Speaker 1: Some of you are on the edge of giving up
Speaker 1: right now, and if we could put an X ray
Speaker 1: to your mind, it would show you're pretty desperate. Don't
Speaker 1: give up, Look up, don't give up.
Speaker 2: Look up. The answer is not to quit.
Speaker 1: The answer is to get connected, find God's purpose, and
Speaker 1: get God's power in your life, and you'll have a
Speaker 1: new resurrection in your life. The same power that raised
Speaker 1: Jesus from the dead a couple millenniago two thousand years
Speaker 1: ago is available to you today. If God can raise
Speaker 1: the dead Jesus, he can raise a dead marriage. If
Speaker 1: God can raise a dead Jesus, he can raise a
Speaker 1: dead friendship. He can raise a dead career, he can
Speaker 1: raise a dead dream, he can raise a part of
Speaker 1: your life that's just dying on the vine. That's the
Speaker 1: kind of God we serve. That is a benefit that
Speaker 1: was paid for you by Jesus Christ. Let me show
Speaker 1: you some verses. This may be a benefit you didn't
Speaker 1: know about. And if you don't know about it, you
Speaker 1: can't depend on it. Phesians chapter one the Bible says,
Speaker 1: I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly
Speaker 1: great God's power really is, how incredibly great God's power
Speaker 1: really is to help those who believe him. It is
Speaker 1: the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead.
Speaker 1: Say wait a minute, time out here, Rick, you're telling
Speaker 1: me that the same power that brought Jesus back to
Speaker 1: life is available to me in my daily life. That's
Speaker 1: exactly what I'm saying. That's a benefit you may have
Speaker 1: not known about. The resurrection of Jesus comes with a promise.
Speaker 1: Look at the next verse. By his power, God's by
Speaker 1: his power, God raised the Lord from the dead. And
Speaker 1: read this aloud to me, he will also raise Oh,
Speaker 1: now we're talking.
Speaker 2: The only reason you're going to be raised.
Speaker 1: From the dead and have life after death is because
Speaker 1: Jesus did it.
Speaker 2: That's the reason.
Speaker 1: If Jesus doesn't raise you from the dead, you're not
Speaker 1: getting raised from the dead. By his power, God raised
Speaker 1: the Lord from the dead, and he will also raise us,
Speaker 1: so you can have resurrection power in your life. Now,
Speaker 1: let me ask you a very personal question. Where do
Speaker 1: you need a resurrection in your life? I'm talking about
Speaker 1: right now. Let me phrase it another way. What's dying
Speaker 1: in your life or is dead and you know it
Speaker 1: and you need God's power to bring.
Speaker 2: It back to life.
Speaker 1: Where do you need a resurrection this year? Where do
Speaker 1: you need God's resurrection power?
Speaker 2: See?
Speaker 1: The truth is, I'm sorry about this, but some of
Speaker 1: you are in marriages that dying. They're going south real fast,
Speaker 1: or maybe they already have died and you're just still
Speaker 1: living together.
Speaker 2: You need a resurrection in your marriage.
Speaker 1: The key to a long marriage can I've been married
Speaker 1: forty two years, is you have to learn how to
Speaker 1: fall in love over and over again. You know, fall
Speaker 1: in love just one time. You have to have resurrections
Speaker 1: in your marriage, in your life. Some of you need
Speaker 1: a resurrection in your marriage because it's dying. Some of
Speaker 1: you need a resurrection in your career. And you think, man,
Speaker 1: I thought i'd be a whole lot further along the
Speaker 1: line than I am right now at this stage of
Speaker 1: the game, At this point in my life, I expect
Speaker 1: to be further down the road, but I'm not. And
Speaker 1: that's disappointing. And you need a resurrection in your career.
Speaker 1: Some of you need some resurrection in your energy. You say,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just tired all the time. I dragged
Speaker 1: through the day, fatigued all the time. I don't have
Speaker 1: any energy because you're living it on your power instead
Speaker 1: of God's power. God never intended for you to go
Speaker 1: through life just on your power. You don't have enough.
