Joseph Prince - Break Every Bad Habit With Christ

You're ready for the Word? Praise God. Last Sunday we saw the story of the woman caught in adultery. Don't forget that story is only told us in the gospel of John, all right? In the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there's no mention of that story, all right? Some stories are mentioned in all the synoptic gospels, but in John, in John's gospel, only you'll find the woman caught in adultery because it starts off by telling you that Jesus is the Word made flesh. In the beginning was the Word, the Word made flesh, came and dwelt among us. And the miracles that he did in John are called signs. Everyone say, "Signs". Signs point to something, all right, that is a reality, okay? Sign itself is nothing, but it's what it points to.

So all the miracles in the gospel of John, even though the woman caught in adultery is not exactly a miracle in the strictest sense of the Word, it's not opening the eyes of the blind or cleansing the leper, which Jesus does also, but in fact it's a miracle when someone's life is transformed. And Jesus is able to look at the Jewish people who are holding rocks in their hands, and one by one they dropped their rocks and let that woman alone. Jesus saved her, and yet Jesus did not do it by compromising the law. He upheld the law, amen? He was the only one. He says that, "He that's without sin, cast the first stone".

And the only one without sin was our Lord Jesus, but he refused to cast the stone. And everyone left. They all slunk away. One by one, they left, leaving Jesus and the woman. And don't forget what Jesus told the woman. "Neither do I condemn you. Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more". So don't forget the order. The order is very important. The reason why we want to free people from no condemnation is because of this order. When people are freed from condemnation, the sin fall off, the addictions fall off. Are you listening, all right?

Guilt empower addiction. And I just want to share with you right now a wonderful testimony that we just received last week from America. This man doesn't mind his name being revealed. His name is Fred Sloane, Arizona, United States, and he shared this. He even posted it on his Facebook page. "I would like to thank Pastor Prince for writing the book 'The Power of Right Believing.' I had been addicted to alcohol for 31 years". Wow, that's a long time.

It got so bad 4 years ago that the doctor told me that I had to have a CAT scan for my liver because I had alcohol-induced hepatitis of the liver. My liver got so big and hard that it would throw my back out and I would have to go to the chiropractor almost weekly and take painkillers almost daily. It was a vicious cycle. The longest I ever went without drinking in the last 31 years was 23 years ago when I checked into a drug rehab for 4 weeks and managed to quit drinking for 6 weeks. But the book 'The Power of Right Believing' changed my life. While I was just halfway through reading it, God miraculously delivered me from my 31-year addiction to alcohol. I threw out $400 worth of booze that was stashed in my house and have not drunk in 5 weeks now. Fear and guilt feeds addiction.

So Jesus told that woman, "Neither do I condemn you". He gave her no condemnation, then he said, "Go and sin no more". That's what empowers people to go and sin no more, when they know there's no condemnation, but if all the sermons that they hear leave them with a sense of condemnation, it will empower them to go and sin some more, all right? So this guy made a profound statement here. "Fear and guilt feeds addiction, but when one comes to accept God's grace and mercy, there is freedom found in Jesus's love for us as a result of the power of right believing". Hallelujah. Give Jesus the praise, amen?

So we saw that right after Jesus rescued that woman, and I believe she got saved because when Jesus asked her, "Where are those thine accuses"? She looked around for the first time and she says, "No man, Lord". When he says, "Has no one condemned you"? She says, "No man, Lord". She called him Lord, amen? And when she walked awa... we are not saying that Jesus just forgives sins without a righteous foundation. For God to forgive sins, sins must be punished, or else God is not holy. But if God punished the sinner, all right, where is his love? But if God let sin go, God says boys will be boys, you know, it's okay, all right, then where is his justice, where is his holiness? The whole universe will collapse.

