We've Gone from Death to Life: And Why

Church, how we doing? Let's go. Hey, recently my son, Weston, and I had the opportunity to go hunt a water buffalo in Argentina, okay? Crazy, I know. Friend invited us, father, son trip, and it was incredible. But when we get there, there's one English-speaking guide who tells me this story. Hey, the last time we hunted a water buffalo, the guy shot it, and it turned and charged him. I had to throw him out of the way, grab his rifle, tried to shoot it again, but there was no shell in the chamber, so then I have to jump out of the way, it barely missed me. And I'm just hearing this story like, whoa. And so I go to sleep before the hunt, thinking about that, and I wake up four times, true story, like with having this nightmare of this water buffalo charging Weston and I, you know, just coming right for us. Then I kind of jump out of bed, like, oh, okay, okay. Go back to sleep, jump out, you know, have the same reoccurring dream. Day comes, we go out there, they find the buffalo, like, there it is, and we're gonna hunt it. I know some of you are like, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. No, it's like shooting a buffalo

running 35 miles an hour while standing, and you kind of have to get it out of the brush, which is six feet tall, and so we're kind of chasing it on this like four-wheeler can-am kind of thing, and we finally get it in the clearing, and I get my shot and shoot it, hit it, all the things. It runs and then falls, and I'm so relieved, right? I'm like, okay, killed it, like, we're good to go. And I know that some of you are emailing Peter right now. The meat is distributed to the villages around there, like, they've got this amazing program, it's all a thing, but if you do wanna email me, it's inhilgencampatharriscreek.org, but we go over to the dead buffalo, and the guide is trying to tell me something, but he speaks no English, and it's frantic, and he's like, and he takes the rifle, and he puts a shell in it, and he gives it back to me, and he's like, he's basically saying, have it ready, and I'm like, no, no, no, I don't want to hunt another one. Like, this is, I'm a one-and-done guy. He's dead, we're good, and we get over to it. We're about 15 feet away from it, and it jumps up, and it comes for us, and I panicked, I'm just like, pfft. And I'm like, and he says, the guide, says the one English word that he knows, which is not good, and I'm like, what's wrong?

And he goes, oh, and I'm like, what? And anyways, here's a, if you're squeamish, look away. Here's a picture. That's a bullet hole. Anyways, then it was very dead. And the reason I start with that story is today we're going to talk about what it means that Christ takes us from death to life. There's a big difference, an enormous chasm between death and life. When that buffalo, that water buffalo is alive, it's powerful, it's potent. It has grown men shaking in our boots. It's terrifying. When it's dead, it's lifeless. It's a lump on the face of the planet, immovable. It does nothing. It's not powerful. It's not potent. It has no virality to it. And so there's a difference between death and life. And the scripture tells us that God found us dead, that he made us alive, and that he brought us to life for a purpose, that there's something that he wants to do. And there's some of us that came in this morning, and you're like, I'm alive. I walked in with my own two feet. I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. I got out of bed, and I made my coffee, and I got in the car.

And you are very much physically alive, but some of us are spiritually dead. We're not walking in the works that the Holy Spirit is directing us to. We don't hear him. We're not listening. We're not doing the things that God would have us do. And the scripture tells us that God found you when he found you, he found you dead. That that's how he found you, dead. And to believe that stirs in you and I. If we can conceptually, at a heart level, go back to our cars, believing that God found us dead, it will, without a doubt, you're like, do I believe that? I can tell you, if you believe, it will, without a doubt, stir in you great gratitude, thankfulness. The worries of this world will fade to the background because nothing will compare to the reality that God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, found you dead and resurrected you. And if you can believe that God found you dead, it will transform the way you speak to people and interact with people and believe about people who are far from God. You will meet them with great compassion, not advice. Not, hey, let me help you work on your morality. You can't. If they do not have the Holy Spirit, what they should do is sin with great tenacity. That is what they should do.

