Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:08] Church. We are thrilled you decided to listen to our teaching on your favorite podcast app. If you made a decision to follow Christ today, would you let us know by visiting? Yes.newlife gillette.com Here is this week's teaching.
[00:00:27] Hey, let me say welcome to those of you who are watching on church307.com to the guys over at the prison, to our friends at the jail, and those of you who are here in the room.
[00:00:37] Has anybody here ever been a broke college student? Anybody? Yeah, that was me. I led worship for churches when I was in college for money. That was my job. And just so you know, it doesn't pay very well. And so I was always broke in college when one time in particular, I was like, 2 cents in the bank broke. No cash, nothing, could not pay for anything. Just living off student loans and going to the cafeteria, like, that was how we survived. And one day the president of the university, when I was broke, like this, came up to me and said, hey, Mike, I'd like to talk to you about a job.
[00:01:17] And I was like, awesome. He said, so can you go to Chili's with me tomorrow for lunch?
[00:01:23] And I was like, er, I don't have any. I didn't say this out loud, but I was like, I don't have any money. I can't go to Chili's. I can't afford to go to Chili's. But in the moment I'm like, I can't look that irresponsible. Yes, I'll go to Chili's with you. The problem is, the whole time at Chili's, I was just. I couldn't even hear his description of the job. He did offer me a job and he was like, talking about the details and all that stuff. I couldn't even hear what he was telling me because. Because all I could think was, is he expecting me to pay for my meal?
[00:01:54] Are we like, are we splitting the check here? Are you covering the check? I was too scared to ask him in that moment, but I was just thinking, it's going to be really embarrassing when I have to wash dishes to pay for my meal after this, or I have to ask him to pay because I didn't have any ability to pay. If you have any close friends that you hang out with a lot of, like, maybe you do a lot of meals together, you share childcare, you do different things. At some point you have to have that conversation, like, who's covering what? Who's paying for what? We gotta meet halfway, we gotta come up with something that is fair, so that everybody is doing their fair share. And that's just kind of how we assume life works, right? And so I think when we come into a relationship with God, this is just kind of the natural tendency we have that we start thinking, okay, God gives me some really good gifts. He died for me. He forgave my sins, all that stuff. So what do I gotta do?
[00:02:51] What's my job? What's my responsibility in this relationship? To prop up this relationship? How much do I gotta pay for in order to make this relationship possible?
[00:03:04] So we just kind of assume in our relationship with God that Jesus meets us halfway. We say, God, if I do this for you, then I'm asking you to do this for me. And then we'll meet in the middle, and somewhere salvation will happen there in the middle. But actually, the truth is that if Jesus said to us, I'll meet you halfway, then he would be there waiting for us, because we could never get halfway.
[00:03:31] In fact, we could never even take the first step toward Jesus.
[00:03:36] John Wesley called this prevenient grace.
[00:03:39] Like, we need God to come to us in the very beginning just to help us take any steps in life. We need God to come to us and give us grace that we cannot earn on our own.
[00:03:54] We are all dead broke. You can't pay for one French fry at Chili's like, you're dead broke.
[00:04:03] Scripture tells us that we are dead in our sins and dead people can't walk anywhere. Contrary to many movies, dead people are dead.
[00:04:16] You can't do it on your own. You don't have the ability to meet God halfway.
[00:04:20] Well, the good news is, Jesus never said, meet me halfway.
[00:04:24] The truth is, the gospel message is, Jesus went all the way.
[00:04:29] He went all the way to the cross, he went all the way to the tomb. He went all the way into your life. He came to you.
[00:04:37] And the only thing that we bring to the party is the sin that needs to be forgiven, the dead life that needs to be resurrected.
[00:04:47] And that's what makes it good news.
[00:04:49] It's not good news because we are good. It's good news because he is good. We are dead in our sins, but he was alive and he raised us to life.
[00:05:00] Jesus saved us. We couldn't bring anything on our own, so he did it all.
