Everything for One Thing

I just want to speak the name of Jesus, over every heart and every mind. Cause I know there is peace within your presence, I speak Jesus. I just want to speak the name of Jesus, till every dark addiction starts to break. Clearing there is hope and there is freedom, I speak Jesus. Your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life. Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, burn like a fire. I just want to speak the name of Jesus, over fear and all anxiety. To every soul held captive by depression, I speak Jesus. Your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life. Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, burn like a fire. Speak Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the street. Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus. Speak Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the street. Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus. Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the street. Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus. Your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life. Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, burn like a fire. Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the street. Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name, Jesus. Your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life. Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, burn like a fire. Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the street. Jesus in the darkness over every enemy Jesus, Lord, my refuge, I speak the Holy Name, Jesus Your Name is power, Your Name is healing, Your Name is love Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, You are God of love

Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streets, Jesus in the darkness over every enemy Jesus, Lord, my family, I speak the Holy Name, Jesus Your Name is power, Your Name is healing, Your Name is love Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, You are God of love I just want to speak the Name of Jesus over every heart and every mind Cause I know there is peace within His presence, I speak Jesus Oh, You're worthy, Lord, so worthy, Jesus Oh, I speak Your Name, Lord, Jesus Hallelujah, hallelujah And I would like to do that Jesus When you say the Name of Jesus you have spoken salvation Deliverance, provision, peace, power And I speak the Name of Jesus over this congregation today And I speak the Name of Jesus to those who are watching And I speak the Name of Jesus over these worshipers Jesus Just say His Name one time Jesus He's here He's right here For where two or three get together in My Name Where is He? He's in our midst And I pray that He'll be glorified today As He enables me to preach and you to hear You can be seated I want to take you to the 13th chapter of Matthew And you all know that this is the chapter where Jesus gave the most parables And I want to talk about two of those parables this morning And also talk about the great exchange

The great exchange, keep that word in mind Jesus used it a number of times He said, what would a man give in exchange for his soul? So in our dealings with God it's never a financial transaction Because you can't buy and you can't sell spiritual things But it's always a transaction A, to use a coarser term, a swapping So let me read it Again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure Hidden in a field Which a man found and hid And for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has And buys that field Now how short is that parable? But how it speaks of heavenly treasure The kingdom of heaven is like treasure treasure hidden in a field, which a man found. I don't know what he was doing in the field. Was it his? I guess not, because we read that he found treasure in a field and then he hid it again. And for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. He said, I have found something worth giving up everything else for. I am willing to sell, to give away, to abandon, to jettison everything to have this treasure in this field. The next verse, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, plural. Who, when he had found one pearl of great price,

went and sold all that he had and bought it. Oh my, this man dealt in pearls. He was a middleman in the jewelry business. He specialized in pearls. He had access to lots of them. But when he found this pearl of great price, he said, this is worth selling everything I have, getting rid of everything I have to have this one pearl. Notice two times, Jesus said, sells all that he has, sells all that he has and buys that field. Or that pearl. That's what I'm talking about, the great exchange. So what is happening here today? We do it so often in Christianity on Sundays that we kind of go through the motions, if you don't mind. We fellowship, we shake hands, we sit, then we pray, then we sing, then we preach, then we leave. And we enjoy it all. But we forget that there is some kind of spiritual activity taking place while I'm standing here preaching and you're sitting there listening. It's that God is saying to somebody who doesn't know him, let's make a deal. I, God, oh, and this is almost beyond belief, the creator of the universe, God almighty, the only sovereign being who owns everything, made everything, I come to you and I offer you everything I have for all of your trash. I sent my son to purchase your salvation.

I see that you're standing there as a leper dying in your sins. You are standing there chained up in your bondages. You are blind, you are sick, you are empty, you are miserable. But I come and offer you relief and redemption. Give me your chains and I'll give you a robe of righteousness. Give me that sack of dung you're carrying around. You call it a wallet, I call it a sack of dung, the Lord says. You call it a purse, I call it a box of trash. You call it a bank account, I call it worthless things. If you give me that, I'll give you riches in heaven. I'll give you eternal life, joy you can't describe, and I'll give it to you forever. You will never again be empty or disappointed or sad or broke. You will be rich for eternity. If you are willing to just give me that, I'll give you this. See, what people don't understand, I guess, about the gospel is that God stands through Christ, through the preacher, And he says, give me this, give me that, give it all to me. And people go, how can you do that? How can you make such a demand? God is asking you to give up stuff that makes you miserable anyway. The whole plea from God Almighty is for you to give Him what's going to kill you. God knows how this earthly stuff works, you see.

