Life and Death || John 3 || Guest Speaker Jarrod Doyal || 11/12/2023 || 10:30am

If you have a seat, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up to John chapter 3.

Clearly, I'm not Pastor Ryan. Pastor Ryan's in Wichita today filling in for Pastor Patrick. When he asked me to fill in for him a couple of Sundays ago, or a couple of months ago, excuse me, I told him, I said, okay, if I screw him up, you get to fix him. So, I mean, just saying. I want to start our study off in the Word today with a quote from Charles Spurgeon.

And it says, I've titled the message today, Life and Death. And I know that seems like nonsense. It may be a super dramatic and serious title. But in light of the events of the world and in light of watching Bible prophecy play out before our eyes, understand I don't think we have much time left here on earth. I believe that Jesus is coming back soon for his bride.

Therefore, I think this is appropriate for our time. I'll just say, like I said, I don't believe we have much time before Jesus comes back for his bride and takes us home to be with him.

Lately. I've felt an urgency in my spirit just to tell people about Jesus. My friends and my loved ones, you know, about Jesus. And that's what I want to do today. And understand, I'm not a pastor. I'm not even a great teacher. I'm just a dude that loves Jesus. And I want to use our time this morning to point people to Jesus, to point you to him. So if you're here this morning and you've been walking with the Lord,

or, you know, any amount of time, you know, this is for you, but use this time to maybe renew and strengthen your walk with him. However, if you are here and watching online, I would highly encourage you to pay attention to what follows because it is, in fact, a matter of life and death. So with that, let's buckle up, open up God's word, and ask the Holy Spirit to give us ears to hear and hearts to receive. Father, we thank you for the day.

We thank you for the day that you have made. Lord, we, again, thank you for your word, and it is sharp and powerful, Lord, and let it do its good and mighty work in our lives this morning, Father. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so to give us a little bit of background, Jesus is in Jerusalem at this time, and he's just finished cleansing the temple.

And by that, I mean throwing out all the merchants and money changers. And they did that because, they were set up in the temple, in God's house, ripping off God's people. So he, in his righteous anger, I'll throw that out there, in his righteous anger, he went in and went ape crazy on that place and just threw out all the tables and chairs and threw all the money changers out just because, you know, they were ripping off God's people. So with that as our backdrop, let's start in verse 1 of John chapter 3.

And it says, There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to him at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him. And Jesus replied, I assure you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Pause right there.

In these first couple of verses, we are introduced to a man named Nicodemus. And I'm not going to spend a super ton of time talking about who he was. I will make three points, make about three points about Nicodemus, and we'll kind of revisit those a little bit later. But first, Nicodemus was a Pharisee, he was a religious leader. He was well educated in the law of Moses and the prophets.

And for those that may not know, that's the Old Testament. He was well educated in the Old Testament. The second thing, he was a ruler of the Jews, which means that he is a member of the governing body of Israel, which is called, which is known as the Sanhedrin. So he's very high up in stature. And in terms of governing power, he was a pretty powerful man. And the third thing that we notice about Nicodemus is that he came to Jesus at night.

Why he did that, the Bible doesn't specifically tell us. But remember that Jesus had just finished ransacking the temple. And so he was probably not on the Pharisees good list at that particular time. So I think it's probably safe to say that the Pharisees already didn't like Jesus. Thus, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to avoid the risk of losing his position as a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin.

So verse two, it says, this man came to him at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him. So there's a, there's a couple things that I want to start with. I want us to pay attention to here. Number one, Nicodemus says, we, we know that you have come from God.

So the question on your mind should probably be, who's we? Who is he talking about? Who's this we? He most likely doesn't have a split personality. So who is we? Remember that Nicodemus was a member of the Pharisees. And he'd probably just come from the other Pharisees who are still back at home, you know, doing Pharisee things. And, and they had apparently gotten together and agreed.

