Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church Sermon Podcast.
We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you,
builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.
Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible
and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.
So welcome and enjoy the message.
If you have your Bible, please open it with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5
in a message I'm calling Judgment Day.
Judgment Day.
In the late 90s, a movie came out that was called The Truman Show.
It starred Jim Carrey as a guy named Truman.
Truman was an insurance salesman who had no idea that his entire life was a reality TV show.
24-7 cameras were on him. It was broadcast to the world
He had no idea that his entire world for his entire life was a giant
Movie set and that everyone he knew were actors his wife was an actor his best friend was an actor
everyone
was actors and millions of people watched his every moment of life now and
I think any of us would be horrified at the thought of our lives being broadcast to the world
and being the subject of such scrutiny.
And yet, according to the Bible, someday the actions of our entire lives will be broadcast to a far greater audience
and will be subjected to a far greater scrutiny.
Revelation 20, verse 11 says,
Then I saw a great white throne.
and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.
And there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God.
And books," that's books plural,
were open.
And another book," that's book singular,
was open, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged according to their works
by the things which were written in the books.
The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them,
and they were judged, each one according to his works.
Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation chapter 20 speaks of Judgment Day and it's very clear that God is keeping a very detailed record of our lives
If every wicked deed every impure thought that we've ever had and someday we're gonna stand before him
And we're gonna give an account for it
now
That's kind of a scary thought is it not?
Now, that judgment day is also known as the final judgment,
but there's another judgment in the Bible
that it often speaks of,
and that is a judgment that precedes this final judgment.
Scripture calls that the day
of the Lord.
Paul writes about it, beginning in verse number one
of chapter five, he says,
but concerning the times and the seasons, brethren,
you have no need that I should write to you.
For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord
so comes as a thief in the night.
Now, before we jump into our text in chapter five,
I think it's important for us to point out
that this passage is talking about prophecy.
And as Christians, we must always approach prophetic scriptures with a great sense of humility because we're not seeing the full picture.
Prophecy in the Bible is often dualistic.
And whether it's prophecy in the Old Testament or prophecy in the New Testament, God is giving us a snapshot of the future.
It's not a rolling video.
with the full chain of events in view.
No, it's a snapshot of here in this moment,
there in that moment, another moment here.
And we're able to piece together those snapshots
to form a picture.
But we should be very careful not to be too dogmatic
about the order of the snapshots
or what exactly the picture looks like
between those snapshots.
Because sometimes thousands of years are in between.
We know that certainly was the case with the coming of our Lord, with his first coming and his second coming.
In the Old Testament, the prophets, they prophesied about a coming Messiah who would be born of the seed of the woman.
He would crush the head of the serpent.
He would deliver his people.
He would rule and reign upon the earth, but he would also suffer and die.
And now we know now that the suffering and the dying part was in his first coming.
And the ruling and the reigning upon the earth part refers to his second coming.
But for the Jews in the first century, they had no idea he was going to come twice.
Even the disciples were confused by this.
It would be sort of like if you were going on a hike and you see two great mountain peaks in the distance.
And it looks like they're side by side.
But as you approach closer and you hike that mountain and you get to that first mountain peak,
you then realize there's actually miles and miles between those two mountain peaks.
Well, Old Testament prophecy clearly shows there's two great mountain peaks of the coming of the Lord.
But no one would have anticipated there were thousands of years between them.
And so I think as we study end times events,
we need to be very careful in our study,
and we need to be very humble in our claims.
Because God simply didn't give us the full picture with every detail.
He gave us the end.
And praise God for that, because we win in the end, right?
Because Jesus wins.
He gave us the end, and he gave us some snapshots in between,
but he didn't connect all the dots.
Now, our passage today speaks of the coming day of the Lord.
Now, what is the day of the Lord?
Well, every Jew in the first century would have known exactly what the day of the Lord referred to.
The Thessalonians knew because Paul had explained it to them when he was in Thessalonica.
But for those of us who don't know our Old Testament, quite like we probably should,
what is the day of the Lord?
Well, the day of the Lord refers to an extended period of God's judgment upon the earth.
The day of the Lord is a season or era of judgment.
It's not a 24-hour period of time like we think of as day,
but we use the word day in English like this as well to refer to a season in time.
We're living in the day of cell phones.
That doesn't refer to 24-hour period of time of cell phones.
No, it refers to a season or an era of cell phones.
