The Last Days Battle for Love

Thank you so much for your kindness, you may be seated. Pastor Tim, come here for a minute please, if you will. When I came out of surgery, I think it was a day or two, I lost track of time, I was in the ICU, and it was about the second day Pastor Tim came to visit, for the first of seventeen visits, that he came to see me. And when he walked in the room, he didn't quote scripture, he just cried, and then he leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like you to keep that picture in your mind, not this one, but that one that I shared with you, as I share today, what the Lord's put on my heart for you. Let's pray. Father, thank you Lord for your kindness. God, thank you for touching my life the way you have, touching my heart the way you have, and my spiritual heart the way you have, Lord. I thank you God that when I came out of that surgery, I had two new hearts, not just one. I'm asking Lord Jesus Christ that I may have the privilege of honoring you, that I may have the privilege of seeing you able to stretch out your hand and do the work that you do, to set free the oppressed, to give sight to those that are blind, to help those that have been bruised in heart. God, to give victory to the captives. I'm asking you, Lord Jesus Christ, to do the work today that you came to do. And the only promise I can make you that I think I can keep is that I will not touch the glory ever. God, no matter what you choose to do, the glory belongs to you. I know what I am without you, but I also know who I am because of Christ in me. So Father, thank you God. Bless your people today. Bless every person that's here in this sanctuary and those that are in the annex, those that

are listening online. God, stretch out your hand through the internet waves today, God, and go into the darkened places. Go into those inner prisons, Lord, where you sent the voices of Paul and Silas to set people free. God, do a work, Lord, today that only you can do. And they recognize, we recognize it's only you. There is no human vessel that can do this. It can only be done by the power of God. You're a merciful God, and I've come to know you in a new way, and I thank you with all my heart in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Praise God. I want to speak to you today about the last day's battle for love. I was going to build up the title, but they put it up on the screen before I had a chance to speak, so I'll go right into it. The last day's battle. You know, if I was to talk about last day's battles, there'd be a lot of opinions in this room about what that could be. Faith to stand, faith to move mountains, gifts of the Holy Spirit abounding in the church one more time. But realistically, I think this is going to be the battle that will win the day for the kingdom of God. And when you and I allow the love of God that is supernatural to flow through us, because there's no way we can, our natural love has limitations. I don't know about you, but mine does. And there's a point where we just can't love anymore. There's a point where we would turn our backs and will turn our backs on that which is naturally unlovable. It's only those who possess within their heart this love of God that will be able to win

the battle and continue to love in these last days. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning at verse 31. Paul says, earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. In other words, Paul was saying, there are supernatural abilities that we need in the body of Jesus Christ. We need words of wisdom. We need words of knowledge, the gifts of healing. And we should pray and will pray that God restore these gifts to your church. But Paul said, there's a more excellent way. These things are necessary. He's not downplaying it. But I'm going to show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clam. symbol. Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail. You see there's a day coming when we're going to be in the presence of God and there'll be no need for prophesying anymore. We will actually know as we are known. All these things are going to pass away. Whether there are tongues, they will cease. Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three.

But the greatest of these is love. You see Paul the Apostle is saying under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that all these spiritual giftings that we aspire to will one day come to an end. Even knowledge as we know it will come to an end. For we will know, the scripture says, even as we are known. Nothing in a sense of these giftings will follow us into eternity except for love, which is eternal. It will not pass away. Why is it going to be the battle that we fight in the last days? Matthew chapter 24 verses 10 and 12 tell us why. In the last days, in the last of the last days, which I am personally convinced we are coming very, very, very close to. And then many will be offended and betray one another and will hate one another. Doesn't that describe our society today? Everybody is offended at something. People are betraying one another. There's no desire anymore for civility or cooperation or to find common ground or even to seek the truth. All of that is gone and hatred is now becoming the accepted order of the day. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. Society will devolve into such a perilous condition. Nobody will want truth. Everybody will want to be in authority. Nobody will want to be under authority. They will want their truth to be the only truth and it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. It doesn't matter what truth really is. This is a lawlessness against the ways of God, against the word of God, against the will of God, against the order of God, against what God defines as civility and what will bring or sustain a nation. And because of it, the love of many will grow cold. The love. It's easy to hate. It's hard to love. And our love, our natural love, does have limitations. It's sad to say our hate doesn't, but our love does. And there's a point where only the love of God in us will take us through into the future. Now Paul, the one whom God used to write these words, had experienced most things that many today would define as incredible spiritual victory. But Satan threw everything he had in his arsenal at this man to make him a bitter and unloving man. Some people here today know exactly what I'm speaking about. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23. Listen to the words of Paul. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more. In labor is more abundant. In stripes above measure. In prisons more frequently. In deaths often. From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one. In other words, five times, in other words, I was almost beaten to death. Think of the temptation in this man to become bitter. Satan threw everything he could at this man to break him down, to destroy the power of love that was in his life, because Satan himself, I think, had an inkling that this man was going to be used for a purpose greater than he could

