Greg Laurie — The Secret to Being a World Changer
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Lord bless now this time as we open your word because we want to be world changers. So we commit this time of Bible study to you in Jesus name, amen. Okay, you can all be seated. We're gonna turn into a different chapter in Hebrews. For this particular message, Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. This is our last message in our world changers series. Of course, next Sunday is Mother's Day. We love you moms and we have a very special service plan for you that I think you're really going to enjoy. I'm not only gonna share some thoughts about mothers, but I'm also gonna invite my wife Kathy to join me and we'll have a little conversation, a couple of other things that you'll like I think. So that's next Sunday. But the title of my message today is The Secret To Being a World Changer.
When I was a kid, I always wanted to be an athlete. Cause in high school, athletes were cool. The girls like athletes and I wanted to be a football player. Now I wasn't the biggest kid around, so I was limited what position I was going to play. But I went out there and I trained with these other guys and amazingly, I was elected to be on the football team. Now I'm gonna get a Letterman jacket. Now I'm gonna be one of the guys. I was so excited and then I went and had my head shaved, which was a big deal for me. Now, it wouldn't matter. But, then, I had great hair. I had like blonde surfer hair, little wave. You got to do this all the time. So to sacrifice my hair was a major thing. Buzzed my head. Then I get called in the next day to the principal's office. They said you can't be on the football team. "Why? Your grades are too low. Could you have told me this before I shaved my head"?
It's a true story. So one thing I was pretty good at though was running. I could outrun most people that's in a short sprint. But when it would be a long distance run, I didn't do well. I mean I do well in the beginning because I would run it like it was a sprint. But I would run out of steam and barely make it across the finish line. Small children would be passing me, turtles would pass me, inanimate objects would pass me. So this was something that I had a hard time with. I just didn't do well with it. Well fast-forward now to today. I've tried running, I hate running. I know a lot of people say they enjoy it. A lot of people buy running shoes. I read the other day that 87% of those who purchase running shoes never use them for running. They just go to the market and go to wherever. They cross the street or something. So they never used it for what they are meant for. By nature, I'm not inclined to go exercise.
I'll hear people say, "I need to go get a workout. That was a great workout". The only thing great about a workout for me is when the workout is over. I don't enjoy it. Look, I don't even like to jog my memory. It's so bad. Now, the other day I went to the gym. I was stretching, and bending, and lifting. That was just getting out of the car, okay? But truthfully, I go to the gym five days a week. Five days a week, go to the gym. Because it's on the way to Krispy Kreme and I go right by the gym. Anyway, but if you're a real athlete, and if you want to succeed as an athlete, you have to be committed. You have to work at it every day. I read that a successful Olympic athlete works out an average of four hours a day, 310 days a year, and six years to compete for the gold, and that takes commitment.
I bring this up because as we come to Hebrews 12, the author, we don't know who the author was. I mean obviously it was the Holy Spirit speaking through someone. Many think it was Paul. I tend to agree with that, but we don't know with certainty. But the author of Hebrews shifts gears and goes to the analogy of running a race and this builds and what was said in Hebrews chapter 11. Here's a very important insight. I want you to write this down if you're taking notes. After Hebrews 11 is Hebrews chapter 12. Please write that down. It's a good insight. Now here's why I'm bringing that up. Because when the Bible was originally given to us, they didn't have chapter and verse. In other words, Paul did not say, "Ephesians one verse one," then start talking. Verse two, verse three, that was added later.
So sometimes it works very well. We can find a way around in Scripture. But other times, a train of thought is potentially interrupted. So it's very important to note that Hebrews 12 builds on Hebrews 11. I want you to understand what the objective of the writer is as he speaks to us in Hebrews 12. He's talking to those what are discouraged. Are you discouraged today? Are you downhearted? Do you feel like you just want to give up sometimes? Here's what he says in verse 13 of Hebrews 12. This is from the Phillips translation, which is sort of an expanded paraphrase. "So take a fresh grip on life. Embrace your trembling limbs and don't wander away from the path, but forward steadily onward on the right path and the limping foot will recover strength and it will not collapse".
