The Doctrine Of Salvation

Lisa and I met Kim and Mike in 2015 we met them in the southern state they're

great people middle-aged Mike is a giant guy I mean he could be an offensive

lineman for the Cowboys he's that big he works with his hands he

builds docks and and things with wood and also he uses these giant rocks to

to help a damn up lakes bays etc I really like him Mike he he told me one

day just kind of took me aside and he said yeah I I want you to know I'm a I'm

a follower of Christ I said that's that's awesome he said but my wife Kim

she's not

not. She just is not there. So we got to know this couple and shared several meals with

them. In fact, Lisa and I even did a couple of real estate deals with Kim because that's

what she does. She's a great girl. I mean, a good person. You know what I'm saying to

you? I mean, just excellent. Excellent. Lisa and I really think the world of Mike and Kim.

Through our friendship, God began to impress upon our heart to share the gospel, to share

the good news of Jesus with Kim. We prayed about it, and numerous times we asked the

Holy Spirit of God, who resides in us.

If we're followers of Christ, give me opportunities, I prayed, so did Lisa, and God just give us

the words at the right time to say what you want us to say. So along the way, she would

ask us things about our background or our lives, and especially when we went through

the tragedy of losing our oldest daughter, she really leaned in and asked us, and she

would say, well, how were you even surviving? And we would just drop a little Holy Spirit

dust in the conversation. He just gives a window, and then boom, we dropped it. There's

no risk, there's no fun like doing that, walking on that edge with God. This past June, they

called out of the blue, and they said, Ed, you and Lisa, of course they knew we were

in this town, and they said, let's go out to dinner. And when they asked us that, it

was through a text. Everything is through a text these days, right? When they ask us

that, I just, I mean, again, the Holy Spirit of God just impressed upon our lives, this

needs to be it.

I mean, we've...

We've known them for a long time. They know that, you know, we love them or are cool with

them and everything, so they said, hey, meet us at this restaurant, and they said, we'll

be at the bar. I was like, okay, that's cool. So, Lisa and I drove up to this bar slash

restaurant, had a prayer, and then we walked in. And there they were, sipping, drinking,

drinking.

I was like, what, holding a cup of beer, did a drink? You know, it was like, really? And

they would, you know, they had a mambo with them, and I was like, yeah, let's go out to

dinner.

Some of you getting nervous right now. You're going, oh my gosh, what? I know what you're

thinking. What did Ed do? A bar? Martinis? I sat down at the bar, can you believe that?

With Lisa.

.

talking, you know, about A, B, and C or whatever. They're great people, great people. And

Kim started saying, you know, I grew up in the North and my father owned a bar and I worked in

a bar my whole life. And she started talking about that. And then she asked a question. She goes,

now, Ed, I want to ask you this. I mean, I've known you for a long time. I've known Lisa for

a long time. How did you even get into your occupation? I mean, how? Well, when she asked

that question, I knew, okay, here's my opportunity. So I said, well, Kim, I grew up in a Christian

home. My father's a pastor, and many of you have heard this before, and he did not force or

coerce me to go into the ministry. In fact, dad told me, do anything else other than

go into the ministry unless you know God has called you.

That's what Dad said.

He was adamant about that.

I told her that and she kinda laughed.

And then I said, you know, I was around growing up,

a lot of people that were far away from God,

they didn't know the Lord, Kim, and so I just thought,

hey, if I ever go into the ministry,

I want to show people

who not only know Christ,

but also those who don't know Christ,

I want to show people the true identity of God.

I said, you know, most people don't even know

the identity of the one they're saying no to.

And I could tell she was leaning in

and her eyes got a little bit watery.

And all of a sudden, I heard this, hey, Kim and Mike.

You know, the couple who hijacks conversations.

They come up and I'm going, you have got to be kidding me.

I mean, I'm just ready to get into the presentation

of the glorious gospel.

And this couple comes up,

they totally hijack the conversation.

You know those people, they stay too long,

they talk too much.

They started talking about working out,

working out, working out.

Then it segued into their favorite subject,

dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs.