Agreed on something, which is probably a miracle in and of itself. Amen. They had agreed to, they'd gotten together and agreed on something that Jesus came from God. Another point I want to make here is that when I read this, it kind of feels like that awkward moment, you know, like when you meet your celebrity crush, you're like, oh my gosh. Hi, I'm Jared.

I'm your biggest fan, you know, and then it's just like, you don't know what else to say. And it's just that awkward silence, you know, it's like, all right, now, what is that it? You know, is that all you have to say? I'm sure that I'm sure the Pharisees weren't exactly, you know, Jesus's biggest fan. Like I said, you know, he just finished ransacking their temple.

But it feels like there's a deeper question on Nicodemus his mind here. And Jesus is just kind of waiting for him to get it out. But Nicodemus never does. I'm going to borrow some of this from Chuck Smith because I agree with him and Nicodemus. Nicodemus was clearly an expert in all things related to the law. And he knew the righteous requirements of the law.

But yet. There there must have been something eating at him. He must have felt that he wasn't quite there yet. Like he didn't meet all the requirements of the law just yet. Like there was still something missing. He must have felt felt that he still lacked something and being able to see the kingdom of God. So Jesus after what I imagine the appropriate amount of awkward silence.

Gets right to the question on Nicodemus his mind. And he says which is how does a person get to heaven? Or to quote more precisely how does a person see the kingdom of God? Now, this is actually a really really interesting question. If you were to ask people today, how you get to heaven? When Jay Leno still had his talk show. He used to do a segment called jaywalking.

And it was really really funny because he would go out and ask people, you know, like. Random strangers on the street, you know, who's the president of the United States? Who's the vice president? How many branches of government are there and and 90% of the people couldn't answer. It was amazing, you know, just how what people didn't know. But I feel like this would be a really great segment to do on how people get to on how people get to heaven.

Because if you ask people today, there's a infinite number of ways to get to heaven on the list. A few off a few different ways that people say they get to heaven. So number one, Oprah. Oprah has been quoted as saying, if you're a good person, you'll go to heaven. Number two, Fleetwood Mac. Yeah, you can go your own way, you know? Okay. Sorry, you know, you won't you won't hear any of that any more of that from me.

So Hinduism Hindus believe in reincarnation and they believe in, you know, if you live your life. Well, then when you're reincarnated, you move up a level and you keep doing that until you reach heaven.

Muslims believe in that faith. And good deeds will earn you a ticket to heaven. And atheists don't believe in God at all, much less heaven or hell. And honestly, it just kind of gets weirder from there there. I've seen a lot of videos where people believe that they themselves are a God or the God and it just gets weird. So Jesus, however, tells us there is one way to get to heaven one way and he says you must be born again.

So if you're like Nicodemus, you're probably asking the question. How how does a person become born again? And we'll actually answer that question here in a minute. But to address the requirement of being born again, I know I wasn't always the best student in school. But I do remember the section in biology that talks about this and I remember that a person can only be born once.

That's it. So what is Jesus talking about here? And Jesus, Jesus's response clearly through Nicodemus off and they threw him for a loop and notice verse four. But how can anyone be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked him. And can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born clearly? These two weren't on the same page. Jesus and Nicodemus were not on the same page to answer the question of what Jesus is.

Talking about here. He's talking about a spiritual birth rather than an earthly one. He's speaking in spiritual terms rather than earthly terms. Nicodemus wasn't picking up what Jesus was putting down. So there's two questions in my mind that we need to answer how and why so let's address the first one. How how does a person become born again? Notice verses five and six.

I assure you. Unless someone is born of water and of the spirit. He cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh and whatever is born of the spirit is spirit. Excuse me. A person has obviously has to have a physical birth. That's a given but they also have to have a spiritual birth. I did a word study on the word again. That word in Greek.

Is anothen which means from above. So to put that together a person has to be born from above or born of heaven. So how does a person become born of heaven? Well, I'll talk about that here in just a minute. But the second second question why why do we need to be born again? Why does a person need to be born of heaven or born of from above because the answer that question is because in heaven there aren't dead things.