Speaker 1: Human power runs out, human love runs out, which is
Speaker 1: why there's divorce. You need supernatural love and you need
Speaker 1: supernatural power in your life to make it.
Speaker 2: To the finish line.
Speaker 1: Some of you need a resurrection of your dream if
Speaker 1: you've had a dream in your past about something you've
Speaker 1: always wanted to be. You're always wanted to do a talent,
Speaker 1: you wanted to develop, a goal, you wanted.
Speaker 2: To go after, and the dreams died.
Speaker 1: Some of you need a resurrection in your health. You're
Speaker 1: not going in the right direction. Some of you need
Speaker 1: a resurrection in your motivation. I'm just not motivated anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of putting in the time and waiting
Speaker 1: for the payday, checking the clock. I'm not going to motivate.
Speaker 1: Nothing motivates to be anymore. You need a resurrection of motivation.
Speaker 1: Some of you have had a split in a friendship
Speaker 1: with a dear friend, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, or just
Speaker 1: a good friend, and there's been a rift, there's been
Speaker 1: a break, a tear, conflict. You need a resurrection in
Speaker 1: your friendship. So I'm just saying that in so many
Speaker 1: different areas, some of you have had your heart broken recently,
Speaker 1: and as your pastor, I'm sorry, I really am, and
Speaker 1: I pray for people in our family that have a
Speaker 1: broken heart, and you need to have your heart repaired,
Speaker 1: and you need a resurrection in that area of your life.
Speaker 1: You see, this is the difference between human beings and God.
Speaker 1: God is God and we're not. Human beings can resuscitate.
Speaker 1: Only God can resurrect. You know CPR, you know how
Speaker 1: to resuscitate somebody, their heart stops, you can resuscitate them
Speaker 1: with CPR. If you're a paramedic, you've probably resuscitated hundreds
Speaker 1: of people with mouth and mouth or CPR, whatever you
Speaker 1: needed to do. Resuscitation happens when they've been dead for
Speaker 1: a minute or two or three minutes. But when you've
Speaker 1: been dead for three days and buried in the ground,
Speaker 1: you don't need resuscitation.
Speaker 2: You need resurrection.
Speaker 1: And God says, I want to have that kind of power,
Speaker 1: not resuscitation power, but resurrection power in the areas youth
Speaker 1: like of your life that are dying or have already dead.
Speaker 2: They're already dead, and God has not only a purpose
Speaker 2: for your life because of the Cross and the resurrection.
Speaker 1: But God has a power for your life which is
Speaker 1: bigger than the problem you're going through out right now.
Speaker 2: Let me show you a couple verses.
Speaker 1: First Corinthians, Chapter one, Paul gives a testimony of how
Speaker 1: God helps us when we think it is hopeless. Now
Speaker 1: Paul says it like this. He tells his own story
Speaker 1: of when he was ready to kick the bucket. This
Speaker 1: is probably the greatest Christian who ever lived, next to
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. And Paul says, there were times when I
Speaker 1: was so depressed. I was readister, throw in the towel,
Speaker 1: and he says this. In Second Corinthians, we were really crushed,
Speaker 1: and he says, we were overwhelmed, and we feared we
Speaker 1: would never live through it. Ever felt like that he crushed, overwhelmed,
Speaker 1: filled with fear.
Speaker 2: He says, we didn't think we'd live through it.
Speaker 1: We saw how powerless we were to help ourselves, and
Speaker 1: you just go, Okay, this is not working. I do
Speaker 1: not have the power to get done what I need
Speaker 1: to get done in my life, I says, don't have it.
Speaker 1: I got an energy shortage, I got the energy crisis.
Speaker 1: I don't have the power to do what I need
Speaker 1: to do. And then Paul says, we realized that we
Speaker 1: were powerless to help ourselves.
