The Greatest Rescue Story | Josh Teis | Southern Hills Church

Today we're going to be studying from 2 Corinthians chapter number five in verse 17,

and we're going to have a great time in the word of God together.

Don't worry if you didn't bring a Bible today, that's okay.

Most of our scriptures are going to be right on the screen behind me,

so you'll be able to follow along. No problem.

It's a sermon entitled The Rescue Story because that is our theme for the entire Easter weekend.

But before we do that, I want to begin by telling you we're doing something a little different today.

I asked if we could start the service a little different because today I want to find out something from you.

There's a card in the seat in front of you. Go ahead and take that card out right there.

Every single person go ahead and reach forward, grab that card if you're on the front row.

You can reach to the one behind you and grab it there.

And go ahead and grab that card. Everybody should have one, and here's why.

It says, let's stay connected, but on the back in the middle,

there's a specific question that I really want to hear from you.

Now, for those who don't know, I'm the preacher, and the preacher gets to tell everybody what to do.

But don't you wish that sometimes you could tell the preacher what to do? Amen.

Don't you wish you could turn the tables and be like, let me tell you. Wait, you got it.

Well, this is your chance. See, right there on the middle of the card, it says,

I want the pastor, or I want Pastor Josh to talk about, fill in the blank.

You see, one of my goals as a pastor in this community is to actually address the issues that you're facing.

Questions that you have.

So maybe you see stuff going on in the world, and you think, does the Bible say anything about this?

If you're interested in that, would you let me know so I can see what the community wants to hear about?

Or maybe you say, what does the Bible say about this issue or that issue?

Or what's going on as it relates to the Bible's perspective on this?

Whatever that might be, could you place that there? Because I want to, in my best way possible,

teach the Word of God in a way that is relevant to your life, and that'll be a great help to me.

Now, you can put your name, your email address, your phone number there,

and you can fill out the rest of the card where it says, how did you hear about us?

We'd be fascinated to know if you found out through social media, event bride, a billboard, a friend invited you, some other way.

Let us know. That tells us how we're reaching the community.

And then maybe you want more information about family resources or serving in the community,

or financial classes, whatever. Put those in there, and that way our team will see that,

and they're going to email you specifically about whatever you're interested in.

That last part, you're not supposed to mark yet. We're going to wait until the end of the sermon.

So take that card, finish filling out, and place it beside you.

And at the end of the sermon, we're going to come back to this card.

How many of you are ready to study the Bible today? If you are, say amen.

Amen. Amen. I am ready to study the Bible too.

Look at what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

I declare to you today that because of the resurrection, you are new.

Amen. Let's pray.

Father, I need help to help my friends. Today, we have the word of God, and that's what's most

important to share with the people of God. But I need the Holy Spirit of God to do what only he can do,

because I am just a man. And as a man, I fail in the opportunity to do what you need me to do in

this moment, and that is teach your people. So I pray just as you have filled this place with

your holy people, you would fill this place with your holy spirit, and you would fill my mouth with

your holy word to accomplish what you want today. I pray that every person that hears this sermon

today would be benefited by it to understand you and themselves in a better way, and that if there's

a soul who has never been saved, that today they would see their need for a Savior, and they would

receive you as that Savior. This I pray in the name of Jesus, my Savior. Amen.

Amen. Angelo was a rookie cop. He had just graduated from the academy and was thrilled to have a job

in the first place. So walking around on his beat for the very first time was a thrill,

and he stayed in that position for months. And he had already seen a lot in his short career,

things that had caused problems, dark moments in the community, some things that he didn't tell

even his wife about. But when the APB went out for the abducted little girl, his heart sank.

It was the entire city of Philadelphia that was in a frenzy over this lost child that many knew

had been taken. For hours they searched, he, along with hundreds of other police officers going from

community to community, neighborhood to neighborhood, and in some cases door to door. Angelo

found himself in an apartment complex. And as Angelo went door to door, his mind couldn't help but go

to some dark places. He looked across the room at me and said, Josh, I had already seen so many

dark things. I knew what could happen to this little girl.

Angelo is now 87 years old. And right now, as we sit here in the church, he's over at St.

Rose Hospital on St. Rose Parkway in Eastern. And he's there preparing for some surgeries

that are coming up on Tuesday. I told him, tell me more of the story. What happened? He said,

Pastor, as I went from door to door, I had no idea that I would be the one who would rescue that

little girl. I'll never forget opening the door, walking into the room and seeing that young child

alone in the apartment, dirty, cold, afraid, terrified, shivering in the corner of the room by

herself. And as I approached slowly, I reached out my arms. And she reached out and came to me.