There is only life understand that when center entered the world death enter the world. In Genesis chapter 2 God tells us God tells Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die. Yeah, and when they ate what happened? Well, they didn't die immediately, but I can tell you right now. They're not here with us.

They died. So let me ask you a question. Oops, or I'm getting ahead of myself here. So the consequences of sin and death is separation from God. Thus our need to be born reborn spiritually. We have to have new life in Christ. We have to be born again from above without that new life in Christ. We will not only die a physical death, but we will remain spiritually dead as well.

For eternity and like Adam and Eve were separated from God. By getting kicked out of the Garden of. Eden, we receive eternal separation from God. If we leave this world without being born again. Guys, it's it's literally a matter of life and death here. If you want to see heavenly things, you must be born of it. The only way to be born of heaven is to be spiritually reborn.

And the only way to be spiritually reborn is belief in Jesus. If you want to Mark this down in the margins of your Bible. John chapter 1 verse 11. Thirteen tells us that to all who did receive him. He gave him the right to be children of God to those who pay attention here to those who believe in his name. Who were born not of natural descent or the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God.

I'll say it again to those who believe. In the name who were born of God. He gave them to the right to be children of God. So getting down to the. Question of how does it occur up? Excuse me? How does a person become born again? It takes belief in Jesus and I'll talk about that more here in just a minute. But verse 7 here. It says do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.

The wind blows where it pleases and you hear it sound but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. Jesus tells Nicodemus. Don't be amazed that I told you you must be born again. Why shouldn't Nicodemus be amazed? Well, because he was so hung up on trying to understand the concept of being a born again that he missed the point that you don't necessarily have to fully understand.

You just have to believe. Notice what Jesus says here in verse 8. He says the wind blows where it pleases and you hear it sound but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone. Born of the spirit understand that we may not fully understand what happens when a person becomes born again, and that's okay. Jesus doesn't want you to get so caught up in trying to understand what it means that you missed the point of it all and that's belief in Jesus.

I guarantee you, you know, a kid's not going to fully under it. Excuse me fully understand everything that happens when they when they ask Jesus into their life. I had the opportunity to leave my daughter to Jesus the other night. She's four years old. And guys, I'm so tickled to death. I mean, that's, you know, she's four years old. I guarantee you. She doesn't understand what it means to be born again, but she does know that she believes in Jesus.

She believes in Jesus a kid that a kid may not fully understand everything that happens. They just believe I was 14 when I when I came to Jesus. I didn't fully understand everything but here's what I did know. I I knew that I did not want to spend an eternity in hell and I believe that Jesus could save me from that fate. You don't have to understand it all.

You just have to believe. Verse 9. How can these things be asked Nicodemus? Are you a teacher of Israel and don't know these things? Jesus replied. I assure you we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have. But you do not accept our testimony. I won't spend a super ton of time on these next two verses. But there are a couple of things that I think are important to to point out here.

So Jesus told Nicodemus what it takes to see the kingdom of God to see the kingdom of heaven. Which is to be born again. Notice Nicodemus is response to what Jesus is just told him. He says, how can these things be? And Jesus response. It was to essentially kind of go on and to scold Nicodemus saying, are you a teacher of Israel and you don't know these things?

Remember I said earlier to remember what Nicodemus was. He was a Pharisee. He was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, which meant that he was very well educated in the Old Testament. So he should have known what Jesus was talking about. You don't have to turn there. But if you want to Mark these verses down in the margin of your Bible, Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 31 and Ezekiel 36 verse 25 through 26.

Turn there and I'll read that here. Just a second 1831 Ezekiel 18 verse 31 says throw off all the transgressions. You have committed and make yourselves pay attention a new heart and a new spirit fast forward to Ezekiel. Six. And it says I will also sprinkle you or excuse me. I will also sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe. Observe my ordinances Nicodemus being who he was clearly should have known about these things about these two specific verses right here. He was so well educated in the Old Testament.

