James Merritt - My House, God's House
I'm gonna take you back about 120 years to a man that you don't know. If you had lived back in the day, you would've known him. He was very well known. He was kind of maybe, and not in a leadership sense, but more in a philosophical sense, he was kind of the John Maxwell of his day. His name was G. K. Chesterton. And at the turn of the 20th century, he was one of the most widely read writers and popular speakers in Great Britain in the world. He was a brilliant thinker. He was a tremendous wordsmith, and he was a very devoted Christian. And G. K. Chesterton asked a question that I thought, as I read it, it puts so much of human existence into proper perspective.
Now, I want you to listen to what Chesterson said: Can anyone tell me two things more vital to the human race than these: What man shall marry what woman and what shall be the first things taught to their first child? Now, he said that over 100 years ago. Now, juxtapose that with someone that I like to read after. He's a great thinker. His name is Os Guinness. Maybe some of you read after him. He's a great thinker and apologist. This is what he said about two years ago: In the 21st century the overall crisis of the family needs no exposition. From permissiveness of the hookup culture to the pill that separates sexual pleasure and procreation, to no-fault divorce, to abortion on demand, to alternative forms of marriage, to assisted suicide, to the collapse of the family dining table, and to all the sex education materials for students in public schools, all these recent trends have joined forces to undermine the Jewish and Christian view of the family as the bedrock nurturing and transmitting the institution of civilization.
Now, that may sound like Debbie Downer, but it's true. In my lifetime I have never seen brick by brick, by brick, by brick the dismantling of the family like I've seen it in the last 10 to 15 to 20 years. And I believe there's a correlation between what's going on in our country and our culture today and what's going on in our homes and our families. I'll never waver from the belief that strong marriages and stable families are a nation's greatest asset. Family is so important to God. This is how important it is. He says, "You know what? You're gonna spend eternity in a family called the family of God". That's how important the family is to God.
And I believe the church is where God's family has a family reunion. It's where we get together as a family, we fellowship as a family, we worship as a family, we grow as a family, we experience God as a family. When we were worshiping that great song a moment ago, and I was listening to you sing, I told Theresa, I said, "You can't get this by yourself. You can't get this in your study. You can't get this at home. You can't get this lying in your bed on Sunday morning". There's something about coming together as a family. And I believe that my house and your house ought to make God's house a top priority. I'm gonna say that again till I get an amen. I believe that my house and your house ought to make God's house a top priority.
Now, that will not happen unless this. Listen to what I'm about to say. Your house will not make God's house a top priority until your house makes the God of that house your top priority. Your house will not make God's house a top priority until your house makes the God of that house your top priority. See, there's more at stake here than just showing up at a building on Sunday. If you think all we're trying to do is just to get your rear end in a seat on Sunday morning, you don't get what we're talking about. There's a lot more at stake than you just walking in here and just showing up. Because every succeeding generation in our families are gonna determine the type of nation that we're going to become. And so what I wanna do today is I wanna share with you why your house and my house and God's house ought to be joined at the hip. It ought to be inextricably linked and should always go together.
Now, before I say that, let me go ahead and state something that ought to be obvious to all of you listening to me right now. This is gonna come down to three things: a decision, a direction, and a determination. That it has to be made in the home and for the home. Let me show you what I mean. If you want to go to God's Word right now with me, I want you to turn to the Old Testament. Go to Genesis and just start turning right, and you'll run into a book called Joshua. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, book number six in the Bible.
I want you to turn to Joshua chapter 24. Let me set the scene. Let me tell you what's going on. Joshua has been the commander-in-chief and been the leader of the nation of Israel. He's now an old man. His departure's near. He knows he's about to go to be with the Lord. He's about to leave office, so he's giving his farewell address to the nation of Israel. He's led them into the Promised Land, but what now? He's concerned that they keep the land, that they never give up the land, that the land prospers. In other words, he wants for them what I want for you. You know what I really want for you? In God's will, I want you to live happily ever after. That's really what I want for you. I want that for everybody I know. I want you to live happily ever after.
