James Merritt - Taking Care of Business
Lemme tell you what I learned. You know, you get to look back when you do your daily days and you realize that one of the greatest and hardest jobs that parents have is to teach kids to take things seriously. Because one of the things that would drive you nuts about your kids is they don't take serious things seriously, but they take non-serious things seriously. And it's just kind of maddening. I'll give you an example. One of my hobbies that I have, you would know it, but I collect letters that children have written to pastors through the years, actual letters. I'm not making these up. And they show just how serious kids can be about things that are just not that serious.
So I wanna share some of these letters with you. I'm not making these up. These are actual letters that kids have written to their pastor. Here's one, this is from Arnold, eight years old, Nashville, Tennessee. Dear Pastor, I know God loves everybody, but he never met my sister. This one from a 9-year-old boy in Phoenix, Arizona. Dear Pastor, would you please say in your sermon that Peter Peterson has been a good boy all week? I am Peter Peterson. This letter from an 8-year-old boy named Steven from Chicago.
Dear Pastor, I would like to go to heaven someday because I know my brother won't be there. I love this one. This, I think a good idea. Little girl named Loreen nine years old, Tacoma, Washington. Dear pastor, I think a lot more people would start coming to our church if we moved it to Disney World. That may help us. I don't know, by the way, I will tell you, I was at the Sunbast Convention this week. Thanks for letting me go, in New Orleans. And we have a lot of motions that come to the floor and we're doing business and some of this dumbest things come to the floor. But there's one lady that brought the house down, it was awesome.
We had about 13, 14,000 people in the room And this little old lady gets up, and we didn't know where she's from, but she got up and she said, Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion that we have the Southern Baptist Convention in the next year or two in Hawaii. I've never seen a motion, not just get a second. 14,000 people stood up at a standing ovation. So it's just kind of crazy how, you know people can do those kind of things. Well, there's a, you know, I thought about maybe it would be good to move it to Disney World and then this is from Alexander, 10 years old, Raleigh, North Carolina. I love this. I'm a sports fan.
Dear pastor, please say a prayer for our little league team. We need either God's help or a new pitcher. We can relate to that. Alright, now before I put this one on the screen, I did want to do it, but I have to do it, because I know not only this, what a little boy named Ralph, 11 years old from Akron Ohio. I know this is not just what he wrote to his pastor. I know there are Sundays, this is what you would like to write to your pastor. Dear pastor, I liked your sermon on Sunday, especially when it was finished. So as the old Art Linkletter used to say, you probably don't even know who that is, but kids do say the darnedest things.
But as I read those letters, I'll tell you something that hit me. It is amazing how children take things that are not serious, seriously. I was reminded that as adults we sometimes take things that are not serious very seriously, but we fail to take things that are serious very seriously. I'm gonna give you one other example. Calvin Coolidge is one of my favorite presidents. And Calvin Coolidge famously said, the business of America is business. And I think in a lot of ways he's right. The business of America is business.
Well I wanna tweak that a little bit. Lemme tell you what I believe the business of every human being on earth is. It doesn't matter whether you go to church or not, religious or not, I don't care. The business of every human being, as long as you're on this planet, is God. That is your business. And God, y'all, God is serious business. And it is a serious mistake not to take God seriously. I wanna show you why this is so important. I want you to take God's word. I want you to turn to a book in the Bible. It's called Ecclesiastes. Not hard to find. It's right after Psalms and Proverbs. Go to Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes 5.
Lemme tell you what Ecclesiastes is all about. The wisest man in the world. A king named Solomon wrote this book. And there's two things this book is about, it's about life and God, how our life relates to God and how God relates to our life. That's what the book is all about. Well in the fifth chapter of this book, he makes a very wise observations about how we ought to go about the business of life and how we ought to approach God. And so he does something very, very interesting. He really wants people to take God seriously. He really wants us to take care of our spiritual business. So he does something that's really, really, really strange. And he talks about it in the fifth chapter.
