Man, it is good to be with each and every single.
One of you, I don't know where you're joining from weather here
at our 48th Street campus, or you're joining us from Macomb
Kirksville. 929, Pike County, Hannibal Lima, Mount Sterling
Keokuk, mom, at Jacksonville online inside.
We are so incredibly thankful for you.
I heard a story that might be happening this weekend that a
person who's been watching us online is going to be driving.
Going in and getting baptized at one of our locations.
So if it happens to be at your location, make sure you cheer
super loud. That'll be a big win and we will
be working diligently to try and find them a church home in their
area where they can serve and participate.
If you are brand new to the crossing, we are so glad that
you're here and make sure you connect with the campus.
Pastor or one of your incredible staff members are
difference-makers before you leave because we would love an
opportunity to love you well and to get connected one of the easy
ways to do that is there's a QR code.
On the seat in front of you, if you pull out your camera, click
on, that it will open up and allow you to actually fill out
some information and kind of raise your hand.
And say, hey, I was here and I'd love to get connected before.
I jump into the sermon series, as promised, we are getting
ready to embark on a brand new sermon series starting next
weekend. That sermon series is called
weeds in my garden a series, on being honest, about mental
health and we will be talking about About suicide, self-harm,
stress anxiety, burnout, low self-esteem and depression.
And I, like I said, this a couple weeks ago, I believe that
these next 12 weeks of our church will be the most
important messages that we will preach this entire year.
There's a couple things that you can do to help us out as we get
ready for them. I already mentioned the qr-code,
but if you click on that, QR code, that's in front of all
your seats and you can do this. While I'm preaching, you're not
going to even frustrate me. I'm going to love it.
If I see phones out, you can click on that.
It'll pull up a Tree and there is a mental health survey.
I would love all of you to take it every single one of you what
it can do. It's going to take you 30
seconds. First question, how old are you?
That's easy cuz you should remember that, okay?
If you don't remember how old you are, click 80, okay?
Then after that you're going to say, hey, are you a male or
female super easy. Third question is, which one of
these things have you wrestled with in the last 12 months?
And it's perfectly reasonable for You to click none.
Say, Clayton. I haven't had to navigate any of
these issues personally, in the last 12 months, there's some
nuns. And at all of our locations, I
want you to raise your hand and acknowledge yourself and but you
can click all the ones that account for you.
Then the next question is, do you know anybody who does?
And then you're done, it's like super easy.
But what it's going to do is it's going to help us as we
prepare this message to be able to lean in and draw.
Some information, we're not going to get like who your name
is. We're not going to send you a.
Hey man, thanks for being so honest about.
It's none of that stuff. We don't track it but it'll help
me help you a whole lot better. So if you like us, Help us out.
Okay, now parents during the sermon series, if you have
really young kids, Elementary age kids, I'm going to really
ask you to do myself and the people around you, a huge favor
and yourself, a huge favor and take advantage of our incredible
kids programming. I'm going to ask you to do that
for a couple of reasons. Now, you may have a sixth grader
who and you have a fuse. Take full advantage of that with
your Junior highers. If you don't they're going to be
fine in the auditorium. Your high school students, I'd
love for your high school kids. Be sitting with you in the
auditorium as we go through the sermon series, I just don't want
to put ideas in your really young kids.
Heads, I want to put you in a position to lead first before
they start asking you questions. Second thing is, is just just a
general rule, your kids will always learn better in one of
our kids environment than they will in here.
You know, I know some of you think I'm great, but I'm not
that great. I cannot appeal to five year
olds all the way to wherever you are, just not going to happen.
Your kid will always learn more about Jesus and that should be
your goal as a parent. How do I put my kid in
incredible environment for them to learn about Jesus?
Your kid will always learn about Jesus better in all of our kids
environments. And the third reason is I want
you to be a good neighbor. There can be people who are
going to be sitting around you who are going to be clinging on
for dear life during the sermon series.
And I don't want your kid to be a distraction from the the help,
and the help that they need, is that a fair deal?
Okay. All right.
Perfect. Now, we are in the last week of
a sermon series. Called The Other Side, the first
week, Jerry talked about heaven. Learn the heaven is a real place
that we will be changed and freed from all of the baggage of
the lower story than last week. We talked about hell.
We learned that hell is real that Jesus talked about it more
than any other biblical writer combined.
We learned that it is a forever place and it is a place of
punishment and torment. But we also learned that by
God's grace and unfailing love, He sent Jesus Christ to pay the
price that we could never pay. And that when you receive Jesus
Christ as your lord and savior, Our you need, not worry about
the horrors of hell because heaven awaits you when you die
and if you missed any of those, are you want to pick up on?