[00:05:07] So the question is, all right, he did it. He earned it. Not, what do I need to do in order to earn the relationship? The. The question then becomes, okay, now that I'm alive now, what is my response?
[00:05:22] Now that he has saved me, how do I respond to the gift.
[00:05:28] Jesus taught us that if we can ever fully grasp what he did for us on the cross, then we will not be able to help but love Him.
[00:05:39] Because I've often wondered in my life, how do you make somebody love somebody? We ask this question in marriage counseling all the time.
[00:05:47] Like when two people that are married just decide that they don't love each other anymore. Usually there's been a lot of mistakes that were made to. To get them to that place. But usually they get to the place that they don't love each other anymore, and you start saying, okay, how do you make somebody love somebody?
[00:06:02] Well, God tells us that love is a response that I love because I'm loved.
[00:06:10] John tells us that we love because he first loved us.
[00:06:15] Love is a response.
[00:06:17] So somebody's got to give love so. So that love can be reciprocated. It's a gift not earned. It's got to be a gift.
[00:06:26] And so God gives us this gift, his sacrifice. He dies on the cross for our sins when we don't deserve it.
[00:06:33] And our response to him will naturally be to love Him.
[00:06:38] The problem is if we refuse to recognize the gift that he's given us because we think we're good people that didn't actually need anything.
[00:06:46] I was earning my way on my own. I didn't really need anything from him. I'm a good person. I can easily go halfway. Look at me.
[00:06:52] I'm good.
[00:06:54] And so if our pride gets in the way and we believe that we did meet him halfway, now all of a sudden we decrease in our love because we don't recognize the gift that he's actually given to us.
[00:07:05] There's this scene in the Bible where Jesus is interacting with an immoral woman.
[00:07:10] We're assuming she's a prostitute or. Or something like that.
[00:07:14] So Jesus forgives this woman of her sins, which catches everybody off guard. She's an outcast. Jesus, you shouldn't even be talking to her.
[00:07:23] And this is what Jesus said about her. He said, her sins, and they are many, have been forgiven.
[00:07:30] So she has shown me much love.
[00:07:33] Her sins are many, and her many sins are forgiven. That leads to much love.
[00:07:39] But a person who is forgiven just a little shows only a little love.
[00:07:44] So the truth is, we're all forgiven a lot. But not all of us recognize how much we're forgiven for.
[00:07:50] Scripture teaches us that no one is good.
[00:07:54] There's no good person.
[00:07:56] That's impossible because we're dead in our sins.
[00:08:00] And when we fully recognize what we are saved from hell and the sins that have been forgiven in our lives. That's when we begin to love God, when we recognize how much he died, he did for us. God died for you, knowing that you would commit the worst sin that you would ever commit, the worst one. Because often when we think about how good people we are, we think about the good things we do, and we kind of shut out the worst things that we've done. We don't want to think about that. Or we do something even worse. We compare ourselves to other people and we start listing their sins. And we're like, I'm not as bad as that guy.
[00:08:38] Look at him. I'm better than he is.
[00:08:41] And pride gets in the way of us loving God.
[00:08:45] If we don't love God, it is because there's pride in our lives that is keeping us from loving God.
[00:08:51] So my prayer for you is that you will fall more in love with God as he more and more recognized his extravagant love that forgave you while you were dead in your sins, while you were actively sinning against you, he was dying for you.
[00:09:08] That should evoke love. And it will evoke love if you can ever see it.
[00:09:13] So in this series, I'm going to tell you one more story about Peter.
[00:09:16] This one happened the night that Jesus was arrested and crucified and all that stuff. And so they're in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the SWAT team comes in and arrests Jesus and drags him off. Right?
[00:09:28] You know what Peter does?
[00:09:30] Peter's a brave dude.
[00:09:32] Peter follows the SWAT team taking Jesus to jail. Here's the story, Simon Peter followed Jesus, as did another of the disciples.
[00:09:42] That other disciple was acquainted with the high priest.
