Case Closed | Pastor Joe Riddle | Pastor Nelson Bowen

So, this, your first time here, let me be one of the first to welcome you, just say man, my name is Pastor B, I got the wonderful privilege of preaching, I think one of the greatest churches on this side of heaven, engaged community church, man, we welcome you guys watching online, we welcome our God-behind-bars family, come on, can we celebrate, we're believing that God is even touching, and discipling, and letting you know that he loves you. And he cares for you, even right where you are, you can be seated, man, I am excited to be having one of my dear, dear friends here today, before I bring him up, let me just kind of tell you where we're going, next week, say next week, we're starting a brand new sermon series called Guests Who's Coming to Dinner, it's gonna be a lot of fun, I'm excited, so we'll be starting that next week, invite some friends and family for part one of that, but today, I've got a dear friend with me, oh, really quick, all the men, what's up, men? Hey, y'all getting louder and louder, come on, women, celebrate that, can I say what's up, men? Yeah, man, excited about what we're doing, this Wednesday at 137, we're gonna hang out, I'm excited to kick with you guys, it's gonna be really good, and wives, don't worry about what we're talking about, we're just doing what we gotta do, you know, but it's gonna be good, but one of my dear friends is with me today, you know, one of the things that I've found in ministry is that, in a lot like life, but definitely in ministry, you have seasonal people, people who will come for a season, and they'll encourage you, and you hang out, and it'll be good, and you get some friends, even, if you're really lucky, you get friends in the ministry, but every now and then, God does covenant things with people, and the person that's in front of us today is a brother, man, we have walked through so many different seasons together, and was one of the original people that actually encouraged me in the calling that I have, and he's no stranger to our ministry at all, I lost track of how many times he's been with us, but what's been incredible is that he's seen us at every stage and journey of it, and will continue to do so, I just love this guy, I think he's a preacher's preacher, he is one of my favorite preachers for sure, and so can we just stand up and give a warm welcome to Pastor Joe Criddle. Well, good morning! How's everyone doing? Alright, alright, well you can take a seat this morning. I loved when we just had a call out to all the men, and they all raised their voice. I just want to hear that one more time, all the men in the house, make some noise. Now, hold that, did you hear what just happened? I'm going to help us understand just the differences between men and women right now, you just heard the men, now all the ladies in the house on three, I need you to say hello, so here we go, ladies, one, two, three. Hello! All the men are like, buh! All the ladies are like, hey! I love it, I love it. Do you guys love your church? Do you guys love your pastors? Does anyone in the house love Jesus today? Come on now. We are in the 11 a.m. service, you guys had that extra bit of time to pray, seek the Lord, get a cappuccino, and now we are going to break open the Word of God. Did you bring your faith? I'm going to pray real quick, we're going to get into it, Lord Jesus, I thank you for the power of your Word. And Jesus, I pray in these coming minutes that we spend together, Lord, I don't need to ask you to anoint your Word because it is already anointed, but I pray, Jesus, would you anoint my words, only your words, Jesus. Lord God, only your words today. Lord, I know that you love these people greatly, and I pray that in this moment I could glorify your name and I could serve them well. And Lord, for every man, every woman in this place today who is far from you, I pray that as we look into your Word, they would feel their hearts strangely warmed by an encounter with your living presence. I ask all of these things in the mighty name of Jesus, we say, amen, amen. I love your church, and it is a joy to be back with you guys. I mean, there are not a lot of churches that worship like you guys do. worship I'm just gonna say that right now and then I've been hanging out with Duran all morning you if you're having a bad day just get around that guy you just feel the joy of the Lord come upon you he's an incredible man and it's good to see mr. Kennedy how are you sir your smiles bigger than ever I know I know God's doing great things in your life but it is always every time I come up it feels more and more like like it's just you're settling in with family and I'm just that crazy uncle from down in Hampton Roads all right that's that's what that's what I am right there crazy uncle Joe right there it is but um you guys have been in a series the case for Christ and it is my joy today to be able to be a part of this moment and land the you all I hope you brought your Bibles we're gonna we're gonna be reading out of the Bible a lot today but I want to open up just with a little moment I encountered a few years ago where I was jumping on the plane with my children and we you know anyone ever travel with your kids before and you know those first couple moments where they get on the plane pure pandemonium anyone know what I'm talking about cuz everything's new everything's crazy everything's like like they're just losing their minds and they get on the plane and we gave them snacks and they're settling into the