He knows the trickery of Satan and the material life. He knows that there's always another layer of glitter and there's more glamour and more appeal and more baubles and pretty things. And people say, I want that, like a fish looking at a brand new lure. I want it, I want it. And you go for it and you get it and it kills you. You're caught. It disappoints you, it empties you out. Nothing left. God knows all about that. So as I stand here to preach today, I'm praying, I'm believing that a sinner sitting in here or watching me online or somewhere is hearing the offer for the great exchange. You give Him misery, He'll give you joy. You give Him blind eyes, He'll give you vision. You give Him emptiness, He'll fill you up. You give Him disappointment, He'll satisfy you the longest day you live. You will never ever again be thirsty. Never again be hungry. Never again be lonely. That's the great exchange. So here I stand today, kind of a middle man, saying, would you be willing to make that exchange with the Lord? Don't cling to earthly trash when God is offering heavenly riches. And here's the problem we have. I don't know if this is American Christianity, I don't know if this is, I don't know. But people are actually saying, but can't I have both? And my question is, why would you want both? Why would you want a sack of dung along with a pot of gold? That's what the prosperity preachers are offering you. That's what the word of faith people are telling you.

That God wants you to have both. He wants you to have that which does not satisfy, and will burn up, and will blow away, and you can have Jesus too. But that's not the way God sees it, and that's not the way God said it. I would like for you to know that everybody in the Bible, all of the saints in Scripture, not one of them ever saw any value in this world. Not one thing of eternal value were they willing to hang on to that they could have more of God and all of Christ. They counted it, well here's how Paul said it, I have suffered the loss of all things. And I do count them but dung that I may win Christ. Paul said I've suffered my reputation, doesn't mean a thing anyway. What matters is that they know who you are in heaven. I've suffered the loss of my family. I've suffered the loss of prestige. I was known throughout Israel as a great teacher. I've suffered the loss of my authority. They gave me authority to arrest Christians. I was known everywhere. I was the top teacher in Israel. I was trained at the foot of Gamaliel. But I lost it all. And now I look back and see that it was nothing but trash to start with. It had no heavenly value at all. And now I have secured the greatest treasure of all time, His name is Jesus. And I can't get enough of Him. And I want more every day. And I am pursuant of His grace and His mercy. I am going after Him, I am chasing Him, even though He's already caught me. I want more of Jesus and whatever it takes to have more, I'm willing to give it up, walk away from it, throw it outside.

I don't know if we understand this. A lot of talk about money always in churches. You know, we're known for raising money all the time. Not we. That's what sinners accuse us of. Every time you go, they raise money. How many will give me this and how many will give me that? And they've always got some kind of project going on and they raise money and they beg and they plead and the preacher gets up and cries. I'm sorry that that's our reputation. That's what people think all of us do in church. And then you've got the teachers going around magnifying the image of a Christian who has money. Telling people that if God really has a blessing on your life, you'll have money. Let me tell you something. Money is the lowest form of blessing in God's kingdom. Okay, I preach really hard at 8.30 and I think I'll kind of slow down on this one and make sure you get it. Money is the lowest form of blessing on this earth. God will make sure you get the money you need. God will make sure your bills get paid and the groceries get bought. I can go on and on about what God will see to when it comes to money. But I want you to understand we give too much attention to the lowest form of blessing. When God talks about riches in glory,

my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory. The Bible talks about spiritual blessing in heavenly places. There's stuff that God can give us that will make us look at things of this earth and say, no, thank you. And see, it's not even necessary to put this much time and effort into the lowest form of blessing when God has already promised he would take care of it. You notice what we do with money. We count it. We work for it. We invest it so we can get more. We plan to have more. We plan to use it a certain way. We will even hire people to help us plan how to get more. That's how much energy we put in to the lowest form of blessing on earth. It kind of obsesses us. We carry it everywhere we go. We check it all the time. I would venture to say that everybody in here knows what's in your bank account, about. I would venture to say you know about your investments and your savings. Sure you do. That's fine. There's no condemnation there. I'm just telling you all that energy, all of our efforts are going into trying to get more and maintain the lowest blessing that God can give.

