James Merritt - No Fine Print - Part 1
One of the signs that you have reached full-fledged adulthood is not just when you turn 18 or when you turn 21. You know that you have really reached adulthood when you are asked to sign a contract, 'cause only adults can sign contracts. Now, one of the things that you're taught early on is, and I know you know the answer to this, but before you sign a contract, they will always tell you to read the what? Yeah, the fine print. Always read the fine print. But most of us don't do that. Only one out of a 1,000 people who sign any contract ever read the fine print. And that's a bad idea, as the following true story illustrates. I'm not making this up.
In 2017, Great Britain offered people free wifi service. Totally free. And all you had to do was sign a contract. They called the program Purple. You signed the contract, you had free wifi. Problem was they didn't read the fine print. The fine print said, buried in the contract was this clause stipulating that you would also have to do a 1,000 hours of community service. Included in that was you had to clean toilets and public restrooms and you had to relieve sewer blockages. It pays to read the fine print.
Now, here's the good news about Jesus. When you follow Jesus, you don't sign a contract. You enter into a covenant, a binding covenant, an eternal covenant, lifelong covenant. But good news, there's no fine print. He doesn't hide anything at the bottom of the clause. There's nothing on the back of the page. And I know that because of a statement we're about to read. For those of you who are with us for the first time, we've been in a series, we're gonna be in it for a while, on the Sermon on the Mount, that we've called "Get Used to Different". Because what Jesus is going to be teaching us in this entire sermon is "If you're going to follow me, you're gonna be different". And you better get used to being different because nobody's ever been more different than Jesus and nobody's ever called more people to be more different than Jesus.
And in this next beatitude that we're going to look at, Matthew 5:10, Jesus very honest and upfront, let us know, "Okay, if you're going to follow me and you're gonna be different like me, it's not going to be easy". So here's what Jesus said. "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". Now, if that verse causes you trouble, it should. If that verse bothers you, it should. It bothers me. It causes me trouble. Puts a real serious frown on my face, but not for the reason that you may think. First of all, it really is counterintuitive. In fact, it's almost contradictory. 'Cause remember we said the word blessed can literally be translated happy.
So what Jesus literally said was, "Happy are you if you're persecuted". Well, that's not what we normally hear. We normally think that if you're blessed and happy you dodged the bullet, you don't bite the bullet. Yet, then you go and you read the story of the early church and we find out that the earliest Christians, they were flogged, they were killed. They faced discrimination. They faced violence. But that's hard for us to really wrap our heads around. It's really hard for us to even take that verse seriously because to be honest, here in America we don't face what they faced. And it's especially difficult for those who live in this country to fully appreciate what Jesus even said. "What do you mean, 'Blessed are those who are persecuted'"?
So let's just take our own personal experience. You don't need to raise your hand 'cause I already know the answer. Anybody here ever been thrown in jail because you talked about Jesus? Didn't think so. Anybody here had their house burned down because they went to church on Sunday morning? Hadn't heard of it. Had a relative or a friend that got murdered in this country just because they said they loved Jesus? No. So the truth of the matter is we don't really think a lot about real persecution. I mean the kind that would make you afraid of going to church or afraid of praying in public or afraid of carrying a Bible to school. But of course, there are other kinds of persecution we'll talk about it in a moment, but let me just make this observation just for you to chew on this morning.
Maybe the reason we don't really face much real persecution is not because we're living in a different age and nation than early Christians; maybe it's because we're living a different kind of Christianity than early Christians. Maybe we don't really live the Christian faith like they lived the Christian faith. And I'll just give you one evidence of that. There are a lot of, they're called communicators, they used to call them preachers, now the in word, the cool word is communicators. There are a lot of communicators out there, and here's what they'll tell you: "If you'll follow Jesus, you'll be healthy, wealthy, and wise. Jesus will make you rich. He'll give you anything that you want. Life will be one big rose garden".
And to be honest, they are partially right. Because the Christian life is, in one sense, a bed of roses. The only problem is every bed of roses has its thorns. And when you sail the good ship grace, God doesn't promise a smooth sailing. He just promises a safe landing. So here's the cold hard truth. All these other beatitudes that we've been studying, "blessed are the merciful, blessed are the meek, blessed are the pure in heart," all those blessings that we say, "Oh man, I wanna live like that," now Jesus really splashes cold water in our face, 'cause here's what He says, "If you're gonna live up to the first seven beatitudes, you're gonna live up to this one. Because if you are merciful, if you are pure in heart, if you really do love God, you are going to be persecuted". No fine print.