I love that. Don't wander off the path. Some have wandered off the path, haven't they? Maybe you've wandered off of it or maybe you know someone who has walked away from their faith or they've just become so discouraged, they stopped going to church. They've sort of given up. There are things that happen in life that are hard. Sometimes there are obstacles in our path that seem insurmountable. Sometimes our friends disappoint us, but here's what you need to know. World changers don't give up. World changers press on and now we're gonna find the secret of the world changer. Hebrews 12, reading versus one to three. "Therefore..". Circle the word therefore, we'll come back to it. "Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in the sin that so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance a race that is set before us looking onto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, over the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of God for consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls". Let's stop there.
So what's the secret to being a world changer? What is the motive for continuing on in the race of life? Are you ready? It's very simple. It's Jesus. We do it for Jesus. It's running for him because one day we're gonna see him face-to-face. I'll talk about that more in a few moments. But notice verse one begins, therefore. Therefore, since you're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run this race that's set before us. Listen. Whenever you see the word therefore in the Bible, find out what it's there for. It's always thrown on what has been previously said. So we have spent all this time in Hebrews 11 looking at the heroes of faith or world leaders as I've called them. So therefore, in light of what they've done, that brings me to my first point. I have six final thoughts about being a world changer in this message. Number one. World changers are in good company. World changers are in good company.
Look at verse one again. "Therefore, seeing we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses". When we were in the White House on the second floor walking toward the Lincoln bedroom, hanging on the walls on each side were portraits of Presidents and First Ladies. In fact, they were everywhere in the White House. You just had to stop and wonder, "Wow, look at this". We remember these people and they all lived in this home. They all functioned in this home. They led the country from this place. It's so amazing because the White House is living history where the past influences the present. We're in the greatest company of believers, the heroes of faith from Chapter 11. These people were epic. They new how to run the race of life. They opposed Pharaoh and they counseled Nebuchadnezzar. They passed through the Red Sea. They shouted down the walls of Jericho and they shut the mouths of lions. They both called down and walked through fire.
Now the author of Hebrews is saying run like they did. Follow their example. They set the pace and consider this. These folks we've read about in Hebrews 11 did not even have as much faith as we have. Excuse me, let me restate that. That's actually incorrect. These people in Hebrews 11 did not have as much light as we have is what I meant to say. By that I'm saying, they didn't have Jesus living inside of them. That's part of the new covenant. They didn't have the Holy Spirit empowering them. That too is part of the new covenant. But with what they knew, they still lived by faith because Hebrews 11:13 says: "All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They didn't receive what was planned, but they sought from a distance and they welcomed it". But listen to this. The same God that was their God is our God, the God of yesterday is the God of today and he's the God of tomorrow. He has not lost interest in us.
We too can become part of the heroes hall of faith. Now when we read about this cloud of witnesses in heaven, some think it may be speaking of people in heaven watching us. Now sometimes people will say, "My loved one, whoever that might be, who's gone to be with the Lord, is watching me from heaven. I know that". But sometimes people will even say, "I sense their presence the other day and even felt that they were giving me direction as to where to go". No, first of all let me say, your loved one is not giving you direction from heaven. There's no direction coming from them. Hopefully direction from the Lord, but not from your loved one. And they're not with you. So when you say, "I feel them with me," they're not with you. They're in heaven. They cannot come to you and you cannot go to them, but you'll see them one day.
But having said that, are they aware of anything happening to you right now? Some would immediately say, "Absolutely not. They don't know anything about earth and they wouldn't want to know anything about earth. They're too absorbed in heaven". I don't know that that's really true. I don't think you can say that with complete confidence because we read the book of Revelation about those that are martyred in the tribulation period and in heaven they say, "How long, oh Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those that dwell on the earth"? Which means that these people who were martyred are aware that it was an injustice. They're aware of time passing. "How long, O Lord"? They're aware that something is still happening on earth and they want the wrongs righted. So our loved ones may know something.
Then Jesus said that there is rejoicing in heaven every time a sinner comes to repentance. So there must be a lot of rejoicing in heaven. Is it possible that we might know if it is one of our loved ones that came to faith? I think it's possible. So are they cheering us on? I don't know if they're cheering us on. But I know they've set an example to follow. But I do know this. We need to be cheered on. Encouragement really helps, doesn't it? Didn't you say to someone, "You know what, you are doing a great job and I'm proud of you or I admire you or I applaud you for that". I went and watched my granddaughter Allie playing soccer the other day. She's become very good, I must say. I'm not biased at all, of course. But she started out a little bit passive and then she started really playing well.