Solomon gets up on one Sabbath day and he goes to the temple, but he doesn't go in the temple. He stays outside the temple and he begins to watch how people walk into the temple. So he's sitting outside watching how people go into the house of God. And it blew him away because he saw people who were walking into the temple who really didn't understand what they were doing. They really didn't understand who they were worshiping. They really didn't understand why spiritual business is the most important business that he that we have. So he says something in Ecclesiastes 5:1, that sounds a little bit off. It sounds odd. Here's what he said. "Guard your steps when you go to the house of God".
Now I want you to imagine that we, and I started to do this and I thought, no, people think we've lost our mind. But I started to do this. When I thought about this message, I started to tell all the people that were greeting people. As you walked into the door this morning, I started to tell our ushers out there, hey, when everybody walks to the door, when they walk up the steps, I want you to say this to them. Guard your steps. Watch your steps. Now if they had done that, here's what you would've done. You would've said, okay, is there a hole in the concrete? Is the floor slick? Are they're afraid I'm going to fall?
That's not what Solomon was saying, when Solomon said, when you go to the house of God, guard your steps. Here's what he was saying. All that you do for God and all you do with God is serious business. So you better be serious about what you are about to do. So here's my question to all of us. I'm glad you came to church today. I wish more of you that are watching online would realize you need to be in church as well. But I'm glad you got up and I'm glad you made the effort and I'm glad you came, and I'm glad you walked through those doors. I just have one simple question.
Did you mean business with God when you walked in here? That's a great question. Or did you just, no it's just my checkoff list for the week. No I just came to see my buddies. No I just came because if I didn't I'd feel guilty. Did you really mean business? Did you guard your steps when you walked into the house of God? Because when you walked into this house, if God's in the house we're here to do business with the God of the house, and we better mean business when we do and dads and moms, we better be teaching our kids early on in their life. Doing business with God is serious business. But what does that mean? What does it mean? What do you have to do to show God you really take him seriously?
So I'm gonna share with you three things this morning. You ought to be teaching your kids. You ought to be practicing it with your kids. Number one, be discreet entering the presence of God. Be discreet when you enter the presence of God. But let's go back to what Solomon said. He said, "Guard your steps when you go to the house of God".
Now that may sound like hype. It may sound like a, you know, being a little bit overdramatic. But lemme tell you what he was saying. You will not do anything in your life this week more important than what you did when you walked into this building. Now I'm not hyping it. I'm not being overdramatic. If what he said is true, you will not do anything this week. More important than when you walk into the house of God. Lemme tell you why. It's not because of what's in the building that makes it so important. It's who we come to meet in the building that's so important. 'Cause our primary purpose we walk into this building is not to sing, see our friends, socialize.
Do our religious duty, give money. It's not even to listen to a sermon. The main reason we walked into this house today is to encounter the living God. Listen, I hear people talk about heaven on earth. Did you know there is such a place as heaven on earth? Can I tell you where it is? Anywhere you ever walk into the presence of God is heaven on earth. It doesn't matter whether it's in this house or your house. I got up this morning as I do every morning.
I walked to my study. The first thing I do after I make Theresa her coffee, I make her coffee, I always do a happy wife, happy life. So I make her coffee. Then I go into my study and I read my Bible. And I get on my knees and I spend time with the Lord. It's heaven on earth because I know God's in my office. I know God is listening. I know God, I have God's full attention. Let me just give you an illustration. I want you to imagine you walk into a room and that room's completely empty. Nobody's in the room. Nobody. Nobody's there to watch you. Nobody's there to observe you.
Think about what your mood would be. You'd be chill, you'd be nonchalant, you'd be calm as a cucumber. You'd be totally relaxed right? Now let's play it back. But let's change one little thing. I want you to imagine that you walk into that same room, but God is sitting in a chair. Would that change the way you walk into that room? Would that change your attitude when you walk into that room? Would you walk into that room differently? Would your mind be more engaged? Would your heart be more attentive? Would you walk into that room with a different level of anticipation?