He said he carried her out of the apartment, out of the apartment complex. And he said, I've rarely

had a moment in my life that was more important than the moment I gave that child back to her parents.

That's a rescue story. It's very similar to the rescue story we're talking about today.

Easter is the story of a rescue, though you may not realize it. Sometimes, as people who see the

story of Jesus for the first time think to themselves, why didn't somebody go rescue him? And the

answer is Jesus was dying on the cross. He didn't need to be rescued. He was the one doing the

rescuing. When Jesus died upon the cross, he did so to rescue humanity. You see, mankind had already

screwed up their own existence so badly that we were destroying ourselves. And it was the death

of Jesus Christ that saved us from sin. I'll explain more about that in a moment. And not only did

his death secure our salvation, his resurrection demonstrated he had the power to save us in

the first place. Easter is about the rescue story. But Easter is not just about the rescue story.

My wife, when I first got married, she told me Easter was also about Easter baskets.

I didn't, we didn't, we didn't do Easter baskets growing up. We gave gifts at Christmas and birthdays,

but Heather's family gave gifts at every single holiday. You should see what she gives me for

Arbor Day. It's weird. It's, I mean, every holiday is a thing for her and our family. So every Easter,

the kids growing up would get an Easter basket filled with all sorts of candy and all sorts of fun

and Easter eggs. And I know she's a heathen. I know some of you hate this, but it's my, what do I do?

You know, this is what she does. And then I wasn't on board until she started giving me an Easter basket

filled with Reese's cups. You know what I mean? Hallelujah. I'm in, you know, I'm ready to go.

But then she would put peeps in there. How many of you like peeps? How many of you like peeps? Yeah?

Okay. How many of you have good taste? Raise your hand. How many of you, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding.

They're gross. They're really bad. They're disgusting. But God bless some of you.

So maybe you didn't get an Easter gift this Easter. Okay. So I'm going to give you one.

My gift to you that I feel that God wants me to give you on this Easter is a proper understanding

of what the resurrection actually means. What Easter is all about. And I do this because there are so

many new believers at Southern Hills Church. Now, if you're new to the church, you may not know this.

Our church is filled with new believers. In fact, over the last six months, God has been doing something

really unique and special. People getting saved and baptized. People showing up at our church in

massive numbers like we've never seen. People that are hearing the gospel, repenting of sin, crying

and receiving Jesus as Savior and then following the Lord in baptism. How many of you, by the way,

were here last week when we had almost 30 people baptized on one Sunday, last Sunday? How many

were here for that? It was amazing. Like genuinely, it was deeply moving. You say, wow, that's a great

church. You're a great pastor. All this. No, no, like genuinely, there's something very special

happening in our church right now. I think it's revival. So with that taking place, I'm taking

this Easter. And what I'm doing is I'm taking an opportunity to simply explain what happened to you

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So if you're a Christian, you've been saved for a thousand

years, nothing that I'm saying today is going to be like, oh my goodness, I was most in my,

you've heard all this before. Today, I'm going to share three words that describe

the reality of your new life in Jesus Christ. Why? Because of the resurrection, you are new.

And 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17 tells us that. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 in verse 17 says,

2 Corinthians 5:17 2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,

all things are become new. And so I want to describe the new you with three simple words.

What are those words? Death, alive, rescued. Save them with me. Death, alive, rescued. Say it again.

Say it again. Death, alive, rescued. That's the whole sermon today. Three words, death, alive,

rescued. The first one that we want to talk about today is the word death.

Now when I say death, if you are a longtime Christian, you're thinking, well, of course,

the death of Jesus, and maybe you're for a deep theologian, the death to myself, got it.

But think about this word from an outsider's perspective, like if you're not a Christian.

If you're not a Christian and you hear about like death and Jesus and from an outsider's perspective,

you understand our religion. I know we call it a relationship, but from their perspective,

our religion's a little weird. Like we're always talking about death. And our hero is Jesus,

and he's got a bloody crown of thorns and blood's coming down, and his nails pierced hands and blood

and his feet, and they whip him and they whip him and we post things on Facebook. And I'm not

saying any of that's wrong. I'm saying from an outsider's perspective, like we really glorify

this bloodied, beaten God, don't we? And so if you do come from that perspective, you may not

understand. Why do you talk about death so much and the blood of Jesus? And you like you worship

this guy who died and he came back from the grave, like that's just, it's disturbing, it's morbid

to some, but here's what you need to understand about death. Death, it had to happen. The death

of Jesus Christ was necessary because the sin of mankind was so grievous it was going to destroy

mankind collectively and damn your soul individually. And so our sin debt was getting so out of

control, somebody had to pay for the sins of mankind. And either mankind would pay for its own

sins or God himself would step in and pay for the sins of mankind. That's what the book of

Corinthians says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse three and four. It says that Christ died for our sins

according to the scripture and that he was buried in three days later. He rose from the grave

according to the scripture. But what I want you to focus on in this verse is that Christ died

for our sins. He died to pay for the sin debt of all of us. What does that look like?

