Open Their Eyes

♪ Happy Jesus, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Bless you, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Oh Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ My routine life ♪ ♪ There's no greater love than what you give me ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ I'm forgiven ♪ ♪ And I'll never be changed again ♪ ♪ Because the very same power ♪ ♪ Raised Christ from the dead ♪ ♪ Is abiding in the very same power ♪ ♪ Overing the great ♪ ♪ When you're losing me ♪ ♪ And now I am coming ♪ ♪ Since you're asking me ♪ ♪ Since you're asking me ♪ ♪ I'm gonna shout it out loud ♪ I'm gonna shout you out again, oh yeah Mary did, there's no pain in love There's no pain in love, there's no pain I'm gonna shout you out again, oh yeah I'm gonna shout you out again And I'll never be chained again Because the very same power Raised cries from the day It's arriving And the very same power From the fate of the day

Mary did, there's no pain And the very same power Raised cries from the day It's arriving And the very same power From the fate of the day Mary did, there's no pain And now I'll come here Since he rescued me Since he rescued me I'm gonna shout you out again Raised cries from the day I'm gonna shout you out again I'm gonna shout you out again I'm gonna shout you out again Shout it out, love her Shout it out, love her Oh, thank you, love her for the truth No more sayin' Oh, they're me So now all I am free, I'm gonna shout it out Thank you for your work Thank you for your work For the good one day I'm gonna go with me Oh, oh, I am free I'm gonna shout it out Shout it out, shout it out I'm gonna go with you

I'm gonna shout you out again I'm gonna shout you out again I'm gonna shout you out again Oh, they're me Oh, they're me Oh, they're me Oh, they're me Oh, they're me I'm gonna shout you out again Oh, they're me Oh, they're me Oh, they're me Oh, they're me So now all I am free I'm gonna shout it out Shout it out Oh, they're me Oh, they're me Oh, they're me Oh, they're me Oh, they're me I'm gonna shout Oh, they're me Oh, they're me Oh, they're me ♪ I'm sad about that ♪ ♪ I'll do it now and I'll do it now ♪ ♪ I want thanks to what it means ♪ ♪ Whatever I want, please I am free ♪

♪ But I'm sad about that ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Very safe out ♪ ♪ Haze times from the day ♪ ♪ And those very same power ♪ ♪ Over painful faith ♪ ♪ Where we live in peace ♪ ♪ And the very same power ♪ ♪ Wames crimes from the dead ♪ ♪ In surviving ♪ ♪ And the very same power ♪ ♪ Over painful faith ♪ ♪ Where we live in peace ♪ ♪ And now ♪ ♪ I am holy ♪ ♪ Since He rescued me ♪ ♪ Since He rescued me ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Shut it up ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ ♪ Shut it up ♪ ♪ Shut it up ♪ ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ If I could change this thing around ♪ ♪ Then you're gonna go this way ♪ ♪ Shut, shut, shut, shut, shut ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Shut it up ♪ (audience applauding) Amen.

I'm gonna take you to a couple of passages where our Lord said some unusual things. I'm often amused at politicians who will use scripture, some scripture. And activists who will use some scripture. And people who will use some of the words of Jesus, but not all of them. Because some of them will set you back. They'll knock you down. I'm hearing it said these days. We're moving in the right direction. We're finally back on track. You're wrong. There's only one direction. And that's toward God. It's not towards conservative opinion or belief. It has nothing to do with politics. I keep some of you upset with me all the time because I'm not on a certain bandwagon. I don't jump on the political bandwagon and wave a flag and hoot and holler and act like things are all better now. I know that time is running out. Everything we see and hear is temporary. We're in a dark world. We're in a lost world. There is no answer except Jesus Christ. No, I think we've gotten a reprieve from some crazy stuff. But we are still not on the right track