seats and they were amazed at how all of these on the armrest they they had these little compartments that they thought were perfect for their snacks right now any parent knows you don't bring snacks on a plane because you're actually worried about your child's hunger it is it is a form of bribery it's all it is right so we had like the full spread you got the cheez-its you've got you know feet on the ground but at 20 feet you need a prayer and you need some sugar and so we're up there and there's like Cheerios there's honey nut Cheerios there's protein Cheerios it's like every kind of Cheerio we got them all and they're just starting to pack them into these little apartments on the armrest and it honestly worked really well except for one problem they were ashtrays so my kids are sitting there looking like pulling caviar out of an ashtray you know they're like look how sophisticated I am and I'm just like oh my gosh and it's a funny moment because the the laws in the land had changed long ago but how many people know every now and again you jump on a plane that used to be in service back when you could smoke on a plane or you get on a train where you used to be able to smoke on that train and and what did all the companies do instead of just getting rid of the planes they just kept using them and that ashtray sat there the design remained but listen to this the meaning was lost so now we got a generation of children we're raising up and they don't know that at one time you could smoke on a plane so they're looking at this thing that came from an earlier time and they're making it into something that makes sense to them the design remained right but the meaning was lost I wonder if we've done the same thing in the body of Christ things that we have inherited from those who have gone before us in the faith the design remains but we don't see the same meaning in it that they saw in it we're almost going through motions here and yet for them it was rooted in something completely different so you're here in the series a case for Christ we're talking about why would it why would a person put their faith in Jesus Christ and week after week since Easter you've been you've been answering that question from different angles of approach and today I want to look at three different things I want to look at

a day I want to look at a table and I want to look at a baptism and by the end of our time together today you'll see why those are important but first John 1 I want to read a few verses as we break into the Word of God today and it says this it says that which was from the beginning which we have heard someone say heard then it goes on and says which we have seen with our eyes someone say seen in which our hands have touched someone say touched concerning the Word of life I love that I love that we're reading here and he's saying hey What I'm about to talk to you about, there are things that I have seen, there are things that I have heard, there are things my own hands have touched concerning the Word of Life. The Life was made manifest, listen to this, and we have seen it, and we testify to it, and we proclaim it to you. The Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was made manifest to us. See, right now we're reading this passage, and he's talking about, I'm bringing you a message, and it carries eternal life. I'm bringing you a message, and there is life in it. It is something I have seen, it is something I have touched, it is something I have heard. And as we're in this conversation about the case for Christ, sometimes it's easy to end up in that place where you're just proclaiming what someone else has seen, what someone else has heard, and what someone else has touched. And I wonder, are we coming into the house of God today where we have seen the things of God, or have we been looking back at the old things of our dead man or woman? Or are we still touching the things of God, or do we have our hands touching the dead things of this world? What is it we are hearing? Are we hearing the message of the world in the spirit of this age? Or do we hear the words of the living God echoing in our mind and in our heart, washing us, redeeming us, reminding us, not of who we are in the eyes of this world, but who we are in the completed work of Christ. See, there's a day, a table, a baptism, these three things we find around the entire world, wherever Christians worship. And it is not by accident. The reason these things keep showing up, because look, one thing you probably have experienced in some way or another is not every church worships the same way. Not every church receives the preaching of the word the same way. Right? Not every single church do you come in and meet the same greeting at the door. Right? There's a church in Nepal I've been working with recently, and whenever you meet a believer in Nepal, they always start with, Jai Maishi, you know?

