Practical Living

Dale O'Shields: Thank you for joining us for today's Practical Living broadcast. I pray that through this message you will learn how to apply God's word and truths to any situation in your life. Stay with us as we discover God's truths that will transform us.

Today we continue a series together entitled Lifequakes. We want to talk to you this afternoon, as well as next week, as a part of this series on preparing for temptation. We're going to take a look at the whole idea of temptation, how it works in our lives, and what we need to know about it.

In this series called Lifequakes, we ask: what is a Lifequake? A Lifequake is anything that shakes up your life, anything that comes your way that causes your life to be knocked out of kilter and out of equilibrium to some degree. You are having to react or respond to some pressures or difficulties in life. Sometimes these pressures and difficulties happen in transitional seasons, just the normal ups and downs of life, and we're shaken by having to move from one season to another season or a different set of circumstances to another set of circumstances. Other times, there are real issues, real problems, and shaking kinds of events that transpire in our lives, so we have to respond to them.

Jesus made it very clear that all of us as Christians, all of us as human beings, will go through various times of shaking in our lives. In fact, in Matthew chapter seven, Jesus gave a story of two men who built houses. One man built his house on sand, another man built his house on rock. The Bible says that the storms of life, the winds of life, the rains of life came upon both individuals, but only one man's house stood. That was the man who had built his house upon the rock, upon a firm foundation.

Jesus encourages us to build our lives on the word of God, on the truth of God's word, and in obedience to His word. That's how you're able to withstand the shaking moments of life: to make sure that you are built on the rock. As I said, as part of this series, we've looked at the idea of dealing with losses, dealing with disappointments and discouragement, and a variety of things. I'm going to talk again this weekend and next weekend about a very important topic: preparing for temptation. We will look at not just overcoming it, but learning to be ready and prepared for temptation when it comes your way, because temptation can really wreck your life. It can shake you up and wreck your life in a very dramatic sort of way.

There are two points I want to share with you this weekend, and then we'll look at two more next weekend. Both of these are very simple but extremely important biblically, theologically, doctrinally, as well as practically in our lives to understand. The first lesson that I want to talk about for a few moments is the fact that everyone experiences temptation. Temptation is something that every person encounters. In fact, the Bible is extremely clear about this. Jesus Himself, when He was on earth, faced temptation.

You might recall that after Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, He comes up out of the waters to begin His earthly ministry. The Father speaks from heaven: "This is my Son in whom I'm well pleased." The Spirit of God descends upon Jesus, and Jesus is now inaugurated into His ministry. The very first thing that happened when Jesus started His ministry is described in Matthew chapter four, verse one: "Then Jesus," this is after His baptism, "immediately Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."

Jesus enters into this wilderness experience for forty days. He's fasting: no water, no food. The enemy comes to Him and presents a stone and says, "Turn that stone into bread." He says, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Then the devil brought to Him this image of Him being on the pinnacle of the temple and told Him to jump off the temple and the angels would take care of Him. Jesus responded, "It is written, don't tempt the Lord your God." The final temptation, that third one, was the temptation to come and bow down before Satan and all the kingdoms of the world would be given to Him. Of course, Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan." He conquered in every one of these temptations that He faced there in the wilderness.

The writer of Hebrews tells us about this as well in Hebrews chapter four, verse 15: "For we do not have a high priest," talking about Jesus, "who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted," notice this, "in every way, just as we are, yet," here's the difference, "He did not sin." Jesus has been tempted in every way that you and I were tempted, yet He never did sin, so He's the one who can help us overcome as well.

Paul talks about this fact that everyone is tempted in first Corinthians chapter 10, beginning in verse 12: "So if you think you're standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind." That word "common," common to mankind, that phrase is from the Greek word "anthrōpinos," and the word "anthrōpinos" means every human being experiences it. It's common, it's something that every person goes through. God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

The most dangerous mindset that any person can ever have, the most dangerous way of thinking you can ever develop in your life, is to have the mindset that allows you to become overly confident about your vulnerability to temptation. To think, "Temptation's not going to touch me. I'm good, I can handle it. Whatever comes my way, I can handle it." That's a very dangerous way of thinking.