So God has to reconcile his righteousness, his holiness with his love, his mercy and grace, all right? And that happened at the cross. At the cross, listen, Jesus paid even for that woman's sin. Jesus paid for my sins to be forgiven. Jesus paid. I am telling you at the cross, all of God's claims of holiness and righteousness are fully met. At the cross. God is glorified. The law has been magnified, fulfilled, and set aside. We are no more under law, we are under grace. We are no more under Moses, we are under Jesus. We are no more under the servant, we are under the son. They had temporal forgiveness, we have eternal forgiveness. They had the blood of bulls and goats, we have the blood, the royal blood of the Son of God. Their salvation was temporal year by year, our salvation is eternal.

And just like a sinner cannot undo what Adam has done in making him a sinner, neither can you undo what Christ has done in making you righteous. If you can do that, then what the first Adam did was greater than what the last Adam did, and that cannot be. Are you with me? So Jesus began a discourse. And the week before, we shared about the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Actually, right after the woman left, Jesus walked out. And the Pharisees were outside there. They cannot stand the light of his wonderful grace and holiness because when they were convicted, they left. The woman, when she was convicted, she stood in his presence and was justified. Then Jesus says, "I am the light of the world".

So you have the light. The light of Jesus, listen, does not expose to condemn, it exposes to let you know you are loved. He knows all about you, and he still loves you, and he is your righteousness, all right? So you have the light in that chapter, then you have the truth, knowledge. "You shall know the truth," Jesus told them in the same chapter. "You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free". Amen? So at the end of the verse in 59, Jesus went through the midst of them, and so passed by. I love that one, all right, the midst of them.

You see, when Jesus says, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst," do you know he's in our midst today? Everywhere that's watching this, he's in the midst. And if you're watching this at home or in your cell or in your hotel room, whatever it is, Jesus is there and he wants to meet you at the point of your need. In your hopelessness, he is your hope. In your helplessness, he's a very present help and he loves you. Call on him. Call on him. Don't wait till it's too late. Amen? So Jesus said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst". And he's in the midst.

So this chapter opens with the Pharisees putting the woman in the midst. Verse 3, they put her in the midst. They caught her in adultery, and then they put her in the center. So religious people like to put sin in the center. God loves Jesus to be in the center. The forgiver of sins, the liberty bringer, the joy giver, God loves to put him in the center. Amen? At the end of the chapter, he's in the center. So he passed by, it said. In a way, it's a parabolic form. Just like when I shared about the parables of the kingdom, the Bible says Jesus left the house and went by the seaside. It was a very parabolic and significant move. That means the house represents Israel. They have a special place with God, all right, in the Old Testament.

Now, he left the house, the house has rejected him, and he went by the seaside. Sea speaks of Gentiles, the nations of the world. And he preached the parables to them. Now, listen. Same thing happened. He passed by. He passed by the nation. If you don't want him, all right, he will not force his grace on you. And he passed by. Look at what happened at pass by. This is the last verse of chapter 8. In chapter 9, verse 1, "Now as Jesus passed by..." So it's one continuous stream, okay? These two chapters, 8 and 9, is one continuous stream. "As Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth".

You know, even when he passed by the Pharisees, all right, they missed out. They could have been healed. They could have been touched. He passed by. His grace is such he cannot pass by a blind man. You know, he will pass by self-righteousness. You said, "I don't need you," he'll pass you by. But when there's a need and he can't even see that he has a need, and you're blind, you can't even see you're blind, he cannot pass you by. He knows you need him. He saw a man blind from his birth. That's a sad story, isn't it? Never saw a flower. Blind from his birth. "Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'"

Notice that just like the Pharisees, sometimes the disciples tend to, like, put sin in the center. In whatever argument, when someone is faced with a challenge in life, an adversity or whatever, something happens, something bad happens, people come and say, "Who sinned? This man sinned? His mother-in-law sinned? His grandfather sinned? Who sinned? Or he sinned". Why must it be sin? Come on. Actually, our great grandfather did sin. His name is Adam, all right? So the thing is this. Yeah, there's sin involved, but listen. That's not the focus. You want to help people, you don't come asking, "Did you sin or your parents sinned or who sinned"?