Like, no one said that to me walking in here today. There's a lot of differences in the global church. But isn't it crazy how no matter where you go, even with all of the cultural diversity, we keep coming back to the same day, the same table, the same baptism. And that's because this is so much more than a tradition. We're responding to something. Something that actually happened. See, every single religion has practices that are held with deep conviction. But what stands out for the Christian faith is this. From the very beginning, following this faith, called believers to risk everything on a single claim. Jesus Christ raised from the grave. That claim from the very beginning of the Christian faith, it cost you something. It cost us something to step into that reality. And my question is, when you look at the history of the church, and the great risks people have taken on, in light of that revelation, you have to ask yourself, how do you explain that way of living? How do you do that? I know there are people in the room today, and you have not placed your faith in Jesus Christ. In your heart, He is a God among other gods. And you know, it gets bad enough, you turn to Him, you ask Him to do you a solid. And then you go back on your way. You know, you do you, boo-boo, right? Like, we do our thing. That's not what it looks like to follow King Jesus. We don't sprinkle Him like our favorite seasoning on a meal. Come on, the call to follow Christ, it's a call of all or nothing. How do you explain a person leaving everything to follow Jesus? There's three things that I think we can look to. to that testify to the reality that Jesus rose from the dead. That's what this entire series is analyzing. This idea of why would you put your faith in Christ?

Why would you believe in Him? Why would you stake your identity on Him? Why would you follow Him at the expense of cultural acceptance, being understood, living the American dream? Following Jesus will cost you. Why do people pay that cost? Why do we pay that price? And there are three things easily overlooked in our church life that testify to the reality that Jesus' resurrection is not a myth, it is not a legend, but it is something that happened. And the first thing is this, there's a reason we worship on a Sunday. Remember I told you earlier we're going to look at three things, we're going to look at a day, we're going to look at a table, we're going to look at a baptism, well the first one, the day, I want to look at this day for a moment and how significant it is. There is a reason we as the people of God worship on Sunday. See historically the Jewish people, what did they do? They worshiped and rested on Saturday. It was called the Sabbath. And the reason they did this is because it marked the completion of God's creation of the earth and then it was on that day, the seventh day, Saturday that He rested. Genesis chapter 2 verses 2 to 3, it says on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done. On what day? The seventh day. Now what day is the seventh day? It's a Saturday. So on Saturday He finished the work He had done and He rested on, it's reminding us again, the seventh day from all of His work. So God blessed the seventh day, He blessed the Saturday and He made it holy because on that day God rested from all of His work that He had done in all of creation.

See in Israel this day, this Sabbath, it was built into their identity. It changed the way that they did commerce, it changed the way they raised their families, it changed their social calendars, it changed the way that they conducted business and interacted with nations. On this seventh day they remembered the Sabbath because it was that day that God finished creating the earth. It was on that day that God rested. And so every single week they took a day out of their week to pause, to recreate His act of resting and to remind themselves that they live under the care in the eye of the God who created everything. It was their identity, it was in their laws. For a good Jewish boy or girl this was not just something that it would be good if you followed it, it was a matter of life and death. Check out Exodus chapter 31 here verses 14 and 15. This shows you how serious the people of God were about keeping Saturday as their day of worship. You shall keep the Sabbath. Now what day is the Sabbath? Saturday, still Saturday. Because it is holy for you. Listen to what happens to someone who doesn't honor the Sabbath. Everyone who profanes this day shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done. But the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest. Holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath shall be put to death. So the people of Israel, they meant business with this idea of worshiping God on a Saturday. If you were found to be profaning the Sabbath, didn't quite get your harvest done and you went out in the field before everyone else woke up and thought you'd just go ahead and