because the scriptures I read say if my people. And I'm talking to the church now. This is never said to a lost nation. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face. Not a better way of life. Not better leadership. My face. And turn from their wicked ways. Stop sinning. Then I will hear all the way from heaven. We'll forgive their sin and heal their land. I will not be a part of any type of amalgamation between conservatism and Christianity. You might need to make up your mind if you're going to stay in this church after today. I'm a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't push anybody or any movement. I'm here to lift up the cross and proclaim an empty tomb. of His face. There is no healing outside of His hand. Nothing that man can do any man can save this nation, except the church on its knees. Looking into His face being brightened by His glory, turning from wickedness and sin and half-heartedness and lukewarmness, and living lives that are worthy of the call of Christ. Jesus reprimanded very religious people one time, people who went to church not every Sunday, every day. Not once a day, three, four, five times a day. Jesus reprimanded those people not because they weren't reading the Scripture, but because

they were misreading the Scripture. And He said to them, "You search the Scriptures because in them you think you have life, but the Scriptures are speaking of me and you won't come to me." Isn't that amazing? The very thing the Scriptures are teaching is standing in front of you and you will not receive it. The Lord is saying the same thing to the church today. Excuse me. The Lord is not interested in full pews or buildings. He's interested in full hearts. The Lord is not interested in all of our Christian entertainment and all of this foolishness we do in the name of worship. God's interested in repentance, brokenness, holy living. Jesus said one of those strange things in Matthew chapter 6. Now, listen carefully to this. If you've read it, if you've ever read it, you read it and you went, "Hmm, I don't think I get that," Matthew 6.22, "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness." Now listen to this. "If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?" And it makes your head spin, there's light and there's darkness. And He said, "If the light that's in you is darkness, how can that be? If the light that's in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?" Luke said it like this, "Take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness." Now, how can you have light in you and still be full of darkness? Very simple. You think you're right, but you haven't repented. You are living in sin, but you have found a way to justify your sin. You don't feel bad about it anymore.

You've convinced yourself that it's okay for you to commit adultery. For you to look at pornography. For you to sneak around and be unfaithful to your spouse. It's okay for you because God understands what you're going through. And so you know enough about God. You know of God. You know the church, you know churchy stuff, that's enough light to make you aware that something is wrong, but you override it and the light that's in you becomes actual darkness. Did you know that Paul said that Satan has the power to turn himself into an angel of light? You ever read that? So even Satan can appear to be light. Is it possible that the light you have is actually the darkness of Satan? Is it possible that you are equating going to church with being saved? Is it possible that now since you don't feel convicted? conscience, hardening your conscience, which means if you do sin enough, it won't bother you as much. And if you keep on and on, it won't bother you at all. It's still sin. You just don't feel the conviction of the sin. And that's a horrible, horrible place to be. It's when you think that God's commandments are not as strict and that He doesn't demand of you what He demands of everybody else. And that is ready, repentance. What is that, pastor? That's when you stop living the way you are living. Brokenness, it's when you truly are sad about the life you are living and have lived and the mess you've made of it all and the fact that you have broken the heart of God. I don't know if we have any visitors here this morning or not. You may not have expected this kind of preaching. You may not have ever heard this kind of preaching. You certainly had some good music to listen to, but I want you to understand what a gift God has given you today. If you're not right with Christ, He and His goodness somehow arranged your life in this schedule for you to sit in this church today and hear this preacher tell you that you must be born again of the Spirit of God, that you cannot go to heaven with sin in your life. You cannot go to heaven until you have repented, until you have been born again. And that may disturb and that may upset. You may say, "Wow, that offends me. Oh, praise God that you are offended." It means that