Speaker 2: But that was good.
Speaker 1: Huh, How in the world could you feel in crushed, overwhelmed,
Speaker 1: fearful and powerless to help yourself.
Speaker 2: How in the world is that good?
Speaker 1: He says, because then we put everything into the hands
Speaker 1: of God, who alone could save us. For he can
Speaker 1: even raise the dead. He can even raise the dead.
Speaker 1: And he said, and God did help us, and he
Speaker 1: saved us, and we expect him to do it again
Speaker 1: and again and again.
Speaker 2: But you can go all through life totally unplugged.
Speaker 1: If you are unplugged from God's power, you will never
Speaker 1: know God's purpose. You cannot fulfill your purpose in life
Speaker 1: unless you're plugged into the power, the power of the resurrection.
Speaker 1: And he says, you know, we got the point. We
Speaker 1: were ready to just cash it all in and we
Speaker 1: were powerless. But that was good because then we put
Speaker 1: it all in the hands of God. And God goes, well,
Speaker 1: thank God, you finally did it. I've been waiting for
Speaker 1: you to get to the end of your rope so
Speaker 1: I could take over. How about you let me have
Speaker 1: a try and empowering and guiding your life. Now, just
Speaker 1: be honest. Are you sick and tired of being sick
Speaker 1: and tired? Here's what the Bible says Isaiah forty. God
Speaker 1: gives power to those who.
Speaker 2: Are tired and worn out, and he.
Speaker 1: Offers strength to the weak. He said, Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I'm tired, I'm worn out, I'm weak. I don't feel
Speaker 1: any power. Well, let me explain how you get that power.
Speaker 1: You get it through faith. You get it through trust.
Speaker 1: You get it through believing in the Son of God,
Speaker 1: who died on the cross for you and rose again
Speaker 1: to give you that power. You can complain to God
Speaker 1: all you want. God is not moved by your complaints.
Speaker 1: You can whine all you want. God is not moved
Speaker 1: by your whining. You can gripe all you want. God
Speaker 1: is not moved by griping. But the moment you put
Speaker 1: trust in him, pam, God moves according to your faith.
Speaker 2: It will be done unto you.
Speaker 1: God honors faith, not griping, not whining, not all these
Speaker 1: other things. He says, I'll give you that power. He said,
Speaker 1: but Rick, you just don't know what I'm facing right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, You're right.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're facing, but I do know
Speaker 1: Luke eighteen twenty seven, which says this, what is impossible
Speaker 1: with men is possible with God. What looks like a
Speaker 1: dead end, what looks like a death is prime time
Speaker 1: for a resurrection and a miracle. What looks like you're
Speaker 1: never going to overcome, God can overcome like that. And
Speaker 1: God can do more. I have seconds in your life
Speaker 1: than you can do in five years. But you've got
Speaker 1: to trust him. But here's the promise, and I want
Speaker 1: you to have the same promise, the promise of purpose
Speaker 1: and the promise of power. First Peter Chapter one. Second
Speaker 1: Peter Chapter one. As you get to know Jesus better,
Speaker 1: he will give you, through his great power, everything you
Speaker 1: need for living a truly good life. Now he said, well, Rick,
Speaker 1: I don't have everything I need. Well, then you just
Speaker 1: need to get to know Jesus better. As you get
Speaker 1: to know Jesus better, he's the source of your purpose
Speaker 1: and he's the source of your power. Not only does that,
Speaker 1: God have a great purpose for your life. And God
Speaker 1: has a great power to solve your problems. God has
Speaker 1: a great place for me after I die. We learn
Speaker 1: that from the resurrection of Jesus.
Speaker 2: We learn that.
Speaker 1: There is more to life than here. And now we
Speaker 1: learn that death is not the end. One day your
Speaker 1: heart is gonna stop. That's gonna be the end of
Speaker 1: your body.
Speaker 2: But that's not gonna be the end of you.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no, you were made to last forever.
