How Shall We Escape?

[MUSIC PLAYING] For all the earth had tremble. The sun had hit its face. And all the men that walked with him had turned and run away. [MUSIC PLAYING] They crucified our Savior and laid him in a tomb for the life that once brought to love and hope slipped away that after new. [MUSIC PLAYING] Satan gleaned with pleasure that day had cavalry. He thought he had won a mighty victory. And like him, all of the demons of hell began to cheer. [MUSIC PLAYING] That therein was the wrong in me. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Already, Sunday morning, just like Jesus said. He put the curse of sin in them and rose up from the dead. And now we have a new beginning and a kingdom that has no repair. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ He must be a star ♪ ♪ Death has a lens ♪ ♪ And loves me to be with ♪ ♪ And the brave has been with me now ♪ ♪ Jesus, we're here as far as ♪

♪ He's a life for him ♪ ♪ He's a life for him ♪ ♪ He's a life for him ♪ ♪ He's a life for him ♪ ♪ He's a life for him ♪ ♪ We're saying yes, Lord ♪ ♪ He can't start at me ♪ ♪ I believe in the best Lord ♪ ♪ I believe in the loving people, yeah ♪ ♪ I'm gonna shout aloud to the rock ♪ ♪ The rock of myself is the world ♪ ♪ Yes Lord, yes Lord, I believe ♪ ♪ I believe the truth is empty ♪ ♪ 'Cause I know my heart is full ♪ ♪ The glory and the wonder of your name ♪ (upbeat music) There's a love in me right now And the joy of this love can't be entailed Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Start up and play Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I'll do the rock rock But I've got my salvation Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Just move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move [applause] The whole church said amen. Amen. Amen. Our God and Father, the time has come again for the bread of life to be shared.

I thank you for the privilege of being the chef today and the server. Lord, we sit at a big table here. Thank you that there's plenty to go around. And my prayer is that each will leave full. I ask you today, Lord, to let your word become more real. As I fly it to my heart, even as I preach it, let me not forget the words I hear today. Let them burn me, sting me, change me. Let them enrich me and build me up. And I pray that for all who are listening today. And I pray it in the name of Jesus Christ. The only begotten Son of the only true and living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I pray it in the authority of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And the whole church said amen. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. Another beautiful crowd today. At the end of the service, I'm going to be calling everybody down. Monday night we had one of the greatest prayer meetings that I have ever been in. We had between 900 and a thousand people here. And God heard our prayers and God's going to do something to help us. But I want to call your attention to the Holy Scriptures this morning. And this is what I want from you. I want you to test every word I say.

I want you to test it with Scripture. Put it up against God's word. Every single word. I want you to study it, analyze it, and make sure that I'm preaching the truth. I want to talk about... Well, there's a lot of things I want to talk about. It's going to take a big needle and a lot of thread this morning for some of you to put all this together. But I... hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and this one. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. I want to draw your attention to that phrase, lead us not into temptation. It's important for everybody to know that God does not tempt anybody to do evil, and God cannot be tempted to do evil. So the Lord is not saying to ask God to keep him from doing evil or leading you into evil. The correct rendering is don't let us be led into temptation, but deliver us from evil. It makes a lot of difference. Don't let us be led into temptation, into, and that is an important word, into temptation. There is a difference between being tempted and being led into temptation. The Lord never asked you to pray that you wouldn't be tempted. That's going to happen until you breathe your last breath. Temptation is a part of life, but we are to make sure we don't enter into the temptation, which is what Christ dealt with. That night He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said to Peter and James and John, "I'm going there to pray, come with me, watch with me for an hour." He didn't say, "Pray with me." He said, "Watch. I'll do the praying. I have an appointment with the Father. I have a special request for the Father, but I want you to stay behind and watch out for me." And of course Jesus prayed a while and came out and found them sleeping and said, "Do you mean you couldn't even watch with me for one hour? Not you couldn't pray for an hour, you couldn't even watch with me for one hour?" And then He said, "Watch and pray that you don't enter into temptation." And that's extremely important because temptation, you've already been tempted today. Before you go to bed tonight, you will have dozens of opportunities to violate or grieve the