Lemme tell you something. When you walked into this house, God's in this house. God's in every seat. God's sitting right next to you. It ought to make a big, big difference. So Solomon says, whenever you walk into the house of God to encounter the God of the house, listen to what he says. "Go near to listen rather than the offer of the sacrifice of fools who do not know that they do wrong". Now what did he mean by that? You walk into God's house, he said, "You better go to listen and don't offer the sacrifice of fools".
What does that mean? I'm gonna tell you something that gonna blow your mind. Bet you never thought about this. It is possible for you to get up on Sunday morning, get your shower, get your bath, drink your coffee, eat your breakfast, get dressed, come to church. It is possible for you to walk into this church and walk out of the church worse than the way you walked into this church. Because if you walked into this house not really meaning to do business with God, you're probably gonna leave worse off. Because if you don't mean business with God, you're not doing business. Because the worst thing you can do all week is to come into the house of God and just go through the motions.
No intention of being changed, no intention of being different. No intention of saying, I want to encounter God. I want God to do something in my life today. Dr. Rogers used to say, we'd tell me, he'd say, James, when people walk out of your building, they ought to leave mad, sad or glad. But don't let them leave the same way they walked in. That ought be true of us. God, I want something in my life to be different. That's why he says go near to listen. By the way, the word listen in the Hebrew language doesn't mean just to hear. The word means to hear and then to act on what you hear. So here's what Solomon was saying.
When you walk into the house of God, when you go into the presence of God, your ears ought to be saying, I came here today to listen to the truth you have for me. Your mind ought to be thinking, I'm here today to learn the truth you have for me. And your heart ought to be saying, I'm gonna walk outta here and live the truth that you have for me today. You better be very, very discreet in entering the presence of God. By the way, you remember the first time Moses ever gotten to the presence of God? You remember he was in the desert and you remember he met God in the burning bush. Some of you know this story, you'll know the answer to this story.
When Moses realized that is not just a bush that's on fire. God is in that bush. Somebody tell me, what did Moses do? Took his shoes off. Why did Moses take his shoes off? He knew I'm about to do business with God. And this is serious business and I better take it seriously. We ought to be just that serious when we walk into the house of God. 'Cause lemme tell you something, what we're doing right now is not just like another football game or a ballet or a play or just some drama. What we're doing right now is encountering the living God. By giving him all that we are to all that he is, in life changing worship, be discreet. Be discreet in entering the presence of God.
Number two, be deliberate in offering your prayer to God. Be deliberate in offering your prayer to God. Now, in verse one, what Solomon basically says is, all right walk the walk. Alright, walk the walk. Well come in here. Mean business. Don't check it off something. You're here to encounter God today now. Then in verse two he says, okay, now talk the talk. So he says in verse two, "Do not be quick with your mouth. Do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God".
What's he talking about? He's talking about our prayer life. Verse one, he's talking about our public interaction with God. Verse two, he is talking about our private interaction with God, he says, listen, when you talk to God, get serious. There's no such thing as an offhanded remark. Everything about God is serious because when you pray to the God of the universe, you ought to think through your words very, very carefully. Let me give you another example. You've been outta work for a year. You're about to lose your house, you're about to lose your car. You're about to lose everything you've got. Somebody recommended you for a job. It's the best paying job you'll ever have. Everything you've got, everything you wanna hold onto is dependent upon you getting that job. You're going in for that job interview.
Lemme ask you a simple question. How carefully would you think through what you're going to say? How much would you anticipate? Any question you might be asked? You say, oh man, I'd be serious. My son's an attorney. So suppose you're a defense lawyer and you're arguing for your client and his life is at stake. If they find him guilty, he's gonna get the electric chair. And your closing argument can be the difference between life and death. Lemme ask you a question. How carefully would you think that through? How much would you make sure, man, I've gotta say the right thing. I've got to persuade this jury to come my way.
What Solomon is saying is we ought to be just that thoughtful. Just that careful. Just that deliberate in how we speak to God. See, we ought to be serious in everything we say to God. You know why? Because God takes, listen to me. God takes everything we say very seriously. Now that's why you dads, let me just encourage you, I hate to break the bubble here. There's a time when your kids are young, they think you are Superman, but at about six or seven they think you're Clark Kent. They don't take everything you say very seriously. That's true when they get to be older, they just don't tell you everything you say which is okay. God's not that way.