Speaker 1: And God says, I have proven that there's life after death.
Speaker 2: I'm raising my own son.
Speaker 1: I think Jesus knows more about the afterlife than you
Speaker 1: do or I do, because he's been there.
Speaker 2: And this gives us hope. Death is not the end.
Speaker 1: And in John chapter eleven, here's what Jesus said, I
Speaker 1: am the one who raises the dead and gives them
Speaker 1: life again. If you're gonna come back to life after
Speaker 1: your death, it's gonna be Jesus who does it. Nobody
Speaker 1: else gonna do it.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be Jesus.
Speaker 1: He says, I am the one who raises the dead
Speaker 1: and gives them life. How do I know that he's
Speaker 1: telling you because he did it, nobody else did. It's
Speaker 1: one of the most attested to miracles in history. Just
Speaker 1: spit forty days in Jerusalem after he didn't just say
Speaker 1: by to your friends, go back to heaven. After he
Speaker 1: raised himself, he walked around eight meals, talk to people,
Speaker 1: one time, train five hundred people, many many white eyewitness
Speaker 1: accounts over forty days.
Speaker 2: And he says, I am the one. Anyone who believes in.
Speaker 1: Me, even though he dies, shall live again, and he
Speaker 1: gives He has given eternal life for believing in me,
Speaker 1: and shall never perish.
Speaker 2: How do you get eternal life?
Speaker 1: Not by doing good, not by going to church, not
Speaker 1: by promising me perfect, not by.
Speaker 2: Giving a whole lot of money to help the poor.
Speaker 2: What he says, one thing.
Speaker 1: You believe that Jesus can raise you back from the
Speaker 1: dead too. You trust him as your savior. He is
Speaker 1: the source of hope. Now let me just summarize this.
Speaker 1: You're never going to find ultimate hope in anything you
Speaker 1: can lose. If you want to have a hope that
Speaker 1: gets you through the toughest times of life, you must
Speaker 1: put your hope and put your trust.
Speaker 2: In something that cannot be taken from you.
Speaker 1: If you put your hope in your bank account, you
Speaker 1: can lose your bank account. If you put your hope
Speaker 1: in your spouse, you can lose your spouse. If you
Speaker 1: put your hope in your health, you can lose your health,
Speaker 1: you can lose your mind. You must never put your
Speaker 1: hope in something that you could lose. If you put
Speaker 1: your hope in your good looks, you've already lost them,
Speaker 1: so that that shifts sail friend, I'm sorry. If you
Speaker 1: put your hope in your job, it's gonna let you down.
Speaker 1: If you put your hope in another person, they will
Speaker 1: disappoint you.
Speaker 2: Why because they're not God.
Speaker 1: You have to put your hope in something or someone
Speaker 1: that can never be taken away from you. And there's
Speaker 1: only one thing because you can lose everything else in life,
Speaker 1: and that is your relationship to God. Your relationship to God.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying is that hope is not a principle.
Speaker 1: Hope is not a product. Hope is not a program.
Speaker 1: Hope is not a pill. I'll get this pill, then
Speaker 1: I'll have all the hope I need. Hope is a person,
Speaker 1: and there's only one person that you can put that
Speaker 1: hope in, Jesus Christ. He is the hope of the world.
Speaker 1: That's why it's split into AD and BC. That's why
Speaker 1: your birthday is dated according to this event.
Speaker 2: You need to get to know Jesus.
Speaker 1: And since Jesus raised himself from the dead, and we
Speaker 1: know that there's life after death. Here's what we have
Speaker 1: look at the next verse, first Peter one. Now we
Speaker 1: live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ from the dead,
Speaker 1: so we know death's not the end. For God has
Speaker 1: reserved a priceless inheritance for his children. That's you who've
Speaker 1: trusted in him. It is kept in heaven for you,
Speaker 1: pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change, in the
Speaker 1: clay the kay and God in his mighty power, will
Speaker 1: protect you until you receive this salvation because you are
Speaker 1: trusting him. What does that verse say, Well, let me
Speaker 1: summarize all in this. Once you've trusted God for salvation,
Speaker 1: it is not your job to keep yourself saved. It's
Speaker 1: the Savior's job to keep you safe. It says he
Speaker 1: will protect you. He will make sure you get to heaven.
