It All Goes Back in the Box
MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION:
Have I told you lately how proud I am of you? And what a wonderful community of faith that we have here. And man, I’m just super proud of the way that we have been in the trenches together over the last four months with all kinds of different things going on. And I just want you to know that I’m proud to be your pastor. I love you. And I’m just grateful that we get to do this journey together, that it’s called life, and that we’re seeing lives changed. We’re seeing darkness push back. Super, super excited that you’re here this morning. Are you glad to be here? All right, good. All right. Well, you that are new may not know who I am. I am Virgil Grant. I’m one of the leaders around here, and I’m going to be looking at a story today from Luke chapter 12. So if you have your Bible or your Bible app, you may want to turn or click to Luke, Chapter 12. And we want to get to that passage in a moment. But before we do that, I want us to look at Psalm chapter 90:12, and I want us to read this out loud together in full voice. Not the person who’s sitting next to you, but all of us read this out loud together.
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90:12 (NIV)
Now notice what the Psalm said. Teach us to number our days. Now we’re instructed to number days that we have a limited amount of days now, but we find it very hard for us to number our days. It’s difficult. And even though we have the best intentions of numbering our days, it’s very difficult. You know, we have the best intentions of pursuing a life with God. We have the best intention of being a good person, being the right person, living the right life, having a great family, to leaving a legacy behind after we’re dead and gone. And so most people have good thoughts, they have good intentions about these issues. But there’s something that prevents you and me from fulfilling and numbering the days that we have here on Earth. Now, you would think that it would be something as complicated. You think it would be something that is very sophisticated. But the ironic thing that prevents you and me from numbering our days is something that is super, super simple. Do you know what it is? It’s busyness. Busyness keeps you, and me, from numbering our days now. I’ve been a pastor for almost 32 years. In September, I will begin my third year of being a senior pastor. All here at Eastside, thanks, Mom. Okay. Nobody else but thanks, Mom. She’s back there. Thank you, Mom. But. Where were we? Oh, yeah. 33 years. Yeah. Doing this, Yeah. There we go. Thank you.
I’ve learned a lot about people. I’ve learned a lot about why people don’t grow spiritually, learn why people don’t invest in their relationship with God. And it’s something in always saying something like this I don’t have enough time. I’m too busy. I’m too rushed to take time for God. Well, Myron Friedman, a psychologist, describes this society that we live in as a hurry sickness. There is a term that he uses to describe us as hurry sickness, as he puts it on the screen. I want you to say it to me.
Hurry Sickness
That this is an epidemic, according to Myron Friedman, that we live in a society that is described by hurried sickness. Now, I thought that it would be a great weekend for us to do a mass confession of being so sick because we’re in such a hurry. Now, some of you go out in the pastor. I’m not in a hurry. I don’t you know, I don’t suffer from a hurry sickness. Well, let me just give you some symptoms. And if any of these symptoms did find you, then at the end, I’m going to ask about you. Raise your hand if any one of these symptoms defines you, and then we’re going to see if Hurry Sickness describes you’re not. If you suffer from this disease. You will find yourself feeling that there are not enough hours in the day. If you suffer from Hurry sickness, you always have more to do than the hours in the day. If you suffer from Hurry sickness, your to-do list never gets done. If you suffer from this disease, you never feel like you can take a rest or catch your breath. Now, if you are at a stoplight or coming up on a stoplight and you have a hurry sickness, here’s what you would do. Your on the bypass, and you see that there are two lanes. A stoplight is coming up. There are two cars, one in each lane. Quickly, you do a calculation based on the model, the make, in the year of the car. Right. You know what I’m talking about. And you’re going to determine which car to get behind because you don’t want to waste 5 seconds of your life waiting on the other car to take off. Right. Anybody knows? I’m talking about now, if you’re really suffering from a hurry sickness, here’s what happens when you go to the grocery store. You go to the grocery store, you’re going to go to the checkout line, and you get, and you begin to scan the lines, and you begin to calculate how many people were in front of you. You look in their grocery carts, right, and determine how many items are in each cart. You do a quick addition, and then you multiply it by how aggressive the checker at the line looks. Right. That they’re slow and happy. They forget about that line. Right. You go somewhere else. And so what we do is that we calculate if you’re really, really sick, you choose line A, but you look over at line B, and the person who should have been you is now somebody else. And you’re in line. The person that should have been you, but someone else in line B gets out of the grocery store before you do what happens. You’re sick and miserable the rest of the day, right? Because they got to the grocery store before you did.
