Skip Heitzig - Victory in the Ring
Good morning once again. Well this is the last day I will have to watch girls beating each other up. Would you turn in your Bibles to the book of Jude, please. Short little book right before the book of Revelation. And this is our final message called Victory in the Ring. You've all heard the name Muhammad Ali, is considered one of the greatest fighters of all time. In fact, the Associated Press said that he was the greatest heavyweight champion of the 20th century. Not only was Muhammad Ali a great fighter, he was pretty skilled at self promotion. If you know what I mean, he was very confident let's put it that way.
You could probably use other words to describe him, but confident would certainly fit there. And he liked clever axioms that he would come up with for his audience. For example in 1965 when he fought that classic match between he and Sonny Liston, he said that he was going to float like a butterfly, but sting like a bee. And he said that Liston's hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.
And he was just good at that kind of stuff. Of course he stepped into the ring against Sonny Liston, and he won the fight. But not everybody who steps into the boxers ring wins the fight. There's always the other guy. The guy that gets knocked out, or the guy that loses by points, and we call that person the loser. One boxer boasted this way. He said during my boxing career, I was the second best boxer in the country.
I fought over 100 fights, and I came in second every time. Now that's called spin. That's a nice way of saying, I'm a loser. I lost every fight that I engaged in. What I want you to know is you do not have to come in second, you do not have to be the loser. In fact, you can be the champion. You should be able to look back on your life without regret. Too many people live their lives, fight the good fight, but they look back over their lives with deep regret.
I wish I could have done things differently. I wish I could have done things better. Now I'm going to move you from 1965 back a little bit to 1954 before I was born, it was a movie a classic film. See if any of you have heard of this, called On the Waterfront. Remember that film, On the Waterfront. Black and white movie, starring Marlon Brando who played the role of a fighter or a boxer.
And there's a famous line he's in the back seat of the car he's talking to his brother Charlie, and he says to him, I could have had class, I could have been a contender. What he meant is, I could have been somebody in my fighting career, but I gave it away, I sold out. And he is looking back with regret. You can be more than a contender. You can be a victor, you can be a conqueror. In fact, Paul said you can be more than a conqueror.
And the key to that victory is realizing who is in your corner. Who is your coach? Who is your trainer? Do you realize that David when he wrote some 144, spoke about the Lord is the one who trains my hands for war. God is your trainer. Trained you to fight. By the way, did you know the term, throwing in the towel is actually a boxing term. What it means is, if the trainer in the corner feels like his man and the ring is going to get pummeled or something bad is going to happen, if he wants to end the fight, he'll throw in the towel. And when he throws in the towel the fight is ended. Your God will never throw in the towel. He will help you to go another round.
Now I'm going to take you back even further than 1965, or 1954, back to the middle 1800s, and I'm confident nobody here can remember that. But in the mid 1800s, there was American boxer named Jim Corbett. He went by the name gentleman Jim. Great name for a boxer, right? Gentlemen Jim Corbett. And gentlemen Jim Corbett in the mid 1800s, was the heavyweight boxing champion for five straight years. Somebody interviewed him and asked him his secret. And these were his words.
He said fight one more round. When your feet are so tired, that you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring, fight one more round. When your arms are so tired, that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding, and your eyes are black, fight one more round. When you're so tired, that you wish your opponent would crack you on the jaw, and put you to sleep, fight one more round. Always remembering that the man who fights one more round is never whipped, he's always battling one more round.
I want to show you today, how to go one more round. And that will take us to the last two verses in this little book of Jude. Where we have three promises that God gives to us. He'll protect us, he will preserve us, he will present us. Let's look at our text. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To God our Savior, who alone is wise be glory and majesty, dominion, and power, both now and forever Amen.
Now what I would like to do is take you back to verse 25. I'm going to sort of begin backwards, I'm going to begin with God as our Savior, our protector, our deliverer, because that's where salvation begins. Everything begins in our walk with the Lord the day we are saved. And so I just want you to look at verse 25 to God our Savior, who alone is wise.
