Let's go back to Romans chapter four. I got to get my preaching in because in a couple weeks, I'll be doing a little bit more traveling than I usually do nationally and internationally. One of the places I'll be going to in a couple weeks is Israel to the West Bank to check on the school that y'all built.
You remember the last year we did that? I thought during the war, all that stuff would stop. It's not stopped. They're still building that church and impacting their community for Christ. So I'm going to go and check on y'all's money, make sure the money is doing what money is supposed to be doing. But there's some great things happening.
It's happening globally, but I'll be doing a lot of traveling so the other guys who are incredible communicators will be preaching for me. I talked to a guy last week that took, now this sounds fun, an off-road extreme driving course where you learn how to maneuver and manage hills and valleys and all this kind of stuff. He talked about this vehicle called the Ford Raptor.
Have you ever heard of the Raptor before? The instructor said the Raptor can almost drive itself because the brain of that truck, the computer of that truck is so efficient, so precise that, now watch, here's what he says, the brain determines the performance. I thought about that phrase.
The brain determines the performance. I had a licensed therapist contact me a few weeks ago. She said, I watched one of your sermons online. She's a published therapist. She said, I want to tell you, I agree with what you say. She said, what I'm starting to see is when my clients come in, and she's secular. She's a Christian, but she doesn't have a, quote, unquote, Christian practice.
She's ministering to all kinds of people. When people come in with anxiety, that's her specialty, and depression, if I can change their mind, I can change their behavior. The mind determines the performance.
And this shouldn't surprise us. Be changed, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Your mind changes your performance. Now, I didn't do a good job first service. I don't know if I was half asleep first service or what. Maybe it was just the crowd. It wasn't me.
It was the crowd. All right. I couldn't communicate this well. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. Good theology, if you'll let it, it will determine your performance. Good theology will change the way you live your life. Theology, that's fine, but Chad, I need more practical stuff.
Listen to me. Theology is practical. When your mind is right, your theology is right, it changes the way you live your life. I am convinced if you understand what it means to be saved, that theological concept of being born again saved, if you really understand that, if you let it, it ought to change the way you live your life.
How does it change the way? You ought to be the happiest person on earth if you know you're really saved. Saved people are happy people. So I want you to turn, if you would, to Romans chapter four. And, you know, the Apostle Paul's speaking really to a mixed crowd. It's the Christians in Rome, but you got Jewish background Christians and Gentile background Christians.
And it's almost like he can tell what the Jewish background Christians are saying. Paul says, you know, we are saved by grace through faith. And that's even in the Old Testament.
The Jews say, no, no, no. In the Old Testament, they were saved by the law. They followed the rules.
They were circumcised. That's how they were saved. And Paul says, no, no, no. They were saved by grace alone through faith. Look, if you would, at Romans chapter four, verse one. Paul says, Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. Hey, for the scriptures tell us Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.
When people work, their wages are not a gift, but that's something they have earned. So go back to Genesis 15. In Genesis 15, Abraham is close to 86 years old. And he does not come from a good family.
In Haran, Ur, Ur and then Haran, but in Ur, it's modern day Iraq. His father was probably an idol maker. Jewish tradition says Abraham's father, Terah, was a very wealthy man and he made his money by making idols. So that's the kind of background Abraham comes from. And in Genesis 15, the God of the universe, Abraham looked up. Abraham looked up and says, you see all those stars up there?
He says, yeah. He says, if you believe in me, I'm gonna bless you and you're gonna have descendants that just like you can't count the stars, you won't be able to count your descendants. And in Genesis chapter 15, verse six, it says, Abraham believed. Now, that word believe in Hebrew, you know Hebrew and you didn't realize it. That Hebrew word is amen. Amen.
It means yeah. Abraham, I'm the God of the universe. I'm gonna bless you. My hand is upon you.
I want to call you and make you mine. And you're gonna have a blessing. Your blessing, your descendants are gonna bless the whole world. Abraham, out of all the people on planet earth, is you.
Do you believe that? And Abraham said amen. And when he said amen, the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter four, verse three, that when Abraham said amen, in other words, he just believed in God. Here's what Paul says. God counted that as righteousness. That word counted is a banking term.
Here's literally what it means. The moment Abraham said, yes, God, I believe in you. I trust in you. God deposited righteousness in you. Jesus Christ into Abraham's bank account. Moment you got saved, God deposited the righteousness of his son Jesus Christ into your bank account. Abraham believed God and it was counted as righteousness.
