Father, we often do not know the state of our own heart.
We flatter ourselves too much to detect or hate our own sin.
We don't really know, Father, the devices and desires of our own hearts.
So, Father, we are so thankful that you know everything there is to know about us and still you love us.
We thank you, Father, that your Holy Spirit moves to bring your word to our heart, the center of who we are, the command center of our lives.
And we ask, Father, that you would do that wonderful work in our lives this morning of bringing your word to the center of who we are,
that we might know Jesus, that we might love Jesus, that we might trust him,
that we might know how great a thing he accomplished for us in his life and in his death upon the cross and resurrection.
We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Please be seated.
So, when I was ordained back in those days, by the way, we're having problems with lighting because the way they set the light up.
Just start waving at me if I keep walking into the darkness and you can't see me.
Unless you don't like seeing me, and then you can just stay like this.
Just stay there, whatever.
And I'll just sort of look and figure out who's picking the most move.
Anyway, never mind.
So, I spent a couple years in a suburban church and then in the diocese that I was part of back then.
The way it worked is when you get ordained, you get paid a very tiny bit of money and you get a bit of a raise.
As long as you keep breathing, you keep getting small raises.
And so, basically, there were a lot of churches in the diocese that their entire model was having...
Well, it was sort of a...
What it was, it was sort of a vampire model of organizing your church.
Every couple of years, they'd say,
What we need around here is some new blood.
And so, they'd hire you because you were cheap.
And actually, it was very funny.
When I went to my first church out in the country, they basically said to me right of the way,
It's so good to have you here.
You're cheap.
We know you're only going to be here a couple of years because then you move into a higher pay bracket and you'll have to move along.
So, we like you right now because we need you to do the things that we do and we need you to be cheap.
And that's just the way things worked.
In fact, we did eventually move, but we didn't move.
The church had grown.
They could have continued to afford me, but God called us to this particular church.
One of the things we struggle with in life, if we think about it,
is coming to realize that at some point in time in our lives, people don't need us.
It can be very hard for moms and dads when the kids all leave and the kids don't need you anymore.
And in a far more personal and far more threatening type of way, it can also be very hard.
In a room of this size, there are probably several of us who've been divorced.
And maybe we're still living with divorce.
Maybe some of us have remarried.
But we've lived with this great problem, this great tearing in our lives because the person who loved us found somebody better.
Or at least that's what they thought.
And we're no longer needed.
We're no longer loved.
I was talking a couple of years ago to a couple of people, and they were all sharing about a particular movie.
And this particular movie, which I had also seen, it was about a young guy who had a very deep relationship with this young woman,
but he never wanted to marry her because he was always worried about how he could ever marry one particular person when he might meet somebody better later on.
And one of the young women was saying it was too painful for her to watch that movie.
About halfway into it, she had to leave.
Because it was touching at a very, very deep fear in her life that at that time that she would never marry.
And the reason she would never be able to marry wasn't that she wasn't able to commit,
but that all of the fellows that she'd had any dealings with were always basically looking for something better.
And so it's a very deep-seated, this complex of issues of struggling with the fact at some points in our time, in our lives,
people leave us because they don't need us anymore.
It doesn't seem like they love us anymore because they don't need us.
And we're this pattern of people always looking for something, or just being open to something better,
whatever that means, and leaving us alone.
And the love breaks, the love ends, and it's just hard sometimes to live our lives that way.
Some of us here this morning might, in fact, still be living with very deep wounds connected to this.
Believe it or not, the Bible text that I read a little bit earlier
actually speaks in a very powerful way to our fear.
And it's one of the curiosities of our heart that many of us, when we read the text,
don't actually realize that it's actually addressing something very deeply,
something deep in our heart that we worry about.
So it'd be a great help to me if you would open your Bibles and turn with me to John chapter 5.
John chapter 5.
And for those of you, I don't know what's up on the screen above me.
Oh, we already have one of the paintings.