Now let me give you a few words about these last two verses. The last two verses of the Book of Jude are what we call a doxology. And you maybe have heard the term doxology in reference to a song that we sing. The doxology. The word doxology comes from two Greek words, doxa, which means praise or glory, and logia, which means word. A doxology is a word of praise, or a word of giving God glory. It's a short little hymn of praise. And that's what we have in verse 24 and 25. It's a two verse utterance or word of praise. One author said, this, the one in Jude, is universally recognized as one of the fullest and most beautiful doxology in all of scripture.
Now you get some of these little doxology smattered throughout the Bible, for example the Book of Psalms, there are five doxologies. The whole 150 Psalm book is filled with praise. But Psalms is divided up into five distinct sections, five books of Psalms in 150, and those five books all end with a doxology. In the New Testament, we also have several doxologies. In fact, you can find 21 of them to be exact. Just a little short hymn of praise usually followed by that word, Amen. But Jude's purpose in including this doxology isn't just to give you a nice ending, it's not just to give you a liturgical form, a doxological procedure. Rather I believe, he wants to assure his readers, that God is going to help you go one more round. It's jude's way of saying, it's always too soon to quit.
And he does that by moving the battle to a higher level. The battle that we go through on Earth. The battle in this case, the book of Jude, all the things he talked about with the apostates those who fall away from the faith, that battle. He moves the battle on Earth to the heavenly realm. And I want you to see that. These closing verses are all about God. They're not about them, they're not about the apostates, they're not about you and I, they're about God.
Now, most of this letter has been about them. That's the purpose of his writing. I wanted to write to you about our common salvation but I thought it necessary to tell you to contend earnestly for the faith. Once for all delivered to the Saints. That's verse three. Then, he launches into talking all about those guys, them, these grumblers, et cetera. I want you to see how this letter flows. Go back to verse four. He says, for certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, verse eight, likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, speak evil of dignitaries. Verse 10, but these speak evil of whatever they do not know. Verse 11, woe to them for they have gone in the way of Cain. Verse 12, these are spots in your love feasts. While they feast with you without fear serving only themselves, they are clouds without water.
Verse 14, now Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied about these men. Verse 16, these are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own laws, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people, to gain advantage. The whole book is about them. This short little letter is about them. The apostates, the defectors, the detractors, those who fall away, and some that are still among the congregation. But then, Jude pivots slightly, and he goes from them to you, his audience. Look at verse 17, but you beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 20, but you beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith praying in the Holy Spirit. Now in verse 24 there's another pivot. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to God our Savior, who alone is wise be glory, majesty, dominion, power, both now and forever, Amen.
You see the flow. First he points outward to them, then he points inward to us, now he points upward to God. And he's saying, he's ending with our trainer, the one who is going to see us through, make us get through this. Now I want you to notice something in verse 25, notice he puts the word God next to Savior. We know that Jesus is our Savior, he saves us from sin. He is regularly called Savior in the Bible.
Here Jude puts God next to Savior to show us that Jesus is God. In fact, some translations even add the phrase through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is Jude's way of equating Savior with God. Jesus the Savior is God in human flesh. Now, hold that thought. We learned in our very first study of this little book of Jude, that Jude himself was related to Jesus. Physically he was the half brother of Jesus. That Jude was one of the children of Joseph and Mary. And we also learned that Jude did not believe that Jesus was the Savior, at first. But later on he became convinced that Jesus was the Messiah of Israel, and the Savior of the world. And we looked at. After the resurrection of Jesus, Jude became a believer.
Now I think that this adds weight to Jude's testimony, and here's why. Jude watched Jesus up-close. Little Jude was at the dinner table with Jesus, for years. Little Jude was out playing whatever they played in those days in the streets of Nazareth. He watched the whole life of Jesus unfold. And then when Jesus Christ grew up, and started his ministry, Jude heard about it. Maybe even heard a sermon or two. We know that you tried to rescue Jesus. He thought he was crazy because he wasn't eating properly, we remember that little story in our first study of this book.
But maybe he even saw a miracle Jesus said, but he did not believe till after the resurrection. Now I say this adds weight to his testimony, here's why. How many of us, would ever say of our brother, he's God. I've had three older brothers, I wouldn't even say they're godly, let alone God. So for Jude to equate Jesus his half brother as being God our Savior is monumental.