Now many believe, and I'm included,
that the day of the Lord is what the New Testament
refers to as the tribulation, or at least the last part,
which is often called the great tribulation,
where God's gonna pour out his wrath, his judgment,
upon those who are on the earth.
Then the day of the Lord, it's going to culminate,
or that's gonna culminate in the second coming of Jesus
to the earth to establish his kingdom.
Now, the Old Testament prophets had a lot to say about this coming day of the Lord,
the day of judgment.
Isaiah chapter 13, verse 9 says,
Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
to lay the lands desolate, and he will destroy its sinners from it.
Jeremiah chapter 46, verse 10.
For this is the day of the Lord, God of hosts, a day of vengeance,
that he may avenge himself on his adversaries.
Joel chapter 1, verse 15.
Chapter 2, verse number 11,
For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can endure it?
Amos chapter 5, verse 20,
Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light? Is it not very dark with no brightness in it?
Now, Jesus, when he was on the earth, he told us a little bit more about the day of the Lord and how bad it would be.
In Matthew chapter 24, verse 21, he says,
For then there will be great tribulation.
Such has not been seen since the beginning of the world until this time.
No, nor ever shall be.
At the end of our Bible, the book of Revelation calls it the wrath of the Lamb of Jesus,
the great day of His wrath, a terrible time.
You see, when Jesus comes upon the earth, He's going to come with judgment.
Now, when he came the first time to the earth, our world ridiculed him, didn't they?
They stripped him naked and full of the shame of that.
They beat him.
They spit upon him.
They nailed him to a cross.
Even today, our world makes fun of Jesus today.
Clearly, this is man's day.
But God's word makes very clear, the day of the Lord is coming.
Now, now that you know, have a better understanding of what the day of the Lord is, I think we can get to the Apostle Paul's point.
He says, it's not for you to know the times and the seasons.
For you know very well that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.
Now, in chapter 4, Paul had told the Thessalonians about the coming of the Lord,
the parousia of the Lord, and how the church is going to be caught up.
They're going to be snatched up to be with the Lord in the air.
And I think Paul is anticipating their question here.
When?
When's this gonna take place?
They want to know what all of us wanna know.
When's all this going to happen?
It sort of reminds me of the disciples in Acts chapter one.
Jesus had just risen from the dead
and the disciples spent several weeks with him
before he ascended to heaven.
They were learning from him
all about the kingdom of God, the Bible says,
and they were learning about how Jesus
was a fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures.
And then just before Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples asked him,
Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
Now, I think their question is telling.
Because some Christians today say the church has replaced Israel.
And that God has no future plans for the nation of Israel.
That's not what the disciples thought.
I mean, clearly, they asked, has the time come?
Is it now?
Now you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel.
Now notice Jesus doesn't correct some misunderstanding they had about the kingdom of God concerning Israel.
Instead, he simply tells them, it's not for you to know when.
It's not for you to know times and seasons, but you shall be my witnesses.
Jesus says, stop focusing on when.
Start focusing on the mission I gave you.
You see, God doesn't intend for any of his children to know when Jesus is going to return.
No.
That's what he said.
He said that in the Gospels, the Scriptures teach that very clearly.
The disciples wanted to know when.
The Thessalonians wanted to know when.
And so Paul says, you have no need that I should write you about when, the times and the seasons.
Because you know that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief comes.
In other words, it's going to happen suddenly.
It's going to be unexpected.
I mean, a thief doesn't schedule with you what a good time is to come break into your house and steal something.
He's not asking, you know, is this a convenient time for you so you can plan out?
No, he comes unexpectedly.
He comes suddenly.
Paul says that's exactly how the day of the Lord is going to come upon people
who are on the earth who don't know Christ.
And then he uses another metaphor in verse number three.
He says, for when they say peace and safety,
then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman,
and they shall not escape.
Here's our principle.
For the unbeliever, the day of the Lord will be unexpected and inescapable.
Thief comes unexpectedly.
And labor pains come upon a woman without escape, don't they?
I mean, for a woman who goes into labor, there's no way to avoid it.
There's no way around it.
What's done is done.
She's pregnant.
She's having this baby.
There's no way around it.
She's just got to go through it.
And so it will be those who face the judgment of God without Christ.
Revelation chapter 9, verse number 6, it says,
In those days men will seek death and will not find it.
They will desire to die and death will flee from them.
They want everything to just end, but it will not end because God's justice will move forth.
