Craig Smith - Overcoming
Welcome to Mission Hills and all of our locations, so glad you’re here, including those who are joining us Church Online. This is a special weekend at Mission Hills as you’ve probably heard or maybe you haven’t yet. This is baptism weekend and across our three campuses we have about 60 people getting baptized and how cool is that. You may not be quite as excited as I am, it doesn’t sound like it but I love baptism weekend. So much so that I played the pastor card, I don’t do that very often but we were originally scheduled to have baptism weekend last weekend. And I was in India doing some training with some of our church partners over there and I realized I was gonna miss it.
So I was like, Guys, I never do this, but I’m gonna play the lead pastor card and go, can we push that back a week? Because I just hate to miss it. I love baptism weekend. I actually got double blessed though, because we pushed it back so that I didn’t miss it. And while I was in India, I actually got to be part of a baptism service there too, which was really interesting to me. It was fantastic. And there were a couple of things that really struck me about it. The first one was, there was sort of an interesting thing that happened. We were kind of outdoors and there was a sort of concrete tank and as I watched the men and women go into the tank, when they got to the bottom of stairs, and they really stepped in, they all had the same reaction, which is, and I don’t know how else to say it, they kind of looked to me like they were freaking out a little bit. And at first, I thought, it must be really cold water.
But then, what I gradually realized was, no, it wasn’t that the water was cold, the problem was that it was water and they’d never actually been in water like that. I mean, they maybe they would take showers or they would bathe through buckets, we did a fair amount of that during the trip actually, but they were never actually in water. In fact, many of them had never been in a bathtub. They’d never been in the swimming pool. And so, the idea of actually being immersed in water was a completely new sensation. It was physically intimidating. And then when they got to the point where they’re about to be dunked, right, basically, they were terrified. And I thought this was really interesting because the reason that we do water immersion for baptism rather than sprinkling at Mission Hills is because the process of baptism symbolizes that when we put our faith in Jesus, that like he, we were buried with him, and then we rise to life again.
And so, the immersion symbolizes that sort of dying to self, dying to sin and being buried with Christ and then raising to new life with him. And, you know, and symbolically, I’ve always thought that’s a powerful image. But it was in India for the first time that I realized for many people who have never experienced any kind of, like, actual deep water, that process of going under really feels viscerally a little bit more like death. And it was terrifying for them. Even the several women went first and they were clearly, the whole thing was really scary. And then a couple of, like, younger men when and you could tell as they’re walking down the stairs like, I got this thing, I got this.
And then they get into the water and they’re like, Oh. And even those guys when they were about to go under, it was clear that they were terrified. And that process of going under felt a little bit more like death to them and then being brought back up and being able to take a breath again, really sort of viscerally felt like coming into new life in a way that I had never really experienced before, and I thought, that’s really powerful. And I’m so glad to be a part of it. The second thing that really kind of caught my attention though, was that baptism wasn’t just physically intimidating for them in India, but it’s also socially intimidating. Being a Christian in India is a very difficult thing, there’s a conservative Hindu government right now and there’s a lot of increased persecution against Christians.
And it’s one thing to go to a church and to talk with Christians and that’s sort of tolerated, but the moment that you decide to take water baptism, you’re making a public announcement to your culture, I’m all in with Jesus, I’m leaving everything else behind. And that’s when persecution really kicks in. And so, it’s not at all uncommon for people to lose family, to lose friends, to lose jobs, a number of people experience beatings and we talked to a number of people who’d been through that themselves. And some Christians on an unfortunately, fairly, regular basis lose their lives in India for their commitment to Jesus. And all that becomes a very real and even a likely possibility the moment that you get baptized, which I think causes a lot of people, like, in America to go, oh why would you do it? Like why would you go through water baptism? Why would you make that public announcement that you’re all in with Jesus? And I think the answer is because they understand this truth. They understand that what we have in Jesus overshadows what the world threatens to take away, does that makes sense?
It’s one thing for us to say it but I think in India, they really understand, they understand what we have in Jesus absolutely overshadows what the world threatens to take away. And so, they’re willing to take those risks. They’re willing to do whatever is necessary to say that I stand with Jesus. We’re gonna get to our own baptisms here in just a little bit. Before we do, I wanna push in on that truth just a little bit. What is it that we have in Jesus? What is it that comes to us because of our faith in Christ that overshadows, so overshadows what the world threatens to take away that we’re willing to stand with Jesus?
