Famous Last Words: Week 4

Welcome to Church Across and my name is James, and today we are in

our fourth week of this series where we're looking at the last Words of Christ

and today this passage is a little controversial when it comes to one topic,

and we'll be hitting out here in a moment. But I'm really excited about

all of you walking out of this room with a greater level of assurance of

the love of Christ in your life. And so let us pray and prepare

our hearts. God, we'd love you today. We just want to stop

here in this moment, clear our minds. We want to hear from you.

Lowered our hearts, prepare our hearts today in Jesus' name. Amen.

When I was about four years old, I had this moment in my life.

And my mom has told this story countless time. She still tells it.

But I was four years old and my mom was watching the religious channel

and the preacher said, if you don't get saved, go to hell.

That doesn't sound cool, and if you get saved, you go to Heaven.

I'm like, that sounds great. And so I came to my mom

and I said, I want to get saved because I want to know that

I go to heaven, and so here I am. I'm four years old.

We go to her bedroom. I still remember it, and we prayed

and I asked Jesus into my heart. Now, immediately after that, I

was concerned about my best friend. I didn't want my best friend not to

go to heaven. And so my best friend, let me tell you about

her. Absolutely beautiful, deep deep brown eyes, beautiful brown hair, silky,

so kind, so sweet everyone she met, and often when we would

be out and about together, people couldn't help but say, oh, my

gosh, she is beautiful, because she was. And then every once in

a while someone would mentioned about how she was chubby, and I didn't appreciate

that, but she was chubby. Did I fail to mention? My best

friend at that time was my dog, Gretchen. She was a German shepherd,

and so Gretchen I really wanted to make sure she went to heaven,

and so I sat down with her in the backyard and I explained the Gospel

of Jesus Christ to her, and then I accepted Jesus on her behalf.

Maybe I had a little Catholicism in me at that time. And then I

there's a bird bath and I baptized her. And so now today's sermon is

not about whether or not dogs go to heaven. If you want that answer,

you need to talk to a Christian veterinarian. I'm sure that they have

an opinion about which animals go to heaven like dogs, or which animals go

to hell like web it or not say, But I please don't ask after

church my opinion on that. I'm not an expertise. I know of only

one dog that will for sure be in heaven, and that's my dog.

But I have spent twenty five years study and preaching, having discussions, reading,

being in classes, discussing about who goes to heaven and who goes to

hell. And today we're gonna look at one of the most extraordinary moments in

the history of mankind and it offers questions to some answers. But also throughout

history the last two thousand years, this has been a divisive passage. Okay,

so let's dive on in and let's look at it together, says two

other men, both criminals, were also let out with him to be executed.

When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there

talking about Jesus along with criminals. Okay, one was on his right,

one was on his left. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults

at him. He said, aren't you to Messiah, save yourself and us?

But then the other criminal rebuked him and says, don't you fear God

since you were under the same sentence. We are punished justly for we are

getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. And

then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Then Jesus answered him, truly, I tell you today, you will be

with me in paradise. All right, we got a lot to unpack here.

First of all, let's talk about the guy who is running his mouth

towards Jesus, Okay, hurling insults and basically saying, all right, if

you really were the son of God, surely we would be rescued at this

point. Okay, if you really were the son of God, you would

have the power. You wouldn't be letting us happen. So let's talk about

that criminal first. So the first thing I got to say about that guy

is one I do not like him. He is a jerk. I was

saying, I didn't like him when I learned about him at Sunday School,

and I don't I like him now. He hasn't grown on me over the

years. I don't appreciate him making fun of Jesus when he was suffering,

and I can't help but to think that his lousy attitude has a lot to

do with why he was on the cross. Okay, again, I don't

like the guy, and therefore I said it publicly and I feel good about

it. Okay, all right, now let's talk about the other criminal on

the cross. I like this guy. Okay. Number one, he seems

a little humble, he's not delusional, he knows that he deserves his punishment.

And number three, this is my favorite part. All right, think

about this. Jesus was actually being bullied on the cross and being picked on.