What we're doing is we're going through John's gospel, and we're up to John chapter 5,
and here's how the text goes.
After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
And just pause, if you're a guest here, one of the characteristics,
if you read the Old Testament, one of the characteristics of the Old Testament is
that there are several times of worship that are also called feasts.
I mean, literally, one of the ways that you worship God is by eating a lot
and drinking a lot, all to the glory of God.
That's just the way God set it up.
And this is one, it could have been several ones.
John decides not to tell us which one it is, but it's for one of those.
And Jesus goes to Jerusalem to be right where the temple is so that he, as a good and observant Jew,
can take part in the feast.
We'll read it again.
Verse 1.
After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now, there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda,
which has five-roofed colonnades.
Colonades?
I don't know how to pronounce it.
In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed.
One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years.
Now, just pause for a second.
And those of you who are following along, some of you, if you have a King James version of the Bible,
you say, George just skipped part.
And others of you who are very keen readers notice that it goes from verse number 3 to verse number 5.
Now, this is actually just an important little aside.
The title of this sermon series is Knowing Jesus, John's Intimate Biography.
And one of the things about this, which we now call the Gospel of John,
which is really just one of the four ancient biographies of Jesus,
written by an eyewitness and, in fact, a person who was with Jesus for all of these different things.
He was with Jesus his entire public ministry.
One of the things that Christians have a concern for is to actually know what the original text actually is.
And over time, archaeologists keep finding more and more ancient copies of manuscripts, copies of the Bible.
Because up until the printing press, every time somebody wanted a copy of the Bible,
some person had to sit down and write it out by hand.
And then they would give it to a person.
And one of the common misconceptions of the Christian faith is either that we can't know what the original writing was,
or that somehow or another some crazy monks or the crazy church went and moved things around and changed things around,
take out the bits that they didn't like and add parts that they did like.
And those are complete and utter misconceptions.
It's not what works at all.
That, in fact, there's scholars throughout the world, Christian, non-Christian,
who find these ancient manuscripts.
And there's actually a scientific method whereby you can look at all of the manuscripts,
and you can date them.
And as archaeologists find more and more and more ancient manuscripts,
Christians who just want to know what the actual text says,
adjust the text.
And one of the amazing things about it is if you go and take a King James version of the Bible,
and you take ours, and a modern version will have some of the bits taken out,
you'll see that not a single important doctrine of Christian belief has ever been affected
by the newest archaeological findings.
Not one.
That the copyists, because they desire to copy accurately,
and because it was actually a craft, a trade, where you were trained,
they actually did a remarkably good job.
But occasionally, you find a small difference.
Now, what part was left off?
A part about an angel coming in and stirring the water.
It doesn't affect anything to do with the gospel or Christian doctrines.
But because Christians desire to know what the Bible actually says,
these adjustments are made as time goes on.
By the way, so whenever, if you talk to a Muslim and they say you don't know what's in the Bible,
last time I had that happen to me, I just smiled.
I thought, oh, I am so glad to myself.
I thought to myself, I am so glad you raised that particular question.
And I started to explain it to him, and I started to talk to him about how, in fact,
the Koran is not, in fact, questioned in the same type of way that the Koran,
it's uncertain what exactly...
Anyway, at some point in time, he just decided he would change the topic.
But the point is that we as Christians can have...
And actually, not just Christians.
Anybody can have a very, very great confidence.
You might still think it's nonsense, okay?
But with every passing day, our confidence that this is actually what John wrote
gets stronger and stronger and stronger.
Science and archaeology makes our confidence in this higher and higher and higher as time goes on.
Anyway, that was a long...
Where were we?
Verse 5.
Okay, we're talking about our fears of being abandoned.
We'll read verse 5 again.
And one man was there by the pool who had been an invalid for 38 years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time...
See, Jesus is showing divine knowledge.
Jesus says to the man, do you want to be healed?
And the sick man answered him...
Now, in English, it's hard to communicate what just happens right now.
But in the original language, the man gives a sarcastic answer.