Speaker 1: He will guard what you've given to him. When you
Speaker 1: come to Jesus and you go God, I'm giving him
Speaker 1: my whole life, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Speaker 1: It's not clean up your life and then come to
Speaker 1: Jesus like God, here's my greasy hands, my dirty hands,
Speaker 1: my filthy hands. God just all a mess in my life.
Speaker 1: I put my hand in your hand, and God grabs
Speaker 1: your hand. Put your hand in the hand of the
Speaker 1: man who's still the water, and he grabs your hand.
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 1: As life goes on, there are going to be some
Speaker 1: moments that you don't want to hold onto God's hand. God,
Speaker 1: I'm going to a party tonight with a bunch of unbelievers.
Speaker 2: I'd like to not be a believer for about an hour, okay,
Speaker 2: And I like to pull.
Speaker 1: And you may want to let go of God's hand,
Speaker 1: but He's not letting.
Speaker 2: Go of yours. Once you have been saved, he will
Speaker 2: keep you safe. That's the hope you have.
Speaker 1: A lot of people think I don't give my life
Speaker 1: to God because what happens if I start on it
Speaker 1: and then I kind of mess out and screw.
Speaker 2: Up and fail, and then I don't feel really stupid,
Speaker 2: and then I lose my salvation. No, you won't. That's
Speaker 2: not what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: It is safe, secure, it's it's done, it's beyond the
Speaker 1: reach of change.
Speaker 2: In the ky God and his mighty power will keep
Speaker 2: you saved. It's not your power.
Speaker 1: He does a save it. He didn't he saves you,
Speaker 1: He keeps you saved. You don't save yourself. So what
Speaker 1: am I saying that the Bible tells us because of
Speaker 1: the resurrection, we have hope because there's more to the
Speaker 1: story than just here and now. And we have hope
Speaker 1: because God protects your salvation and keeps it and you
Speaker 1: can't lose it. And that causes you to face the
Speaker 1: most difficult times in life with.
Speaker 2: The whole new confidence. As a pastor, I have stood at.
Speaker 1: I couldn't count the number of grave sites that I've
Speaker 1: stood at in forty years. I couldn't count the number
Speaker 1: of funerals that I've done. And so I'm a pretty
Speaker 1: good expert at knowing the difference between people who have
Speaker 1: hope and people who don't, because you can see it
Speaker 1: in their eyes. I have been at the funerals of
Speaker 1: people when nobody in the family knows God, nobody in
Speaker 1: the family has the hope of the resurrection, nobody in
Speaker 1: the family knows the hope of heaven. And for them,
Speaker 1: they're losing this person, They're never going to see him again,
Speaker 1: and it's over. That's it, it's over. And the terror
Speaker 1: in their eyes.
Speaker 2: Is something you don't want to see. I've seen it
Speaker 2: over and over and over, and I.
Speaker 1: Compare that to people who know the Lord that when
Speaker 1: they use it lose a loved one who knows the Lord.
Speaker 1: They grieve, but they're not grieving for them because they
Speaker 1: know where they're going. They're grieving for themselves because they're
Speaker 1: going to miss them.
Speaker 2: And it's a whole different kind of grief. It's aggrieving
Speaker 2: with hope.
Speaker 1: You know, the older I get, and the more of
Speaker 1: my family that's in heaven, and the more of my
Speaker 1: friends that are in heaven, some great, great saints who've
Speaker 1: been in this church for over thirty years, they're going on,
Speaker 1: the more of my friends and family on the other side,
Speaker 1: the more Heaven becomes attractive to me. Not to be
Speaker 1: honest with you, when I was a young man, heaven
Speaker 1: didn't seem very attractive to me in the first place.