They went out to the car and were bringing pictures

and things, believe it or not, of their dog,

saying, I was just praying like crazy,

Lord, get these people out of here.

They hijacked the conversation.

Well, thankfully, no one's gonna hijack

this conversation today.

We're going to talk about the apex of theology.

We're going to talk about this critical subject,

and you'll see it on your,

on your message map.

You have those ready?

I'm sure you do.

The doctrine of salvation, right.

The doctrine of salvation.

What is salvation?

Salvation, you can think of the word salvaged.

You can think of rescued.

That's the tone and the tenor behind this beautiful,

beautiful concept.

It's the word and word in the Bible.

During this series, I don't know about you,

I've learned a ton.

I mean, obviously, I've gone over this before in my life

with all of my, all of my master's work

and when I dabbled in trying to get my doctorate,

but this church thing hijacked that.

Just think, if we hadn't started Fellowship Church,

you could have called me Dr. Young.

Anyway, I've learned a lot.

And hopefully for some here,

you're going to go like a facepalm.

I had no idea.

I mean, I had no idea this is what the Bible tells me

about this particular subject.

Others are going to go, whoa, I've been,

I've been believing that and thinking that's,

you know, scripturally square,

but it's,

it's not.

And then others of you are sort of like our friend Kim.

You've, you've never really been exposed to this.

And still others, maybe like myself,

you have a theological education.

Well, salvation is the deal.

You'll see this first, this first point

that is, is something we need to to understand.

It's the Imago Dei point.

That's right, the Imago Dei point.

Man, think about this,

is the only part of God's creation made in his image.

In his image.

That's so, so important.

Everything is made to glorify God.

Everything.

Everything glorifies God.

But, and here's what's so great about being you and me,

We are the only creatures, are you ready for this?

Made in the image of God.

Let that soak in.

I love animals, love them.

My dogs are not made in the image of God.

I love wildlife, they're not made in the image of God.

They're made to glorify God

and they do it in their canine way, you know.

But we are different, we're on a wholly another level.

Angels aren't even made in the image of God.

They glorify God, but they're not made in the image of God.

And I'll throw one out on you too

that is very interesting about angels.

God did not redeem the angels.

Have you ever thought about that?

When Lucifer, and this was, you know,

the rich man.

Original sinfulness.

When Lucifer in heaven turned and tried to take over,

remember the kingdom of heaven,

God kicked him out.

He took with him a third of the angels

who are now demons.

God hasn't redeemed them.

He didn't redeem, no.

So I'm just trying to tell you, we are unique.

And the Bible says, the Bible says in Genesis 127,

God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created them.

Male and female, he created them.

We're unique.

So I can reflect God.

How do I reflect God?

Very quickly, I can reflect God

and I do reflect God morally.

Morally.

I have an innate sense of what's right and wrong

and that comes from being made in the image of God.

Study history, study anthropology,

study biology.

We all have this innate sense of right and wrong.

Spirituality, spiritually, spirituality.

We're made like God spiritually.

God is spirit and spirit is a reflection of God's nature.

When we get to heaven, we'll never know God exhaustively.

We'll know him better than we do now.

God though, again, is unknowable in a total sense.

He's that vast, he's that big, he's that mysterious.

Also, mentally.

Think how you think.

I just had a thought.

I processed that.

I'm reflecting the image of God.

God is a God who thinks.

The Bible says, he thinks about you so much.

I love this verse.

He knows the number of hair in your hair.

He knows the number of hairs on your head.

And I've had hair transplants, as you know.

And he even did that math.

I need some more.

I got a little.

Thank you.

Also, we're like God relationally.

Relationally, relationally.

Think about the Trinity.

We studied the Trinity recently.

God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit.

Three in one.

God, the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

one, one in three, one in essence, three personalities.

They were in perfect community.

They were cohesive.

They have this perfect relationship.

I wanna have relationships with people.

And that's being made in the image of God.

Oh, I wanna get married.

That desire is reflecting the image of God.

I wanna get to know people,

and we have small groups in our church

and Bible study classes.

Why are they growing and why are they thriving?

It's this God factor that we have.

So isn't it great that we're made in the image of God?