Now, let me ask you a question. How many of you suffer from Hurry sickness? Raise your hand? Really, really high. Now, look around this church. We are a sick church. Let me just tell you that right now, is that we suffer from Hurry sickness, and we don’t know how to number our days. Now, this is nothing new. You know this is nothing new for all of us. Even Jesus knew that people would suffer from Hurry sickness. And so, guess what Jesus does? Jesus tells a story about a man. In Luke, Chapter 12. We’re going to begin in verse 13. And what I’m going to do today is I’m not going to read the story because you can go back and read it and study it, and you can read it from different translations. But what I’m going to do is I’m just going to paraphrase what Luke chapter 12, verse 13 following says. But I’m going to tell it and re-tell it from the 2022 era. If Jesus was living in Central Kentucky, God bless you. If Jesus was living in Central Kentucky, how would He re-tell the story?
LUKE 12 RE-TOLD
And he would say something like this, that there was a man who was respected. He was well thought of. But he was a busy man. He was a man who was climbing the ladder. Now, let me just say something to you. We all have a little ladder that we’re climbing. I have a ladder, even though I’m in the church world. There’s a ladder that I’m. Climbing. There’s a ladder that you’re climbing. This man had his ladder that he was climbing. And what he was climbing. What he was looking for was a success. He was dedicated. He was sold out on finding success. And he was willing to do whatever it took to be successful. Now, he was very ethical. He was very kind. He was very well thought of. He was very respected. He was very well-known in his community. It was nothing like that. But he was devoted to climbing the ladder of success. And so that meant that he would put in 12, 14, and 15 hours a day at his job. He joined professional organizations. He became president and vice president of these different organizations. He was part of community civic projects. He volunteered in his community. He did everything that he should have done. And with everybody that he came in contact with, he always asked himself one simple question: Can this person help me to climb the corporate ladder of success? He was a user. Let me ask you a question. Do you know of anyone who’s a user in your life? They’re always looking to climb the corporate ladder. They’re always looking to climb and take the next step. Well, this was the man himself. Now, he was vaguely aware that his children were growing up. He was vaguely aware that they were involved in activities. His wife would oftentimes say to him, Hey, honey, you know what? Your kids are wanting you to spend some time with them. Your kids are wanting you to go to their activities. Even the kids would ask the father, Hey, Dad, could you make some time for us? Could you come and be a part of this?
Then after a season or two of the kids asking their dad to come and watch them and spend some time with them, the kids eventually gave up because they knew that nothing was going to change with their dad. Well, this man and Jesus’s story, you know what he would do when he started feeling guilty about not spending time with his wife and his children. He would say to themselves, I will have plenty of time for my wife, my children, and to number my days when things settle down in six months or so. This was his favorite phrase when things settled down. And although he was a very smart man, this man in Jesus’s story never seemed to notice that things never slowed down when he went to bed. And he was wide awake at one time because there was a twinge in his chest. He was concerned. He felt like his heart was ready to leap out of his chest. And he wakes his wife and, and his wife, they have a conversation. He calms down and goes back to sleep. The next morning, his wife makes him a doctor’s appointment. And you understand what happens, right? He goes to the doctor. And what does the doctor say to him? The doctor says you have all the classic symptoms of a major massive heart attack coming up. And you have high blood pressure, you have high cholesterol, and you’re overweight, and you need to do what? Start working out at the gym. You start eating right. So what does this man in Jesus’s story does he what does he do? He begins to eat right. He begins to exercise. And after six months of exercising, feeling better. Guess what? His motivation to keep doing these things. They cease as well.