Now, here's the point, though. Paul's saying this happens 500 years before the law is even given. So you Jews who believe, no, no, you've got to follow the law to be made right with God. He says, no, 500 years before the law even comes on the scene, Abraham just believes in God, says yes to God, amen to God. And God counts that as righteousness. Does it make sense?
Now, that actually answers the question, too. Have you ever asked this before? I know how we're saved today.
By God's grace through placing our faith in Jesus Christ. I get that because we're in the New Testament. Have you ever asked this question? How did people in the Old Testament before Jesus get saved? Have you ever asked that question before?
You're just staring at me. Raise your hand. Okay, okay. Here's how people in the Old Testament got saved. Same way you got saved. By God's grace, through faith, it was never by following the law. That wasn't by sacrificing animals. That's not how God's people got saved in the Old Testament.
Listen to me. You and I today, we are saved by looking backward to Jesus Christ. We can look back on the life of Jesus. We know his name. We know what he did.
It's very clear. We get saved by looking backward to Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, they got saved by looking forward toward Jesus Christ. They didn't know his name.
They didn't know where he was going to be born necessarily. But in the Old Testament, they understood there was one true living God of the universe, the God Yahweh. They also believed that God was going to send some kind of special something to save this world. That's what they knew.
Genesis 3.15, Adam and Eve, how were they saved? Because God said, this man's going to come to this world and he's going to crush the head of Satan. You believe that? Yes, we believe that.
Who was that man? Jesus Christ. In Job, the book of Job. Job was written 2000 years before Jesus Christ. And yet Job 19.25, Job says, believe in the true and living God, not just some generic God. I believe in the true Yahweh, the true and living God. And I know that my Redeemer lives and one day he's going to stand on planet Earth. Who is that Redeemer?
Jesus Christ. Hey, they weren't saved in the Old Testament by killing bulls and lambs and ox. They were saved in the Old Testament because every time a lamb was killed, it was pointing them to the coming lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. So how were they saved in the Old Testament? Same way you are, by grace through faith.
You with me on that? All right, so let's keep going. Look at verses 9 through 12. So the Apostle Paul says, okay, I can see Jews saying, all right, you got me, Paul. We're not saved by following the law because Genesis 15, when Abraham believes God and he's saved, that takes place 500 years before the law. We believe that we're saved through circumcision. That's that Jewish rite of passage. And so circumcision, then Paul, is what saves us. The Apostle Paul says, verse nine, is this blessing only for the Jews or is it also for uncircumcised Gentiles? Well, we've been saying that Abraham was counted as righteous by God because of his faith.
But how did this happen? Was he counted as righteous only after he was circumcised? Or was it before he was circumcised? Clearly, God accepted Abraham before he was circumcised.
You see what he's saying? Genesis 15, Abraham is 86 years old when he believes God and he gets saved. Okay, that's Genesis 15. He gets circumcised at age 99. How many years later is that?
Like 13 years later. Abraham gets saved 13 years before he is even circumcised. That's what the Apostle Paul is saying here. You can't say that it was circumcision that made Abraham okay with Jesus. God, because God called Abraham righteous 13 years before he was even circumcised. Verse 11. Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous even before he was circumcised. Look at this.
I love this. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are also counted as righteous because of their faith. But only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Verses 11 and 12 does this. If you have trusted in God for your salvation, you've simply said, God, I'm a sinner. That man Jesus died for my sins. Somebody's got to pay for it.
He paid for it. God, I can't save myself. I just amen to you. I just trust in you.
He says Abraham is your spiritual father. Have you heard of this 23andMe thing? Now they have ancestry.com.
She did the 23andMe. You know what I'm talking about? Where you swab the inside of your mouth, sending your DNA, announcing some big government data bank and they know everything about you.
But I was hoping that it would come back. Your great-great-great-grandfather was George Washington or Napoleon Bonaparte was your great-great-uncle. Nothing like that. I can't find anybody famous that was my ancestor.
It really tears me up because I'd love to see that. But the Apostle Paul says no. You actually have an ancestor, a spiritual ancestor, a great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather whose name is Abraham if you have believed in God just like Abraham believed in God. And now here's where it gets practical. Because I just told you, remember, your mind, what you believe, ought to determine the way you live.
It ought to have practical implications. I just told you, if you're saved, if you're born again, and you know you're born again, that ought to change the way you live your life. I want to make you a different kind of person.