understand. He was going to write down. the text of much of our New Testament scripture and be a guide, in a sense, to the body of Christ. He was going to write 1 Corinthians chapter 13 about what is a more excellent way, and may I say it this way, the devil tried to beat it out of him, change his mind. Think of the numbers of people here today that, as Paul, Paul is simply trying to help people find an eternal relationship with God. He's trying to lead his own countrymen out of the bondage of sin and out of the peril of heading towards a Christless eternity, and for his efforts for his own people, he's getting beaten almost to death five times. I think of the numbers of people here today that, in your workplace or in your neighborhood or even in your own family, over Christmas, all you want to do is to help people find a relationship with God, only to find yourself verbally beaten upon, or even worse. You see, the devil will do everything in his power, as he did with Paul. Three times, he says, I was beaten with rods, bad enough, five times, with whips, in a sense, three times with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I've been in the deep, in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. I don't know about you, Pastor Tim, but there's a point in my life where I'd say, enough already, okay? Can we kind of share this with some other people? But you see, the devil himself knew that Paul was a formidable force in the hand of God, as you are, those of us who choose to say, God, I trust you, that there is a purpose for my life beyond what I can understand. I trust you, God, that all things do work together for good, because I love you, and I am one of the called according to your purpose. I trust you, God, that you're going to take me from image to image, and glory to glory, and that the latter part of my days will be greater than the former. God, I trust you.

I trust you through flood. I trust you through fire. I trust you through trial. I trust you through things that I understand and things that I don't understand, things that I like and things that I don't like. It's not about any of that. I trust you, God. I trust you with all of my heart. And I know that there'd be a temptation, as there is for many today, even to be bitter against God himself. Because many people have come to Christ and they've formed their own theology, or they're listening to brother or sister so-and-so online who's telling you that now that you've come to Christ and you're part of the family of God, everything is just going to be wonderful from here on in. No more trials, no more tribulation, no more troubles. You're going to be the head and not the tail. You've heard all that stuff. Well, I hope you haven't. But if you have, you know by now, or you will know shortly, that none of it is true. You're going to find that life is difficult. There are moments that you're going to have to go through. We all have to go through. There are people that you're going to have to learn to love. And you're going to have to learn that to love them, God has to love them through you. You and I can't do it on our own. There's just no way. There's just no way. Now Paul had also experienced incredible victories. Not just the struggles that he had gone through, but incredible, incredible victories. In 2 Corinthians 1, verses 8-10, he says,

We don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia. We were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us and whom we trust that he will still deliver us. So Paul had this faith that could move mountains. There was a moment in his life where he declares that we lost hope of even living. Our only trust was in God. So they had to kind of move this mountain of despair out of their lives. In that sense, he had the faith to move mountains. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul was a man who understood mysteries. He says in verse 2, I know a man in Christ, that's himself, who 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows, such a one was caught up to the third heaven. Anybody else ever been there? Please don't raise your hand if you think you have, because I'm telling you, you haven't been there. He says, I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. He was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which is not lawful for a man to utter. He understood. He had faith to move mountains. He understood mysteries. And Paul could honestly say, as he exhorted us to do in Romans chapter 12 and verse 1, I have yielded my body to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is my reasonable service. You see, Paul had done all of the things that he lists in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. But in all these things, without the love of God moving in him and through him, he declares himself to be just a noise, to be worth absolutely nothing and gaining nothing on his forward journey.