If they do not have the Holy Spirit, if they have not been brought back to life, then what they should do is drink six more, vape much more, pursue sexual conquest with greater vigor. And we're talking to them about living with their significant other. Could you drink a little less? Go there, act a little better. Could you improve your behavior? Why? So they go to hell? Be separated from God forever? No, you've got to approach them with the one, the only one who can resurrect them. They need to be born again. The Scripture tells us, when you believe that, it transforms your interactions with humanity because you cannot do what only the Holy Spirit can do, but you can bring, usher in the Holy Spirit into the conversation, but not with your tips and tricks and advice, you know? Not with your, you know, seven ways to live a better life with the Gospel. So what does it mean that Jesus Christ brings us from death to life? I'm gonna be in Ephesians chapter two. As we move through this text, verses one through 10, it's a powerful Scripture. We're in between series, coming out of Old Testament stories that point to Christ, Christophany,

moving toward answering the questions Jesus asked, answering Jesus, and in between, we are breaking for a week to focus on the greatest story, the greatest truth and reality anyone has ever heard, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Here in Ephesians chapter two, verses one through 10, we're gonna look at the reality, how you were dead, how God made you alive, and He did so for a reason, calling you and I to live the life that He prepared in advance for you to live. Paul wrote this letter. It's a letter to a church that he planted in Ephesus. He loved these people dearly, and it's about 60 to 62 AD. He's on house arrest in Rome, and he pens this letter and says this, Ephesians chapter two, verse one, as for you, who's the you? Of course, the Ephesians, but the Holy Spirit preserves it for thousands of years that we would sit in a place called Harris Creek Baptist Church out here in McGregor. You would listen from afar in the gym or wherever you're at. The you is you. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work, and those who are disobedient, who is the kingdom, who is the ruler of the kingdom of air. When you followed Satan, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient.

Because you used to follow Satan, it's what you used to do. And it says in the NIV, used to live, it's peripateo. It's you used to walk in your sins and transgressions. That's the path that you walked. You were on the path of the sinners and the scoffers. That was the path that you took. That was your jogging trail. All of us also lived among them at one time. Who did? All of us? All of us. The most self-righteous in the room. Sunday school, Susie. Big Bible Bob. You know, Baptist Benny. I know you're here. All of us, especially you, Baptist Benny. Especially you. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh. It's just so gross. Gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts like the rest. We, we, all of us, we were by nature deserving of wrath. What is wrath? Wrath is God's anger at your sin. Wrath is what exists in hell. Wrath is the punishment for prom night and last night. The too many drinks, the perusing on reels,

hoping the next one. It's exciting and enticing. Cravings of the flesh. What does it deserve? The wrath of God. The wrath of God. The passage emphasizes that you are dead. The next passage that we'll read in this text will reemphasize the reality that we are dead or were dead. It's going to be repeated and that this is how God found you. What else would describe it? Disobedient is the word. How were we disobedient? Well, we were following the ways of Satan. How were we following the ways of Satan? By following the cravings of our flesh and desires and thoughts. Thoughts, the things that were entertained between our two ears. Whoa, so what? So we deserved God's wrath, his anger at our sin. This is who you were. It's a big deal. Who were you? Number one, you were dead. First point, you were dead. Not sick, not struggling, not drowning in sin. The scripture right here says you were dead. Not just dead, but it's a preacher's dream,

the alliteration. Disobedient, following the desires of your flesh and deserving the wrath of God. The alliteration is baked in. And if this contrasts with your theology in any way, you sit out there like, wait a minute, I don't know if I was dead. And let me just read it one more time. As for you, you were dead. In your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient. All of us, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following his desires and thoughts like the rest. We were by nature deserving of wrath. Some of you may think, but that's who I still am. And we are so glad you're here. We're so glad you're here. Welcome. Welcome. Dead. What's it mean, dead? Buffalo is dead. For real this time. What took place next was rather comical. I watched four grown men try to move this thing two inches. Two of them had their shoulders in it,