Holy Spirit in you. You'll have multiple chances to disobey God. Lots of offers from the evil one. And the Scriptures want you to know that the only way to keep from entering into that temptation, actually doing the temptation is to watch and pray. Watch. That means stay awake. Look around. Be on guard. Guard your eyes. Guard your ears. Make sure you see where you are and are alerted all times about where a temptation could come from. Remember I preached not long ago, ponder the path of your feet. Think about your next step. Where are you headed? For some of you, where are you headed after church? Where are you headed this week? Where will these feet take you? What will you let these eyes see? And what will you allow your ears to receive? Watch because this is a very important thing inside of us, this great salvation, this indwelling Holy Spirit is easily offended, he's very sensitive. And as his by the temptations that come my way that I may enter into. I've said many times, it is a whole lot easier to avoid temptation than to fight it. If you'll just go the other way instead of entering into it, your life will be a whole lot easier. I do believe that for those people who keep, I don't like this word a lot, I'm going to use it. It's only used one time in the Old Testament backsliding. For those people that keep backsliding, I can tell you why you're backsliding. You're not watching and praying. If one were to do that, watch and pray, you wouldn't find yourself entering into temptation. We do these things because we put ourselves in bad situations because we don't do what the Bible says. Watch and pray. When I leave this pulpit today, it may not even be that soon, I could fight temptations while I'm up here. You know how it is, I immediately have to put on my armor again, wake myself up, slap myself and say, "You're about to step out into a tempting world. Your adversary, the devil is going around like a roaring lion, he's vicious, he's bloodthirsty, he's determined and he's seeking whom he may devour." Now who may he devour?

Anyone who's not watching is not alert, doesn't keep their eyes on him and those who are not praying, he knows who his pray could be today. And so we have to buckle up and bolster every step, every hour, every day. Pastor, it makes it sound like hard work. Well if you yield to God, he'll do it for you. You see it's not in your energy, it's in the energy of the Holy Spirit. All you have to do is keep your eyes open and pray and the Holy Spirit will give you the power to overcome. For testimony won't be all the time, I back slid, I messed up, I went back, I did it again. No there is victory in Jesus. So I thumbed over to Hebrews chapter 2 and I read these words, "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed, to the things which we have heard lest we drift away." Thank you. We must give heed to what we've heard. So again it makes what's happening right now all the more important. We didn't just come to church today. We came to sit in the presence of God. And when we get together in His name He always says something to us. It is relevant, it is applicable, it's necessary. So what I'm preaching to you now and we'll be preaching for the next 20 minutes is an imperative for your life. We must give the more earnest heed, pay attention. This is life and death, this is eternal stuff, this is the word of God. These are battle plans for victory. To the things that we have heard lest we drift away, I don't know how many sermons you've heard on that, I've preached dozens of them myself drifting away. Here's the thing about Christianity, you can drift. You know if you are on the ocean, I mean the middle of the ocean, you don't know which direction you're going. If you don't have any navigational tools, if there's no land, if there's nothing stationary,