And he said there would be plenty of time to take care of my body in six months or so when things settle down. Now, at some level, he knew that his life was out of whack. He knew that his life was out of balance. His wife would nag him about eating right, exercising, about attending church. But Sunday was his only day down to crash to take it easy. And he says you can believe in God without ever going to church. There will be plenty of time for the church deal when things settle down. So this man in Jesus’s story lived a successful, respected, God-fearing people, neglecting heart shrinking kind of life until one day. The COO of his company called and asked for an emergency meeting. The COO had put together a keynote presentation and put it all together, and he was trying to help this man and Jesus story to see that things were booming at their company, that things were growing and blowing, and that supply and demand were outrageous. And this COO said to this owner of this business, do you understand what this means? This is going to be the mother lode of all mother lode. If we can ride out this wave, we’re going to reach financial success. We’re going to reach financial security. We’re going to be at the top of the industry. We’re going to go as high as we can. And with success, all we have to do is to give every waking moment for the next several years to this endeavor because we have to do a major overhaul. We have to do a major reorg. All of our systems are outdated. All of our equipment is outdated, and our computers are outdated. Our software is outdated. We have to hire a ton of more people because the demand is so high and the supply is so low that we cannot keep up. But if we can fix all of this, guess what? We’re going to be filthy rich.
And that man and Jesus story, from the moment, that he heard those words, he became possessed. And every waking moment of his life from this point forward is devoted to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And then one day, it hits him as he’s working a long day, it hits him that, you know what? This is the financial freedom that I’ve been longing for. This is going to be when all of this is done, things are going to settle down. I want to have financial freedom. I want to have time to invest with my family, with my children, with my wife, and with God. I can do all the things that I know I should do. And so he goes home later on that, not now, 9:30 or 10:00. He’s so excited. He sets his wife down. He says, Honey, do you understand what this opportunity is going to realize? What’s going to net us? Is this going to give us financial security? It’s going to give us all these things that you said. And she goes, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. I’ve heard that story a thousand times before. She had become numb to it, and she said, I’m going to go into bed. It’s 11:00 o’clock. Are you coming to bed with me? He says no, I’ll be there in a few moments. So she heads up the stairs. She goes in, and she goes to sleep. And at 3:00 in the morning, she rolls over. And guess what? He’s not in bed. And so she goes downstairs to get him and walks down the stairs. He’s asleep, and his computer, he’s like this. And she goes, This is worse than a kid. I mean, he would rather go to sleep on his computer than get up and come to bed. And so she goes down, and she taps him on the shoulder and calls him by name. But there’s no response.
And all of a sudden, she gets this sick, panicky feeling in her stomach. She does 911 calls for the paramedics. They come over. They check him out, and they confirm what she already knew that he had passed away. He’d been dead for several hours. Well, the newspaper gets a hold of this story. And they print a big front-page article about this entrepreneur, this successful businessman who dies. And then, they have their memorial service for this man. And the memorial service is a massive endeavor. People from all over the community came in to view the body. They filed across his casket, and they all made the same stupid comments that everybody makes when they go past the casket. And the comment that everybody makes is that he looks so peaceful or good. Death has a way of doing that. Then they gave the eulogy. They talked about how he was such a great guy, talked about how he was a networker, an entrepreneur, a visionary, and a leader. But most of all, they talked about his success. And in fact, they erected a monument with his picture on it. And they put all of these words on their entrepreneur, leader, and community-minded citizen. But at the very top, in all caps, they wrote the word success. He had arrived, but he didn’t get to live to hear anything about it. Then everybody goes home. Everything’s quiet. Everything is still. No one is moving around. Then the Angel of the Lord appears on the scene, and the Angel of the Lord describes the rich man’s life with one word in Luke. Chapter 12. Do you know what that one word was in Luke 12:20?
“You fool. You fool. This night your soul will be required of you.”
Luke 12:20 (NIV)
Now this story has a lot of. Characteristics. Has a lot of richness to it. Now, what I want to do is, after telling you the story, I want to pause. And with what time I have left. I want to talk to you about the illusions that this rich man in Jesus’s story bought into that prevented him from experiencing salvation. It prevented him from engaging with Jesus. And the reason why I want to talk about these illusions is that these are lagoons or what prevents you.
I from engaging with Jesus and receiving salvation. The same illusions that took place 2022 years ago are the same illusions that are alive and well today in our society. And what are those illusions that keep us from engaging with Jesus and from salvation? It is number one. The favorite phrase of this man was this. Is that when things settle down, I will get around to what is important in life when things settle down. Folks, let me ask you a question.
The man’s favorite phrase:
“When things settle down, I will get around to what is really important.”