If you wanna grab a Bible, I’d love to have you join me in John 16, we’re gonna be picking up in verse 25, and we’re actually wrapping up our series today on “When Everything Falls Apart.” And we’re gonna be wrapping it up by looking at a passage where Jesus basically gives us five truths, five powerful truths of what we have in him, what we have because of our faith in him that so overshadows what the world threatens to take away. And so, we’re gonna to see five different truths here. And my prayer is that one of these truths, in particular, would be the one that gives you a tremendous amount of encouragement today. That gives you what you need to face the difficult circumstances that you’re facing. And maybe, honestly, if you’re not a follower of Jesus, one of these truths will be the one that you go, I need that. And if I could have that by faith in Jesus, then I’m ready to say yes to Jesus.
Jesus begins this way, verse 25, he says, Though I’ve been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language, but I will tell you plainly about my Father. And I think when he said this, there was a little bit of a sparkle in his eye. I actually think that there was a little bit of sarcasm in his voice here. I don’t know how you feel about sarcasm. I feel that sarcasm is a spiritual gift from God. And I think that Jesus used it pretty frequently. And there’s a little sarcasm going on here, and the reason I say that is, because up to this point in the Gospel of John, there’s been a kind of a consistent tension between figurative and plain speech. People have often kind of basically said to Jesus, Like, I really wish you just say things plainly. And what Jesus has said consistently is, The problem is not what I’m saying, the problem is with what you’re hearing. The problem is not with what I’m saying, the problems that you lack a perspective to understand what I’m saying. So for instance, in John 10:24, we won’t go there right now, but in John 10:24, some people came to Jesus and said, Hey, would you tell us plainly, same word, would you tell us plainly, are you the Messiah?
And Jesus said, I did tell you. He said, Everything I’ve said is consistent with my claim to be the Messiah. Everything I’ve done should point to you to the fact that yes, I’m claiming to be Messiah. But he said, I did tell you, but you did not believe. He says, I told you plainly, the problem is that you lack the perspective that comes from belief. And so, it’s not that I said anything that wasn’t clear. It’s that you lack the perspective to understand really what I was saying. And even his own followers had the same struggle. In John 11, there’s a famous story where Jesus’s friend, Lazarus died. And some people took a journey to get to Jesus, a journey of some distance. It took some time to get there, they got to Jesus and they said, You know, we’ve got really bad news. But your friend Lazarus has died and Jesus turned his disciples and he said, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep and that was figurative speech. But it wasn’t uncommon. In fact, in the Old Testament, we see this language asleep used as a euphemism for death because if you are connected to God, by faith, death is not the end of your story. And so, you just sleep. It’s kind of an analogy instead of that being the end of your story. It’s a pause before the story gets really good.
And in the first century, that was the kind of language people often used. And so, they should have understood. He looked at his disciples and said, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But his disciples, in a stunning moment of incomprehension, they said, that’s good. If he sleeps, he’ll get better. Sick people should take lots of naps. That’s awesome. Which is crazy because they know that, like, people have come a long distance to get to Jesus and tell him this, and the idea that they traveled a long distance to say, good news, Lazarus is taking a nap. Like, that’s insane. And I don’t know if Jesus ever, like, it a palm slap but if he ever did, this was the moment he goes, oh, my goodness. And in John 11, says that he told them plainly, same word, he told them plainly, Lazarus has died. The problem wasn’t with what Jesus had to say, the problem is that they lacked perspective to understand it. Perspective matters, right? Perspective either allows us to see the truth of something to really understand what is said or perspective keeps us from having that.
A couple of months ago, I was scrolling through something, maybe on Facebook and I came across this picture and, like, it messed with my head. It probably took me 15 minutes of looking at this thing to try to figure out what it was. It was especially true on a small screen, but I think, I think I have a picture. Can we pop this up? Okay. Now, yeah, I love it. Like, wait, what is happening? And some of you are like, it’s a dog. It’s a dog with his head turned sideways. If everybody goes like this, some of you already doing it. You’ll, like, see it, right? There’s his ear over there. How many of you can see the dog? How many of you cannot see the dog? Okay. How many of you had this experience? You looked at it and you’re like, what is wrong? And then something in your brain clicked on, you’re like, oh. How many of you…it, like, it just took a second but it kind of clicked in. Yeah. So that’s about perspective. And perspective isn’t always…we can go and get rid of that, it’s gonna mess people up. If you can’t see it yet, search on the internet, like messed up dog, or something like that and you’ll come across it, you can stare at it as long as you need until that clicks in. But see, perspective isn’t always just about where we’re standing. Sometimes it’s about something that’s inside us that until it kind of clicks into place, we can’t see the reality of something thing and that’s kind of what Jesus is getting at.