Speaker 1: No picture of it on earth is correct. I mean
Speaker 1: the picture of heaven on earth. Right now that you
Speaker 1: hear there's heaven, it's all white. There's no color in heaven.
Speaker 1: There's fog up to your feet. You walk around, everybody's
Speaker 1: in a white robe with wings playing a harp.
Speaker 2: That would be hell.
Speaker 1: If that's heaven, no, thanks God. I just soon have
Speaker 1: my sunrise of sunsets and.
Speaker 2: A cool surf.
Speaker 1: That's not heaven. You can't even understand what heaven's going
Speaker 1: to be like. It's so cool. Even in the world
Speaker 1: that's broken, filled with suffering, sorrow, sadness, sickness, it's still
Speaker 1: a pretty cool place. We're enjoying it right now outside.
Speaker 1: Most of you know that four years ago, the week
Speaker 1: after Easter, our family lost the youngest member, my youngest son, Matthew,
Speaker 1: after a lifelong battle.
Speaker 2: The mental illness, died.
Speaker 1: And it was the worst day of my life, and
Speaker 1: his brother and sister's life, and his mom's life, and
Speaker 1: everybody else in our family.
Speaker 2: Who loved him. Many times over the last four years,
Speaker 2: I've been asked.
Speaker 1: How did you handle that? How did you handle the
Speaker 1: death of a son who struggled his entire life of
Speaker 1: mental illness. I want you to listen very carefully, because
Speaker 1: you're going to have loss in your life.
Speaker 2: I guarantee it.
Speaker 1: There is no life without loss, there is no loss
Speaker 1: without pain, there is no pain without grief. You're going
Speaker 1: to go through this in life. So somebody who loves
Speaker 1: you as your pastor, as your spiritual coach, that's my
Speaker 1: job to if you get ready for this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: And listen carefully. The way you live with hope in
Speaker 2: the middle of pain.
Speaker 1: Is to enlarge your perspective, to change your viewpoint, to
Speaker 1: get your eyes off of what's happening right here and now,
Speaker 1: shift your perspective, change your focus, and begin to live
Speaker 1: in light of eternity. As I said, your life on
Speaker 1: Earth shore you get maybe one hundred years. That's not
Speaker 1: very long compared to the trillions of years you'll spend
Speaker 1: in eternity. And so you get your eyes off the
Speaker 1: here and now and you get it on eternity, and
Speaker 1: you see the hope that's there.
Speaker 2: Here's what the Bible says, look on the screen.
Speaker 1: So we don't focus on the troubles we see right now.
Speaker 1: Instead we look forward to what we don't see yet.
Speaker 1: For the troubles that we see now are temporary, but
Speaker 1: the joys that will come to last, it will last,
Speaker 1: will last forever. I mean, even if you had a
Speaker 1: chronic problem your entire life, it's only one hundred years
Speaker 1: or eighty or seventy, nothing compared to thousands, tens of thousands, millions,
Speaker 1: and trillions of years.
Speaker 2: In eternity.
Speaker 1: And the truth is what comforts me when I think
Speaker 1: about the death of my son is not thinking about
Speaker 1: the happy moments in his past, but thinking about the holy.
Speaker 2: Moments he's having right now.
Speaker 1: That comforts me because my hope is built on nothing
Speaker 1: less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And because I know
Speaker 1: where he is and if he was able to talk
Speaker 1: to me, and he can't, but if he was, he say, Dad,
Speaker 1: what are you worried about? This place is so cool,
Speaker 1: It's so great. It's far better than any of discermons
Speaker 1: you preached about it. And I can't wait for you
Speaker 1: to get here.
Speaker 2: That is my hope.