That's how important love is. First John chapter 4 verses 7 and 8 says it this way, Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God. You can know about God, I guess, but doesn't know God for God is love. In this, the love of God was manifested towards us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him. This is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Not that we love God, but God loved us. We don't fully understand God so loved the world, do we? We don't fully understand the depth of God's love. It's like looking at the surface of an ocean, wanting to know the depths of it, but we can't fully grasp nor understand this incredible love of God. First John chapter 4 verse 17 says, Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. How important is it to know the love of God? How important is it to let the love of God not only fashion us, but flow through us? The scripture says it will give us boldness and confidence in the day of judgment, because we can honestly say, God, I have had your heart. I have possessed your heart. I've allowed you to love the unlovable through me. Even though they spit on me, even though they rejected me, even though they beat on me verbally or whatever the case was, I didn't draw back. That was the testimony of the apostle Paul. In first John chapter 4 and verse 18, the scripture says there is no fear in love because perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment, but he who fears has not been made perfect in love. Perfect love casts out fear.

I know this for a fact. When I went in to be operated on, the doctors did tell me, because of your age and the condition of your heart, there's a small chance that you might not make it. That was the thought. Somebody tells you there's just a small chance it becomes very big in your mind all of a sudden. Small. Could you please define small? Could you give me a percentage of the sum of ... Well, they told me we have to cut you open stem to stern. We have to spread your ribcage. We have to stop your heart, put you on a blood and whatever machine to get you breathing, keep the blood moving, and then we have to lift your heart to whatever they do, open it up. I've got plastic pieces in my heart. You know that? That'd be a great sermon title, wouldn't it, Pastor Tim? I'm just hoping as I preach that I don't pop a spring or something like that. I don't even know what they are. All I can tell you is I have warranty cards in my wallet. What is it for? I'm going to apply for an extended warranty. I guess that's the only thing I can do with it. But I tell you one thing. When I went into the operating room and they laid me on the table, I was talking to the anesthesiologist and on my way there, I was not even praying to live. I was completely ... And this is not an idle boast. This is a fact and this is true. I was unafraid of death. It is true as Paul said, the grave has no victory.

Death has no sting. I was completely unafraid. I had been in a prayer meeting the night before with my two sons, my daughter and my wife, and I said, God, I know my family is safe. I've heard your voice through all of my children. God, I know my wife is in good hands. I know that you'll be cared for. And on the way down the hall, this was my prayer. Lord, your will be done, not mine. I said, if you want to take me home today, I'm okay with it. If you want to ... Leave me here, I'm okay with it. It's whatever you want to do, to the point where they put me on the operating table and I was talking to the anesthesiologist about something in the news. I don't remember exactly what it was. It was some current event thing. When he put me to sleep, I bet you a lot of you wanted to do that for a long time, right? He didn't tell me, he just put me to sleep as I was talking to him. I was completely unconcerned about the fact that I was about to be cut open. And when I came out of the operation, I was in ICU for 11 days because not only did I have open heart surgery, I caught pneumonia because of the intubation was in there.

So it was a kind of a rough 11 days. No wonder Pastor Tim kissed me on the forehead. The only thing I was thinking about when you came in the room was I must really look bad. I must really look bad. And you know, there's a point in your life, I was in bed, I couldn't get up on my own. I had tubes and bells and whistles everywhere that you can even imagine. I was very, very weak and in constant pain. And yet, I began to understand something that I needed to understand for a long time. I had one thing left, which was more powerful than the fact that I had pastored a church or written a book or done conferences. Matter of fact, nobody there cared about anything I'd ever done. I had one thing that I found out was greater than anything else that I've ever done. I had a love in my heart for the people around me. And I had some of the most profound conversations from surgeon to cleaner. It was everybody that would come in the room just by talking to them and a heart that really loved no strength to do anything else. Can't get up, can't preach a sermon, can't take an offering, can't give an altar call, can't open a book, I can't do anything. I can't even get out of bed. But I had a heart where God's love was flowing through me

