[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. This is the next message in our series on the book of John entitled, Jesus is God.
[0:14] Thank God we have a refuge, amen? Take your Bible if you would and open it to the book of John, chapter 19. And I'm excited for you to learn the wonderful sweet things that the Holy Spirit has in His Word today.
[0:27] John chapter 19. We're going to look at five things that Jesus said from the cross. So let's go, if you would, to John chapter 19, verse 25.
[0:39] John chapter 19, verses 25 down to verse 27. John chapter 19, verse 25 through 27. Now you need to understand that on the cross right now in the story is Jesus.
[0:53] He is all man. He feels every ache and every pain. Nothing here that's happening to Him is simply a symbol. Nothing that's happening to Him here is simply something put on a stage for you to watch.
[1:09] He is suffering as a man. He is at the same time God. And He is God on the cross. God in human flesh. And dying for six hours.
[1:21] He's in intense agony. He's already been horribly mistreated before He gets to the cross. And in dying, the first thing I'm going to show you this morning is He takes the time to take care of His mother.
[1:33] That has got to be one of the wildest thoughts you can imagine from the cross. But you know, for our God, family is important. Can you say amen right there?
[1:45] A man ought to love his wife as Christ loved the church. Could you repeat that with me? A man ought to love his wife as Christ loves the church.
[1:55] And so there's a lot in the Bible about how family ought to react. There is here on the cross, Jesus will take the time to take care of His mother.
[2:07] Look, if you will, to me at John 19, 25 through 27. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother and His mother's sister Mary, the wife of Cleophilus, and Mary Magdalene.
[2:18] When Jesus therefore saw His mother and the disciples standing by, and that disciple is John, he's a very humble guy, and all through the book, he never tells us his name.
[2:29] He does have a tinge of a little bit of braggadocious come out every now and then because he says the disciple that Jesus loved. There might have been 12, and I won't say my name, but we all know who I am.
[2:40] I am his favorite. And he said, and now I am here at the cross. Look at it. I just love it. Don't you love how the Lord even let a tad of humor get in there? Verse 26. Jesus saw His mother and the disciples standing by, whom He loved, and He said unto His mother, Woman, behold thy son.
[2:56] Then said He to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her unto His own home. I'd just like us to think just a second, why in the world would Jesus take the time on the cross to mention His mother?
[3:14] And I'm going to show you several things I think that are interesting that you ought to notice about that. He could have easily taken care of this beforehand. He did take care of talking to His apostles and telling them, Hey guys, let not your heart be troubled.
[3:29] Gee, that believe in God, believe also in me. If it were not so, I wouldn't tell you. I go to my Father's house. I'll prepare you a place. I'll come back and get you again. You're looking at me. You're looking at the Father.
[3:40] He said, I'm going to send the Comforter to take care of you. He had gone through a lot of things. But now He's on the cross. Six hours left of His life. Now these aren't His last sayings. You know that story, right?
[3:52] These are not His last sayings. He will die. And He will be dead, dead, as dead as any person can be. He will be dead for three days and three nights. But He will rise again.
[4:03] And He will live forever. And He will spend 40 days on earth proving to people so He can have many witnesses that He not only died and was buried, but He rose again.
[4:13] But on those six hours, He takes the time to say, woman, behold thy son. And then He looks at the disciple and says, behold thy mother. I think you ought to write this down.
[4:25] It is God's will that God's people honor their mother and their father. And Jesus did that even on the cross. Could I just stop here and say, it's not a matter.
[4:36] It's not a matter of personal preference or how mom treated us or how family's been. Because some of us really didn't have the ideal home life.
[4:48] But if our Lord Jesus on the cross took the time to say, take care of my mom, take care of my mom. I think it ought to be important that you would realize you have responsibilities to love and honor and respect your parents.
[5:03] Could I just stop here a second and say to the kids. God said to you teenagers, no, nobody loves you more than your parents do. And everybody outside, I mean, TV would have you think that other people love you more. And the kids at school would have you think that people love you more.
[5:16] And your friends would say your mom's an old whatever word they want to use about her. But let me just tell you, you were given to your parents. And today, as a church, we rejoice because Jessica will soon be a mom.
[5:30] I want you to know God gave you to your parents. God gave you to your parents to raise you and train you and lift you up to serve Jesus. And we ought to learn a little bit about honoring our parents.