But yet he didn't know which actually brings up an interesting sidebar. The fact that he didn't know is actually a fulfillment of Prophecy Isaiah 521 cell tells us woe to those who consider themselves wise. And a little bit later in Isaiah 29. It says I will confound these people with wonder after wonder the wisdom of their wise will vanish. When Jesus comes on the scene.

He he just absolutely confounds those who think themselves wise. Heaven forbid we ever get to a point in our walks where we think we know everything about God's word. You know, even the most well-known. Bible scholars on Earth. Still spend time on God's word every day. They still have have things revealed to them through the Holy Spirit every day. The Spirit is constantly revealing stuff to us as we as we spend time in his word.

Back to what I was saying about Nicodemus not knowing what God's word says to bring that home to us. Much like Nicodemus a lot of us have spent, you know, a good majority of our lives in church, you know, we were raised in church and but yet a lot of us have no clue what God's word says about certain things or about anything for that matter. Sometimes you know, and and I'm talking to myself here too because I know when I get to heaven. I know that God is going to ask me why it is that I know more movie quotes than I do scripture.

I know that probably going to sting a little bit for some of us. I'm confessing that and even though I spent the larger, majority of my life now in church, I don't know a lot of scripture. I can certainly sit here and bag on Nicodemus, but I'd be a hypocrite to say that that I don't have the same problem. The second point I want to make here is that even though Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a ruler, he had no clue what God's word says about spiritual matters.

And John MacArthur's commentary pointed out something interesting and somewhat convicting about Nicodemus is spiritual state. And that was, he was spiritually bankrupt, which could be said of the majority of the Pharisees and the religious leaders by extension, or the religious leaders and by extension, the nation of Israel at large. They were so caught up in religious traditions and religious, you know, rights and whatnot. They became spiritually bankrupt.

So this, this actually brings up an interesting question. For us, how spiritually wealthy are we? Have you looked up your spiritual bank statement lately? Are are you spiritually broke? Or are you spiritually wealthy? Or are you somewhere in between? Just to kind of simplify that. Are are we spending time in God's word and in prayer? And allowing the power of God to change our hearts to change us.

Or is the only time that you open up? God's word is when you walk through these doors on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night. Are you, are you completely spiritually bankrupt? In other words, have you, have you never been born again? Spiritually? Friends, if you are the latter, let today be the day of salvation. Allow the precious blood of Jesus to wash you white as snow.

And begin your new life in Jesus.

Verse 11. 11 through 18 can actually can actually be divided into three parts, which I borrowed from John McCarthy because he divides it up nicely. So verse 11 through 18 can be divided up into three parts. Number one, the problem of unbelief. Number two, the solution to unbelief. And number three, the consequences of unbelief. So we'll talk about, let's talk about the first one.

The problem of unbelief.

I assure you, verse 11, I assure you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. If I have told you about things that happen on Earth and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about things of heaven? Before we talk about that problem of unbelief, I want to draw your attention again to the word we here. Who's we?

We aren't told directly, but I think there are two possibilities. Number one, the Apostles and the disciples. These, these were those who witnessed Jesus's miracles and teachings firsthand. And number two, the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Remember that Jesus was, in fact, God in the flesh. Now, I think the latter there is is most likely the we the we that Jesus is referring to here.

But you know, you know, you're welcome to, you're welcome to be wrong. That's okay. But to summarize here, Jesus is speaking on behalf of himself and his father and the Holy Spirit. And in addition, in addition, it's almost as if Jesus is kind of responding to Nicodemus is use of we to kind of establish his authority, you know, like Nicodemus says, you know, we believe that you are or that you are from heaven.

Well, Jesus is going well, we speak. To what we know. And we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. So back to the problem of unbelief, Jesus has testified to the things of heaven and performed miracle after miracle. And yet they refuse to believe, even though they had said they had somehow come to the consensus that Jesus had come from heaven.