get a few more sheaves done and someone saw you doing it, it was punishable with death. If you didn't get killed for it, you would be cast out of your family. Family reunions, you're not invited anymore. Birthdays, we ain't giving you any. presents right Thanksgiving you better go find a meal at someone else's table right celebrating the Passover you better Passover cuz you're not in this family anymore right you were you were cast out of the family you are not one of us any more that was the nicest response you could receive what was normative was that you would be executed now I want to show you something that is easily overlooked from the earliest days of the church let's go to Acts 20 verse 7 here it's describing worship in the early church on the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread they're talking about communion they're talking about worshiping and Paul talked with them Paul was filling in the pulpit cuz PB was on the road and Paul was talking with them intending to depart on the next day listen to this he prolonged his sermon until midnight I mean Paul was convinced this this word is fire he's just going with it met that morning they're breaking bread they're worshiping there's preaching but more than I want to draw attention to any of that what day of the week was this happening the first day in the first day someone said over here is a Sunday something happened what day were good Jewish people supposed to be in the house of God Saturday but there they're worshiping on a Sunday go to 1st Corinthians 16 to Paul's directing the church in Corinth he's training them of how to be a church of order how to worship rightly it's training them up and becoming the people of God and it says this on the first day of every week each of you is to put something aside and to store it up he's training them in generosity as he may prosper look at right there early church catching the revelation that as I so into the house of God I will prosper so there will be no collecting when I come he's having them prepare to be equipped for a mission of the church but look at the day he describes them coming together to worship did it say on the seventh day of

every week said on the first day of every week so again we're seeing we're seeing a pattern here two different churches and they're both worshiping on a different day than they had all grown up being taught to worship one more example I want to show you Revelation chapter 1 in verse 10 John is on the island of Patmos and he says I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet it's the Lord's Day we're not talking about the sixth day anymore here we're talking about this not not the sixth day not the seventh day we're on the first day we're on the Lord's Day we're talking about it's a Sunday and the way that this is written there's a sense of habit there's a sense of of he's in a pattern in a custom even though he's in exile I want to point out here that you know we live in a day and an age where if Sunday services aren't convenient because your son's got a flag football game you just find a church on a Saturday right Jewish men and women didn't have that kind of freedom he said wait hold on if I break the Sabbath I lose my family or I lose my life there's no like hey menachem's got a basketball game we were we're gonna go ahead and worship on Sunday didn't happen in Israel we live in an age where we order everything around convenience and we started putting church services around when it's convenient and so we thought that at some point people just decided Sunday's better right but here we realized I want you to pause and think the theologian and academic J&D Anderson he wrote and reminds us that most of the first Christians the overwhelming majority of them they were Jewish so that means the first of Christians all came into agreement that as we're following our Savior Jesus Christ, something has happened that is so substantial, so important, that we never want to lose sight of it. We never want to forget it. We never want to lose a revelation. We want to teach our children that something happened. We want our children's children to remember a thing. And so we are going to risk death and excommunication from our families in order to remember this. And they switched to worshiping on the day that Jesus rose from the grave. Now look at

