowest of slaves Hey some of y'all are not preachers You're not teachers You're not worship leaders You're like John Mark.
No God has called you to just serve behind the scenes and I'm not patronizing you I'm just telling you you understand what I do on Sunday morning. That's not what keeps cross-assembly moving forward It's all the people like John Mark just work behind the scenes. That's what keeps this thing moving And in fact, it's kind of interesting on NPR National Public Radio a little while back they had a guest and He's a marketing expert and he and his employees. They did some interesting they surveyed 2,000 obituaries in the New York Times And they said after studying and doing kind of a word study on that They said do you know what one of the most common words we found in obituaries? It's the word help or helped So-and-so died before he died. He was known to help people so-and-so died and he helped his church start this ministry and This marketing expert said it finally hit us What stays in people's minds when you leave this world? It's not what kind of car you drove where you lived in Raleigh What kind of degrees you have what you leave behind is how did he help my life become better? And John Mark is one of those kind of men John Mark was called to serve behind the scenes Second lesson I learned from Mark is your friends and companions are important See John Mark.
I mentioned Forrest Gump. He's kind of like the Forrest Gump of The first century he runs into all these great stellar people. He knows Paul. He knows Peter.
He knows Barnabas He always just happens to be the right place at the right time And what what this is man Mark is this Mark was who he was because he hung around the right people. I Look parents. I'm not trying if your kids have gone off the rails. I'm not here to twist the knife, but I'll just say this We've had parents in this church come and pray and say pray for my kids What's wrong? None of them walk with Jesus or my son's going off the rails and my daughter's this she grew up in church I'm not trying to be mean But I always ask this question just out of curiosity What what happened how big off the rails 80% of the time, you know, they say they started what hanging around the wrong people the Apostle Paul says the same thing in 1st Corinthians 15 33 do not be deceived bad company ruins good morals Pants, I'm gonna tell you something You guard your kids against doing crack you guard your kids against fentanyl you guard your kids against lead in the water and fluoride in The water and you're guarding your kids against all this stuff I think one thing you better guard your kids against the people they hang around The pastor I can't prevent them from hanging around these people. How old are they 17? You still pay their phone bill.
Yeah, you play the clothes. Yeah, you pay their food Yeah, you got a lot of leverage you can do whatever you want to do When you leave this house at age 20 or 18 or whatever I can't forbid you from hanging around these people that people but while you're under this house I'm gonna guard your influences and marks a great lesson in that Here's the third lesson and that's this correction is part of the Christian life. I Don't know what happened to mark But something happened from being a quitter Who abandons Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey? To being a man who wrote one of the four Gospels we have in the Bible something happened. I Like to think somebody took him aside And let me give him a quick little smackdown and so you better get your head screwed on straight part of the Christian life is allowing godly people to speak correction into your life and um, Now every okay every now and then I guess anytime you have a I'm not very visible but you understand when you got a ministry every now and then I'll have people who watch watch me online or Listen on the radio I don't know him and they want to make an appointment to sit down and correct me about the way I preach and some things I say from the pulpit and I have a rule look and here's a good rule for you two things if you're gonna let somebody correct you number one, you've got to know the person and Number two, they've got to be out for your best interest Why don't know somebody but they can't stand you don't take correction from them You got to know them and you got to know that they're out for your best interest Hey, Jesus didn't hang around people who just tolerated him He hung around people who celebrated him And so if they don't celebrate what God is doing in your life, don't let them correct you Okay, and it's not that I'm not open to correct your criticism But why would I let a stranger come in and chew me out? How do I know that Satan has not put them in my path to try to discourage me?
Number one you got to know them and number two They got to be out for your best interest and somehow mark had somebody in his life. I think it was Barnabas who did that Fourth lesson I learned from mark is this fellowship is an integral part of Christianity See look when you go through a tough time don't isolate yourself from other Christians we do that don't we When we go through a tough time We tend to isolate ourselves Hey, Jesus is about to die. He's in the Garden of Gethsemane He's burdened and yet he doesn't isolate. It says he took Peter James and John along with him when he went to pray Paul About to die and doesn't isolate himself.