[00:09:46] So he was allowed to enter the high priest's courtyard with Jesus.
[00:09:50] Peter had to stay outside the gate.
[00:09:53] Then the disciple who knew the high priest spoke to the woman watching at the gate, and she let him in. Okay, so the story is telling us about Peter and another disciple. We know by reading the book of John that this other disciple is probably John himself. He doesn't like to talk about. He doesn't use his own name to refer to himself. And he doesn't say I. He just kind of gives himself a description of. It's. I think it's some kind of, like, humility thing where he doesn't want to give himself credit or.
[00:10:22] So he just refers to himself by description. So John, what we know about him in history, some scholars say that John's mom was actually related to the high priest. And so that is why he was able to go into the courtyard. That's why he had this VIP access. Other people say that actually John was a wealthy business owner and that the fisherman description that we give to him actually undersells the fact that he was the owner of this fisherman business. And he was. It was a lucrative business, and he was wealthy and connected, and that's why he was able to go into the high priest courtyard. We're not exactly sure, but for some reason, John has this VIP access, and he calls in a favor with the woman who's in charge of watching the gate and asks her, hey, will you let Peter come in? And so now you picture the scene. John and Peter in the courtyard watching Jesus be interrogated.
[00:11:10] And the woman asked Peter, you're not one of that man. That's Jesus. You're not one of that man's disciples, are you?
[00:11:17] No, he said, I'm not.
[00:11:20] Because it was cold, the household servants and the guards had made a charcoal fire. What kind of fire was it?
[00:11:28] Charcoal fire. We got to remember that because it's coming up later in the story. It's important.
[00:11:31] Meanwhile, Jesus is being interrogated by the high priest. And so Peter's probably hearing the interrogation or while this person's quizzing him about following Jesus or not.
[00:11:44] And so you picture this scene. And as Simon Peter was standing by the fire, warming himself, they asked him again, you're not one of his disciples, are you? He denied it, saying, no, I am not.
[00:11:56] But one of the household slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off asked, didn't I see you out there in the olive grove with Jesus?
[00:12:07] Again, Peter denied it. And immediately a rooster crowed.
[00:12:13] How many times did Peter deny knowing Jesus?
[00:12:18] Three times. Important number in this story.
[00:12:21] But the truth is, it doesn't really matter, right?
[00:12:25] I mean, if Jesus is about to die, does it matter if you deny him or not?
[00:12:33] I mean, you're not a disciple of Jesus. If Jesus is dead.
[00:12:37] If Jesus is dead, Christianity is dead.
[00:12:40] The movement's over.
[00:12:42] So Peter might as well go back to being a fisherman because he's not a disciple of Jesus. Jesus is dead.
[00:12:50] But what he didn't expect, even though Jesus told him he should expect it. What Peter didn't expect is that three days later, Peter, Christianity is alive and well.
[00:13:02] The movement has been reborn.
[00:13:04] It's been resurrected.
[00:13:07] You talk about whiplash.
[00:13:09] It's like, Jesus is dead, the movement's dead. Oh, Jesus is alive. And now if Jesus is alive, if Christ rose from the dead, then Christianity is more alive now than it ever was before.
[00:13:23] Before it was a guy who could perform some cool miracles and preach some really cool stuff.
[00:13:30] But now, if God's going to raise Jesus from the dead, God has just confirmed all the crazy claims that Jesus made about being God.
[00:13:41] Now this isn't just Jesus, our rabbi now, this is Jesus, God.
[00:13:50] And now denying him means a lot more.
[00:13:57] A couple weeks after Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus has a new body.
[00:14:02] And so he's traveling all over the world, like miraculously jumping from place to place.
[00:14:09] And Peter, remember, he's gone back to fishing.
[00:14:12] Peter and some of the other disciples were out fishing on the Sea of Galilee.
[00:14:16] This is where they usually went to fish, but they couldn't catch anything on the Sea of Galilee. I don't know if it was a problem with the sea or they were terrible fishermen or what, but that's just couldn't catch any fish. Meanwhile, Jesus appears on the beach. And he's standing on the beach making breakfast and he yells out to the disciples who are out fishing.
