We believe the resurrection

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Good morning. Thank you um to our not sure the official total decorating team I think we've got some really creative people in our church who um at various times just do some DEC decorating around the place and um we seeing this display F it's not just um to make the place look pretty although that's one of the uh effects of it but it's the as a reminder to us isn't it and uh today being Palm Sunday we Usher In This Very Holy Week in the from today through to Easter and so can I encourage you um at home as a family or individual as a couple whatever that um you do try as much as you can in one way or another to uh set aside this week um moment of this week to uh to remember the uh the death burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus every Palm Sunday I'm reminded of um years ago um I inducted the pastor at the um at the McKai Church his name was Jock wha great Pastor he's retired now but wonderful pastor with a name like jock where do you think he was from Scotland yeah and um even though his wife is Australian you've been in Australia for many many years actually came up from Victoria but um but his accent was still very thick and um and he it is part of his introduction to himself and whatever said about being in maai how he enjoyed being in the tropics to see all the Pam trees and I'm there thinking Pam Pam trees what on Earth of Pam trees and then it dawned on me that with his accent Pam was actually he was saying palm trees and so I said to him so that book in the Old Testament all the songs what's that oh Sams he said and so pretty well every Palm Sunday I think of our brother jock we do have a Pam sitting down here of course well I think it's Pam or is a pal it's a when you ask her her name she's likely say my name's Sher Palm Shar or something like that no good on your pen and uh so if you've got your Bibles you might already or your devices be turning to first Thessalonians um yesterday was also a special day too some of us were um able to attend the college graduation down at Bridgeman church and um and Z was one of the ones who Gra graduated congratulations zy yeah there's um there's there's a couple of other folk connected who have had connections with their Church who also graduated as well Justin web and Samara Gale they also graduated yesterday too and uh so it's good that we as a church have been able to have input into uh into these people's lives of course we had special input into Z's life in providing a husband for her and uh who is still studying by the way um another two subjects to go so the end of this year um so congratulations it was a great to be there for the um celebration we're continuing uh looking through um through our doctrinal statement just want to say a couple of things um by way of introduction notice that we have a doctrinal statement that we don't have a Creed Baptists have always been a bit um a bit fussy and a bit careful about using the word creed um for those who are more technically minded um there is a distinction between uh confession and Creed and uh so um but for most of us it doesn't really matter doesn't matter who but uh but we have generally stuck with confessions these are things that we believe when it comes to Creeds we say well the Bible is our Creed we creedo Creed read from cedo Latin I believe so we say we believe the Bible which is a very fine statement and so Baptist over the years have uh come up with all sorts of confessions um we saw something about the introduction uh for um for crossover Australia which by the way was a man by the name of Bob Clark who's a general superintendent Western Australia at the time he since died is now with Jesus came up with the idea and presented the challenge to Australian bapti is in 1984 or whatever it was that by the year 2000 that we will have given every Australian the opportunity to hear the gospel well I don't think we ever accomplished that as Australian Baptist but that's still there at the core of uh of crossover to equip us as Baptists to uh to share um to share the gospel with those roundabouts some people are not sure origins of Baptist some people think is American no it's not American it's not American must be English no it's not English there's actually two men by the name of Smith some people say SMI SM y t h Smith and HW h e l WS who uh with a small group went over to Holland over to Amsterdam a place outside of Amsterdam because of persecution and because of their belief in um in the need for baptism and so I can't remember which is which one baptized the other and so one was baptized by immersion Believers baptism we don't believe in adult baptism we believe in Believers baptism distinction there DAV will tell us all about that in a couple of weeks but one baptized the other then the other one baptized the other one and then because I wasn't sure whether the first one was the U uh valid baptism because an unbaptized person who baptized him baptized him again um we um we laugh and um and I feel a bit of a about that too but when you stop and think about fol here are people some men who wanted to take the word of God very very seriously and wanted to ensure that they were um that they were really being true to the word of God and somehow we've got to capture something of that of the seriousness of what we believe and um so we've got our doctrinal statement um this is not everything that we believe but here are some of the key things that we believe there is nothing in this doctrinal statement which is unique to Baptist or to Kabula Baptist you'll find other denominations around the place um who will also believe all of this there's nothing unique about any of these things and so you'll find even within Baptist there's a variation in um in uh in in doctrinal statements as well um if you want some good reading I'm happy to L you this book called Baptist confessions of Faith which immediately would be thinking oh that sounds like bedtime R if it's nothing