Craig Smith - Zombie Faith
Good morning. Hey, welcome to Mission Hills on all of our campuses, including those of you joining us online. So glad you are here for week number five of our “Mission Killers” series. If you are just joining us, let me catch you up real quick. We are taking a look at those things that can take you off mission with Jesus, which is so important because the reality is, when you say yes to following Jesus, you say yes to following him on mission. They are inseparable, but there are all kinds of things the world sends at us that can derail us, that can take us off of mission. We have looked at several of those already. Today we are going to look at a mission killer that I believe is actually one of the most dangerous ones out there. I say that not necessarily because it’s more powerful than any of the other ones, but because it’s more sneaky.
It has a tendency to do its work without us realizing what’s actually happening, and the reality is, I think most of us at one time or another will face this particular mission killer. Why don’t you go ahead and grab a Bible and make your way to Revelation 3. Revelation 3:1 begins the way all of these letters have begun in the Book of Revelation. Jesus says, to the angel of the church of Sardis, write this. Again, if you are just joining us, let me catch you up. He writes to the angel of the church because the angel is a personification of the message the church has for the world, so by writing to the angel of the church, he’s reminding the church that they have a message that we call the Gospel, and that they are on a mission to share that message with the world.
Then he says this, these are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. That sounds very mystical, right? Honestly, it’s not that hard to understand. We’ll walk through it. Before you do that, I want to make sure you understand that what Jesus is doing is he’s telling the church at Sardis what they need to know to overcome their particular mission killer. Each of the letters to the churches begins in a way like this, and each church gets a slightly different statement from Jesus. He says different things about himself because those are the things they need to know to be able to overcome the particular mission killer they are facing, so what he tells the church of Sardis is, I’m the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
Let’s start with the stars. That’s the easiest one because we have already seen in the Book of Revelation that Jesus uses the language of a star as a symbol for the Gospel message. Because stars are up high, and they shine bright, and that’s what the Church is supposed to do with the Gospel. They are supposed to hold it up high and cause it to shine bright. The Church is a lighthouse; it’s a lampstand that holds that message up high. He says I’m the one who holds the seven stars. Seven churches, seven messages, he says, I’m the one who decides your message as a church. It’s in his hand.
The church doesn’t get to decide, well, we think we’ll do this message, or maybe it will be this message or maybe it will be this message or that message, he says, no, no, no. It’s my message. I decide it. I own it, but he also says that he is the one who holds the seven spirits of God, which might seem like a strange thing but understand that throughout the Bible, the Spirit of God is associated with bringing life to things. Go all the way back to the very first page of the Bible, God had a plan for creation, but it was the Spirit of God that brought life to that plan. God made Adam, and then he breathed the Spirit into him. The Spirit brings life.
In John 6:63, Jesus said this, he said the Spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, they are full of Spirit and life, okay? So the Spirit of God brings life to God’s things. You might, yeah, but there are seven spirits here. He’s talking about the seven spirits, yeah, but he’s writing to seven churches. So what he’s describing here is his work to bring life to those churches, okay? What Jesus is talking about, he says Jesus is working to give life to each of his churches.
But that immediately tells us that the church he’s writing to has a life problem. There is something wrong with the life of that particular church, and as we read on we immediately see that. The next verse says, I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive but you are dead. That’s a life problem, right? Namely, they don’t have one. They don’t have a life, but he says, you have a reputation for being alive. That’s so interesting. He says, you look alive to people on the outside. He says there’s all kinds of motion. All kinds of energy. There’s all kinds of activity. All of the stuff we associate with life, you’ve got all that. From the outside, it looks like you’re alive and kicking as a church, but I know better than that.
The reality is that inside of the church, there’s no life, which is weird, right? They have all of the activity. They have all the motion of life, but they don’t have actual life. Like you know what he’s describing, right? I know this is weird that I’m going to say this in church, but it’s October, so we are just going to go ahead and go there. You know what he’s describing, right? It’s a zombie. Right? That’s what he’s describing, a zombie church. Something that looks like, it’s got all of the activity, the motion, and the energy, but it’s missing the spark of actual life. It’s missing the Spirit somehow. He’s describing a zombie church. I worked for one of those my first three years in ministry.