there's something inside of you that's resisting that. Brothers and sisters, the greatest thing I will ever tell you if I die in the next five minutes is that Jesus Christ can save you from your sins. He can put your life back together, but He can't do it until you realize it's messed up. You know, you cannot go into Scripture. And again, I don't know who's visiting today. I don't know who's familiar with what, but most churches you go to don't preach from the Bible anymore. Most of the pastors are more into social activities and they're more into making people happy and giving them a fresh start for the week and making them feel positive. And that's not what Scripture does at all. Scripture is a mirror. Scripture is a hammer. Scripture is a fire. Scripture awakens. Scripture stirs up. The Word of God will upset you only to heal you. And when I'm having this thing going on, so just bear with me, okay? When you get to the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ and you get to the seventh church, this is what the Lord says to those people at the church and lay out of seeah. I know your works that you're neither cold nor hot. Wow. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will, here it goes. It's terrible. Vomit you out of my mouth. Yes, that's what Jesus said. I will vomit you out of my mouth because you say I'm rich, have become wealthy. I have need of nothing. That means I don't need God. And you do not know that you're wretched and miserable, poor and blind and naked. I counsel you. This is God giving advice. Buy from me. What can you buy from God? Buy from me gold. What? You can buy gold from God. Buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich. White garments that with eyesabbed that you may see." And just listen very carefully to this. This is the Lord Jesus talking to a church. Now folks, you've got to understand the church in America has changed drastically. It's political. It's unspiritual because when the gospel is not preached, you can't expect spiritual things to take place. The church has become a social place. The bigger the church in Charlotte or the older or the more renowned, that's where your bankers go and your politicians and your hotshots. You've got to go to a very influential church. That's where your family went. That's what you're known for. Church has become a kind of a weekend statement that I may live this way Monday through Saturday, but I can still sit on the church pew on Sunday even if I have to hold my eyelids up and listen to the most boring, dead speech I've ever heard in my life. And so he says, "Because of all that, you're lukewarm people." That means, well, you're not cold and you're not hot. See, when you're lukewarm, you're not cold enough to want some fire and you're

not hot enough to need some cool air. You're just kind of in the middle. You're stuck. It's God's way of saying, "I'm talking to people who want one foot in the world and the other foot in the church. They want to belong to both. They want to do what they want to do but have some semblance of religiosity on the weekend." But folks, this is a very serious charge that God has laid against the church and the church leadership. He said, "Because you're that way, I'm about to throw up. In fact, I will vomit you out of my mouth. You're gone. How can we be in God's mouth? Or number one, the church preaches the word of God. We are His voice on this earth. Number two, we're in His mouth because He intercedes for us every day. He prays for the saints. And He says, "Because you are not willing to make the same commitment to me that I have made to you, to lay down your sins, to stop your way, old way of life, stop loving money, stop loving the world, stop loving sin. I'm just going to throw up." And as terse and coarse as that sounds, that's what the Lord Jesus Christ said. He said, "You need to buy gold from me." And He wasn't talking about gold that can be spent on this earth. He's talking about heavenly treasures tried by fire. People who have said, "This world is passing away. It cannot satisfy me. I will not spend another moment of my life going after what I cannot yet. I will not spend another--" I feel a little strength coming on me now. "I will not spend another day of my life going after a nasty dollar, knowing that all that I have have not made me happy cannot feel my emptiness. I am a lost man without truth and without the light of life. I am lost without Jesus." So I'm moving to a new commerce, a new economy. It's not the gold of this world, but it's the gold of eternal life that I want burning inside of me. It's not the raiment of this world. It's not the style and fashion of society. It is the rich, white, clean robes of righteousness that God will put me in because I have confessed my sins and declare Him as Lord and Savior. I heard an old preacher say one time that the verse I'm about to read to you is the scariest verse in the Bible. Wanna hear it? All right, just the floor. Scariest verse in the Bible. Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, "but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. "Go into church is not what he's after. "Callin' him Lord is not what he's after. "Saying I believe Jesus is God is not what he's after. "I run a half on Sunday is not what he's after.

"You won't get to heaven doing that." He said, "It's the one who does the will of my Father, "lives for me and me alone. "Jesus has to be your life. "I'm gonna have to watch myself this morning. "I'm gonna start running down some rabbit trails here. "He who does the will of my Father. "He who's only reason to be alive and get up every day "is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ." Many will say to me in that day, what day? Well, there's a judgment day coming. Hello? That's what this is all about. There's a judgment day coming. Every person is going to stand in front of God and give an account of his life or her life one of these days. If you will go ahead and call him Lord now, let him judge you now. Let him cleanse you now. Your judgment is passed. (audience applauding) But you don't have to worry about judgment day. But for those who play church, who live on the edges, who are religious, who just have light devotions, but you're living the same way you have always lived. Judgment day is coming. And on judgment day, he's actually going to give you a chance to defend yourself. And this is what he said, "Many will say to me."