And so on this day that happened, by the way, this was about 3,000 years ago, he's standing me before all these millions of people that are now in the Promised Land, all these fellow countrymen, not as the commander-in-chief of the Israelite army, not as the political leader of the Israelite nation, now he's standing there as a dad. Just a father. And he makes this one momentous statement. One of the greatest statements in the Bible. He said, "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord". I don't know about you and your household, I don't know about you and your household, I don't know about you and your household, I don't know about you and your household, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
Now, I want you to stop for a moment and just think with me. Can you imagine what might happen in America if every family today made that decision? Can you just imagine what would happen? Do you think the crime rate would go down? Do you think that we might need fewer laws and fewer jails? Do you think our marriages might be stronger? Do you think the divorce rate would diminish? Do you think there'd be less child abuse? And Joshua shares with his people that he's gonna lead his family to do three things. And I'm going to encourage every family to take the same direction, make the same decision, and have the same determination for your family. My house, God's house, what does that mean? Number one, it means you lead your family to fear the one God. You make up your mind. I'm gonna lead my family to fear the one God.
Now, Joshua begins by saying this. Joshua 24:14: Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Now, let me just ask a question. You don't have to answer it. When is the last time your parents sat down with your kids and said, "Fear the Lord"? I mean, here in the 21st century, to be honest with you, that not only seems strange, there are some people who say, "Well, that's just wrong. The God that I worship, the God that I want to serve, I don't wanna fear him". In fact, here's where the average person is. I don't want a God to be feared, I want a God that can be used. I don't want a God that can be feared, I want a God that can be manipulated. I don't want a God that can be feared. I want a God that, if anything, fears me. It is not a God who's concerned about his holiness. He's the God that's concerned about my happiness. And I'm just gonna contend today, I believe our nation and our world is expending tremendous effort to get over the fear of God and stay over the fear of God.
Martin Luther said, "There are two kinds of fear". Let me make sure you understand what I'm talking about. He said, "There are two kinds of fear. There's a fleshly fear, and there's a family fear". He said a fleshly fear is a fear that, say, a prisoner would have of an execution. Or it's the fear that a prisoner of war would have of his captor. Or it's a child's fear of a ghost. But he said there's this family fear. That's the fear of a child who has so much respect and so much love and so much reverence for his father and his mother that he fears displeasing them, and he fears offending them in any way. Not because of what he's afraid of what they would do to him, but because he's afraid of what his love or his lack of love might do for them. And that's what I mean by the fear of God.
When he said fear of God, what he meant was this. We ought to have such an awe of the God that we worship and the God that we serve that our default attitude is reverence. Reverence that we have in his presence. In other words, he said, "You ought to have a love for what God has done. You ought to have respect for what God knows and what God can do". What he's saying is, "You ought to have such a respect and reverence and all for God that you wanna do whatever you can to reciprocate that love and to reciprocate that grace and to bring pleasure and honor to him". So let me just say to every parent here right now, I wanna say this very clearly, you'll never do anything more important.
Listen to me. You'll never do anything more important for your children, from the time they come out of the womb, than to teach them to fear God, and to reverence God, and to know God, and to respect God, and to live in awe of God, and to love God, and to worship God, and surrender their lives to God. And let me tell you why. It does not matter how much your children know if they don't know God. It doesn't matter if they get the best education in the world if they don't know God. It doesn't matter if they graduate summa cum laude from Harvard University if they don't know God. Fearing God is the basic foundation of all of your life. And you've got to model that fear before your children. Well, you say, "What does that mean"? Your kids need to know, Mom and Dad, that you talk to God about them.
Your kids need to know that you talk to God for them. They need to hear you talk to them about God. As a matter of fact, the way you show them that is by making sure that your house and God's house is interconnected. You let them know, listen carefully, not by just walking in the door. That won't work. Here's the way you let your kids know my house and God's house goes together. Here's the way you let your kids know, as for me and you, we're going to serve God in God's house. You let them know by your participation, by your engagement, by your involvement. You let them know church is not just one piece of a puzzle. In reality, it is a priority of God's plan for your life. You know, most of you parents know this. Your number one job, when your children are born, particularly, they come out of the womb, they're so helpless.
You know, as a mom and dad, you know your number one job is to protect your children. Well, I got news for you. The greatest thing you can do to protect your children is to teach them to fear God. You say, "Where'd you get that idea"? The wisest man who ever lived, a king by the name of Solomon, he said this. And this is one of those verses I bet you didn't even know was in the Bible. This is what he said. He said, "Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress," now watch this, "and for their children it will be a refuge". I don't know if you know what's going on out there or not, but there's a culture out there, there's an educational system out there, there's an entertainment conglomerate out there, and they're doing everything they can to teach your kids the exact opposite of what they get in this church every Sunday.