[5:44] The second thing I want to show you that's interesting about this little story is that Jesus chooses John to take care of his mother rather than one of his brothers or sisters.
[5:56] Jesus is not an only child. Jesus is not an only child. He is the first child. He's the firstborn child. You see, Mary and Joseph got together.
[6:07] And when they got together, the Holy Spirit said, do not have sex until that Jesus is born. And so Joseph did not touch her until after they were married.
[6:19] They were married. They did everything right, which we ought to do. Can I hear an amen on that? You know, sex belongs only in marriage. Amen. Amen. And it only between a man and a woman.
[6:31] Say amen. And so they waited. And then Jesus had several brothers and several sisters. And in fact, it's one of them will write the book of James. And so there was a family there.
[6:43] But none of them have yet believed. They've all disbelieved in Jesus. They've spent the last three and a half years not believing in him, not believing in his ministry, not believing in what he's doing.
[6:54] And for some reason, Jesus maybe prefers a saved man rather than an unbeliever to take care of his mother. And as the oldest child, he says, Mom, behold, behold your, how do you put it exactly?
[7:11] He says, behold thy son, woman, behold thy son. And he says to John, the disciple, behold thy mother. I want you to notice this. And I know that some of our church family, we're going through some things.
[7:26] And I pray for you and I think about you and I try my best to keep all the names. I really wish if I don't already know your name and I don't have you down where I can pray for you and everything. I wish you'd fill out one of them cards and just put it out there so I'd have it.
[7:38] I have it on a list here. I have it coming in email. I try to pray for you. And I want to pray for you. And I know some of you are dealing with taking care of moms and our parents get old and we don't know what we're going to do.
[7:50] And it's like an added responsibility. And why do we have to bring mom home? Can you imagine being John the Apostle that day? John's standing there totally unprepared for the sentence he's about to hear.
[8:03] John, I'm giving you my mama. Take her home. I don't know what that meant. Build her a room. Share some space with her. Give her a place to live. Pay her bills.
[8:14] Take care of her financially. And John willingly accepted that extra responsibility. And as we get older, we're all going to be faced with extra responsibility of our parents and things that we ought to do.
[8:28] A couple of things I think we can learn. We should love and honor and care for our parents. And that's not always easy. And I speak as one that honestly didn't always have the sweetest relationship.
[8:40] But I talked to my mom before I came to church today. And I talked to her yesterday. And I will visit her tomorrow. God gave us parents. Good Christians ought to honor and respect their parents.
[8:51] Good Christians ought to... I'm just going to tell you. I don't think you either need to agree with me so you can repent or you can agree with me. You can say amen or you can say oh me. But we ought to love and respect our parents.
[9:04] And sometimes we're angry with them. But we ought to love and respect our parents. We ought to serve others at great expense. We ought to serve others at great expense.
[9:16] I can only imagine what it must have been for John. I mean, let's think about this a second. I know. I just know Betty. And I just know nearly 39 years of marriage.
[9:29] I can imagine arriving home. And Betty was at the house. And I was at the crucifixion. And I arrive at home. And I say, you know, Jesus and John probably were fairly close together in age.
[9:40] And John comes in the door. And he says, hey, babe. I brought Mary with me. And Jesus told me we're taking care of her. So I'm now her son.
[9:52] And she's my mom. And I can just hear Betty saying, praise God. No big deal. I got a good washing machine.
[10:03] And my stove. You know, honestly. But you know what? As Christians, serving is part of our life. We spend too much of our life thinking people ought to do for us.
[10:14] I think that's pretty strong about that. Now, I want you to get one other thing about this before I move to the next saying on the cross. Nothing special is said about Mary.
[10:26] Her name's not even mentioned. No special announcement. Nothing said about the greatness of his mother.
[10:40] Nothing said about worshiping her. Nothing said about venerating her. Nothing said about honoring her. Nothing said that makes her the center of attention. It's just woman.
[10:52] It's just woman. Hanging there. Blood dripping everywhere. Last few hours of his life. Straining to get every breath he's getting. Woman. There's your son.
[11:05] Hey. There's your mom. That's it. Somewhere along the way, religion wanted to focus on somebody besides Jesus.