What kind of person? Paul does something very interesting in Romans 4. He's talking about Abraham. Then he slips in another Old Testament character named David. You heard of him before? David has an affair. It's a horrible scandal.
Fumbles the ball big time. And so in verses 6 through 8, Paul reads David's prayer journal. Psalm 32 is part of David's journal. And in Psalm 32, here's what David says.
Verse 3. When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away and I groaned all day long. Day and night, God, your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.
Do you hear that? He said, my body wasted away. I groaned. I didn't have any strength left. That's depression to me.
Listen to me. Sin depresses you. Sin makes you feel bad.
You can lie and laugh all you want. Now I have a good time. Sin makes you feel bad. Isn't it interesting?
It makes us feel bad, but we keep doing the same simple, stupid stuff over and over again. Yeah, I went to the doctor for my annual checkup a little while back. And I said, Doc, I got a problem.
What would you help me with? He said, what? I said, anytime I eat sugars or refined carbohydrates, I feel horrible. I don't have any energy.
I feel blood. I said, I'm not sure what's wrong with me. Doctor, what would you recommend? He said, well, I'd recommend you don't eat sugars and refined carbs.
This is what I'd recommend. Do you know what I do? Eat sugars and refined carbs. Even though I know they make me feel bad. Pastor Chad, every time I watch that TV show, I know it's not a good show. I know it doesn't honor Jesus. God's name in vain.
There's nudity. Every time I watch it, it makes me feel bad. Well, here's the thought. Maybe you ought to stop watching that program if it makes you feel bad, because that's the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Chad, I know I shouldn't listen to that kind of music. I know the kind of stuff they have in that music. I listen to it, and I just feel bad. Here's the thought. Maybe you shouldn't listen to that music.
It's interesting. David is saying, when I was caught up in sin, I felt bad. And then, here's what David did.
Again, we're reading his prayer journal, Psalm 35. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you, and I stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord. And what did God do? And God, you forgave me, and all my guilt is gone.
Now, he's just said he did what we all have to do at one point in our life. God, I'm a sinner. I'm a messed up person. I don't deserve to go to heaven.
I'm not right with you. God, I can't save myself. God, save me. And what happened when David did that? Now, go back to Romans 4. In Romans 4, Paul now is quoting, again, he's still quoting Psalm 32, and he says in Acts 4, verse 6, David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who were declared righteous without even working for it, verse 7.
Here's what David says. Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight, verse 8. S, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin. I confessed my sin to God.
I got right with God, and the result was, do you see this verse 7 and 8? Joy. Now, that word joy in Greek, the Greek word is makairos. You know what it really means?
I hate to say it shallow. It means happy. I confessed my sin, God forgave me, God saved me, and it made me happy. Saved people are happy people.
I want you to listen to me. Saved people, if you're saved, and you know you're saved, you ought to be happy. Well, Pastor Chad, the Greek word for joy is not dependent upon circumcision. Just happy people. Saved people are happy people. Why are we happy? I can give you a bunch of reasons.
Let me give you three reasons why saved people ought to be the happiest people on planet Earth. Number one, we don't have the fear of death anymore. Look, I'm afraid of needles, and I'm afraid of snakes, and I'm not trying to be a tough guy or whatever. Outside of that, I'm just not scared of dying.
I'm really not. It's not scary. Now, the fear of death, honestly, it is decimating our society. Dr. Clay Jones of Biola University says secular scientists are now saying that the fear of death drives all of our culture. Secular psychologists are now saying many psychoses and schizophrenia come from the fear of death. In 1973, Ernest Becker had a Pulitzer Prize winning book called The Denial of Death, and he says the idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human being like nothing else.
He says it is the main spring of human activity. That therapist I told you wrote to me, she said what I'm finding in my therapy is a lot of the anxiety, again, she's an anxiety specialist, a lot of the anxiety that I'm dealing with with people, if you go back, it goes back to the fear of death. If we can deal with the fear of death, we can destroy a lot of anxiety.
The only thing I know of that can destroy the fear of death is getting born again and saved, because you know the moment you close your eyes in this world, you open your eyes in the next world. In fact, there's a story, it's about this last night. You heard that story where a little girl, like a 12-year-old girl or something dies, and Jesus goes into her room, she's laying there, she's a corpse, she's dead.