Who takes up for him? Not the crowd, not the Jewish elite

disciples, weren't around a criminal sentence to be punished. He took up for

Jesus. How awesome is that? So this guy who came to Jesus's rescue

here and takes up for him, is this criminal? And I'm pretty sure

that Jesus, you know that he knew about Jesus before they ended up beside

each other. And I think that he'd probably heard about the teachings of Jesus,

because here's what he said. Let's look at it again. He says,

but this man talking about Jesus has done nothing wrong. And then he

looks at Jesus and says, hey, remember me when you come into your

kingdom. So what do we hear here? We hear some kingdom language.

So in other words, I believe that he'd probably heard Jesus preach somewhere about

the Kingdom of God. And that makes sense because we see in Matthew,

what does I say Jesus went throughout Gallee teaching in their synagogue, proclaiming the

good news of what the kingdom. And so after he watches Jesus suffer,

he hears the words that Jesus says on the cross, like Father, forgive

them. They don't know what they're doing. He experiences the darkness over the

land for three hours. During that time, something shifted in his heart,

and something shifted in his heart. All said he believed in Jesus, He

had faith in Jesus, and he wanted to be with Jesus. So he

said he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Now, he not only believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but he trusted

in Jesus for his future, the same future that Jesus offered his disciples.

Like I said, I really like this s guy. Now. I don't

know exactly why he was put on the cross, but he says it was

a fair punishment. And when it came to this moment where he needed help,

he didn't ask the Roman soldiers, he didn't ask the Jewish elite,

he didn't ask the crowd. He asked Jesus for help, for Jesus to

save him, Jesus to redeem him. Again. I like this guy now.

What I love most about this story is Jesus' response. He said,

truly, I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise.

Now, this is one of the most remarkable turnaround stories in history. Think

about this. This guy is getting executed, he's bound for hell, and

then all of a sudden he's redeemed, and then he's told by Jesus that

he will be in heaven with him the next day. This is quite a

turnaround story. When you look at this, it reminds me of a story

I read this past week. The author talked about her twenty fifth high school

reunion. She said, everybody was excited, you know, so the ladies

got their hair down, their nails done, new dresses, guys got new

shoes, new ties, and of course everybody left with their picture of their

family stuffed in their pocket. And they meet at the downtown hotel and they're

all getting together and they're having a good time catching up on stories. They

said, it's a great evening. And then, of course, she said

there was one awkward moment where somebody jumped in with a group and said,

hey, everybody remember me, and no one remembered him, and she said

that was a pretty awkward moment. And then she goes on to talk about

how them people would naturally get into their little small groups, and they were

talking and they found out that one of the guys who was, let's just

say, a troublemaker, that he had actually become pretty prominent in his field,

very successful, and very wealthy. And so as they started to murmur

about this into different small groups, one guy says, well, huh,

what do you think about that? He sure was surely he was no angel

in college, and other people make comments like that, and so she said

that evening went on and it ended up being a great evening. Then the

author says, all right, you journey back with me to that comment,

that comment when the group found out that the one guy who was always in

trouble ended up being very successful, and where especially one guy says, well,

he surely wasn't an angel in college. And she says, what's the

implication here, what's the implication of these comments? And she said, basically,

what she says is the implication was that because he had had such an

unruly younger life and he calls so much trouble, he didn't deserve a great

life. In other words, a lot of people believe that if you're a

troublemaker and you do all kinds of stuff wrong, then what you deserve as

you get older is more trouble. And those who do good when they're young,

they deserve good things when they get older. And it talks and she

goes on to talk about this nature that we all have in us. We

as humans all believe in this thing, this system called fairness. Okay,

we want things to be fair, but why because if things are fair,

well, then we could trust in that system. So if I do good

here, then I should expect good results over here. We like a fairness

system, and we want two plus two to always equal four. We feel

comfortable, we feel relaxed with a fairness system because that means as long as

I'm a good guy or a good gal, I can expect good things to

happen. But then Jesus comes along and he blows up the fairness system.

He annihilates it because Jesus start around telling everybody, you know what, in

my kingdom, the first is going to be the last, the last is

going to be the first. And then he tells his story about a farmer

who had a lot of work to be done on his farm one day,

so he went out and he hired men. He hired men early in the

morning, but then later I realized he needed more guys, so he hired

some more guys later on the day. Then he hired more guys later on

the day, and then the last hour he hired some guys. And then

at the end of the day, everybody came together for their pay. But

everyone was not happy because the person who had been there all day long got

the same pay. As a person who had just been there for an hour,

and they didn't think that this was fair. But then Jesus said,

ah, this is what the Kingdom of God is going to be like.