pushing with all the might of their legs. One of them was pulling the tail as, you know, like tug of war as hard as he could. Other man had the horns pulling with all of its might, trying to move this beast of an animal two inches. An animal that moments ago, we were able to direct out of the brush. We could chase it. We could push it a direction. And now we can't move it two inches. Why? It's unresponsive. There's no life there. It cannot react. You, God did not throw you a life rope that you reached. out for, he didn't push you to the edge of the pool so that you could, you know, pull yourself out. You were unresponsive, he found you. How did he find you? What's the word? Dead, he found you dead, dead. And he did not save you because you were good, he saved you because he is good, okay? There was nothing good in you. The good that you did, listen, listen, listen. The good that you did, you did selfishly to feel good about yourself so that someone might notice and that you might get credit, that they might think more of you,

that you could boast, right? It's not good, that's a different kind of good. And so what does it mean for us? It means that we respond with gratitude. Like if you're here and you don't feel thankful, go back to the reality that God found you dead. If your life does not mark by gratitude, make sure you understand how God found you. But more importantly, it changes the way you act to those that you do life with. You're responding with a greater level of compassion if you see dead people. Like if you see someone who doesn't need your uncle's wise counsel or to hear about some article you read about how to invest and what the market's gonna do or what they should wear to look better or how to put makeup on the right way, they need Jesus. Like they desperate for you to yield to the Holy Spirit. I won't even say take courage, I'll just say yield to the Holy Spirit who's not a spirit of timidity, but power, love and self-discipline, scripture says. And share Jesus with them, like go gospel with them and don't try to leave here and fight sin by your own strength. You'll just be left in the shame cycle. I tried again, I tried really hard, I fell again, I stumbled, I tripped, I fell yet again and then I tried harder and I feel worse. No, no, no, you turn to God who has great love for you

and you say, I surrender. God, I'm dead, I need help. I don't need advice, I need resurrection. I need you to bring me back to life. I am a play toy of Satan right now and I need your help. Start with great position of humility, God, I need your help because you are dead. But it says in verse four, ho de theos in the Greek and it translates directly, but God, I can't walk. But God, I'm so depressed and despairing. But God, they're so lost, they're so far away, they're never gonna come back. But God, Jesus is dead on the cross. But God, okay, but God. Yeah, it's amazing, it's amazing. But over here in the NIV, still beautiful, just more words. But because of his great love for us, God, but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, what does it mean he's rich in mercy? Listen, listen, he's a trillionaire in mercy. He's got so much mercy. He can give it to you as much as you need it and never feel it. He's never running out of mercy. He's got bank accounts and Swiss banks, like he's got offshore bank accounts just full of mercy. I mean, he's got more mercy invested in the, like mercy everywhere.

He can give you as much mercy as you need and then give your friend as much mercy as they need and his mercy didn't even go down at all. Well, he's earning more interest in mercy than he could ever spend on you. He's got that much mercy. Because he's what in mercy? He's rich in mercy. God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. He wanted to make sure you know you were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. He raised us up with Christ and seated us. Seated us in the heavenly realm. Is that true? Is that true? I mean, like, we're seated in the heavenly realms right now? It's as good as true. It's as good as true. It's as good as done. In order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable, you can't understand, you can't understand this kind of riches, the incomparable, like, you can't make sense of his riches, of his grace. So he's rich in mercy,

but it sounds like he's got a lot of grace too. Maybe more grace than mercy. Like, he's a trillionaire. What's more than a trillionaire? What's the next illionaire? Whatever that is, maybe he has that in grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ. God desires to be kind to you. Some of you need to hear that. Like his, like his posturing to you, like how God, he knows about prom night, knows about last night, knows about all nights, last week, all the things, and how he feels towards you, and how he moves towards you is kindly. Slow to anger, abounding in love. In his kindness to us in Christ Jesus, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It's the gift of God, not by work, so that no one can boast. Boasting, we read the word boast, and we read brag. Like, oh, you know, let me brag. That's not that word. In the ancient world, they read this word boast as what you would do to try to build your confidence and courage. Like if you were a military, you would go, you have 2,000 soldiers, but we have 5,000 soldiers. You have wooden weapons, but we have iron weapons.