you don't know where you're going, you're just drifting. And I promise you, you're headed in the direction because there are generations about the old fellow that was fishing up Niagara River and just a few miles from the falls and while he's fishing he decides to take a little nap and you know the rest of the story. He just gently drifts towards the rapids and when he gets to the rapids and it gets rough and the water speeds up there's nothing he can do when he goes over. And I think that that is a warning for every Christian when the Bible talks about drifting folks we we are living in a drifting society. They have no point of reference. They just drift. They laugh. They're partying all the way to hell. They're having a big time as they head towards the falls. Just drifting. There's nothing stationary. There is no guilt. There is no spiritual reformation. They want to be done with the guilt. They just want to live the way they live. And they accept every new damnable doctrine that the devil presents. Here's the deal. Sandra gave me some of what she had so that's why I'm caught. I appreciate it so much. When I talk about drifting you and I are living in a society that has no morals. We're not an immoral society. We're an amoral society. We live in a world that just wants to be free from guilt. They want to be liberated from rules and they want to do what's right in their own sight. For example, we live in a society that says men can become women. And women can become men. And instead of the world going, are you kidding? Isn't that the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard? It's only the church that's saying that. Society says whatever, let people be happy. Let them do what they want to do. Who cares? Who's business is it? It's none of your business, church. It's none of God's business. It's their business. We live in a drifting society that is still fighting for the rights of criminals, fighting for the lives of criminals while we are still killing innocent babies. But there's nothing wrong with that. It's a right for a woman. We still hear this Black Lives Matter. Yeah, Black Lives Matter till they're unwanted and unborn. We all lives matter until they're unwanted and unborn. As long as they're in the way, it's okay to dispose of them. We live in a society that talks about a gay church, gay churches who have ever heard of such a thing. There is no such thing as a gay church. There's no such thing as a gay Christian. You can't tack Christian onto anything that is a perversion in this society. You can't just say things because they sound good. They're acceptable and not offensive.

You come to the church world in my whole life. I have never heard what I'm hearing today. I've never heard more about women pastors than I'm hearing today. And it is a blatant violation of the scriptures. Paul said, "I do not allow a woman to exercise authority over a man." And that's what a pastor does. I have authority over the soul, over the sheep. The Bible says, "In the last days I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh on your sons and your daughters, and they shall prophesy." Nothing wrong with that. But when it comes to exercising authority and government, Paul strictly forbids it. I'm at odds right now with people in my own denomination, because I am not willing to stand up and compromise what I believe God's word says for the sake of solidarity. And I mean what I'm telling you. And we get all of this stuff where women, you're rejecting the most powerful element in the church today, the most effective voice in the church today is women. No, that's not what the Bible says. Everybody in the church is equal. There's neither Jew nor Gentile, bond or free, male or female. But everybody in the church does not have the equal responsibility. I said this Wednesday night in prayer meeting. Even the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are totally equal in every way. But the Father has a job and the Son has a mission and the Holy Spirit has a thing to do. They're still equal, but they do different things. And so when you come to the church, Paul sets it up and he said, "Man is the head of the church. Bishops ought to be men, leaders ought to be men, pastors must be men." That doesn't keep people from teaching and preaching. It keeps them from being in authority. And that's when the devil starts moving in because we stop watching and praying. We stop guarding ourselves and instead of saying, "This book is our only standard. Only standard."

We don't care what church councils meet and decide. We don't care what the majority of people believe, no matter how they change their mind. There is only one standard. We refuse to drift. We have a lighthouse. We keep our eyes on it. We know where we're going and we've got to stand fast in the word of the living God or God will not bless us. In my whole life, I've never heard so much about female apostles. Everybody is an apostle these days. It's not in the Bible, it's wrong, it's cooked up, it's fictitious, and God has a curse on it. There is no such thing. We live in a drifting society that lauds all religions except the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody else is good. Mom is good, Buddha is good, Islam, oh my, the precious people who worship these gods, they're people, they're human beings. They have their own way, they've got their own path to heaven, but you Christians need to shut up because you're close-minded. You're backward, you're ignorant, you're bigoted, and you need to be quiet about a new birth experience, about being born again, about a Jesus who's going to send people to hell. Don't even say that, that doesn't fit in, but folks the Bible does say all of those things. The Bible says you must be born again, and you can't be born again because you were born in Islam or Buddhism. You can only be born again because the spirit of the living God has convicted your heart and your eyes have been opened, and you are a sinner and you call on the name of the Lord. See here's the thing, every one of us is headed to judgment for the child of God. We're headed to the Bhima, we're headed to the feet of Jesus, Jesus is going to hand out rewards, he's going to hand out awards, crowns and gifts.