There's no throwaway comments with God. There's no offhanded remark with God. God takes seriously every single thing that we say. As a matter of fact, if you don't think how we talk to God and the words we use are important and so powerful, listen to what Jesus said. This is a verse I know you've read many times. We don't take it very seriously. In Matthew 12:36, he said, "Every careless word that you speak, you were given accounting for it in the day of judgment".
There'll be things that we say we didn't think that much about, that little off-color joke that we told that one little curse word we let slip out. You know that one little insult that we didn't think that much about it. Jesus said, you're gonna give an account for every single thing that you said. If I had my ministry and do it over again, one of the things I'd do differently, I'd measure all of my words carefully. I tell young pastors sometimes when they, they love to talk about preaching. And one of the questions they'll say, you know, do you believe you ought to use notes? I said, well I do. I said, I learned that from Adrian Rogers. Dr. Rogers used to say the weakest thing's better than the strongest memory. I mean the strongest memory is better than yeah. The weakest thing's better than the strongest memory.
And I said, so I've always used notes, but I'll tell you what something I've learned and one reason why I do use notes and I'm very careful to make sure I stick to my notes as much as I can. The only time I've ever gotten in trouble in my preaching is when I get off script. And I've said some things sometime and popped off and I knew the minute I said, oh no, that's not gonna come out right. That's when the mail comes, that's when the letter comes. 'Cause you've got to be extremely, very, very careful. And dad's, moms, lemme tell you one of the best things you can teach your kids ever.
If you'll teach your kids this one thing, they'll go a long way in life. You teach them when to say something. And you teach them when to say nothing. And you teach them on average, you might be better off most of the time saying nothing than saying something. Because you know the old statement is true. You never have to apologize for anything you don't say. And the point that Solomon is making here is this, prayer is serious business. And when you're praying to God, God takes it seriously. So he says this, "God is in heaven, you are on earth. So let your words be few".
Now what did he mean by that? I don't think he meant, listen, don't pray too long. God will go to sleep. I don't think he meant, you know, you only get a certain amount of words and then God moves on. He doesn't mean that at all. Here's what I think he meant. Remember who you're talking to when you pray to God, he is your friend, but he's not your buddy. He's not the man upstairs. He's not your homeboy. He's not your pal. He is the holy God of Israel. Who created this world who sent his son to die for our sins. And so when he says, look, he is in heaven, you're on earth. He wasn't just giving a geographical lesson. He wasn't just talking about how far God is away from us. He was talking about how far God is above us. He said, when you talk to God, you remember who he is. You remember who you are.
Somebody I read the other day, there was a little preschool Bible class. And the teacher asked the 5-year-old kids. They said, who can tell me where God lives? Well one little girl stood up and she says, oh God lives in heaven. And the teacher nodded her head, but there was a little boy named Johnny. He was shaking his and she said, Johnny, you don't think God lives in heaven? He said, no ma'am. He he doesn't live in heaven. And she said, where does you think God live? He said, well, God lives in the bathroom in our house. She said, what? He said, yeah, God lives in the bathroom at our house. And she said, how do you know that? He said, because every morning my mom stands outside that door and shouts to my dad. My God, are you still in there?
Now when we talk to God, we're talking to a God who's in heaven. He is above us. So I'm gonna do something that you may think is kind of strange. I'm gonna assume you have a prayer life. I'm gonna assume that you talk to God every day. I hope you do hope. Oh by the way, every now and then you talk to God about me and pray for me. But lemme tell you something I did. In my spiritual journal, I wrote down some rules about praying. And if you want to really pray right, and you wanna pray the way that we ought to pray, if you wanna take prayer seriously, you might wanna jot down these things. You might wanna just write these. And I've written them in my spiritual journal. Just some things to remember if you, if and when you pray. Number one, what do I really want? Am I being specific?