You've won three wars, but we've won 16 wars. You would say these things, so you're like, we can win this game. Look at our track record. You know, look at our stats. We can do this. You're trying to like psych yourself up for the, and he's saying, hey, it was already done by Christ. You can stop. You are dead, and Christ won on your behalf, not because God was recruiting the fastest, best, who could jump the highest, richest, smartest. No, he recruits just to show you how rich he is in mercy and how rich he is in grace, because you know why people kill a buffalo? I mean, for the food, sure. I mean, yes, there, that's a thing, but in reality, it's for the trophy. They say skin's on the wall. They put these animals on the wall, you know. You are trophies of God's grace and kindness. Like you're walking around so that people would know how rich he is in mercy and grace. How rich he is in mercy and grace. God saved you? Wow. He could save anybody. Like God made you kind? The grumpy old man, God gave you a kind spirit? Like, wow, God can do that?

That's supernatural. And you walk around as trophies of the grace of God so that the world would know of his kindness. You were dead and he made you alive by grace. We'll talk about what grace is. He raised you with Christ and seated you with Christ. When you have that song, it's your song. We're playing your song. You know your song. We're playing your song and you get, ooh, man, I feel that one. Holy Spirit, move, I got the goosebumps. What's happening to my hands right now? Oh, look at me, I'm worshiping. When we play your song, in that moment, you're worshiping God and you feel that intimacy. You are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. But when you go bartender, I'll have another one. You've already had four. Another one, bartender. Let me scroll a little more, see what I'm gonna see. Let me feed the perversions of my flesh. Let me go back to that addiction. Let me buy something that I don't need. Let me check the stock, the market one more time because while nobody knows this, that's really my idea. That's really my place of worship, you know? That's what I care about. Market's down, I'm sad. Market's up, I'm glad.

Like that controls, that's what I worship, you know? When you do that stuff, still seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. You hear me? Before the creation of the world, God knew you'd be seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. It's good news. It's who you are. Child of God, purchased. You belong to him. And he didn't mess up. When you're comparing yourself to all the other moms, I wish I was as pretty as her, I wish my husband was like hers, and I wish my kids were as well-behaved, and I wish we could go to private school like they, and I wish we had the golden doodle like they, who was their breeder, you know, all the things. You know, seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. That's who you are. Because while God found you dead, he made you alive. That's number two, God made you alive. God does not love you because you're alive, you're alive because God loves you. Write it down. God doesn't love you because you're alive, you're alive because God's love for you, God's love went first.

His love went before you. Ephesians 2 and 9 changed my life because I was raised in church, lots of church, church twice a week, church school, lots of church. I was the guy, I would put on this white robe, true story, every week, and I would walk in the middle in front of the priest carrying a giant golden crucifix. Do you know what a crucifix is? It's different than a cross. A cross doesn't have Jesus on it. A crucifix has a sculpture of a corpse, okay? It's pretty crazy if you think about it. There's this guy on the crucifix who's covered in blood, blood coming out of his hands and his feet and his head. He's got skin missing. Like in fact, if it wasn't Jesus and you wore it on a T-shirt to school, they'd send you home. They'd be like, oh, you can't wear that to school. Why? Well, you got your shirt, it has a bloody dead corpse on it. You can't wear that to school. That's gruesome, that's offensive, all right? But I would, in church, I would carry it right in the middle, like it's the center point, and then right behind, oh, there's a crucifix up there. There's a sculpture of a dead man covered in blood up there. He's dead, he's not even breathing. He was brutally tortured on the side of the road,