Let's just thank the Lord for that, all right?

So the more we know about God,

the more we know about ourselves.

I'll say it again, the more we understand about God,

the more we understand about ourselves.

The second thing I wanna tell you is,

and this is kinda where it goes from,

well, the Bible is a book that goes,

well, yeah, from bad to worse, I mean, part of it.

I'm just gonna be, you know, totally frank.

It's the ultimate news, but it goes from bad to worse

because God's image was marred by man's sin.

Sin.

I want you to track with me again.

God looks at us in many ways.

One of the ways he looks at us

is he looks at us holistically, holistically.

When Adam committed the original sin,

his sin was imputed into mankind.

I call it, and I made this word up, a synetic condition.

God's reflection, ultimately, was perfect and pristine.

Man chose to rebel against God.

Our representative, the A man, Adam, fumbled the ball,

dropped the ball.

I've inherited that nature, so have you, from him.

I'm just a natural born sinner.

This is what I do.

It's what you do.

Well, there's an issue.

We've got a sin situation, because God is holy.

God is perfect.

God's not gonna lower his standards

and broad brush over sin.

We're in trouble.

So think about it.

We had this perfect reflection,

and then we decided to turn the mirror away from God

to ourselves, and the image became all messed up.

Do you remember malls?

There used to be shopping malls that were popular.

Do you remember those?

My mother would take us to a mall.

We thought it was like the ultimate.

Now looking back, it was pitiful,

but there was a store in this mall called Cromer's Peanuts.

They sold boiled peanuts.

Do you like boiled peanuts?

Man, slap somebody.

If you've not had them,

you know I'm from the dirty south.

Boiled peanuts, I can eat so much, I'll get sick.

Anyway, Cromer's Peanuts, and here was their tagline.

Cromer's Peanuts guaranteed the worst in town.

Yeah, guaranteed the worst in town.

Everyone flocked to this store,

but here was the cool thing about this store.

When you stepped into Cromer's Peanuts,

Cromer's Peanuts, Cromer's Peanuts,

the first part, the first portion of the store

was a house of mirrors.

You know those mirrors, when you look at them,

they give you this distorted look?

And if you're not careful for a while,

if you stay in there, you're like,

man, give me the proper reflection.

I mean, I'm not looking too good,

and that's just a slice of what sin has done.

It's distorted, it's distorted our image.

Morally, spiritually, go back through it.

Mentally and relationally, sin did it.

That's how serious sin is.

You know, obviously we know Jesus

was and is the second Adam.

God looking at us holistically, Jesus, I'm getting ahead,

I'm getting ahead of myself, but Jesus died on the cross

for our sins and rose again.

But here's what you have to understand about the gospel.

It's not just that.

It's the life, death, burial, and resurrection.

Because he lived the life, a righteous life,

here's the word again, when I become a follower of Christ,

the righteousness of Jesus is in me.

Jesus is, here's the word again,

let me say it again, again, again, imputed, say it with me,

imputed into our lives.

So now I'm righteous because of Jesus.

Nothing on my own.

So you see, back in the day, are you with me?

The sin nature was imputed by Adam and his moral foul-ups.

Now those of us who are in Christ,

we've had the righteousness of Christ imputed

into our lives.

So I can offer God, I hate to say this, nothing.

You have nothing to offer God.

The Bible is not saying that we don't have potential

for greatness, but greatness only comes from our great God.

So on my best day, on your best day, we offer God nothing.

That's how great our God is.

I want you to understand that salvation is from the Lord, period.

He was satisfied in the Trinitarian community.

He didn't need, he doesn't need me or need you on his team.

He loves you and loves me so much, he reached out

and made us in his image and gave us a freedom of choice.

Wow.

Don't worry, you'll never understand it, nor will I.

Some of this stuff, when we get to the edge,

we're gonna be like, well, facepalm, I don't get it.

We're not supposed to.

It doesn't mean we check our intellect at the door,

but in all sorts of ways.

In all sorts of issues and studies in our world,

you get to a point where, I mean, it's just a mystery,

and especially in the things of God.