Now she's scoring goals left and right. So she went and scored. I mean, she took it down the field and kicked it in. Then there was a break. She came over to me. She said, "Did you see the goal I scored, Papa"? I said, "I saw it". My wife Kathy was not there that day. She was sick. She said, "Where's Nama"? I said, "She's sick". "Did you take a video of me and send it to Nama, Papa"? "No, but I'm gonna do it right now". We need encouragement. So they've set an example for us to follow, bringing us to point number two. World changers are in a race for their life. World changers are in a race for their life. Look at verse one again. "Therefore, let us run". One of the reasons I think Paul may have written Hebrews was because Paul was clearly a sports fan. He was always using sports analogies in his writing.
See, he talked about wrestling. He talked about running. He talked about fighting and in 1 Corinthians 9:24 he says, "Remember, in a race everyone runs but only one person gets a prize. You must run in such a way that you will win". This is interesting because coming back to kid sports, watching my grandchildren involved in them, they'll say everybody's a winner. I mean we live in a day where you get a participation trophy for showing up, right? But not everybody is a winner in sports and reality, and nor is everybody a winner in life. In fact, with my granddaughter, I said to her, before she was scoring goals, "Allie, if you score a goal, I'll buy you a doll," and she went and scored a goal. I got her a doll. Now she's scoring so many goals, I can't do that anymore. It's gonna cost me too much, But a little motivation, I give her a little pep talk. I said, "Allie, you need the eye of the tiger". She's looking at me like, "What are you talking about"? "You know Rocky, the..". ♫ Dunt, dunt, dunt, dunt Dunt, dunt ♫
She didn't know what I was saying. It's a very old movie and obviously some of you don't know what I'm saying either. But, the eye of the tiger. But listen to this. Some will say it doesn't matter if you win. No, no, it matters. Guess what? God wants you to win. He wants you to when in the race of life. Again, 1 Corinthians 9, "In a race, everyone runs. Only one person gets a prize". Run so you will win. We wanna win this race, but let's understand who we're competing against. We're not competing with each other. I'm not competing with you. You're not competing with me. Our church isn't competing with another church. We're all in this together. It's sort of like a relay race. We're working together, handing the baton off. But having said that, we do, we have opponents, but they're not fellow believers. Our opponents in the race of life are the world, the flesh and the devil. Those are the enemies that we're facing on a regular basis.
Point number three. World changers run light. World changers run light. Look at verse one, "Let us lay aside every weight in this sin that so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance, a race that is set before us". Listen, you don't want to excess baggage in the race of life. Is been doing a lot of traveling lately, a lot of flying. This is hard because I am the original pack rat. I take everything with me. Literally my suitcase has more stuff then my wife's suitcase has. It's heavier than her suitcase. I like to take everything with me. There's nothing wrong with taking things with you, but if they slow you down... Because sometimes when you're catching a flight, one plane is delayed and the other one is taking off and you have to literally run to where your next fight is. I've had to go run through terminals. So you want to be mobile. That's why I have all of my suitcases on wheels now. Everything's on wheels, wheels, which is great until you hit carpet or asphalt, then the party's over.
So my philosophy is if I can't carry it myself, I'm not taking it. I don't want to have to look to other people to help me. So I'm hauling all this stuff around. Think of the race of life now. We don't want to take excess baggage with us. Not only did we not want to schlep a bunch of extra stuff around, but it can even speak of weight on our body. If you lose weight, you'll probably feel better. Some people my age in their 40s, they'll say, "Oh man, I have a lot of aches and pains I didn't used to have. I guess I'm just getting old". I look at them and I'll say, "Maybe it's just you're getting fat too. I don't know". Does that offend some of you? Listen, it's true, isn't it? Don't you know you feel better when you lose a few pounds? Then there are foods that you can eat that are brain foods. They're energy foods. I'm told a banana's one of those and there are food to eat that make you wanna go into a diabetic coma, like a donut from Krispy Kreme to the point.