If anyone learned this lesson, it was Peter. Peter was very confident about his ability to handle temptation. On the night before Jesus was to be crucified, He's in the upper room with His disciples and He has this conversation with His disciples, and particularly with Peter in Luke chapter 22, verse 31: "Simon, Simon," Jesus says, "Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat, but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you've turned back," that is when you've repented, "strengthen your brothers." But he, Peter, replied, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death." Jesus answered, "I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me."

In that moment, Peter is very confident: "Lord, I will follow you even to death." But then we find, just a few hours later, that he's in the courtyard, having followed Jesus where He's been arrested. There is Peter twice denying Jesus, then we come to that third time in chapter 22, verse 59. About an hour later, another asserted, pointing to Peter, "Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean." Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about." This is a denial of Jesus.

Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly. Peter overestimated his spiritual strength. He felt like he could withstand any kind of temptation. It's true for you and me to recognize that if it happened to Peter, it can happen to you. If it happened to Peter, it's a warning for each one of us to never become overly confident about our ability to withstand temptation. Although we may be standing now, the Bible says be careful, lest you fall. You will never mature beyond the point of not being tempted.

Throughout your entire life, until you go to heaven, you're going to face this thing called temptation. You must understand how to properly deal with it. Now, the temptations will be very different for you when you're 20 than when you're 50 or when you're 70. The temptations will vary based upon the age and stage of your life, but temptation will continue through your entire life because it is a part of being here on planet Earth. Before we go back to our Father in heaven through relationship with Christ, we face temptation time and time again. We never mature beyond the point of temptation. We are all vulnerable to it, and we're all targeted by it.

The second lesson for us today, and the one we'll spend most of our time on, is to understand how temptation works in our life. It targets our weakness. The primary source of all temptation is Satan himself. There is a real entity called Satan, a real personality called Satan, a real being. He is not just a figment of imagination. There is an evil, diabolical force and personality called Satan. He was originally with God in heaven, one of the angels there, one of the high-ranking angels in heaven. He was known as Lucifer, and he's cast out of heaven because of pride. He comes down to the earth and he is the source of all evil, and he is the source of all temptation. He's known originally, as we see in Genesis chapter three, as the serpent.

The strategy of Satan, the strategy of the devil, the strategy of the serpent, is deception. That's his primary modus operandi: he comes to deceive people. He is a liar. He is known as the deceiver, and Satan succeeds in trapping and tripping us up through lies. He is a liar. God is the God of truth, and Satan is the opposite of that. Satan is always trafficking in lies. Satan always will tell you something that is untrue; he will always lie to you.

Jesus made this clear in John chapter eight, verse 44. As He's talking to the Pharisees of His day who were very deceived by the enemy, Jesus says to them, "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was," speaking of the devil, "a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for," notice this, Jesus speaks of Satan, "he is a liar and he's the father of lies." Jesus said you must understand who the devil is. He is a liar, he's a murderer, and he is a liar. He cannot speak the truth. In fact, every time he opens his mouth, he's always speaking something that is a lie, a deceptive dimension of something that's twisting the truth of God, perverting the truth of God.

I want you to read the statement with me that will be on the screen. Let's all read it together. Let me ask each one of you to participate with me. Let's read: "Satan's goal is to convince you that doing certain things which are contrary to God's word and ways will satisfy your desires and needs." Let's read it again: "Satan's goal is to convince you that doing certain things which are contrary to God's word and ways will satisfy your desires and needs." Satan works this way in our lives. He wants to convince you of the opposite of what God says and to tell you that if you do certain things, respond to life in certain ways, react to life in certain ways based upon your needs and your desires, that if you do it his way, that's where satisfaction is found.

Satan promises you satisfaction. The problem is he never delivers what he promises. He promises you one thing, that this package is going to come to your home and your life called satisfaction, but the package arrives and it's not satisfaction at all. He's deceived you, he's lied. We see this from the very beginning of time, going back to the book of Genesis and the first introduction we have to Satan. His work in the world happened in the Garden of Eden.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were placed there by God, created by God, and placed in the Garden of Eden. God gave them one requirement. He said there's a tree here called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That's the one tree. You have all these beautiful other trees here, it's paradise. Eat of any tree that you want to eat from except that one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't eat of that tree. You will be disobeying my word. The reason God placed that tree in the garden was to provide a moment of testing for Adam and Eve. Would they love and serve God by their own accord, by their own will, instead of being forced to do so? They had to make a choice.