Have you ever noticed this? Jesus says to that little girl, talitha kum. Talitha is a term of endearment. Literally, can't tell you what Jesus is literally saying? He's saying, sweetheart, it's time to get up. And he takes her by the hand and she gets up. He says, honey, it's time to get up.
And he takes her by the hand and she gets up. That is a beautiful picture of the death of a believer. You die, whether it be a heart attack, cancer, or a wreck on the side of the interstate, and Jesus comes and says, sweetheart, it's time to get up.
It's time to come home. Isn't that beautiful? And so, why are saved people happy people? Because number one, we don't have the death. Number two, saved people are happy people because they know, now watch this, there's a higher power working on your behalf, and that higher power loves you. If you're not born again and saved, you don't have that assurance. You can't say with assurance, there is a higher power working on your behalf.
The moment you get saved, God says, you are now mine, and I am now actually working on your behalf. And in fact, 1 John 4.18 says this, I love this, 1 John 4.18 says, there is, how much fear? No fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, we'll get back to that, and whoever fears, look at this, you got phobias and fears, you've not been perfected in love. That word fear, perfect love casts out fear in the Greek, it is phobos, phobia. Here's what he's saying, there is no phobias in love, but perfect love, where's the only place you can find perfect love?
Not from your mama, not from your wife, from your therapist. The only place you can find perfect love is from the Father, and that perfect love, if you let it, just expels, it drives out fear. He says, because fear has to do with punishment. If I'm born again, I'm going to blow your mind, I will never be punished by God ever again. Will I get spanked every now and then by death? The Father's going to spank you every now and then you get out of line. He's not going to punish you.
Why? He took out all your punishment on his son 2,000 years ago, there's no punishment in God, there might be discipline, but there ain't no punishment, and that ought to drive out fear. So why are saved people happy people? Number one, because we're not afraid of death, number two, because we understand there's a higher power who loves us working on our behalf, and then number three, saved and forgiven people ought to be the most forgiving people on planet earth, and your lack of forgiveness is what's making some of you miserable.
If I understand that I've been forgiven by the God of the universe because I'm partly responsible for the death of his son on the cross, and yet he's forgiven me, how can I be mad at other people and not forgive them? Saved people are happy people. Now, some of you, I'm saved, I know I'm saved. I'm born again, I'm saved, I'm going to heaven. But this season in my life, I'm not happy. There's some things going on in my life. You said saved people are happy people. I'm a saved person. But in this season, I'm not happy now. Explain that to me, Pastor Chad.
Well, there are different reasons why you might be going through a period of depression. In fact, some of it could be demonic. In fact, this Wednesday night, I'm talking about the interplay between demons and Christians.
Can Christians have a demon? I'm going to share a theory. I've never shared with you all publicly before. It's just a theory.
I'll be sharing that Wednesday night. So I know there's various issues. But big picture, I'm a Christian, I'm saved, but I'm not happy.
Explain that to me. Well, verses 18 through 20 give a general reason why sometimes Christians aren't happy. Look at verse 18. Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept on hoping, believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, that's how many descendants you will have.
Let me say this. Do you know Abraham was not his given name? Anybody know what his given name was? Abram. Do you know what Abraham means? It means the father of a bunch of people. Now, for years, he had to have the name Abraham, the father of many people, when he didn't have any kids.
Could you imagine him introducing himself to somebody? What's your name? Well, I'm the father of a lot of kids. Oh, how many kids you have?
None. Now that's faith. For years, he had to say, I'm the father of a lot of kids, and there ain't no kids, and I'm approaching 100 years of age. That's faith. But then look at this, verse 19. And Abraham's faith, watch this, did not weaken, even though at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead, and so was Sarah's womb. Abraham, look at verse 20, never wavered in believing God's promise.
Now, if you know your Bible, you'll say, whoa, whoa, whoa, verse 20, Abraham never wavered in his faith? Hey, look, in chapter 15 of Genesis, God says you're gonna have a son. Chapter 16, there's no son. So his old wife says to this 99-year-old man, I want you to have sex with our housekeeper and get her pregnant, and we'll have a son through her. And all the young ladies said, ew.
And so he does it. She gets pregnant. She has a son. Anybody know what the son's name is? Ishmael.
I was thinking, there's a lot of humor in the Bible. Do you know what happens after Sarah, the one who said, have an affair with my housekeeper and get pregnant, and she gets pregnant and has a baby. Do you know what she does to Abraham? You jerk. I can't believe you got her pregnant.