Exact opposite. Exact opposite. God didn't create you. You came from slime in the mud. God doesn't care who you sleep with or how many people you sleep with, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else. I don't care what God says about marriage. We just redefine marriage. And they're doing everything they can to turn your child away from everything that we're trying to teach them. And what Solomon said is this: When you teach your kids to fear God, and you model respect for God, you give them a refuge. You just gave them a fortress. You gave them a defense for what the world is trying to do to them. Now, I know some of you, and let me just say this. I know some may be thinking right now, "You know what, I just wanna teach my kids to love God. I just don't wanna teach my kids to fear God".
So I want you to understand now, this is so important, there is no contradiction between love and fear. People who fear God the most love God the best. People who fear God the most love God the best. Now, to be clear, the God that Joshua says we're to fear, yeah, he is a god of grace, and he's a god of love. And he is a god of mercy. He is a god of compassion. But the great pastor and theologian A. W. Tozer said it best: No one can know the true grace of God who has not first known the fear of God. No one can know the true grace of God who has not first known the fear of God. Give you an illustration. I was talking to a buddy this morning who grew up in Florida. In fact, he's one of our guys, production team. And he was miking me up today, and we were talking. That's kind of, you know, small talk.
Well, he grew up in Lake Okeechobee down in Florida. And I said, "Oh man," I said, "You grew up with alligators and snakes and pythons and boa constrictors and all kinds of terrible things". And we were just talking about it. And I got to thinking. You know, whether you know this or not, I don't know. Maybe you do. Alligators have a very healthy fear of people. You know, they're really more scared of us than maybe we are of them. And they have a very healthy fear of people. You'll rarely see an alligator jump out of the water and run after a human being. I mean, you just don't see that happen. However, there's one thing that everybody knows and you'll know. Let's see how well you know it. There's one thing you never do with an alligator.
What is that? You never feed the alligator. Never, never ever feed the alligator. Why is that? Because when you start feeding an alligator, you know what they lose? They lose that fear. They lose that respect. And then you're gator bait. It's just what you are. You say, "What's that gotta do with a home"? Can I tell you what's happening in America? It's real easy. We look through the eyes of, you know, culture, and we look through the eyes of entertainment. We look through the eyes of politics. We look through the eyes of finance. That's not what's going on in America. When a family or a nation loses its fear of God, the ultimate authority, here's what you'll see: You'll see a disrespect for other kinds of authority. You'll see a disobedience of the law. You'll see a disregard for every human being, born or unborn. You'll see the destruction of the values and the virtues that hold us together.
It all goes in piecemeal. The number one problem in America is we, I see these car tags on, in God we trust. We have lost the fear of the God we say we trust in. And Joshua said, "You better lead your children to fear the one God". Then he says this: Lead your family to forsake other gods. It's not enough just to lead your family to fear one God. Lead your family to forsake other gods. Now, listen to what he says in verse 14: Throw away the gods. I love the way he says this. "Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable you, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you're living".
Now, that tells me something. For as far back, even go back 3,000 years, there's never been a shortage of two things in the world. Never. And never will be. False gods and false religions. Always gonna have those two things. False gods, false religions. Matter of fact, you know what's really amazing? It's amazing how we think things change. They really don't. We think people change, but they really don't. Have you ever thought about the fact that we worship the same gods today people worshiped thousands of years ago? Let me give you an example. Thousands of years ago there was this ancient God named Mammon. Well, today we worship the god of money. They called him the god of wealth. There was another ancient God. His name was Bacchus.
Today we worship the god of pleasure. There was another god they worshiped: Aphrodite. Today we worship the god of sex. There was another god they worshiped: Mars. Today we worship the god of military power. There was an ancient god called Sophia. Today we worship the god of science and the god of education. Same gods, just different names. In fact, let me tell you, you know one of the greatest idols that we worship today? And by the way, the number of worshipers of this idol are growing exponentially. It's what Dr. N. T. Wright called the idolization of progress, or moving with the times. Let me tell you. Here's when you know people are worshiping this God. You'll hear people say, "You better get with it, because if you're not, you'll be on the wrong side of history".