And strangely enough, they would actually later claim that he comes from Satan. But like Nicodemus and the Pharisees many times, I think Jesus himself could be standing right in front of us and perform miracle after miracle and and give the most life-changing testimony, the most life-changing sermon in the history of humanity. And yet there are going to be some of us who still refuse to believe why that is. Honestly, the reasons could be the reasons are endless, honestly, but I think the root cause.

Comes down to one reason. And that's sin. We are sinful by nature. And some of us simply don't want to stop. I mean, let's be honest. Sin is fun.

Some of us just don't want to stop and Jesus actually addresses this problem in verse 12 and he says, if I have told you about the things of heaven on Earth and you don't believe how we believe if I tell you about the things of heaven. Earthly things like the illustrations that Jesus. Used here being of being born and even a look at Jesus's own life should have made the point clear. If if Nicodemus could not see that he needed spiritual transformation.

What more could Jesus tell him? If we hear testimony after testimony of the power of Jesus in our lives. What more? What more could we tell them tell you? There's always going to be some. We could put it as plainly as humanly possible and put it in terms of child can understand, but yet they refuse to believe and honestly, my heart breaks for those people because.

While they may live out the rest of their lives and be fine. Once they reach the end of this life, they'll spend the rest of eternity separated from God. And what's more, they'll have no excuse. They'll have no excuse not to believe Romans one verse 20 actually confirms that for us. We have no excuse. We as Americans have zero excuses for not believing in Jesus.

Guys, we have more Bibles and more access to resources than anywhere else in the world.

We live in what most people refer to as the Bible Belt. I'm from Oklahoma Oklahoma. We used to have a saying we live in the buckle of the Bible Belt, you know, we live. We have more resources than anywhere in the world. We have more access to God's word than anywhere than anywhere in the world. Guys. I have two Bible apps right here on my phone. I have multiple Bibles at home multiple commentaries.

I have no excuse for unbelief. Nobody else does either. For Nicodemus and the Pharisees. They absolutely had no excuses and know why because they were the ones entrusted with God's word. They had zero excuses. For those in the Exodus. They witnessed God's power firsthand. They witness an entire ocean being split in half. They witnessed pillars of cloud and fire.

They witnessed bread miraculously appearing every morning for years. On a daily basis and yet some still refuse to believe friends. God's. God's invisible attributes are all around us. The evidence for God is all around us. The fact that you were born the fact that you are sitting here this morning. Is proof that God exists and God loves you. Therefore, we have no excuse not to believe the third the third point here the solution to unbelief.

Verse 13. Says no one has ascended into heaven except the one. Who descended from heaven. The son of man just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness. So the son of man must be lifted ups. So that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. We talked about the problem of unbelief. Let's talk about the solution now. Verse 13 here. Jesus Jesus is essentially saying no one can truly understand the things of heaven except.

Him who is from heaven. Understand that Jesus is the only one whose home was literally in heaven before he came to earth to be born as a man. Therefore, if any wasn't if anyone is an expert in the things of heaven, it's Jesus. He's he's been there. He's seen it firsthand. We don't have to understand everything about heaven. We just have to believe in the one who is from heaven.

Jesus Christ. Jesus actually goes on to use an example from Israel's own history. To help Nicodemus and to help us understand.

How we would be born again. He uses the event recorded in numbers 21 and I think it's versus four through nine. If you want to write that in your margins of your Bible. In this account Moses and Israel are in the wilderness and they're they've gone past the Red Sea and they're just kind of wandering around the desert right now and they're getting tired. They're ready to be where they're where they want to be.

And they start grumbling and complaining against God and Moses. As a result, God sent snakes into the camp of Israel now sidebar here. I'm a lot like Pastor Ryan in this. I don't do snakes. If I see one, I say nope and I will about face and head home. I will nope that one all the way to the house.