Other sermons from the past, you can go to our website or you can
go to YouTube. Our website is the crossing
dotnet. Our YouTube is one Crossing.
If you see this little Insignia, our logo, you'll know you're at
the right place and you can always we watch our sermons or
if you liked one, when Jerry preaches on Sunday and you want
to re-watch it again on Monday on Monday mornings. our summers
are loaded so you guys can take advantage of that or You have to
be careful about this. If, you know, somebody that
could use a particular message, it's a great way to share it
because you can just text it to them and they can just watch it
on their phone when they're supposed to be working.
Okay? All right, that being said, if
you grew up in a church or maybe hung around with church people,
you may have heard that one day, we are going to be judged and
there's a lot of misinformation about what judgment looks like.
And so today we're going to be talking about the two Judgments.
And if you spend any time reading your Bible, when you
start reading about the Judgment sometimes and I'm saying this,
as a person who reads his Bible, it can be a little confusing.
Let me explain your in your Bible.
You're reading like a good Christian and you come across
Ephesians chapter 2 and this is what it says, okay?
As for you, you are dead in your transgressions and sins in which
you used to live. When you follow the ways of this
world, Old. And the of the ruler of the
kingdom of the air and the spirit, who is now at work in
those who are disobedient, All of us also lived among them at
one time, gratifying the Cravings of our flesh and
following its desires and thoughts like the rest.
We were by Nature, deserving of Wrath.
Okay. This is not the cheer me up
portion of the sermon. He lays out seven indictments on
the human soul. Ready.
Here's the first one. You were dead for your
transgressions and sins. Next one, you walked in them as
a way of life. Third one, you followed the ways
of this world for you. Followed the evil ruler five.
You shared the attitude or Spirit of disobedient.
Men six. We all lived by the passions of
the flesh 7. We follow the desires of the
body and the mind, he is saying you and I are in a really bad
spot. We deserve wrath, then it gets
to the good part. Look what happens?
He's setting the stage to say, this is how bad it is, but look
how good it gets. But because of his, this is God.
God, great love for us. God, who is rich in Mercy?
Made us alive with Christ. Even when we were dead in
transgressions, It Is by Grace, you have been saved.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the
Heavenly Realms in Christ Jesus. In order that in the coming
ages, he might show the incomparable Riches of his grace
expressed in his kindness, to us in Christ Jesus.
For it, is by Grace, you have been saved through faith and
this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God not by
works so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork
created in Christ. Jesus to do good works, which
God prepared in advance for us to do hear me.
Never doubt the expanse of God's love.
If you were to take all of the love for all of humanity, for
all of human history, it would only fill a Coke can compared to
the ocean of God's love. We are all saved by grace and we
lay hold of that salvation through faith.
It's not something you earn, it's not something we do.
It's not something we create. It is something we receive this
is echoed in Titus 3:5. Look, what?
He says he saved us. This is God, not because of
righteous things, we had. Done.
But because of his, this is God's mercy.
God saved us through the washing of rebirth and Renewal by the
holy spirit. So you have this huge thrust in
scripture that says, God is the one who saves you that are
Heavenly. Reward is coming from God
because of us simply laying hold of what Jesus Christ did on the
cross. So when you read through things
like this, Are going, it has nothing to do with our works.
It has everything to do with what Jesus did on our behalf.
And so you've got this entire line of thinking over here,
right? And then you come across versus
like this, God will repay each person according to what they
have done. And if you're like me, you go.
Oh. because if you would like track the good things that I've
done versus the bad things that I've done, it wouldn't be
pretty. Especially when you read that.
Nothing is hidden from God. Everything is laid bare and we
have to give an account. Like I'm a good Christian which
means I can fake it. Right, like someone can be mean
to me and I can night. God bless you. but on the
inside, I'll kill you. Right?
And then you reading your Bible. that if a man, Even thinks it in
his heart. Oh, So Clayton help me out here.
Scriptures, talking about that. We are saved through Jesus.
But somewhere along the line, we're gonna have to pay a bill.
He's keeping track. The reason it doesn't sound good
and the reason it doesn't sound right.
It's because when we are looking at scripture, we're looking at
two separate things that no matter how good I am.
I can never earn my salvation but God is also going to repay
us. According to what we've done,
how does this work out? The reason these verses do not
make sense at first glance is because they are talking about
two different Judgments. You and I will face two
different and separate judgments.