You ever hear that? You better get with it, behind the times. You better go where we're going. You'll be on the wrong side of history. Dr. Wright put it this way. Listen to this. "Now that we live in the 21st century, people begin as though it was obvious that one's ethics or theology ought to change with a calendar". So you've got a plethora of false religions out there. All kinds of religions. And the biggest one of all is people saying, "Hey, don't be on the wrong side of history. You change when we change. If we redefine marriage, you go along with it. You go along with everything that Hollywood says and everything that the polls say and everything that culture says. You go along with them".
And the truth of the matter is this. And this is the hard thing people hate to hear. The truth of the matter is not all religions can be equally true because they don't teach the same thing. They just don't. The Dalai Lama. Okay, I'm not a fan of the Dalai Lama, but you know what he said the other day? And I'd mind for this. He said, "Buddhism and Christianity are not compatible". You cannot be a Buddhist Christian or a Christian Buddhist. He's right. Christianity believes in the personal God. Buddhism doesn't even believe in a god at all. Here's another example. Christians believes there's one God. The Hindu believes that there are millions of god. Christians believe that Jesus was God of the flesh. Muslims don't even put Jesus at the top of the prophets, much less God of the flesh.
The truth is this. The truth is if Christianity is true, then every other religion is false. And if any other religion is true, then Christianity is false. They say, "Why are you really harping on this"? Remember what Joshua said? He said, "Look, we're gonna choose the Lord. That's what my family and I are gonna do. Now, which God are you going to choose"? He didn't say, "Are you gonna choose one"? Everybody chooses one. The question is, which one you gonna choose? Everybody's gonna believe in some god. It may be the god of self, it may be the god of success, it may be the god of sex, it may be the god of money, it may be the god of pleasure, it may be the god of personality, it may be the god of popularity, it may be the god of politics, but everybody worships some god. Your religion, it may be that your religion, is where your business is the church, and you're the high priest. And the issue he's simply saying is this. All Joshua's saying is this. You gotta decide which one is right, and you've gotta decide which one is true.
I read the other day about a little boy named Robert, and one of his relatives was getting married. And he wanted to be, you know, have a part in the wedding, but he was really too young to, you know, be an usher in the wedding. But he really wanted to do something like that. So one of his uncles took him aside, and he said, "Robert," he said, "Look, I think I can teach you to do this". He said, "I want you to stand right here". He said, "You're gonna have people who are gonna come in, and I want you to escort them to their seats". And he said, "Now, here's what you do. Okay, Robert? Ask them, 'Are you a guest of the bride? Are you a guest of the groom?' If they're a guest of the bride, you seat them on this side. If they're a guest of the groom, you seat them on that side". He said, "Now, Robert, you think you can do that? You understand that"? He said, "I got it". He said, "Okay".
So he sat back. So let me see how he does. Well, first couple comes in, first family comes in, and this lady comes walking up to him, and he looked at her and very politely said, "Okay, ma'am, now which side are you on"? Now, everybody is on one side or the other. And Joshua says, "You gotta lead your family to understand that if you're gonna serve the one God, the true God, you've gotta forsake all other gods". If you're going to become a true, devoted, surrendered follower of Jesus, you've gotta forsake every other religious faith. You've gotta forsake every other religious expression. And here's what you say. If someone says, "But I'm this and I'm that, I believe this and I believe that," I want you to know I believe in your right to believe that, and I respect your right to believe that, but I also have enough love to tell you, you are dead, dead wrong.
You say, "I don't like that". That's what Joshua said. You have to lead your family to fear the one God. You gotta lead your family to forsake all other gods. And then here's the last thing. We'll wrap up. He said, "You need to lead your family to follow the only God. You need to leave your family to follow the only God". Now, here's what Joshua does. It's really kind of a brilliant move. Is everybody has a ballot. Everybody's got one. Oh, by the way, there will be no hanging chads in this ballot. Everybody's got a ballot. Everybody's gonna know how they voted. Joshua says, "Okay, it's time to cast the vote". And so Joshua steps up, and he says, "I'll cast the first vote. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord". And then he says, "Okay, I made my vote. I've cast my ballot. Now, here's the question: What God are you and your family going to serve"?