Snakes entered the camp of Israel and they started biting people and as a result people started getting sick and dying. So the Lord told Moses to make a serpent of bronze and mounted on a wooden pole and everyone who looked at that serpent would be saved from death. They would be healed. Now normally the serpent in Scripture is usually representative of of sin.

But in this account the serpent is made of bronze and according to Bible scholars bronze is actually a symbol of judgment. So the bronze serpent on a pole is thus represented as sin judged. Friends. This is this is a beautiful picture of what Jesus is going to do for us. What Jesus has done for us. He would literally take sin and judgment upon himself and be hung on a pole or be hung on a cross and our place so that all who look upon him and believed would be saved.

Understand this that it is it is our Heavenly Father's fervent desire. That all look upon. Upon Jesus and believe resulting in life. Why? And it's simple. It's because he loves you. Look at verse 16. For God loved the world in this way. He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Well, I was while I was studying for this.

I I learned something interesting and it's just something I've never thought to look. At before, but there are over 31,000 verses in the Bible. And of those 31,000 plus verses. This is probably the most widely known verse in the world. Even among unbelievers, even among atheists, atheists know that verse. However, I don't want to diminish this verse because it's actually the key.

It's the key to this whole study and the key to everyone coming to believe in Jesus. Understand that God loves you. This last Thursday. Listen, I took a few of our kids to Tulsa to see Toby Mac in concert and during intermission. A man came out. I think it was from World Vision. A man came out and was telling us a story about a little kid in Guatemala. At the age of four four years old his parents abandoned him and left him to survive on his own on the street to fend for himself.

No one wanted this kid and no one loved him. And even though no one wanted or loved this kid. God did. God loved this kid. He took care of him and provided for him provided him with a family after, you know, after several years of living on the streets. God provided him with the family. And now. Now that kid has grown up to be a worship leader in Guatemala.

That's amazing. Even when nobody else wanted him. When nobody else loved him. God did God loves the unlovable and God loves the unwanted. He wants the unwanted and if you're here today or you're watching online. And you feel unloved by anyone and unwanted by everyone understand this that God loves you and he wants you.

He loves you so much that he sent what was most precious to him to take your sin upon himself and take the judgment that you deserve upon himself. And hang on a cross so that if you would believe in him. You would have new life. You would be that you would then belong to a new family.

So you would have eternal life and understand that eternal life isn't just about living forever. People in hell will live forever people and have excuse me people and have people in hell have eternal life. They will live forever but in constant torment. Eternal life is is about not necessarily the quantity of life. But the quality of life. I don't know about you but eternal life in heaven sounds a heck of a lot better than eternal life in hell.

God loves you so much and wants a better life for you so much that he sent his son to die for you so that anyone who looks on him and believes. Will not die but have eternal life. With him in heaven.

And that's how much you are loved and that's how much you are wanted. These last several years. Teen suicide has been has been quite the problem. You know and I wondered. If somebody would just would have just told them about the love of God if things would have been different.

Moving on here so now for us as Americans. This is where we would normally ask the question. What do I have to do? To earn this eternal life, you know, we as Americans are taught from a very young age that if you want something you have to earn it. You have to work for it. Because you can't get something for nothing. You can't get something for free. Yes, that's exactly what salvation is.

It is a free gift. Salvation it through Jesus is actually backwards from our culture. It's backwards from what we are taught. It certainly was backwards for Nicodemus. He being an Israelite and more than that a Pharisee. Was used to making regular. Sacrifices to make payment for the sin in his life. Yes, salvation is something that can't be earned.

Israel proved that by constantly breaking God's commandments and constantly having to make sacrifices so much that it became more of like a reflex. Rather than a sacrifice it cheapened it cheapened the sacrifice because after so much time it really meant nothing. They had it in their head that if I messed up, I'll just go make another sacrifice and then I'm good. And then I'll go mess up.

Again and make another sacrifice. That's not how it should work. There was no there was no heart transformation. There was no heart change. There was no spiritual rebirth happening. That's why Jesus came and offered himself as payment for our sin once and for all so that all who look upon him and believe would not die but rather be reborn spiritually and have new life spiritually.