people in the house of God today. I mean, it's an act of God if we can agree on what color the carpet should be. It's easier to pick the paint than it is to get a bill through Congress, right? Like, you look at some of this stuff and you're like, we can't agree about anything, right? Look at all the lack of unity around the global church today. And yet in the midst of all these bits of disunity, we all come together in the house of God on a Sunday. If you take Jesus's resurrection out of the picture, what else could logically cause people to take the risk that the first followers of Jesus took? So the very fact that the people of God, one of the first things they did was they changed their day of worship and that that tradition has maintained through all of time. Look, you don't shift a sacred rhythm without a really good reason. And the only thing that could make sense is that Jesus rose from the dead. The only reason the church has ever said we worship on a Sunday is because Jesus rose from the dead. And then, so that's been the only explanation given. And then you look at what it would have cost those first Christians to make that change, and they made it anyway. You tell me any other reason why all those people would have agreed to make that change. I'll wait. I want you to consider a day. But the second thing I want you to do is I want you to consider a meal. The fact that in the church there's a reason we take communion with great joy. In Luke 22 verses 19 to 20, I know I told you I'm reading a ton of Bible today, but are you guys tracking with me? Someone look at your neighbor and say, I love my Bible. Look at your other neighbor and say, my Bible's better than yours. Luke 22 19. Look at your neighbor and say, but for real. Girls, if you go on a date with a guy in church and his Bible's brand-new, don't date him. Just saying. Just saying. Girls, find you a man whose Bible is falling apart in Jesus' name. And boys, men, if you're dating a girl and she needs to go to the table of contents, she don't know where Genesis is. I'm just saying. God's not done. Let her cook. He's making all things new, but it ain't time. None of that was in my notes. That's just, there's a Boaz in the house and you needed to hear that. 22 19, Jesus took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he gave it

to them saying, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Verse 20, and likewise the cup after they had eaten, he said, this cup that is poured out for you, it is the new covenant in my blood. So it's right here in this passage that we see Jesus institutes communion and it's remembering his death. But what's interesting to me is the early church never seemed to exercise this communion ceremony as an act of mourning. Look at Acts 2 42 for a moment. It says that they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching, to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread. That's talking about communion and prayers. And I'll jump down to verse 46 real quick. And day by day attending the temple together, breaking the bread in their homes. It's talking about communion again. They received their food with glad and generous hearts. There was a gladness to how they observed communion. They received communion with joy. That doesn't make sense if the story ends with someone dying. Where I live we have a massive military community. There are service members who took an oath to defend you and to defend me. And they deployed and they never came home. And we see their spouses, we see their children growing up in the house of God without that parent. We remember them. We say their names. We talk about them. And there's good things that we remember but there is a pain of their absence. It's not all joy in that moment. My first wife, she passed away after a 13-year journey with brain cancer. And I remember her and I talk about her with my children. And we remember and we tell stories and when something reminds us we go there. And there's joy but there's also this sense of like a piece of glass stabbed through your heart and just turned around. There's a sadness that I will not know a removal from until I'm on the other side of eternity. But we don't see that sadness here. First Corinthians chapter 15, one of my favorite passages of Scripture. Paul is teaching again. I think this passage doesn't get nearly enough attention in pulpits. It's like one of my all-time favorite passages. Listen to what Paul says in verse 17 and following of chapter 15. He says, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. So what is he

saying? He's saying it's not enough that Jesus just died for you because of all that happened was he died. You are still in your sins. So if you're taking communion and all you remember is that Jesus died, that's not enough to change anything. He goes on and says it's futile. It is a waste of energy, a waste of time, a waste of your life. He says, then also then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. In other words, what is he saying? He's saying if Jesus died for you but he didn't come back from the grave, your faith is a waste and every single person that believed in him didn't get anything out of it. They are in that grave d-e-a-d dead. If all that Jesus did is he died, then I will never see my first wife ever again. She is forever gone. My children will never be reunited with their birth mother. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people the most to be pitied. So in other words, if all you get out of Jesus is you're happy, clappy, and blessed in this life, but it doesn't change anything of eternity and the only way eternity is changed is if he raises from the grave, then he says you are to be the most pitied. It's Mr. T in your Bible, I pity the fool. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Jesus Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ is the first fruit. And then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. So what is it about how they celebrate a communion that brought them joy? It's because they're remembering the story doesn't end in death. They knew Jesus was resurrected. If Jesus wasn't resurrected, then all of the hopes that they had for freedom and meaning and liberation from the oppression of Rome and the systems of this world, it would have all been nothing. But they kept following the teachings, why? Because he had appeared to them alive.