[00:14:36] He says, have you caught anything?
[00:14:39] No, they replied.
[00:14:41] Then Jesus said, throw out your net on the right side hand side of the boat and you will get some.
[00:14:48] So they did. And they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.
[00:14:55] Can you think of another time when this happened?
[00:14:59] Can you think about another time when Peter was out fishing and didn't catch anything and then Jesus performed a miracle and now all of a sudden their nets are full of fish?
[00:15:07] Yeah. This is, this is the first story that I talked about in this series.
[00:15:11] It's the same thing that happened when Peter began his relationship with Jesus was the first time that Jesus appeared to Peter at the Sea of Galilee and said, throw out your nets. And they were full.
[00:15:24] And this is the moment, the first time, when Peter encountered Jesus. Remember how he responded?
[00:15:30] Peter fell to his knees.
[00:15:33] He was overcome with guilt and conviction for the sins that he had committed in his life. And he began to ask Jesus to get away from him because he felt so guilty for the s he had committed.
[00:15:44] And instead of sending Peter away in that moment, Jesus says, no, follow me.
[00:15:50] Come with me.
[00:15:52] Be my student and I will make you a fisher of men.
[00:15:57] Then the disciple that Jesus loved, that's again John referring to himself by a description, said to Peter, it's the Lord.
[00:16:05] When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic for he had stripped for work. Thanks for that detail. Bible jumped into the water and headed to shore.
[00:16:16] The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about 100 yards from shore.
[00:16:23] When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them. Here's a description of the breakfast fish cooking over a charcoal fire and some bread.
[00:16:34] I think those items that Jesus picked were very intentional.
[00:16:39] In fact, there are only times. There's only two times in all of scripture that a charcoal fire is mentioned, and we've just read both of them.
[00:16:48] You think Jesus did a charcoal fire on purpose?
[00:16:52] And what is he cooking? He's cooking the bread.
[00:16:56] He's cooking some fish.
[00:17:00] Did you know that the part of the brain that is dedicated to smell is called the olfactory bulb? Chatgpt tells me.
[00:17:08] And the olfactory bulb is in the limbic system, in the brain. That is the same part of the brain that deals with emotions and memory.
[00:17:19] That's why.
[00:17:20] Have you ever had one of those moments where you smelled something and then all of a sudden you were transported to some memory of your past?
[00:17:27] It's like you could restand in that place and go back through that whole memory very intimately. You could feel the emotions of that moment.
[00:17:36] It's because that smell awoke something in your brain that maybe you had even forgotten about. But the smell brought it back.
[00:17:46] And so in this moment, Peter is on the beach, and he's smelling the bread, reminding him of that moment in the upper room when Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him.
[00:18:00] He's smelling the fish, and he's remembering back to when Jesus met him on the beach the first time and said, follow me.
[00:18:13] And he's smelling the charcoal fire, remembering that he has denied his Lord.
[00:18:22] And in this moment, it's all coming back.
[00:18:27] In other words, Jesus is taking Peter on an emotional walk down memory lane.
[00:18:33] The net full of fish, the bread, the charcoal fire. And in this moment, Peter is overwhelmed with conviction again.
[00:18:42] And I'm guessing he's panicking.
[00:18:45] Jesus knows I betrayed him. Of course he knows. He. He's Jesus now. I know he's God. And he's panicking. He's saying, what's Jesus gonna do?
[00:18:54] How's he gonna punish me?
[00:18:56] I denied him.
[00:18:58] Have you ever felt caught?
[00:19:02] Ever felt like you thought you got away with something, but then you realize you were caught?
[00:19:08] When I was in college, we used to pull pranks a lot. We were poor. So what else do you have to do? You pull pranks on people.