You told me to. So anyway, so chapter 16, he tries to force God's hand and have this child through Hagar. That's chapter 16, chapter 17 of Genesis.
There's still no son. And so Abraham getting frustrated and impatient. He says, oh God, would the Ishmael just be the son of the promise? And God says, it's not him. Now, you tell me, Paul, he never wavered in his faith. I've just given you several chapters where it seems to me that Abraham wavered in his faith. How in the world do you explain that?
Here's how I explain it. Listen to me. Struggling in your faith is not the same thing as wavering in your faith. Some of y'all going through a season right now where you're struggling in your faith. There's some things going on in your life that you're not happy about.
In this season, you're not happy. Struggling in your faith is not wavering in your faith. You're going to come through this season. But if you're hearing me say, say people are happy, people say you'll never struggle, you're going to struggle. There will come seasons of frustration and struggle in your life. My spiritual gift is encouragement. So I'll just tell you, you are going to struggle. You are going to get frustrated. Struggling is not wavering.
You with me on that? In fact, I don't know who Pastor Greg Laurie is. Pastor Greg Laurie several years ago had an adult son to die in an automobile accident. I don't know if you ever heard his eulogy of that son.
It'll break your heart. And he was struggling with this. And so Greg Laurie went to his mentor, a man named Chuck Smith, that started the whole Calvary Chapel movement, and he says, I love my son. My son walked to the Lord. We walked to the Lord.
We're doing it right. What happened? He said Chuck Smith gave him the greatest piece of advice anybody had given him.
He said, Greg, never exchange what you do know for what you don't know. I don't know why your son died. I don't know how this fits in the plan of God.
I don't know why this happens, but here's what I do know. God loves you. God loves that son. That son is in heaven.
You are going to see that son again one day. That's what you do know. Don't exchange what you do know for what you don't know. And if you're struggling in your faith today, that's my advice to you. Don't, listen to me, don't abandon what you do know. God will never leave you, never forsake you.
He's with you always to the end of the age. God is for you, not against you. Don't abandon what you do know for what you don't know.
And if you hold on to what you do know, those unanswered questions, they'll take care of themselves one day. Now, verse 22, we'll wind this thing down. God says something very interesting through the apostle Paul. He says, and because of Abraham's faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn't just for Abraham's benefit.
It was recorded for our benefit too. Assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him and the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die our sins and he was raised to life to make us right with God. Look at verse 24. Paul says the story of Abraham, it's here to assure us. Some of y'all need some assurity today.
I'm gonna say it again. If you're sure that you're born again, if you're sure that you're right with God, that's gonna change the way you live your life. Some of y'all need that assurance today. Because listen, you only have three options when it comes to you dying and going to heaven, being made right with God and going to heaven.
Y'all have three options. Option number one is it's all of you and none of God. I gotta work hard, live right, it's all of me and none of God. Problem with that, you never know if you've done enough. What if you live like this good of a moral life but God really wanted you to live that good? You see what I'm saying? If you think it's all of you and none of God, you never know if you've done enough to get to heaven.
That's what I'm trying to say. Your second option is it's part you, part God. Here's the problem with that.
Same thing with problem number one. You still don't know if you did enough on your end for God to do what he needs to do on his end. That's your second option. Your first option is it's all of you and none of God. Second option is part you, part God. Third option is it's all of God and none of you. The only way you can have assurance is to understand it is none of me and it is all of him. That's where the assurance comes in. When you have that assurance that you are saved and born again, I'm telling you, it will change the way you live your life.
Saved people are happy people. Let me share a story with you. I've shared it before. Somebody asks, why don't you share the stories over and over again with several reasons. Number one, a lot of y'all haven't heard them before because we've got new people coming in all the time.
A lot of people haven't heard it before. Number two, if it's a good story, I want to use it. I don't want to let it go. Honestly, the third reason I'm just too lazy to come up with new stories.
Don't think of a surety. It changes your life. It really hit home for me several years ago. I was coming back by myself from a mission trip. I think I've been in the Middle East. It's coming back and there have been flight delays and all this kind of stuff.
I was at Chicago airports where I was. I'm tired. I just want to get home. I've got jet lag, sleep deprived.
There have been all these kind of storms. The airline had overbooked. Sometimes they'll do that. They'll overbook. It's all these people are going to the front. I'd see them talk to the lady at the front desk. They get so mad. They kind of wander around.