The first shall be the last, and the last shall be the first.

And here on the cross, in Jesus's last moments in the human body is

fulfilled. This parent, this parable that says it doesn't matter how much work,

or how much good deeds, or how many time you came to church.

You are in the Kingdom by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ.

It doesn't matter how many works you do, how many good deeds you do,

how much money you give, all the good things and all the compliments,

how many doors you open for old ladies, how many times you help

someone unload her up groceries. It doesn't matter. At the end of the

day, you are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ. And let me

tell you something. For those of us that go around doing a lot of

good that can seem un fair. But Jesus said, the Kingdom's not fair.

It's a kingdom of grace. It's a kingdom of grace. So we

get through this first part of our text today, and I think we beat

it up pretty good. We can go home now. I think we got

the main point. But if you allow me for a few moments to change

directions, I want to talk about something that I've struggled with over the years,

and actually for two thousand years. This scripture has been a scripture division.

And it goes along where we see that the criminal believes in Jesus.

So Jesus is tomorrow are today? Excuse me, You'll be with me in

paradise. And because of those words, it calls the controversy, because the

controversy is what happens immediately after you die. If you know Jesus, what

happens immediately to you your soul after you die? Okay, And we see

in the Bible that there's other verses. At first glance, it looks like

it contradicts what Jesus says here. All right, So we're gonna talk about

those just for a few moments, Okay. Then I'll explain to you why

it was important for us to talk about these. So let me tell you

there's three different beliefs for the last two thousand years, three main beliefs about

what happens to you immediately after you die. Number one, some will say

you immediately go to Jesus. Number two, some will say you immediately go

to purgatory. Who hear knows what purgatory is or heard about purgatory? And

number three, some say you immediately go to soul sleep. Okay, so

here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna unpack soul sleep. At first time,

let me just tell you what soul sleep is. Basically, soul sleep

is where you die physically and then you enter into a stage of unconsciousness.

And then you were unconscious. You were unaware of anything. And this might

be decades, centuries, thousands of years. But whenever Jesus comes back and

it's Judgment Day, you as a believer, all of a sudden you're awakened,

and you're awakened and you're in the presence of Christ. But your soul

is asleep during this whole time. This is a popular belief among many people

now, and it has legitimacy. If you look at scripture at first glance,

Where did they get it? Well, they get it one from Jesus,

all right. Jesus when he went to Lazarus to try to raise Lazarus

from the dead. What did Jesus say? He says, our friend Lazarus

has fallen asleep, but I'm gonna go wake him up, all right,

So you can see where we get this. Or what about Steve and an

axe? He is stoned because of his beliefs in Christ. And it says

that then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not

hold this son against them. And then when he had said this, he

had fell asleep. All right, Now, the next one I'm gonna share

with you is probably the most famous one who here has ever been to a

Protestant funeral. Raise your hand, all of us. Probably I can almost

guarantee you've heard this scripture at a funeral. Most of the times when I

use a scripture, I use it at the grave site. And so this

scripture is like the most popular funeral scripture, and it will help you understand

why so many people believe in souls sleep. It says, brothers and sisters,

we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death,

so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no

hope. And so according to this doctrine, again we die, our soul

sleeps. Then someday down the line, when Christ is ready, we wake

back up and we go to heaven. Now, when we look at what

Jesus and Paul says throughout some other scriptures, here's what we realize. This

word sleep is just a metaphor for temporary. You went to sleep last night,

right, but then you woke up. It was just temporary, that's

all. It's a short amount of time. It's temporary. Okay. It

doesn't mean that our soul sleep forever and then Jesus comes back then we wake

back up. No, it's just a metaphor to say, hey, for

a moment when we die, we go to sleep. So the best way

to put it is that at the moment of death, your body goes to

sleep, but it wakes up in the presence of Jesus. It's just a

metaforse for don't read much into it. We do not go into a soul

sleep. Now here's the big one. Let's talk about purgatory. Okay,

Purgatory is believed by over a billion people on this earth. Okay, now,

let me explain to you what purgatory is. Purgatory is basically the belief

that when you die and you believe in Christ, but maybe you weren't perfect,

you didn't have it all together. You are not holy as thou.