He’s kind of tongue-in-cheek, a little sarcastically going, there’s a day coming or something’s going to happen. There’s an hour coming or something’s gonna come to you that’s gonna give you the perspective so that you’re no longer going to think that I’m speaking figuratively, you’re gonna be able to understand what it is that I’m saying. And what we’ve seen consistently throughout the section, the Gospel of John is that, when he talks about something that’s coming, an hour that’s coming, he’s talking about the arrival of the what? Of the Holy Spirit, he’s talking about the arrival of the Holy Spirit and when the Holy Spirit comes, he gives us the perspective, what he’s told us is, he’ll remind you what I said but he also said, the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. Which isn’t just new information, but it’s even the ability to understand the significance of what Jesus has already said. He’s gonna give perspective and that’s the first promise that Jesus says, is that faith in Jesus gives us perspective through the Holy Spirit. Faith in Jesus gives us perspective through the Holy Spirit. To understand what he said, to understand what it means, just recently, I had this experience where I had suddenly a new perspective on what Jesus had said.
I was struggling with something, I’m feeling pretty anxious about it. And I was lying in bed at night and I wasn’t sleeping because I was thinking about this thing and I was feeling anxious. And I remembered I think the Holy Spirit brought to my mind the words of Jesus where he said, Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And I have always thought, oh, yeah. I know that’s true. I mean, I know the opposite is true as well. You can, you can definitely decrease the hours of your life by worry. But in that moment while I was lying in bed, the Holy Spirit, there’s something that clicked and I went, oh, that’s right. I can’t fix the situation right now. I probably can’t fix it. I’m not sure I can fix it at all. This really is in God’s hands. And so, I just need to go, Jesus, this is yours. Which is not radical truth. I mean, it’s contained right there on the words, who have you by worrying can add a single hour? But in that moment, the Holy Spirit gave me perspective on what it looked like to take hold of that and to use it in a way that really made a difference in my life and I was able to go to sleep. And I’ve been able to set that thing aside in his hands. That’s the kind of thing that he’s talking about. When Holy Spirit comes, he gives perspective. That’s the first promise. We have perspective. It’s also perspective to look at our own circumstances differently.
Soon as we look at our circumstances we go, well, I wouldn’t be in this circumstance if God really loved me. If God really loved me, he wouldn’t allow me to go through this. He’d keep me away from this. And sometimes what the Holy Spirit does, it goes, no, no. God actually is allowing you to go through this because it’s crafting you, it’s molding you, it’s shaping you, it’s growing you into a man or a woman of God that you could never be apart from this experience. And that’s a really good thing. And when we begin to see that the truth of God’s word, that he works in the midst of all things, bringing good, you hear that? He works in the midst of all things bringing good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. We begin to look at our circumstance and we begin to see what it is that God’s doing in us and we go, I don’t like this, but I like that. I don’t like the circumstances but I like what it’s producing in me. I like what God’s doing in me. And it gives us perspective on our circumstances. That’s the first promise. Faith in Jesus gives us perspective through the Holy Spirit. And then he says, In that day, that day when the Holy Spirit comes, you will ask in my name, you’ll ask as a representative, you’ll begin to pray for things that really truly honor me and push and extend my influence in the world.
And that day when the Holy Spirit comes, you’ll ask in my name as my representatives. And then he says this, he says, listen, I’m not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. Don’t get me wrong. No, no, no, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. He says, On the day the Holy Spirit comes, you’re gonna begin to pray more effectively. You gonna praying for things that really represent me. But understand, he says, I’m not saying that on that day, you’re gonna pray and I’m gonna take your prayers and go, these are pretty good prayers, and I want to take them my father. He says, no, no. You’re gonna be able to pray directly to the Father. Because the Father’s love for you is direct because you have loved me because you’re in me. God loves you directly, and you have direct access to him too. Your prayers go straight to him. You don’t need a priest. You don’t need a pastor. You don’t need an intermediary. You have direct access to God. That’s the second promise, he says, faith in Jesus gives us direct access to God.