That's not the question. And a very intelligent question, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man... so this man sinned? When did he sin that he was born blind"? Must be in his mother's womb, right? So I know that there's a branch of pharisaism that believes that a fetus can sin in the womb, which is crazy. So the disciples were engrossed with the topic of sin. A lot of people are. I love to be absorbed with the super abounding grace. Why talk of the darkness when the light abounds?

People say, "Well, Pastor Prince, you don't preach too much about sin". Well, brother, you don't preach too much about grace, about Jesus. "Well, you make light of sin". Well, you make light of Jesus. Amen? Why make big of darkness when light has come? Why talk of Satan, who hates you, when you talk about Jesus who loves you? Amen. The law came by Moses a servant. Grace came through Jesus Christ the son, which is superior. Even Moses submits to Jesus. The law submits to the son. Are you with me, people? So they are sin-conscious. "Who sinned? We want to know who sinned"? And Jesus's answer is this: "Look, if there is a need, God wants to meet that need". What a view. What a perspective on life.

Jesus says, all right, "Neither this man or his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him". In other words, "If he's blind, I am the light of the world". And he's about to say that, okay? Right at the bottom you can see him saying that. "I'm the light. If you are sick, I am your healer. If you are broke, I am your provider. If you are depressed, I am your peace. If you are in darkness, I am your light". Amen. Stop saying, "Why are you in darkness, huh? Is it because you didn't do this, you didn't do that"? Don't ever let anyone bring you to that place. Amen?

You know, when Jesus looked at the multitudes, the sheep on the mountain side, he saw the people, he called them sheep, the multitudes on the mountain side. Jesus saw the people, and they were fainting and they were going astray like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus saw the multitudes as sheep without a shepherd because they were fainting and they were going astray. Today there are leaders who will look at the multitudes and they see them fainting, they will say, "No discipline". They will see them being scattered and they will say, "Not enough repentance. They don't have a heart to be holy. They don't want to be holy. These people are just rebellious".

Their mainstay of outlook towards people is always the people are trying their best to sin; they're trying to find an excuse to sin. That's not how Jesus sees people. Jesus sees people as fainting and as going astray because they are sheep without a shepherd. And you know what shepherds do with sheep? Shepherds feed. They don't beat. Amen. No matter how much you beat a small child, 4-years-old child, 3-years-old, all right, you tell it, "Hey, boy, we are Indian, you know. You shall have beard. Where's your beard, boy? Huh"? Smack. "Where's your beard, boy? Grow some beard. What kind of Indian are you, boy"? I can say that because I'm half Indian, all right? So, you know, can you imagine that? What kind of father is that? But one day the boy grows up, without prayer, without fasting, it's growing, man.

Now, he got to shave it every day to stop it from growing, and no amount of binding it will cause it to stop growing. Some things come by growth. Keep on feeding, and the dry leaves will one day just fall off. Amen? Amen, church? So let's have the same perspective towards the people in Singapore, towards the people in the world when we see them, all right, and they are sinning or whatever. Don't see them as rebellious. See them as sheep without a shepherd, and go feed them. Go feed them with the bread of life. Tell them about Jesus. Amen, church? Praise the Lord. Now, if you're Indian, you don't have to have a beard.

I remember one time many years ago I was in a meeting where a preacher said this: "I'm going to pray for people here who are having financial problems and all that". He says, "But before I do that, I want to pray only for those people who are tithing and people who know that they are right with God". And I'm scratching my head. I was in the meeting. You know what? That you know what? You might as well pray for people who are perfect. "People who are right with God," he says. "I don't want to pray for those who have financial problem". Is that crazy? It's like saying, "I'm about to pray for the sick, but I'll only pray for those who are well". No wonder you have 100% results.