The first one is the great white throne and the second one is the
Judgment seat of Christ. The easiest way to understand
these two judgments is to think of them as having to answer two
different questions. In other words, There's going to
be a test. and some of you, Went.
Oh, how many of you at all of our locations?
You were great test. Takers in school.
Okay. All right.
Now I know who were reaching here at the Crossing.
Okay. God bless you, you can still
keep coming, okay? And I'm guessing all the rest of
you. You were not a good test taker
in school. It's a good thing.
I'm preaching this sermon then, Okay, because I'm going to give
you the answers to the test. Okay?
Now here's what you need to know.
When I was in school by God's grace.
I was actually a good test taker.
I need to not pretend like I can identify with you.
I was actually a really good test taker.
I was actually one of those freaks who could stay up late
the night before cram for my work and I could walk into class
and I could nail it to give you a little perspective when I was
in my final year of Bible College.
So you go to Bible college for four years and you get a degree
in biblical literature, but you could go for five years, do 150
credit hours and it basically gave you Bachelor's in theology
which puts you a long way into your Masters and going into my
final 50 years of Bible College, The Crossing asked me if I
wanted to be the youth pastor here and I was still going to
school in Joplin Missouri which is 6 hours away.
This is before the four lanes, went through Camden and Lake of
the Ozarks. Okay, this is back when it was
two lanes to Purgatory. Okay.
And so on Friday, afternoons, I would leave school and I would
drive all the way up here and I'll be the youth Minister on
Friday nights at Saturday Sunday.
And then on Monday at noon, I would drive back to school.
My senior year of college I took forty, four credit hours.
I took 24 hours in the first semester and I took 20 hours in
the second semester. So I did a year and a half of
school, in my final year, with a one-way, commute of six hours
now, I was able to handle all of that except for one thing that
has always been my Achilles heel.
Languages, if you've listened to me for a while, you know,
Sometimes I'll just be talking in the wrong word, just comes
out of my mouth. That's just how it is.
I don't even understand English. Okay?
It's just it's just what it is and I was horrible.
Horrible always have been at foreign language and one of the
classes I had to take was Greek and I understood all of the
vocab but I understood none of the rules.
And by God's grace, there was a professor who really liked me.
And at the end of the quizzes, it would say what size shoe is
Clayton, Hensel wearing and I was like, I know the answer to
that and it was how many points did Clayton, Hensel score in the
basketball game, and I'm like, I know the answer to that one,
too. And that is how I passed Greek.
Okay. Now, what was even worse than
Greek was Spanish? I was, oh God!
Awful horrible at Spanish. I tried to make my Spanish named
Jorge and then I tried to change it to Zorro and class.
My Spanish teacher was not going to call me Zorro.
Even though I signed all my papers with a z and I turned him
in. That was as far as I could get
into, Spanish is just putting easy on paper.
And but the problem with me is, I didn't know how bad I was at
Spanish. And so I was doing some Ministry
work on weekends and I would go to Tulsa Oklahoma when I was in
Bible College and we go down and we minister to people and I've
kind of got an outgoing personality.
And so I would go up to people and I would say what's up my
dog, except I would say it in Spanish and this is back when
you said what's up my dog? Because that was cool.
And so I'd be coming out of a quick trip.
And I'd see a bunch of people who spoke Spanish and That's not
my dog, except I would do it in Spanish, and this is what you're
supposed to say. You're supposed to say que pasa,
me, Pedro, and your want to roll the are, and that's incredibly
important. The problem is, I wasn't very
good at that and I did this for months and then I was sitting
across the table from a good friend, who was, who spoke
fluent Spanish because, well, it's his native language.
And I said, you know, He sat down and I said, que pasa me
Peril and he goes, say that again, because what I was
actually saying because I couldn't roll, my are is what's
up my butt? And so all over all over Tulsa.
Oklahoma, there is a big chunky, white boy walking around.
What's up my butt? What is up my bus?
Hey amigo, don't do it. Stop what is on my mind?
So it's so important that if you if there's gonna be a test that
we get the answers, right? All right.
You guys ready? Now, you're you're tuned in now.
Okay, so here's what we need to do.
We can prepare for the test. So let me set up the Senior Life
can be broken down into three sections life.
Now life in between, And life forever.
We are living in life. Now when we die, we go to life
in between in the Old Testament. That's called she'll in the New
Testament of Believers. Go to paradise and non-believers
go to Hades Paradise is not is not heaven.
Hades is not hell. So if I were to die today, I
would either go to paradise or I would go to Hades.