So that we would be given a new heart and a new spirit. That God would take our heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. Guys, we don't have to do anything except believe the righteous requirements for salvation are no longer on us are no longer our responsibility. They've been put on Jesus. The only thing that you have to do is believe friends.

It's that simple. You don't have to fully understand it. You don't have to clean yourself up. You don't have to clean up your life before you believe that you don't have to do any of that because there's nothing you can do to become worthy of such a gift. God loves you right where you are at sin and all sin and blemishes and quirks and imperfections and all he loves you that much God loves you where you are at.

So if you were here or you're watching online and you never come to Jesus come now. Today is the day of salvation. Don't let another day go by without believing in Jesus. Don't let another day go by without asking him to be your Lord and Savior. The last point I want to talk about. Here's the consequences of unbelief. Verse 18 says anyone who believes in him is not condemned but anyone who does not believe is already condemned because he is not believed in the name of the one and only son of God.

Friends. You're. You're not guaranteed tomorrow. You're not even guaranteed your next heartbeat. If you've come to the end of this life if you come to the end of this life and you don't have Jesus you'll have eternal life but not with God. You'll have eternal life. But it will be in condemnation. It will be in hell. Your eternal life will include torment and a lake of fire.

So my question to you is this. Is that something you really want to risk just so you can have a few extra days of fun. You may think that you know you'll eventually come to believe when you're on your deathbed you know. But you're not guaranteed that. You're not guaranteed a long life and a peaceful death. I told this story in first service but when I was in high school I went to an FCA rally at one of the school's football fields and that night you know the.

The speaker gave a. Gave out the gospel and as a result there was a couple of a couple of guys that came to know Jesus and on their way home. They got in a car wreck and they went home to be with Jesus had they not asked Jesus into their lives had they not believed. In Jesus. They'd have eternal life but it wouldn't it wouldn't be with God but I know because.

Because they believed. Because they believed in the name of Jesus. They have eternal life with him in heaven right now. Friends. You're not guaranteed tomorrow you're not guaranteed your next heartbeat. So why would you even risk it. Don't let another moment go by. Without belief in Jesus don't let another moment go by without asking Jesus to be your Lord and Savior.

In closing I'm going to ask the worship team to come on up.

And play one last song for us and if you're here or you're watching online and you've never come to believe in Jesus meaning that you've never believed that he is God's son. Who came from heaven to pay the price for your sin on a cross that you deserve. Let today be the day of salvation. Your new life is waiting for you.

I know that after service this morning they're going to have kids come in. And we'll pray over these boxes and load them up so if you if you want to make that decision this morning I'll be right over here just in this next to this back room right here and I would love to pray with you I love to pray you pray you through that and or if you just need prayer just in general you're going through some rough things in your life I would love to pray with you but guys understand this it's it's it is a matter of life and death. It is a matter of eternal life with Jesus or in a matter of eternal life without him. So believe in Jesus is your key to life amen.

Let's pray father God we thank you for the day we thank you for your word we thank you for your son Jesus and what he's done for us on the cross we thank you for the new life that we have in you Lord and we thank you that it doesn't have that is not super complicated we thank you that. It's not. You've already taken care of everything all we have to do is believe. All we have to do is believe.

Lord so if there are any here this morning that have made that decision Lord I just pray that. First of all I thank you Lord for that.

And if they're here some here that have they're still wrestling with that I pray that today would be the day that they would get it settled today right now. Lord we love you we praise you and we thank you in Jesus name amen. Lord bless our week Lord may we look to you and trust you in every area of our life and Lord those times that we feel discouraged and or we fail in some way we thank you for your grace Lord that you are faithful when we fall you pick us up if we stumble you guide us we thank you for that Lord just bless our day and our week we thank you in Jesus name amen. Lord bless y'all have a great week.

Before we leave here we're going to have all the kids come in pray over these boxes.