In that day, Lord, Lord. But isn't that what Jesus said? They would call him Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord. Have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name? And just, you know, just the kind of contemporary rise that it's saying, Lord, didn't we join the church? Lord, didn't we go down into the baptistry and get baptized? Didn't we go to church as high as twice a month? Didn't we get involved in a small Christian group? Didn't we get involved in missions? Lord, what are you talking about? Where are we here? Didn't we come to choir practice two times a week for 48 years? Lord, look at what we've done. Here it is, "And then I will do the talking," he said. "I will declare to you, I never knew you, because going to church," this is old fashioned, I know it. And I know some of you are saying, "Come on, let's get into some deeper stuff." Hey, I got people lost in here, folks. I've got people going to hell sitting in this building today, I'm not taking a chance. I've already told the council, if anybody from this church goes to hell, it will not be my thought.

I will preach the whole council of God, I'm telling them. I will declare to you, I never knew you, because going to church won't take you to heaven. You can go into the baptistry every week and you'll die without Christ. You can do everything that looks religious, but until you personally acknowledge to the Lord Jesus that you are a sinner. And that He is a Savior and you ask Him personally, "Save me from my sins, will you, Lord?" Forgive me, Lord." And the Bible says, "When you do that, he will save you." And it won't be the baptism or the church tenants or the mission strips. It'll be the fact that you called on the name of the Lord. That's the only thing that's going to get you to heaven. "I never knew you," he said, "depart from me you who practice lawlessness." Wow. I turned over to Acts chapter 26, and I read this, Paul is standing before a government official. Here's Paul, a man of God suffering greatly for Christ. All he's doing is trying to get people to go to heaven, right? A holy man of God, and he finds himself standing in front of a government official. And I made the observation at the first service. It's just kind of sickening to go through the Scripture and see all the holy men and women who have to stand in front of rotten government officials. Government officials looking down on them, thinking that they're unworthy and trashy and trouble. Government officials sitting high and haughty and looking down like they have some kind of authority looking down at a prophet of God, an apostle of God, a man of God. I'll just tell you one of these days the tables are going to turn, brother.

And Paul is standing in front of King Agrippa. And Agrippa is saying, "Who are you and why do you do what you do?" And Paul said, "King, I was going along the road one day, and I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun, shining around me, and those who journeyed with me saw it. And when we had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to kick against the briars." So I said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I'm Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise, stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. Listen, I will deliver you from the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles to whom I now send you to open their eyes." See, that's the whole problem. If God doesn't open eyes, nobody ever sees. That's why the darkness that's in you can seem like light because you're still blind. If God doesn't do the miracle of opening your understanding, you will never understand it. Just yesterday I read in Genesis where Hagar was out in the wilderness with Ishmael remember, and they ran out of water, and she put the boy under a bush. She didn't want to watch him die, and the Lord spoke to her and said, "I have something for you to do," and then the Bible says he opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. It was right there under her nose, but she couldn't see it. That's why I'm preaching the way I'm preaching today. This is the miracle of preaching. What you need is right at your feet. What you need is right here in this building today. You can't see it on your own, but if you will listen to this, God can open your eyes, and you can see that everything you've ever needed in life is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Everything. Everything is in Jesus Christ. Oh, my brother, I want you to call to go and open their eyes in order, look to turn them from darkness. When you get saved, you turn. I don't know what salvation is to a lot of people, but salvation that comes from Christ is when you are a sinner and you meet Jesus and you don't live the way you were living anymore. Your whole life changes. You don't want what you used to want. You don't go where you used to go. You don't act the way you used to act. Your mouth gets cleaned up. Your mind gets renewed. You get a new heart. You get a new home in heaven. You get a new conscience. Folks, when Jesus comes in, he turns you from darkness to light. You don't stay the same. You don't go to church on Sunday and then go back and live the way you were living. No, you hate the way you were living. It makes you sick the way you were living. You can't believe you used to live that way and you can't hardly believe that Jesus loved you enough to come and get you and open your eyes and set you free and give you eternal and abundant life. Things change when you get saved. You don't get saved and keep looking at pornography. You don't get saved and continue to be unfaithful to your spouse. You don't get saved and embezzled money at work. You don't get saved and run people in the ground. You don't get saved and go off on drunken binges. You don't get saved and go to smoke wacky-backy behind the building. Should I explain that? That's marijuana if you're from Alabama. I don't know. I guess I could list every sin I could possibly think of just to let you know there's nothing you still want to do that you used to do as a center when Jesus comes into your life. Your whole perspective changes about everything. You change your mind about your spouse. You do. You change your mind about your family, about your church. Sandra, come up here a minute, please. This is the way we are. Before we had children, we knew that if God ever gave us children, it was our responsibility to bring them up to know Jesus. That's all we ever cared about, wasn't it? We've never cared about having enough money to leave them when we're dead. We've never cared about making sure they went to the right college,