And if you think about that for a minute, that is mind-blowing, isn’t it? I mean, understand, we’re talking about the God who flung the stars across the heavens. Who has power so vast we can’t even understand the outside edges of it. We have direct access to him. I mean, do this, think about the most powerful person that you can imagine. Think about a real person, most powerful person and then imagine that person gave you their cell phone number. You’d be pretty blown away by that, wouldn’t you? Not necessary a hugely powerful person, but several years ago I kind of became aware of a Christian leader out in San Diego, his name is Larry Osborne, written a number of influential books that God used in my life. I’ve heard him at conferences and God’s consistently used him to help me sort of grow and be shaped as a leader. And a few years ago, by the grace of God, I had a chance to meet him and he did the most amazing thing, he actually gave me his cell phone number. And I remember for, like, the longest time…like I would show it to people, like, Look, I got Larry Osborne’s phone number. It’s like, I can’t believe he would do that? And I didn’t wanna like, test it. I didn’t wanna test whether he’d respond but one time I actually did have a question, I thought, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna text him.
So I texted him a message and then I…you ever do this? You’re like, I wonder if they’re ever gonna write back. I’m looking for those little dot, dot, dots, you know, and it wasn’t happening. And then all of a sudden, the phone rang and I realized that it was him. He actually just directly called me and said, Your question is too complicated. We can’t text. Let’s just talk about it. The whole time, I was like, I’m talking to Larry Osborne. Larry, I don’t know if you’re listening right now. But like, I was kind of blown away by having access to Larry Osborne and Larry, I love you but you ain’t nothing compared to God Almighty, right? And yet Jesus says that faith in Him gives us direct access to God Almighty. That’s an unbelievable truth. It should be incredibly encouraging. If you’re a follower of Jesus, you have direct access to God Almighty and all of his resources, his love, and his power, it’s all available to you. And you don’t need a pastor, you don’t need a priest, you have direct access. This is an amazing reality. Jesus says, I came from the Father and I entered the world, but now I’m leaving the world and I’m going back to the Father. And Jesus’ disciples said, Well, now, finally now you’re speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.
Do you now believe? Jesus responded and there’s definitely some sarcasm there. Actually, in the Greek, the the word, now was front-loaded which gives it a pretty strong emphasis but he basically goes is, now, you believe? There’s some sarcasm there, understand what the disciples are doing is they’re kind of respond to what he said earlier. He said, you know, there’s a day coming when I’m not gonna speak figuratively. I’m gonna speak plainly. And they kind of got that it wasn’t so much about what he was saying but about their perspective and their inability to get it. So now, they’re going, hey we’re fine. We’re good. The hour has come. Like, we get it now, we understand, we understand you’re from God. Which is interesting because that’s not anything new. He’s already told them that he’s from God. They’ve seen that over and over again. But now they’re going, We get it. Now we get it. There’s nothing wrong with us. We have the right perspective. And Jesus goes, Oh, you do, do you?
And there’s sarcasm because what he realizes that they don’t, as much as they want to claim they have the right perspective, the Holy Spirit hasn’t come yet, so they don’t. Without the Holy Spirit, our understanding will always be incomplete, do you hear me? Without the Holy Spirit, our understanding will always be incomplete. Maybe we’ll have an intellectual knowledge. We’ll have a belief that there’ll often be a gap between our belief and our behavior, between what we know to be true and what we actually show to be true in our lives. And so, he says this, he says, you’re not there yet because, verse 32, a time is coming and in fact, that hour is now, it has come. You think an hour has come and you’ll see clearly, now you don’t. But an hour is coming and has now come when you will be scattered each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. And he’s talking literally, within a few hours, they’ll arrest Jesus. He’ll be beaten. He’ll be crucified. He’ll be buried. And while that’s happening, his disciples ran. They scattered. The bravest of them, Peter, you may know the story, he tried to stay, at least to kind of the outside edges but he kind of tried to stay, you know, incognito. And when people recognized him and said, why aren’t you with me? He said, no, that’s not true.