[00:19:15] And so one night, we decided that we were going to break into the president's office. Same president I talked to you about earlier. The president, university's office. And we were going to toilet paper his office. So we stole a bunch of toilet paper from the janitor's closet. And we didn't just, like, throw some rolls of toilet paper. We wrapped every book, we wrapped the chair, we wrapped the lamp. Like, we covered this office in toilet paper. And it was awesome. Well, apparently, that's an expensive prank to pull. And the next morning, the president's secretary took a picture of it and send it out to the whole school. And they're trying to figure out who did this. And nobody ratted on us. And so we got away with it.
[00:19:57] So fast forward years later, and I'm walking across the stage to get my diploma on graduation day, and the president is standing here, and I'm walking across the stage, and if you've done this before, you know, with one hand, he reaches out to shake your hand. With the other hand, he hands you the diploma. And so I go out to shake his hand, and he. He reaches to shake my hand. And then he says, like this. And he puts the diploma back on the table, and he reaches under the table and he grabs a roll of toilet paper and hands it to me instead of my diploma.
[00:20:29] In this moment, I'm like, I'm caught.
[00:20:33] He knew all along.
[00:20:36] But then I start thinking, wait a minute.
[00:20:38] But he still offered me the job. By this time, I was working for him.
[00:20:43] Why did he still offer me the job if he knew the whole time that I was the one that did it?
[00:20:50] You know, sometimes in our lives when we feel guilty about doing something, it keeps us from taking a step that God wants us to take.
[00:20:59] Have you ever felt really guilty so you felt like you couldn't pray?
[00:21:04] God does not want to hear from me right now.
[00:21:09] Has conviction ever stopped you from taking a brave step forward?
[00:21:14] Maybe insecurity, like, I can't do it. I'm not strong enough. I don't have what it takes.
[00:21:20] Maybe it keeps you from doing something that you believe God might be calling you to do.
[00:21:27] It's in these moments that I think that we undersell God's incredible grace.
[00:21:33] Because we still think that our goodness has something to do with our ability to come to Him.
[00:21:39] We think that our goodness is earning access to God.
[00:21:46] And we think that it is our goodness that's going to accomplish the things that he put us in the world to accomplish.
[00:21:54] And over and over and over again, God tells us, no, it's not your goodness.
[00:21:58] It's not your strength.
[00:22:00] You come to me and you allow me to carry the weight that you can't Carry that you're too weak to carry.
[00:22:07] So the inability to come to God is actually us saying no to him, not him saying no to us.
[00:22:17] And this is why it's so important for our church, for Christians to continually remind us that it's the Satan that is lying to us, telling us that we can't come to God.
[00:22:28] His love is unconditional.
[00:22:31] His grace is sufficient. His mercies are new every morning, keep coming to him because his relentless love is there waiting for us the way it was for Peter.
[00:22:47] After breakfast, Jesus asked, simon, Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
[00:22:55] Yes, Lord. Peter, love. Peter replied, you know I love you.
[00:22:59] Then feed my lambs.
[00:23:02] Be a fisher of men.
[00:23:04] Then do my work.
[00:23:08] Be a part of my mission. Step up and do the thing you were created to do. Jesus told him.
[00:23:14] Jesus repeated the question. Simon, son of John, do you love me?
[00:23:18] Yes, Lord, Peter said, you know I love you.
[00:23:21] Then take care of my sheep.
[00:23:24] Jesus said a third time, he asked him, simon, son of John, do you love me?
[00:23:33] Peter is hurt.
[00:23:35] Peter is overwhelmed with emotion.
[00:23:38] Peter is broken in this moment that Jesus asked him the question a third time.
[00:23:45] He said, lord, you know everything.
[00:23:49] You know that I love you.
[00:23:51] Jesus said, then feed my sheep.
[00:23:56] Peter, I knew that you would screw up when I first invited you to follow me.
[00:24:02] But my grace is sufficient. Peter, Peter, you denied me here at the fire, but I'm still here, here for you. I'm meeting with you.
[00:24:15] And today Jesus is standing here with you, asking you the same question. He asked, Peter, do you love me?