Unbelievers are headed to the white throne judgment, where every sentence will be, "Depart from me, I do not know you," and cast into the lake of fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels. They're all headed there, all will be judged. And for all of this, this kind. Paul says, "For all these reasons, the wrath of God is going to fall upon the sons of disobedience." I wish I had the vocabulary as I study all the time. I wish I had the vocabulary to adequately describe the wrath of God. What God is going to do when He finally says, "Enough is enough." You have only a taste of it, just a preliminary taste of it when you come to revelation and you see the seals being broken and the trumpets being blown and the bowls being poured out. That's just preliminary. You cannot imagine. We look at it, water to blood, boils, earthquakes, thick darkness, disease, and we go, "Whoo, those are bad things," but we don't understand these are not normal payments. This is not the result of people just being bad people. This is the wrath of God and its depths cannot be plummeted. It cannot be described adequately the wrath of God. And so bad is it when Paul and John and Peter all talk about it, they talk about escaping, escaping the wrath of God, like you would escape from prison or escape from a wild animal attack or escape from a mugger or a robber. You do your best to get out as quickly as you can. So when he says the wrath of God is coming, he says, "But we get to escape." Here's what he said in Matthew 22 and 33. Jesus said to the tribes in the Pharisees and the religious leaders, "Now, what's this?" Some of you think I'm too brash. Listen to this. Jesus said, "Hey, you serpents, you brood of vipers. How do you think you are going to escape the damn nation of hell?" There it is. Escape. When this thing hits brother, we need to be able to escape. Let me read to you in Luke chapter 21. Listen to these words, "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness and cares of this life." Okay, I'm going to tell on myself. I kind of put the 10-30 crowd down this morning at 8-30. I said, "You know, we probably don't have many, this is what I said to them." We probably don't have many people here today who were drunk last night. They'll all be here at 10-30. Well, thank you for receiving that so well. I thought I might get a hiss or a boo. But Jesus was saying, "Take heed. There it is again, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing." I don't know that we have many who caroused all

night last night. I don't know how many were drunk last night, but I promise you, there are people sitting here today whose hearts are weighed down with the cares of this life. You got problems. We got some bad situations in our homes and in our families, do we not? And it weighs us down, and Jesus said, "Please be careful. Take heed that none of this so burdens you that that day comes on you unexpectedly. You're supposed to be watching and praying. You're supposed to be watching for the Lord to come back at any moment. Don't take your eyes off that and put it on the things of this life, for it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore." There it is. "Watch therefore and pray always that you may be a I started out by telling you we are to pray, watch and pray so we don't enter into temptation. Now Jesus is telling us to watch and pray so we can escape all these things that are coming on this earth. It's important. Paul used the word again in Romans chapter 2 when he said, "Hey, you people that are condemning sinners and you're doing the same thing. Don't you think for a moment that you're going to escape the wrath of God?" Paul said again in 1 Thessalonians, the day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. When they cry peace and safety, then sudden destruction will come upon them as pangs upon a pregnant woman. Watch and pray. Because they will not escape the things that are coming. So I'm here to tell you again, one more time this is not a day to lighten up, get loose. We need to bear down. Our watching needs to become ever more vigilant. Our pray needs to be heated up. This is serious business. The devil wants to swipe and grab everybody he possibly can because he knows that day is coming. And so as Paul finishes up in the Hebrews, he says, "If the word spoken through angels proves steadfast and it did, the law that Moses received through angels proves steadfast." And he said, "Every transgression and every disobedience receives a just reward." Folks, folks, whoever's in hell deserves to be there. That's a terrible thing to say. But God said it, "You've received your just payment for the life you've lived. You have neglected the greatest offer ever made. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" This is amazing to me. That something as mind-blowing, I don't know another word to use, something as overwhelming, something so beyond our imagination called salvation. It's when God does what only God can do for those who can't do anything and people neglect it. Sinners neglect this great salvation. I know this is very elementary this morning, but folks, I'm dealing with eternity and we're all headed to eternity.