So you, I think you understand we're created

in the image of God, right?

We're made in the image of God, not only to glorify God,

but also to reflect the essence of who he is.

We're unique.

Then sin messed the deal up.

I'm talking about the doctrine.

I'm talking about the doctrine of salvation.

We're helpless and hopeless.

But here is the good news,

where it goes from good to great.

God redeemed our condition through atonement.

Atonement.

What is atonement?

You might hear the word at-one-ment, at-one-ment.

Atonement.

Atonement, okay, let's say, for example,

when Adam and Eve sinned,

you have God introducing the concept of atonement.

They sinned.

They tried to play this cosmic game

of hide-and-go-seek with God.

They realized their nakedness.

And God took an innocent animal,

skinned it, and used their skins

to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve,

because that was a result of their sin.

That, friends, is a foreshadowing of the atonement,

an innocent third party spilling its blood,

sacrificing itself so the others could go free.

That's atonement.

So when Jesus died on the cross for our sins,

he died on the cross for all sins,

from Adam until glory,

when we all get to heaven.

Now try that one on.

Wow.

Wow, can you believe Jesus did that just for you and me?

Here Jesus knows the number of hairs on your head,

and he holds the universe in his hand?

That, man, that's just, that's freaky.

That's the word that came to my mind.

Colossians 1, 13 through 14,

for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness

and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,

in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Atonement is what God did for us through Christ.

He sent Jesus, I said it earlier,

to live this life, fully God, fully man,

again, something we don't get.

He...

He literally walked in our shoes.

He experienced everything we will experience.

He voluntarily was tortured and died on that cross

for all of the sins of the world.

He was buried.

Death couldn't hold him down.

He rose again.

That's God.

That's the power of God.

So the power of God, the power of the resurrection,

the resurrected Christ,

that power is available in all of our lives.

That's just a little bit of the atonement issues.

And atonement is really,

you have to talk about grace, don't you?

Grace is God's unmerited favor.

It's something that I don't deserve, you don't deserve.

As I alluded to,

it's something only God can give.

It's something that separates Christianity

from the other world religions.

Grace, grace.

How do you like this pocket square?

You like that?

Man, pocket squares are tough, aren't they?

I mean, tying a tie is not easy.

And now they throw the pocket square at us, guys.

This pocket square is cool.

When you look at this pocket square,

you see a little bit of it, right?

Just a hint of it.

But watch this.

Lisa gave that to me.

And I was in my closet this morning,

and I'm like, man, I'm gonna pick out,

I'm gonna pick out that pocket square,

because I've got a couple.

And I'm like, I'm always thinking about sermons.

I'm thinking like, man, so many times,

I've seen just a little bit of God,

and I'm going, okay, that's cool.

I mean, yeah, oh, wow, oh, God, whoo, yeah.

But as we study him, as we study his identity,

and get to know him better and better,

the image, the identity, his infinity,

his love just takes over.

Man, Ava right there, she's my favorite dog

I've ever had, that little Maltipoo, but she passed away.

I'll start crying talking about Ava,

but let me change the subject.

I was talking about grace, right?

Do you know there are two types of grace?

Common grace and saving grace.

Two types of grace.

What is common grace?

Well, the Bible says in Psalm 145, nine,

the Lord is good to all.

He has compassion on all he has made.

Common grace is, here's my definition,

the residual of God's grace to humanity.

In other words, a lot of people

are walking in common grace,

and they're living like hell,

but they don't even know it.

Common grace is you see someone,

and you're like, man, that person is living like hell,

but they're a genius,

and they've invented something that's incredible.

That person is living like hell,

but look at the movie they produced.

Look at the artwork.

Are you following me?

It's just because God is so good,

even people who have not been recipients of his grace,

they're just like going, whoa, man, ha ha.

Yeah, but they don't know it.

Does that make sense?

Just, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So when you see someone, or I see someone,

I'm like, how can they prosper, Lord?

They're heathens, they're pagans.

Common grace.

Just kind of do that in your mind.

Common grace.

Everybody do that, they'll help you.

Common grace.

See, that helps with jealousy, doesn't it?