else to put you to sleep that will um yes and no um if you're serious about studying you know what Baptists have believed over the years then um then that's not a bad introduction to it and it's covers a great from way before well before Baptist anabaptist right through to well it says on the front present day but was a required reading when I was in college so that was when church history was a lot shorter of course but uh but there's some some good stuff there and you'll read there that over time in various times and places the different beliefs were emphasized and so for instance there's a Russian constitute I think it's the Russian one which says has a section on what it is to be carrying swords or arms well we don't need to do that but in the time that that was written it was important of course and so um what we have here is um is a statement of what we believe in the here and now it say it's not everything we believe um there's a variation even variation amongst Baptists so um in America for example I think there's like over 30 different distinct denominations which call themselves Baptists so there's like Southern Baptist Northern Baptist two seed in the spirit Baptist foot washing Baptist seventh day Baptist um so I think actually there was a small group of seventh day Baptist here in Australia my memory says we correct a few years ago even in Woodford there was some seventh day Baptist so it's it's just important but this is the the statement of what we are are on about and um so don't pinch that book you're welcome to borrow it if you let me know and uh to read it and uh and so we've been working our way through and if that's large enough for you to read you'll see that we're getting close to the end and there's one there which um which is highlighted not because it's more important but because this is the one that we're looking at today the resurrection of the dead and the final Judgment of all people by the Lord Jesus Christ chist so if you've got your Bibles there paper or electronic um one Thessalonians um chapter 4 first Thessalonians Paul wrote to the church at thessalonica just talking about mainly about these sorts of things so the whole of first Thessalonians is about the coming of the Lord Jesus and um the church at thessalonica would as a result of reading this we so convinced that Jesus was coming soon guess what they did there's no need to do anything let's sit back put our feet up and wait for Jesus to come back and so then Paul had to write second Thessalonians as a correction to that and so there's one fairly wellknown verse in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 something really welln not the reference though says um about you know got to keep going you got to keep going and it says if a person won't work then neither should they eat and so that's to the uh to those who sitting back waiting for doing nothing waiting for Jesus to come again get up and do something is uh is what the message is there Here We Go From First Thessalonians we're just taking a section and looking at at some of these things from verse 13 Brothers we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope we believe that Jesus died and raised again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him according to the Lord's own word we tell you that we who are still alive who are left till the coming of the Lord will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command with the voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first after that we who are still still alive and left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever therefore encourage each other with these words now Brothers about times and dates we do not need to write to you for you know very well that the day the Lord will come like a thief in the night while people are saying peace and safety destruction will come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not Escape um we'll leave it there we could keep reading it of course so we talking about these two words which you would have picked up were key in this um this doctrinal statement the two words being resurrection and judgment probably many of you have heard of a of a man who lived in Sydney uh died in the 1960s but the man who became known as Mr eternal it was known as Mr eternity because um because for many years people didn't know exactly who what his real name was his name was Arthur Stace and uh if you who have heard the story you won't mind me repeating it because every time I think about it just energizes me and if you haven't heard it you need to do some more uh thinking about uh this man called Arthur St let me just read some extracts about what he uh um about his life so it says Arthur St known as Mr eternity was an Australian Soldier he was an alcoholic from his teenage years until the early 1930s when he converted to Christianity and began to spread his message by inscribing the word eternity in copper plate writing with yellow chalk on foot paaths and doorsteps and around Sydney from 1932 till his death in 196 7 he's become somewhat of a legend in the local folklore of the city and the story of his life has inspired books Museum exhibits statues an opera and a film so I was born in redf near South Wales inner West Sydney in 1885 the fifth child um of William woodst from macius and Laura Stace both of whom were alcoholics who was brought up in poverty in order to survive he resorted to stealing bread and milk and searching for scraps of food in bins by the age of 12 stac with virtually no formal schooling and working in a coal mine had become a ward of the state as a teenager he became an alcoholic and was subsequently sent to jail at age 15 afterwards he worked as a cocka 2 or a lookout for a two-up school it's gambling in case you didn't know that and in his 20s he was a scout for his sister's brothel in March 1916 at the age of 32 working as a laborer he enlisted for World War I um entering the uh whatever he suffered recurring bouts of bronchitis and puracy which led to his