and there was tears, there were prayers, there was rededications, there was confessions of sin. It was amazing what God did. Paul says, I'll show you a more excellent way. I could have had a word of knowledge for somebody and maybe the gift of prophesying might have still been there and maybe faith to move mountains or all of this stuff. But Paul said, I'll show you a more excellent way that when somebody comes in, that God says, let me love them through your life. And there were some real struggles there in some of the people's lives. Relationships and everything you can even imagine. I even did a premarital counseling in the ICU. It's amazing, this is what I discovered. If you have the love of God in your heart, though everything else around you might be failing, you have more power than you've ever known in your lifetime. It's an amazing thing to have the love of God flowing through your life. So the question you ask me today is, how can I know this love that's more excellent and promises to give me divine strength? There has to be a take home in all of this. Pastor David used to tell me, one time I preached a message here years ago and I went over and sat next to him and he looked at me and he said, that was a marvelous theological message,

but what did you give the people to take home? There's gotta be something to take home. I've got to be able to leave here and so do you with something that I say, God, I want this in my life. I'm taking this home with me. I'm gonna meditate on this. I'm gonna chew on this. I'm gonna pray on this. Here it is, here's your take home today. God so loved you that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God so loved you. Let God love you today. Let God love you. Now there's a golf clap if I've ever heard one in the house of God. Let God love you. Let God love you. Let him embrace you as he once did the prodigal son. Jesus Christ was talking about the heart of God when he shared this particular story about a boy who had gone far away from his father, was living in a place he shouldn't be living, doing things he shouldn't be doing and it left him feeling full of shame. It left him feeling unworthy. It left him feeling like his father could never use him for anything worthwhile again. And this boy got up and started to walk down the road

just as some of you are gonna get out of your seat and walk down these aisles today. He started to walk home. He didn't even fully understand what he's coming home to. But how surprised he must have been. when he felt like he should be judged, when he felt like there was no future for him, when he felt like he had nothing left to give to his father's house, to see his father running towards him and embracing him and covering his shame and taking the weight of all he had done upon himself. That's what the cross is all about. That's what Jesus Christ did. He took your failure. He took your struggles. He took your trials. He took your shame. He took it all upon himself and just says, come to me, ye who labor and are heavy laden. Come and learn of me. I'm meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. He cried out through the prophet Isaiah, oh, everyone who thirsts, everyone who labors, come and buy wine and milk and honey without money and without price. Why do you labor for that which doesn't satisfy? Come to me. That's always been the cry of God. Let me love you. Let me embrace you. Let me cleanse you. How much more for the household of faith? You see, that's what the devil does, beats on us and says, you're not worthy. God doesn't want you. Oh, he might let you go to heaven, but you're useless on the earth. Oh no. Oh no. Once you know the love of God, once you know the love of God, once God's love, once you've experienced his embrace, once you've let him hug you and take the stain of your failure upon himself, you say, well, how do I do it? Don't resist. Don't put out your arm. Don't keep him at a distance. Don't say, I'm not worthy. You never were worthy. You weren't worthy when you were having your best day. You weren't worthy when you were praying six hours a day and reading your Bible for the other 18. You understand, you never have been worthy of his love. This is love. Not that we love God, but God loved us and sent his son to be the sacrifice, the atoning sacrifice for our sins. This is what love looks like. And when you and I finally understand the depth of God's love for us, it becomes easy now to embrace those who also don't deserve his love because we understand we didn't deserve it either. We can't earn it. It's not given to us by favor. It's not given because we've done