Why do people disregard the message of salvation? This great salvation. Why would anybody hear it and neglect it? How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Oh, it's been preached since Paul wrote all of this. People neglect it because they are proud. I am not a sinner. I am not a bad person. They judge themselves against the crowd that's drifting. I want to tell you this and I do it as gently as I know how. If you're a sinner, you are the enemy of God. But I'm a good person though, according to Scripture, you're a really bad person because giving to the church and going to the church, if I ever preach this before, giving to the church and going to the church and acknowledging Jesus is not what we're talking about here. You've got to have a life transforming conversion. You must be born again. You have to know Jesus Christ personally and fully and then you must follow him. And until that happens, I don't care what kind of life you live. You are the enemy of God. Can you imagine angels looking at God Almighty saying, "He's your enemy." God says, "He's my enemy." And the sort of judgment is hanging right over every unbeliever's head right now. and believe. Don't neglect this great salvation." There's another reason people neglect it. You know, this is all over the world right now. I've gotten to the place. This is an honest confession. I told the Lord in prayer, "Lord, I don't want to say some of these things because I know 20 minutes after I say it, it's going to be all over the internet. And it's just going to be a nasty, awful thing. And the Holy Spirit reminded me. This is not your choice. Everything Jesus said is twisted all the time. Everything the Holy Spirit does is twisted. Paul's words were twisted. He was falsely accused. Every apostle, every prophet. They killed all the prophets and the prophets told the truth. So I'm here to tell you this morning that this thing is real and what I'm telling you is real. People neglect salvation because they love sin. You know, you can't convince me, "I hate what I'm doing." And then you keep doing it because there is power in the blood of Jesus. There's power in the Word of God. You don't have to keep sinning. You don't have to keep backsliding. If you let the Lord take control, if you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If you hide the Word of God in your heart, you will not sin against him. But here's why people sin. They love darkness rather than light. Have you ever read that in Scripture? They love darkness. They love darkness so they can hide and continue to do their sin. They hate light because the light exposes them. So you can get upset with me if you want to. But if you keep sitting, it's because you want to. But here's something I need to offer. I'm a pastor.

I need to offer this to you. You can't play with God. You just can't mess around with eternal things. God does things that I can't explain. Sometimes God takes people home early. Sometimes He lets them live a long time. Sometimes God lets people sin a long time. Other times God says, "That's it, I'm done." And if you keep messing around with God and thinking that because He hasn't come yet or judged you yet, you're guilty of what Pharaoh did in the book of Exodus. Ten times God through Moses gave Pharaoh a chance. Ten times Pharaoh said, "Nope, I'm not doing that." Ten times and several of those. He said, "All right, all right, I'm good. I'm coming to church now. I'm going to do better now. Folks, I hear this all the time. These pastors that do the counseling, we who work in church, can tell you about people that you won't see for four months. But then on a given Sunday, they come in, "Hallelujah, I got it now. Oh, I'm going to do better now. I'm going to do better now." But they keep relying on their own strength. They keep thinking that what they feel in church is the power of God. But it isn't, "You've got to have God abiding in you." And when this thing happens, am I upsetting anybody this morning? When this thing happens, brother, you won't be in and out and up and down. People won't have to wonder where you are, and people won't go, "I've heard that before. We'll see how it works this time." No, when the Spirit of the Lord sets you free, you are free indeed. Romans 1, I know I'm preaching a long time. Romans 1, here's what Paul said, "You can mess around with God, and one day he just may give up." That's what it says. In fact, I'm reading in Romans 1, they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-feeded animals, and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature, rather than the Creator who was blessed forever. In other words, these people said, "We like our uncleanness." God says, "How many times do I have to do with you find?" And he gave them up. He said, "You can have it." Just like he said to Pharaoh, "You did it to yourself, Pharaoh. You had ten chances. You decided not to. You did it to yourself." When God gives up on a person, it's because they did it to themselves. Next verse, for this reason, God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. That's lesbianism. Likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman, that's heterosexuality, burned in their lusts for one another.

Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due, which is AIDS and all of the demonic oppression that people who live in this lifestyle have to endure. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind. He said, "If that's what you want, you can have it." And folks, as a minister of the gospel, my heart is about to come out of my chest. I say it often. I'm not being dramatic. My knees are knocking. I'm sweating because I'm standing in front of people either in this congregation or in these satellite churches are watching me online who are that close to being given up, to being given over, to having God say, "I'm going to let you be what you want to be, do what you want to do, and have what you want to have." And people are saying, "I don't want to hear that. That makes me feel bad. That's hate speech because the world doesn't want to deal with guilt. They want a guilt-free society, guilt-free. But thanks me to God, as long as the church of Jesus Christ is on this earth, as long as there's a preacher that will preach the gospel, as long as there's a Holy Spirit that will keep working on men, this guilt is the gift from God, as long as it keeps you upset, there's a possibility you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when that day comes, that time to escape, I want to be in that number. Well, I'm about out of gas right now, but I feel it coming on me. I want to be in that number when the trumpet sounds. I want to escape out of this world. I want to escape the wrath of God. I want to escape the violence of the evil one. I want to see Jesus and live forever with him. Hallelujah to God. Let me just say this. This is a great salvation. Did you ever think about this? A great salvation. And this is what people neglect. Well, what is a great salvation pastor? Let me just mention a few things. I'm not going to hell. I am not going to burn for eternity. I am not going to be in thick darkness for eternity. I'm not going to have worms chewing on me for eternity. I'm not going to have to listen to the screams of the damned for eternity. I have been washed in the blood of Jesus. I have received eternal life. That's a great salvation. When you trade hell for heaven, when you trade hopelessness for eternal hope, when you give up death for eternal life, that's a great salvation. If I really felt like it, if I had the juice right now, I'd walk up and down these aisles and put my hand on people who used to be. In fact, how much

How much time do I have? Yes, I will. I'll tell you what, I've been getting a little criticism lately from some people. And they said, "You know, you always call out the big sins. You're always against homosexuals and drunks and people like, 'Why don't you preach to your people about lying and cheating and stealing? Don't you have a scripture for that?' Well, yes, I do. I'll start with this in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. "Now therefore it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another." Oh, Christians, suing Christians. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat. And you do these things to your brethren that's cheating. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites. No, it doesn't stop there, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers. That's loudmouth people, foulmouth, loudmouth, blaspheming people, or extortioners. That's people that take advantage of other people financially. They will not inherit the kingdom of God. And I cover it all for you, really. But here's the good news. And such were some of you, but you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of the living God, hallelujah. Everybody stand with me, amen, amen. As I said before I took that little rabbit trailer, sometimes I feel like walking down the aisle and putting my hand on people. I know the kind of life you lived before Jesus saved you.

And I just simply say, isn't this a great salvation? You know what you were, but look at you now. Isn't this a great salvation? You know where you ought to be, but look where you are now. Isn't this a great salvation? Who can help me praise the Lord this morning? I'm going to ask everybody in the building to come to the altar. I don't know how that's going to work, but everybody in the building come to the altar. Look at this. To me this is the most beautiful thing. Don't you think so guys? Look at this. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. This is a great salvation. Way back over here in this dark corner, is this a great salvation or what? How about in the back, is this a great salvation or what? How about up in the choir? Is this a great salvation or what? And it's a gift, a gift, oh this is greater than you can imagine, what a great salvation. If there is anyone in here or behind me in Wethery Hall who is not sure where you stand with Christ, listen to this great message about this great salvation. Before you leave this building, you can be ready to die and know that you'll see Jesus face to face, but as importantly, you're now ready to live because of this great salvation. So we're going to sing a beautiful old hymn with the church. We're in God's presence now everybody. Just let everything calm down. We're going to sing to Him, holy, holy, holy. Say it first. Holy, holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, very in the morning my song shall rise to lead. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty.

God in repressance. Blessed Trinity, holy, holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Father, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Rich virgin Martin, evermore shall be your name. Holy, holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Blessed Paul and I be, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Now Lord, your people are going to walk out into the middle of the battlefield, face the enemy's armies, head on, and I pray that as we exit, we will be watching and praying. Thank you for the victory we have in you Christ, keep us safe, be with us until we meet again. And Lord, come quickly, we want to see your face. And now let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Lord my strength and my strength. Love you church. 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 ministry's 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. (gentle music) (gentle music) You