[00:24:26] There's a chance that maybe in your past, at some point, you had an encounter with God. Maybe in Sunday school or a youth group, or a friend talked to you about Jesus, or maybe it was in college.
[00:24:38] But then life happens, right?
[00:24:41] Distractions.
[00:24:42] This consumeristic world teaches us that we've got to perform, we've got to earn.
[00:24:48] And we started trying really hard to prove ourselves, to show how good we could be, how impressive we could be, how much weight we could carry.
[00:24:59] And the world just keeps breaking us down.
[00:25:04] Jesus is here saying, listen, all of that is a distraction.
[00:25:08] You can only carry a weight if it is my strength that is carrying the weight.
[00:25:18] Scripture talks to us about being yoked to Christ.
[00:25:22] You know how they. They would yoke two oxen together so that they could carry a heavier weight.
[00:25:29] Jesus, like, yoke yourself to me, because what you really need is not for you to be stronger. You need for more of me in you to be stronger.
[00:25:39] So the question isn't how strong are you? How much can you perform? How much can you earn? The question that determines everything else is the question, do you love me? Are you ready to yoke yourself to me?
[00:25:52] Because your response to this question determines everything else. This is the marriage question.
[00:25:58] This is what happened in marriage. Two people come together. We say, we are becoming one person. We are yoked together. That means the burdens that we carry, we carry together. So the question of marriage is, do you love me? Like, really love me?
[00:26:12] Not, are you infatuated with me? Are you attracted to me? The real question of marriage is, do you love me? Are you ready to carry the weight with me? Are you ready to carry the burden with me and Jesus? Invitation of salvation is a marriage invitation.
[00:26:25] Do you love me?
[00:26:27] Will you yoke yourself to me?
[00:26:30] Are you gonna keep trying to carry all the weight yourself?
[00:26:33] Are you trying to be good enough? Are you trying to earn it?
[00:26:37] Are you ready to submit yourself to His Lordship? Do it his way, not the world's way?
[00:26:43] Do you love me? I know you're gonna screw up. You're gonna screw up over and over and over again. You're gonna fall short over and over and over again. The question isn't, how good are you gonna become? The question is, do you love me?
[00:26:56] Because really, what makes us better, what helps us grow is not trying harder. What really helps us grow is staying connected to him. He will mature us. He will grow us. He will convict us of sin.
[00:27:08] He will sanctify us. If we will stay connected to him, then he will continue the process of maturing us. And yes, then we will begin to sin less, but it is not sinning less that makes it possible for us to be in a relationship with Him.
[00:27:24] So at that point, we just stopped trying to earn it.
[00:27:27] At that point, we just stopped saying, okay, I'm done trying to earn your love.
[00:27:32] I'm ready to receive your love.
[00:27:35] Because if I could earn his love, then I get the credit.
[00:27:41] And then pride grows. And then pride keeps us from becoming the people that we're created to be.
[00:27:47] Because the truth is, if we could be saved through obedience, then the good news isn't good at all.
[00:27:54] If we could be saved by being obedient, then obedience becomes a list of rules, a burden that is too heavy for us to carry. You look all throughout history at everybody who's tried to earn their way to heaven, and they just fail over and over and over again. Look at the history of Israel.
[00:28:12] God's like, you're my chosen people. And they're like, great but pride builds, and they just do nothing they're supposed to do. They turn their back on God over and over and over again. And this is what happens when our pride grows because we are earning.
[00:28:25] That's not good news.
[00:28:27] The only good news is that God is good for us and we can't earn it. That's good news. You're not strong enough. That's good news. Why? Because he's strong enough and he wants to give you his strength.
[00:28:42] Second, if we could be saved by obedience, then Jesus died for nothing.
[00:28:46] Why did he come?
[00:28:48] What was the purpose of Jesus dying on the cross? If I could be good enough, then Jesus died for nothing.
[00:28:57] No. Jesus died so that his righteousness could be imparted to you, so his goodness could become your goodness.