So pastor, what's a high blessing? What's the highest blessing that comes from heaven? How about peace? How about watching a world come unraveled and go all to pieces and say, but God is in control. How about being able to sing when the storm is raging? How about hope? When you wake up every day and the news is bleak and black and you say, but my hope is in heaven above and my hope is in the keeping power of the Holy Spirit. What about patience? Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to have complete patience, to be able to say when everybody's fighting and scurrying around and things don't seem to be happening on time and you go, not a problem. God knows what time it is and God knows what he's gonna do and when he's gonna do it. Wouldn't it be a great thing to be able to say, don't worry about it. God is in control. Folks, there are riches in heaven that far outweigh being able to count this paper and these coins. Hallelujah to God. And I believe that if we spend as much time investing in heavenly treasures, if we did as much work to increase our heavenly treasures and if we read and planned more on how to lay up treasures in heaven, we would begin to realize God's going to take care of this stuff anyway. He said He would.

Now, I want you to understand that riches do not make you rich. You know in the Bible, there are certain places where there's a parenthesis? I love those parentheses. One is in Hebrews 11. And it talks about the saints who are being persecuted. Some have been sawn asunder. They're having to wander about in sheepskins and goatskins and live in caves and dens. And then there's a parenthesis. Of whom the world was not worthy. Wow! Wow! Do you see what the Holy Spirit did? He said the people that look the poorest and look like they're having the toughest time, they are so much richer than the whole world around them. In fact, the world is not worthy for them to walk on its dirt. Hallelujah! Now, I said I was going to calm down, and I am. But I'm going to go to Revelation chapter 2 and read you another parenthesis, if you don't mind. Watch this. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, These things says the first and the last, who was dead and came to life. I know your works, your tribulation, and poverty, parenthesis, but you are rich. Did you hear what he said?

I see where you are. I see the poverty in your life right now. I see the trouble and the tribulation. I see that the world seems to be prospering more than you are. But don't ever forget, if you know me, you are rich. I want to tell the church something this morning. Some of you are going through a hard time. It may be a financial crisis. It may be a family crisis, a tribulation, a test, something that's beaten the life out of you, and you feel like the Lord has abandoned you, and you wonder where your faith is going, let me tell you something, you are rich. I don't care what it looks like in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of the devil, God sees. He sees all your poverty. He sees all your trouble. But he also sees the riches of his glory in your heart. And I have to remind myself, I'm standing here preaching for a church full of rich people. I've got a wealthy church. Did you hear what I said? You are a rich person today. I don't know how much money's in your bank account. That's not what I'm talking about. Don't know what kind of car you drove up here in. That's not what I'm talking about. I don't know the size of your house. It doesn't even matter. What I know is this, if you've got Jesus,

if you've been washed in the blood, you know who heaven is. You are rich, rich, rich beyond measure. Hallelujah, catch some rich people. Say amen this morning. Amen. I wanna talk to the young people for a moment since this is family first Sunday. And I said to the early crowd, you may think that I didn't have much time to study this week. So I'm pulling up some old scriptures, but I just feel impressed to go back to this one. I wanna say to the young people, there is a promise from the lips of Christ that if you do one thing, just one, you will never have to worry about anything the rest of your life. You won't have to worry about where to go to school, how to get transportation, who to marry, what kind of employment. Did you hear what I'm saying? I say it as an experienced veteran of the faith. There is one thing Jesus said, you do and you will never, ever have to worry about anything. about anything else. If you seek the Kingdom of God first, and His righteousness, all these things, he's talking about the lowest form of blessing,