How many of you know what tapas are? You know what tapas are? Tapas is, tapas was,

tapas, how many of you know what tapas is, was, are? How many of you know tapas? Raise your hand,

you know tapas? How many of you don't know what tapas are? Raise your hand. How many of you,

okay, so let me tell you, I didn't know. Tapas are a Spanish type of a restaurant,

a Spanish restaurant. My wife said to me, hey, Josh, you want to go to the new Spanish,

the tapas? I said, what's tapas? Sounds like tacos. I'm in. Let's go, tapas. She said it's

called Firefly, Firefly, Firefly. How many of you know which one I'm talking about? I'm like,

I don't like bugs, but we can try it. You know, I don't, she tries all sorts of weird stuff and

well, all right, let's go. We'll go to Firefly and try some tapas. And we went there, beautiful,

nice little restaurant. We sat down and the first thing I noticed when they brought us the menu is

there was like 150 items on the menu. I like in and out where there's like two things, you know

what I mean? Two things. That's it. But there are tapas. There's like 150 options. The second thing

I noticed is how cheap they were. Like $4, $4.50, $5 for tapas. And I looked around my children and

I'm like, order up kids. This is a daddy like this restaurant. Amen. It is cheap. It's cheap.

I'm going to get out of here with no problem. And so we did, we started ordering. The first thing,

I said, what do you suggest? And she said, you have to try the bacon wrapped dates.

Friend, if you've never tried these, let me be very clear. There is a God and he loves us.

And he demonstrated that through bacon wrapped dates.

And she brought them out there and they were like four bucks. And she brought it out. And the first

thing I noticed when she brought them out is that it was a tapas are a tiny little plate

with a tiny little piece of food on it. That's what tapas means.

Tapas is Spanish for you got tricked or something. I think it's a direct translation.

So she brought it out and there was like four little dates with a little bacon around each.

And I'm like, where is this like a sampler? And she's like, no, that's the thing. And I'm like,

that's the thing. And she's like, try it. And I tried it. And oh my goodness, I'm telling you,

it was incredible. I mean, absolutely amazing. So media, I'm like, four more for every just

and let's do it. And then and then the salads. And so we ordered little salads and they all come out

in little dishes too. And you know, one for everybody. And then it was appetizer time. And

then it was on court time on court. No, that's something else on tray time. I'm so sophisticated.

And so we it was in every dish almost almost I want to lie. Every dish almost was amazing.

And I'm like, this is so good. And we're ordering left and right in this piece of cake,

because it's only like $4 a dish. And then she brought this the bill at the end.

Now you know better than I where this story is going. Have you ever been brought the bill and

you were genuinely upset and shocked at the same time, but you tried to act cool, you know?

You're like, thank you so much. You're like,

and I'm like, I think you brought the wrong bill. She said, what do you mean? It's like $400.

These are like $4 a piece. She's like, you ordered 100 things or something like that.

Like you got to be kidding me. Here's what's happening with you as a human. And you may not

realize it. Sin costs, but the sins that we allow in our lives are little sins, right? A little bit

of lying, a little bit of lust, a little bit of greed. They're just small, like little tapas. It's

not that big of a deal. And we're so used to it even since our childhood, we've developed an appetite

for these little sins. Here's the problem. Your sins are building a debt. And someday you're going

to have to stand before the King of Kings, the judge. And he's going to be like, okay, let's see.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. You're like, I know, I do a little sin and then I try to

make up with it with a little good works. Here's the problem. You think you're paying for your own

sins. The problem is you sin far more than you realize. And you do far less good works than

you realize. And in fact, God says that your good works in comparison to your sins are like

filthy rags. They don't compare. So now you've got this big sin debt and you're like,

what am I going to do? The answer is you're going to stand before God and answer for your sin debt.

That's what's going to happen to you and it's going to happen to me. All of us, everyone, it's a

pointed on demand, wants to die, then the judgment. That's what the Bible says.