Speaker 1: We live in a society today, friends, that is filled
Speaker 1: with hopelessness. We are an epidemic of hopliness and are
Speaker 1: lacking hope. And they're looking for hope and they want
Speaker 1: to know where it is and where is it. It's
Speaker 1: in God's word. It is in God's word. Look at
Speaker 1: this next verse, people, I don't know about heaven. No
Speaker 1: eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, no
Speaker 1: mind has ever imagined the wonderful things that God has prepared.
Speaker 2: For those who love him.
Speaker 1: He has a purpose for your life right now. He
Speaker 1: has a power to help you solve the problems tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and he has a place for you after you die.
Speaker 1: The reason why you can't explain heaven is because your
Speaker 1: brain power isn't big enough to handle it. It would
Speaker 1: be like an aunt trying to understand the Internet. We
Speaker 1: live in a three D world, but there are dimensions
Speaker 1: that we don't even know about. And if God built
Speaker 1: this word world and it's all broken now from sin,
Speaker 1: how much cooler is Heaven going to be? And so
Speaker 1: how do I get this? How do I get a
Speaker 1: new purpose in my life? God's purpose? How do I
Speaker 1: get a greater power in my life? And how do
Speaker 1: I get a greater place which becomes my ultimate hope
Speaker 1: that even when I'm going through tough down, I'm going
Speaker 1: this is not the end of the story. I have
Speaker 1: read the last chapter of the book.
Speaker 2: We Win. It doesn't always look good, but I've read
Speaker 2: the last chapter. We Win.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you're going through a tough time in your life,
Speaker 1: and really what you're feeling is the world is coming
Speaker 1: to an end. And that's the way you feel. The
Speaker 1: world is coming to an end. No, a season may
Speaker 1: be coming to an end, A moment in your life
Speaker 1: may be coming to end. But it's not the end
Speaker 1: of the world. Why because when the world ends, Jesus
Speaker 1: is coming back, and that's our hope, that's bow our heads.
Speaker 1: Because of the resurrection, we know for certain that God
Speaker 1: has a great purpose for your life, has a greater
Speaker 1: power for your problems, and has a wonderful place for
Speaker 1: you after you die.
Speaker 2: How do you get these benefits?
Speaker 1: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
Speaker 1: and believe in your heart that God raised him from
Speaker 1: the dead, you will be saved. That's what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: So I want the honor and the privilege of leading
Speaker 1: you in a very simple prayer. And it doesn't even
Speaker 1: matter the word you say. It's that you be humble.
Speaker 1: If you're humble for God and say God, I need you,
Speaker 1: that's it. So just say, Dear God, say that in
Speaker 1: your mind, Dear God, I do not want to go
Speaker 1: through life not knowing my purpose.
Speaker 2: Thank You that my life is not an accident.
Speaker 1: Thank You that you planned me, whether my parents did
Speaker 1: or not, and that You've loved me every moment of
Speaker 1: my life.
Speaker 2: And so today, as much as I know how.
Speaker 1: I want to open my life to Jesus Christ who
Speaker 1: died on the cross for me and rose again so
Speaker 1: that I could have hope. Jesus Christ, I want to
Speaker 1: know God's purpose for my life, and I want to
Speaker 1: spend the rest of my life learning it and fulfilling it.
Speaker 1: In Jesus Christ, I want to put my trust in
Speaker 1: your power. I want to plug in starting today. I
Speaker 1: want to stop living on my own power and start
Speaker 1: living by your power.
Speaker 2: I know that you are greater than any problem I face.
Speaker 1: In Jesus Christ, I ask you to reserve a place
Speaker 1: for me in your heaven and your home. I want
Speaker 1: to learn to love you and to know you to
Speaker 1: follow you. Thank you for loving me even before I
Speaker 1: knew you. Thank you for dying for me before I
Speaker 1: even was created, but you knew I would be and
Speaker 1: so I humbly ask you to accept me into your family.
Speaker 1: Then I may experience all the benefits of what you
Speaker 1: did two thousand years ago. And I pray this prayer
Speaker 1: in Jesus' name.
Speaker 2: Amen.