[0:00] Take your Bibles if you would and go back to Luke chapter 5 and verse 12. Luke chapter 5 and verse 12. One year ago today, I was still about, well I was 19 days, 20 days from coming home from a hospital.
[0:17] I didn't know I was in a hospital. I didn't know what was going on. But this story is so much like what I felt multiplied by 100 times over for this poor guy.
[0:28] This is the story of a leper. This leper is going to live his life. He can't hug his children. Can't hug his wife. Can't be touched by anybody.
[0:41] Wherever he goes, he has to holler unclean. He has to wear a face covering. He has to have his clothes torn. His head needs his hair to be messed up.
[0:53] And it's very obvious when he walks on the street. You don't wonder if he's okay. You know he's not. And the religious crowd of the day throw rocks at him to make him get away.
[1:07] He has to announce, I'm unclean. I'm unclean. So everybody will stay away from him. The day he went in and was diagnosed with leprosy, the religious leaders of his day performed his funeral there that day.
[1:26] This will be the last time. You're gone. Just a matter of time. We're just hanging on. I can't explain to you what I felt when I woke up about 10 days from where we are today a year ago.
[1:39] I remember waking up and I remember looking around and everybody was covered up, head and face. And they had two and three. They'd walk in the door. They were already dressed with their protective clothing.
[1:52] And then they would put on more protective clothing. COVID was relatively new as far as how bad it was. They put on their gloves and they put on two sets. And they put on three sets of gloves.
[2:04] I watched them do it. They'd walk into me. And so nobody was touching me directly. And my wife wasn't there and my children weren't there.
[2:15] And I never felt so alone in my entire life. I wondered why my wife wouldn't come see me. I contacted my wife and asked her to come see me.
[2:27] And she wouldn't come see me. I'll never forget the day when they finally came. They came one day and I half remember that day. They took me outside and let me sit in the sun with my family.
[2:39] They took some pictures and everybody was really, you know, they were all dressed up in spooky clothes. But on the day before I came home, they sent me some visitors.
[2:52] I don't even remember the first visitor. It was my granddaughter. She came in and she played a song that the young people here at the church had sung about how even if the devil meant it for evil, God would turn it into good.
[3:09] And I don't even remember that. Then Robert Canfield came in. And I was the most emotional human being you've ever seen. I was drugged. Now, I'm emotional. I just hide it real good.
[3:20] I hide it so good, I don't know about it sometimes. And my wife definitely doesn't know about it. And she's figured it out over the years. But Robert came in and he was sitting there and the girl came in that was taking care of me and she said, you want to sit in that chair?
[3:36] And I'm like, well, sure. I'd like to get out of this bed. Ten minutes in, my rear hurts a bit. I'm like, I'd like to get back in that bed. But anyway, Robert turned on the music and I couldn't quit my hands from shaking.
[3:49] And I squallered my eyes out and he was telling me about the church. So I think I have a little bit of a picture here. I want you to imagine this guy. Now, we don't know how long he's had leprosy.
[4:00] But it's a long time. Because he's a grown man. He's all on his own. And he's going to come in and he's going to see Jesus. But I need you to understand, he lives on the outside of the city.
[4:12] He alone. If anybody wants to bring him something, Austin Teal was recently in Taiwan and he was in quarantine because of COVID.
[4:23] And he was getting his paperwork, which the Lord gave him. But when people came to give him food, they'd leave it at the door. He had to wait until they left. And then once they were gone, he could go out the door and get it.
[4:34] And even when Mark Tolson came to give him his paperwork, it said he was now a missionary to Taiwan. Mark left it out on the doorstep. And Mark walked off. And Austin Teal puts on his mask and walks out to get his piece of paper.
[4:46] This guy's got it even worse than that. If family members may be leaving him food. But when he steps out anywhere, he starts coming up the street. He's hollering out, unclean, unclean.
[4:57] Everybody get away from me. You don't believe what I read. But they had to stay six to seven feet away from him, upwind. And 150 feet away from him, downwind.