So as I'm sitting there at Toppus, you know, contemplating my bill, she takes it away and then

comes back and she says, pastor, I said, yeah. She said, pastor, somebody from over there at the bar

just paid your bill. And I looked over and I'm like, what? And they waved at me. And I'm like,

that part of the story did not happen. Kind of wish it did. Just throwing it out there.

I'm just kidding. Relax. Some of you are doing like, I'm never coming back. All right.

But could you imagine if it did?

Like how amazing would it be to rack up a debt and then be like, I don't can't pay for this.

And then to have somebody swoop in, rescue you and pay for your sin debt.

See, this is what the Bible says God did. God loves the world so much that he gave his only

begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish and pay for their own sin debt,

but have everlasting life. You say, why would he do that? I don't, I've done this my whole life.

I've studied, I don't fully grasp why he did it, but for some reason he likes you and he loves you.

And for some reason he likes me and he loves me and he doesn't want you to pay for your own sin debt.

Say, what if I don't want him to pay for my sin debt? That's fine. You have the choice of paying for

yourself. You can reject Jesus Christ and his offer and you can say, I'm good, I don't need that.

I've got a whole system going here that I'm going to figure out myself.

And hopefully when you stand before God, you've done enough good things and did enough religious

stuff to take care of your debt. But it's one of two choices. For me, I choose Jesus. Can I get an

amen? That's why I want it. That's why he died upon the cross. And the reason why I say death, it

had to happen, is because without the death of Jesus Christ, I would have to die for my own sins,

die and go to hell. And so would you. So the first thing that helps us understand the rescue story

is the word death. The second word, does anybody remember the second word that I was going to use?

What was the second word? Alive. Death, number one, alive, number two, because after the crucifixion

comes the resurrection, amen. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not only literal, it also

symbolizes the fact that you and I will one day resurrect. It's all about new life in eternity

and a new heart that you've been given. Part of what happened in the rescue story is not only that

Jesus paid for your sin debt, he also gave you a new heart. See, I don't think I need a new heart.

Look at what it says in Ezekiel 36 verse 26. It says, I will give you a new heart and put a new

Ezekiel 36:26

spirit within you. God says, you're having a hard time obeying the laws of God. That's okay. I will

take your old stony heart out of you and I will put a new heart of flesh inside of you so that you

used to desire from your heart to do the wrong thing. Now this new heart of Jesus is going to

help you desire to do the good thing. It's new. Do you like new things? I do. I do like new things.

Like one of the things, okay, one of the things I love about our current society,

and I know a lot of people love to gripe, right? I don't like this about our current,

I don't like this, I don't like that. There's a lot of things maybe not to like, but I like where

I don't want to go back 100 years. Can I get an amen? I don't, like you can have it my friend. I

like it here. And one of the things I like is like we have experiences that 50 years ago they

didn't have like opening a new phone. That is a cool experience. That's a universal love, right?

You get a new phone. It's all wrapped in solifane and they package it in such a way that's like,

oh, so much fun. You pull off the, you know, it begins with a little tab and just...

Pull off the... You pull it out. And then the cap, you know what I mean? Like the top of the box,

you pull it up and you can hear that the air gets sucked inside you just...

You know what I'm talking about? This guy knows. And you take the phone and they have that thin

layer of plastic. You know what I mean? And you realize under this plate, nobody's ever it.

And you take that plastic and it's that little tab and you pull it up and you can hear it.

And right there, the most crystal clear, not a scratch, not a crack, not a piece of dust, no

lint. It's new for two seconds. And then your toddler drops it in the Kool-Aid, right? New.

What God says is this, I want to give you a new heart. You say, well, what's wrong with my old

heart? Oh, okay. So let me explain. Your old heart is the same problem my old heart has. Your old

heart desires dumb stuff. And the dumb stuff it desires gets you into all sorts of problems.