The answer is when we die. That’s when things are going to settle down. See, here’s my conviction. My conviction is this. That it’s not money. It’s not stuff that keeps us from pursuing our relationship with Jesus. The thing that prevents us is business. It is business that prevents us. We have to be on a ruthless journey to eliminate business. If not, the business will keep us away from Jesus. Remember what Bob Goff said last weekend the devil doesn’t want to destroy you because that’s one and done. The devil wants to do what is to distract you. Because if he can get you distracted, you get other people distracted, and the ripple effect will continue on down. And this gentleman in the story that Jesus told Harry is the great enemy of the spiritual path. Now we have to understand that there’s a difference between being busy and being hurry. Now, business. Jesus was busy oftentimes. He had a very long day of doing ministry. We know what it is. That is the outward condition.
Busy = outward condition.
It’s the outward actions that we’re involved in. And Jesus would be healing people and casting out demons. He would be talking to the disciples, and then at midnight or something, he would go spend all night in prayer with the father. We know that Jesus was busy. But let me tell you, what hurriedness is being hurried is the state of the soul. It is an inward condition.
Hurried = a state of the soul
It’s an inward condition.
It is that you’re so absorbed with your own self, with your own agenda, with your own world, that you don’t have time for God. You don’t have time for your family. And you don’t have time for the community. You’re involved in your own little world, and you boxed everybody else out. And that is what hurriedness is, is the state of the soul. It’s an inward condition. And if you’re not careful, then you’re. Hurriedness will take you away from God and will keep you from embracing God. Now another illusion in our day that prevents us from engaging with Jesus and receiving salvation is the same illusion that was in the story of this rich man, in Jesus’s story, and that is that.
One day – more will be enough.
Just one day more will be enough. Now, if you think about social media, if you think about the advertisement that pops up in your social media feed or on the websites that you are on, is that every. Item is yelling the same thing. Every industry is yelling the same thing. It is number one. You should never be content under no circumstances. You should not be content under any circumstances. And the second thing that it says is that you’re one purchase away from contentment. Every item yells out at you and me. They yell the same thing. Try me. Buy me, use me. Wear me. Eat me. Put me in your hair, and you will have contentment Folks, listen to me. Contentment is not something that you purchase. It is something that you learn. And how do I know that? That’s what Apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter four. He says this.
“I have learned the secret of being content…”
Philippians 4:12 (NIV)
You have to learn contentment. So let me see if I can help you to learn contentment. How many of you are familiar with the comic strip Peanuts and Charlie Brown and Snoopy? Anybody? Okay, so Snoopy is on top of his doghouse. Snoopy is depressed. He’s bitter. He’s angry. Do you know why? Because Charlie Brown in his family is inside. Around the kitchen table. And it’s Thanksgiving Day. And they’re eating turkey. Dressing. Mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce. You get the picture, right? And Snoopy’s outside, and all he has is, what? Dog food. It’s always bitter. He’s angry until he has this thought. He goes,.
“It could be worse.”
He says it could be worse. I could have been a turkey. It could be worse. He goes, But I’m not. I’m a dog. And when he realized it could be worse, he changed his entire mentality. Now, here’s the ordeal. I want to help you to learn contentment. When you leave here today. You’re going to walk out to the parking lot. You’re going to get into your vehicle. And when you get into your vehicle, you’re going to have this thought. If I had a nicer, newer, more expensive automobile, I would be more content. But not today. What are you going to say? It could be worse. Right. So when you get into your vehicle, you drive home, you live in an apartment, townhouse, duplex home, or you’re renting a home. It doesn’t matter. And you go through the front door, and the thoughts going to come to you? Well, if I had a nicer, bigger, more expensive, more elaborate home, I would be what? More content. But we’re not going to say that this afternoon, are we, this afternoon when we walk through the door. We’re going to say it could be worse. Now in the morning. When you wake up, and you roll over, and if you’re married and you see your spouse, you’re not going to say they could be worse. You’re not going to say that. All right. I’m just teasing. You’re not going to say that? No.