They're pacing back and forth and they're biting their fingernails. I guess I got to go to the front and see what's going on. So I went up and I said, here's my ticket. What's your name? Chad Harvey.
Okay, Mr. Harvey. She said, okay, you're confirmed. I said, what does that mean?
She said, you're getting on this flight tonight. I said, what about all these other people who are mad? They're pacing around. She said, they're all on standby. I said, what does that mean? That means they may or may not get on the plane tonight.
That's why they're so upset. You're not on standby. You're confirmed. When I was confirmed, I didn't stress out anymore. I went, there's a Starbucks there.
I walked past the Starbucks cause there's a liberal and I went down to the Dunkin Donuts and got a Dunkin Donuts coffee and just started drinking and I was able to sit back and relax and I was watching everybody else, nervously back and forth cause they're on standby. They don't know if they're coming home tonight. I sat there with a peace that passes all understanding cause I was confirmed and I'm telling you, why is this world messed up and sad and depressed?
Listen to me, because we are confirmed people in a standby world. They don't know where they're going when they die. They don't know what their eternal home is. You and I have been confirmed through the blood of Jesus Christ that this world is not my home. The day is going to come.
I want to leave this place and go to my real home. I am confirmed in a standby world church. Saved people are the happiest people in the world.
I want you to stand with me right now. If you're not certain, I'm as serious as I can possibly be. If you're not certain that you have eternal life and that when you die, you're going to heaven. Do you know what the Bible says? John says, these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life. How can I know? You think you're going to heaven one day?
I don't think. I know I'm going to heaven one day. Why? Cause 2000 years ago that man took my hell upon the cross. He took my punishment on the cross and I've turned for my sins and I've trusted in him and he has come to live inside of me and he has promised me that I'm preparing a place for you and when I'm finished, I'm going to bring you home to be with me forever. If you don't have that assurance, I affirm you say this for repeating the right word doesn't save you.
Jesus saves you. I want you to bow your head right now and I want you to imagine it's just you and Jesus in this room. Now that's a weird thought isn't it? That the most famous man who ever lived is in this room right now.
Isn't that strange? Jesus is right here. And if this captures what's going on in your heart, I want you to say this. You can say it out loud or you can say it in your spirit, but I want you to mean this with all your heart. I want you to say to Jesus. Jesus, I am a sinner. I don't deserve to go to heaven. Say this to him, but I believe you died for my sins. You paid the price, Jesus, for my sins.
Say this to him. Lord, I believe you were buried. I believe three days later God raised you from the dead and the Lord is the Lord.
You're alive right now. Now this is so important. Say to him, Lord, I turn away from my sin and I turn to you. Please forgive me of all my sin.
Come and take control of my life. When I die, take me to heaven. In Jesus name. Amen.
You said, is that it? I've told you before, there's a man down on the cross next to Jesus. All he said was, Lord, just remember me when you come into your kingdom. All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And the more, I'm telling you, the more I think about what God did for me, the more I contemplate the reality of heaven and hell and where I was headed before Jesus came and changed my life. I don't know about you, it just makes me love God and worship him more and more and more.
Are you all with me on that? In fact, can we just do this right now? Can you lift up your hands and lift up your voices and just start praising God? Father, thank you for saving my soul. Thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, who died for my sins. Thank you. Thank you.
Sometimes that's the most beautiful prayers. Just thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Father. We bless you. We praise your name. For from you are all things, and to you are all things. You deserve glory. You're worthy, you're worthy of it all. You're worthy of it all. For from you are all things, and to you are all things.
You deserve the glory. Day and night, night and day, let incense arise. Day and night, night and day, let incense arise.
Day and night, night and day, let incense arise. Day and night, night and day, you're worthy of it all. You're worthy of it all, Jesus.
For from you are all things, and to you are all things. You deserve the glory. Oh, you're worthy. You're worthy of it all. You're worthy of it all. For from you are all things, and to you are all things.
You deserve the glory. Come on church, people are happy people. Come on, you got the joy of the Lord on the inside of you. Come on, my prayer is that this week, you go to work, as you go to school, come on in your house, that you're just carrying the joy of the Lord everywhere you go.
That people look at you and say, what's different about you? And we have the opportunity to go win this world for Christ. Are you with me? So listen church, the Lord bless you, keep you, cause his face to shine upon you, give you grace and peace now and forever. God bless you church, let's go win this world for Christ. We'll see you next week.