So these things affect you and so get rid of the weight. "So what are you telling me, to get wheels on my suitcase and lose some pounds"? Yeah I guess that's good, but that's really not my point. Here's what I'm asking you to consider right now. Ask yourself the question, is there someone or something that is slowing me down in the race of life? Is there someone or something that's slowing me down in the race of life? If I'm running a race and someone is grabbing me and pulling on me, they're not being helpful, okay? Is there someone like that in the race of life? Is there someone around you that you spend a lot of time with that discourages you from your walk with Christ? Is there someone that actually says to you, "You don't need to go to church really, do you, on Sunday. You don't really need to read the Bible. Why don't you just chill a little bit and kick back a little". No. You have to really rethink some of these relationships and you need to start looking for godly people that don't pull you back, but they spur you on.
Listen to this. You need to be a godly person that spurs on others. God forbid that you be the drag on somebody else in the race of life. It's interesting looking at one of our world changers, Abraham. The Lord told Abraham to leave his country, to leave his family, and go to a place he had never been to before. So Abraham obeyed partially. He took along his nephew, Lot. Lot was a drag on uncle Abraham. Finally, it came to a head and they had to part company, Abraham and Lot. It was after Abraham parted company with his nephew, that God began to speak to him again. Sometimes there's someone that may be like a Lot in your life, a person in your life that is slowing you down or they're even causing you to fall. Over in Galatians 6:7 Paul writes, "You are running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth"?
Sometimes people cut into us. Sometimes people hamper us and we don't want relationships with people like that. We wanna run this race to the end. We wanna finish this race that we're in and we wanna do it with joy. Paul writes in Acts 20:24 as he's speaking to the elders of aphesis as he's getting ready to leave, "However, I consider my life worth nothing. My only aim is to finish this race with joy and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me". I wanna finish a race with joy. If you're gonna live a joyful, happy Christian life, there are some things you should do and there are some things you should not do. Someone sums it up perfectly. It says, "Happy or blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the the word of the Lord and in it does he meditate day and night".
If you wanna be a happy Christian, if you wanna be a Christian that wins in the race of life, if you wanna be a world changer, don't hang out with ungodly people that will encourage you to do ungodly things. But instead, spend time in God's word and look for godly people that will encourage and build you up. So ask yourself the question about things you're doing and listen. Lay aside the weight and the sin. Notice the difference. I mean sin is sin. It's obvious, but there's a lot of kind of sins. There is a sin of breaking a commandment. There's a sin of omission, which is not doing what you should do. So there might be a sin that you're involved in, but then lay aside the weight. It might not be a bad thing, but it's just something you let become too important to you and it's consuming all your time. We all have different metabolisms. Some people can eat certain things and never gain a pound. Other people eat certain things and gain a lot of weight.
When I was younger in my 20s just starting out, when I would preach, we had Sunday night services that I would preach at and after I was done preaching, I would go in a restaurant in a town of Riverside called Naugle's. Does anyone remember Naugle's? Wow. Others are watching us. Some of the places, why Orange county? They've never heard of Naugle's, okay? Naugle's was the best to take-out restaurant that ever existed. That's my opinion. They had a thing there called the macho combo burrito. It was that big. It was a size of a sleeping bag. I hate to admit this, but when I'd be preaching, I'd get toward the end of my message and I'm wrapping it up and I'm thinking, "Macho combo burrito, macho combo burrito". Yes. I'd just eat that thing. It's so great. I couldn't even think of eating that now with all that spicy sauce. Listen, I've gone from acid rock to acid reflux. I can't go there anymore. But some people can eat that crazy stuff. So we'll look at some of you. "They do this and they're okay". Yeah, but you're not them. It says lay aside the weight and the sin that besets you. Don't worry about them, think about you. Does it hurt you? Does is slow you down? Does it decrease your spiritual appetite? Think about yourself.
Number four. World changers run hard. World changers run hard, verse two. "Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us". Interesting word here. For endurance, it's the Greek word, hupomone. Hupomone is the way it's pronounced, I'm told. It's a word that's speaks of perseverance, endurance, steadfastness, or staying power. It's a steady determination to keep going. I bring this up because sometimes people start off well in the race of life and then they just lose steam. Years ago, I went on a road biking. My wife has ridden. She's very good and I wanted to go enter her world. So I got the little outfit, tight little whatever it is and these little shoes that click click when you walk along and it's padded in the bottom. You feel like you need your diaper changed.