If you live up to the standard that Jesus is gonna talk about in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, you will be persecuted. So the simple statement I want you to remember today is this. If you're true to Jesus, you will be tested by persecution. If you're true to Jesus, you will be tested by persecution. I want you to think about what Jesus says in this one powerful statement as He talks about persecution. Jesus says, first of all, we must recognize the reality of persecution. Jesus is totally honest, totally upfront, He pulls no punches, no fine print, makes it plain, He says, "Blessed are those who are persecuted". And then just in case you didn't get it the first time, just in case you don't really believe it, He repeats it again. "Blessed are you when people persecute you".
There's no maybe, there's no might, there's no if, there's no it could happen. Jesus said, "Blessed and happy are you when you are persecuted". Now, what we fail to realize is that believing in Jesus and suffering for Jesus are really Siamese twins. The Apostle Paul put it this way, he said, "It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him". Now, if that surprises you, I don't know why. And it really shouldn't surprise me. Because let me just let you on a secret if you don't know this already: Jesus was persecuted. And persecution was reality for the church ever since the church got started. Throughout history, ever since the church was born, it has been persecuted.
As a matter of fact, it started the moment Jesus ascended into heaven and the disciples began to go everywhere preaching the Gospel. And everywhere the disciples went, everywhere they preached the Gospel, they left behind two things: changed hearts and their own life. They left behind people who began to follow Jesus and their own life. If I were to say to you, does anybody know what happened to Judas, or the 12 disciples? You'd say, "Oh yeah, I know what happened. He went out and he hung himself".
Well, let me ask you a question. Have you ever thought about whatever happened to the other 11 disciples? Let me just give you a taste. According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down. Andrew was also crucified. Thomas was stabbed through the heart in India with the spears of four soldiers. Philip was beaten to death. Matthew was stabbed to death. James was stoned and then clubbed to death. And everybody else except John met violent deaths of various kinds. And he was put into exile. And not only has nothing changed since that time, it's actually gotten worse around the world. Let me just give you an example. More than 360 Christians are living in countries where they suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination just because of their faith.
That's one out of eight Christians worldwide. More than 360 million Christians right now are being persecuted. On average, every five minutes a Christian is put to death somewhere in the world. According to the International Society of Human Rights, 80% of all religious freedom violations in the world today are directed against Christians. Now, as a Christian in America, on an average day, we don't face any of that. We don't fear any of that. We don't even think about any of that. I don't fear for my life. I didn't get up today shaking in my boots 'cause I was going to preach the Gospel. You didn't get up today afraid that somebody was gonna take you out because you were going to come to church. But if you live beyond these borders, if you were to leave outside, go outside the United States, here's the average day for many people around world.
This is an average day. On an average day, 12 churches or Christian buildings are attacked, 12 Christians are unjustly arrested, detained, or in prison, and five Christians are abducted for faith-related reasons. Every day. And according to estimates by Dr. Todd Johnson, who's a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, more than 70 million Christians have been killed throughout history. But here's the kicker, more than half of those deaths occurred in the 20th century. More Christians were killed in the 20th century than all of the other centuries combined. There's no doubt about it. Around the world by far, by very far, by infinitely far, the most persecuted group of people on the planet are Christians. Obviously we don't face in America anywhere near the severity of that kind of persecution our brothers do around the world.
But there are other kinds of persecution we're gonna talk about in just a moment. And I will tell you this. I don't face persecution like they do, and you don't face persecution like they do. But I will tell you this. From the halls of Washington to the classrooms that your kids attend, there is more hostility to the Christian faith than I've ever seen in my lifetime. We are hated. We are caricatured. In fact, I was telling our staff this morning in our prayer time, let me tell you the number one thing the world's saying about you and me right now. Here it is. You ready? We are anti-LBGTQ. That's the number one thing.
Let me make something very plain to anybody that's listening who are in the LBGTQ crowd. We love you. I wish you flocked to our church, we'd love to have you. I want you to hear the Gospel. I want you to know the Jesus that I know. I am not against any LBGTQ. I'm not against anybody straight. I'm not against anybody narrow. It doesn't matter to me. What I am against is sin, 'cause that's what Jesus came to die for. And heterosexual sin is just as bad as homosexual sin. The point being that if you're going to stand for Jesus today, I promise you this is only going to increase. Every one of us must recognize the reality of persecution. But then Jesus tells us something else. He said, we must realize the reason for persecution.