You know what I'm saying? It's like those unbelievers who are outside there at noontime in the middle of Orchard Road in broad daylight saying to us, "Give me proof that the sun has risen". I can't help it if you are blind. Amen. So Jesus said the need exists for the works of God to manifest. That should be your focus. The focus is on Christ and his power and the works of God to be made manifest in this needy person, amen? So Jesus says, "I must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work". Jesus says, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world".

You know, when I read this, it's as if he is saying, I love it, "As long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world". It's as if he's saying, "As long as there is darkness, I cannot but be the light. As long as there is sin, love cannot rest". He's saying that. As long as there is darkness, light cannot rest. As long as there's sorrow, love cannot rest. I love it. Amen. Next verse. "When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay". So he spat on the ground and he made clay and anointed the eyes of the blind man. Strange action, you might say, all right, but full of significance. "And He said to the blind man, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,' which is translated sent. So he went and washed, and came back seeing".

Blind from birth, came back seeing. Now, notice, he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. When you anoint a man's eyes with clay, he becomes blind. Am I right? All the more when you anoint a blind man's eyes with clay, he becomes blinder. So why did Jesus do that? Why did he put the clay on the blind man's eyes? To demonstrate to all those around, all right, that seeing Jesus in the flesh is not the answer to blindness. Now, of course, he's referring to spiritual blindness as well. Looking at Jesus in the flesh is not the answer. You must see him as the sent one. He said, "Go wash in the pool of Siloam".

And the Holy Spirit purposely put a bracket there. The word Siloam in Hebrew means the sent one. It's from the Greek word apostelo where we get our English word apostle, the sent one. You must see Jesus, not just humbling himself in human flesh but he's sent by the Father in love for you. When you see that, your spiritual scales fall off your eyes and you see. Amen. So this man came back seeing. And when he came back seeing, the Bible says his neighbors and the Jews that recognized him, because he was a blind man and a beggar. In other words, not only was he sick, he was broke, all right? Not only was he blind, he was begging.

And the Bible says that when they saw him and they recognized him as the one who begged, they asked him, "Who made you see"? And he says, "A man called Jesus put clay on my eyes and told me to go and wash in the pool of Siloam". So they asked him, the neighbors and friends who recognized him, "Who made you see"? "A man called Jesus, all right, he put clay, told me to wash my eyes, I came back seeing". They had no answer. So they brought him to the Pharisees, the Pharisees who hate Jesus. They brought this man to the Pharisees. Now, let's follow the story, all right? "Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes".

Now, the Pharisees, "You cannot even make clay with your spit because if you spit you're making clay, and that is working on the Sabbath". That's how legalistic people can become, all right? "Then the Pharisees also asked the blind man again how he had received his sight. He said to them, 'He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.'" Next verse. "Therefore some of the Pharisees said, 'This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.' Others said, 'How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?' And there was a division among them. They said to the blind man again, 'What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?' He said, 'He's a prophet.'" So they said, "Call his mother here. We don't believe that he was blind. Call his father here".

So the parents came, all right? The parents came. Said, "Is this your son"? They say, "Yes". "Was he born blind"? They say, "Yes". "How come now he is seeing"? They say that, "He's of age. Ask him". And the reason they said that is because... drop down, "His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that Jesus," was the Messiah, "was the Christ, he would be pulled out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, 'He's of age; ask him.'" Smart answer. "He's old enough. Ask him". So the Pharisees asked the man again. "So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, 'Give God the glory. We know that this man,'" referring to Jesus, "'is a sinner.'"

The guy who was healed said, he answered and said, "Whether He is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I know, I was blind, now I see". Amen. "Then they said to him again, 'What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?' He answered them, 'I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?'" And I'll tell you something about new converts, okay, when they just got saved. It's amazing the wisdom that you see in them before we spoil them with our unbelief. It's amazing. You know, the light they have of Jesus. They are just so in love with Jesus. You tell them about grace, they say, "Of course". They do not know about all the theological jargons and all that. They just know that they love Jesus before some Christians spoil them. They just, you know?