[11:18] And they shifted attention to Mary in a position Jesus never, ever gave her. The Holy Spirit didn't give her. The Bible didn't give her.
[11:29] And you shouldn't give her. By the way, no saint ever accepted worship or honor in the Bible. When people would bow down before a saint in the Bible or an apostle or a prophet or anybody, they would pull them up, get them off their knees and say, Hey, I am but a servant.
[11:50] In fact, there are times when God's men, when somebody started to show veneration or worship or adoration or super respect, that God's men literally grabbed their clothes and ripped them in a sign to say, No!
[12:08] No! Not me! But Him! We got some preachers that could learn that today. No. No. Not me. But Him. But I leave you with this.
[12:19] Mary is never the center of attention in the scriptures. I leave you with this. I challenge every one of us. Love your mom. Love your dad. Take care of your family. I challenge every one of you to work at your family.
[12:33] Could I just... This is extra. I won't charge a dime for it. But listen to me. Look at me. As a pastor, I tell you this because I love you. I tell you this because I literally do call your name in prayer almost every day of my life.
[12:46] I know for one solid week I didn't pray for none of you. But I didn't pray for one of you. I prayed to die and I prayed for me. And that was it. But other than that, I try to pray for you by name.
[12:57] And if I know your name. And I even sent out an email asking for some of the new people's names so I could get them on my list so I could pray for you. Could I just say this? Would you listen to me closely? Actually, some of you men aren't loving your wives like you ought to.
[13:11] And just like Jesus said to... He said, hey, woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mom.
[13:22] Just like he said that right there. And he was concerned about the family unit. He didn't have a wife. But the Holy Spirit of God wrote in Ephesians chapter 5 that we ought to love our wives as Christ loved the church.
[13:35] And men, if you are not loving your wife, expressing that love, saying that love, and being gentle and kind with your wife, you're missing the whole point of this verse right here. He didn't stop on the cross and say, family's important for you to keep acting like it's not important.
[13:51] Can I say this about some of you wives? You're not loving your husband. You're not having respect for your husband. The church was told to respect and love their husband like the church did Jesus.
[14:05] And can I just say to you, some of you ladies are like, I am equal with him and bless God. I'm not putting up with his junk, but it just might be that you ought to learn a little serving. And men, you ought to learn a little serving.
[14:17] And if we're going to have a happy home, we ought to. And evidently the home was important enough that Jesus stopped on the cross and said, I'm going to take care of family business right now. Is that what he did or not?
[14:28] Am I misreading this or did he do that? If he did say amen, then don't you think you ought to. Child of God, born again in the name of Jesus, new creature, family ought to be important.
[14:42] You ought to work at your marriage. Every wife in this room ought to go home and say, I am responsible. Can you imagine? What do you think it meant? Hey, John, there's Mary. You take her home.
[14:53] Didn't even call her by the name. Woman, woman. Take that woman home with you, John. Can you imagine John got home and said, all right. He said, let me bring you home. Go in that room. I'm going to lock the door. I'll slide your food under there.
[15:03] Here's your poop pail and you can pass it out. That's not what was going on. Sometimes I get the feeling some of our families act like that though. With husband and wives. And that not ought so to be.
[15:19] Say amen. Whew. I can hear you praying. He needs to lose another kidney. But it's the truth.
[15:29] Love your wife. Love your husband. Love your children. Love your family. Love your family. It's the sweetest, greatest thing God's given you. Second thing he said on the cross. Some of you, in all honesty, ought to come to the altar in just a little bit and say, Father, I have not.
[15:43] Talking to Jesus. Talking to God. I have not really loved my husband like I should. I have been waiting on him to change. Waiting on him to do things. And I know that's not the truth. That's not the way it ought to be. It's me.
[15:54] Some of you men ought to come and say the same thing. We ought to strengthen our families today. Second thing he said I want to show you anyway is Mark 15, 33. If you would. Mark chapter 15, verse 33.
[16:05] We're jumping around the different sayings that the different apostles or different gospel writers gave us. Mark chapter 15, verses 33 and 34. It's made clear that Jesus paid a great price.
[16:17] He was paying for our salvation. In Mark 15, 33 and 34. The Bible said that when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
[16:28] And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. Which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
[16:40] Those have to be some of the most tragic words. And by the way, we don't understand that. You know, there have been several questions bouncing around the church. And I'm glad you're questioning it because I'm glad you're reading the Bible.