[5:08] Depending on which book you read. It was a terrible disease. It was an airborne disease. And they were afraid when he coughed that it would come out. This leprosy is such a thing that what it does, it took away their feeling.
[5:21] They couldn't feel. And so they could stick their hand in a hot fire and burn their hand and never even know it was burning until they smelled the flesh. Their ear might get an infection. And most of them, by the time you met them, their ears were gone.
[5:33] They'd rotted and fallen off. Their nose is usually gone. Their fingers were usually messed up. And so when this guy walks down the street, there's no question, stay away from him.
[5:45] His wife can't hug him. If she were to hug him, she'd get the disease. If he loves her as much as he wants a hug, he can't have a hug because if he hugs her, she's going to get the disease. It's a contagious, a highly contagious disease, a very, very dangerous disease.
[6:01] This guy has nowhere to go and no one he can talk to. If you got your Bible, go through this passage with me. I want you to know how sweet Jesus is. I want you to know how sweet Jesus is.
[6:14] I don't think you understand. I don't think you understand. I don't think I understand. I want you to realize that this guy has figured out if there's anybody that's going to be able to help me, it's going to be this Jesus guy.
[6:29] I don't know who else I can go to, but I hear he's really good. And when he sees Jesus, if you can imagine, everybody's scattering and everybody's running and they're probably throwing rocks at him.
[6:41] And even the Levites and the rabbis are out there seeing who can bust him one in the head with the rocks to get him away. I mean, he needs to run. He needs to leave.
[6:52] We don't need him to mess up any people. No one has touched him in a long time. And when he says to Jesus, he says, you know, if you wanted to, you could heal me.
[7:04] And Jesus, before he says anything, reaches out a sweet and kind hand and does something nobody's done to him for who knows how long. Months, years, decades.
[7:18] Somebody finally touched him. His funeral's already been pronounced. Rocks have been thrown at him. He walks down the street. If you got your Bible open, underline in verse 12, he's a man full of leprosy.
[7:33] I mean, it's full blown now. He doesn't have the beginning effects of it. He doesn't have where, you know, one day he woke up and he thought to himself, something ain't quite right.
[7:45] And maybe I should go see the priest and let them examine me and see if something's wrong. Maybe his wife looked at him and said, what is that spot on you, honey? Why do you have that?
[7:57] That don't look right. You need to go see the man of God and see what's going on. So he goes down to the man of God and the man of God looks at him and goes, here, we've got to quarantine you for a week and let me see what happens. We're going to lock you up for a week and we're going to watch.
[8:09] If it spreads, there's something bad going on here. And it's spread. He's alone. His wife can't be with him. His kids can't be with him. The priest doesn't want to talk to him. The Levite doesn't want to talk to him. No one wants to talk to him.
[8:21] And it's spread. And so all of a sudden, they're going to have his funeral service. They're going to go ahead and say, look, buddy, it's over. It's over. I lived and worked in a Roman Catholic country.
[8:36] And when the priest comes to see you in a Roman Catholic country, they are terrified. Because you don't want the priest to come. Because when he comes in, everybody knows he's here for last rites.
[8:48] You know what last rites means? Last. Last rites. They used to call me to come in and pray. People would, even if they were Catholic, they'd say, you come. He's not as scared of you.
[8:59] And I'd go in there and they said, don't you dare tell him how bad off he is. And they said, the priest will be here soon enough. He'll figure it out. Because I want you to know this guy's full of leprosy.
[9:10] Now, when you read the story, you're reading two things. You're going to read about the sweet love and compassion of Jesus Christ. The God in human flesh, man who yelled at God and cursed God and disobeyed God and did everything wrong to say to God, you go back on your side of the universe and I'll be on my side of the universe.
[9:29] You do what you want to do and I'll do what I want to do. You run your show and I run my show. Get out of here. That's what humans have done. You say, I ain't never been like that. Yeah, you have. You're just a little more political about the way you do it.