Now, this is where people get a little uncomfortable. You do have to choose. You do have to choose. Now, you can claim to be agnostic, open-minded, indifferent, doesn't matter. You know, you really haven't made a choice, but you really have. You know, when somebody says, "Well, I just haven't decided what religion I'm gonna follow you," you just did. You know, making decision is a very funny thing. Don't know if you've ever thought about this or not. It's really kind of funny. Not to make a decision is to make a decision. Have you ever thought about that? Give you an example. So this morning there are people watching me right now. They intended to come to church today. And the alarm clock went off, and they reached over and they shut it down.
And here's what they said: I just can't decide whether I'm gonna get up right now or not. They just did. You just did. You just made that decision. When you refuse to get up, you decided to continue lying down. And so what Joshua was saying is, "If you choose not to, if you say, 'I'm not gonna choose which God I'm gonna worship,' you just chose not to worship the right God". When you don't make a decision, you make a decision. Now, I was at Georgia State University this past week, and I go do this once a year. And I went down, and I was answering questions. There was about 30 students down there, and they asked me questions. All kinds. They're really great questions. They asked me questions. And I forget now what the question was they asked me. They gave me a chance to say this. And so this is one of those things that I've been waiting all week to be able to say to you.
So I want you to really draw up close and listen. This is full disclosure. I'm not hiding anything. I'm not putting anything under the carpet. I am telling you the truth. I'm telling all these kids right here on this front row down here, you teenagers here, all you kids in high school and college. I want you to hear me carefully. If you choose to follow the Lord, if you choose to follow the Lord, I mean to be a fully sold out, committed, whatever it costs, follower of Jesus Christ, you are going to catch holy hell from this world. The days of everybody slapping you on the back and saying, "Aren't you nice? Those days are gone".
If you make up your mind that you're going to say, "If this book teaches it, that's what I'm standing for," you're not gonna win the most popular person in your class award. You're not gonna be popular with some of your teachers and your professors. You're gonna be called homophobic. You're gonna be called bigoted. You're gonna be called intolerant. You're gonna be called unloving. You're gonna be called uncompassionate. If you choose to follow the Lord, you're going to be the minority in your community, in your neighborhood, in your city, in your state, in your nation, and in the world. And what Joshua was saying, in effect, was this: If I have to stand alone, I'm gonna stand alone. If it's just me and my household and nobody else, we are going to serve the Lord.
And I believe more and more, with every passing day, those of us who are really followers of Jesus, who believe in the Word of God, who believe that what is right is right, even if everybody's against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everybody's is for it, we are going to have to prepare our kids to stand alone. Because the peer pressure is going to be unbelievable. And that's why I keep warning you and I keep telling you. I hope you hear me. In the next year I will be preaching some things, and some of you will not be back. Because whether you like it or not, you have sold out and gone to the other side. And I'm not trying to be arrogant, I'm not trying to be mean, I'm not trying to be unkind. At my age and stage of life, I have nothing to prove to anybody. And I don't need this job. But I'm telling you right now, I would rather be on the wrong side of history and be on the right side of God than on the right side of history and the wrong side of God.
And listen. You say, "But Pastor, it's hard to stand alone". You better believe it's hard to stand alone. But let me tell you, here's the good news. Talking about great company, Noah had to stand alone with an ark. David had to stand alone before a giant. Daniel had to stand alone before a den of lions. Paul had to stand alone before Julius Caesar. Jesus had to stand alone while hanging on a cross. But that's all right. I wanna make sure I'm on the right side of God. Now, having said all that, we'll wrap up. You know, there are so many ways you can lead your children, your family, to serve the Lord. So for example, when you go to church, you know what you're telling your kids? When you go to church, you may not realize this.
You know what you're saying to your kids every Sunday when you come and you participate, you engage? You're saying to your kids, "Hey, kids, church is a big deal. Sunday's a big deal. Being in God's house is important". When you read the Bible, when your kids catch you reading the Bible, you know what you're telling them? This is important. This is how I wanna live my life. When you pray with them, you're teaching them fellowship with God is important. When you support God's work financially, you're teaching them, hey, giving to God is important. When you live a life that's consistent with what you say you believe, you're teaching them holiness is important.