So you're gonna go to this intermediate state and you're gonna be there for maybe

decades, maybe centuries, maybe a thousand years, until you do enough good

works or you've served enough prison time in purgatory to where all of these bad

works have been accounted for, and finally you are pure and holy. And

after all this time that you finally become pure and holy, now you can

step into the presence of God. Okay, so that's what it basically means.

So, for instance, say you're a bad guy, done a lot

of bad stuff, but you do believe that Jesus is real, so you

would go to purgatory, and maybe you've done an awful lot of stuff,

and so you're gonna go to purgatory, and because you've done so many bad

things, you get a sentence, maybe it's for centuries or thousands of years,

and so you're gonna work your way until you get a pardon, maybe

a couple thousand years, and you're ready to see Jesus. But here's the

interesting thing. During the time that you're in purgatory. Your friends on the

outside who are still alive can actually do good works on your behalf to get

some of your years knocked off, or they could give money to get some

of your years knocked off. Isn't that sweet? You'd be like, Hey,

any of you today not for sure where your best friend is, hand

me fifty bucks on knock fifty years off. And so there is a system

that was believed. Now and here's what I want you. I don't want

you to think, oh, I can't believe the Catholics got it wrong.

Actually the belief came from the Jews. Okay. We find this belief,

the basis of this in the Apocrypha. Now, the apocrypha is some books

of the Bible, but not our Bible. They're in the Catholic Bible,

but they don't meet the standard of scripture, so they're not in our Bible.

They're in the Catholic Bible. In the Apocrypha, there is a book

called Maccabees, and in Second Maccabees we find this person named Judas Maccabeus,

and he is this great leader, this great warrior, and he goes around

to all of his soldiers and he takes up an offering man to man and

he raises two thousand silver coins, and then he has all these coins sent

to Jerusalem as a sin offering for the other soldiers who were their friends who

had died. And from there the belief built and built and built. We

can actually pay money on the behalf of those who pass before us. So

this went on for centuries, but then it finally just gets to the point

where it becomes very corrupted, and we get to the point where a guy

named Martin Luther comes along. The Great Reformer and Martin Luther who he's going

around and one time he visits Rome, and when he's in Rome, he

sees that by the way, they're going through a horrible famine, that they're

going through a huge economic downturn and people are starving, people are dying.

But then he's seeing the church going around asking people for offerings to help build

Saint Peter's Basilica, and they're saying, hey, give us money so that

your mom or your dad you can make sure that they go to heaven.

You got also remember that this is the time where they've had a lot of

planes, so death was on everybody's mind. Heaven was on everybody's mind,

and it became very corrupt. Matter of fact, they ended up having these

guys called fundraisers, and their job was to go around and get money from

you to get your friends out of purgatory. Those famous ones was John Tetzell

and John Tetzell actually he's quoted as here's what this was his saying that he

had as soon as the gold in the casket rings, the rescue soul to

heaven springs. So you see this doctrine here. Okay. Now, besides

the corruption part of this given money to get people into heaven, the worst

part that it teaches is that the christ work was not enough. The work

on the cross was not enough, His sinless life was not enough. His

life that he lived here on this earth was not enough. His sacrifice on

the cross was not enough. And because Jesus was not enough to make us

righteous and to cleanse us of our says, we need to help Jesus.

Isn't that crazy? Like who in here is good enough? Where you think

you can help Jesus. But that's what the teaches, okay, and so

we need a period of time. All right, Now, let's get back

to our passage and look at the last option where we immediately go to Jesus.

And these are Jesus' famous last words, and he says that again.

He says, today you'll be with me in paradise. But where else in

a New Testament is is supported when we go to the other main writer in

a New Testament, Paul, And Paul says this. He goes, I

am torn between the two. I desire to depart talk about I desire to

leave this life and be with Jesus. So for Paul to leave this life

me he was going to be with Jesus, which is better by far.

So Jesus and Paul are two main contributors. They're in agreement that when we

die, we immediately go to see Jesus. And so that's what we believe.

That death happens and immediately we go to Jesus. Now you might be

saying, James, you just took ten minutes and tell me about a bunch

of stuff that you learned in seminary and you've been waiting ten years to talk

about it. Okay, all right, let's have a for real moment here.