medical discharge on the 2nd of April 1919 so here's this young guy alcoholic parents alcoholics and he was a literate can read or right he converted to Christianity on the night of 6th of August 1930 after hearing an inspirational sermon by the Reverend RBS Hammond Anglican guy inspired by the words he became an Amed of the nation of Eternity two years later Stace was further inspired by the preaching of evangelist John G Ridley if you've uh he was a Baptist evangelist if ever you've studied Australian church history you would have come across uh John Ridley uh he was also an ex-serviceman won the military cross for Valor and a New South Wales Baptist Minister very famous evangelist back uh back in the day so so Stace heard Ridley preaching on The Echoes of Eternity from Isaiah 57:15 and here's some of the words from Ridley's sermons he said this or he preached this eternity eternity I wish that I could sound or shout that word to everyone in the streets of Sydney you've got to meet it where will you spend eternity proved crucial in St stace's decision to tell others about his faith in an interview St said an eternity went ringing through my brain and suddenly I began crying and feel a powerful call from the Lord to write eternity even though he was the literate could hardly write his own name legibly the word eternity came out smoothly in a beautiful copper plate script I couldn't understand it and I still can't so several mornings a week for the next 35 years stay spoke at 400 a.m. go around the streets of Sydney and chalk the word eternity on footpaths doorsteps Railway stations entrances and anywhere else he could think of workers arriving in the city would see the word freshly written but not the writer because he always did it anonymously for many years nobody knew who was even writing these words and then he got sprung doing it after eight or nine years he tried to write something else obey God then five years later God or sin but he could not stop or could not bring himself to stop writing the word eternity it's estimated that he wrote the word eternity over half a million times over the 35 years I say that because uh these words resurrection and judgment have to do with eternity and uh we can give them technical names like theological students of those who study will know that we talk about eschatology but we don't need to know all those technical words but we do need to understand eternity that eternity is a very very very very long time and what we're talking about today is about eternity and really about well picking up those words of uh of John Ridley um eternity eternity I wish that I could sound or shout that word to everyone in the street said Sydney you've got to meet it where will you spend eternity so I O Echo those words and say exactly the same thing we all have to meet eternity because we'll all die one day unless the Lord Jesus returns first and the question is is that where will you where will I spend eternity so in looking today there's a couple of things things that we need to be thinking about there are two things to consider in this statement and the two things to consider is this and the first part is in what we read in uh in chapter in chapter 4 what happens to us when we die and the second consideration in thinking about eternity comes out in chapter 5 1- 11 if we had read the whole section how and when will the world end so how when will the world end and um and where will what will happen to me in eternity let say a number of things we've said Dave and Dy and I every time we meet we talk about what we're preaching we always say the same thing man we wish we had more time to talk about these things at whatever which we don't but when we're talking about eternity the Bible makes something very very clear but there are many things that we don't know and there are some things that we just have a hint about and uh and we don't know um we don't know it in detail and we've got to also admit that even amongst good brothers and sisters there are some different matters on some things and we're talking about eternity as well when we go to some things like uh like thinking about the Millennium and uh things like that number of other things the return of Jesus whole range of things whatever we all agreed that Jesus is coming again but there are different views on some things and so while I might have a particular view on some things there are some things which I hold very firmly about Jesus coming again about judgment no no debate there are some other things which I say well this is what I believe but I hold them Loosely and I'll find out in the end that I was right and others were wrong or something like that anybody you know what I'm saying but there are some things that we need to be aware of what the Bible says and one Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse3 starts off saying Brothers we do not want you to be ignorant about these things so there's one thing that there are some things that God's making very clear to us there are some things which you need to know and what we need to know and what we need to know very clearly God has made it very clear to us in the Bible so we need to be informed but the second thing we need to be thinking about they'll conclude on this note later on um is that it's also a message of encouragement and so twice in this passage Paul in writing to the church says this 1 Thessalonians 4:18 therefore encourage each other with these words and then down in chapter 5 and verse 11 he says therefore encourage one another and build each other up just as as in fact you are doing so there are a few things okay how's the world going to end where am I going to spend eternity there's some things which we must know there's some things we don't know and um and aside from all that this basically has to be a message of encouragement why I say there's a lot of things that we could be saying is that there's some of you who' be sitting down there saying he better make sure he says this or that or something else and