I got out of college and I was hired by a small church in Cincinnati, Ohio. And part of the reason I said yes to the job was they looked like they were just killing it. They looked from the outside like they were full of life. There was all kinds of stuff going on. There were all kinds of ministries and programs. They were growing, their attendance was up. They built a big expansion, a Christian education wing and a student ministry space. So from the outside I went, this is a living church. This is awesome. I got into the church and literally the first Sunday I began to go, hmm. Things look a little different from the inside. The first sort of red flag was the pastor came in that day. He was carrying a book with him as he came in. It was called “I’m OK. You’re OK.” Some of you might remember. Back in the ‘90s, it was a very popular big self-help book. Kind of positive thinking and the universe will give you good things.
And honestly my first thought when I saw the book was, that’s awesome. Because I know it was a big seller, right? And I thought he was going to maybe find some things that were right and say, but you know who said these first, God did and go back to Bible, or he would find some things that were wrong and he would say, and we know these are wrong because here’s what God says. So I kept waiting. Throughout the whole sermon I was like, any second now he’s going to go here’s what the... not now, but, he will get... no, he didn’t, and then it was over. And like he literally never touched the Bible once. His authority was that psychology self-help book. I kind of slid out of the pew and went, huh. This is really not what I expected from what I saw going on from the outside.
Then my next red flag, I began to realize that the church did not care about the things that God cared about. The way I began to notice that was, you see, I was just young and stupid. I thought that what it meant to do ministry was that... I was a youth pastor, so you told students the Gospel, the Good News that God loves them, that he died on the cross, and that when you trusted in that, he began to move in your life. I was teaching that, and they were accepting that, and they were starting to go on mission with Jesus, and they were bringing their friends, and the youth group was growing, not just in size but in depth, and all sorts of great stuff was happening, I thought. But I started getting notes on my door. Little post-it notes.
My all time favorite post-it note... you are going to think I’m making this up, but I’m not. I got a post-it note that said, hey, the kids are wearing out the carpet on the way from the back door to your office. Please have them take alternate routes. Right? I was like, okay... like, really? Like you have so many students coming that they are literally wearing out the carpet on the way to the youth pastor’s office and you are unhappy about the carpet? Then I got other notes that said things like, who are these kids? Do their parents go here? You’re like, you don’t actually care about the things of God. It was a zombie church. We spent three years there. It was as dead as a doornail inside.
But again, I would encounter people from the community going, but it’s growing, right? Everything’s going great. I was like, man, there’s a huge disconnect between what’s happening on the outside and what is going on, on the inside. It was a zombie church, and something like that was going on at Sardis. Jesus says, I know your reputation. You have a reputation for being alive, but not so much. It’s a zombie church. So he says, wake up. Literally, it’s become aware. It’s like get up out of bed, wipe the sleep out of your eyes and pay attention to what is going on. This is serious. He says, pay attention. He says strengthen what remains and is about to die. There is good news there and there’s bad news. The good news is that it’s not too late, right? The good news is this that there is still some spark of life. There’s still something in this church that can be fanned into flame. It doesn’t have to go this route.
The bad news is, there’s not a whole lot of time that the light is fading, the life is dying. Then he gives us the real first clue as to what the real problem is. He says for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. This is the problem. This is why I’m saying, yeah, you have a reputation for being alive, but you are not actually, is because I found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. If you have been with us throughout the series, you might be thinking, there’s the word again. It’s that deeds word. Which you said over and over again is associated with the work of the church to hold the light of the Gospel up high for the world to see. It’s the work of the church to share the Good News of God’s love with the world. He says, your work to do that? It’s unfinished.
It hasn’t crossed the finish line somehow. He’s not saying you are doing different things or other things, but he’s saying the work that you are doing to do that, it’s not taking people to where they need to be. Now he doesn’t give us a lot of specifics about it. He doesn’t give us any specifics, really, but I can take a pretty well informed guess as to what was happening. It’s a guess informed by my understanding of the Bible, my theology, it’s also a guess informed by my 23 years of vocational ministry. Here’s what I think was probably happening. The church was growing. There were more people coming to church. They had ministries happening. Giving was up. People were doing a great job of bringing their friends to church. There were more people coming to church. That’s why they looked great on the outside, but understand this, listen, this is really important.
The goal isn’t people coming to church, the goal is people coming to Jesus, coming to Christ, and becoming the church, do you hear me? That’s the finish line. Not more people coming to your building. Not more people coming to services. The goal is more people coming to Christ and then becoming the Church. That’s why we say at Mission Hills the one thing that drives everything we do is we want to help people take the next step of becoming like Jesus and joining him on mission. That’s all we do. It’s all we do in everything we do. We help people become like Jesus and join him on mission. We want people coming to Christ, and then becoming the Church itself.