[9:42] You know, it's like, look, I believe in you. You're okay. I just kind of, could I have a little peace here? Let me do my thing. And you know, you kind of worded it and you're left in this sinful state and you're separated from God and you're alone.
[10:02] And all of a sudden that sin begins to take control of your life. So in the story here, we got the picture of how God who shouldn't love this man loves him.
[10:14] And the God who shouldn't love you loves you. In other words, he looks at you and you sinned against him and you blasphemed him. You mocked him.
[10:25] You cursed him. You said things against him that you shouldn't have said. You were like, even if it was just like, look, God, leave me alone, man. Let me live my life in peace. Whatever it was you said to him. But he's like, I don't care what you've done to me.
[10:37] I love you and I'm coming anyway. And he came to us. He came to die on a cross because he loves us. It's a picture of the sweetest compassion in the world.
[10:50] I am totally undeserving of God's love. Amen. I am totally undeserving. I was raised really moral and I've always done moral things. But because of my sin, I deserved it.
[11:01] I can go to hell. But God loves me anyway. And everybody in this room that ever got saved, you got saved because you knew you had sinned against the holy God. And you knew you deserved. You deserved to die and go to hell.
[11:13] So lesson number one in the whole thing before we ever get started is, boy, what a sweet and loving God he is. A God who loves us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but ever everlasting life.
[11:30] God loves us. Amen. The second thing is really kind of a, this hasn't even been in the notes, but it's the second thing you can get out of this. Man, he's powerful. He's God.
[11:41] You see, Jesus wasn't just a rabbi. All the rabbis were throwing rocks. But this leprous man is like, well, I hear he's different than regular preachers.
[11:53] I hear he loves you. He doesn't care what your condition is. He doesn't care what your past is. He doesn't care how dirty you are. Because, see, this guy's dirty and unkempt. He doesn't live in a normal house.
[12:05] He doesn't take showers. They didn't either. But he doesn't take baths. However they took baths. He's living out in the desert. And he's living on the outside of the city. And he's a beggar.
[12:17] And he lives with whatever scrap somebody will give him. And he's right. When he goes down the street, he even has to holler everywhere he goes. He has to go around with his mouth. Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!
[12:28] Unclean! Everywhere he goes. That's pretty humiliating. And he has a disease that no one can conquer. There's no medicine.
[12:39] There's no herbs. There's no cure. There's no vaccination. There's no help. You can't put this guy on a ventilator for 21 days and hook him to machines and save his life.
[12:53] When he finds out he has leprosy, everybody in the room knows he's dead. He's dead. Just a matter of time. Might be 10 years. Might be a year.
[13:04] Might be 20 years. But families say goodbye. Children say goodbye. Grandchildren, if there are, say goodbye. Everybody just, he's gone. And there's no way anybody can do anything about it.
[13:16] But Jesus can. When he walks up to him, he touched him. That's compassion. But he touched him. That's power. Boy, when he touched him, you know what happened? Can you get the picture?
[13:28] This guy is full of leprosy. What's that mean? I don't know. Eyes are sunken in. Maybe he's missing teeth. Maybe some fingers are gone. His ears are gone.
[13:40] His nose is gone. He's just got a hole there where it's supposed to be. His body is wrecked with terrible disease. And Jesus touched him. And the Bible says, and immediately.
[13:56] Somebody was telling me, they said, you know, it's like everybody standing there watching. And the fingers started growing back. And the nose came back. And they just watched him heal. That's not true. I mean, one second he was in bad shape.
[14:09] And one second later, boom. Boom. That's what he looked like before this happened. He's clean. He's new. The old stuff is gone. That's a pretty beautiful picture.
[14:21] If it didn't say amen. And there's a third thing. You know. That is, that's what he does when he saves us. That's what he does when he saves us. First off, you need to understand.
[14:32] And I will try to get through some things. I think it'll help you with the passage. But the first thing you need to understand. You see, we don't tend to see ourselves like the leprous man when we think of our sin.
[14:44] Let's see. We have this habit of ranking sin. You know. Now look. For example. You know, I typically.