But that's where it all begins for us, when Jesus becomes our Savior, when he saves us, delivers us. That's why I say he protects us. It's that salvation that protects us. Now let me color this in a little bit I'm gonna fill in the blanks. Did you know that the Bible speaks of salvation three ways? Past, present, and future, we call these three tenses of salvation. I just want to briefly explain that. We are saved past tense. We have been saved from the penalty of sin. The moment you believe in Christ, the eternal penalty is lifted from off your life. We have been saved from the penalty of sin.
Paul said, if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart, we will be saved. So that's past tense, done deal. If you've trusted him you are saved. But there is a second aspect in which you are being saved, present tense. Not from the penalty of sin, but now from the power of sin, the grip of sin. Hopefully the more you follow Jesus, you sin less and less. You're not perfect, but you sin less and less. And the reason you're not perfect, we know that because it says in John one nine, if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He's writing to believers, who still blow it, still sin, and still need confession. But he is saving us from the grip the power of sin. So past tense, from the penalty. Present tense, from the power. There's a third tense. One day we will be saved from the very presence of sin. We won't be able to commit a sin. We'll be in glorified bodies in the presence of God, we'll get to that in a minute here in this last couple of verses. But that is when our salvation is complete. Now maybe be labelling this point, because I want you to remember that you are saved, if you are.
Remember that when you step into the ring to fight. Remember when you're in a battle, I'm saved. When you're being attacked by outsiders, when you are the subject of dissenters, and bloggers, and can't cancel culture warriors, and tweeters, and Instagrammers, who want to make you seem like you're a loser, you're not the loser, you're the winner. You're saved. That battle has been won. They're the losers, if they're not saved. Not you. You are the winner.
In Romans eight 32, one of my favorite verses in the New Testament, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things. If he was willing to die for you, to save you, to bring you eternal protection, then there's more coming. He's not going to stop with that. He's going to freely give you whatever you need. Which takes us to the second. After he protects us, now he preserves us.
Now I take you back to verse 24. The beginning of this doxology, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Word stumbling means apostatizing. That's what he's been talking about this whole book. He's been talking about those who had fallen away, those who had walked away, those who had defected from the faith. And Jude is saying, that does not have to happen to you. You don't have to be a casualty. He who saved you, will be he who sustains you, he keeps you.
This happens to be one of the great promises in scripture. And the reason he is so adamant that he will keep you is because, he was the one who saved you. You had nothing to do with salvation. All you did is accept it, receive it, believe. So if you had nothing to do with that, then you'll really have nothing to do with this. He who saved you is the one who keeps you.
Now, let's just kind of look at it from two different angles. The road to heaven has always been dangerous, from a human perspective. Our journey from Earth to heaven, has always been a dangerous journey. There are potholes in the road. There's litter and there's roadblocks, there's all sorts of things that happen to the Christian. We have trials, we have temptations, we have accusations, we can be subject to false teaching. So it seems to be a very perilous journey, because we are special targets of Satan.
Even Paul, when he spoke to the people at Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch in the book of Acts. We are told, strengthen the souls of the disciples exhorting them to continue in the faith saying, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. Speaking about all the potholes in the road. From a human perspective, this is a dangerous journey. But from God's perspective, this is a very safe and secure journey.
From God's perspective the road is totally safe, and absolutely secure. We don't keep ourselves, he keeps us. Any more than we save ourselves. Now that word in verse 24, keep, is a military term. It means to guard, or to watch over. And the picture that is painted by the word is that God is at his post. He is standing guard over you, over your soul, to ensure eternal safety.
There are so many texts of Scripture that speak to the security of the believer, I don't have time to go through them all. But to tell you they're there in abundance, but I do want to take you to one in particular. And you don't want to turn there, but you'll remember when I say it. In John chapter 10, Jesus speaks of himself as the good what? The good shepherd. And the good shepherd is watching over his flock or his sheep. So the analogy, the picture is Jesus is the shepherd, we are the sheep.
And listen to this promise. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. I've always been fascinated by the fact that of all the analogies Jesus could have given of our relationship to God he chose this one. And that of all the animals to relate us to, he chose sheep. Not lions, not elephants, not Tigers, not bears, sheep.