Now, this really does raise a question, and I want you to think about it. Go back to what Jesus said in the beatitudes. If you would just go all the way back to the beatitudes. "Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness". And you're reading all these things and you think, "Wait a minute, why in the world would people like that suffer persecution? Why would anybody wanna persecute people who have that kind of heart and that kind of spirit? Why in the world would Christians who are just trying to live like Jesus suffer such persecution"? Well, believe it or not, I just gave you the answer. That is the answer. Because if you try to live like Jesus, you will be persecuted like Jesus. Listen to what Jesus said. "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness".
Now, I just want you to stop and think about how unbelievable that statement is. I mean, I understand getting persecuted if you do something wrong. I understand if you get persecuted for breaking a law or committing a crime. But Jesus says, "You're not gonna be persecuted for doing what's wrong. You're gonna be persecuted for doing what's right. You're not gonna be persecuted because you said the wrong thing. You're gonna be persecuted because you said the right thing". In other words, here's what Jesus said. If you speak up and you stand up for what God says is right, you can expect to be persecuted. It's not a matter of if you will be. It's a question of when, where, and how much.
By the way, that word righteousness is a really interesting word. It comes from a root word that literally means to divide, and it also means to pursue. And I think what Jesus was saying was this, if you are righteous, and I mean righteous God's way, not in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of God, if you're righteous compared to the rest of the world, you're going to divide yourself from the world. And once you divide yourself from the world, you're gonna be different from the world. And once you're different from the world, you're gonna be pursued by the world.
So I just wanna stop, and I thought it'd be great right now just to ask all of us, beginning with me, just a couple of honest questions. I don't wanna raise your hand, just in your own heart say yes or no. How would you respond if I said, do you really wanna walk out these doors this morning, those of you watching me right now, do you really wanna walk out of your house today, do you really want to live a godly life? Do you really want people to know that you are not a good person but a godly person? Do you really wanna be a godly husband, a godly wife, a godly son, a godly daughter, a godly brother, a godly sister, a godly employee, a godly employer, a godly citizen?
Now, if the answer to that question is yes, I really do; great, God makes a promise to you. You ready? Here's His promise. "Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus," let's say these out loud, "will be," what? That's His promise. You like the promises of God? There's one. You really wanna live godly? "I do". You really wanna stand up for God where you work? "I really do". You really wanna be to your neighbors what a godly husband, dad, mom, sister, brother, wife ought to be? "I really do". Jesus said, "Okay, I promise you you will be persecuted". Now, here's the thing that finally hit me. I'm working on, listen, when I was working on this message, I was struggling. I said, "First of all, Lord, like me, most people, they don't even have a clue what persecution is; I really don't".
And another thing I struggled with was, "They're not gonna like what You said, number two and number three. Why is it that we just don't understand why this would be true"? And this thought hit me like a ton of bricks. Why in the world would godly people who live in an ungodly world expect anything else except persecution? Why would godly people who live in an ungodly world expect anything except to be persecuted? Now, before I go any further, and some of you need to hear this, I want you to understand what Jesus was saying, what He wasn't. He was not talking about punishment. He was talking about persecution. 'Cause I've talked to people like this and I've had to correct them. Sometimes what we call persecution is really just punishment.
So let me give you an example. If you try to shove the Gospel down somebody's throat and you share Jesus in a rude, arrogant way, and they tell you they don't wanna hear it and you keep talking and they finally let you have it with both barrels, that's not persecution, that's punishment. If you work at a job and there's a rule where you work that you cannot do any religious proselytizing, but you go around every office in your work and give out Best News cards and Bibles, you get fired, you're not being persecuted, you're being punished. You see, persecution is when you get what you don't deserve. Punishment is when you get what you do deserve. And the point Jesus is making is one of the marks that you're living godly, one of the marks you're being the person you ought to be, one of the marks that you're doing what God wants you to do is persecution. And really it stands to reason.
Think about this. Compared to the rest of the world, if you're a follower of Jesus, compared to the rest of the world, number one, we all are starting off at a different point. We believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. The world doesn't. We all walk a different path. We believe everybody ought to live a God-honoring, Jesus-loving, Bible-believing life. The world doesn't. And then we all end at a different place. We believe that only faith in Jesus Christ leads anyone to eternity with God. The world doesn't believe that.