Because they knew this man is resurrected. I saw him die with my own eyes. And then he showed up teaching the church for 40 more days. There's a reason we take communion with great joy. And then the last thing I want to point out is there's a reason we baptize believers. The command for baptism comes out of Matthew 28, 19. Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We are commanded to be baptized. I want to encourage you, if you are on this journey with Jesus, you recently came to Christ in this church and you have not yet been baptized, if you want to know what's my next step in this journey with Jesus while you walk out of this church auditorium today, I want you to find one of the volunteers of this church and say, how do I sign up to be baptized? Well, why should I do it? We're going to talk about why it's important to be baptized right here. Go to Romans chapter 6 with me. We've got two more passages of scripture we're reading. Someone say, land the plane. Land the plane. All right, I'll do it, I'll do it. Romans chapter 6, we're looking at verse 3 and following. It says this. It says, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were also baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glories of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like this, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. Look at verse 8. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. So Paul is saying, why do we get baptized? It's not just to identify with the fact that Jesus died for me. You're also identifying with the fact that Jesus was resurrected for you. Colossians 2 verse 12, my last verse. Paul quickly says, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. Baptism is not a fresh start. Baptism is not something we do just to keep the church calendar full. Baptism is not something we do just so you've got an excuse to invite somebody to church. Baptism is not something we do just for you to post on social media and prove how spiritual you are. Baptism declares that my Savior died for me and he raised for me. And I will raise with him. It is a reenactment that what happened in the life of my Savior is happening in me. I no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in me. It is Christ who lives in me. When I get baptized, it is a profession to the world that there is a man named Jesus. He came to this earth. He lived a sinless life. He perfectly fulfilled the will of God the Father. He was crucified on a cross. He was laid in a grave. Wasn't kind of dead, almost dead, a slight of hand. He was D-E-A-D, dead. He was laid dead in that grave, but then he rose up on a Sunday.

He appeared to the disciples. He appeared to his followers. He gave them the great commission. He breathed on them that they would receive the Holy Spirit. He ascended into heaven. He was seated at the right hand of the Father. In Jewish culture, the right hand is the hand of authority. He's in that seat, and he's praying into the ear of God the Father for every man and woman that is called by his name. He doesn't pray for you as someone who is other than him. He prays for you as one who is in him, who are in Christ. And right now, he rules over all the cosmos. Devil doesn't have a problem with you believing that he rules if he can limit what you think he rules over. I didn't say that Jesus rules over everyone that looks like you, talks like you, votes like you, worships like you. No, even those people who are torn from the floor up and they just are filled with hate and bigotry and anger and pride and jealousy and rage and malice, evil and corrupted, he rules over them too. And there will come a day when all of the world will bow at the knee and will confess with their mouths, you are Lord. And we baptize to declare that to this world. Why would a church center entry into the faith on going underwater like a grave and coming out like resurrection life if nobody believed Jesus actually rose to life himself? You don't call people to a public act that mirrors a resurrection if it never happened. We started with a simple question, why? Why a day? Why a baptism? Why a meal? It's not because we need a tradition or structure.

These are responses to the fact that Jesus got up out of that grave. I want to speak right now to every man, every woman in the room who is far from God and you know it. Every other world religion is about man going off in search of God. But Christianity alone tells the story of God coming and looking for me, of God coming and looking for you. One of the severest mercies God worked into my heart on the other side of my wife passing away is this, the gospel is so much more real to me. You're in this place today, you know what I've found, I've never had to explain to a person that they're far from God, they already know it. And I'm not here to talk you into following Jesus, if I can talk you into it so I'm going to talk you out of it. I am right now talking to people who you know you are far from God and you know you need saving. You've tried to build your own life, to get what's yours, to live the American dream, and it feels like the harder you try, the messier things become. You've been searching, but you can't find what you're looking for. You drink of the best of what this world has to give, and you find yourself even more thirsty. You eat and you get your fill, but you're never satisfied. You store up money only to feel like it's going in a pocket full of holes. In Isaiah, the God who knows you by name, he says, come to me, you who have no money, eat and drink. Come to me just the way that you are. Come to me in your brokenness, come to me in your insecurity, come to me with your guilt, come to me with your shame, come to me with your hurt, come to me with your abuse, come to me with your frustration, come to me with your tiredness, come to me with your comparison, come to me with your insecurity, come to me with your pride, come to me with those parts of you that you're afraid to show anyone and everyone. Come to me with all of it, and I will give you rest. For I am gentle and lowly.