and we've captured the moment and frozen it in time so that all can look at it. And I never for a second understood that what was happening. I mean, all my time in church, I'd go to church after church. We'd finish one church service, go to another church. I never understood that that was God paying for my sins. It was lost on me. I never understood that the reason that guy was slowly tortured on the side of the road was because of what I did on prom night and last night and at the bar and on my phone and on my computer. The things that, that's what killed him. And that if I trusted in that, then God was not going to punish me because he was punished in my place. I'd never understood that. And in fact, as I say it very impassioned to you right now, it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. It's still really difficult for me to get my heart around it because I still wanna think that there's something that I've done that deserves God's kindness. I still wanna think that. And the reason I got emotional reading those two verses is because those are the two verses God used to change my life. After a life of church, I read for the first time, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It's not of yourself.

It's the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. So grace, we gotta figure out what this grace is, but let's talk about how we access it. Faith is the conduit, the pipeline that the grace comes to us. So the greater the faith, what is that belief in God? As we believe in God, the pipeline is opened where his grace pours out. As soon as we believe upon God, sent his son, Jesus Christ to die for our sins, raised him from the dead, then the pipeline of grace, that's our faith, the pipeline of grace is open, turn it up, and the grace floods into our lives. What is grace? Mercy, what did you deserve? You deserved the wrath of God. You deserved hell. Mercy is you not getting what you deserve. What is grace? When our daughters were three and five, three years old and five years old, they were arguing, fighting over some toy in the living room. I'm sitting on the couch, I'm watching this go down. The older one, bigger at the time, makes a fist. You know, they're like, mine, no, mine, no, mine. Makes a fist and goes, boom, laser out. I couldn't believe what I saw. I honestly was a little bit impressed. I was like, whoa, you might have a future in boxing or MMA or something.

Like, what's happening here? And then I'm thinking, like, what do I do? Like, where was this in the handbook? Like, this, I don't even know what punishment fits the crime here. I'm not even sure. Like, Baby Wise is disappointing me here. I'm not, you know, I'm like, I'm just, I'm panicking. I'm like, what do I do now? What do I do, what do I do? Is she okay? Okay, she's breathing. What do I do with you? And I just, no words, just pick her up. I pick her up and I just carry her out the front door. And I just put her in my truck. And she's like, he's giving me away. And I get in the truck and I drive down the road. No words, no words spoken. Drive down to our favorite donut shop on the corner. Okay, it was the special occasion donut shop. We go inside, get her out, no words spoken. Go out, go in there. There's a giant chocolate eclair covered in sprinkles. It's her favorite and I get it, order it. They put it on a pink plate for us. Sit down at a cafe table for two. Still haven't spoken anything. Push the plate in front of her and ask, what did you do? She timidly said, I hit my sister.

What do you deserve? She said, a spanking. I said, just one? Do you ever deserve a spanking? I said, what is that? She goes, a donut? No, it's grace. That's what God gave your daddy. That's what your heavenly father gave your earthly father. Enjoy. Does that make sense? Feels like bad parenting. It's what God did for you. Mercy is when you don't get what you deserve. Grace is when you get what you could never deserve. God enjoys being kind to you. He does it for fun. If you look at the verbs here, made, alive, raised, seeded, saved, prepared. Who did that? God. God did the work. So we're thankful. Not just thankful though, we live out our purpose. There's a reason. You gotta just logically kick in like, oh, he made me alive for a reason though. There's something he wants to do. There's something he wants me to do. There's something, some life he wants me to live.

Sure, 10. For we are God's workmanship. Poema, poem, masterpiece, handiwork, workmanship. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Now here's the beauty here, because this also, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, peripateo, also the same word in verse two, walk. He's saying to the Ephesians and to us at Harris Creek, you can walk in the ways of sins and transgressions or you can walk in the good works which God has prepared in advance for you to walk in. The choice is yours. There's two paths. Choose your path. What is the path that you will walk today? What does it mean that we're his handiwork, his workmanship, his masterpiece? It's something God took great care in doing through his son to prepare you for the works that he has for you to do, which sounds like a spiritual to-do list. They're like boxes beside that you need to check, but more than a spiritual to-do list that God has for you before the creation of the world, because some of you, you know, Enneagram Ones, Type A are like, oh, great, here's another thing to do.