The third time, he cussed a girl out. Said, I don’t know him. Shut the beep up, leave me alone. It’s a rough translation to Greek, trust me. Even the bravest of them said he didn’t even know who Jesus was. And so, what Jesus says happened literally, he said, you’re scattered. You don’t really know. You might have a belief about who I am but you’re not able to translate that into behavior. There’s a big gap between the two. But what’s interesting is that not long after this, the gap disappeared. Not long after this, the people who ran when they first arrested Jesus not long after this, these people said, no, no, we’re following Jesus no matter what. We’re gonna speak the truth about who he is no matter what. Even if you have to kill us. And most of them died martyr’s deaths, most of them refused to recant. They refused to turn away from their faith, even though meant their deaths. And so, he asked the question, what happened? What changed? And you might go, well it was the resurrection. And I think that’s partly true. The resurrection of Jesus certainly cemented their knowledge. But on some level, the resurrection was just another piece of information. It was another confirmation of what they knew to be true.
And I don’t think the radical change in their behavior was because they got new information or new confirmation. The real change in their behavior was the arrival of the what? It’s the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And the Holy Spirit gave them the courage to live out what they believed, and that’s the third promise. Faith in Jesus gives us courage through the Holy Spirit, courage through the Holy Spirit to not just know in our heads or even in our hearts, but to actually live it out consistently even though there’s a cost associated with it in the world. The Holy Spirit gives us courage. And faith in Jesus gives us access to that courage because of the Holy Spirit comes and begins to pour that into our lives.
Jesus says, you all leave me alone. But then he says this, he says, yet I am not alone for my Father is with me. Since everybody might abandon me, all of you might betray me, ultimately. But I’m never alone because the Father is with me. And what’s significant to me is, that’s not just true of Jesus, do you understand? That’s also true of us as the followers of Jesus. Because the Father who never abandoned Jesus, the Father who never left him alone, even though when everybody else left, that same Father is the Father who loves us that we have direct access to. Because of our faith in Jesus, what’s true of Jesus is also true of us. That’s the fourth promise that faith in Jesus gives us confidence that God will never abandon us.
Do you know that? Do you know that no matter what the world does, no matter how alone the world leaves you, no matter how much you’re abandoned or even betrayed by the people that you trusted the most, God will never abandon you. In the Old Testament and then in the New multiple times, he says, I will never leave you, I’ll never forsake you. In the first time he said it, in the Old Testament, actually, he used a bunch of nevers, he said, I’ll never, never leave you. I’ll never, never, never forsake you. Five nevers. And if God says something one time, you understand that it’s true, right? If he says it five times, that’s not to make it more true. It’s to make sure that it drives deep into our hearts, that we grab ahold of that reality. Faith in Jesus gives us confidence that God will never abandon us.
And then verse 33 he says, I’ve told you these things so that in me, you may have…What’s that word? Peace. In this world, you will have trouble. We’ve seen that over and over again in this series, right? We said, in this life, difficulty’s inevitable. But despair is optional. Despair is optional. It’s possible to have peace, even in the midst of difficult circumstances when we know this, he says, but take heart. I have overcome the world.
In this world, you’ll have difficulty, but I have overcome the world. And in Christ, everything that’s true of him becomes true of us. Which means this, and this is the fifth promise that faith in Jesus gives us peace, not the absence of difficulty, but the possibility of peace, because in Him, we have overcome the world. It’s the fifth promise. Faith in Jesus gives us peace because in Him, we have overcome the world. That no matter what you’re facing, you’re in the process of overcoming it, that victory is certain. The coming out on the other side of it into hope and to joy is guaranteed.
There’s no necessarily…no promise of what that’s gonna look like or how long it may take or how difficult it might be. But there is the promise and it is an absolute guarantee that you will come out on the other side of it victorious because as Christ has overcome the world, so too have we in him. And that makes a huge difference in the way we face things, doesn’t it? You know, when I traveled to India, getting to India is hard. It’s a long way away. And I’m gonna be honest, I wasn’t, like, super positive about the travel schedule because it involved, like, an 11-hour flight and then an eight-hour flight and then, like, two or three two-hour flights with layovers. And I knew when I got to the end of it, like, they had me scheduled to teach for, like, six hours a day most days and I was gonna eat Indian food, which I like, I like Indian food. I like curry but there’s also a lot of curry, like, every, like breakfast rice like, oh, there’s curry. That’s, yeah.