So this man, the illusion that he bought into was number one, is when things settle down. The other illusion that we are born into is one day, more will be enough. And there’s one more illusion that he bought into. Let me just explain it to you this way. I want to explain to you something that took place in my family. In the seventies, snow plows, removal, salt, and all that were not even on the board for the most part in the county. I think it was the winter of 78. We got a couple feet of snow, and I think we missed a whole month of school if I remember correctly. It was a long time ago, and we would, as a family, would play Monopoly. My mom, my dad, my two brothers, and my sister, the six of us, would play Monopoly every night. During those that snow season and we would play until there was a winner, and we would play until the wee hours of the morning because we didn’t have to worry about going to school the next day, and we’d sleep in, and we do the same thing over and over and over. And no matter how the game was played, my dad would always win. Nobody could beat him. Toward the end of each game, we would team up with another partner, and regardless of who we teamed up with, whoever teamed up with my dad, my dad, and his partner would win. See, my mom, my two brothers, and my sister would get her 1500 dollars of play money. And what would we do with that 1500 dollars? We would hold on to it, but not my dad. Well, my dad, you know, when he landed on a piece of property, it didn’t matter if it was a utility, a railroad, a hotel, whatever, He purchased it. And when he was gone with his 1500 dollars, and he landed on a property, and it was still available, you know what he did? He would turn his property over. He would mortgage it so he could buy the additional piece of property. He knew it was a dog, eat dog every person for themselves. And inevitably, he would become the master of the board.
And the way that he became the master, the board, is that we would land on his property one time too many. We wouldn’t have enough cash. And so we had to give him property, and eventually, we’d come to we had nothing, and we had to quit in utter defeat. And then he would say, Don’t worry about it. Some day you will learn how to play the game. Well, believe it or not, I finally learned how to play the game. Jacob, my son. He loved playing Monopoly. And so I remember vividly one day playing Monopoly on the floor of his room, and we were out playing, and I remembered all the things I learned from my dad indirectly or directly playing Monopoly. And I go, I want to utilize every one of those tactics that he used. And sure enough, it worked. I became the.
Master of the Board
I mean, I cremate Jake; I mean, I destroyed him. I mean, I stomped a hole in him. I mean, I was dominant. I mean, I was feeling good. I was excited. I mean, I was pumped up. No, what Jacob did. Let me tell you what that seven-year-old did. He threw all the stuff down, got mad, and left the room. I wanted to bronze that whole set at that moment and make a monument out of that. I became the master of the board. But you know what happened? I was sitting on the floor. I was staring at the game. I learned the greatest lesson in life. See, the greatest lessons of life always come at the end of the game. I had won the game, but now it all went back in the box. See all of that money, all of those houses, all of those hotels, all of the wonderful property that I had accumulated. Now it all had to go back in the box. See this businessman in Jesus’s story. He learned to play the game. He forgot only one little detail. He forgot to number his days. He forgot the game would end. See, the game always comes to an end. He forgot that all of the stuff was going back into the box.
I don’t know where you’re at spiritually this morning. I don’t know if you believe in the authority of Scripture or if you don’t even believe in Scripture at all. I don’t know if you have a relationship with Jesus or if you think that Jesus is some force. I don’t know where you’re at, but here’s what I do know. This story that we’ve read about and talked about from Luke, chapter 12, is played out a million times every single day. No matter what you’ve committed your life to, no matter which direction you’re going in. I don’t care what you believe, what road you walk down, what faith system you put yourself in. When you go down that road, and you come to the end of that road. There’s a cul-de-sac at the end of the cul-de-sac there is a box waiting for you, and everything goes back into the box. And here’s the question. Are you prepared? For the Box. Are you prepared for the end of the game? Are you prepared for the end of the game? That you’re ready to face eternity. Have you made spiritual preparations? Last Sunday afternoon. I priest, a funeral for Nate Reynolds, one of our church members. And there are four other speakers. Those four other speakers all talked about the different characteristics of Nate. And I knew Nate well enough. Nate would come back from the dead and haunt me if I didn’t share the gospel with his family and friends. Never done it before. And I said to the congregation, I want to say to you now, I want you to know that Nate Reynolds is in heaven this afternoon. But let me remind you of why Nate is in heaven. Nate is in heaven. Not because he was a church member. Nate’s not in heaven because he was baptized. Nate is in heaven, not because he was the last group leader. It’s not that he served in the local church. It’s not that he was generous that caused him to get into heaven. The thing that caused Nate Reynolds to get access to heaven is the fact that he was born again. And he asked God to forgive him of his sins and come into his heart and to be his Lord and Savior.