Let's see what happens when Satan shows up on the scene. Genesis chapter three, verse one: "Now the serpent," this is the devil, "was more crafty, more deceptive, more subtly deceptive than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman," now we're going to hear Satan's voice for the first time. This is the first time in scripture that we hear Satan saying anything. So let's see what Satan says the first time he speaks in scripture. He said to the woman, "Did God really say?"

First words out of his mouth, he's challenging the truth of God. "Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?" So he's now beginning to twist and pervert and deceive and to try to wiggle his way into the mindset of Adam and Eve. Then he goes on to say, "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman, again twisting, crafty, deceptive. "For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." He's now trying to convince Eve to disobey God.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, what happened? She's now listened to Satan, she's responded to this lie, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. There you see the deceptive element.

Read the statement on the screen with me. Let's read it together again: "Satan doesn't work apart from you. He goes after things that are meaningful to you. He attacks at our points of weakness and we all have them." Read it with me again: "Satan doesn't work apart from you. He goes after things that are meaningful to you. He attacks at our points of weakness and we all have them." This is how Satan works. He doesn't work apart from you; he works in cooperation with us. We cooperate with him. So it's not just the devil making us do stuff; we actually cooperate with suggestions he makes that are based upon a lie.

James the apostle makes this extremely clear, that we have a part to play in yielding to temptation. We have a part to play in us becoming people who are sinning against God. The Bible says, James chapter one, verse 12: "God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say God is tempting me. God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation," here's how it works, "temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions, and when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. So don't be misled, my dear brothers and sisters."

When Satan comes to you and me with a temptation, he uses what we might call a bait and switch approach. He baits us and then switches. He says, "Here is satisfaction," but he delivers something quite different. When he comes to you and me, he targets our weakness. He's not going to target your strength; he's going to target your weakness. Where are you most weak? There are two dimensions of weakness in all of our lives. Weakness number one is because of our own human nature and our sinfulness, we all have a universal weakness to sin. There are some things that we're all weak at.

Pride is a common human problem. It's not just reserved for a few people; everybody struggles with that. There are all kinds of things that we all struggle with because we're all human, we all have these sinful urges and a sinful nature that we can fall prey to. So in a universal sense, there are certain weaknesses that every person experiences in life in their spiritual dimension, their moral choices.

But there are also weaknesses that are unique to you and me because of your background, your upbringing, your circumstances you've gone through in life. There are places where you're weak. Your character has been eroded, your character has been bruised in some way, as mine has. We have these areas of life where we're more vulnerable to certain things that would tempt us that may not tempt anyone else. We have uniquenesses when it comes to this. While there's a universal weakness for all of us as sinners, there's also unique areas of weakness based upon your background, your experiences, the way you've thought, the way you've processed life, the kind of choices you may have made at other times in your life. All these will build a profile for you.

You have a profile with the adversary, and the adversary knows your profile. He knows where you're most weak and knows how to attack you and me because, again, we all are weak in certain areas. I want to talk to you about how this drawing-in process works, because temptation has a process to it. It's something you can understand, you can get the idea of how it works in your life.

Let me see if I can use an analogy for this. I'm going to use a fishing analogy for a moment. For all the people who do a little fishing, you'll understand this. If you've never done any fishing, I'm going to make you a fishing person right now. I'll give you a little example of how this thing works, and I'll give you five categories of how this works.

The first thing that will happen in temptation is you will be baited by the enemy. No fish is ever caught without some bait. You've got to have some bait out there. You don't throw just a hook into the water; you've got to have a bait there. Bait is something that is attractive to you. It'll be something that you think about doing in your life, "Oh, that would really meet this need in my life. I'll do that. I know what God says, but I'll do that." Or you start speaking things that you know are contrary to what God says, or thinking thoughts, harboring attitudes. You're baited by the adversary; something is attractive to you. That's the first step in temptation.