There will be no escaping the terrible day of the Lord's judgment when it comes.
Now, he continues in verse number 4.
He says,
But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief.
You're all sons of light and sons of the day.
We're not of the night nor of darkness.
Now, I want you to notice a change in pronouns in the book.
It happens here just for a brief moment of time.
In chapter 4, Paul was talking about we, and he was talking about you.
And then for the first couple verses of chapter 5, he's talking about you.
He's talking about you who are the Thessalonians, you who believe.
Then in verse number three, if you noticed it, he switched to they and them.
Sudden destruction comes upon them.
And now in verse number four, he switches back to you.
What's he saying?
He's saying the day of the Lord, it comes upon them.
It comes upon unbelievers like a thief in the night, but not you.
You're not of the darkness.
You are of the light.
You see, for you and I as believers, the day of the Lord should be planned for and anticipated.
The world around us who doesn't have a relationship with God through Jesus,
they're in the dark when it comes to the day of the Lord.
They don't know.
Now, their ignorance is of their own doing, right?
I mean, Jesus said the light has come into the world, speaking of himself.
And men love darkness rather than light.
Why?
Because their deeds are evil, Jesus said.
So the world is very content to remain in this state of darkness, of ignorance.
But that's not the case for you and I.
We have come into the light because we've met the light of the world who's Jesus.
be ready. And he tells us more about what that readiness looks like in verse number six.
And so Paul's point here is, as children of the light.
He says, "'Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who
sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day
be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of our salvation.'"
So God's telling us about the coming day of the Lord.
He's telling us about the return, the coming,
the parousia of Christ.
Why?
To warn us that there is a day of accountability coming.
You may think that you're getting away
with your sin in your life.
You know, you do something awful
or some terrible things in your life,
and you think, man, lightning didn't strike.
I got away with that.
No, no, no.
There's a day of accountability that is coming.
Teenagers, whenever your mom tells you to go clean your room, you might just go in there and start shoving all the clothes under the bed and you're stuffing things into the closet to try to, you know, make it look right on the outside.
But if your mom says, clean your room in 10 minutes, I'm coming to inspect it.
Now you cleaned your room a little differently.
There's a different level of urgency.
Why?
Because mama's coming back.
So now you're accountable.
And Paul is saying, Jesus, our savior and our Lord,
he's coming back and it's gonna be a day
of great accountability, a day of great judgment
when he returns.
So he says, don't sleep, don't get drunk,
be awake, be alert, watching and anticipating his return.
Now, I don't think he means literally don't sleep.
I think he means spiritually.
Wake up.
Don't be spiritually asleep when Jesus returns for us.
Some people will hear the gospel.
They'll hear the word of God.
They'll hear a message like this one, and they sort of yawn.
They're apathetic about what's going on.
If that is you, this verse is for you.
God is telling you right now, wake up.
Wake up out of your apathetic self or your slumbering.
Wake up.
Jesus is coming back.
Now, he also says, watch, doesn't he?
Now, I think there's a difference between watching and waiting, isn't there?
When I was just a little bitty guy, I remember whenever my dad was about to come home,
sometimes I would go into the garage and I'd be waiting for him.
I'd be watching for him to come home.
And what I mean by that is I was eagerly anticipating.
watching that garage door for the first moment it was going to move and open.
And then suddenly, after what seemed like forever,
suddenly the garage would make a noise that would jolt me,
and it would move on up, and my dad would drive up in his 1984 Toyota to sell.
And I'll just be bouncing up and down, excited about his return.
That is how we're to watch for the Lord's return.
With excitement, with anticipation, he is coming back.
Now, he also says that you and I are to be sober.
Now, I don't think that he's talking about not being drunk here.
It obviously includes that, but it's more than that.
He's saying live a serious Christian life.
Now, that doesn't mean we don't have fun, because we have a lot of fun as Christians, don't we?
I mean, I can't think of anything more fun than the Christian life.
But it's a life that's also full of responsibility and work, isn't it?
Jesus gave us a mission to accomplish.
We are to share the good news of Jesus with the whole world.
We're to make disciples of all the nations.
And Paul is saying, don't be asleep when you're supposed to be watching and working.
Now, in verse number 8, Paul reminds us that you and I as believers, we're all in this spiritual battle that's taking place.
And he says, you've got two areas in your life of great vulnerability that you need to protect.
Your head and your heart.