But he says, you are not getting across that finish line. Yeah, maybe you have better attendance, but that’s not it. You are not getting them across the finish line. Your deeds are unfinished. Then he says this, remember therefore what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. Guys this is so, so important because what Jesus is giving us there, it’s the cure for a zombie church. It’s also the cure for all of those zombie Christians in the zombie church because... and this is an unfortunate reality, but it’s inescapable. You can’t have a zombie church unless you have a whole bunch of zombie Christians in the church. Because as the people of the church go so goes the church. That’s all the church is. The church is the people of God. It’s not a building. It’s not a place we come to. The church is the people of God. If you have a zombie church what that means is you have a whole bunch of zombie Christians in that church. What Jesus says here is the remedy for zombie faith.
I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here to say that every one of us at some point in our lives will struggle with a case of zombie faith. Maybe that’s you right now. Maybe right now, as you’re listening to this message, you can remember a time when it seemed like Jesus was just more active in your life, more real somehow, maybe a time in your life where it just felt like the Spirit of God was more present and active, that God was closer. You kind of look around and you are like, but I’m still doing the right stuff. I’m still going to church, and I’m still singing most of the songs. I’m still giving. I’m in a Life Group. I’m reading my Bible and praying, and yet it feels like, if you are going to be completely honest, like you are just sort of going through the motions? That’s zombie faith.
If that’s you right now, take comfort in two things. Number one, we all experience that. At some point in our walk with Jesus, we all struggle with a bout of zombie faith where we’re just going through the motions. And they are the right motions, but they are not life-giving in the way they are supposed to be. If that’s you now, we have all been there. But the other thing I want you to be encouraged by is that Jesus actually gives you the cure right here, and it’s not complicated. He says three things. He says, remember; hold it fast, and then repent. Three things. Let’s walk through each of those. The first one he says is remember. He says remember what you have received and heard. What is that? Well, it sounds suspiciously similar to something the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia. He said this, Galatians 3:2. He said I would like to learn just one thing from you. He says, hey, guy, I know we could talk about a lot of different stuff, but there is one really foundational question, one thing I think it all kind of hinges on.
If you could just answer this question for me, I have one thing to ask you, did you receive the Spirit of God? Did you receive the life-giving Spirit of God? Did you do that by the works of the Law? Like did God give you the Spirit because you checked off the boxes, you did all the things you were supposed to do, and you did not do all the things you were not supposed to not do? Did you check off all of the boxes? Is that why you got the Spirit? Did you get the Spirit because you came to church X number of times? Did you get the Spirit of God because you did these things? No? Or was it because he says by believing what you heard. The answer is obvious. You didn’t get the Spirit of God by obeying the works of the Law. You got the Spirit of God; the life of God came into you because you believed what you heard. Well, what is it that they would have heard? It’s the Gospel.
It’s the Good News that God loves us so much that He sent His own Son to pay the price for our sin. That the Son of God himself went to the cross to take our place. He paid for our sin. He rose from the dead, and he offers us forgiveness and new life simply by trusting in what he did for us. Like that’s good news, right? Are you ever going to hear better news than that? There is no better news. What Paul said to the church at Galatia is how did you receive God’s spirit? Because you worked really hard, or because you trusted in what you heard? Now Jesus says, remember what you have heard and what it allowed you to receive. What does trusting in the Gospel allow us to receive? Where do you even start? Like forgiveness, right?
Let’s just start with forgiveness. All of your sins, everything you have ever done, everything you are doing right now you shouldn’t be doing, everything you are going to do in the future, and you wish you wouldn’t, but you know you are probably going to slip and fall, and it’s going to happen. Jesus says, done, forgiven, paid. All of it. That’s the first thing you receive. You receive a relationship with God. The God that flung the stars across the heavens begins to have a relationship with you. And not just a distant relationship. You are adopted as His son or His daughter as a child of the King. You get that by trusting in the Gospel. Not only that, the Holy Spirit of God actually comes into you and begins to change you from the inside out.
Everything you always wished you could be in the depth of your heart knew I could be so much more than I am, God says you have no idea what I made you to be. Your wildest dreams of what you could be, you are just scratching the surface of what I designed you for, and the Holy Spirit is going to come into you and change you from the inside out and He is gonna make you into something you never believed could be true of you. We get that by trusting the Gospel. We get eternal life that goes on forever and forever with God, joy, hope, peace, all these things, we get by trusting in the Good News of Jesus Christ. Jesus says, you are going through the motions? Here’s the first treatment plan. The first treatment for zombie faith is to remember the Gospel and all that it gives us.