all these lower forms of blessings will automatically be added to you. Now that's a promise. I am telling you that in your early years, in your youth, if you make the decision to start every day with Jesus, whether you get up and get on your knees or get in a chair or at a desk, if you start every day with Jesus, with His Word, you've got to get this in you, and talking to Him. Stay conversant with the Lord. When all of your friends are worried about graduating and where to go and what to buy and how to get the money and how we're going to pay for this and that, this book says, if you seek the Kingdom first, all this will be added to you. And I believe that. It's not wrong to think, to make plans, but when you plan, you say, if it's the Lord's will. Because God has etched out a path for you in life that you really don't know about yet. I've said it often. Nobody in this building or no one listening to me online

is living the life they thought they would be living. We thought by now this would happen. We never thought our kids would be this way. We thought we would have kids. We didn't think we'd have that many kids. We didn't think we'd have to move to that city. We didn't think we'd have to go through that on that job. Nobody's living the life you thought you would live. But God has a path and a plan, and the way to stay on it is to seek God first and His righteousness. And all these lower blessings will be added to you, and you'll find out that the steps of a good man or a good woman are ordered of the Lord. Though He stumble, and you will, you will not utterly fall. That means you will stumble, but you will get back up again. Now I'm about to get happy because the Proverbs says, a righteous man may stumble seven times, but he gets back up. Oh, let me tell you, brother. Uh-oh. I know what it is to stumble. Do we not? I know what it is to get weary and weak and neglect prayer and neglect Scripture and make bad decisions. I know what it is to stumble in my Christian walk. I know what it is to fall flat on my face

and want to give up, want to walk away. But I also know this. There's just a little spark of Holy Ghost in every one of us. There's the power of the Word of God in every one of us. And when we are weak, we are strong. And when we fall, God says, get up and keep on going. I've been down more than seven times, which means I've been up more than seven times. But every time, God has helped us get back on our feet, and God will do it all the way to glory. ♪♪ So a decision has to be made. And some people are confronted directly. And their decision is a glaring decision that in fact goes down in history. Let me read it to you. A certain ruler asked him, saying, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one, and that is God. Now, he was not saying, I'm not God. He was saying, you must recognize that I am God. Or you would not call me good. Ah. Then Jesus went on. Well, you know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother.

And he said, all these things I've done. I've done this from my youth. I've kept all these rules since I was young. Feeling pretty good about himself. So when Jesus heard these things, he said to him, uh-oh, it's time to dig now. See, that's what Jesus does. About the time you think you're doing all right, here it comes. The sword of the spirit, the scalpel from heaven, to cut it out. And show you, you are not doing as well as you think you are doing. Because I, the Lord, see everything. And now I'm going to show you one of the things I see in your life. So when Jesus heard these things, he said to him, you still lack one thing. One. Just one. Wow. Sell all that you have. That's what Jesus already said twice in the parables. Sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor. He didn't say give it to me. He didn't need money. Christ wasn't after his money.

He was after his heart. He said you sell everything you have and distribute it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. And come follow me. But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful for he was very rich. So there it is, the great exchange. Jesus said, I will give you treasures in heaven if you will give me your dump. All the trash in your life, all the disappointing things in your life, if you will give me that, you can have treasures in heaven and besides that you can come and follow me. You can be one of mine. And the young man walked away sorrowful because he was very rich. So, what he did was make a decision. He said, well, I've got trash and he's offering me gold. I've got dung. He's offering me eternal life, treasures. I don't think I can do that. And see, that's what the Gospel does every time it's preached. Jesus says, one thing you lack. One thing you lack. And he pulls it open and says,

all these other things you think you're good at, all these other sins you think you haven't committed, let me just show you one thing and that one thing made the difference in this guy following Jesus or going away sadly. See, this is not a game, brothers and sisters. And Jesus is not asking you to experiment with him. He's not saying try it out for a while and see what happens. Because he doesn't show you everything up front. When you come to Christ, he does not show you the batterings from hell, the emptiness that comes sometime just by being human, or the trials, or the heartbreak. He just says, come on. Give me who you are and what you have. Let me give you riches. And then follow me. Just follow me. When you feel like it and when you don't. When you like the preaching and when you don't. When your marriage is at its height or you wonder if you really love that person. When your children have made you happy and when they have broken your heart, follow me. Don't let anything slow you down. Don't take your eyes off the prize.