I'm going to disappoint you because there's just in the time allocated we obviously don't have time to cover everything so don't worry about checking me or emailing me or whatever as I I did mention this because I know I didn't mention it okay we didn't have the time and some people want to be home by midnight so we need to keep moving so here are some things of what we do know it's more we know a lot more than this but here are some things that we do know we do know that Jesus is coming again um some somebody has counted up that uh that there is um that there are over 300 references that Jesus is coming again so it's something that that really we need to understand Jesus himself said that John 14 and the first three verses reads this way it says do not let your hearts be troubled you believe in God believe also me my father's house is many rooms if it were not so would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you and if I go prepare a place for you verse three I will what I'm come back I'll come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am or also in um in Matthew 24 29:30 immediately after the distress of these days the sun will be darkened the moon will not give its light the Stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken then will appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the son of man coming on the Clouds Of Heaven with power and great Glory so we can say without any doubt Jesus is coming again remember how in Acts chapter 1 when Jesus was ascending back into heaven disciples are there looking up Jesus gone and when they looked around there was uh a couple of angels there remember what they said why looking up there in the same way you've seen him go up he is coming back again okay so we know Jesus is definitely coming back again the Bible tells us we don't know when I'm going to say that again and just by the by um the Bible says no one knows the day nor the hour when Jesus is coming back again and every often as it pass somebody sends some crackpot sends you a book that they have written some crackpot sent me a book years ago I threw it out I wish I have kept it just as a exhibit I says NOS the Bible says says no one knows the day nor the hour it doesn't say no one knows the year and this crackpot had worked out that Jesus is coming back in 1984 or 87 or something which is obviously is come and gone and Jesus hasn't come back so there's all sorts of crackpots out there just so just be careful of that as well so Jesus is coming again and be aware of this this that our future as human beings is mapped out for us so Hebrews 9:27 says this and just excuse me and just as it appointed for people to die once and after this the Judgment so Hebrews 9:27 is making this very clear is that we we live some day we're going to die unless Jesus comes early just keep putting that in there one day we're going to die and the Bible says quite clearly after that after that the Judgment remember what what our doctrinal statement talks about talks about resurrection and judgment and so here in Hebrews 9:27 is that there is a judgment coming so what we know from that is this is that this Life as we know it is not the end of living um when we live our three score in 10 years or more or less or whatever it is and we die physically that that is not the end that the Bible makes it clear that U that there's part there that existence is going to keep on going after that and and so that's where this aspect of resurrection and judgment comes in and what we also need to note and make it very clear is that heaven and hell are both realities um it's very difficult these days for Christians difficult for pre to preach on Hill nobody likes to talk about Satan about the devil about Hill but Satan is real Hill is real in fact somebody has calculated that Jesus spoke more about Hill than he did about heaven and that he spoke more about Hill than all the other New Testament writers put together and so just understanding that is that we need to know that all of this is laid out for us in the Bible Jesus is coming again we're going to die and then going to face judgment because once we die physically that's not the end and to understand that heaven and hell and not the end uh heaven and hell are the realities so there are four realities that we need to look at and uh two of these come out in um in this statement resurrection and judgment so with our Resurrection the resurrection of of our bodies um is is an important thing for us to be aware of so there were over 40 references in the New Testament to uh to our resurrection and um so we don't obviously have time to go through all of that but if you quickly turn over to 1 Corinthians 15 which pretty well the whole chapter is devoted to uh to this whole theme of resurrection and it's good one to read and even just picking up the headings in 1 Corinthians 15 is uh helpful for us so in my Bible it's got right at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15 it talks about the heading is the resurrection of Christ so we know about that be talking about that next Sunday morning and then at the top of just over verse 12 is the next heading in my Bible where it talks about the resurrection of the dead and so that next section is talking about all of us as human beings that we are going to be raised from the dead all of us and then when you go down a bit further at the top of verse 35 uh my the the subheading in my Bible says the resurrection body and so in 1 Corinthians 15 as well as in many other places we have this this whole idea of Resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 summarized Jesus has been raised from the dead we are going to be raised from the dead and this is some input or some glimpse of what our Resurrection body is going to be like um just picking out a couple of verses there verse 42 so will it be the resurrection of the Dead the body that is sown perishable be raised imperishable it's sown in dishonor it's raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is s a