[14:56] Speed. I'll run. Nine or ten miles over the speed limit. I mean. You get on 400. You don't run nine or ten miles over. They're going to kill you. You know. So you get out there. And you just kind of.
[15:07] Go with the flow. But I'm not a fast driver. I mean. I may be running 75 or 80 out there. But I get by us. And then that one guy comes flying by. And I go. Now that's a speeder. Now I'm already speeding.
[15:19] But I'm kind of ranking my speeding. Come on. Say amen. You know you are too. Fact is. I was. I was out there one time. This is about 20. 25 years ago. And I was out there.
[15:30] And I was running right in the traffic. Right in the traffic. I mean. Everybody around me is doing the same speed. And he stopped me. And when he pulled me over. I was like. What are you doing?
[15:42] He said. You're speeding. I said. I know. Somebody else. I said. Why did you stop me? He said. Can't catch them all. And I'm like. Well. I really got the bad luck on that one.
[15:53] Say amen. So you rank your sin. Don't you? You know. And I've. I've been an overweight guy. All my life. And.
[16:03] I enjoyed America. Because in America. You know. I don't care how overweight you are. You can always find somebody. I'll beat you. If you can't watch it on TV. They got somebody on TV.
[16:14] Waste two million pounds. And. He lost a million pounds in a week. You know. You've seen the show. And. Because I want to rank my sin. That's what you do. I may be bad. But I'm not bad like him.
[16:26] I've never killed anybody. I've never been a pedophile. I've never done anything really bad. And so what you want to do. Is rank your sin. Come on. Tell the truth. So see.
[16:36] So what happens is. When it comes time to getting saved. You sit there in your Alpharetta. Al pride. And you go. Well. I'm not like them people. On the south side of Atlanta.
[16:47] Bless God. They know they're bad. I mean. You pull in to get gas. That'd just steal your car. Why are you sitting there? Huh? We don't do that here. We don't.
[16:58] The fact is. I don't really speed. I mean. I do speed. But it ain't real speed. Come on. Tell the truth. But in the story here. Jesus is healing a leprous man. He's showing me his compassion.
[17:09] And he's showing me his power. He's also showing me my filth. Can I remind you. That the day this guy found out.
[17:19] He had leprosy. It wasn't much. Like. The day you figure out. You're a sinner. Sin. But sin. Like leprosy.
[17:30] Kind of. Grows on you. And you get used to it. And you keep doing it. And it's progressive. And it gets worse.
[17:42] And on the day this guy found out. He was a leper. On the day this guy found out. He was a leper. They had his funeral. But on the day I found out. I was a sinner.
[17:54] I didn't have a funeral. I was like. Well. Ain't no big deal. I mean. Everybody's sinned. Ain't they? I ain't that bad off. Look around this room. I'm a pretty good guy.
[18:06] You know about that person over there? Hmm. Now that's a sinner. In fact. If one of these preachers up there preaching. You're just kind of looking at your wife. Like. I hope you listen to this baby. I keep talking to you. Ain't talking to me.
[18:17] Come on. Tell the truth. Say amen. Because I wouldn't admit I'm sinful. I'd admit you're sinful. In fact. When Betty and I fight. I'm just defending myself.
[18:31] I mean. I'm right. You know how that is. You men. You bet. Do you ever notice how these women do things? We have to put up with that. I'm just a good man. Because I stay with her. Say amen. You know that's not true.
[18:44] But come on. Tell the truth. Come on. And see. But this leper. His wife says. Honey. I'm not sure. Something looks like it's.
[18:55] You got that spot on your skin. Now that I'm getting old. I'm getting spots everywhere. I'm thinking about going to see the priest. So you go down to the priest. And the priest says. Well let's look at it. And he says.
[19:05] Yeah. That don't look real good. But maybe we don't know yet. Let's just leave you here in this room. We'll see what's going to happen. And they put him in that room. And a week. Week or eight days later.
[19:15] They come in. They're like. Ooh. Yeah. I believe that's bad stuff. And they have a funeral. And if you really want to get saved.