Well, when I know I'm starting from a different point, I know I'm walking a different path, and I know I'm gonna wind up in a different place, why in the world would I expect anything else than the rest of the world when they're not starting where I start, they're not walking where I'd not walk, they're not living like I live, they're not going where I'm going, why would I not believe, "I get it, I understand, we're going in opposite direction"? Jesus said there are only two roads that people walk. If you know your Bible, you know this. There only two roads. Everybody's on one of two roads right now. Your neighbor, your relatives, your friends, your high school classmates, everybody's on one of two roads. Jesus said there's this broad road and that's where most people are walking. The broad road leads to destruction. And then Jesus said there's this narrow road. And He said that's the road that leads to eternal life. One road, destruction; one road to eternal life.
Now, here's the problem. The narrow road is running right down the middle of the broad road. But it's worse than that. The broad road's going in this direction and the narrow road's going in that direction. Now, you know this well enough, right? This is not, this is real easy. If I'm driving a car and I'm going that way and you're driving a car and you're going this way, we're going to have a what? Yeah, head-on collision. You can't avoid it. We're going to have a head-on collision. Why? Because we're going in the opposite direction. So Jesus says, "Look, I'm gonna make it, I'm being honest with you. If you're going to live for me, you're gonna look like me, you're gonna love like me, here's the news, you ready? You won't have to go looking for trouble. Trouble will come looking for you".
You don't have to go around saying, "Somebody, please persecute me," you don't have to do that. They'll gladly oblige. All you gotta do is just, "Okay, I'm going to live a righteous life". Now, here's what I know some of you're thinking right now. You're not really bothered by this message. You're not uncomfortable in the least with this message, because here's what a lot of you're thinking. "Well, I've never been persecuted. None of my classmates at school ever rip on me. Nobody ever calls me out. I've never had anybody get in my face. Nobody's ever bothered me about my Christianity. I get along with everybody".
I understand that. I'd just like to ask you a question. Do you think that says something about God or do you think that says something about you? Just a thought. Just a thought. Some people they think, "Well, you know what? Maybe God loves us more than the early Christians because He keeps us from being persecuted". Let me tell you what I think, and it hurts me to say it 'cause I'm with you. I think the reason why we're not facing a lot of persecution is not because God loves us more. I think it's because we love God less. I don't think the average Christian wants to pay the price of being an above average Christian. I think the average Christian has counted the cost of what it really means in today's world to be different and act different and look different and talk different and walk different and say, "Yep, that price is too high. I don't think I want to go there".
So, as I was working on this message, I said, "Okay, I gotta make sure they're hearing what I'm trying to tell them". 'Cause I don't want you mistake what I'm about to tell you, so I want you to hear me clearly. There's a brand of Christianity. There's a pastor, I won't call his name, some of you will know who I'm talking about. I love him, he's a friend. But he's talking about, he'd gotten criticized recently by one of my best friends, and he said, "Well, I just don't accept his version of Christianity," that was his point. "I just don't accept his version of Christianity". First thing I thought about is, "Well, how many versions are there? And who gets to choose which one is right"? But there is a version, if you will, of Christianity being promoted and proclaimed and preached. And it's real easy to spot. You ready?
Here it goes. It's the brand of Christianity that includes no conviction, just confirmation, no confrontation, just conciliation, no conflict, just cooperation. You go along to get along. So let me just tell you, if you're one of those people that say, "I don't want any persecution, that's not what I signed up for. That's not the deal I wanted". You say, "Man, I just wanna avoid persecution, okay"? It is so easy to do that. Here's all you gotta do. Ready? Sit down when you ought to stand up, you won't be persecuted. Shut down when you ought to speak up, you won't be persecuted. Lay down when you ought to rise up, you won't be persecuted. Do nothing, say nothing when you ought to do something and say something. But I'm here to tell you today, Jesus said if you're going to be righteous, you're going to live righteous, you're going to do righteousness and stand for righteousness, you're going to be persecuted.