Then that baiting leads to the second thing: there's a luring that occurs. A bait can float right by the fish, but if it's not luring the fish in, there's no problem. The bait is designed to lure you in, to focus your attention in there. Because that lure is promising you, "This is good for you, this will satisfy you." There are all kinds of baits and lures out there that will draw you in.

The devil, again, knows your profile and he knows my profile. He knows exactly what will get to you or to me that might not get to anyone else. Your weaknesses are different from mine, and mine from yours. Things that might tempt me may never tempt you, and things that tempt you may never tempt me because of the background experiences of life. He knows the right bait and the right luring process to convince us or try to convince us this will satisfy you.

I want you to look at the picture on the screen. Those are artificial fishing lures. Those are just a few of one species of fish, those are for bass. If you ever fished for bass, those are some of the lures. Notice they're all kind of different. Some bass at certain seasons of the year are going to respond to that big fat yellow one right in the middle, but other times of the year or different fish, they might say, "I don't like that one, I like the red one over there."

The devil knows what color bait to run by you based upon the weakness of your life. He knows your profile to such a degree: "This is the kind of lure that I need to use to fish with that person." There's the baiting, there's the luring, and then notice something you see on every one of those lures there: there's something attached to every one of them called a hook.

You never catch fish without a hook. If you have no hook on the lure, you never catch a fish. The hook is there to grab you and to snatch you and to connect you to the very thing Satan is trying to get you to do, think, say, or harbor in your heart. This is the moment—listen closely—temptation isn't sin. Yielding to temptation is sin. There's a difference. Everybody is tempted. Temptation is not sin. You're going to be tempted your whole life in lots of different ways. But the main thing you want to do is let the bait and the lure pass you by, because as soon as you bite into it, you're then hooked. That hook gets a hold of you, and that's the moment that you've now yielded to temptation. Now the temptation has become sin.

The next word I want you to write down is disconnection. Once you sin, there's a consequence to sin. The consequence to sin is disconnection: you begin to violate your fellowship with God. You don't lose relationship with God as a follower in Jesus, but when you sin and you yield to temptation, you've now violated and hurt your fellowship with God. God is still in your life, He still loves you, but now you have distanced yourself from Him because of your sin. You've distanced yourself from your morals, your values, your priorities. You've distanced yourself in some ways and disconnected from yourself. I've heard people say before, "I never believed I would do that. I never believed I would ever do that." They've lost their perspective of what temptation can do to you. It disconnects you.

Think about the fish for a moment. When the fisherman throws the bait into the water and lures that fish, and finally the fish bites into the bait and to the lure and the fisherman hooks that fish, where does the fish end up? On the dock or in the boat. When the fish comes out of the water onto the dock or in the boat, they've now been disconnected from their proper environment. They're now in an environment they were never designed to be in.

That's what sin will do: it will draw you out of your proper environment and put you in an environment you weren't designed by God to be in. You're in a place you shouldn't be in. There's disconnection. Isaiah 59, verse two: "Your sins are the roadblock between you and your God. That's why he doesn't answer your prayers or let you see his face." Understand that sin is going to hurt your fellowship with God. It doesn't destroy your relationship with God, it hurts your fellowship.

My wife and I have been married 49 years. I cannot believe that she's put up with me for that long. But there are times that our relationship hasn't always been smooth. There are times that we get disconnected by an offense or something that happens, and when that happens, we still love each other, we're still married, but we ain't talking. So we see each other in the hallway of the house and I go this way and she goes that way, and our hallway's about like this. You're still married, you still love each other, you're still in relationship, but something happened there in the fellowship until the fellowship is restored again.

That's what happens in our relationship with God. God doesn't move. God's not mad at you; He's wanting you to come back to Him, but you've turned your back on God. You've said, "No, I'm going to follow this bait over here for a while now," so you've rejected God's way and you've broken that relationship with God. That's why you feel what you feel; that's called guilt and conviction. That's good for you as long as it doesn't become toxic in your life and you know how to use guilt the right way.