[19:27] See this leper wouldn't get healed. If he didn't know he was in trouble. And sometimes sin. Has to take all of its progression.
[19:37] And all of its steps. And all of its power. So it just consumes your life. Like it does this leper. Because this leper is full of leprosy. And so now he goes to Jesus.
[19:48] And when he walks into Jesus. He's not even thinking to himself. Maybe he could give me a little healing. He's like. I am desperate. I am in trouble. If I don't get help right here.
[20:00] It's over. I'm already nearly dead. I haven't hugged my kids. I haven't hugged my grandkids. I haven't hugged my wife. I haven't shook hands with a man in years.
[20:10] I just wish I could have a normal life. But he knew he was a sinner. Now I got a question. Do you know you're a sinner? Do you know you're a sinner? You need to quarantine a bit.
[20:27] You need to go alone and think about this. The Bible says that all have sinned. Would that be me? Am I part of all? For all have sinned.
[20:38] For all have sinned. That's everybody but me. No, it probably doesn't work. For all have sinned. And sure, the glory of God. What's really sad.
[20:49] He starts in Romans chapter 3 and verse 10. And he just gets worse. As it's written, there's none righteous. None righteous.
[21:00] None righteous. No, not one. Then he starts and says, your hearts and your mouth and your feet and your attitudes and your actions. And he just keeps listening. Because what he's doing is saying, we need to find out if you're a sinner.
[21:13] We need to examine your skin and see if you have leprosy. And when he gets through, he goes, well, Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
[21:25] And you realize you are a leper. I don't have time to preach today. We've just been chewing the fat. But let me read you a couple of verses that might be of interest to you. See, sin separates people.
[21:38] The Bible says in Leviticus chapter 13 and verse 46, all the days, talking about this leper, wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled, dirty, filthy.
[21:51] He is unclean. He shall dwell alone. Without the camp shall his habitation be. In chapter 13 and verse 46, it says, his clothes are to be torn.
[22:04] His head is to be bare. He's to put a covering up on his upper lip. And he is to cry unclean, unclean. Now this morning, if you were honest and you're not saved, you'd be crying unclean.
[22:19] You'd be crying undone. If you saw yourself the way you really are, you'd know how bad off you are. But leprosy, like sin, starts small and spreads.
[22:34] It progresses slowly. It causes you to lose feeling. You know, they didn't actually die so much of the leprosy. They lost feeling. I read about a guy.
[22:47] When I'm researching all this, I read about a guy. And he couldn't get a lock to turn. And he couldn't turn the key in it. And this little leprous kid came up and said, I can do it. Reached up and grabbed it and turned it.
[22:58] And when he did, he tore all the meat on his hand. And he got torn all the way down to the blood and down to the bone. And he was looking terrible. And he got to look at him and say, man, what did you do? He said, I don't know.
[23:08] I just unlocked it. Never felt it. That's what happens when you get, when you're lost, when you're not saved, when you're not born again, when you're not going to go to heaven. You hear a message like this and you just go, man.
[23:22] Doesn't mean anything to me. Duck off a water, water off a duck's back. You just ignore it. You just don't pay attention to it. But you've sinned against a holy God.
[23:34] Now you're unfeeling. And after you become unfeeling, it starts to disfigure you. It starts to mess up the way you look and act. And it ruins you.
[23:47] You can come out of a good family in a rich area like Alpharetta. And you can look good, wear nice clothes, drive nice cars.
[23:58] And in the night, when no one's looking, you meet with your friends. And you drink. And you shoot up. And you don't want to.
[24:10] But you can't stop. And one day, your dad will walk in the room. And you'll be dead. And the needle will be still sticking in your arm. Because sin took you a lot further than you ever wanted to go.
[24:28] You say, well, I don't have any kind of drug problem. Let me explain something to you. All sin leads to death. And some of us sin flagrant, open sins.
[24:39] And some of us sin sins that cause us to die of a drug overdose. And others of us sin with just pride and arrogance that causes us to wake up one day. Inhale.