[16:51] And I'm glad you're listening to the preaching. I'm glad this is coming up. And you say, well, why could God forsake him? You know, we really don't understand that. How could God forsake God? Well, I don't get that either. I don't understand it.
[17:02] But God said it. So it's got to be true. Amen. And here's the beautiful thing. He was buying your salvation. He was paying the supreme price to get you saved.
[17:12] I wish, I pray to God, you sung the song that Ed led us in. The last song he led us in when we talked about how he hung on the cross. He was slain for us. Our sins were placed on him.
[17:24] That's what's going on. And on that day on the cross, horrible things were taking place. Jesus was bearing the sins of the world. And there are verses that I know I've said to them to you over and over.
[17:35] But you've got to hear them again. Go with me to Isaiah and please open your Bible to Isaiah chapter 53. Please. And read it and think about what Jesus did for you. And think about if you're a born again Christian, it's because of these verses.
[17:48] It's because that Jesus hung on a cross and said, why has thou forsaken me? It's because you trusted what Jesus did. And if you're here and you've never been born again, it won't get, you won't get born again by getting baptized.
[17:59] You won't get born again by joining a church. You won't get born again by turning over a new leaf. You get born again when you realize you've sinned against the holy God and you trust him for what he did. Look at chapter 53, verse 4.
[18:11] If you don't have your Bible open, please do so. Go to verse 4. Take an ink pen and mark this. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
[18:22] Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. Stop. Look at verse 4 and underline our griefs. Our griefs. Underline our sorrows.
[18:34] And then I want you to underline this. He was smitten of God and afflicted. You know what? Everything that should have happened to me, the grief I should have borne, the sorrow I should have had, the suffering I should have had because of my sin.
[18:47] And God somehow, I don't understand how, did that and put that on Jesus. Verse 5. Look at it. He was wounded for our transgressions.
[18:59] He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes we are healed. Would you underline in that verse our iniquities, our transgressions, our peace.
[19:12] You know what was happening? On the cross, God himself, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit was looking down at all of us and saying, you all deserve to go to hell.
[19:23] None of you deserve to go to heaven. You're all covered up in iniquity. The wages of sin is death. The gift of God's eternal life. I'm going to pay your debt. And God placed all of that on him.
[19:34] He was wounded for us. Verse 6. Makes it clear. Context. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
[19:46] And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Look at that. We like sheep, man, we just do what we want. I'll live it my way. I'll go my way. I'll do my thing. We have turned to our own way.
[19:57] We have gone astray. But God has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. Look at chapter 53, verse 10. Chapter 53, verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
[20:11] It pleased the Lord to bruise him. I can hear you now. Some of you are like, I don't get this. You're telling me that God the Father was happy to cause Jesus to suffer and to put our sins on Jesus.
[20:23] It seems like, man, there must be this big fight between God the Father and God the Son. And God the Son is carrying all the load. And God the Son is doing everything. Because Jesus was carrying our griefs and our sorrows.
[20:35] And God did smite and afflict him. And Jesus was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. And by the stripes on Jesus we are healed. And the Lord God laid our sins on him.
[20:45] And God was pleased to bruise him. But you must remember this. Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2. The Apostle Paul, inspiration by God. Tonight you'll understand.
[20:56] We'll talk about our Bible and how God gave it to us. And how the scriptures are fulfilled. But look at Hebrews chapter 12, if you would, in verse 2. Hebrews chapter 12, in verse 2, if you would. Looking unto Jesus.
[21:10] The, what's the word? Help me out there if you would. Looking unto Jesus the what? Author. Stop. Stop. The author. Who wrote the plan of salvation?
[21:25] Jesus wrote the plan. What a Savior. Jesus, God. God is Jesus. Jesus is God. God the Father. God the Son. God the Holy Spirit.
[21:36] But just so you won't get confused and think there's some kind of weird dichotomy going on up in heaven. And God and Jesus don't get along. And they're like two angry gods up in heaven. That's totally not what's going on here.
[21:47] When Jesus gets all of it laid on him. It was Jesus' plan. Father, let me bear the sins. He wasn't only the author. You've got to underline this in your Bible. He was the finisher.