It’s to remember the Gospel and all that it gives us. That’s the first treatment for zombie faith. It’s not go sign up for another Bible study. It’s not, read this Christian book or listen to this Christian music or get a new church, no, no, no. He says all of those things, those are fine. They are all well and good, but the first step for treating zombie faith, remember the Gospel and all that it gives us, and then he says, second step, hold it fast. Which means, grip it. Grab it. Hold it so tight that you never let it go. He says don’t just file the Gospel away somewhere in your life, yeah, that’s something I received years ago when I gave my life to Jesus, and it’s definitely stored away. That’s good, but it’s packed away. No, no, no. That’s not holding it fast.
He says don’t just have it as one of the things your church talks about occasionally, or it happens on occasion that you share the Gospel. He’s not saying have a ministry or a church designed to focus on the Gospel, he says, no, no. Hold it fast. Keep it up front. Keep it so it’s never out of sight, and I know I’m going to get in trouble for this. I know I’m going to get emails, but here’s what I think he’s saying, the second treatment for zombie faith is to carry the Gospel around like a security blanket. I know I’m going to get emails about that one. The Gospel is not a blankey. But what if it was? How many of you had a blankey? Come on. Had a child with a blankey? Grandchild? I brought one.
I didn’t make this up. This is an honest to goodness blanket. This is the blankey of a little girl named Clara. Her mom is the Communications Director here at Mission Hills. I saw this thing and I was like, I have to show that. How does a blankey get like this? Because it is held fast. It goes everywhere she goes. It’s never far from her. Jesus says the second remedy for zombie faith is to hold the Gospel, carry it around like a blankey, like a security blanket. You understand that the Gospel is our security right? It’s not just our salvation. It is our security. Like the gates of Heaven have been opened by the blood of Jesus, and they stay open for us not because we go to church X number of times. Not because we give X amount of money. Not because we do the things we are supposed to do and not do the things we are not supposed to do. Our security, our entrance into Heaven is secured because of the Gospel. It is not just our salvation, it is our security.
He is says carry it around, hold it fast, never let it out of your sight. That is the second cure, the second step of the treatment. Then he says this. He says, repent. Remember, hold it fast, and repent, and when we hear the word repent, our natural way of thinking, he’s talking about sin, right? The stuff that keeps us out of Heaven. He is talking about sin, but understand the concern here isn’t just that you have done wrong things. It’s not just that I have done wrong things. His concern isn’t just that they are wrong, but what the wrong things keep from happening. There are two things that sin does. One, sin gets in the way of our relationship with God. It blocks the flow of God’s life into us. When we are sinning, and we are not dealing with it, God’s power begins to slow down to a trickle. I had a vivid illustration of this recently.
I have a drain line in my house that’s backing up. It’s been backing up over and over again. The plumber came and he did a camera, and he’s like, yeah, you have a belly in the pipe down there, and it’s going to cost like $10,000 to fix, and I said, no, it is not. I cut a hole in my floor, and I got under the floor of my basement, and I shimmied under the beams and everything, and I found it. I found the belly. I was like, I can fix this thing. It’s going to require me cutting it in half and propping some things up, and so I did that, and when I did, the nastiness that came pouring out on me, I can’t even begin to tell you. If you want to talk about an illustration of the grossness of sin, I have got one that will turn your stomach.
But the thing is, I fixed it. I got rid of the belly, and I got everything put back together, and the sink backed up again. I was like, I fixed that. We brought in another plumber. He was like, yeah, yeah. It’s fixed. The problem is, there’s just a whole bunch of crud lining this pipe from all the years of build up, so he had to get in there and snake it out, and when he did, suddenly, it’s all flowing. It’s great. That’s kind of what sin does in our lives. It builds up when it’s unconfessed, when it’s unrepented. It builds up and the flow of God’s life into us begins to reduce down to a trickle, and so he says repent because that’s how God’s life flows into you, but it’s not just that. It’s not just about us. The other thing that sin does, sin dims the light of the Gospel. Do you hear me? It’s impossible to shine the light of the Gospel to a watching world when our lives are full of sin.