If you could fix yourself, you would have done it by now. But you are where you are because none of us can fix ourselves. Paul put it this way, no one is righteous. No, not one. We're in a world that's constantly looking for equality. You know what I love about the gospel is it gives us the equality we all so badly want. I'm a moral failure. So are you. I can't fix myself, and neither can you. Our humanity is broken. God in his mercy and kindness didn't make a path to saving us. This way for this people, and that way for that people. He says, call upon the name of the Lord. Be saved. You are in this place, and you know you need saving. I want to pray for you right now. I'm not going to ask you to lift your hand. I'm not going to call you to the front of the room, but right where you sit, I'm going to ask you to lift your hand. As you're lifting your hand, you're saying, Jesus, I have sinned. What does that mean? It means I have lived the way the world taught me to live, but I realize now it is empty, and it cannot provide what I've been looking for. So Jesus, I'm turning my back on the world, and I'm going to follow you. Show me how to live my life. You're not asking Jesus to just be another part of your story. You're cashing in everything the world tried to give you. You're turning your back on all of that, and you're saying, Jesus, I'm following you. Teach me how to live. Show me how to walk.

You are the source of life. We're going all in with you, Jesus. That is you in this place. We saw many people in the last service make that decision. I know there's people here right now ready to do the same once again. That is you in this place. Every head bowed, every eye closed. When I count to three, I want you to lift your hand high enough and long enough for me to see it. By lifting your hand, you're saying, Joe, pray for me. I want to be forgiven of my sins. I want to know Jesus. I want to walk in his resurrection life. That is you in this place. One, two, three, go ahead and lift your hand this morning. I see your hand there, another hand there, another hand there, another hand there, another hand there. I see another hand over there. I see another hand here. I see a hand right here, a hand right here, a hand right there, a hand right there. I see another hand right over there. I see another hand in the back there. Anyone else see here? And you haven't yet lifted your hands. Christians in prayer, I just saw another hand right over there. Anyone else see here right now? Haven't yet lifted your hand. Come on, Christians in prayer right now, just a moment more. There's another hand right there. There's another hand right there.

Come on, anyone else? Haven't yet lifted your hand. Come on, just one moment. Someone in here and you feel like, man, I started following God. I turned my back on him. I went back to the world. He won't take me back again. Yes, he will. Yes, he will. With man, some things are impossible. But with God, all things are possible. I don't know who that person is, but you have not yet lifted your hand. I sense in my heart right now there's a person here. You have not yet lifted your hand. And God has put this service on hold because he wants you to know he sees you. He's calling you back to him. You walked with him very closely at one point. But you know in your heart you will walk far from him and he's calling you back. No one looking around but me right now Who is that person? Waiting just a moment more. Who is that person? That's you in this place. Put your hand up right now. I see that hand I see that hand Church can we thank God for every single decision Let's pray this prayer together right now Pray this prayer together right now Dear Jesus I call to you Forgive me. I have followed the world but today I Turn to you and I ask you to have mercy And to forgive me

Take my sin. I Receive your love Teach me how to walk with you Jesus And everybody said amen Come on one more time. Let's give God a shout of praise Hallelujah God Hallelujah if you all stand to your feet. Can we get up to Mr. Joe Riddle again Pastor Joe and that's what we call y'all case closed Have an amazing week. We love you. Jesus loves you boy. You are dismissed Worthy you will be forever. Worthy you were, worthy you are. Worthy you will be forever. Worthy you were, worthy you are.