I would not go any other place. I'm not in heaven.
I'm not in hell. That is life in between then
upon the final judgment. When God makes everything new
those in Christ. Will receive glorified bodies
and God will create a new Heaven and a new Earth.
And those in Hades will be sent to hell.
And those in Paradise will receive their Eternal reward
when you die. Your body and soul are
separated. So my body goes into the urn or
the casket, but my soul goes to either Paradise With God, the
father, Jesus, son, or it goes into Hades.
You are whisked away at the moment of your death to the
first judgment, which determines whether or not you go to
paradise, or you go to Hades. And the question at the great
white Throne of judgment is simply this What did you do with
my son Jesus? That's the question that God is
going to ask you. What did you do with my son?
Jesus, this is a question about salvation.
Revelation chapter 20 look what it says.
Then I saw a great white throne and him.
Who was Seated on it. The Earth and Heavens fled from
his presence and there was no place for them.
And I saw the dead Great and Small standing Before, the
Throne, and the books were opened.
And another book was opened, which is The Book of Life.
The dead were judged according to what they had done as
recorded in the books, the sea gave up the dead that were in it
and death and Hades gave. Up the dead that were in them
and each person was judged according to what they had done.
Then death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire.
This is Hell, the Lake of Fire is the second death.
Anyone, whose name was not written in the Book of Life was
thrown into the Lake of Fire. So for believers, we are united
with Christ in the intermediate State.
Paul tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present
with Christ and those who don't want Jesus to pay for their
sins, can pay for their sins on their own.
That is what hell is it is an eternal payment for sins
committed against an eternal God.
And some of you might be going I'm not okay with a guy who
sends people to hell. And I get that that makes sense
logically but I need you to take another look at this.
I would tell you that that is not really how it goes down.
God is a god of love. It's one of his preeminent
qualities. His love and his Holiness are
two competing primary characteristics of who he is.
And love requires a choice. God will not force himself on
you. He will not coerce you against
your will. He wants?
If you want to live forever without him?
He will honor your choice. The correct answer.
To the question. What did you do with my son?
Jesus, is this. I gave my life to him.
That's what I did. I made Jesus my Savior and my
Lord, I Surrender, the castle of my life, to the kingship of
Jesus. Here at the Crossing, we call
that an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
And you start that relationship. When you believe that Jesus
exists, that he's the son of God, that he died on the cross
for your sins that he rose three days later and that he ascended
in to heaven. And in that moment, you stop
living for yourself and you start living for him and you
become Number of his kingdom and you pursue his purposes for your
life. Then the very next thing that
you do is you get baptized it symbolizes, the death burial and
resurrection of what Jesus did on our behalf.
It represents the washing away of your sins and your rebirth
into the family of God. I said this last week and I know
there's some of you who are wondering about maybe you were
sprinkled as a baby every time the Bible talks about baptism it
talks about immersion. Baptism means to dunk or
submerge sprinkling, as a form of baptism is foreign to the
biblical text and if you don't believe me, look for it
yourself. Secondly, your decision to be
baptized needs to be your decision, not your parents, it's
great that your parents had faith and wanted you to grow up
to follow the lord and you are doing in my opinion, the very
best thing when you choose to honor that decision when you
grow older, that, when you choose Get baptized.
You are cashing the spiritual. Check that your parents wrote
for you. When you were an infant, it is
the natural fulfillment to of their desire to dedicate you to
the Lord. And the first place, now hear me
carefully getting baptized and not living out your commitment.
To Christ is not what Christ desires.
Baptism, does not save you. Jesus saves you.
There are people in scripture who did all kinds of good works,
but Jesus says, to them away from me.
I never knew you. It must be an intimate personal
relationship, and when you get baptized and you begin to
follow. God, your name is written in the
Lamb's Book of Life and when you die, and you go, To the
Judgment. There's all the books of all the
Deeds that you have done and then there is the Lamb's Book of
Life. And if your name is found in the
Lamb's Book of Life, you go to paradise to be with Jesus and
God, the father. And if your name is not in the
Lamb's Book of Life, you go to Hades.
And hell is your future then? One day when Jesus returns to
earth and God creates a new Heaven and a new Earth.
We will find ourselves at the Judgment seat of Christ.
This is the second judgment that we will face second Corinthians
chapter 5. Therefore, we are always
confident and know that, as long as we are at home in the body.
We are away from the Lord for we live by faith, not by sight.
We are confident. I say and would prefer to be
away from the body and at home with the Lord.