So he says, first of all, he says, put on the breastplate of faith and love to protect your heart.
And put on the helmet of the hope of your salvation to protect your mind.
So let me ask you, are you armed up?
Are you armed with faith, love, and hope?
Are you ready for the battle?
Are you ready for the Lord's return?
I think that's his point.
Are you ready?
If you're not ready, it's time to get ready.
You better get ready because Jesus could come back at any moment.
He comes like a thief in the night.
We don't know when.
And he's going to usher in the day of the Lord when he returns.
I can tell you, I don't want to experience the day of the Lord, Judgment Day.
There's only one way to escape the labor pains of God's judgment,
and that is through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Verse number 11.
He says, for God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who died for us, that whether we awake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing.
Now, if you go back up into chapter 4, as Paul talks about the coming, the peruse of the Lord, that he's coming for us,
his main point of application, the command there at the end of the chapter is comfort one another with these words.
And now, in chapter 5, he transitions to the terrible day of the Lord's judgment.
And here in verse number 11, he says, comfort each other with these words.
Well, my question is, what's so comforting about the terrible day of the Lord's judgment?
Well, I think Paul is saying here, be comforted,
because as believers, we're going to be saved and spared and delivered from the day of the Lord.
You see, Scripture seems to indicate that,
that believers are going to be rescued from the day of the Lord.
That's what I personally believe, that the rapture of the church,
the catching up of the saints is going to take place first before the day of the Lord,
before the great tribulation.
Now, I want to walk through just this text.
Once again, let's rehash it, what Paul is saying to us in this chapter.
He says, the terrible day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night.
It brings terrible destruction, but not for you, because you're not of the night.
You're of the day.
So live like it.
Be ready.
Anticipate his coming and be comforted that Jesus died for you.
And therefore, God didn't appoint you to wrath, but he appointed you to obtain salvation through his son, Jesus.
Now, last week I mentioned that the timing of the rapture wasn't the point of last week's passage.
However, I think it could be one of the points of our passage today.
Because it seems to me that Paul is indicating that believers are going to be delivered from the tribulation, from the day of the Lord.
Paul says something similar to that in chapter 1, verse number 10.
He said,
"...and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come."
So I personally believe the rapture, the catching of the saints, is going to happen before the great tribulation,
and that we will be delivered from the wrath to come.
Now, I hold that position fairly loosely.
There are many godly Christians, even in our church, who disagree with me on that.
If you're one of them, please don't get upset with me, because there are times I disagree with myself.
Did you know that?
Because for every good argument for the rapture happening before the tribulation,
there are some very good arguments for it happening after the tribulation.
But for many reasons, the imminent return of Christ being the most prominent in my mind,
that means the imminent return means Jesus can return at any moment.
I believe we're going to be caught up, raptured to be with the Lord before the tribulation.
Now, this is not a tier one level doctrine or issue. It's not even tier two. I don't know
really how many tiers we have, but it's pretty low on the tier list in terms of certainty
and importance in our minds. That's why I hold this doctrine with a loose hand. But I have to
admit, over my last two weeks of study, my hand is tightened just a little bit, all right? But
Do I know this is exactly how it's going to happen?
No, really, I don't.
But here's something I do know.
Scripture is crystal clear that all believers
will be saved and delivered from the final judgment.
As we read earlier in the message from Revelation
Chapter 20, someday all of us are going to stand before God
at what is called the Great White Throne Judgment.
And there are going to be books that are open.
Those books are going to contain everything we've ever done.
God is keeping record of everything.
Remember, he's omniscient, he's all knowing and he's writing it all down.
And then there's going to be another book that is opened.
The Book of Life.
And everyone.
whose name is not written in the book of life,
is gonna be rightly judged,
completely correctly judged by their works
that are written in the books.
Every thought, every action, every reaction,
every impure motive.
And we all know the verdict, don't we?
Guilty.
We're all guilty.
We are all guilty.
We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, which is a high, high standard.
We're all guilty.
When the books are opened, it's going to be very clear, as clear as day.
But for those of us who our name is written in the book of life,
We will not be judged by our works.
We'll be judged by the work of Jesus,
His work upon the cross, the righteous life,
perfect life that He lived,
and He died for all these bad works of our life.
He died for our sins so that we could receive life.
So the question becomes,
it's the most important question of life,
how in the world do you get your name written
in the book of life?
How do we avoid God's final judgment?