everything right. It's given because God so loved the world. He gave his only begotten son. I have a new heart. I thank God for the physical heart. The doctors tell me I have about 14 more years to go before, you know, goodbye. That's all right. I'm going to use that to love as many people, to let God love as many people as he can through my life in the days ahead. You see, you've got to win the battle for love now. This is the ultimate battle in the last days. You see, there's a line that we can't pass because human love has its limitations. The only way that this can be done is God has to love people through us. It has to be the Holy Spirit that opens our arms and opens our heart, and we start talking to people, and then the next thing you know, the tears come. You know, and it's amazing. I saw tears in the hospital from people that were quite hard in the beginning of the conversations, but they suddenly realized, they felt something they couldn't explain. I could explain it because I felt it in my heart. The love of God is the most powerful thing. It's not all theology. Pastor Tim, you displayed that when you walked into the room I was in, and you didn't say anything. You just cried and kissed my forehead. That was love. You're honestly one of the best friends I've ever had in my life. See, I didn't need a sermon. Do you understand at this point? My chest had been opened. My heart had been started and stopped and shocked and everything else, and I had bells and wires and tubes stuck all through my body, into my lungs, every other place. I didn't need a sermon. I didn't need a sermon. I didn't need a sermon. I didn't need a sermon. All through my body, into my lungs, every other place, I didn't need a sermon. I needed somebody to love me. You see, there's a lot of people out there, and spiritually speaking, they're almost paralyzed. The only way they'll ever know the love of God, now God obviously can sovereignly reveal himself, and he may choose to do that, but the only way he'll ever know the love of God is through you and through me. This is our opportunity, this is the finest hour, in my opinion, for the Church of Jesus Christ. But we've got to get back to being the Church of Jesus Christ, in the simplicity of what that really means. God so loved the world.

God so loved the world, God so loved the world. I want to give an altar call today. For those who just feel unlovely, you need to know the love of God. I can make you a promise today. I'm not trying to fill an altar. But if you get out of your seat today, in a moment when we stand, and you make your way down here, you will feel the embrace of God before you get halfway here. You'll feel what the prodigal son felt. You'll feel God's arms around you. You'll suddenly feel that God loves you, not because you have performed for him. He just loves you because he loves you. And that perfect love will cast out the fear of rejection by God. It will cast out the fear of letting God change your life. It will cast out the fear and the lies that you'll always be this way and you'll never change. That will be thrown to the wind, too, as well. You'll understand something about the love of God. And it will give you the power, as Paul said, to bear and believe and hope and endure all things for the sake of others. It will give you the power to be beaten five times with stripes and three times with rods and shipwrecked and in perils among false brethren and not draw back and not quit. Paul found this incredible power of love.

And you and I can know it, too, as well. I have found it. Thank God. It shouldn't be a revelation, but I guess it is. Thank God, thank God, thank God. Thank God for the love of God. Thank you. I talk to people that were in sin. And just in speaking with them, the tears start to come. Instead of pointing their face in their failure, I would say to them, we can get past that, can't we? And they'd start to cry. Yeah, I guess we can. One lady under conviction told me, I'm living with my boyfriend. I said, yeah, bring him to church too. You can bring him too. God will get through to him. Instead of just quoting a scripture about you shouldn't be doing this or you shouldn't be doing that. I kind of understand now why sinners were comfortable with Jesus and the religious weren't. He never condoned their lifestyle, but they somehow knew they were loved. What caused Zacchaeus to jump up and say, I'm gonna give all my goods to the poor and I'm gonna restore if I've taken anything by fraud and all this other stuff? What was it?

He knew he was loved by God. Oh, that you could know his love. Oh, that you could understand the depth of his compassion. Oh, that you could be released to let him embrace you in all of your struggles, your trials, your failures. It's not about performance, it's about God. And all the prodigal son could do is just let his father embrace him, cover him, empower him, throw a party over him and send him out. I've often preached it from this and other pulpits. What do you think that boy's message was? For those who know, he smelled like a pig. His father embraces him, he covers him, he gives him a ring of authority. Puts shoes on his feet, which is symbolic of I'm sending you out with a message. Brings him into the house, calls for the band, kills the calf, throws a party for this mess of a son. And he sends him out to represent his house. That's what the shoes are all about. What do you think the boy's message was? You've gotta know my dad. You've gotta meet my father. The most loving man I've ever known in my life. See, I knew about works, but I didn't understand about love. That's why I left the house in the first place. I thought my father was like my older brother, but he's not. I found the love of my father. And you've gotta believe, when that kid went out,