Lemme give you an example. A lot of you probably pray something like this for me. Bless our pastor, I appreciate that. But what does that mean? Bless my pastor, so he'll preach shorter sermons? Bless my pastor so he won't talk about Georgia Bulldogs all the time? You know, be specific. What do you mean bless my pastor? Am I being specific?
Number two, can God rightfully grant this request? In other words, would it go against God's nature? Lord, I've got two next door neighbors and I don't like them. Don't hurt them. But would you please let that tree fall on their house? Well God can't do that.
Number three, this is important. Have I done my part before I have prayed? Good example. Don't pray for people that don't know Jesus. If you're not willing to talk to them about Jesus. Don't pray for God to meet your financial needs. If you're not giving to God what belongs to God. So before you pray, here's a good question. Have I done my part?
Here's another one. How's my relationship with God? You got bitterness in your heart? You forget praying. You got a selfish spirit? Self-centered ego? Forget praying. You got that little pet sin you don't want to give up? Forget praying. How's my relationship with God? Am I on praying God.
Number five, who will get credit if my request is granted me or God? There's a prayer I pray every day, every Sunday in particularly, every time I go to preach. It's a couple of verses out of 1 Corinthians 2. And I pray it every time I get up to preach. I pray these verses, "Lord, let my preaching and my message not be with persuasive words of human wisdom, but let them be a demonstration of the spirit and the power. So that the faith of the people who hear me would not rest upon my wisdom, but upon your power". And then I pray. "God, I promise you, anybody that brags on anything I say, I will give you all the glory. 'Cause it didn't come from you. It wasn't worth saying". And it's not worth repeating. So you ask yourself the question, okay, so who really gets the glory?
And then here's the last thing. You ready for this? Do I really want my prayer answered? I'm gonna give you an illustration. Some of you're not gonna like it. "Father, fill me with your Holy Spirit". And the Father says, "now if I do that, you're gonna start talking to lost people about Jesus". Okay? I didn't sign up for that. "Father, fill me with your Holy Spirit". "If I do that, the Holy Spirit's gonna move you to start giving a tithe of your income to your church". I didn't sign up for that. "Father, fill me with your Holy Spirit". "If I do that, you got to forgive that relative or that friend that's done you wrong". You've been bitter at for years, I didn't sign up for that. "Fill me with your Holy Spirit".
Well, the Spirit gives you a servant spirit. And if he answers that prayer, you're gonna find a place to serve in your church. I didn't sign up for that. So you better ask yourself before you pray, do I really want my prayer answered? Prayer is serious business and we ought to be serious about our praying, and we ought to be serious when we pray. Be discreet when you enter into the presence of God. Be deliberate in offering your prayers to God.
And then here's the last thing, we'll wrap it up. Be determined in keeping your promises to God. Now what's Solomon's about to tell us is gonna be embarrassing to a lot of us in this room because I hope you're like me. I hope you'll say, yeah, I'm in line with you. I made promises to God in my life I didn't keep. And I got a feeling that's probably true of you as well. So Solomon says this, "When you make a vow to God. Don't delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools, fulfill your vow. It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it".
Now that verse goes against the spirit of the culture we live in. We are living in a culture today, where just to be honest, promises just don't mean a whole lot. So politicians make promises. And this is so funny. We'll vote for these guys and we'll vote for these ladies. And they make these promises. We know they're not gonna keep that promise. They know they're not gonna keep that promise. They know we know they're not gonna keep that promise. We know they know that we know they're not gonna keep that promise, we vote for them anyway. Checks bounce, athletes renegotiate multimillion dollar contracts. Debts are forgotten, marriage vows are trashed, contracts are broken. Why? We don't take promises very seriously.
Let me say you something. God takes promises very seriously. How serious? He's never broken one. And he won't break it for anybody, nobody. And God keeps every promise he makes, and he expects us to keep every promise that we make. Now you don't have to make any promises to God, you didn't ask for it. But here's what Solomon simply says. If you make a promise to God, keep it. If you make a promise to God, keep it. On the one hand, he says, if you make a promise don't procrastinate, don't delay. Don't put it off. You know, listen, you know why some people put off, they'll make a promise and then they'll kind of forget about it.