I'm your pastor, And when I was doing this study this week,

I didn't need to go in this direction. But as your pastor, and

I hope i'm your pastor for many years to come, I've witnessed a lot

of you experience the death of someone you deeply love, and I do know

this that some of you, the only reason you made it through that day

are that season is because of this doctrine, that you believe wholeheartedly that they

were immediately with Jesus. I also also want everyone who lives under the teaching

the Church of the Crossing this someday, because we'll all die, we'll all

have a disease, we'll all get to that point. I want the people

the Church to Crossing not have all these worries and these concerns. But I

want you to be assured that death is simply a doorway to the presence of

Christ. I want you to live differently. I want you to be assured.

And here's the thing I can promise you. Right now. You might

not be in a situation, but I promise you, I promise you.

I promise you that every single one of us in this room, we're going

to have a day where our world is rocked so much. Either because a

son and a daughter, a spouse or someone passed away, or we get

that terminal illness report, or we're on our deathbank, and there will be

a day in our life. There will be a day in our life where

this doctrine that I just taught you will mean absolutely everything. It will be

the only thing that gives you peace in your life. So that's why we

took time to talk about this today. Now, if you allow me,

I just want to go in one other direction before we head home today.

This is the simple direction of it would be remissing me if we didn't talk

about who goes to heaven without making sure that you are assured of your salvation.

So here's what we're going to do the last few moments. I'm going

to give you three questions, and you have to be able to answer yes

to all three questions. You have to answer yes to all three questions.

And if you could answer yes to all three questions with confidence, then you

can be assured that if you were to die today, you would be in

the presence of Christ. So let's look at these critical questions. Number one,

do you see your need? Do you see your need? So,

first of all, you need to realize you need forgiveness. You need a

savior. Okay, Now, when we go back to the cross, I

want you to understand that to two thieves, they represent us. You're one

of the other. Okay, you're one of the thieves on the cross.

And the Bible says that the one who repented said this. He says,

we are punished justly, We're getting what our deeds deserve. In other words,

he understood he deserved the punishment. So do you understand your need?

And I think a lot of people don't because a lot of people are like,

you know, I'm a pretty good person. I haven't killed anybody.

I paid most of my taxes. I you know, I'm nice to a

people. I'm kind, I'm nice to my family. You know, I

do a lot of good works. And a lot of people don't see their

need for salvation. But let's do something to help help us all out a

little bit this morning. Okay, if you've ever said are told to lie?

Will you raise your hand with me? Raise your hand? If you've

ever told lie, you know what that makes you liars? And if you

didn't raise your hand, guess what it makes you. And I was pretty

good at lying before I came to Christ. I'm in I'm a liar too.

Before I came to Christ, one story that Gene and I like to

talk was I was meeting her after work at GoldStar Chili in Middletown, and

what do you do when you're teenagers? You kiss? You don't do that,

you know, But we kissed, and she looks at me and goes,

you've been smoking cigarettes? And I'm like, my lord, no,

I had. And I said to her that I needed some gum. So

I borrow some gum from one of my coworkers. And I had no idea

that niicorette gum tastes just like cigarettes. And she believed me, and I

thought and I was so proud of myself that I one thought her just like

that, And secondly, I was like, that's a good lie. Think

about where my soul was at. I needed a savior. Second question,

raise your hand, and I'll be the first one to raise my hand.

Who in here has ever stolen something? Raise your hand, Raise your hand.

If you've ever stolen something, I tell you what. And if you've

stolen something, what does that make you a thief? You know? Before

I came to Christ, I'll tell you this my Grandma's gone, so I

can tell you this family secret. My grandma used to hide bundles of cash

in the freezer, big bundles of cash. And so my brother and I

knew about these bundles of cash, and we would go and take a twenty

here, twenty there. But then we would talk about how like, can't

take too much or she'll figure it out. And then we start talking about

how like, make sure you don't take more than me, because we wanted

to have honor among us thieves, because you know that that's saying. You

know that there's great honor among thieves, and so but yeah, one last

question, raise your hand. Have you ever put anything before Jesus Christ in

your life? Raise your hand in all right, So let me think about

you guys for a moment. Today I am preaching to a bunch of liars,

thieves and idolators, and you know that should be our new saying here

at our church. Or you're a guest who we should say welcome to Church

of the Crossing. Today we have a gift from you, from all the

lying, thieving adulters at our church, and we would like to say that

you know we love you. We're glad you're here, Come be a part

of us. Happy Sunday, and we're all honest, we need a savior.