Okay, that's how I felt. I was very self-conscious in this outfit, but others wear them. Anyway, I got on my bike. I clicked in, right, in the pedals. I started pedaling. So we're riding along and I've got all this energy. I'm passing all these seasoned riders. "This is a piece of cake"! Wum, and I take off and leave everyone in my dust. Then we reached our destination, about 20 miles away. We turned around and come back. I was so exhausted, someone had to push me on my bike. But I had my cool outfit still. Hey, it was humiliating. That's like a lot of Christians. They start off with a burst of energy, the excitement, the passion. But now a few years have gone by and they're slowing down. Some are even giving up. Listen, you need steadfast endurance.
I was talking with David Jeremiah on this trip we were just on. He's part of this counsel as well for the President. He said, "What are you preaching"? I said, "Hebrews 12". "Oh," he said. "I just preached that". Preachers always wanna steal from other preachers, right? So, "Well, tell me what you said". So he's talking a little bit. He told me about a book he read called Grit. Grit, G-R-I-T. It's written by a daughter of a scientist with a brilliant father, who often told her she wasn't very smart. Not a nice thing to say to your daughter. She began to research why certain people succeed in life and others don't. By the way, it's not just being smart. There's other elements involved. So through all of this study, she came up with this simple revelation in her book that she calls Grit. She says those that succeed in life have two things in play. She found this true of every person, wherever they succeeded, be it in academics, or in sports, or in whatever area, music, whatever.
Two elements were in place and they were simply: passion and persistence. Passion and persistence. It's not intelligence, not a high IQ, not that you're incredibly handsome, or beautiful, or whatever, but that you had passion and persistence. That's pretty biblical actually. We have to have persistence to hang in there even when it gets hard and you have that passion and that's of course influenced by who you're running this race for. Guess what, you know where you get this hupomone? You know where you get this steadfast perseverance that we're to run this race with? You're not gonna like this. You get it through hardship. You get it through trials because we read in the book of James that the trying of your faith produces endurance. Now King James has patience, not a good translation, I don't think, because it needs a different thing today than it meant back then. Endurance is the word, steadfastness, the trying of your faith produces steadfastness. The testing of your faith produces this.
So in reality, when you're going through hardship, you're getting stronger. In times when you think you're getting weaker, you're actually growing in strength. So some of us are going through a trial right now. We're saying, "Why? I don't wanna go through this trial. This is hard. I don't enjoy this. This is painful". Yeah, you're toughening up. One of our world changers, Joseph, was sort of a pampered young man, supercool shirt his dad gave him, kinda ratted on his brothers all the time. He went through a lot of hardship. He was sold by his brothers into slavery. He spent some time in prison and he was innocent of any charge. But we were told when he was in prison, iron entered his soul. He toughened up and then he went on to become the second most powerful man in the world.
God was getting him ready for what was ahead and whatever you're going through right now, God's preparing you for something else and he's building you up. Like when you work out in a gym and you're lifting weights, someone says, "Let's put a few more weights on". "Oh, I can't do that. No, it's too heavy". "Try it". "Do a lower set of reps if you want, but let's kinda push it forward". Next thing you know, you're doing more weights and you raise it a little more. God adds weights. We think, "No Lord, I can't handle this". He says, "Yeah, you can". "I wouldn't have added those weights if you couldn't have". Trials are like God's gym where he's making us stronger.
Point number five. We're almost done. World changers don't live in the past. World changers don't live in the past. So go to a different passage to illustrate this point, Philippians 3:13. Paul says, "Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forward of the things that are before, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus". So we have to put the past behind us of past failures, and listen to this, even past victories. Yeah, some people want to rest on their laurels. They want to talk about what happened 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30, 40 years ago. Hey, that was then, this is now. Each day is a new opportunity. You leave the past behind you. We've seen more than one person running in a race and they're right there in the finish line and they'll look over their shoulder to see where their opponent is and they miss it like that, right? Don't look back. When you're running the race, you just keep your eye on the prize and you keep running forward.
Number six, here's our secret again, world changers run the race of life for Jesus. That's it. "Looking unto Jesus", verse two, "the author and finisher of our faith through the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, now is set down at the right hand of God. Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your soul looking to Jesus". Paul's alluding to the Greek games. The Olympics began in Greece. Back in these days, they didn't have gold medals. They would give out laurel leaves, sort of a crown of laurel leaves.