[00:29:08] And Jesus died so that your sins could be imparted to Him. That's what you bring.
[00:29:14] That's what you have to offer.
[00:29:16] He died so that your sins could be punished.
[00:29:22] But he's the only one strong enough to receive the punishment.
[00:29:27] So he took the lashes on your behalf. He was hung on the cross for your sins, and he died for your transgressions so that you could be forgiven. So he. It was an exchange.
[00:29:39] He gave you his goodness, and he took on the punishment for your sins.
[00:29:45] Peter committed arguably the worst possible sin. Right?
[00:29:50] I mean, if what gives me a relationship with God, if what makes it possible for me to someday go to heaven, is declaring that he is Lord, then wouldn't be doing. Wouldn't the opposite of that be the worst possible sin? Saying, he's not Lord, Saying, I don't even know Him. Like, can. Is there any worse sin? I would say no.
[00:30:14] Peter committed the worst possible sin.
[00:30:18] And in this moment, Jesus is demonstrating to him this unconditional love that can forgive even the worst sin.
[00:30:29] So whatever sin it is that causes you to feel guilty and feel like you need to keep some distance between you and God, that's you rejecting him, not him rejecting you.
[00:30:44] Because the truth is, you are never too far gone, no matter what sin you've committed. Jesus died for you while you were committing that sin, knowing that you would commit that sin.
[00:30:58] You're never too far gone.
[00:31:01] So it's this balancing act.
[00:31:03] I have to remind myself that I am a sinner, but I also have to remind myself that his love is greater than my sin.
[00:31:12] So here's the big ask.
[00:31:16] I want to make sure that nobody leaves this place without knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will spend eternity with God.
[00:31:26] The most important possible question you could Ever answer is the question, do you love me? God is asking you now, do you love me? That's what determines everything else. That's what determines your eternity. Do you love me?
[00:31:40] If the question is, are you good?
[00:31:43] Then you can never know if you're getting to heaven or not.
[00:31:47] If we are relying on you being a good person, then you will never know. You will spend your whole life wondering, maybe hoping that you might make it into heaven. That's a terrible way to live your life.
[00:32:02] That leads to only pain and misery.
[00:32:04] And the truth is, no, you're not good enough.
[00:32:07] You'll never get there.
[00:32:09] You cannot be good enough to get to heaven.
[00:32:13] But if you put your faith in Jesus to do what you cannot do, Scripture tells us that you can know without any question, beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are saved, that your sins have been forgiven, that you can spend eternity with God. You can know it. Don't leave this place without knowing it. Not hoping it, not wondering, but knowing.
[00:32:41] Every time Jesus healed somebody or asked them to follow him, he always gave them a small test.
[00:32:49] He always asked them to take a step in some way, pick up your mat or go dip in the water or whatever it was he'd asked them to do something.
[00:32:58] So here's what I want to ask you to do. Here's the step I want to ask you to take. There's a card on the chair in front of you that says, next steps.
[00:33:05] That's the step.
[00:33:07] There's a box on that card that says, I'm ready to begin my new life with Christ.
[00:33:12] Don't leave this place without knowing, being confident that your eternity in heaven is secure. You can know it, but you got to take a step.
[00:33:24] Don't put it off. There's no better moment than now.
[00:33:28] God, I thank you that you did everything necessary.
[00:33:33] You accomplished. You purchased my salvation.
[00:33:40] So, God, I pray that anybody here today who is wondering, a little unsure, maybe even doubting their salvation, that today would be the day that they stop trying to earn it, that they stop trying to perform.
[00:33:58] And today would be the day that they fully put their trust and their hope in you.
[00:34:08] Because, God, we know that we fall short.
[00:34:14] We all are aware of our sinfulness.
[00:34:18] So, God, I pray that right now your love would become clear and and obvious to all of us.
[00:34:25] And that our response to your love would be love for you.
[00:34:31] God, you are good. So we worship you and you alone. In Jesus name, Amen.