So we make it our goal to please him.
Whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ.
So that each of us may receive what is due us for the things
done while in the body, whether good or bad.
The word judgment seat, the word there is bhima, it's the bema
seat. It stands for a raised platform.
It's where Runners would be judged or receive their Crown.
Think of it as first second and third place at a wrestling meet
or gold, silver, and bronze at the Olympics.
It's where you stand and you receive the reward for what you
have done. If you ran the fastest, you get
the gold. If you ran second fastest, you
Silver. If you ran third fastest, you
and if your Chunky you watched online, okay?
That's what you did. You're like this running things.
Not, for me, it is at this bema seat.
The second judgment. That we will be ask the second
question. Here's the question, in light of
Jesus. What did you do with, what I
gave you? This question is not about
heaven or hell. That's what the first question
was about. This question is about, what
Will Heaven be like for you? Recently, all of us campus
pastors went down to a st. Louis Cardinals game and I am
pretty confident that the Hot Dogs cost more than the seats.
Okay. So like we were at the game, it
was better than work but boy was it hot and when the sun wasn't
in your eye you could see the game you really could, and have
the wind blown, it would have, you know, made it not miserable
and make us all long for the glory of heaven and make us all
fear the horrors of hell like we were at the game.
But you could see that there were some people who had box
seats. And I got nachos for, like 38
bucks. I was like this is out of much
rather had a nicer seat. I got to be honest with you and
I'll be I'll tell you what I did about the sixth inning.
You may have done this. It's not right.
I tried to find other people's seats that didn't appreciate
them and sit there. And you know how you have to
find like oh that's a nice seat in the shade and oh boy that's
yeah, I'll sit here. And then you like every person
who's coming like down the steps you try to pretend like oh it's
just no it's not, it's not so it is yours, I'm so sorry.
Oh where's my ticket? I'm sorry.
Yeah. Wrong row right?
You're trying to sit in a different seat because you're at
the game. But your seats aren't all that
great. You can see the game whenever
the sun's not your eyes. It's one of those kind of
setups. This question is all about
lordship. This question is about what did
you do with your time, your talents and your abilities?
This question is about how you leveraged your money and how you
opened your home and how you used your time.
This question is about how you used your gifts and whether you
use it For Your Glory. And your mission or God's glory
and God's Mission. I know, for some of you this is
kind of hard to take in, but when you re read scripture, you
will see this kind of talk everywhere in Scripture that God
has the intent to reward. You in heaven for the work you
did here on Earth, he's going to bless you, he's going to upgrade
your seats. Okay.
So are you in heaven? Yes, he's actually giving you
and I a chance to like kind of Pick the heaven.
We have you're going Clayton. This is far-fetched.
You ready ready? Here we go.
When Jesus is talking about prayer, he says, don't Babble on
the street corners, like the pagans do instead, close the
door and pray and your father, who sees, what is done?
In secret will read reward you oh, How about this one when you
fast, when you choose not to eat to focus your mind on spiritual
things, don't make a big deal about it.
Put some hair gel on, go to work, don't talk about how
hungry you are and boy, it's been a long time.
Whoo, what I'd give for a cheeseburger shut up, just be
hungry for Jesus. And your father, who sees, what
is done in secret will reward you.
Look at this one, Luke chapter 6 blessed.
Are you when people hate you when they exclude you and insult
you and reject your name is evil because of the son of man pause.
Some of you like to quote this verse but the reason people are
mean to you is not because of Jesus, because you're mean Your
crank. Ask your husband.
Okay, hear me. I'm not trying to be mean.
I'm just saying when people do this, because of Jesus, when you
take a stand because of him and people revile, you because of
your allegiance to Christ, check out what God does.
Let's keep going in the text rejoice in that day and leap for
Joy, because great is your In hold on a second when you give
to the poor, you're not supposed to let your right hand.
Know what your left hand is doing.
This is about when it comes time to give to the poor.
Guess what God says. Because your father who sees
what you do? Will reward, you don't shout
about it. He even says this don't shout
about it and make a big deal and print a really big check.
When you do that he says you have already received your
reward in full. You got your reward here on
Earth but if you just bless the socks off of people and don't
make a big deal about it, God's upstairs going.
Oh boy. Have I got something in store
for, you look what it says in First Corinthians chapter 3,
verse 8, the one who plants and the one who Waters have one
purpose and they will each be rewarded, according to their own
labor, the right answer to that. Second question, is this, I
poured out my life, as a Living, Sacrifice to bring glory to God
to love my neighbors, to reach the lost and disciple, the
saved. I took the talents that you gave
me and I use them to serve people and point people to
Jesus. I took the money that you gave
me and I use it to advance your church and your kingdom are used
my time and I invested in people and Kingdom causes.