The man doesn't say,
Oh, Jesus, I'm so glad you came here.
I've heard stories about you.
I know you can heal me.
I've been praying to God that you would come here
because I know you can heal me.
I've heard all about you.
Please heal me.
No, the guy's answer is he basically flips Jesus off.
He says...
You know, basically he's saying,
Dude, I'm here all by myself.
I can't get in the water to be healed.
Like, why are you asking me this stupid question?
That's what's being...
But in English, it's not as obvious.
But that's actually the heart of...
In fact, it's part of the shocking nature of this story.
As the story goes on, this man becomes revealed as more and more of a miserable, ungrateful, sarcastic, backbiting, betraying guy.
That's how the story unfolds.
And so it begins.
So Jesus says to him, Do you want to be healed?
The sick man says,
Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up,
and while I am going, another steps down before me.
Duh.
No, the duh's not there, but it's implied.
Duh.
And how does Jesus respond to him?
Does Jesus say to his disciples,
Gosh, this...
Like, why is this guy flipping me off?
Like, I'm trying to be nice to this guy,
and he just gives me this sarcastic answer.
Doesn't he know what I can do for him?
Is that what Jesus says?
No.
What is Jesus?
Jesus heals him.
The guy's not expecting Jesus to heal him,
doesn't believe that Jesus can heal him,
doesn't ask Jesus to heal him.
In fact, his response is a sarcastic putting him away.
What does Jesus do?
Verse 8.
Jesus said to him,
Get up, take up your bed, and walk.
And at once, the man was healed,
and he took up his bed and walked.
And by the way, partly what John is doing,
and if you've been here for the other sermons,
John keeps putting in little bits of historical detail.
In fact, if you go on the Dig and Delve website
from a couple of years ago,
Craig Evans shares how there's a variety of different
Israeli Jewish archaeologists
who use the New Testament to find more sites in Jerusalem
because of its accuracy.
So these Jewish archaeologists read the New Testament
so they can go looking where to find things
that were destroyed over the years.
And so in this particular story,
what is being emphasized is the wow of the miracle.
This guy's been an invalid for 38 years,
and Jesus, just by his mere willing it,
heals the man to the extent that he can stand up,
pick up his mat, and walk away.
It increases the wow, the nature, how big the miracle is.
So how is the man going to respond to this?
Remember I've sort of said to you,
as the story goes on,
it shows how miserable this guy is.
He'd be one of these guys that if you were in a hospital
or if you were a social worker,
after you've dealt with him,
you'd go, gosh, I don't like that guy.
Maybe you'd go home and tell your husband or your wife
about how miserable and unthankful the person was,
had to deal with this person.
We came, we gave him free medicine,
we fixed him all up,
and all he did was give us lip.
And that's what happened.
Look, continue reading the rest of verse now.
Now that day was the Sabbath.
So the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed,
it is the Sabbath and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.
Now just pause.
Andrew, could you put up the first point, please?
I'm not going to go into it very much,
but just so you know,
Jesus does not tell the man to do anything
which goes against what the Bible says.
He tells the man to break a religious tradition,
not a command of God.
I'm not going to go into it very much,
but it's not, Jesus doesn't say,
you know, go ahead,
I know the Old Testament says this,
but go ahead and do it anyway.
It's just a tradition that they have.
There's nowhere in the Bible that it says,
nowhere in the Old Testament that says,
you can't carry your mat on the Sabbath.
Okay?
But they have a tradition around it.
Anyway, so these, the religious leaders,
they say to this guy,
they don't know anything about him being healed.
Okay?
All they see is a guy carrying,
they're mat on the Sabbath.
They're like the religious police.
They, they're busy bodies.
And these religious busy bodies go up against the guy
and says, you're not supposed to be doing this.
Verse 11.
So how does the man answer him?
Well, the man says in verse 11,
the man who healed me,
that man said to me,
take up your bed and walk.
Now, just notice there,
there's two things here.