making sure they had some kind of future after we're gone. Listen, you can't give a child anything more important than Jesus Christ. Well, I want my kid to go to the best university. Which one is that? Is it the university that's going to cause them to hunger and thirst for righteousness? You're going to send them to Duke? Oh, I could just go through the whole list. I want my kid to have the best education. You missed it completely. You better want your kid to want to go to heaven. You better want your child to want Jesus. Jesus. I'm telling you, if you give them anything other than Jesus, you have given them nothing. But if you give them Jesus, put a heart in them for Jesus, long after you're gone. [applause] Thank you. I'm going to fuss a little bit right now. You know, you guys, you jocks, you got to have a guys night out every Thursday night, every Friday night. You got a wife, you leave her at home because this guy's night out. You got little kids, you're going to be out with your friends tonight, but you'll play with the kids tomorrow. And you go down to a sports bar and turn your hat around backwards and sit there and let a half-naked bar may give you beer after beer. While you and your dumb buddies look at some sports event and yell and scream like fools and then drive home half-drunk and you've left your family alone on a Friday night or any night because you have not yet understood what being a parent, what being a husband is all about, you cannot be saved and live a life like that. When you get saved, you want a family that's founded on Christ. You want a family that's built on the Lord Jesus Christ and nothing else. And I'm about to start preaching up in here this morning. [applause] These things are neglected. I want to tell you something. You can sit in this church 20 years and die and go to hell. You can say, "I don't know how people do it. Oh, I'm not coming down.

I don't know how people do it. How can you sit in here?" Week after week, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, under the conviction of the music, under the conviction of the Word, and then go out and commit adultery and look at pornography and get drunk and lie and cheat and steal and lust, you can't do it. You need to be born again. [applause] To turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Put, is it back up there? And from the power of Satan to God. Now listen to this. I'm a drastic guy. I'm a dramatic guy. If that's not true, then this whole thing is one big circus. And I'm just getting my jollies standing up in front of people. If what I just read to you is not true, we're the biggest bunch of fools in the world. If the power of God is not greater than the power of Satan, let's just all go home and hang out the best we can and hold on if we can. If the power of a risen Jesus is not greater than the power that is trying to pull you down and pull you back. If the power of the resurrection is not greater than any addiction, then I don't know what I'm talking about. However, I do know what I'm talking about. It happened to me. It's happened to thousands of people. You don't have to live in sin. Sin does not have dominion over you. Greater is he who is in you than he who is in this world. [Applause] Stand with me, please. Open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light.