There's only one way, his name is Jesus.
Jesus is the only way.
Jesus said, I am the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life.
No man comes to the Father except through me.
You've got to come through me.
That's why I came, because I love you
and I wanna rescue you from impending judgment.
I came to save you and rescue and pour out my love,
pour out my grace in your life.
And if you will just give your life to Jesus,
If you will just receive and accept
his work upon the cross, dying for your sins, you will be given life.
And the moment you're given life, your name is written in the Book of Life.
And someday,
as you stand before Almighty God,
and you will stand
before him to give an account, I will stand
The record of your life is going to stream out guilty.
I think Jesus is going to step in and say, paid in full.
This one's with me.
I already paid for all of their sins, all of those horrible works.
I already paid for them on the cross.
Look, his name, her name is written in the book of life.
And you will escape God's judgment.
And instead, you're going to be given eternal, everlasting, abundant life in heaven.
Let me ask you.
Are you ready for judgment day?
Are you ready for his return?
Because Jesus, he can return at any moment.
Jesus said, no one knows the day or the hour, not even the angels in heaven.
Only the Father knows.
It's time to get ready.
Jesus also said that it would be like the days of Noah.
And most people think, well, man, that's going to be because of all the wickedness.
Yeah, I think probably there's going to be a lot of wickedness.
There is today.
But that's not exactly what he said.
He said it's going to be like the days of Noah.
People are going to be eating and drinking and getting married.
What's wrong with eating and drinking and getting married?
Nothing's wrong with it.
What he's saying is it's going to be kind of a normal life.
In the days of Noah, people were having dinner.
They were at a banquet.
They were celebrating a wedding.
And all of a sudden, suddenly, God's patience came to an end.
And the rain started pouring.
And the flood of God's judgment came.
You see, you and I, we are living in a time of great patience.
God is being patient with us.
I mean, that's why He hasn't come yet.
1 Peter tells us that.
He says, God is patient with us,
not wishing that any should perish,
but that all should come to faith and repentance.
God loves the world.
He loves the world so much
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in Him
shall not perish but have everlasting life.
He's waiting for more people to come to Him.
He's waiting to rescue more people from their sin.
But someday,
someday,
His patience is going to come to an end.
And man's day will be over.
And the Lord's day will arrive.
The King is coming.
So please, please, please, do not be fooled by God's patience in your life.
Oh, I haven't been struck by lightning.
I did this and this never happened.
Listen, God's waiting for you to come to Him.
He's giving you more time.
I want to encourage you to take advantage of it.
Years ago, there was a man who lived on Long Island.
He was fascinated with trying to predict the weather,
but he lived in the times long before the sophisticated equipment of today.
There were no weather channels to watch or anything like that.
So he ordered a barometer,
which was supposed to be the best and most sensitive barometer out there.
And when he got it, he was so excited to open it, he opened it up and immediately he noticed that the needle was all the way on one side.
It was stuck saying hurricane.
And so he kind of tapped on it, trying to straighten that needle out because it was a beautiful day.
The skies were clear.
It just remained hung on hurricane.
Well, eventually he had to go to work, and so he left for New York City where he worked.
And when he got to work, he was still so frustrated about it,
he wrote a letter to the company who sold him the barometer.
And he said, man, you guys sold me a piece of junk.
It's hung on Hurricane. It will not move.
Well, after work, he went back home to Long Island.
And his home wasn't there because a hurricane had come.
The barometer was right.
You know, the message of the Bible is that God loves us so much
that he sent his one and only precious son, Jesus,
to come on a rescue mission for us.
To save us, to give us His grace, to pay for our sins, to show us His love,
to restore that relationship that God desires with us.
But make no mistake about it, God is also holy.
And for everyone who rejects His precious Son, Jesus, someday,
there's going to be a day of accounting.
Everyone who ignores His warning, a hurricane of God's justice is coming.
And the day of man is going to end.
And the day of the Lord is going to arrive.
Let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, if you will.
This is a holy moment in the life of a church.
I want to encourage you to make this time a prayerful time between you and the Lord.
Reflect.
Upon life, reflect upon His return.
Are you ready?
You know, there's an old saying,
do nothing you don't want to be doing when Jesus comes.
Say nothing you don't want to be saying when Jesus comes.
Go nowhere you don't want to be when Jesus comes.
I don't know about you, but I want to live my life ready.
There'll be no shame in his coming.
Only excitement.