No, no, it's an invitation. God's like, I'm gonna do amazing things. You wanna play? Like you wanna partner, you wanna co-mission together in the great things that I'm going to do on this earth because there's some that I have reserved especially for you. and it's a lot of fun, it's a blast, man. And so what do we do? Number three, live the life He prepared. Live the life God prepared for you that He made you new to do good works that He prepared in advance for you to do. You don't work to be saved, you work because you are saved, okay? If somebody is not doing the good works, are they a Christian? Probably not. So, do they need to do the good works so that they can become a Christian? Absolutely not, okay? You believe upon Christ, you receive His Holy Spirit, and then you walk in the good works which He's prepared in advance for you to walk in. Now you can try to fake it till you make it, do all of the works all the way to hell because you never truly believed upon Christ, His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins. It starts there, God found you dead.

You say, God, I need, I'm desperate for Jesus to resurrect me, I need to be born again. The gospel isn't that bad people become good, it's that dead people become alive because of the great love with which God loved them. And only then can you love with that love. Can you talk with that love, can you care with that love, can you give with that love, can you go with that love? Only when you truly understand how you have been loved that God found you dead and because of His great love for you, He who is rich in mercy and rich in grace brought you back to life. You drive down Harris Creek Road right here, Harris Creek Baptist Church, Harris Creek Road, other side of the road, Harris Creek. You drive down Harris Creek Road, you're going to get to an older church building. It's the old Harris Creek Baptist Church building straight down this road. On the backside of that Harris Creek Church building is Harris Creek Church Cemetery. And sometimes when I wanna connect with God and gather my thoughts and think about you all and pray for us, I'll walk the cemetery. And when I walk the cemetery, I walk amongst the tombstones and I read them a name, a date, a birth date and a death date. And I think, I wonder what that person was like. I wonder what they were into. I wonder what their family was.

Surely they went to this church right here. They gathered in this church and they sang hymns to God and they heard teaching from the scripture and now they rest here. And what's true in the cemetery, there's no networking in the cemetery. There's no clamoring on phones or trying to climb the corporate ladder or trying to get to a better position faster. None of that in the cemetery. I walk among the dead, but there's two realities for every single person in the cemetery. Some of those in the cemetery are more alive than they've ever been. So I read a name and I wonder, is this person today more alive than I am? Right now, is that true for them? And some, the dichotomy, some are in a place of great suffering. They are in a place where there is nothing representative of the goodness of God, only his wrath, only punishment for the sins that they committed. And if you look back upon their life, their spiritual checklist, the boxes beside, the things that God had for them to do are empty. And that's not what sent them to hell. It's their rejection of God that kept those boxes empty. And what their lives might have looked like here is very insulated with success, the envy of their neighbors,

really well-behaved children, okay? Great things in this world because in the subconscious, in the things they hid, they thought, though they went to church, though they sang the songs, though they raised their hands, they thought this world is all there is, I better make it good. I better live a good life here. And some of those people were really well-behaved as far as you know. Only two. And the only difference is what did they do with Jesus? What did they believe about Jesus? In summary, you are dead, not just dead, disobedient, following the desires of your flesh and deserving only God's wrath. But God, but God made you alive by grace through faith and as evidence of that saving grace, we church do the good works that God prepared in advance for us to do. Striving back with that guide, Jorge, as in the front seat, he's driving, I'm in the passenger seat and felt the Holy Spirit impress upon me so heavy to share the gospel and I'm just thinking, I can't, God. Like I don't, I mean, the major language barrier, he knows one English word and it's not good and I can't. And I'm like, unless you wanna give me the gift of tongues right now, this is a real thought. I'm like, if you wanna give me the gift of tongues