And I kind of knew that and because I knew what was on the other side of it, I’ll be honest, the travel was all the more difficult because it’s like, oh my gosh. It’s a long flight and the seat doesn’t go back. And that person behind me smells. It’s one of our team, so it’s okay. It’s okay. Sorry, guys. It was a long, hard journey. Coming back, it was actually longer. Twenty-two and a half hours in actual planes. Fourteen hours layovers in airports. That’s like 36 hours of travel. It was way worse coming back and I was way happier. Like, I handled it so much better. So much more positive and upbeat, you know why? Because I was going home and there wasn’t gonna be any curry anymore.
I was gonna have a steak. See, knowing what’s on the other side of it really changes the way we go through the thing itself, maybe things difficult, but you face it a completely different way when you know the victory that’s on the other side, right? That’s just a simple example. But you understand that is what Jesus is saying, he says, take peace, have peace, because I have overcome the world and in Him, we have also overcome them. No matter what you’re facing,
You can face it with peace with that comes from the reality of knowing that on the other side of it, there is victory, there is joy, there’s hope. Five incredible promises. Which one of those most speaks to your heart today? Number one, faith in Jesus gives us perspective through the Holy Spirit. Do you need to see your circumstances as God sees them? Do you need to see a truth of God in a new and more powerful and more applicable way in your life, you can have that. Number two, faith in Jesus gives us direct access to God. Is that the one that gives you encouragement, whatever you’re facing today? That you don’t face it alone, you face it with direct access to God Almighty.
Or number three, faith in Jesus gives us courage. Maybe, like, I get it, I see it but I just don’t know if I can live it out. But you can because faith in Jesus gives you courage through the Holy Spirit. You just need to ask him. Faith in Jesus gives you confidence that God will never abandon you. Maybe you’re facing abandonment, maybe you’re facing discouragement comes because the people you felt like you could count on, they’re gone. They’re not there when you most needed them. But God is, do you hear me? God is.
Or fifth, faith in Jesus gives us peace because we know that no matter what we face, we have overcome the world. That you, no matter what you’re facing, you’re an overcomer in process. Which one of those speaks to you most right now? Let me encourage, maybe wrestle with this question. Just to push into a little bit, first one is just this, do I most need perspective or do I need courage? Which of those gifts of the Holy Spirit do you most need right now? Ask him for it. Ask him the ability to understand or the ability to live with courage.
Or maybe this question, what challenge am I facing? What challenges do I need to be reminded that I am an overcomer in process? If you have faith in Jesus, you are an overcomer in process. Your victory is assured. I can’t tell you what its gonna look like. I can’t tell you what the road to get there is gonna look like or how long it’s gonna take. But I can tell you that the other side of that is victory because in Christ you are overcomers. And what challenge are you facing do you most need to be reminded that? Can I pray for you? Would you join me?
God, we thank you for these powerful truths. Would you push them deep into our hearts? To give us confidence that comes from knowing that we have this direct access to a God who never abandons us. Would you give us the peace that comes from knowing that we are overcomers in process? Because we are in Christ who has overcome the world. Give us courage to live out that and the hope to drive us forward, to draw us forward through all the difficulties that we face.
And if you’re a follower of Jesus, would you do me a favor? Would you begin praying for the people around you? People listening online that may not know Jesus, because I want to speak to you for a moment. If you’re not a follower of Jesus, if you know you don’t have a relationship with God. My hope is, my prayer has been that one of these five truths, it just rung out to you and you’re going, I need that. I want that so badly. I wish that were true of me. And I want you to know that it can be true of you today right now. God longs to make these things true. He loves you so much. He sent his own Son to die, so that to pay for the penalty of your sin.
That’s why Jesus went to the cross. But he didn’t stay on the cross. He didn’t stay in the grave. Three days later, he rose from the dead and he’s now offering you new life, forgiveness, hope, and he’s offering you these five promises we’ve talked about that can be true in your life today if you will just put your trust in him. And if you’re ready to say yes to Jesus, to put your trust in him, if you’re ready to make that decision, would you just slip your hand up right now? That’s awesome. Fantastic. If you’re watching online, just click the button right below me. And wherever you are, just say this to Jesus in your own heart, say:
Jesus, I know I’ve done wrong and I’m sorry. I know I don’t deserve these promises. I don’t deserve forgiveness, but I believe that you died to make it possible. Thank you. I know that you rose from the dead and that you’re offering me forgiveness and new life, and hope. So, right now I’m ready to receive them. Right now I’m ready to say yes to you. Right now I’m putting my faith, my trust in you, nothing else, just you. Jesus, come into my life. I’m yours. And you’re my Savior, for now and forever, Amen.