I still must get jealous of people.

But the Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust.

It just says that.

But they're saving grace.

I'm a recipient, so are you, most of you here,

of saving grace.

What is saving grace?

Write this down.

It's salvation by grace alone through faith alone

in Christ alone.

Salvation by grace alone through faith alone

through Christ alone.

That's it.

Drop the mic.

Do you remember the Tylenol scare,

that tragedy in 1982?

That was horrible.

Some psycho took cyanide and put cyanide

in extra strength Tylenol capsules.

And people just pop these things thinking,

okay, I've got a headache or I don't feel well.

Trusting Tylenol.

Seven people died.

What a tragedy.

But there's a lesson to be learned there.

Faith in and of itself doesn't really mean much.

I mean, they had trust in Tylenol, right,

that it's gonna help me, but it killed them.

Just because I have faith doesn't mean I can take

something that is hurtful and make it helpful.

But as long as you're sincere, no, sounds good.

Another lesson is often things look similar.

Poisonous things and things that are not.

And things that are pure.

I've researched this tragedy,

and the cyanide looked a lot like Tylenol.

Could it be that you're taking poison?

Could it be that your faith is poisonous?

Could it be that you have never really understood

what the gospel is all about?

We're saved by grace through faith.

Hinduism, what's the goal there?

It's to get out of the cycle of reincarnation,

whatever that means.

Buddhism, what's the goal there?

Enlightenment.

I don't have really any desire anymore.

I'm just going to be enlightened.

I'll examine my belly button

and look at the lint in my belly button, you know.

We have Catholics.

Catholics will tell you we're saved by grace through faith,

plus the sacraments, plus some works.

Now, obviously, I know many Catholics who are believers,

and they know it's by grace through faith,

but that's very challenging.

How about Protestantism?

I know Protestants who were as lost as a goose.

They're just good guys.

They're just good girls.

You know, they'll take Communion Psalm.

They were like Sprinkle when they were a baby.

They might throw a bone in the offering plate now and then.

They might help somebody, but that's not,

are you with me?

That's not saving grace.

Ephesians tells us,

for it is by grace you've been saved through faith.

And this is not from yourselves.

Let me tell you again.

There is nothing.

You've got nothing.

I've got nothing to offer God.

Nothing.

It's a gift of God.

This was the gift from Lisa.

I received it.

I'd have been stupid to go, no, no, I received it.

You either receive the gift or not.

We do have a freedom of choice.

Even though God knows in advance the decisions we'll make,

we still have a freedom of choice.

I thought so.

Because that messes me up too.

It's the gift of God.

Not by works.

Not by works so that no one could boast.

What if salvation was by works?

I'd be like, man, I'm better than you.

I'm not as good as him, but wouldn't that be funny?

It'd be tragedy.

Tragedy.

So here's what God did.

God saw our condition and he set forth.

I'm going to give you the 411 on salvation.

God set forth a four-fold plan that he totally and completely orchestrated.

And here's the example.

At the end of this service, I am going to give a gospel call.

I am going to present to you that God loves you.

But you and me, we have a problem.

Sin.

Jesus is the solution of the sin.

His death, burial, and resurrection.

And it's your choice.

Okay.

The gospel call goes out.

Now this is going to get a little deep here.

The gospel call goes out.

God already knows.

He knows who's going to be saved.

And next week I'm going to spend an entire session on that.

And you're like, well, if he knows, que sera, sera.

Who gives a flying flip?

Nope, nope, nope, nope.

Because God has told you and me to be instruments, to be aggressive and creative and share our faith.

So here's the cool thing about this.

Every time I share the gospel, there's going to be success.

But the general gospel call is to everyone, but today everyone will not repent.

You will not give your life to Christ.

You're not going to.

Some here, I'm already telling you, will.

Some will not.

Some will.

And you'll see the four-fold process.

We'll put it up on the screens.

This is huge.

The first is the request.

Just you can put a call by the side of that.

It's God's general and specific call of salvation.

Those who specifically receive Christ, the saving grace, that's those of us who are believers.

If you say no, well, you're listening to the call, but you ain't picking up.