You know why? Well, sometimes they're hoping things will change so they can get out of it. Or sometimes maybe they're hoping that well, maybe God will forget that I made the promise to begin with. And Solomon says, look, it's better not to make a promise, to make a promise not be able to keep it or make a promise you know you can't keep. I heard about a son one time that was talking to his mom about his dad and he said, mom, can I ask you a question? He says, is there any promise Dad made you before you got married you wish he hadn't kept? She said, yeah, one. He said, what was it? He said, he promised me he would never be good enough for me. I wish he hadn't kept that promise, see. I'm glad two people got that. I wanna make a specific application of what Solomon was talking about.
I don't mean to make anybody feel bad. I am not trying to put anybody on a guilt trip. And you should not be on a guilt trip. But it's so relevant. If you're not married and you're single, you dads and moms have kids that are younger or teenagers or in their twenties and they're not married, please teach them what I'm about to tell you. It is better never to take a marriage vow than to take it and not keep it. It is better not to make and take a marriage vow and then not keep it. And I understand, listen to me, there are people who are divorced and it wasn't their fault. There are people who are divorced. I know there's people divorced and you regret you had the divorce, I'm not trying to put you on a guilt trip.
Anybody that knows me and knows my ministry knows from the very beginning of my, every church I've ever been in, we have valued divorced people. We've got divorced people that serve I in some of the biggest leadership positions in our church. I love divorced people. It is not the unpardonable sin. I am just simply stating a fact. When you marry, you're making a promise to God that you take your spouse for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sickness or in health. And that is not multiple choice. It's not either or, it's both and. And what Solomon is saying is whether it comes to marriage or when we got married, Teresa and I got married. Her sister was about to get divorced. Her brother had been married multiple times.
And she'll remember this. We sat down, we got married. I said, look, one thing we gotta get straight right now, If we get married and we take these vows and we consummate our marriage, we burn the bridges, we block the exits. There's no way out. There's no going back. And we made that promise. And we have kept that promise. And if at all possible, unless God release you of that promise for biblical reason, you keep it. Lemme tell you why, you would not believe how many times as a pastor, I've watched people do this with my own eyes, heard it with my own ears. They're deathly sick and they make a promise. Pastor, if God will heal me, I'll come to church. If God will heal me, I'll serve him the rest of my life. If God will do this, I'll do this. If God will do that, I will do that.
Here's a good example. I've seen people in the 20 years I pastor this church. I've seen parents get up here and dedicate their kids to God. Oh, we're gonna raise our kids to love God. We're gonna raise them to love the church. We're gonna raise them to learn the Bible. We're gonna raise them to love Jesus. And six months later, the FBI can't find them. Better not to make a vow Than to make a vow and not keep it. Now, I wanna make something plain. There's nothing wrong with making a promise to God if you get in trouble. But when God gets you outta that trouble, keep your promise. Nothing wrong with making a promise, make it. When God gets you outta the trouble. Keep it, by the way, let me just give you dad and mom's a very practical reason why you ought to keep every promise you make, especially to God.
And why are y'all to teach your kids to do the same thing. Because when you make promises and you keep promises, you know what happens. You become just like God because God's a promise keeper. And you're never more like God than when you make a promise and you keep that promise. And by the way, lemme tell you something else. When you keep a comp promise, it builds character. I tell the couples that I married, couples I do the wedding for. One of the greatest character builders in life is marriage. It's a great character builder. Because it doesn't take long after you're married to realize the world doesn't revolve around you anymore. It doesn't take long to realize, you know what, if I'm gonna be happy, I better come in second. It doesn't take long to realize, you know what you gotta compromise.