Anybody who knows anything about sheep knows this. They are not known for their persevering. They are not known for their endurance. Sheep are not great survivors. In fact, sheep without a shepherd are called dead. They don't make it. The care of sheep is totally dependent on the quality of care provided by a shepherd. Sheep are helpless. Sheep are helpless if you leave them alone. You know that if you leave a sheep alone, they can often get off balance, they can roll to their side, and when they roll to their side, they can't get up, and if they try to get up, they find themselves on their back with their feet straight up in the air.
They can't manage like a dog or a cat to get back up. It's called being cast. A cast sheep gets on its back and eventually it cuts off the circulation, it stops breathing, and it dies. It's pretty helpless. So if you leave a sheep alone, it's helpless. When a sheep gets attacked it's helpless. Because sheep don't call their friends. Help. In fact sheep do nothing. They stand there they don't even have one little bleat. Just not even help, none of that.
They just stand there and get beaten up, and attacked, and chewed up by the predator. Also, sheep are helpless when they eat. Because they're indiscriminate about what they eat. They eat anything, they eat everything, they'll even eat poisonous roots and they die. So if that sheep is going to persevere, is going to endure, it has to be kept by a shepherd. And that's the point of Jesus saying, my sheep hear my voice. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.
Now go back to the book of Jude verse 1 where we started, a few weeks back. Jude here writes to his audience and he calls them called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ. So he begins the same way he ends, or I should say he ends the book the same way he begins. He begins by saying, you're preserved by Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ, now under him who is able to keep you from stumbling. This is a beginning to end promise. What he begins in your life he will carry to completion. Whatever God starts, God finishes.
Philippians one verse 6, he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Do any of you have any unfinished projects at home? You're going to get to it. You tell yourself that, you've told yourself that, some of you for years. You'll do that, one day you'll finish that project. It might be in the millennial kingdom, that you'll finish that project, but you'll get to. Do you know that God has no unfinished projects? What he starts he finishes. He is the author and finisher of our faith.
He who began a good work in you will complete it till the day of Christ. What that means is, God will never give up working on you until you are like Christ. In his presence which we'll get to in a minute like Christ. God never looks at your life and says, I'm done, I quit. I've tried to work with you, and you are just so hard to work with, go ahead and get cast, go ahead and get stuck. Now he is the good shepherd.
It's like this, when you come to Christ, he hangs a sign over your life, that says under-construction. And he doesn't take that sign off until the day you are glorified. So now to him who is able has all the ability, the power, to keep you from stumbling, now that does not mean you'll never make a mistake, it doesn't mean you'll never fall down, you'll never slip up. This is not a guarantee that you'll never have an ethical failure, or for that matter a moral failure, or for that matter a doctrinal failure. It does not mean that you should feel secure if you have ongoing patterns of unrepented sin. But it does mean that every true believer is kept by God and preserved to the end.
Now some in hearing this would say, what about Judas Iscariot? Why wasn't he kept? Why wasn't he preserved until the end? Didn't Jesus promise he would keep his sheep? Didn't Jesus pray that the Father would keep them just like he kept them? Well, listen to what he said on John 17, this is his prayer to the Father. He said while I was with them in the world I kept them in your name, those whom you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled. He's referring to Judas Iscariot.
You see Judas never was one of Jesus own. The other 11 of the 12, they were the real deal. Theirs was an authentic belief. Judas never had that, never made that, it was always about himself. Except the son of perdition. So he will keep you. But you have to want to be kept. He's able, you need to be willing. Paul the apostle, 2 Timothy 1 said, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day.
That's Paul's way of saying, I know I'll make it through to the end because I know him. I know the kind of God he is. I know the character of this God. So he protects us, he preserves us, and he'll present us. Look back at verse 24, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. I hope you have noticed the change here. The first part of verse 24 is on Earth, the second part of verse 24 is in heaven. Do you notice that?
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, that's now, that's here, that's Earth, and present you faultless before the presence of his glory, that's heaven. Now look at how this is written. And to present you faultless. Does it say you are faultless? Didn't say that. Didn't say you're faultless. Doesn't even say that he'll make you faultless, or produce you as a faultless person. It says he'll present you faultless. That's very different. I hope you know that you'll never arrive on this Earth. You never on this Earth, will get to a place where you ever have to say, I don't need to grow anymore. I've arrived. I've made it. I'm sinlessly perfect.