right now, I'll share with him. And the Holy Spirit was like, Google Translator. I was like, okay, that'll work. So pull up Google Translator and we just worked through it. I'm like, hey, do you have a faith? Let him hear. He's like, eh. Says in Spanish, I believe in God. So I say, between one and 10, 10 being certain, one being not so sure, if you died today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? I asked him, slowly, Google Translator, between one and 10, 10 being certain, one being not so sure, if you died today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? Church, I always ask you guys this question repeatedly. It's a great time. Don't shout it out, but just in your head, before the Lord, you should answer that question, between one and 10. 10, I'm certain I would be with God. One, I very likely wouldn't. Where are you at in that? Think of a number. I asked Jorge, and he goes, eh, cinco? I said, five, C. So if you stood before God, he said, why should I let you in, what would you say? Type it out, my thumbs never move so fast, you know, like, hand it back, and speaks to him,

and he said, I don't know, say, I'm not so sure. I said, I kind of camped there for a minute. He's like, I'm not sure what I'd say in Spanish. I said, hey, have you ever heard that Jesus Christ died for your sins and God raised him from the dead? He's like, I think so, yeah. See, he's like, well, cross, C. So I just go back and forth, just gospel, gospel, gospel. I'm like, hey, God loved you so much that he gave his only son, Jesus, to pay for your sins. He raised him from the dead. If you trust in that, you can be confident that you're gonna be with God forever. Give it to him. His whole countenance changed, he's like, oh, wow, he goes in Spanish, he goes, I understand. He's like, that is good news. I'm like, it's great news, man, it's great news. It is indeed good news. Say, hey, do you wanna place faith in Jesus Christ right now? C, C, perfect, and right there in that front seat of that truck, while that giant buffalo went from life to death, Jorge went from death to life, you know. Right there. And it's amazing to think that when I was a moron on the streets of lower Greenville trying to build the JP empire, you know, that God was like, hey, one day you're gonna meet Jorge.

I got some work for you to do. I got some work that I want you to walk, and you don't even know. I know we don't know each other yet, but don't you worry about that. I'm gonna send you into a church hungover. You're gonna sit in the back row. I'm gonna grab you by the heart, and we're gonna do some work. Isn't that fun? Like before the creation of the world, he knew that Jorge and I were gonna be talking in Argentina. You know, it's crazy. I wonder what he has for us to do. Okay, I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna pray, right? But there's some of you here, and you're like, I haven't been doing the work. I haven't been walking in the work that God has for me. That's done. That's done today. You're gonna come forward. We're gonna pray. We're gonna reflect. Focus, we're gonna send you out, okay? You're gonna walk down this aisle, there's gonna be a team of folks up here. Just say, hey man, I lost my way. I haven't been doing Ephesians 2.10. And your first step of obedience,

it's gonna take great courage. I should say, it's gonna take great surrender. The Spirit of God just needs to be enough for you to come forward and say, hey, I need that help. Would you just pray for me? And we got you. We got you. It's gonna be one of the greatest things you've ever done. And then some of you, I said, what's your number? And you said, I'm a five, like Jorge, I'm a seven. I'm an eight, I'm a two, I'm a zero. You're not here by accident. You're not here by accident, okay? You're gonna come forward. I'm gonna be right over there, right in that corner. Let's talk, okay? It's gonna take courage. It's gonna take surrender. It's gonna take the Holy Spirit being enough. I'll be right there. Let's talk. Father, thank you for your grace in our lives. We love you. We need your help. You found us dead. You make us alive. We're not enough to do it on our own. Would you move us deeper into a relationship with you or into a relationship with you for the first time? Would you repurpose us, focus us,

just as these friends pray for other friends? Lord, you know. Would you just right now speak to whoever, just say, hey, you need to do that. And just help us be faithful. Help us to be obedient in that. We love you, Lord, and we worship you now.