He wants fellowship with mark Peter is Dying and he wants mark with him Tell you something. There is a scourge of isolation going on today in in America. Look about in the church in America we are more connected electronically than we've ever been and yet we're the loneliest generation ever and Loneliness is killing us and now people starting to understand that like in Japan Joe Japan recently appointed a minister of loneliness Did you know that to try to address the loneliness epidemic in Japan? One company has designed a robot to hold hands with lonely people I'm gonna say when I have robots to do our you know There's one man that I read about that's making a living doing nothing But charging people money to simply sit with them and keep them company One study from the UK concludes that loneliness is linked to heart disease dementia depression and its effect on mortality is similar to smoking and worse than Obesity one study revealed that it can increase the risk of an early death by as much as 30% Loneliness is killing us They shouldn't be any kind of loneliness in the body of Christ because when you got saved not only did Jesus come to live in You but he put you in this family called the family of God the body of Christ There should not be any loneliness in the family of God. And one thing we learned from mark is don't isolate yourself When you're going through tough times, we need to fellowship And there's one more lesson.
I want to home in on this for just a second. Here's another lesson I learned from mark fifth lesson God specializes in using failures Mark's first attempt to be a missionary was a catastrophic failure He abandons Paul and Barnabas when they need him the most and he takes off. He was a failure So my needs to hear this today God specializes in using failures like you listen When you read your Bible you find out that Noah wasn't drunk Abraham was too old Isaac was a daydreamer Jacob was a liar Leah was ugly Joseph was abused Moses had a stuttering problem Gideon was afraid Samson had long hair and was a womanizer Rahab was a prostitute David had an affair and was a murderer Elijah was suicidal Jonah ran from God Naomi was a widow Job went bankrupt Peter denied Christ Martha was a warrior The Samaritan woman was divorced and living with someone Zacchaeus was too small Paul was a murderer Timothy had an ulcer and Lazarus was dead and yet God used them all Hey if he uses them he still use you And I don't know failures just part of reality Listen to this in his book break open the sky Stephen Bowman writes 75% of all venture capital backed startups fail 40% of CEOs don't last 18 months 70% of mergers fail to add shareholder value 81% of new hires don't work out 99% of new patents never earn a penny 95% of new products introduced in a given year fail 68% of information technology projects fail to meet their goals and I could go on and on I don't know failures just normal remember Reader's Digest thing about Abraham Lincoln. This is true I look this up Abraham Lincoln He failed in business at age 21 defeated in the legislative race at age 22 failed in business again at age 24 had a sweetheart die at age 26 had a nervous breakdown at age 27 lost a congressional race at age 34 lost a congressional race at age 36 lost a senatorial race at age 45 failed an effort to become vice president at age 47 lost a senatorial race at age 47 and was elected president of the United States at age 52 God uses failures and And I think part of this because when you're proud and cocky God can't use you When you're humble and broken God can move that you know What the most repeated part the most referenced statement of Jesus that you find in the whole Bible is is? this whoever exalts himself will be humbled and And whoever humbles himself will be exalted and sometimes God has to break us and humble us for him to use us Now I'm running out of time But let me take a quick detour cuz somebody asked me about this concept recently and I got to address I've never thought about this before somebody asked about things that whole, you know, Hillsong Church movement. They've had all kinds of scandals Somebody asked me a while back So these pastors at Hillsong that have had all these moral failings Usually happens six months to a year later.
They're back in the pulpit after being quote-unquote restored What do you think about that? Listen, I think that a pastor that has a moral failing God can forgive them God can still use them God God can still use them and Also think they should never be a pastor again Because first Peter 3 2 says the first qualification of a pastor is he has to be above reproach That doesn't mean perfect, but there's no scandal in your past that you can hold on to I think God can still use you but I think your days as a pastor are over. Well, but what about King David?