Sin dims the light of the Gospel. I know this to be true because I know for a fact that are people in this room right now, there are people watching online, there are people on all of our campuses right now that haven’t given their lives to Jesus, and the reason they haven’t given their lives to Jesus, is because they know too many Christians - who are hypocrites. We have all heard that word before, right? They know people who claim the name of Jesus. I was in church yesterday. They make sure everybody knows they are followers of Jesus, but they’re snakes. They are backstabbing, gossiping snakes at work. They know how they treat their wives or kids. I know there are people listening to me right now going that’s why I haven’t given my life to Jesus. I’m attracted to Jesus, but the problem is, I know way too many of his people, and if that’s what it looks like to follow Jesus, I don’t want anything to do with that because of our hypocrisy.
Sin dims the light of the Gospel in our lives, so Jesus says, you have to repent of it. Which means if you are a follower of Jesus, you and I have to ask ourselves a difficult question. It’s painful but it’s so important, here’s the question. What sin in my life is keeping the light of the Gospel from shining as brightly as it should? Jesus says you have to repent of it. And know that when you repent there’s forgiveness. He will roto root into your soul... there’s a weird image. He will clean it out not just so that his power flows into you, but so that his light flows out of you. We have to repent of everything that dims the Gospel in our lives. Honestly, it’s not always just sin. There are other things that can dim the light of the Gospel that may not actually be sin, but they get in the way. Churches do it all the time.
They make Christianity about something other than the Gospel. How many of us grew up in churches... can we be honest, how many of us grew up in churches where we never actually heard the Gospel? Come on? A lot of hands going up. How is that even possible? How is it possible that the Church which exists to shine the light of the Gospel can be a place where you can spend your whole life and never even hear the Gospel. Because we make it about other things, right? How many of us grew up in churches where the other thing was you believed that God would accept you if you followed the rules. You had a list of the dos and don’ts, you dressed a certain way if you did certain kinds of things. How many of us were told was what made God accept you? Yeah. We make it about other things.
We make it about the traditions. We make it about the rituals. None of that stuff is inherently wrong, but when it obscures the light of the Gospel, that’s a problem, Jesus says. So he says you have to repent of it. That’s the third part of the treatment plan. Repent of anything that keeps the light of the Gospel from shining. The third treatment for zombie faith is to repent, to turn away of the ways that we dim the light of the Gospel.
It’s a great treatment plan, right? It’s super simple. Remember the Gospel and all it gives us. Hold it fast. Repent of all the things that dim the light of the Gospel in our lives. It’s so important he says, but if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I come to you. He says, if you don’t take the treatment plan, if you don’t treat this zombie faith business, I’m going to come to you, and I’m going to come like a thief, which means I’m going to come unexpectedly.
Has anyone ever scheduled a break in? Right, you don’t know when it happens, right? His point is, if you don’t take the treatment plan, I’m going to come to you and bring discipline upon you. You are not going to know it’s coming, so don’t try to be prepared, just treat the zombie virus. He says, yet. Here’s good news, he says, yet, you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy. The one who is victorious will, like them be dressed in white.
He gives us amazing example. He says, there are people in your church that are not walking around like zombies. Going through the motions. He says, no, no, no. You have some people that are alive and well. They have not soiled their clothes, and we hear that and we are like, they haven’t sinned, right? Except that – anybody here never sinned? Jesus through his apostles says all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God, everyone. John says if you claim to have no sin, you are a liar, and the truth is not in you. We all sin, so how can you say they haven’t soiled their clothes? He’s not saying they have never sinned. He’s saying they deal with their sin in such a way that they are forgiven of it and are set free from it, and it does not dim the light of the Gospel. They are still shining bright. They identify sin. They repent of it. They are forgiven, and they are free. He says there are people in your church that have not allowed sin to dim the Gospel light in their lives. He says, they will walk in white.
The one who is victorious, the one who takes hold of the Gospel and holds it fast and uses it to get rid of all the sin every time it happens. I actually spilled a blue thing on my shirt today, and I got a stain stick, and I dealt with it. You can’t see it anymore, right? It’s gone. The one who is victorious taking hold of that which can erase their sin in such a way that they don’t allow their sin to dim the light of the Gospel, that victorious one, he says, they’ll be dressed in white, and white is such an interesting color, right?
Because on the one hand, white is pure. That’s certainly true, but the other thing you need to remember about white is that it’s the brightest color. It’s the one that shines the brightest because it reflects the most light. He says those who will deal with their sin by holding on to that Gospel, the light will shine through them brighter than you can ever imagine. He says that one, he says, I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but I will acknowledge that name before my Father and His angels. He says the one who lives like that, I will never blot out their name. It’s never going to happen.