people were listening to his message. I can see him, Pastor Tim, coming back down the road with every scallywag you could find in society. All the drunks and all of the people that are down and out and the depressed and the imprisoned and say, come on, you've gotta meet my father. You've gotta come and meet my father. The kindest man I've ever known. You see, this is the message that will touch this generation. You've got to know the God that I know You got to know how kind he's been to me and he would be just as kind to you Let's stand If you have never known if you've never known the love of God And you want that embrace today, would you come would you just come just slip out of your seat right now just come Whether you're a believer a non-believer You're living in shame. You're living in a sense of failure Come just come now. Don't hesitate. Just come Slip out of your seat in the balcony. You go to either exit The annex will wait for you, too If you want to make your way down here or stand between the screens as you choose as you prefer Just make your way down God so loves me. Let him embrace you. Don't even don't resist Feel his embrace before you even get here. There's tears here already You'll feel his embrace before you make it down here. I could I can promise you that He loves you He loves you Just keep coming just keep coming Just keep coming if you don't know Christ as your Savior you come to Come as you are Come with your struggles come with your trials come with your problems come with your mess

Bring it all bring it down here and you watch what God will do in your life You watch what the touch of God in your life is going to do for you And all of a sudden I'm unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by the Lord And I realize just how beautiful you are and how great your affections are for me And know How he loves us so Oh how he loves us how he loves us Sing it yourself. He loves He loves Oh He love I Want to speak to those for a moment Who've never experienced the love of God? You see he longs to embrace you he longs to forgive you Longs to empower your life to be Different from what it is now But on your part It just requires an admission that I need God Don't make it complicated. I Can't I can't do this without God. I can't do life without God. I've tried but it's It's not good and it's getting worse all the time If you can believe that God loves you and sent his son To take your place on a cross for the death that you deserve for the way you have lived and he did it because of love and And Simply confess him as your Lord and Savior say Jesus Christ. I Invite you into my life to be my Lord and Savior. I

Heard these words back in 1978. I was a 24 year old police officer and another police officer had been sharing these The same things that I'm saying to you, on the way to work one day, May 12th, 1978, I pulled over on the side of the road and I prayed this prayer. I said, Jesus, if this is true, what this man is telling me, then I open my heart to you, to be my Lord and to be my Savior. I left there at the side of the road, I went to work, I didn't feel a thing, nothing. Some people think you need to feel something, I didn't feel anything. I went to work, worked my shift, went home, went to bed, but as God lives, the next morning when I woke up and my feet hit the floor, something had happened to me. I had been embraced by God. The old things are beginning to pass away and all things are becoming new. It was a new life. I was forgiven and I was back in relationship that I'd never been in, but I was in relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ, for the first time. I didn't understand it, but I said, God, if it's true, and how many are willing to pray that with me this morning? God, if it's true. God, if it's true that I can be forgiven. God, if it's true that I can have a new life. God, if it's true that I can be loved by you.

I want you as my Lord and Savior. If that's you today, would you just, we're gonna pray a prayer together. Would you raise your hand, wherever, all over. God bless you, all over the sanctuary, all over the balcony. So many hands everywhere. Pray this prayer with me right now. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for loving me. Thank you for coming into my life today. Forgiving my sin and embracing me in your love. From this day forward, you are the Lord of my life. Help me, teach me, and guide me on this journey. I believe that this very moment, the things that have separated me from God and heaven are now being put away. Amen. I am a child of God, and heaven will be my eternal home. Thank you for your embrace today. In Jesus' name, amen, and amen, and amen. And now Father, I just pray for my brothers and sisters. You know, there's some of you here, you've never had the arms of a loving father around you, have you? Would you let God do that today? Just let him do it. He's not like the experience maybe you've had on this side of heaven. But he's a father that will never leave you, never forsake you.

He'll cover you, he'll love you. Just lift your hands right now and close your eyes. Father, in Jesus' name, I just pray, Lord, God, let these brothers and sisters experience your embrace right now. Let the love of God transform their lives into something that only you can. And in experiencing this love, let this love begin to flow through them in a way that only you can do it. Amen. God, thank you, God, thank you. Take a moment now, take a moment. Don't rush out of this moment. Don't rush out of this moment. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Take a moment. Let God just embrace you.