It brings us to this: if you don't deal with it the right way, here's the final aspect of what happens through temptation. Ultimately, death happens. You begin to die a little bit on the inside because darkness is now taking over. In the ultimate sense of that, people who reject God their whole life and reject the plan of salvation their whole life and reject the wonderful gift of Jesus and the salvation he brings—what happens to them when they die? They are ultimately separated from the God who loves them.

The Bible talks about this in Romans chapter six, verse 23: "For the wages of sin is death." Not just dying naturally—yes, that's a part of life—but it's talking about far more than that. It's talking about being eternally separated from God. People who will live their whole life and never accept Jesus Christ as their savior, as their Lord, and what He's done for them by reason of dying on the cross for their sins and making a personal confession of their faith in Jesus—if you live your life rejecting God and saying no to God, God says, "You've rejected me my whole life, I assume that you don't want to be with me." So you've now made your choice to spend eternity separated from me.

Please understand something: God doesn't send people to hell; people send themselves to hell by the choices that they make. Some people say, "Why does God send people to hell?" God doesn't send anyone to hell. God allows you to make a choice in your life that will result in whether you want to be with Him for eternity or you want to be eternally separated from Him by the choices that you make. God has provided everything necessary for you to have an eternal life with Him. There's no reason why you can't have a relationship with God except your own choice in your own life to choose to follow Him, serve Him, and make Christ your savior and your Lord. But if you choose not to do that, then you've now rejected the very gift of salvation.

Here's the end result of sin. Revelation, the last book of the Bible, chapter 20, verse 10, we see the end result of Satan. The Bible says at the end of times, "Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." Then in chapter 21, those who've followed Satan, who've aligned themselves with Satan rather than with God, notice what happens to them in chapter 21, verse eight: "But cowards, unbelievers," people who've rejected faith in Jesus, "the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers and all liars—their fate is the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

What does the second death mean? Well, the first death is something we all experience. You're not going to live here on this planet forever. We all die at some point in time. The first death is our natural death. If you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, when you sin against God, you're still in relationship with God, but you need to make that relationship right again by coming back to God and confessing your sins, repenting of your sins, and making things right so that you're restoring fellowship with Him, that you're taking the initiative to say, "God, I've messed up again, I'm coming to you for forgiveness."

We lay claim to the promise of first John 1, verse nine, that if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It's very important to understand that when you sin as a believer, it doesn't mean that you lose your salvation. Aren't you glad for that? Because Jesus secured your salvation for you. You don't get to heaven on your own works anyway; we get to heaven on the works of what Jesus has done for us.

However, when we sin, we are hurting our fellowship with God, so it is our responsibility to come back to God and say, "God, I'm owning what I did here as being—I'm one of your children, but I've messed up." If you're a parent here, have your kids always done the right thing? No, of course they haven't. So you as even one of God's children, there are going to be times that you will miss the mark with Him, but it's vital that you take the responsibility to come back to Him and ask Him for forgiveness and to repent in such a way that you're saying, "God, I don't want to live that way, I want to follow your ways."

By the way, if you're a Christian living in sin, you're going to be miserable anyway. You can't be a Christian living in sin and not be miserable because the Holy Spirit inside of you will stir you and make you aware of the fact that something's wrong, that you need to get right in your life again. I always tell people this: when you get saved, truly get saved, you are ruined for sin for the rest of your life. You can't enjoy it anymore. What you really enjoy is the presence of God.

It's vital to recognize this. However, if you've rejected God all your life and had no relationship with Him, you've rejected Jesus, then your eternity is eternally separated from God. When you die as an unbeliever, you face the judgment that you've chosen. When you die as a Christian believer, you experience the beauty of the gift of eternal life in Christ. As soon as you die as a Christian, if you're a follower of Jesus, you don't need to be afraid of the fact that you're not perfect, you haven't done everything right. If you're a true follower of Jesus and you really know Him, as soon as you breathe your last breath here, as soon as that last breath comes out of your mouth and you die in a physical way here, you will enter directly into the presence of God. For the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be immediately present with the Lord.