Now, you notice something. So you parents get ready. You notice that Joshua's kids didn't have a choice? I'm sure there were kids in Joshua's household that said, "Dad, I believe we ought to be a democracy". And Joshua said, "We are, I'm Demo". He said what my dad said to me growing up. As long as you stick your feet under my table, and you live under my roof, and you eat my food, you're going to church. We're gonna be in God's house. It's not up for vote. It's not up for debate. It's not up for discussion. Now, I know, I've heard it before. Save your email. I've heard it. Oh, if I do that, I'll turn my kids against church. And by the way, I've had people try to say, "You know why I don't go to church, Pastor? Well, 'cause my mom and dad, they made me go to church".
I love it when people say that. I say, "Can I ask you a question? Do you take a shower"? Well, yeah. Did your mom and dad ever make you take a bath? Or did you graduate from high school? Yeah. Did your pastor ever make you go to school? Do you try to treat other people nice? Well, yeah. Well, did your parents teach you to be civil and nice? Let me tell you something. I want you to hear me clearly. Anytime anybody tells you they don't go to church 'cause their parents made them go to church, you call hogwash on that. I don't know what your reason is. Buddy, that's not the reason. Ma'am, that's not the reason you don't go to church.
Don't blame your parents for your problem. Don't blame your parents 'cause you have a rebellious heart, and you don't go. And while I'm in the neighborhood, let me just say something else to Mom and Dad. God did not put you as the parents to win a popularity contest in your home. That's not your major job. He didn't put you there so you'll be Mr. and Ms. Joe Cool. He put you there to lead your kids, to say, "This is what we're going to do to make one decision: to lead your children to worship the Lord and serve the Lord".
There was a man, if you know anything about English literature, he's an English poet. His name was Samuel Coleridge. And there was a man that was arguing with Samuel Coleridge about whether or not parents ought to leave their children to go to church and worship God. And here's what this man said to Samuel Coleridge. He said, you know, I'm quoting. He said, "I just don't think parents ought to indoctrinate their children with religion. Instead, they ought to give their children the freedom to make their own choices". Coleridge didn't say a word. He said to his neighbor, he said, "Can you come out to my backyard? I wanna show you something".
So he went out to his backyard. He said, "What are we gonna see"? I wanna show you my garden. So when they went out there, and the man stopped, and he looked and he said, "That's not a garden, that's just a bunch of overgrown weeds". And Coleridge said, "Well, it used to be a garden. But, you know, I gave it the freedom to become whatever it wanted to choose to be without any interference from me". So here's the deal. Maybe your kids will grow up, and they'll quit going to church. It better not be because you didn't lead them to go to church. Your kids may grow up to do all kinds of things, but it better not be because they saw you doing those things.
So I just want you to remember this, and we're done. You are in a long line, if you're a mom and dad. You're in a long line. And you're not just influencing your kids. You're influencing their kids, and their kids, and their kids. And you're influencing future generations that you will never see. And you'll never have a greater calling in life, a greater accomplishment in life, a greater goal in life, a greater result in your life, than to see that, as far as you and your house are concerned, you know the right God, you love the right God, you serve the right God, you obey the right God, and you spend eternity with the right God.
So I hope that you'll say with me today, "My house, God's house now and forever". So would you pray with me right now? Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. Those of you here watching me right now, I want to encourage you. If you're able. I know some of you're not. I get it. Not talking to you. You got preexisting conditions. I get it. Come back to church. Come back to God's house. Come back to that family reunion we all so desperately need every single week. But let me tell you this. Here's the big question. Before you decide what you're gonna do with your family or in your family, are you a part of God's family? Are you a part of God's family? Just like you were born into your physical family, you've gotta be born again into your spiritual family.
Have you been born again into God's family? I shared the gospel this week with a 90-year-old man. I won't tell you who he is. He may be here today. I hope he is. But he's not a believer, and he didn't become a believer. Would you just pray for him? I want him so to become a part of God's forever family. Have you become a part of God's forever family? Do you know God, not as your creator, but as your father? If you're listening to me right now and you're in this room, or you're watching on TV, or you're watching on a computer, you say, "Can I become a part of God's family"? yes, you can. If you would just simply pray this prayer with me right now, say it right now, pray this prayer, say:
Lord Jesus, I wanna become a part of your family. I believe you died for my sins. I believe God raised you from the dead. I believe you're alive right now. Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Save me. Forgive me of all of my sins. I repent, turn away from my sinful way, and I surrender my life to you as my Lord and as my savior.