So number one, we gotta recognize the reality of persecution. And then we've gotta realize the reason for persecution. You just live for Jesus, it will come. But there's a silver lining in the black cloud because Jesus said, thirdly, we must remember the reward for persecution. Realize the reality of it, recognize the reason for it, but remember the reward. I told you, no fine print. Jesus said, "Hey, you wanna follow me? It's gonna cost you". Price is high. Some countries it will cost you your life. Some countries it will cost you your job. Some places it will cost you a friendship. Some places it may cost you an election. Some places it will cost you popularity. Some companies it will cost you a promotion. But if you're gonna stand out, Jesus said, there are some rewards and there are some benefits. Here's one. "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven".
Now, Jesus was big on the kingdom. I tell our staff this all the time. I'm a kingdom guy. I love the local church, but the local church is a subset. It's all about the kingdom. Jesus didn't come talking about the church first. He talked about the kingdom. He said, "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven". You know what, this is the second time in the beatitudes He talks about that. This is the second time He says, "Hey, your reward is the kingdom of heaven". Now, what's the big deal about that? Well, what is a kingdom? A kingdom is where a king rules and where a king reigns. And what Jesus was saying was, when the King of the kingdom lives in your heart and makes you one of His children, guess what that means for you? You rule just like He rules and you reign just like He reigns.
In fact, I read this this morning, just this morning in my quiet time, I read this today, this morning, Paul said to a young pastor named Timothy, he said, "If we endure". Endure what? Somebody, what do you think he was talking about? Endure what? Persecution. He said, "Hey, if we endure, we will also reign with Him". By the power of the Holy Spirit, by the grace of God, when you choose to face persecution for righteousness, no matter the cost, here's what Jesus said, "That's okay because one day you'll be sitting on a throne with a crown on your head. Yours, to you, belongs the kingdom of heaven. You'll be reigning with me". Jesus was not just talking about entering the kingdom then, He was talking about enjoying the kingdom now.
Here's what I wanna tell you. Yeah, they may be throwing stones at you from the street. I get it. But just remember, one day, while they're throwing stones at you on the street, one day you'll be sitting on a throne in heaven. Jesus said, "Don't forget the benefits. Don't forget the rewards". And what Jesus is telling us is this, every time you're persecuted, doesn't matter, any way, shape, form, or fashion, He said, "Here's what I want you to remember. You're not a part of this world. You don't belong here. Your citizenship is not here. You are a son, you are a daughter in the family of God. You are a prince, you're a princess in the kingdom of God. Yeah, one day you might be thrown into a dungeon, but at the end of the day you'll wind up in a palace. Yours is the kingdom of heaven".
So, I'd like for all of us to stop, those of you watching right now, here in the building, I want you just to stop. I wanna ask all of us a question. And let's just be honest. Don't need to lie. Be honest. If in America laws were passed against being a Christian or going to church or owning a Bible, or defending your faith, would you be worried? Would you be targeted? Or, would you somehow rationalize it and take the easy way out? Or, to look at it another way, I want you to look at the way, let's just go this past week, just the past week, just the past seven days, look at the way you lived your Christian life in the last seven days.
If that happened in the country last week, would there have been enough difference in the way you live your life compared to the way everyone else lives their lives? Would there be enough difference that you would know, "Uh-oh, I'm a target. Uh-oh, I'm in trouble". Or how many of you would say, "You know what, if I lived my Christian life the way I lived it last week, they could do all those things, wouldn't make a big difference in my life. Wouldn't really matter". I wear around my neck, I'm not a big jewelry guy, but I wear around my neck a gold necklace. It was given to me. You probably can't see it, but it's in the shape of a fish. It's called an ichthus, it's a fish. And it has a name in Hebrew, and the name in Hebrew is Jesus. And I wear that. I never take it off.
And the reason why I wear it is for me very simple. It's not because I like the necklace, not 'cause I'm really big into fish or anything like that. But as we've already seen, persecution is, around the world it's common. And I believe it's coming someday to us. So here's why I wear this little fish. In the 300 years before Christianity was finally legalized by Constantine, if you followed Jesus, you faced terrible persecution. They would tar you and set you on fire. They would put honey and sweet things all over your body and let wild animals come and eat you. I mean, they did unbelievably horrible things. Well, for 10 generations, Christians dug nearly 600 miles of tunnels beneath the city of Rome. I've seen them, if you go with me, you'll see them. They're called catacombs.