David was a king. He wasn't a pastor and Number two after his affair God did restore him but his family life was a train wreck after that So God can forgive pastors that mess up Yeah, I can use pastors that mess up But I do believe you give up your right to be a pastor a pastor If that ever happens to you if you have a moral failing I mean you mean you're not going to try to come back and pass her again Well, assuming I'm still alive Assuming all my appendages are still intact. No, I'm not going to try to come back and be a pastor Because I do think you give up that right but but don't lose the force for the trees where I don't care what you've done. I Don't care how much of a failure you feel you are That same God that said to John Mark I'm gonna restore you God can still use you I Used to think this was an urban legend, but it's actually not Jim Newton was part of Thomas Edison's inner circle He was part of Thomas and Mina Edison's household in Fort Myers, Florida when Edison died in 1931 He tells the story of Edison in the first light bulb Edison had worked on his invention for years and It took him hundreds of attempts to finally get a light bulb When he finally did find the answer he set about the task of making light bulbs but since there was no such thing as mass production of light bulbs each bulb had to be made by hand and So he had a team and it took that team 24 hours straight just to make that one light bulb and he's finally ready to take that light bulb from the work workshop down in the basement up and put it in a vacuum machine for the world And he looked around the room And he spotted a young boy And he gave that light bulb and told him take it upstairs and put it on the vacuum machine The boys a nervous wreck, can you imagine this is the inventions gonna change the world's taking 24 hours straight for a team Just to make this and so he is so nervous He has this light bulb in his hands and he's so focused on the bulb in his hands that he didn't pay attention to his Feet and when he gets to the top of the stairs he trips and the light bulb shatters Edison put his exhausted team back to work for another 24 hours.
They worked and they produced a second light bulb Now it's time to take that light bulb upstairs and introduce it to the world He looks around to try to find who to take it up this time his eyes went back to that same young boy who dropped it the first time and Edison decided to give the boy a second chance And that boy took that light bulb and successfully carried it upstairs How would he do that? the same kid that Messed this thing up You're not gonna let him do this again. It doesn't make any sense but Doesn't make sense That somebody in this place that dropped your family and you broke your family. God says I'm gonna give you another chance To make sense to me The lady in his church God gave you a baby And you broke that baby and destroyed that baby God gives you a second chance to Make sense to me Men and women in this place that God gave you a Christian testimony and you drop that testimony and you broke it He gave you a second chance It doesn't make sense to me, but God doesn't ask my permission to do what he does He is God and I'm just telling you we serve a god of Second and third and a million chances. That's the God we serve Marks a great example of that And some of y'all today are examples of that so I want you to do something would you stand up with me I Want to do this right now, there's somebody in this place Never repented of your sins and turn to Jesus Christ You're carrying all kinds of sin.
Let me tell you this. God can't just poof. Okay, your sin is over with that's okay We all make mistakes.
That's fine. God doesn't work that way He's a holy God He is a just God he's got to punish sin And yet 2,000 years ago. God sent his son Jesus Christ and every wicked thing you've ever done.
He took the punishment for He died on the cross for your adultery He died on the cross for your perversion He died on the cross for your sin. Jesus took the price and now if you'll simply Repent of your sins and turn the control of your life over to Jesus that same God that forgave mark That same God that forgave King David As the same God will forgive you Bible says he'll scatter your sins as far as the east is from the west Would you bow with me right now if you've never repented of your sins and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. I Want you to figure out everybody else in this room It's now just you and Jesus and I want you to say this to Jesus But I want you to mean it don't just repeat words say this to Jesus Jesus I am a sinner Lord I've messed up. However, you want to say that I've messed up Jesus I believe you died for my sins Lord you paid the price For my sins And say this to Jesus Jesus I now turn away from my sins and I turn to you This is powerful say this to Jesus Lord forgive me of my sins Jesus come and take control of my life. You're in charge now. I'm giving you my life say that the end Take me to heaven when I die You said that's it Here's my Bible says all who simply call upon the name of the Lord will be saved now look at me right now As I was sitting right down there Worshipping this morning Lord spoke to my heart and that's why I'm going to change our closing this morning His Lord spoke my heart.
So there's some people here today. They have failed Chad, but they failed big time They've asked my forgiveness They want that fresh start in the new beginning. They don't know how to come back They've really messed up and they don't see any way out of this mess up Some y'all have gotten yourself into this mess And you think God's just saying what you got yourself in this mess get yourself out of it That's not the God we serve that same God if you will take that mess that you have made and place it into his hands He's gonna go before you and he's gonna start making the way straight. He's gonna bring light to your darkness He's gonna bring hope to your hopelessness I know you got yourself into this mess But God is the way maker and he'll get himself out get you out of that you believe that So can we right now Don't sing this song to them. Don't sing it to me. I want you to sing this song as A prayer to God right now. Just lift up holy hands Prayer for heart sing this to the Lord right now