And from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins. There it is. And an inheritance among all those who are sanctified by faith in me. Of all the things I've preached. I know some of it is upsetting, disturbing, and lots of people would even say, "Uncall for." Here's the bottom line. bled to death for you, not for just a group of people. He died for you. He loved you and gave Himself for you. The question is, what are you going to do with Jesus? Not which church you're going to go to, what denomination do you belong to? That's a bunch of foolishness. Is it a white church? Is it a black church? Is it a rich church? Is it a porter foolishness? Here's the question. Who is Jesus to you right now? When you get to heaven, the question is from the Father, what did you do with my son Jesus? You heard it. Now, what did you do with my son Jesus? You could either say, I believed and I received and He says, that's why you're home now, son. Well, others will say, Lord, I didn't really understand and I had a lot going on in my life and my business and the Lord will say, never knew you. So here's the great thing about real church. In real church, you get an opportunity to get saved. In real church, it doesn't matter what people think. We don't care if you're a banker or a car salesman in this church. There are no big shots in this church, only saints and sinners. So I just want to say, anybody who's never met Jesus, this could be the day you meet Him and walk with Him for the rest of your life. Listen, I say it often, I say it often, it doesn't matter what you've done, he can forgive it. It doesn't matter how many times you did it, he died for you. It doesn't matter. Jesus Christ wants to save you from your sins. So here's how I want to end. I'm just going to ask everybody in the whole building to move down as close to the front as you possibly can. Yeah, church members, everybody, if you don't know Jesus, see, we're not pointing you out, we just ask you to come on, come forward. Here's the thing, church. Every message from a pulpit ought to affect everybody that heard it. If you're lost, I hope it has you upset, upset enough to say, help me Jesus. If you're a believer, I hope it stirs you up enough to say, Lord, I want to clean up my life. I don't want anything between me and you. I want to walk worthy, worthy, worthy. So everybody gets in on this today, even this preacher right here, right now, I want to be done with everything that's unlike

Christ this morning right before I walk to the pulpit up here. You know, I'm always doing a little crying and a little praying and a little, I'm scared to death before I get up here and I'm shaking and I'm nervous and the Holy Spirit whispered in my ear and reminded me of something I did this week. I didn't think that much of it, but I did right then. And I said, I hear you and I'm so sorry. Thank you for your cleansing blood. I confess that was not right. And he forgave me right then on the spot. That's the way God is. So I just want to invite everybody. Make some movement toward God today. That's the right direction. You're on the right track if you're headed towards him. If you don't know Christ and would want to raise your hand and say, I want to be saved today. If you will do that, we'll pray for you. I won't call you out. Won't embarrass you. But if you want to be saved, and you can be a brand new person this morning. David. David. [Music] ♪ Praise that rescue me ♪ ♪ Holy ♪ ♪ Welling ♪ ♪ Is our land ♪ ♪ Good night ♪ ♪ For me ♪ ♪ What can you do ♪ ♪ All reacts ♪ ♪ Motherless ♪ ♪ Rage that rest to me ♪ ♪ Oh, me ♪ ♪ Her name is the land ♪ ♪ Tonight ♪ ♪ For me ♪ ♪ Praise God ♪ ♪ Let me just say, any time you draw a night of God,

draw close to God, God will draw close to you. And it may be a little uncomfortable in here this morning for some of you, good. And I never want to embarrass anybody, but just be reminded that wherever you go, after you leave here, if you call on him, he will hear you. But there's not much time left, you see. That's why I'm the way I am. There's not much time left. The Bible says Jesus is coming to get his church, and it could happen at any moment. So there aren't that many moments to be messing around. Just call on him, and you can go to bed tonight with a clean heart, and we'll see each other in Heaven if that happens. I love you, church, and I want us to all go to Heaven. My father-in-law, Pastor Weatherby, I told somebody this morning, I'd give a lot of money to sit down at a meal with my father-in-law, mother-in-law, my daddy, and my mama. Every time they got together,

they talked about the Lord. They prayed. Oh, I'd love to sit down with them. They've already made it. But I'm going to make it too. See, I got my mind made up. How about you, anybody? Let's go to Heaven. So now, Lord, I commend these precious people into your care and safekeeping. I've delivered the word you gave to me to them. I pray now, Lord, that they will handle it carefully and wisely and prayerfully and apply it to their hearts. Help us to be rapture ready, Jesus, and will bless you. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. O Lord, my strength and my redeemer, amen. 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-in-prison correspondence course through the mail by writing to Central Church, Jail-in-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. (gentle music) (gentle music)