So let's say you're a runner in the race. You would see, as you're on the last lap, the Emperor standing there holding the laurel leaves. So it was in place sight. Maybe you don't feel you can go on another inch, but you see the prize now and you get that last-minute burst of energy, so it keeps you going. That's the picture here. Now, imagine, you're coming around the bend and there stands Jesus. There stands our Lord holding your crown, holding your reward, whatever it is, and he's the one we're doing this for. Our prize is receiving the crown he gives to us when we stand before Him. That's why we do this. We don't run this rain for brownie points. We don't run it for applause. We don't do it for notoriety and fame. We do it so Jesus will one day say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant".
That's it. Looking to Jesus. Looking to Jesus, not looking to people. People are gonna disappoint you. They're not gonna give you those encouraging words. They're gonna sometimes even criticize you and second guess you, tell you your motives are wrong, ask you why you're even doing what you're doing. So you need to do it for the Lord. World changers secret is he constantly keeps his eyes on the Lord. She constantly is looking to Christ. I love what Corrie ten Boom said, a wonderful woman of God who suffered greatly in a Nazi concentration camp for her faith. She made this statement and I quote, "Look at people and be depressed. Look at Jesus and be at rest".
I like that. So people will let you down, but Christ never will. The more you look to Jesus, the easier it will be. Have you ever gone out riding those horses that you rent by the hour? Have you ever noticed how slow they are as they leave the stable? But have you ever noticed how their pace picks up when they're headed back again? And if you notice how they ignore you when you, "Whoa, giddyup". "Whatever, shut up. I'm going home, man. I'm gonna have some hay". So you're, "Woah, woah". Your feet come out of the stirrups. You wanna get a horse to move? Point them toward home. So we're pointed toward home. Home is heaven and we're gonna see Christ. That's why we run the race.
Now let me just close with this thought. The greatest world changer in all of human history, it was Jesus himself. Versus three, "Consider him who endured such hostility against himself lest you be weary and discouraged in your souls". Look at Jesus. Look at what He did for you. Look how He ran that race and it says, "For the joy that was set before him". Listen, what kept Jesus going? Abandoned by his own disciples, betrayed by Judas Iscariot, his beard ripped from his face. He was punched repeatedly. A crown of thorns wrapped around his head. His back ripped open by Roman whips, jeered, and mocked, and spit on, and then nailed to a cross. How could you keep going? I mean, who was cheering Him on? Who was saying, "Jesus, we love you. Thank you Lord". He hung there all alone.
Then to make it even worse, momentarily, even the father, in effect, as he bore all the sin of the world, causing our Lord to cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me"? What kept Him going? It says for the joy that was set before Him. What was that joy? Why did Jesus do this? Here's the answer. You ready? He did it for me. "You mean, you only, Greg"? No, us, all of us. He did it for you. You ran it for you because he knew there was no other way you could be made right with God. He knew there was no other way you could have your sins forgiven. So, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. Jesus told the story of the shepherd who had one sheep that went astray out of a hundred. He left the 99 and went to the sheep and found it and brought it back, rejoicing. You were the joy. You were the lost sheep. You were the one he did it for. You were the one that he completed it for. You were the one he died for. It's so amazing.
So, in closing, if you don't know this Jesus, who laid his very life down for you on the cross and died for your sin, you can know him right here, right now. He's just a prayer away. Let's all bow our heads. Father, thank you for sending Jesus. Lord Jesus, thank you for coming, and dying, and making that sacrifice for us on the cross of Calvary. I pray for anyone here who does not yet know you. Lord, help them to come to you and believe, we would pray. Now, when our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed and we're praying together, if you don't know Jesus in a personal way, if you don't have the confidence that you would go to heaven one day, if you don't know with certainty that your sin is forgiven but you want Jesus to come into your life, you want him to be your savior, and your friend and your Lord, just pray this prayer after me, wherever you are, wherever you are seeing me or hearing me, Jesus will come into your life right now. He died on the cross, he rose again, and he's ready to come in your life. If you want him to come in your life, pray this prayer:
Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. But I know you are the Savior who died on the cross for me. I turn from my sin and I choose to follow you from this moment forward, as Savior and Lord and as God and friend. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.