Isn't it true that there are moments in your life where your heart wanted something and you went

after the thing that your heart really desired? And then after you got the thing your heart desired,

you're like, I wish I did not have the thing my heart desired. There's this message we give children,

like, follow your heart. I don't know about you, but my heart's gotten me into some bad problems

in my life. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah tells us this. It says that the heart of man is wicked

and deceitful. It tricks you. It makes you think you want something, and then you go to get it,

and then the thing that you wanted actually hurts you. For example, my heart wants to eat seven

donuts every day. You say, no, no, no, that's your taste buds and your tummy. No, no, no. My taste

buds and tummy are in on the deal, but my heart wants it. Like, I could wake up every day, have

four cups of coffee and seven donuts, and I will be happy until I die of a heart attack. You know

what I'm talking about? Because my heart desires it, just because my heart desires it, doesn't mean

it's good for me. It's called sin. And today we classify it as the sin of gluttony. But there

are other sins that our hearts desire that destroy us. For example, the sin of anger. Wrath, rage is

the biblical word. When you allow your emotions, they hurt you, yes, they went after you, they did

something, and it sparked anger, but that anger wasn't controlled, and now you've got rage that's

roaring inside of you. And without a proper control of that rage, it actually takes over you,

and it hurts you, and it binds up the people around you. Your heart desired the rage,

and the rage ends up hurting you. It's true of anger, it's true of gluttony, it's true of lust.

We want something that we're not supposed to have, and we're desire gets out of control,

and it burns inside of us, and then we take that which God says, no, do not take. And then when

we take it in lust, we find out that this lust actually conceives problems and poisoning and

guilt and sin, and now it's hurting us from the inside out, and that which our heart desired sin

ends up destroying us. It's true with pride. I have some pride in my life, but if you're not

careful, the heart of pride has led you to self-destruction. We all know we're all in the

same boat here, my friend, let's not try to fool ourselves. Our heart desires the wrong thing,

so what God says is, how about I give you a new heart?

Instead of a heart of a man, how about I transplant your heart with the heart of Jesus Christ,

who desires the right thing? Do you know what happens to somebody when they get saved?

They get a heart transplant, the heart of Christ rather than the heart of man.

When I first heard this story, I didn't even believe it, so I researched it. I looked it up on

the internet, and because I found it on the internet, I knew for sure it was definitely true.

But I did, I researched for like an hour and a half, two hours just to make sure,

because I didn't want to tell you the story if it wasn't accurate, and it is true. Bill Wall is his

name, and Bill Wall was 159 days in the UMC there in Tucson, Arizona. He was living on an

artificial, temporary artificial heart, and he could not go home. And on day 159, he was told

that a heart had come in to be transplanted into him. He came from Michael Brady. No, Michael Brady

did not live in Tucson. He actually lived in Hollywood. He was a stunt man for Universal Studios.

He'd been in a lot of movies, probably movies that many of us in this room have seen. And as a stunt

man, he really loved his job, and he loved his family, and he loved his community, and he loved

doing what he did. He took care of himself as much as he possibly could, and he became an organ donor.

He was in Tucson, Arizona filming a specific scene for, I assume, a Western, because it was some kind

of a train chase scene. And he was up on one of the train cars, and he was checking some cables

and wires when suddenly he slipped, and in a moment of destiny, fell to his death. Dead. A media,

on impact, was gone. They rushed him to the hospital just to make sure everything, there was no

possibility of revival. The doctor said he's gone, but they harvested his organs because he was an

organ donor, and they brought his heart up several floors to a man named Bill he would never meet

in this life. And so the transplant went perfectly. Every aspect of it was exactly what the doctors

would want, and Bill started recovering. Now Bill's recovery took quite a bit of time, and the reason

was because Bill was not a healthy man. He was young, but he wasn't, he didn't take care of himself,

according to his own story. And so it took a while for him to recover. After six months of recovery,

of eating healthy, taking care of his body, beginning to exercise, he was starting to feel

physically a lot better, but also beginning to fall back into his old destructive patterns.

That's when he received a letter that changed his life forever. The letter was from Michael's

father. He opened up the letter and it began by saying, I know this is strange, but I want to

introduce myself to you. My son's name is Michael Brady, and his heart is beating inside of you.

Let me tell you about him, and the story went on to tell about Michael's childhood, and Michael's

academic history, and how he used to play sports, and how he really enjoyed fitness,

and how he became a stuntman, and he loved the movies, and he was going to be an actor,

but he really fell in love and stunts, and then one day he slipped and he fell, but he decided

before he'd be an organ donor, and I just want you to know how much I love my son, and I'm thrilled

that he lives on inside of you. Bill says he was in tears. He closed the letter, and he picked up

the photographs that had slipped out of the paper, and he looked at the man who at one time had his

own heart. He said he first noticed how good-looking he was, and how fit, and how much he had taken

care of himself, and then he looked up into a mirror and thought, what am I doing?

And according to Bill's own story, he said it was at that moment he decided that from that point

forward, he would spend the rest of his life taking care of Michael's heart, because it was Michael's

heart that saved his life. He became a cyclist. He remembered as a little boy, loving riding bicycles.