The first thing is,
he basically tries to pass the buck.
He wants to get out of trouble.
So he's going to put it on Jesus.
Like that's a really good,
grateful way to express your gratitude.
And he tries to put it on Jesus.
It's not my fault.
Whoa.
No harm, no fault.
Oh, just was him over there,
somewhere over there.
He was going to tell me,
you should go get him
because you should be mad at him,
not me.
And, and how do the,
how do the religious leaders say,
respond to that?
Verse 12.
Now, we're not going to go into it very much,
but one of the things about the gospel
is the gospels are the most profound critique of religion
in all of literature.
You don't have to read Christopher Hitchens.
You don't have to read Dawkins.
You don't have to read those people to have a critique of religion.
You just got to read the Bible.
And, and here all the way through this text is a profound critique of religion.
And religion is any type of, you know,
organizing your,
your life around worship or meaning in any type of way that excludes the gospel.
Can be Christian churches.
Can end up becoming really just religious places,
not actually places where the gospel is centered.
So how do they show this critique?
So this guy says,
uh,
okay,
I'm,
I'm carrying this because a guy healed me and told me to walk.
And,
uh,
and they asked him verse 12,
who is the man who said to you,
take up your bed and walk?
Like,
see,
this is the subtle critique of religion.
They don't say,
really,
you got healed.
Really?
Like,
what did you get healed of?
They're not even interested in that.
You know,
it's really funny because if in fact a miracle had happened,
only God could do this.
You'd think that religious people would be interested in God.
But religious people aren't really interested in God.
They're interested in their traditions.
Because you see,
often religion is used to inoculate us against the true and living God.
So they don't even ask any question at all about the miracle.
They just said,
who is the man who said to you,
take up your bed and walk?
Verse 13.
How does the man respond?
Now,
the man who had been healed did not know who it was.
For Jesus had withdrawn as there was no crowd,
as there was a crowd in the place.
Just pause.
So who's this guy?
Jesus comes up.
You want to be healed?
You know,
sarcastic answer.
Jesus heals him.
He's not even grateful.
He doesn't say,
for 38 years I've been lame.
You just healed me.
Who are you?
The guy's completely and utterly uninterested.
He just leaves.
When something comes against him by the religious police,
he tries to say,
don't blame me,
it's this guy's fault.
Verse 14.
It gets worse.
Afterward,
Jesus found the man in the temple and said to him,
see,
you are well,
sin no more,
that nothing worse may happen to you.
The man went away
and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
In other words,
okay,
you want to find the guy?
His name's Jesus.
Like,
he betrays Jesus.
He betrays Jesus.
Now,
here's a very,
very good question.
Why on earth did Jesus heal that guy?
I mean,
how many of you are wondering that?
Like,
why on earth did Jesus heal this guy?
Sarcastic,
absolutely no faith,
completely and utterly ungrateful,
passing the buck,
getting Jesus in trouble,
betraying him.
Why on earth would Jesus heal someone like that?
Now,
why do Christians ask that question?
The reason we ask that question
is that we want to sneak in
the belief
that the reason we are Christians
is because we're worthy.
You see,
for those of you who are guests,
this is an evangelical church.
Evangelical Christians
are supposed to know
that we're saved.
How are we made right with God?
By grace alone,
through faith alone,
in Christ alone.
That God doesn't weigh up
how many good things I have in my life.
He pardons my offenses.
In fact,
if you could put up
the next point,
Andrew,
and the next point,
I thought,
it's just a quote from the Bible.
But God shows his love for us
in that while we were still sinners,
in other words,
completely and utterly unworthy,
far from God,
turning our back on God,
walking away from God,
Christ died for us.
He dies for us
when we're bad.
He dies for us
when we don't want him to die.
He dies for us
when we think
we are like little gods.
He dies for us
when we are still sinners.
And we know
that this is the case.
But in fact,
if you could put up
the next point,
Andrew,
that would be great.
I keep sneaking in
the belief
that I am worthy
of God's love
and power
because of who I am
and what I've done.