And today. If you want to prepare. For the end of the game, if you want to prepare for it all. Going back in the box. Can I say something to you? You must be born again. And born again is not a Virgil term. It’s not an Eastside term. It’s not a Baptist term. It’s not a Catholic term. It’s not a Protestant term. Do you know whose term it is? It is Jesus Christ. Because look at what Jesus said in John chapter three, verse three. He says.
“I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.”
John 3:3 (CEV)
I want to ask you a question. Have you been born again? I’m not asking you. Are you a church member? I’m not asking you if you’ve been baptized. I’m not asking you if you’re serving in the church. I’m asking if you’re in a life group. I’m not asking you if you’re giving money to the church. I’m not asking any of those things. I’m asking you. That’s all work. I’m asking you. Have you been born again? Have you invited Jesus Christ into your heart to forgive you of your sins? And you’ve confessed to him as your Lord and Savior. If you haven’t done that, then you’re not prepared for the game of life to end and for all to go back in the box. You’d be born again. Well, how am I a born-again pastor? Well, we said all the time, This is easy. Is A, B, and C.
How am I born again?
A = Admitting I’m a sinner.
B = Believing that God sent his son
to fix my sinful condition.
C = Confessing Jesus as my Lord.
And we say, first of all, that you have to admit that I’m a sinner. See, folks, we all know that something is broken inside of us. Nobody here. It’s not a stretch. There’s no one here that would raise their hand and say that they’re perfect. No one here would go. You know what? They don’t have anything broken inside of me. We’re all broken individuals. Sin is the defect. The diagnosis is called sin, and we cannot fix it. If we could fix it, we would already fix it. But no priest, no pastor, no program, no Bible verse. I mean, we folks don’t. There’s nothing that can fix what’s broken inside of you. The only thing that can fix what’s broken inside of you is Jesus. And that’s where the B comes into play. Believing that God sent his son to fix my simple condition is Jesus came to live the life that you and I cannot live. And he died. The death that you and I should have died. And we believe that Jesus hung on the cross. He died for the sins of humanity. He was put in the grave on the third day. He rose from the dead because he, in victory over the dead, was grave in sin and came out of the grave on the third day, is he has victory over all of that. And that victory came along to you and me, and in the letter, C confess to confess him as your Lord and see friends. When I extended this invitation and funeral, I had everybody just close their eyes. I’m going to have to do the same thing. I said, this bow your head. And I said I want to lead you in the prayer of being born again. And I didn’t know how this was going to go. Never done it before. I figured this was going to be, like, the best thing in the world, or it’s going to be the most disastrous thing in the world. And so I did this. And I said to the congregation that was gathered, family and friends.
I said, If you have never been born again and you want to be born again, you want a fresh start. You want your name written in the Book of Heaven. You want all of your sins forgiven. If that is you, if you want to be born again, I want to include you in the born-again prayer. So here’s what I did. I said if you want to be included in the prayer. I just want you to raise your hand. I’m going to ask you to do that for a moment at the funeral. Five people raised their hands. In the first service this morning, eight people raised their hands to say, you know what, I’m not prepared for the end of the game. I’m not prepared for everything to go back into the box. And so if you’re not prepared, this is your opportunity. This is your divine moment. Here’s what I want to ask you. Do I want to include you in the Born Again prayer? Here’s what I want to ask you to do. I’m going to ask you to raise your hand. No one’s looking around. I just want you to raise your hand. As you raise your hand, you just hold it up, and one, thank you. Just hold them up. I’m going to count the hands in the room. One, two, three, four. I see you. Five, six. I got you. Six. Seven. Thank you. Seven people. Anyone else, thank you. You can put your hands down? Now everybody with their head bowed. Those seven people, the Raise, your hand. Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to look at the screen with me, and I’m going to pray this prayer out loud. I want you to do it in your own heart. I want you to repeat it in your own mind. Your own heart. You say it out loud. I don’t care. But here’s the born again. This is how you enter into the relationship with Jesus.
“Dear Lord Jesus. I believe you’re the son of God. I believe that on the cross you took my sin, my shame, my guilt, and you died for it. You faced hell for me so I wouldn’t have to go. You rose from the dead to give me a place in heaven, a purpose on earth, and a relationship with your Father. Today, Lord Jesus, I turn from my sin to be born again. God is my Father, Jesus is my Savior, the Holy Spirit is my Helper, and heaven is now mv home. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Would you join me in welcoming these seven people?