I will acknowledge their name before my Father and His audience of angels, which is such a beautiful image. What he’s saying is not, hey, you are going to get to Heaven, and when you come in, I’m going to have a clipboard. I’m going to go, what’s your name? Is that you? All right, fingerprint scanner. Oh, okay, it’s her. Okay, come on in. You understand, that’s not what he’s saying, right? When he says I will acknowledge her, you will walk into the presence of God and he will say, there she is! She has been on mission with me, Dad. Man, she’s been shining. She’s been hope in the darkness. She’s been joy even when things were hard. She’s clung to me. She’s shared me. She’s given Good News. She’s been good news. She’s been with me the whole time. She’s mine! He’s not going to need a list. That’s what he means when he says, I will acknowledge you.
Whoever has ears he says, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Listen, the Gospel is our life. Nothing else. The Gospel is our life. We can’t let anything dim its light. No zombie Christians. No zombie churches just going through the motions. Here’s my challenge for you. I want to encourage you, every one of you, to join me in taking the zombie treatment plan. We need to take the zombie treatment this week. Because I believe all of us have some ways that we are just going through the motions, and we need to deal with those. The Gospel is our life. We cannot let anything dim its light. So three things, number one, ask yourself this question, in what ways am I just going through the motions with Jesus? We need to ask ourselves that. In what ways am I just going through the motions with Jesus?
Number two, what is dimming the light of the Gospel in my life? It might be sin that you need to deal with. It might also just be that something else has become more important, something else is attracting the attention and the grip that only the Gospel should have. What is dimming the light of the Gospel in my life? Then take the treatment plan, three things. Remember the Gospel and all it gives us, hold it fast, and repent of the ways that I’m dimming its light in my life. Let’s pray.
God, thanks for Your patience. Thank You for being patient with us. Thank You that even when we’re just going through the motions with You, You are never just going through the motions with us. You are always fully committed, fully engaged in making us fully alive. Thank You for not giving up on us. We are grateful.
If you will just keep your eyes closed and your heads down. On all of our campuses including church online, I believe there are a lot of followers of Jesus, maybe even all of us, who are feeling a conviction from the Holy Spirit that there are places in our lives where we are just going through the motions. If that’s you, if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, and you know there is an area in your life or a couple of areas, or honestly, maybe it’s the whole thing, that you are just going through the motions of faith. You are going through the motions of Jesus. Can we just be honest with each other, if you are feeling that conviction, if you have a little case of zombie faith, would you just slip your hand up? If you are watching online, just click the button right below me right now. If you are watching on Facebook, just say, I admit it. My hand is up because God has convicted me of a couple of places in my life where I am not fully alive. I’m just going through the motions.
If you are ready to admit that, let’s just pray this together. God, would You wake us up? We are sorry for letting it slip into a routine, letting it slip into something other than life with You. I’m sorry we are going through the motions. Lord, would You forgive us for that, and would You wake us up, right here, right now?
I’m going to ask, if you are a follower of Jesus right now, would you just begin praying at this moment for the people around you, the people watching online and all over the world who don’t know Jesus. They can’t even claim a zombie faith because they don’t have a faith. They have never actually experienced the life-giving relationship with God through trust in the Gospel. Would you begin praying for them right now because I believe on all of our campuses there are people who are listening, going, well, that’s me.
Yeah, I don’t know God. I’m far from God. I don’t have a relationship with God like you are talking about, but you want it. You want to be alive with God, and the great news is that God wants that. He wants it so, so much. He wants it so much. He loves you so much He sent His own Son to pay for your sins, to forgive you for all of the wrong you have ever done. He died on the cross to do that, but then he rose from the dead three days later, and now he is offering you new life, forgiveness and a new life with God that begins now and goes on forever. He can wake you up to life like you have never dreamed possible.
If you are ready to trust what he’s done for you, if you are ready to have that new life with God, would you slip your hand up right now? That’s awesome. That’s fantastic. If you are watching online, please click the button right below me, on Facebook just say, I’m ready. If you are ready to accept that, just say this to God right now:
God, thank You for loving me. I know that I have done wrong. I’m sorry. Jesus, thank you for dying to forgive me. Jesus, I believe you rose from the dead, and you are offering me new life. I accept your forgiveness. I accept your new life. Jesus, I trust you. Come into my life. I am yours from now and forever. Amen.