See,
that's why we find
this text very,
very,
once you actually see
what's going on
in the text,
Jesus heals
a completely
and utterly
massively
unworthy
person
that if we were doing,
and in fact,
it's even actually
sort of emphasized
by the fact
that one of his complaints
to the God,
to Jesus,
is,
for 38 years
I've been lying here
and I don't have
any friends or family
that want to help me.
Like,
his personality problems
have been going on
a long time.
Some of you have
heard me this story,
this is quite a few years ago,
I did a,
I was asked by a funeral home
to do a funeral
for a man
who dropped dead at work,
one of those brain aneurysms
that just,
he's just,
all of a sudden
he just dies.
And I do the funeral
and the guy was,
I don't know,
in his mid-40s.
So you think
that a guy
who's in his mid-40s
who dies
in a large government office
at work,
how big do you think
the funeral would be?
And he has a wife
and three kids.
You think it's going
to be a big funeral?
Okay,
six people at the funeral.
Six people at the funeral.
His ex-wife
and his three kids
aged,
I think,
roughly,
you know,
20,
18,
and 13.
13-year-old was a girl.
Not a single tear
was shed at the funeral.
And there's only that
six or seven people
at the funeral.
And I said to myself,
what type of man
was this
that could die
in such a manner?
And only these six
or seven people
would come to the funeral.
And his 13-year-old girl
daughter
would not shed
a single tear.
What type of a man
was this?
And I never know
because,
in fact,
it was a funeral home funeral.
There was no reception
afterwards.
Everybody just went
their separate ways.
I came,
I did the service,
and I went home.
I never have the answer
to that.
Maybe this guy
that Jesus healed
is something like that.
And in our heart of hearts,
even for Christians,
we wonder,
why would God
heal a man?
Why would Jesus do that?
And the reason
we ask that question
is that we think
it's connected
to worthiness.
Because you and I
keep sneaking in
to our walk
with Jesus
that
I actually am
sort of worthy.
nothing personal.
I'm a little bit
more worthy
than the rest of you,
you know?
And I don't know,
maybe there's 140 people
in here,
and probably every one
of the 140 of us,
we're Canadians,
okay?
So we're not going to say
I'm more worthy
than 139,
but as Canadians,
we might say
I'm more worthy
than 100 of you.
Right?
Because we'd know
it'd be too sinful
to say 139
of you aren't
as worthy as me,
but I'm more worthy
than 100 of you,
and every one of us
is saying that
in our heart of hearts.
And we think
that when things
go wrong
in our life,
that maybe we are
having trouble
in our marriage,
or we're having
problems with our kids,
or we're having
trouble at work,
or we have
health problems,
and all of a sudden
we feel as if God
is very, very far
from us,
and the reason is
is that
there has snuck
into how
we understand
and see ourselves
is that somehow
or another
whatever blessings
I have is because
of some type
of worthiness,
and now
I no longer
have that external
success
that the saved
should have,
and so we don't
want to be around
other Christians
because at the end
of the day
it is very,
very hard
for you and me
to believe
that I am saved
by grace alone,
through faith alone,
in Jesus
alone.
And part of it
is because we
don't know
who God is.
John's gospel
is about,
one of the things
that John's gospel
is all about
is that Jesus
introduces God.
Those of you
who have been here,
what I've been saying
almost every week,
I need to start
saying to Canadians
that in terms
of the God
that most Canadians
believe exists,
I am an atheist.
I believe in the God
that is introduced
by Jesus.
And I believe
that Jesus introduces
the God
that really exists,
that truly does exist,
that is unknown,
apart from Jesus.
If, Andrew,
could you put up
the next point?
And one of the things
which God,
Jesus reveals
about God
is that God
has no need love.
He is only
gift love.
God
has no needs.
So part of my
need love
is,
you know,
human,
we human,
you know,
we know what need love is.