I took my words and I use them to pray to you and I pray to you
on behalf of others and I used my words to share the good news
of your son Jesus and Jesus is serious about rewarding you.
Because look what he says at the very back of your Bible, go home
turn to the back or if you're, you know, my phone users.
Scroll to the bottom. Look what it says in Revelation
chapter 22 last book. This is Jesus because we'll be
in Red Letters. Look, I am coming soon.
My reward is with me. This is like the Santa Claus
verse. This is him saying I've been
watching you. Oh you did that.
I got a reward for that. Oh you did that?
I got a reward for that. My reward is coming with me and
I will give to each person according to what they have
done, what you and I do matters. So let me encourage you to pour
out your life as a Living Sacrifice.
May we Echo the words of Paul and second Timothy Chapter 4
for, I am already being poured out like a drink offering and
the time for my departure is near, I have fought the good
fight. I have finished the race, I have
kept the faith. now there is in store for me, a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award
me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have
longed for his appearing. God takes note, and is planning
on rewarding Every Act that you and I did to advance his cause
and his kingdom, he is going to ask you, what did you do with
all that I gave you in light of Jesus sacrifice on the cross and
I want every single one of us to be ready to answer that
question. We're moved to a time of
decision. I'm going to do some.
I don't normally do don't freak out.
Don't blog about it but I'm going to quote Confucius.
And I know the quotient Confucius in a church setting is
a little weird, but this is one of my favorite quotes.
Like, I think about it all the time.
This is what he says, every man has two lives and the first one
begin our. The second one starts when he
realizes, he only has one. every man has two lives and the second
one starts when he realizes he only has one There are some of
you right now. Who have never started an
intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Maybe you're brand-new to the crossing.
Maybe somebody brought you maybe somebody's been trained for you.
I don't know the specifics of how you found yourself here.
Listening to this moment right now whether in this room or
watching online. But Jesus Christ died on your
behalf, not just to save you from hell but to also give you
new life in him. We read at the very beginning of
my message that you were created by God to do good works which he
prepared in advance for you to do that.
There is an aspect of your life that you will never fully
understand that you will never fully appreciate until you are
in relationship with him. That there is this Potential
that lies dormant in each and every single one of us, your God
ordained created purpose is only found in Christ.
And if you are here, listening this message today, and you have
never started an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. Only encourage you at not to put
it off any longer. Maybe for the past two weeks,
you've heard about being baptized and you've never been
baptized, I would encourage you not to put that off any longer
and it just a few moments that people around you are going to
stay in and they're going to start singing and I'm going to
encourage you to come up here to the front.
There's me a pastor over by the baptistry, who would love a
chance to answer some of your questions and talk to you about
what it means to have an intimate personal relationship
with Jesus Christ. To the rest of you in the room.
Those of you who already have a relationship with Jesus Christ,
the second life begins. When you realize, you only have
one. So how are you going to spend
it? I don't know how much time I
have left. I don't know how many sunrises
I'm going to see. I don't know how many more
sunsets I'm going to get to enjoy.
You don't either. This is the only one we have.
This is the only life that we get to make a difference.
This is the only life we get to be on Mission and to glorify God
in helping. People find a relationship with
him. And when I want to encourage you
to do is pour your self out. If you're not serving start
serving, if you're not giving, start giving, if you're not
reaching, start reaching if you're not discipling, start
discipling. Go God.
This is the one life that I have.
And the incentive inside of this is not only are you honoring
what Jesus Christ did on the cross by living as a Living
Sacrifice on his behalf. But God is taking note of what
you do, whether big or small and he has every expectation of
rewarding you And I don't want any of us to play it safe.
When it comes to the rewards of God because God is described as
The Ultimate Gift Giver and I don't want any of us to miss
out. Would you stand with me?
Heavenly Father, move in this place.
Stir something up and each and every single one of us.
Do a work that only you can deal.
Got an areas where we are clinging more to the ways of
this world than to your son, Jesus, convict us and strengthen
us. And give us the ability to let
go of the things of this world and take fully ahold of you of
your word and your spirit and your promises.
God help this church in all of its different locations, all
across this region befall of people who are unashamedly and
unapologetically on mission for you.
God help us to be a church that when you look down from heaven,
you can't help but smile at how we are trusting in your promises
and your name I pray. Amen.