And it's amazing how the light becomes clearer and clearer the more they confess. Notice this guy just got healed, but the more he confessed Jesus, he got more and more wisdom. Listen. If you want to grow in the Lord, confess Jesus Christ to your friends, to your colleagues, to your family. There's no such thing as, "I'm a secret Christian". Your blessings will not be publicly as well, you know. It would be a secret blessing, all right? Be open, because the guy was open. "Jesus made me well". Don't be afraid. The more you testify of him, he backs you up. He gives you more wisdom. But there's something else on the other side as well.

The more the people persecute, the more they reject Jesus, all right, the deeper they plunge into the darkness. Rejected light. If you see the light and you reject it, your darkness is deeper than the one who does not know about the light. They've never heard the gospel preached. Those who hear the gospel preached, reject it, gets into greater darkness. And that's why in the episodes you find some of the strongest warnings are not about people who never hear the gospel but people who hear the gospel and reject it. Those who hear the grace of God and they reject it go into deeper darkness. Do you understand? But the one who testify of Jesus go into greater light. Amen?

All right, he asked them, "Do you also want to become His disciples"? They answered him, they reviled him. That means they vilify him. They used strong words, and they said, "You are His disciple. We are Moses' disciples. We are people of the law which was given through Moses. You are Jesus's disciple. We know that God spoke to Moses. As for this fellow, we do not know where He is from". Drop down. "The man answered and said to them, 'Why, this is a marvelous thing you do not know where He is from; yet He opened my eyes.'"

And then he started to preach to them. Now, he is preaching. This guy who was a beggar not too long ago, he was blind, now he's preaching to the theologians. He says, "Now we know that God does not hear sinners". Right? "But if anyone is a worshipper of God and does His will, He hears him. Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind". He's preaching to them. Can you believe it? Let's look at their response. Did they repent? Then he said, "'If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.' They answered and said to him, 'You were completely born in sins, and yet you are teaching us?' And they cast him out".

See, self-righteous people will not open to God's grace. The moment they cannot refute what you say, they throw your name out. They throw you out. They cast him out. They excommunicate him. Said, "Out". But out is the place of blessing in this case because out was where he found Jesus. Amen? "Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, Jesus said to him, 'Do you believe in the Son of God?'" Do you know that there are not many people that Jesus asked this question and reveals himself as the Son of God? What a privilege this man had because he testified of him?

And notice the progression of spiritual intelligence in this man who was healed. First of all, earlier on he called Jesus what? A man, all right? Earlier on. "A man called Jesus". When his neighbors ask him, "Who made you see"? "A man called Jesus made clay". He calls Jesus a man. Later on, they brought him to the Pharisees. The Pharisees says, "Who do you say this man is"? He said what? Drop down. "He is a prophet". So from a man to a prophet. And finally, Jesus met him where we are now.

All right, Jesus says, "Do you believe in the Son of God"? Look at his response. "He answered and said, 'Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?'" He calls Jesus now Lord. Just like that woman caught in adultery, Jesus asked her, "Where are those thine accuses? Has no one condemned you"? She looks around, says, "No one, Lord". She was saved there and there, all right? "And Jesus said to him, 'You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.'" What a revelation. "Then he said, 'Lord, I believe.' And he worshiped Jesus". Amen? From a man to a prophet, to Lord, to the Son of God. His light became greater and greater.

Look at this. And he worshiped Jesus. Jesus saw a man, all right, in his darkness, in his blindness, and he brought him to the light. He brought this man from begging to worshiping. That's what Jesus does with us. He brings us from the gutter-most and save us to the uttermost to bring us to the uppermost. Hallelujah. Amen? You see, when people understand grace, they grow very fast. I've never seen people grow so fast as when they are introduced to the grace of God. Many of us, we got so much bondage, you know, and wrong teaching from our past, that we have to remove it one by one, right? Am I right? In my book I share a lot of testimonies about people who write to us, just like the gentleman just now, Fred Sloan, who wrote to us, how they've been set free just by the power of right believing. Amen.