We want to be needed
and we love it,
you know,
when our kids are young
and they need us
and sometimes
that just
bothers the heck
out of us
but other times
we just so love it
and we really know
we love it
when they no longer
need us
and they don't
want us around.
And we like to think
that there's something
about us
that's worthy
and that the other
person really needs
that will keep us
together
and that's fine.
You know why
it's fine on one level?
Because in fact
the matter is
that human beings
are just one
unending need.
I am one
unending need.
I needed my parents
to conceive me
for me to exist
and I think
I'm a god.
I couldn't even
bring about
my own existence.
No human being
can.
and everything
every second
every microsecond
I am one
unending need
for oxygen
for gravity
for food
for people around
I needed to learn
a language
I didn't invent
it myself
if you do invent
a language yourself
it's sort of called
not learning
how to speak
it's actually
not a good thing
but a problem
you just keep
making up
your own language
the only person
in the world
who speaks
that language
that's called
failure
to learn a language
not a sign
that you are God
okay
we all know that
we're one
unending need
and part of the mystery
part of the things
which other religions
whether it's Islam
or Buddhism
or Hinduism
and especially
atheism
cannot account for
it's easy to account
for the fact
that human beings
are selfish
in love
and they want
a type of
self-centered
need type of love
the hard thing
for all those religions
to explain
is the fact
that there's
sometimes
that we do rise
to gift love
just
with nothing
expected in return
there's many
many years ago
we had this
in fact
when I was
the students
connected to the church
used to call it
the slum mobile
I had this
really terrible
big old
12-seater van
and we
took this
12-seater van
all rusted
and everything
like that
but it ran
and we took
it to Nova Scotia
had a bit
of a holiday
and way back
there was some
problems
and we pulled
into a garage
and the guy
looked at me
the Ontario plates
nine kids
looked at the van
and Ontario plates
Nova Scotia
and he said to me
you know what
I'll look at this
right away
for you
and he looked at it
right away
and he fixed it
and he said
you know what
no charge
hope you make it
back safely
I'll never see
that guy again
that was just
pure gift love
all of us
have been recipients
of just pure gift love
but the fact of the matter
is God has no needs
he just
he is only gift love
he only gives
he does not need
anything from human beings
and to try to understand
that God doesn't need
my worthiness
he doesn't need
my strength
he doesn't need
my abilities
he doesn't need
anything in me
at all
that his only
relationship to me
is pure
pure
gift love
and on one hand
as a human being
who wants to feel
needed
who wants to feel
worthy
it almost feels
like I'm naked
in public
to think that
God relates
to me only
and utterly
and completely
by gift love
and there's no
need love
in him at all
and it feels
like I am
naked
and powerless
and it doesn't
feel good
but that is
the
God is unfailing
and God is the
only being
in the universe
who has no needs
and if he
puts his love
on me
as a gift
there is nothing
more secure
than to be
connected to the
God
who is only
gift love
and has no
needs
his love
will never
tire
his love
will never
come to an end
his love
will never
find someone
better
because he's
not looking
for better
he doesn't
need anything
he's just
love
there is no
more secure
relationship
than we can
have
than with the
God
who truly
does exist
who's revealed
by Jesus
Christ
that is only
love
only gift love
with no
need
could you put up
the next point
Andrew
in this is love
not that we
have loved
God
but that he
loved us
and sent his
son
to be the
propitiation
for our sins
in this
is love
not that we
have loved
God
but that he
loved us
and sent his
son
to be the
propitiation
for our sins
this is such a
powerful text
if you think
about this text
one of the things
which is so
remarkable about
this text
in the previous
miracle
how did the
miracle work
in the previous
miracle you can
go back and
read it