Doesn't take long to realize I'm not always gonna get my way. It doesn't take long to realize she's not always gonna act the way I want her to act. And I'm not gonna act the way she wants me to act. But you learn to adopt. You learn to adapt. You learn to compromise, you learn to hang in there. It builds character. And you know what? When you become a promise keeper, you feel better about yourself, you look in the mirror and you can say, I'm a person of integrity. I do what I say I'll do. I can count on me and other people can count on me to do the right thing. That's why Solomon brings all this to a close with three simple words in verse seven. He says, "Therefore if you're going to do business with God, therefore fear God".
Why did he close that way? Because ultimately, this is how you know you're taking God seriously. This is how you know you understand God is serious business when you fear God. I want you to understand, we talk about the fear of God, don't talk about as much as we should. No God doesn't want you quaking and shaking, afraid to come into his presence. He's a father, he loves you, but there ought to be a reverence and awe. Or respect, when you come into his presence. I'll never forget, and I don't say this to drop names or anything like that, but I walked into the Oval Office with George Bush. I shook his hand. I'd met him several times, but I walked into the Oval Office. I wasn't quaking in fear. I wasn't shaking like a leaf, but I had deep respect for the office.
I had deep respect for the position this man held. I wanted to show him the deepest, greatest courtesy and the highest respect. How much more should we do that on steroids when we come into the presence of a holy God? So he says, therefore you fear God. And you remember who you're talking to. You remember who you're worshiping, and you say, Lord, I wanna give you the devotion, the surrender, the commitment, the love, the passion, and the integrity that you deserve. And I'll tell you why, we worship a God that means business with us so much. He sent a perfect son. To die for an imperfect world. That an imperfect world could become just like that perfect son.
So think about what God does. He took care of our business in the past. When he sent Jesus to die for our sins. He took care of our business in the present. When we give him our life and he forgives us of our sin. You know what? He is so serious about his business. He's going to take care of business for our future. Because he's gonna come back and right every wrong He's gonna come back and make sure justice is done. He's gonna make sure that mercy is forgiven. He's gonna make sure that our dead bodies will be raised from the dead. He's gonna make sure this will be the new heaven and the new earth that he always wants us to live in to begin with because God means business.
And we need to mean business with God and we need to teach our kids God is serious business. 'Cause see, moms and dads, when you get up in the Sunday morning and you get ready for church and you bring your kids to church. You're telling your kids church is serious business. God is serious business. And this is a family business. And we need to be in that family business of taking God seriously. So let me just close with this. I can tell you two words. You know what I'm talking about? Amazing Grace. Probably the most popular song in the church, even to this, even with all the contemporary stuff that goes on. Probably the no song will be sung today more anywhere around the world than Amazing Grace.
Well, John Newton was on a slave ship. The ship hit a storm, and John Newton was thrown into the sea. John Newton was not a very good swimmer. And John Newton knew he was gonna die. John Newton knew he was going to drown. He was about to go under and he thought he was gonna draw his last breath. And these were the last words he thought he was going to say. He said, God, if you'll save me, I promise you, I will give you my life and I will live for you forever. God answered that prayer. John Newton was rescued and John Newton kept his promise. And he lived for God and became a preacher of the gospel. So the next time, and every time you hear the song Amazing Grace, you better remember to take God seriously. Because God is serious business.
Let's pray together. I just wonder who's here today that needs to do business with God? I just wonder who's watching right now and you've never taken God seriously. You really haven't. Listen, no matter what else you do, I don't care how many times you go to church, I don't care how much money you give to the church, how religious you may be if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ. You have never done business with God, ever. 'Cause that's the first order of business is to know Jesus. So if you're watching right now, you're in this room and you would say, I need to do business with God. God is serious business. He's not just a Sunday morning thing that I do. He ought to be me all over me and me with him 24/7. I need to do business with God. I need to give him my life. Why don't you do that right now? Why don't you just say:
Lord, it's time for us to do business. And I want you to know right now, I know you're open for business and I'm gonna do business. I'm a sinner and I need a savior. Jesus your son is that savior. So Lord Jesus, believing you died for me, believing that God raised you from the dead, please come into my heart. Please save me today. Please forgive me today. I'll take you seriously the rest of my life. 'Cause you are serious business. Thank you for hearing my prayer. Thank you for saving me today.