This thief realized that they needed that he needed a savior. What's the

Bible say? The wages of sin is what death? That's the payment?

All right. Second question that you have to answer yes to, or be

able to answer clearly, is who do you think Jesus is? Who do

you think Jesus is? See in this passage here the repenting criminals said,

hey, he goes, don't you fear God? And he says, this

man's done nothing wrong. And so this repented person on the cross realizes that

there's something different about Jesus. He's sinless, he's done nothing wrong. So

the question is who do you say Jesus is. Now every reputable scholar they

don't even disagree about this that Jesus lived on this earth, So that's not

even up for debate. But the question is who do you believe Jesus is.

Was he just a good teacher, was he just a really good guy

who was confused and believed that he was God? Or is he the guy

who had the power to raise the dead, to heal the sick? To

cast out the demons, open blind eyes, to open death ears, to

split time in half? Or is he the one who was the sinless son

of God, the innocent lamb of God who took our place on the cross.

Was he the one who God chose to roll the stone away? He

was resurrected three days later. Who do you say, Jesus is That's what

matters today? Who do you say Jesus is the number three? Have you

experienced his grace? Have you experienced his grace? Have you experienced a grace

like the criminal on the cross? And I want you to understand something,

Okay, pay attention. Is he says Jesus, remember me when you come

into your kingdom. And then Jesus is the most grace filled world to a

man who, all right, he could do no good works, He could

do nothing religious, He couldn't join the church, he couldn't pay his debt

back. All he could do is believe in Jesus, who Jesus said he

was. He says, remember me when you come up to your kingdom at

Jesus, I tell you the truth. Today, you'll be of me in

paradise. Now here's the question. Do you see your need have you experienced

his grace? And again I gotta remind you you are represented by one of

the two thieves on the cross. See, a lot of people want to

get to heaven based on their good works. But here's the thing. Jesus

shows us clearly in this passage that the criminal on the cross, he was

forgiven and he could do no good works because he was tied to a cross.

He could do no errands of mercy because he couldn't get down. The

criminal was forgiven and he could be baptized. He couldn't turn over a new

leaf, and he couldn't join a church. All he could do was throw

himself at the grace of God. Here's a scripture for you as we closed

today, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. This

is not of yourself. It is a gift from God that no man can

boast. You're one of the two thieves. Today. Who do you say,

Jesus is do you see your need? You experience his grace. I'm

gonna tell you something. As a pastor, had the opportunity many times to

be called to the death bed, and where I'll share the gospel of someone

right before they die. And I've had those people say yes to Jesus on

their deathbed and you see the family all cry and everybody's excited, and you

just talk about it's a different experience. I've also been in the room where

the widow has a hold of my shirt and shoving me and saying, please

pray him to Heaven. Pray me to heaven, because I was there the

day before and he said no to the gospel, and now he has slipped

to that coma. Let me tell you something. I hope that none of

you ever leave your family questioning where you are at the moment you die.

And so today as we close, we're going to do two things. One,

I'm gonna pray and if you would like to come into a relationship with

Christ, be assured of your salvation in Christ. If you would like to

repent, and maybe you stepped away a long time ago, but today's the

day you come back in. I want you to pray with me. But

secondly, if you're sure of your salvation today, here's what I want you

to do. During a few moments that I pray that prayer, just take

a moment tell God how awesome he is and thank him for the grace in

your life. You just praise Him. Rite where you are at, let

us pray today. God, we come to you today, and we come

to you with our hands out and saying we have nothing to offer, but

we cry for mercy. So those of you who would like to be assured

of your salvation today or come into a relationship with Christ today, pray this

prayer with me and meeting with your whole heart. Jesus, I believe that

you were God's son, that you died on the cross for me, and

that you overcame death and resurrected three days later. Jesus, forgive me of

my sins. Jesus, become my lord, lead me, guide me,

become my savior. I thank you for your grace and I love you Lord,