the guy comes
he says to
Jesus
Jesus I really
need you to
heal
my son
and his
son is 35
kilometers away
and he says I
really need you to
come and heal
my son
and Jesus
just looks at
the nobleman
the high
official and
just says go
your son will
be healed
and the guy
believes Jesus
and goes
and finds out
the next day
that the moment
that Jesus said
that and that he
left the son
was healed
but in this case
there's nothing
like that
remember how
does the miracle
work
the guy doesn't
know who
Jesus is
the guy doesn't
care who
Jesus is
the guy has
no hope
doesn't believe
that Jesus
can heal him
has no expectation
makes no request
whatsoever
the guy isn't even
asked to do
something before
he's healed
Jesus just
heals him
and after he's
healed the guy
can get up
and the guy is
completely and
utterly ungrateful
completely and
utterly unthankful
all these bad
things
everything that
is done for
the man's
healing is
done by Jesus
why
because he is
gift love
and so it is
with our
relationship with
Christ
Jesus does
everything to
heal the man
the man does
nothing
he must do
everything to
give us eternal
life
I can do
nothing
he must do
everything to
defeat death
I can do
nothing
he must do
everything to
deal with
death's cause
which is sin
I can do
nothing
he does
everything when
I am completely
and utterly
unworthy
he does
everything out
of gift love
and not need
love
this my
friends is
the gospel
this is
Jesus
this is what
he does
for you
and for
me
all he
says
is you
just put
your hands
out
our arms
aren't even
long enough
to reach
Jesus
his arms
reach ours
it's his
holy spirit
coming into
us
that gives
us this
life
he does
it all
we do
nothing
that is
the gospel
that is
the gospel
and we
are to
be gripped
by his
unfailing
love
his great
victory
please stand
if there
is any
here who
has not
yet given
their life
to Jesus
hopefully
you now
have heard
that if
you are
waiting to
make yourself
worthy
that's not
the way
to go
if you
feel
that your
life has
been so
wrecked
that Jesus
would never
even pay
any attention
to you
now you
know that
that's not
true
there is
no better
time than
right now
to say
Jesus
could you
be my
savior
and my
lord
I now
know
that I
am unworthy
that you
do everything
and that you
do everything
to make me
right with
God
that I
might receive
eternal life
and live with
you forever
you do it
all
and there's
no better
time than
now to
make that
transaction
with God
in the name
of Jesus
and say
Jesus
I am not
worthy
you have
done it
all
it's all
your love
please take
me as
your child
come into
my life
and never
let me
go
there's no
better time
than now
to pray
that prayer
and for
all of us
who are
Christians
there is
no better
time than
just to do
a bit of
business
with Jesus
and say
Jesus
I confess
I've been
slipping in
to think
that it's
about my
worthiness
my abilities
my power
and
Lord
I just
thank you
that it's
all you
all your
love
all your
grace
all your
power
all your
salvation
it's all
you
your
endless
gift
love
grip me
with who
you are
grip me
with who
Jesus
is
let's
bow our
heads
in prayer
father
if there
are
those
here
who
are
still
searching
or
seeking
or
maybe
they
came
as
skeptics
father
I ask
that your
holy
spirit
would
move
gently
but
powerfully
in
their
hearts
if
there
are
those
here
father
who
can
feel
Jesus
knocking
at
the
door
of
their
hearts
father
I ask
that
your
holy
spirit
would
move
in
their
lives
that
this
would
be
the
time
that
they
respond
to
that
knocking
and
open
the
door
and
look
your
son
in
the
eye
and
say
Jesus
I
am
not
worthy
please
come
and
be
my
savior
and
live
within
me
forever
and
for
father
for
those
here
like
myself
who
are
followers
of
Jesus
we
confess
before
you
once
again
how
we
sneak
in
our
worthiness
and
we
thank
you
father
for
Jesus
we
thank
you
for
his
unending
gift
love
we
thank
you
father
that
our
eternal
life
our
salvation
the
putting
away
of
our
shame
and
our
sin
the
clothing
of
Christ
righteousness
that
it's
all
him
father
make
us
disciples
of
Jesus
who
are
gripped
by
the
gospel
learning
to
live
for
your
glory
and
all
these
things
we
ask
in
the
name
of
Jesus
your
son
and
our
savior
amen