natural body it is raised a spiritual body so what it's talking about there is um is uh is that with the resurrection body in this physical iCal body there's all these imperfections that exist and um and with the resurrection body all those imperfections are going to be done away with I'm not sure whether this applies or not but my brother older brother who's um probably got a little bit less hair than me although he lets it grow a bit longer um sent me this thing about this kid saying to his dad something like Dad how come when you shave your beard GRS back you hear on your head doesn't grow back as baldheaded Dad and I said to my brother that's a very good question why why does that occur well my guess is is that probably in the resurrection body that uh that'll be one is that a defect um a lot of other uses with this solar panel that we have some of us have um but um but the reality is is that the Imp imperfection are going to be done away with the aches and the pains and whatever else is going to be done away with and that in the resurrection body will be well the Bible tells us we're got to be like Jesus in in that and so the resurrection is is a key thing for us to do uh just by the way that we're talking about Christians here with that those references there and then there's also another thing that we need to be aware of is about judgment and to know that Jesus is going to be our judge so acts 1731 says for he set a day when he will judge the world with Justice by the man he is appointed he has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead so obviously talking about Jesus he's going to judge the world with Justice and then then uh also um if you want to more detail about that if you read Matthew 24 and 25 those two chapters a fairly solid slab of it as well so resurrection and judgment are two things for us to be very much aware of but also our Eternal Destiny is important for us to be aware of too heaven and H spoken about that so if we belong to God's family um um then we go to heaven um there's a lot written about heaven and some people kind of being there and all sorts of things not sure about that I'd rather stick with what the Bible tells us tells us a lot about heaven but there's a lot that it doesn't tell us about heaven as well um I don't think we'll be sitting on a cloud with um with a harp and a thing over our head um singing songs um I don't think that's what's going to be I I don't think we'll be sitting around doing nothing and the Bible does talk a little bit about about the physical aspects of heaven but that doesn't excite me as much as this do you know what heaven is heaven is in the very presence of God Father Son and Holy Spirit and all the Believers and I don't know whether we'll have the opportunity to go to all these people the Old Testament Saints and everybody else and uh talk to them about hey we do have that opportunity or go to our four bears and talk to them um yeah I never knew any of my grandparents never met any of them and the closest ever came was uh I met this uh woman once in you my grandmother my dad's mother and uh it's the only person I ever met outside the family and knew of my grandparents and she just gave me a bit of insight into her and said she was such a Godly woman I longed to meet her and to have a chat with her CU my dad told me about her conversion as well said that you know this is in the old days and uh days of horse and buggy and uh my dad said that what happened to his mother my grandmother was that she was going back from town out to the farm sometime and in a horse and buggy and just became overwhelmed with the sense of the presence of God so stopped the horse and buggy and got down and knelt beside the buggy and gave heart to Jesus isn't that amazing I long to hear that story from HX because I'm sure that she'll be there whether I will or not I might be so encaptured by the presence of God that nothing else really matters but there is heaven but there is also hell as being the Destiny for those people who have not given their lives to Jesus some people make light of H don't it's a very serious thing it's a very serious place and it's a very serious um awareness that we need to have about that see some people say I'll be in hell with all my mates and so we're going to have a good old party whatever well that's not how the Bible describes hell the Bible describes hell as being a place of loneliness of punishment of torment and if that's how people really understood hell then maybe they might be thinking more seriously about what they're going to do with Jesus in their life we us to hear about preachers preaching fire and brimstone sermons sometimes I think we need to do it again because because if hell is a reality F we need to understand very clearly that the most important thing is the Lord Jesus what we do with him but what we also need to be aware of is that we we're going to spend eternity remember this is what arur St right every eternity out of that sermon by John Ridley eternity you need to be thinking about where you're going to spend eternity it's so important so let me just sum up very quickly because our time is gone no sorry about that talking to Christians so 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse one is uh where we started and uh and so uh well we didn't read that but one Thessalonians 4:1 says finally brothers and then we did read verse 13 brothers so it's not just brothers it's brothers and sisters that's uh that he's talking to brothers and sisters so he's just talking to Christians here so if you're having given your life to Jesus this does not apply to you here we go here are a few things Jesus has gone to heaven to prepare a place for us to prepare Eternity for us John 141:3 when we die we immediately go to be with Jesus 2 Corinthians 5 6 to10 reads this way therefore we are always confident know that as long as we're at home in the body we are away from the Lord for we live by faith not by sight we're confident I say and would prefer to be away from the