That's why Jesus, when He was on the cross and there was a thief on the cross, the thief says to Jesus as he's dying there, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus said back to him, "Today you will be with me in paradise." So we die, we go into paradise in the presence of God. I believe it's a conscious paradise experience that we have there. We're not sleeping somehow in some weird way; no, we immediately are in the presence of God, consciously aware of the beauty of the glory and presence of God and the beautiful rewards of heaven. But there will come a time when Jesus will come back again and there'll be the consummation of the ages that will transpire, and all this world as we know it will come to its final conclusion and a new heaven and a new earth will be established, and we will be able to rule and reign with Christ forever and forever. That's what we look forward to.

Don't let sin hurt your fellowship with God. The most joy you'll ever have is living in right fellowship with God. That's why we're told to deal with sin when it comes our way and when we've yielded and we've missed the mark. Satan is a liar. He'll do everything possible to try to sell you on things that he says will satisfy something inside of you. "Oh, do this, this'll make you happy. Or try this, say this, you can say whatever you want to say and this'll solve the anger inside of you. Go ahead and do it." Or, "It's okay to start thinking this way."

He begins to suggest certain media forms that put things in your mind that shouldn't be in your mind, or conversations you start engaging in that shouldn't be a part of your life. You start engaging in those things and now certain thoughts begin to be in your mind, you start harboring attitudes inside of you. The enemy is trying to convince you that's okay, that's the right way to live. He's lying, he's deceiving. He also gives us this lie: "By the way, you know God never wants you to have any fun anyway. God's there to kind of rob all the joy out of your life. That's why all these do's and don'ts in the Bible, because He never wants you to be happy. If you'll follow me, you'll be happy. If you'll follow and do what I'm asking you to do and what I'm suggesting that you do, this is where you'll find satisfaction."

He twists and he perverts everything that God says. But it's a lie because every instruction in this book, every command in this book of God, is given to us for our good, for our peace, for our joy, and for our fulfillment. The highest way to live in life is to say no to temptation when it comes your way and yes to God every time. The more you say yes to God, the more you begin to discover that's the right way to live. How many people face temptation? Everybody. Don't ever get to the place of thinking, "I'm good now." No, you're not, you're never good. You're never at the place that temptation couldn't touch you. The way Satan brings temptation to you is through your weaknesses. He targets and baits you and tries to lure you, and then you cooperate with him. You can never say, "The devil made me do it," because the devil can never make you do anything that's outside of your will to do. It's whether we choose to obey God or we choose to listen to the lies of our enemy.

Would you bow your heads with me as we pray today? Father, we thank you for your word. We're grateful that you've instructed us today, that you've guided us into the truth of your word regarding temptation. We pray that somehow we would be far more vigilant, far more aware of this in our lives than ever before. Let us not be deceived by the adversary. Help us to live in truth. We thank you for it in Christ's name.

I would like to close today by giving you an opportunity to ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me right now? Right where you are, just simply bow your head with me and I'm going to give you a prayer to pray. You can simply speak this prayer out, whisper this prayer out, and from the sincerity of your heart call upon God, and I promise you that He will hear and answer you. So let's pray together. Start by simply whispering the name Jesus. Let there come from your heart just the declaration of His name. Say: Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, that I have fallen short with you. I'm sorry for all of my sins. Jesus, I believe in you. I believe that you are God's Son. I believe that you are the Savior of the world. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins. And I believe that you rose from the grave, that you are alive today. Lord Jesus, come into my heart, come into my life, forgive me of my sins, give me a new start in you. I commit my life to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, if you prayed that prayer with me, I want to encourage you with a promise from God's word that says that when we call upon God's name, we call upon the Son of God, there is salvation that comes to our lives. He changes us from the inside out and you become a new creation. Old things pass away, all things become new, and that's exactly what has happened to you today. Your next step really is to make sure that you get into a good Bible-believing church, and you begin to study God's word. Get God's word in you and make sure that you get a copy of the Bible if you don't have one and begin to read it. Spend some time every day in prayer. I would encourage you also to check out the resources on our website that will help you to get going in your relationship with Jesus. You can find them at church-redeemer.org. Get those into your hands, get started in your new life with Jesus Christ. Thanks again for joining us today. May God bless you and we look forward to seeing you next time.