You know, Jesus could come at any moment.
Is he going to come in our lifetime?
I have no idea.
But I want to be ready.
You know, we haven't talked about this yet,
But the Lord's return could happen at any moment.
But the truth of the matter is, we could die at any moment as well, right?
The stats are staggering concerning death.
It's one out of one.
Every single human being, if the Lord tarries,
someday going to breathe their last breath.
Heart's going to beat for the very last time.
And that could be as...
an older person way up in your years, or it could happen suddenly,
tragically, some sort of accident.
We don't know.
We're not promised tomorrow.
Bible says that life is like a vapor, it's
it's here for a moment and then it's gone so short.
I mean, you blink a few times and you're like, where did where did all the time go?
God told us it was short.
Are we redeeming the time?
Are we taking advantage of it?
As Christians, for one, are we living our life with a sense of urgency?
Are we working while it's day for the night is coming?
Are we engaged in what God wants us to be engaged in?
Are we living a life that pleases Him?
I also want to speak for just a moment to those who are listening that don't have a personal relationship with God.
The thought of the day of the Lord brings great terror in your mind because you think, wow, I'm guilty.
Am I ready to meet my maker?
And maybe you don't feel ready.
And the only way you get ready is not by cleaning up your life.
The only way you get ready is by receiving what Jesus has done for you.
His perfect works, His perfect life for yours.
And we do that by faith.
The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus,
and you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved.
The Bible says, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Saved from what?
Saved from the day of the Lord.
Saved certainly from the final judgment.
Saved from our life of God.
muck of sin that messes everything up, rescued. Let me ask you, do you feel like you need to be rescued?
If so,
God sent his son Jesus on a rescue mission.
And he loves you.
He loves you more than anyone's ever loved you before.
And so I want to invite you to meet Jesus as your Savior today.
It's very simple.
You've just got to swallow your pride,
humble yourself before him, and come to him in faith.
In just a moment, I'm going to pray.
And after I pray, we're all going to stand to our feet.
We're going to sing a song together.
And we're going to ask you to step forward and give your life to Christ.
There's going to be pastors and other leaders and prayer partners here at the front.
And we're here to meet you and to talk with you and to pray with you
and to help you take those steps of following Jesus.
And so I want to encourage you, don't wait.
Just come as you are.
It's not that you clean up your life.
You think, man, I don't want to be another one of those hypocrites at the church.
I got to get some things right before I give my life to Jesus.
No, no, no, no.
It's the opposite. You come to him as you are.
He meets you as you are. That's why it's called grace.
Then he's going to start you out on this wonderful journey of becoming more like him.
So I want to invite you to give your life to Jesus.
Maybe say, I'd like to be baptized or join this church. Let us know.
Maybe you want prayer for something. Maybe you just want to come to these steps and pray.
It's my heart's desire that in all three of our services.
There would be more freedom of movement at the time of invitation as God moves.
Sometimes we just move and just pour out our heart on these steps and go meet with the Lord.
However God leads in just a moment.
Please come. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you that you sent your one and only precious son, Jesus, to this world.
And that he came willingly.
And that he lived a perfect life that we haven't.
The works that he performed in life are perfect.
And ours aren't.
Thank you, Lord, for sending him.
And then thank you, Lord, that he died upon the cross to pay for all of our sins.
Thank you, Lord, for your forgiveness and your love
and the peace and the joy that you are able to bring
into the heart of those who believe in you.
And I pray, Lord, that if there are some of your children
that are not living as children of the day,
they're not living as children of the light, Lord,
that that would change today,
that you'd pull them out of whatever dark spot they're in
Bring them back into the light.
I pray, Lord, for those listening who don't have a personal relationship with you.
They felt a distance between you and them because of their sin.
I pray, Lord, that they would deal with that sin and that through Jesus that gap would be bridged and you would restore a relationship with them.
We know Judgment Day is coming, Lord.
Thank you.
that my sin has already been judged by Jesus.
Thank you, Lord, for saving me.
I know I didn't deserve it, Lord.
That's why it's called grace.
Thank you.
Now, please, Lord, help some others experience that today.
We ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thanks for listening today.
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If you feel the Lord calling you
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through salvation, service, or giving, don't wait.
reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988.
That's podcast to 88988
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You can also visit our website, valleybaptist.org
to find even more great resources.
No matter where you are in your journey,
know that we love you.
We're praying for you
and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.