[24:54] You can live your life thinking, I don't need God. I'm too intelligent for God. I don't understand it. I don't believe in it. Because you see, as it disfigures you, then it slowly separates you from your family and other people.
[25:07] But it deceives your heart. Deceives your mind so that you don't see what you're doing. You don't see it. See, that's what happened to this guy. He can't feel. So he doesn't even realize what's happening.
[25:19] But it leads to death. In James chapter 1 and verse 15, the Bible said, When lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin.
[25:30] And sin, when it's finished, brings forth death. Sin, when it's finished, brings forth death. Sin becomes a lifestyle.
[25:43] By now, this leper is used to living outside in the leper colony. He's used to it. And you're used to your sin. But the sin that consumed him until he was full of it is going to destroy his body.
[25:59] It's left him alone and hurting. And there is no hope. And then he heard Jesus was in town. And his hurt drove him to Jesus.
[26:11] The Bible says in Luke 5, 12, Who seeing Jesus fell on his face and besought him saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
[26:24] I want you to underline that word, Lord. He realized he was God. He realized he was in charge. He knew that Jesus was more than just a teacher. He was more than just a preacher.
[26:36] It was more than just religion. It was more than just church. God really exists. And God is at work. And he realizes that. And he falls on his face.
[26:49] See, he gives up all of his pride. And all of his arrogance. That's what keeps us from the Lord. What keeps us from the Lord is we're all too good. We don't need God. But this guy's like, man, I need him.
[27:01] I need him. Throw rocks at me if you want to. Make fun of me if you want to. I'll holler and clean up if I have to. But I got to get to Jesus. He's the one that changes lives.
[27:13] And he saw Jesus. And then he begged him. He besought him and said, Lord, if you wanted to, if you wanted to, you could make me clean.
[27:27] The next verse is so beautiful. Verse 13. Jesus doesn't say anything at first. Not at the beginning. Look. First thing he does, he just stuck out his hand.
[27:42] I remember being in the hospital. And one little lady named Kelsey, she's the one that really showed compassion. I don't know. Kelsey was a little girl, 25 years old, probably a little bit of a thing.
[27:55] I don't know, 5'5", 5'3", 5'4". She could help me with my big old body. She could help me walk. She taught me how to walk again. She taught me how to sit up in the bed.
[28:07] I mean, literally, you have to have teaching to sit back up in the bed. And she showed some compassion to me. And this Jesus touched him.
[28:24] And then he said, oh, I will. Look at it. He said, I will. You should put a big circle around that. He said, oh, I will. I don't know if you hear that. I just hear him, oh, I will.
[28:35] You want to know if I help you? Oh, I will. You want to know if I help you? Oh, I will. I will. And then he said, be clean.
[28:47] Now, that had to blow his mind. The priest would have said, if you do get well, come on back and hang around for a couple of weeks and we'll check you out. You got to be in quarantine for us to check you out. Jesus said, just be clean.
[29:00] And I love this. And immediately, the leprosy just went. And leprosy said, let's get out of here, man. Jesus is here. Now, listen to me. You've sinned against the Holy God.
[29:12] You deserve to go to hell when you die. You've sinned against the Holy God. You deserve to go to hell when you die. You don't think he'd ever forgive you because you know what you did and you know what your past is.
[29:24] And you know what your failures are. And you're like, I'm not sure he'd ever forgive me. But if you just humble yourself and say, if you wanted to, you could forgive me. You know what he'll say? I will.
[29:36] That's what he did for everybody else in this room. It was born again. Some born again people in the room with tears in their eyes right now because they remember when he came and said, I will. And he saved us.
[29:47] And he healed us. I have time to show you. This is just beautiful. Did you know that immediately when you get saved, he just changes everything. The second you get saved, he takes away your past and replaces your past.
[30:05] And so if anyone ever went to look for your past, they'd find the past of Jesus. And then if they went to look at your present, they'd find the present of Jesus. I mean, I mess up all the time.