body and be at home with the Lord so we make it our goal to please him whether we're at home in the body or away from it for we all must appear before the Judgment seat of Christ so that each of us may receive what is due for us things done well in the body whether good or bad Paul knows of two states I'm either here physically or I'm with Jesus there are some misguided people talk about Soul sleep and think that when we die that we're in this state of nothingness until Jesus comes again but the Bible doesn't teach that the Bible talks about when we sleep but you only read need to read the Old Testament talks about you know their fathers slept it's just a a expression of when they died and so it's how the Bible the Bible makes these two options here either we're present here or when we die as Christians we're in the very presence of the Lord Jesus thirdly one day Jesus will return bringing with him those who to that point have died so we read that one Thessalonians 4:14 so one day Jesus is coming sound of the trumpet any trumpet players here you've got the uh you've got the um the instrument of Heaven of Jesus you play so Jesus is going to come back with this uh with this trumpet sound and all those who previously die G be with him and then verse uh Point number four Christians who are still alive at that time will be taken up with Jesus one th for me it's called The Rapture and then this sobering thing is this is that we have no idea when Jesus will return be prepared now I don't see any reason why Jesus could not return today might be next week next month next year next hundred years or whatever I've got no idea all the signs seem like we're working close to it all the things that the Bible says but I really don't know but we need to be prepared for it so summing up sum it up then I've got one very quick story and I'm done we believe in eternity and the need to be prepared for it we need to just be aware of this is that how we treat Jesus now is how he will treat us then if we accept him now he will accept us then if we reject him now he will reject us then think about that this week one quick story years and years ago I got a phone call from a lady in the church not this church it's actually the first church I passed this woman F me and uh out of concern she was quite anxious about eternity and uh she had a number of questions about it about what will happen and so on all these things and um anyway so we talked a bit about it tried to answer the questions as best I could then I said to her just from what we've read this morning I said you know when we're talking about Eternity for us as Christians we um this is a message of encouragement for us and so if you're anxious there's only one of two reasons why you should be anxious reason number one is that you don't know all these things and remember we read that um is that want to be informed so we know enough about it and so you could be anxious because you don't understand all of that or maybe you're anxious because you've never given your heart to the Lord Jesus in which case you've got every reason to be anxious on you who will her and her husband that good solid Christians still are and Friends uh acquaintances we don't have contact with them these days but no they're going on with the Lord and um um and so so I could say that either you're anxious because you don't fully understand because this is really a message of encouragement or you're anxious because you haven't accepted the Lord Jesus as your savior and you've got every reason to be anxious now am I talking to anybody here today or more importantly is God talking to anybody here today saying you know eternity it's a long long time it's forever and just to remember these words that it is a message of encouragement to those who belong to the Lord Jesus but if you do not belong to the Lord Jesus you have every every reason to be anxious when you think about the consequences of living for eternity outside of the presence of God and that place set aside for you called hell even as we're sitting here this morning or if you're watching online right where we are we can give our lives to the Lord Jesus we can pray we don't need to pray out loud God can read our thoughts dear Lord Jesus I recognize I'm a sinner and for too long I've lived just for me give my my life to you thank you for the death of the Lord Jesus for saving me I long to spend eternity with you it's not a formula you can pray put it into your own words you can pray but if you do pray that prayer today or if there's still unanswered questions will you please will you please see one of us and so we can talk about and if you pray the prayer just as a sense of encouragement so that we can pray with you that you share with us and just say today I met Jesus or today I pray that prayer or today I still got these questions will you do that this is too important just to dismiss and forget about Dylan I've gone way over time is it okay if we give this last song a miss so we'll give the last song of Miss I'm going to pray you to sit quietly before the Lord you do that but Dylan and Chris might come up and just play what we're go to and just when we feel ready we feel free to uh move out for uh for a cup up father you know our hearts and you know our attitude and how we've responded today Lord Grant to us the courage to own up to the faith that we have in you to claim you as our savior and for those this morning who for the very first time have committed their lives to you we praying Lord God that you will strengthen that you'll bless them in a very special way and for those who are still wrestling about this Lord my prayer is that you won't give them any rest until they find their rest made peace with you thank you that despite who we are at all that we've done through the death resurrection of our Lord Jesus we've got nothing to fear about judgment we know that we will be proclaimed innocent not because of what we have or haven't done but because of the shed blood of our Lord Jesus and his name we pray.