You cannot with your willpower set yourself free from any bad habit or any addiction. You know the word habit, H-A-B-I-T, all right? You see the word habit. You take away the H, you still have abit. You take away the A, you still have that bit, all right? Take away the B, you still have it. You still have it, right? And notice that the biggest problem is I. I is the biggest problem in our lives. The only way to remove the I is the cross of Jesus Christ. Amen, people? All right? And it is always very painful when you are self-occupied. You know, you think that, you know, "This person is talking bad about me. This person is looking at me in a very strange way. How come this person is like that, you know? How come..."

You know, you measure the world by how it treats you, and it's I, you, I. It's a very painful lifestyle, all right? People with a toothache doesn't think about anybody else, you know. They think about themselves. So the same thing, Christ came to deliver us from self into a life more abundant, amen, where Christ takes the center focus of our life. Amen. Many years ago, there was a preacher like this preaching in Hyde Park, and the crowd began together, and he was preaching Jesus Christ and the gospel of God. Towards the end of his sermon, one guy came out from the crowd and told the crowd, "This man has preached to you about God, about the Bible, about heaven, about Jesus, about sin, death, and the devil. And I want to tell you this. I don't believe a word of it. You know why? Because I have not seen it".

The crowd was stunned. The preacher was stunned. And then from this side of the crowd, a man walked out and he said, "They tell me that not too far from here there is a river that runs here, but I've never seen it, so I don't believe it. They tell me that there are flowers over here that grows every summer, very beautiful, luscious flowers, but I have not seen it, so I don't believe it. They tell me that there are beautiful grasses that are green. The greenery here is superb, but I've not seen it, so I don't believe it". Then he says this: "Y'all might think I'm crazy, but I'm serious. I have not seen it because I was born blind".

And then he turned towards the vicinity of the guy who spoke up and he says, "Sir, what do you think if I tell everyone here... do you think it's justifiable for me to say because I have not seen it the river don't exist, the grass is not green, and the flowers never bloom? Would that be justifiable for me to say that? And, sir, you don't see because you are blind spiritually. We see because we know it's true". For us to enlarge our head so big to say that, "Because I don't see it, I don't believe it," really is how much of knowledge do you think you got compared to God? Amen? Have you been blessed?

Then Jesus said these words. Right after, you know, he worshipped Jesus, the chapter ends like this: "And Jesus said, 'For judgment I have come into this world; that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind.' Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, 'Are we blind also?' Jesus said to them, 'If you were blind, you would have no sin.'"

An amazing statement. If you were blind, in other words, God would not count your sin against you. "But now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remains". And that's how the whole chapter ends. Do you understand now? God can look at people, all right, if they are blind, okay, they know they're blind, they say, "Lord, I do not know everything I need to know, Lord," and God says, "It's okay. I'll help y'all. I'll be your light". But you say, "No, no. I see. I see. I know very clearly". Then God says, "Your sin remains. You're still blind".

Amazing. Amazing. The cross. If only we have eyes to see. The greatest knowledge you can receive is not from universities, is not from study of many books. It's from Jesus Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. At the end of the day, why are we living our life? "Well, to make 1 more million". Yeah, that's what Jay Paul Getty said, and the next year he died. What's going to happen then? This life is just temporal, folks. There's a life to come. Amen? But meanwhile, we are here. And Jesus promised, "I come that you might have life and have it more abundantly".