[30:15] But if you want to go to my father and say, did you see Austin, how he messed up last week? My father would be like, no, I believe he's in Jesus.
[30:27] That's how my father does me. Amen. You want to know what my future is? He immediately changed that too. He gave me a new future immediately. So you're here this morning.
[30:39] You're not born again. You're not saved. Your sins aren't forgiven. You're not sure you go to heaven. That's why you know he loves you. He said it so many times in the Bible.
[30:51] It'd blow your mind if I started quoting all of them. How about one? But God commended his love. God showed, God demonstrated, God proved his love toward us.
[31:03] And that while we were still sinners, while we were yet sinners, while we were still doing wrong, he didn't wait for you to turn around and change. He didn't tell the leper, go home and clean up and comb your hair and get rid of that mask and heal up a little bit and come see me.
[31:18] That's what the priest would have said. He said, I will. And he cleansed them. You come to Jesus right now just like you are. Just humble yourself and he'll save you.
[31:30] And he'll give you a new life. You'll change your past, your present, and your future. Immediately, you'll be a new creature. Old things are passed away. But all things are become new. He loves you.
[31:43] He loves me. When Paul said Romans 5.8, he was actually talking among other believers. He said, you know what? God proved his love toward us. And while we, born again people, were still sinning, he still loved us.
[31:59] What a God. What a God. What a God. God. So I'm going to ask you in just a second to be saved. And if you are saved, he told the leper, he said, now go see the priest and do what you're supposed to.
[32:19] Now go see the priest and do what you're supposed to. You know what you're supposed to. And some of you have trusted Jesus, but you're not doing what you're supposed to. You're supposed to get baptized. I ain't got time to preach on that day.
[32:31] We're over time already. You're supposed to get in a church, join the church, get to work, become a part of the body, do your job, serve God. Amen. You're not supposed to be a spectator.
[32:41] Church is never meant to be a spectator sport. So today, sign up if you're saved. If you're not saved, sign up and get saved. That's probably it's for prayer.
[32:54] Father, I thank you for the chance to talk to these people. I pray that you'd work today. I pray your name would be glorified and that your people would be glad about who you are and what you've done.
[33:04] God, there's some people watching online. There's some people in this room. They're not saved. If they died, they don't know that they'd go to heaven. God, I want them to know that through what Jesus did on the cross.
[33:15] Would you save today? Would you save, please? Touch that person's heart. There's some Christians here. They know the joy of forgiveness. They haven't learned the joy of serving yet.
[33:28] They've enjoyed salvation. They're not in the serving mode yet. God, help them and get them there, please. With every head bowed and every eye closed. If you're not sure you're saved, I want to ask you to trust Jesus now.
[33:42] I have some people ready. Can I get a couple of students or somebody to come up here and stand and help me? If you are not sure you're saved, if you're not sure you're saved, I got some people who like to take a Bible and show you how to know to go to heaven when you die.
[33:59] Take a Bible and show you how to know how to go to heaven when you die. If you'd hold your hand up, I'll send somebody that's got a Bible to you. And they'll answer your questions and show you how to be saved. Who would say, I know I want to be saved?
[34:10] Would you just hold your hand up? Is there anybody like that? I'm not sure I'm saved. I'm not sure I go to heaven when I die. Anybody at all? Just hold your hand up. Let me help you. Anybody at all?
[34:23] Anybody? Thank you all. You all can have a seat. I'd like to ask the Christians now. You've been saved. You've been forgiven. You've got new life.
[34:34] How's your walk? How's your obedience? Live out what he's done in you. Live out what he's done in you. Maybe you ought to come to the front and say, Lord, I've been messing around, playing with sin still.
[34:48] I haven't taken the steps of total obedience like I should. I've been kind of backslid. Why don't you come find a place to pray? Come on. Let's make things right with God today. Let's move forward for Jesus.
[35:00] And whenever you're finished praying, whether in your seat or here at the front, you can stand and sing with Stephen as he leads us in this song.