All right.

Let's go to the next one.

Regeneration.

Now I'm talking about salvation.

This is even before someone receives Christ.

Because salvation is a process followed by a decision and then a decision followed by a process.

So once I become a believer, I'm justified.

Just as if I haven't sinned.

I become a believer, boom, I'm justified.

Then I'm sanctified.

I'm in the process of maturing.

I'm sanctified.

That's next week.

But this is a four-fold process of salvation.

Regeneration.

So I give the request, the gospel call.

Then here's what the Holy Spirit does.

The Holy Spirit comes in.

And this is before anyone receives Christ.

And he prepares, isn't this cool, the heart through regeneration.

Okay.

He hasn't made the decision yet.

Are you following me?

The call, right?

General call.

Some receive it.

Some don't.

The Holy Spirit comes in.

He regenerates.

He's preparing.

And then you have regeneration.

Regeneration.

So you've got the request.

You've got regeneration.

And then you have repentance, repentance and faith.

Okay.

You've got the request.

You've got regeneration, the Holy Spirit.

Then you have repentance and faith.

It's not just faith.

We have to repent.

We take our mirrors off ourselves and turn them back to God.

Basically.

We turn from our sin and put our faith and trust in what Jesus did for us.

Now we go to the fourth.

Our response.

Believing and receiving what Jesus earned through his, say it with me, life, death,

and resurrection.

That's so important that we understand that.

Okay.

So whenever I share the gospel, whenever someone else does here, like last week, Tianne did.

She did an incredible job.

Sam Kelly.

Brad White.

Whoever it is.

Derek Bonneau.

You share the gospel.

You are requesting, right?

You're requesting.

You're saying, okay, you have an opportunity to get saved.

And I already know, and the speaker already knows, the Holy Spirit has gone before us

and has prepared the soil for, thirdly, repentance, all right, and faith.

Then I say, will you respond?

You respond, and you either say yes or no.

I don't save anybody.

I've had people come to me in the lobby.

Hey, man, thanks for saving me.

I'm like, hey, I'm so glad you're saved.

I'm just an instrument here.

So we're saved, all right?

We're justified.

It's a legal term for all the lawyers here.

It's just like I haven't sinned.

It's basically God's response to me after I respond to him.

That's justification.

I hope I've filled in all the blanks here.

Have I missed one?

Because, man, in my scholastic career, I would skip blanks.

I'm so ADD.

I have so many processing disorders.

I have to really concentrate on this.

The next thing is we are adopted.

This is really cool.

We're members.

We're members of God's family through faith in Christ.

In biblical times, you could disown a biological child.

You could not disown one that was adopted.

How awesome is that?

How many people here are adopted?

Lift your hand.

Let's give a round of applause.

The Bible and the Bible itself are sort of the example that we're talking about.

And the reason I say sort of, every illustration pales

when you're trying to illustrate the nature and character of God.

I hope you know that.

I mean, I could go on and on.

I don't have the bandwidth, no one does, to truly illustrate how great God is.

So we're adopted.

God decided.

Bible says in Ephesians 1, 5, in advance, I don't get it either, to adopt us into his

own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

So, God is sovereign.

He knows the situation.

Because remember, God's outside of space and time.

Everything's now.

Don't worry about it.

I mean, don't try to figure it out.

Because what we know is that somehow in the midst, in the context of this, there is a

freedom of choice.

That's the awesome thing.

But God wants everyone to be saved.

We know that.

But he knows everyone will not.

And I hate to even say that.

But that's one of the most difficult doctrines in Scripture.

Everyone will not, it almost makes me teary, go to heaven.

Remember the couple that tried to hijack Mike and Kim at the bar?

Well, they finally left.

I was like, you've got to be kidding me.

Finally, they leave.

And so Mike said, hey, let's get a table.

So we go to a table and we sit down and I'm like, oh man,

now we're talking about sports.

And we're talking about Mike building a seawall and a dock.

And we're talking about different sizes of rocks

that he uses to build walls.

And I'm like, oh man, how am I gonna get this thing back?

So I just went for it.