[21:59] Underline the word finisher. Put a circle around it. Put some asterix and exclamation points. He was the author and the finisher. Now many religions have come up with plans of salvation.
[22:10] And they've come up with ways to get your people out of hell. And purgatory. They've come up with ways to pay for your sin. They've come up with ways. And they've got all these things. But one guy wrote a plan and said, I'll not just write the plan.
[22:22] I'll do the plan. And that was Jesus. And he finished it. I hope you underline that. I wish you'd write the word finished right there. Do you know what finished means? Finished is like a fantastic word.
[22:36] Finished is, hey, the house is built. Built. We've already gone through all the inspections. We've already had the month or two. It's done. And everything is done. And everything is right. Here's the keys.
[22:46] Everything's right. It's finished. No, you don't have to lay any more carpet. No, you don't have to paint any more floors. No, you don't have to paint any more walls. It's finished. You know what it's like? It's like when you get the bill.
[22:57] How many of you get that bill from American Express? And when you get through with it, you write on that bill. Paid. Paid. And you're right on the bottom of the check. You know, when you finally get there.
[23:08] Paid in full. Does it feel good to say paid in full? Say amen. I'm tired of you. You're out of here. Paid in full. You know what Jesus said, don't you? I wrote a plan. I put paid in full on the plan I wrote. Say amen.
[23:19] You can't beat that. You can't beat that. By the way, 2 Corinthians 5, 18. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us a ministry of reconciliation.
[23:37] To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciled the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. You've got to get this verse. Man, you've got to look this up in your Bible.
[23:47] You've got to mark this. It'll help you understand a little bit about salvation. Who reconciled us? Who made us right? Well, we know Jesus died, and we know all that was placed on Jesus.
[23:59] And we know Jesus cries out from the cross, my God, my God, why has I forsaken me? And some of you are a little bit hung up on that, but you need to step back and look at the whole story. Yes, all the sins were laid on him, but Jesus wrote the plan.
[24:11] You need to step back and look at it. Yes, he was all forsaken, but Jesus wrote the plan. But even while all the plan was going on, it was God the Father at work too. Look at what it says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18.
[24:22] And all things are of God who hath reconciled us. Put a circle around that. Reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. God reconciled us.
[24:34] Stop. Somewhere along the way, somebody lied to you. And you got this picture of some mean, old, angry God with a long beard and a bow and arrow or spears in his hands or lightning bolts in his hands who sets up there in heaven.
[24:50] And he's just itching for a chance to kill you. Enjoy seeing you suffer. And thank God for Jesus, a nice guy. Bad cop, good cop. Jesus, good cop.
[25:01] God, bad cop. That's not the story here. That's not the story here. Say, man, God was in Jesus reconciling the world to us. Verse 19. To wit that God was in Christ, reconciled the world unto himself, not impugning their trespasses unto them.
[25:17] And hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. God forsook his son so he wouldn't have to forsake us. And I wish you'd listen to this real quickly. I wish you'd write this down. Salvation is a God thing.
[25:32] Salvation is a God thing. It's what he did. Not what we do. And that goes against our nature. We are a proud and arrogant lot.
[25:47] We don't want help. We want to keep our dignity. But true born again Christians can't keep their dignity. You lose your dignity to get saved.
[25:59] You've got to walk up to God and say, no, sir, I'm not. I excuse these two references. But one of my favorite TV shows growing up was Andy Griffith.
[26:11] And one day Opie decided to help this fellow who had a bucket with a lot of holes in it. And the bucket was in horrible condition. And so Opie said to his dad, dad, Mr. So-and-so's bucket is just messed up.
[26:26] It's a piece of trash. It's the water leaks out of it faster. He can't keep any water in it. And so Opie went and bought a new bucket for him and went up to him and said, sir, I want to give you this bucket. And the guy started yelling at him and ran him off his property and said, don't you ever come back?
[26:40] He said, I don't need no charity. I don't need no help. My bucket's fine. So Opie's hurt because all Opie wanted to do was help him. But the man was proud like us.
[26:53] So Opie goes home and he says, dad, he said, I tried to take the bucket up there and the man won't take the bucket. And so Andy, being the smart old man that he is in the TV show, went and got the same bucket, went up on the hill and left the bucket in the car and got out and said, sir, I came by.