Jesus didn't come to restrict you. He came to magnify your joy. Amen? He didn't come to bind you. He came to set you free. "But I'm a free thinker". No, you're not free to think. Some of you think of naked bodies all the time. Some of you think of evil, negative thoughts all the time. Some of you think of the bad things about people all the time. You're not free to think. You think you are free to think and you call yourself a free thinker, but you're not free to think. Your thinking has you. But Jesus said, "Whom the son sets free is free indeed". Give him the praise. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

Every head bowed, every eye closed all across this place and also in the overflow. Friend, if you have never made that decision to put your trust in Christ, I want to pray for you right now. In a while's time I'm going to pray for all believers for this coming week. See, none of us can boast. There were many, many, many, many, many, many, many intelligent people, many wonderful, wonderful brains and minds that woke up one day, boarded the Titanic. With all the brilliance that we have, we cannot tell the future, and yet men live life as if they don't need God.

And, friend, God loves you. That's why he sent his son to die on that cross for our sins. And even that prayer I pray at the end of every service is not just a feel-good prayer. I really believe that God hears that prayer and I believe that God will place us at the right place at the right time. God of eternity will go into time into our future because he was, is to come. He can go to the future and know what the devil is planning for us, sees all the devices, and remove them. God can do it, but God waits to be asked. God is a perfect gentleman.

That's what prayer is all about. Prayer is saying, "God, I allow you to intervene in my life with your goodness, with your grace, with your favor". You must say, "It's strange that God has to be invited to bless me". Yes. God will not force. Even though it's God's will to save everybody in the world, God waits for you to ask him. Even though Jesus paid the price, it's complete, yet you have to ask. And the Bible says you have not because you ask not.

Friend, if you are here today and you have not received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and you would like for him to come... I'm not asking you to embrace a religion. I'm asking you to embrace a reality. His name is Jesus Christ the Son of God, our Lord Jesus. When you say, "Lord Jesus, come into my life. I confess you as my Lord," then there you are saved for all eternity. Not just for time but for all eternity. So wherever you are right now, you say, "Pastor, pray for me". And believe us, you can pray for someone you love that's not saved yet right now. So say this after me. Say:

Heavenly Father, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe you sent him. He's the sent one who died on the cross for all my sins. And I believe you raised him from the dead. He's alive. And I confess Jesus Christ is my Lord, my Savior, and my God. Thank you, Father, my sins are all forgiven. I'm no longer under the curse. I'm under your blessing. Not under law but under grace. I thank you, all my sins, past, present, and future completely forgiven. I'm a child of God, and Jesus Christ is my Lord in Jesus's name, (and all the people said) amen. Amen. Amen.

Stand to your feet, church. Do you love Jesus? Say, "Lord Jesus". Don't be ashamed to confess him before your friends, your relatives, and all that. People are not ashamed to use his name in vain, all right? In the movies, you hear it all the time. If we want to complain, we can complain all the time, amen, but instead, just going to exalt Jesus, amen, and get people saved. We must not be people that the world out there think we are always against this, against that, against this. No. We are for them because God is not against them. God is saying to them, "Come home". Amen? Are we against sin? Yes, but we are for sinners. And God loves sinners. Christ died for sinners. Lift your hands all across this place. I want to commission you to go out from this place as carriers of the good news. Amen.

The Lord bless you this coming week, you and your families, with the blessings of Abraham, blessed coming in, blessed going out, blessed in all that you set your hand unto. Your enemies rise against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will open to you his good treasure to give rain unto your land in the season, abundant blessings and favor. You will lend, and you will not borrow. You'll be the head and not the tail. The Lord preserve, protect, and keep you and your families throughout this entire week from every contagion, every infection, every sickness, from adversity, from evil, from the powers of darkness, and from Satan himself through the shed blood of his son, completely protected. The Lord make his face shine on you, be favorable to you, and grant to you and your families his wonderful favor and shalom peace. And now I commission you forth to go from this place as ambassadors of Christ, proclaiming to a world that is lost, that is crying, sighing, and dying that God is a good God and God is saying, "Come home. Come home to the Father's house". I commission you you are anointed. Go and proclaim the good news in the name of Jesus Christ. And all the people said? "Amen".