I go,

you know, I want to just kind of come back

to where we were, Kim, earlier.

You remember you asked me about my background.

I was kind of telling you about that.

And she goes, yeah, yeah.

I said, Kim, do you mind if I tell you

what the Bible says about knowing God?

She goes, I would love it.

And I went through what, I mean, not as in this detail,

but I went through with her what the Bible says.

The Bible is the ultimate news.

It goes from bad to worse.

We chose to sin.

Our sins deserve punishment.

And I went through Romans 3.23.

For all have sinned, Kim, okay, all.

Does that include you?

Well, yeah.

And fallen short of the glory of God.

Kim, that's me.

And she goes, well, yeah, I have.

And I said, look, Romans 6.23 says,

for the wages of sin is death.

I mean, you're very familiar with wages

and contracts and everything.

So if we got what we deserved,

our compensation would be condemnation.

But, Kim, here's where it goes from good to great.

The good news is the gift of God is Jesus Christ.

And Jesus wants to know you.

The gift of God, Kim, is eternal life in Christ.

Our Lord.

So, Kim, I've gotta ask you.

Do you know how to get to heaven?

She started crying.

She said, no.

I said, Lisa and I would be happy

to lead you in that decision.

But only if you want it.

I mean, you know, it's just like you doing real estate

and me, I can't.

She goes, oh, no, no, no, no, I want it.

So I,

I got a cocktail napkin from our server

and I wrote down ABC.

You'll see it there on your outline.

Admit, believe, confess.

Kim, all you have to do is admit

that you're a sinner in need of a savior.

I said, just repeat that to God.

She did.

Believe, not just intellectual assent, but believe.

Trust that Jesus died on the cross and rose again.

And now say it, just say, confess it.

Commit your life.

Jesus, I ask you to come into my life.

I commit to you.

And man, we were all, we were all crying at that point.

And then I handed her a pen.

And I said, just sign on the dotted line.

And she wrote her name, Kim Thaler.

And I said, Kim, that's the greatest thing you'll ever do.

That, friends, is the living, breathing application

of salvation.

Would you bow your heads?

No one moving or stirring.

I wanna pray the same prayer that I prayed with Kim,

because I believe we have a lot of people here.

You're in Kim's shoes.

You're in her condition.

You might be in the back of the balcony.

You could be at one of our many, many campuses.

Just say these words.

I'm just gonna give you right now the gospel call.

Make this specific to you.

Just say these words.

Just say, dear God, I believe you love me

so much that you sent Jesus to pay the ultimate price

on the cross for all of my sins.

You took it, Jesus.

You were buried, I believe that, and you rose again.

You took it, Jesus.

You were buried, I believe that, and you rose again.

that I'm a sinner.

I believe Jesus in you.

I trust you.

I ask you to come into my life.

I commit my all to you.

Take control of me, Jesus.

As our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed,

if you prayed that prayer with me,

would you just lift your hand up?

Just keep it up for a second.

Yes.

If you have your hand up,

we're gonna have some people

just to give you a white bag

very quietly, very reverently.

The Holy Spirit is moving.

The gospel call

is going out.

This request is going out.

I'm simply being obedient

to my calling as pastor

to present the gospel call.

That's all I can do.

You have to make that decision.

The God of the universe wants everyone to be saved.

And just think about it.

You're one decision away from that.

So many people, so many, many people

trust in Christ.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you for your salvation.

Thank you.

Maybe you're like me

as we're praying,

as your heads are bowed and eyes are closed.

Maybe you've been a believer for a long time.

Wow, I've been a believer, Lord, you know,

since I've been like eight years old.

I've not lived perfectly.

And I know no one is perfect but you.

But God, I wanna know you and know you on a deeper level.

And I wanna know and understand salvation the best I can

so I can understand who I am and understand you

and also share that with others.

So it's my prayer for the Kims in your life

that God would open doors, I know He will,

and give you the opportunity to sprinkle

that Holy Spirit dust in people's lives.

And then at the right time,

you can share, you can invite,

and God will do some amazing things through you.

Lord, we thank you for this holy moment

and we ask all these things in Christ's name.