He said, maybe that's what I can do, and so he started riding bicycles to physically care for

himself. As a cyclist, he became well-known. In fact, he became a medal-award-winning cyclist,

a triathlete, really, because he got into swimming and running as well, and many people in that world

know of Bill Wall and the Bill Wall Foundation simply because at some point somebody said to him,

hey, why don't you honor the heart of the one who gave you life that beats inside of you?

Do I need to draw the line for you?

God says to you, your old heart is not working anymore. I want to put a new heart inside of you,

and I'm going to send my son, Jesus Christ, to die so that you could have new life.

And what this book is, it's a letter from the Heavenly Father saying to you, don't you understand

you have the heart of my son beating inside of you? Would you take care of it?

The sins that destroyed your former heart, would you avoid them?

He's not only giving you a new heart so that you can be clean. He's giving you a new heart

so that you can have complete fresh start. You see, my friend, your heart does not need to be

cleaned. It needs to be exchanged. And your new heart leads to new desires. That's what salvation

does. And so what we see first and foremost is the word death. It had to happen. The second word

we saw today is the word alive, and you've been given a new heart. Does anybody remember the final

word we're going to talk about today? Anybody remember what it was? If you do, say it out loud.

Rescued. Rescued. Number three, you have a future. You have a future. You say, who is rescued? Well,

look what the text says in 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

Those who are in Christ, how many of you are a follower of Jesus? If you are, say amen.

You have been rescued. You have a future. Your bill has been paid for. Your heart has been exchanged.

Your future is bright. It's you. You have been rescued. And so now what you have is a fresh start

at understanding your new identity and your new direction. Who you are is not who you once were.

That's why I wrote an entire brand new sermon series that starts next week entitled You Are.

It's a three week sermon series to explain to the new believers and those who have walked away

from God for a little bit who you actually are in Christ. It's a study through Luke chapter 15

Luke 15 · chapter mention

that says you are seen. You are valued. You are loved. Live the way God sees you. Man, I want to

see you for that service. It starts next Sunday and I believe it's going to be a great help to you

in so many ways. So yesterday I was doing yard work in my backyard because it's spring. We just came

out from six months of winter and now we're going into six months of summer. We have one week of spring.

Enjoy it. It's half over, you know. And so I was outside doing some yard work and my friend called

me. His name is Chris. He goes to our church. He said, hey, man, I'm like, hey, he said, hey, can you

go visit my dad? No, I knew that his dad was in the hospital. And I said, yeah, how's he doing?

Not good. I said, okay, yeah, no problem. I can go by. He says, it's pretty urgent. I said, sure,

yeah, for sure, let's go. I'll go over there before the first service on Saturday. So yesterday,

afternoon, I went over there and he told me on the way he said, Josh, remember, I don't know if my

dad is saved. I don't know if he's ever been born again. Can you talk to him about Jesus and how

to be saved? That God wants to save him, wants to rescue him? I said, yeah, yeah, for sure. So I went

over and I walked into that hospital room yesterday and I looked at that 87-year-old hero from Philadelphia.

Everybody else left the room and it was just him and I. And I said, tell me, man, tell me all about

your life and career. And the whole time I was thinking, how am I going to change the conversation

to how God wants to save him? How am I going to shift to the narrative that Jesus loves him and

wants to save his soul? And the first thing he told me was, he said, oh, let me tell you about

the time I rescued this little girl. He told me about walking out of that apartment complex

with that little girl in his arms to our parents. And it was then that moment the Lord said to me,

this is it. I looked at him and I said, Angelo, how did it make you feel to rescue that little girl?

He said, Josh, it was euphoria to do something so important to help somebody like that.

I said, Angelo, don't you understand? That's exactly what God wants to do for you. He wants to rescue you.

He wants to rescue you from your shame, from your sin, from the things you've never told anybody.

He wants to pay your sin debt. He wants to give you a new heart and a new life. And at 87 years old,

it's not too late to be rescued by God. My message is the same to you today, friend.

I don't know your story, but I can tell you this. I know his story and his story is that he wants to

save you. My question is, do you see yourself as the little girl who needs to reach out and

receive the Savior? Or you still think I've got this thing? I pray you'd be saved. Because if you are,

what'll happen is the death of Jesus Christ will pay for your sin bill. That's what the Bible says.

He'll transplant out of your heart a new heart, a heart that desires to do the right things,

not the wrong things. And he'll rescue you in this life and in the next.