And you can visit some of them today. They were underground caves. And it's where Christians would gather in secret for worship because they were so severely persecuted. While archeologists have explored the catacombs, they found this common inscription was scattered all around these caves. And that inscription was the word ichthus. The word ichthus in the Greek language means fish. But the Greek letters have a significance. What they really spell out is this, this is the symbol, what that really spells out is "Jesus Christ, God's Son, the Savior". And people would put that on their walls, and people would sometimes carve them into wood. So sometimes you'd go somewhere and you'd walk into a home and nobody had to say a word, but you might see in the little corner of a house there's the fish. And everybody knew, "Oh, you belong to Jesus".
Now today, it's not that big a deal. We put them on cars, jewelry, and everything else. I just say that because from now on, every time you see that, every time you see a fish, every time you see that ichthus, I want you to remember not only who it stands for, but what it stands for. So, I wanna close with what Jesus said. He said, "No matter what happens to you, no matter how bad it may be, no matter if it costs you your very life, just remember yours is the kingdom of heaven". So what was He saying? What was He really saying? He said, when we come to those times when for whatever reason, whatever way we're persecuted, He said, "Just remember this. The Gospel cannot fail. The devil cannot win".
Jesus cannot be defeated because death already has been. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. There is no fine print, we don't need it because of the One who died, the One who was buried, the One who's raised from the dead, with Him we could face anything knowing that even if we face death from a world that one day will end, we will enter a kingdom that never, ever will. So, "Blessed are those who are persecuted, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". Now the question is, what are you gonna do, not just about today, but you think this is really getting strict and tight and really getting real? You ain't heard nothing yet. You go read Matthew 5, 6, and 7 and you better buckle your seatbelt. 'Cause Jesus is telling us, "You better get used to different".
So I just wonder today, if there was a law passed around the world, you cannot own a Bible, you cannot ever mention the name Jesus, you cannot share the Gospel, you cannot attend a church, you can't let anybody know you are a believer at all, if you do, you will die, I just wonder how many of us would live a long happy life. So when I ask somebody here today, and I'm gonna ask somebody watching right now, you've never given your life to Jesus. You've never trusted Him. You've never surrendered your life to Him. Well, today, I'm gonna really try to make it hard for you to do it. Because if you don't want any part of being unpopular or criticized or castigated or condemned or caricatured, don't get within a country mile of Jesus. It costs to serve Jesus. It costs every day. It costs every step of the way.
I've learned it, I've seen it, I've had it. I've had doors slammed in my face. I had a guy, we were doing street witnessing in New Orleans. Bourbon Street. I'd just stand on the street corner. We were doing it when I was president of the convention. We were just sharing the Gospel, giving out tracts. I had a guy run, he literally ran up to me. I think he was kind of high and he ran up to me. I really thought he was gonna deck me. I really did. I thought I was gonna be, I'm gonna get... He was gonna punch me right in the face, he was so mad. Nose to nose, he was yelling, screaming, cussing me out like you would not believe.
I've had that happen, and I'm not bragging about. It doesn't make me a hero. And if you just said, "I don't want that," you better stay away from Jesus. But if you're smart enough to realize and God's opened your eyes to see, better to be dead in Jesus than be alive without Him, then you might wanna reconsider. If you decide today, "You know what? Yeah, I get it now, if I'm like Jesus, I'm gonna be persecuted. If I'm like Jesus, it's not gonna be easy, but man, that's the guy that came back from the dead, I think I'm gonna go with Him". That's what I decided.
And if you've never made that decision, I'd like to ask you to make that decision today. And I know there may be some watching right now, there may be somebody in the room you say, "But yeah, but if I do that, I'll lose this friend. If I do that, this may happen if I do that". I can't, I'm not guaranteeing you anything. I'm not putting, no fine print.
I will tell you there is no life like the life of knowing Jesus. There's no life like the life of following Jesus. There's no life like the life of being surrendered to Jesus. There just isn't any life like knowing to go to bed at night and know you're right with the God that made you, and one day you'll spend eternity with Him no matter what else happens. So if you've never trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I'm just gonna ask you right now in your heart, where you're sitting, where you're watching right now to do that, to do what I did so many years ago, and so glad I did. Just to say:
Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner and I need You. I don't care what it costs me, 'cause I'll tell you one thing I now know, Lord, it'll cost me a lot more if I don't follow You than it will if I do. So today, I ask You to come into my heart. I ask You to save me, I ask You to forgive me. I trust You as my Savior. I receive You as my Lord. I give all that I am to all that You are, and now my life completely belongs to You.