There are some who believe in that doctrine called the doctrine of sinless perfection. I've never met a sinlessly perfect person. I've met a couple who claimed to be, but I know they're not because they just lied to me. Funny. Spurgeon once said that he met a man who said he was sinlessly perfect, Spurgeon proceeded to take a pitcher of water and pour it on the man, the man started cursing and Spurgeon said, I thought so.
We never arrive. Even Paul the apostle said, not as though I had already attained neither were already perfect. But, he will present you as faultless, because he has already pronounced you faultless. Now listen carefully to this, because I just described to you the doctrine of justification. If you've ever read the New Testament through once, you've come across the word justification. And if you've come here, you know what that means. It means a pronouncement, a declaration, is a legal term, it's a forensic term, it's like a judge puts the gavel down and says you're not guilty, even if you are.
You may be filled with fault, but God says I am declaring you, pronouncing you as faultless. That's justification. He makes a declaration. Because Jesus took our sin, and God treated Jesus like you and I deserve to be treated. So that God could treat us like Jesus deserves to be treated. And that's justification. He makes that proclamation, or declaration, that you are righteous, you are justified. So he pronounced you and one day he'll present you in his presence faultless.
And I just got to again tell you how monumental this is, that a human could ever stand in the glorious presence of God at all. This is so counter-intuitive to both the nature of God and the nature of humanity. For a fallen man to stand in the presence of God's glory strikes terror into our hearts. Let me give you an example. Isaiah the prophet had a vision of God. And this is how the story goes.
Isaiah chapter 6, in the year the King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on his throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood Seraphim, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, with to he covered his feet, with two he flew. And one cried to another holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole Earth is filled with his glory. And the post of the door were shaken by the voice of the one who cried out. So here's Isaiah seeing God in his glorious throne room hearing the angelic praise, and the very next verse Isaiah says, so I said woe is me.
I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amongst the people of unclean lips, but my eyes have seen the Lord of hosts. What's going on? He's recognizing that I as a sinful person am seeing a holy God, and I'm saying wow is him, woe is me. That's typical, that's normal. Same thing in the New Testament, Jesus gets in Peter's boat one day, and he said put it out just a little bit from the land. So Jesus stands in the boat and preaches to the crowd on the shore like a natural amphitheater, he gives a sermon. And then after the sermon, after the Amen, he says Peter launch out into the deep, let's go fishing.
And I'm just going to kind of impose how I think Peter said it. Lord listen, we fished all night, we've got nothing, you're a great preacher, but I'm a pretty good fisherman. I know the Sea of Galilee. We fish here at night, and if you don't catch anything at night you certainly don't catch anything in daylight. We fished all night and got nothing. Nevertheless, at your command we'll do it. So he goes out to humor the preacher. Let's down his nets, you know what happens. He catches so many fish, the net begins to break. And when the net begins to break, Peter turns to Jesus and says depart from me Lord, I'm a sinful man.
What just happened? Peter just recognize who is dealing with. Now Peter recognized not only who he's dealing with, but who he really is as a man. You're perfect, you're not what I thought you were, you must be somebody more than just another guy, and I recognize I am sinful in your presence. Happened to the Apostle John. John gets a vision of God in the book of Revelation. And says when I saw him I fell down like a dead man before his feet. That is typical. Why such a reaction? Because they knew they were not faultless. They knew the only way to stand before God in his glorious presence is by being faultless.
One day you will be presented before God faultless, sinless, in a glorified body. So part of your salvation is justification, but there's another part of your salvation in the future called glorification. One day Skip Heitzig will stand before God, not even having a sin nature, not even able to commit a single sin in a glorified body. That will be Skip 2.0. Actually maybe Skip 3.0, maybe 1.0 was me before Christ, 2.0 is the day I was born again, 3.0 is the glorified body. I'll be presented faultless. Will be raised up, resurrected in a glorified body in the presence of God.