Don't let people discourage you. Follow me. And the only way to do that, are you ready for this? The only way to do that is sell all you have and give it to the poor. The only way to have the pearl of great price is to sell all that you have. The only way to have that hidden treasure in the field is to sell all you have. And now that you're thinking, okay, let me explain that. Christ is not telling us to go out and liquidate all of our assets and just throw it to the wind and find a one-room apartment to live in until the rapture takes place. No. He's telling us, don't let things control you. Paul said to Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 6, God has given us everything to enjoy. He said, tell the rich people, enjoy it, but make sure you help others in the process. Don't ever rely on it, but enjoy it. Even the lowest form of blessing you can enjoy if you know how to share and give it back to God. But all of this, I should say none of this, can be done until you see those phrases. Sell all you have. Give up what you're relying on. Get rid of the things that draw you back.

Stop looking back at Sodom. If you're Abraham, leave! Don't stand around. Don't cry about it. God's put His hand on you. God said to Abraham, get up, get out. Don't talk about it. Don't moan about it. Just get up and get out. Because what you're leaving cannot be compared to what I'm going to give you when you follow me. And I think one of the greatest passages in the book of Kings, I say that about all of them, you know that, I found in 1 Kings chapter 19, beginning with verse 19. Let me lay some groundwork here. Everybody knows Elijah is a great and powerful prophet. God said to Elijah, the great and powerful prophet, I've got something I want you to do. He said that when Elijah said, I'm the only one left. I'm the only prophet left. And God said, stop it. You've got 7,000 who have not bowed their knee to Baal nor kissed him. You're not the only one. Plenty of others are out there. You see, they had a school of the prophets in that day. Read it for yourself. Where young men felt called by God,

and they would go to Elijah and different men of God, and they would train them on how to hear the voice of God and proclaim the Word of God. So these prophets were always kind of near Elijah. Elijah would just be walking down the road. They'd be walking, watching him. They didn't know when a miracle was going to take place. They didn't know what God was going to do with Elijah. They kind of watched him at a distance. And so one day, they see Elijah walking past some oxen. Let me read it. So he departed. God said, I want you to go and anoint Elijah to take your place. So now he's walking, and all those prophets are watching. So he departed from there and found Elijah, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelve. That means there were eleven yokes in front of him. He was last in line. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.

And he, Elijah, said to him, go back again, for what have I done to you? In other words, don't forget what just happened in your life. Don't forget what I just did to you. So Elisha turned back from him and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh using the oxen's equipment, and he gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and became his servant. May I use my imagination? This man is plowing. He's a farmer. He's got his own yoke of oxen. behind eleven other yokes of oxen. And when he gets to the end of the row, the prophet Elijah walks by him. And all these other prophets are saying, what's going on here? He's slowing down. And when he got up to Elisha, Elijah took his mantle and threw it on him. And it frightened Elisha. And Elijah kept moving. And Elisha said, what is this? That's Elijah! And he runs up and he says, oh, oh Elijah, let me go home and kiss mom and dad. Let me put my house in order and I'll come back.

Now those other prophets up there were saying, yep, he's called another one. But here's another one that's not willing to go. They've had a little conversation. That guy named Elisha just found out from Elijah, this is gonna be a hard life. If you're gonna be a prophet and be with me and follow me, this is gonna be a hard life. Said, look, look, look, look. He's turned around. He left. He's gone. He's like so many others. He wanted to do it till he found out what it costs. So he's gone. But they didn't realize why Elisha went back. The Bible says he turned back and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. Again, I don't know how they did this in the Old Testament, but they could slaughter a bull or an oxen or anything in just minutes it seemed like. He slaughtered a yoke of oxen and boiled their flesh. How did he make a fire? He used the oxen's equipment. Look at what's happening here. Elisha goes back and said, I've made a decision. And the decision I've made means I won't be coming back. And if I've got oxen, I might think about coming back. And if I've got all this farm equipment, I really might be tempted to come back.