[27:08] I was wondering if I could buy your bucket. He said, what do you want to buy my bucket for? He said, I need a bucket just like that. It's got history. It's got vintage. It's what I need for a decoration.
[27:21] And he said, this old bucket ain't worth nothing. It's got a whole lot of holes in it. He said, sir, I'll get you a brand new bucket, please. I need to buy that bucket. I don't need your charity. Charity, I'm asking you to let me have the bucket. Please, I'll pay for the bucket.
[27:33] Let me give you a bucket. The old man said, well, if that's the way you feel about it, you're not asking to give me a bucket. No, sir, I'm asking you to give me a bucket. And finally, the old man said, well, here's my old bucket. Took the new bucket. That's how you wanted to come to Christ, isn't it?
[27:44] My bucket ain't messed up. Ain't nothing wrong with me. I'm a pretty holy guy. I'm a pretty spiritual guy. I'm not as bad as everybody else. And you want to come with all your dignity.
[27:57] But that's not how you come to Jesus. You come to Jesus helpless. You come to Jesus realizing my bucket's full of holes and it's a piece of garbage.
[28:08] You come to Jesus saying, I'll take the charity. When I was a young boy, I was swimming. I'm a country boy.
[28:19] I'd swim in creeks all my life. And I went to my first swimming pool. And I was probably 11. And they told us, you can't swim in the deep end unless you can make it.
[28:31] We're going to have several lifeguards here. If you can swim from one side to the other side, we'll let you swim in the deep end. And I thought, they're not leaving me on the shallow end like a sissy. See? So I got up there.
[28:41] And they said, do that. I took off running. And I dove. And I floated all the way to the other side. And climbed out on the other side. They said, you got it. Well, a day or two later, I'm swimming.
[28:53] And I'm in the deep end. And my legs, I weighed 100. Who knows what I weighed then? I weighed 145 when I was 18. But my legs must weigh 250 pounds when I was a 100 pounder. And I was swimming and I couldn't keep up.
[29:04] And I swam and swam and did everything I could. And I got about a foot from the bank in the deep end. And I thought I was going to die. And I was breathing hard.
[29:15] And I was going under. And I kept dog pedaling and kicking and floating to the bottom and kicking myself back up. And a guy walked by and said, you need help, buddy? I said, nope. You know what that meant, don't you?
[29:26] I'd rather drown than admit I need help. Finally, after two or three people offered help, one came by and I said, yeah, I'll take it. If it gets bad enough, you'll take it. Say amen. Can I just say this?
[29:38] Some of you aren't born again this morning. And the reason is because you can swim. And you can kick. And you can jump off the bottom. And your bucket's all right. But here's what happens.
[29:50] Jesus said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And he said that because I deserve to be forsaken. Forsaken. That's a good Tennessean for forsaken.
[30:03] I deserve it. Jesus didn't. And he took my debt. He paid my price so that I could be saved. Who in this room would be honest and say, I just kind of signed the card.
[30:18] And this Christianity stuff hasn't meant as much. I've often wondered why you're so excited about it and others are. And it's never been real to me. Could it be? Would you look at yourself? Would you examine yourself? Are you willing to sit right here today and say, I know you got money.
[30:31] I know you drove in a nice car. And I know you live in a nice house. And I know you got a nice job. But would you just admit, you know, the truth is. I never was willing to admit how needy I was.
[30:45] And if you weren't, would you today? Would you today? He has paid the price. All he needs is you to accept the gift. And it's a gift.
[30:56] It's a gift. You won't pay anything for it. For all of you born again people, it's a gift. That's so wonderful. I can't stand up here this morning and threaten you. We're taking the gift back. You're saved by the wonderful, beautiful, fantastic, absolutely marvelous grace of our God.
[31:13] But if you're here and you're not saved by grace. If you're here and you don't think you ever deserved hell. Today's the day. Trust Jesus. And let him do a work in your life.
[31:23] Father in heaven, I love you. And I praise you. And I thank you for what you're doing. I pray that you would work and move. I pray that you'd show your power in our lives. And I pray God you'd save somebody here that's not saved.
[31:35] I pray God that you would do a work that would bring honor to your name. You have been listening to Austin Gardner, pastor of Vision Baptist Church.
[31:46] For contact information, location, service times, or more audio and video recordings, log on to www.visionbaptist.com.