A boxer had his friends put on his tombstone these words, you can stop counting I'm not getting up. That's novel. You can stop counting I'm not getting up. Well I want you to know, I am getting up. I am going to be resurrected, and when I'm resurrected I'm going to be standing before God faultless. And something else, go back to our verse. He'll present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Now of course, that'll be the happiest day of our lives.
Of course, it almost goes without saying, we're going to be joyful. We're going to be stopped out of our minds, joyful. But in looking at this verse, this does not seem to be a reference to our joy, but a reference to his joy. That's the way it is linguistically. Without getting into all the weeds, the joy that he writes about isn't our joy in his presence. It's his joy having us in his presence as faultless. A one scholar says, Jesus will have the special joy of presenting his bride, the church. Now think about that.
And I found this verse this morning as I was getting my thoughts together again. This is Zephaniah chapter 3, the Lord your God in your midst, the mighty one will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. Do you ever think about the Lord singing? He must have a good voice. But the idea is he will sing for you. He will sing over you with joy. That's the joy I believe it's talking about. By the way, it was this joy that helped Jesus endure the cross. Do you know that?
Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. It's as if he went to the cross being able to just slightly taste what that joy is going to be like when you and you and me, are going to be in his presence. Presented before God the Father as faultless, and he would be so joyful that he would sing over it.
So the purpose of salvation isn't just to rescue you from hell, it's also to present you in heaven. You will be a salvation trophy that will bring him joy. Now doesn't that make you want to stand up and go one more round. It does me. Like Jim Corbett said, one more round. Now I want to close this message and this series by showing you a little clip of two fighters. Somebody in our church showed this to me the very first weekend of our study and Jude.
But I want to close with this, is two fighters. You'll see him squaring off with each other. And you'll see one very kind of braggadocios, and very much like the apostates written about. Full of hot air, and they can do it. And just remember this as you watch it that, pride goes before a fall, and a hearty Spirit before destruction. And I picture you as the winner filled with the Holy Spirit. Let's just watch this clip.
Just one well-placed blow took care of the guy. Now I want to invite you to be a part of the eternal joy of Jesus Christ. Where you stand before him victorious, presented his faultless, and look at verse 25 as we close, to God our Savior. Here's the question you have to be able to say is he your Savior, is he? It's not enough to say he's our Savior, he's even the Savior, you have to be able to say, he's my Savior. And if he's not, you know it. You know if you have asked him to save you, or if you said no I can manage this life on my own, not a good idea.
Make him your Savior. Commit your life to Him. Ask him to wash away your sins. And he will save you. He will preserve you. And he will present you. If you've never asked Jesus to be yours, do it today.
Father, thank you for this little study in the Book of Jude. How enriching it has been, how challenging it has been, how informative it has been for our faith. I pray, Lord for anybody here who might not know you, has never committed their lives to you, though they may have grown up going to church from time to time or even regularly, may have been very religious in their background, it's never been personal, they've never come to a place where they realized I can't do this. There's got to be more to life than what I've experienced. And I pray, Lord, that some who have come to that place this morning would say yes to the Savior.
And maybe others of you, you have an apostate ties, but you have walked away, or you have taken steps away, or you have dabbled in certain things that are not right and you know that, and you need to come back to him. You need to make a commitment to him. You need to let him keep you. Let him bless you. Let him save you.
I don't know where you stand with him, but I do know that you can stand before him faultless if you give him your life. If you need to do that this morning our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed, mine will be open, I'd like to acknowledge your hand if you are ready to receive Christ as your Savior, make it real, make it your own, walk and forgiveness. I want you to raise your hand up, just raise it in the air so I can see it, as we close this service. Raise it up so I can acknowledge you. Raise it up high.
God bless you, on my left toward the back. Anyone else. You know they keep the lights dim so I can't always see, so you may have to wave your hands around wildly so I'll be able to see that. God bless you to my right, thank you. Right in the middle yes, thank you ma'am. Right where you are. If you raise your hand. You just make it a simple prayer just say:
Lord, I give you me. I give you my life. I know I'm a sinner. I ask you to forgive me. I believe that Jesus died on a cross, shed his blood for me. I believe that he was raised from the dead. I believe he's alive. And I turn my life over to you. I repent of my sin. I turn to you as Savior. I want to live for you as Lord. Help me to do that. I ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.