So just in case I have a weak day and I think about going back, I'm gonna kill it all. I'm gonna kill my oxen. I'm gonna use the plows to build a fire. I'm gonna cook the meat. I'm gonna feed the people. I'm gonna kiss mama and daddy bye-bye. And then I'm gonna follow Elijah because I want a double portion of what he has. Now I know I'm sounding like a preacher right here. My voice is beginning to rattle and it's getting raspy, but there's a reason for it. I'm about to tell somebody the secret to your victory today. You're gonna have to go back and kill your oxen and burn the plows because on this road, frequently you can feel like going back and giving up. But if you sell it all, if you burn it up, if you kill it and there's nothing to go back to, you might just say, I've got a made up mind. I've decided to follow Jesus. There's nothing to go back to. And I want a double portion of what God has for me in my life. Say it with me. Hey. Listen very carefully. Go back again for what have I done to you? Meaning, don't you forget what God did for you. Don't forget that he laid his hand on you. That he has supplied every need you've ever had.

Don't you forget the goodness of God, the privilege of being born again. You can go back and get your house in order, get your life lined up. But just remember, the longest day you live, you'll have to live with nothing behind you and everything before you. You'll have to live with all your treasures above you and not around you. And that takes selling it all, releasing it all, surrendering everything to Christ. Every day, a new sacrifice every day. The greatest thing that could happen to me today is that somebody would get saved. Somebody who doesn't know Christ. I want everybody to get saved. I want everybody in this building to be saved. Everybody watching me right there. I want you to be saved. And I know people are watching from 86 countries around the world. Some of you may not know Christ in His fullness. But today, you can make a decision to walk off and leave your trash pile and receive the glorious riches of God in Jesus Christ. It's a great exchange. You win every time you do it. That's my prayer. But for the remainder of you, my desire is that you've heard this today. And you're saying, what is it I need to give up? What can I burn up in my life that's keeping me looking back? You know lots why I've messed up because you kept looking back, right?

Can I get an amen? Did you know the book of Hebrews says, chapter 11, that these people like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, if their minds had been on where they came from, they might have gone back. But now they desire a better country. No more looking back. Nothing to go to. Did you know that if God had not put a Red Sea between Israel and Egypt, Israel would have gone back? Because times got tough. And even though they were slaves, they would rather be slaves in Egypt than free in the wilderness. So God in His goodness is letting you understand today, there are things that need to be burned up, thrown aside, and given up. You know what they are, and you know who you are. And I'm smiling now because I know that God's dealing with you, and you're going to do the right thing. And the whole church said amen. Let me just take your pulse, if you don't mind. Did this speak to anybody today? Okay. We sing this song often, and I love it. Give me Jesus in the morning when I rise. In the morning when I rise. In the morning when I rise. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus.

You can have all this. Give me Jesus. Amen. I want David to play, and we're going to sing the third verse. I haven't preached too long today. We had a long baptism, and it was wonderful. And I pray God we have 10 times that many next time. But you never know when this is going to be your last Sunday. Right where you're sitting, Christi, right behind you, Sam, was a member of our church coming for years. His name was JW. This past week, he just got in a bucket to go up and trim some limbs, and he hit a power line, and he was electrocuted. He's dead. He's gone on to be with the Lord. He never thought that would happen to him. And, brother, you don't know when it can happen to you. So the best thing you can do before you walk out of this building is say, Jesus Christ, come and live inside of me. Forgive me of my sins. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's the most important thing you will ever do. And when I come to die. And when I come to die. And when I come to die. Give me Jesus. Now church, sing it. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. ♪ You can have all this world is giving you ♪

And now, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer, amen. Love you, church. We'll see you next time, unless Jesus comes to get us. We pray that today, as you watch Pastor Livingston's message, you will be encouraged and ready to dig deeper into a life with Jesus. To help you on this journey, Central has two resources for you. First, you can sign up to receive Central's Jail and Prison Correspondence course through the mail by writing to Central Church, Jail and Prison Ministries Discipleship Center, 5143 Sardis Road, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28270. Second, by using Central's app and clicking on the button below, you can read a short daily devotional that will encourage you to read and pray daily as you draw closer to Jesus. Thank you for watching.