I Can’t Lose!!

Really feel like you can connect to our church. A second reminder, if you haven't yet, they're going to toss that Q&A, like QR code. Yeah, QR code on the screen. And I want to encourage you: you can ask a dumb question, a funny question, a super thought-provoking question, a lightly inappropriate qu—not too heavy, you know what I'm saying? You can, I mean, she's not going to read it if you ask me a completely inappropriate—you can ask anything.

That's the name of our "Ask Anything." I think, sometimes we just fail to receive from the Lord because the Bible says you do not have because you do not ask. So I want to encourage you: ask. You won't get answers unless you ask. For those of you who have your Bibles, or a phone, which can have a Bible on it if you download it, we're going to be in Ephesians chapter 2 today. I will read that in a moment.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

I'm going to open up my handy dandy MacBook. For those of you window users, Windows users out there, it's. And, I want to give you the question that we got variations of over the last couple of weeks when people were asking. And I've been in ministry over 15 years at this point, and I have seen people ask this question. I've seen people live—because they don't know the answer to this question—live at a level beneath the calling God would have them because they don't know the answer to this question, or because they've gone in like a kind of a detour in their walk with God.

And here's the question: can I lose my salvation? How many of you, if you're willing to be honest in this place, how many of you have ever questioned the validity of your salvation or what it takes to be saved? Come on, guy. Come on. I'm going to give you another chance.

If you've never asked that question, we got a real sermon to preach to you today. Anyone ever thought about that? All right, good. I hope you've thought about salvation before. They're fixing my microphone.

They did it well last time. They're going to do it again this time. Before we dive into this, we've got to kind of define what salvation is. And I've given you my definition—I'm going to give it to you in a second. But there are various definitions you might see from scholars or theologians or pastors that you've heard over the years.

This is my definition. I think it's an accurate definition, rooted in the various texts of the Bible that communicate to us about salvation. I think it's the correct definition, but again, it is my words. You may have heard it differently, but I want you to listen to it, and I'm excited about it. Salvation is the—y'all say it with me—is the free gift!

Is it behind me? Cool. Free gift of forgiveness, new life, and eternity with God, that is received by confessing Jesus as Lord, and believing in your heart that he rose from the dead. I'm going to say it again, just so we can let it marinate for a moment: salvation is the free gift of forgiveness, new life, and eternity with God, that is received by confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believing in your heart that he rose from the grave. Now, before I read this passage to you, I want to kind of introduce the importance of this topic about salvation, because we should be walking around confident.

The Bible encourages us—sometimes my words slip, you know—the Bible encourages us to approach God's throne boldly. It encourages us to proclaim his truth boldly. But many of us don't live emboldened in our faith. And I think a lot of it has to do with your posture or understanding of your own salvation. I've been watching a lot of basketball lately.

Any NBA watchers? Someone over there. That's not cool. Probably the drummer. It's probably the drummer, or Cody—one of the two.

Was it Cody? Okay, it wasn't Cody. Hey, okay, was it Carz? It was! Good job, Carz.

That's the loudest stuff I've heard you talk. I've been watching basketball lately, and, I watch basketball differently than some of you, because I don't want to pay for all the access, or even turn on my TV. I just watch basketball through TikTok, which means I don't see like full games—I just see clips, and then I get to see the conferences that come after the games, which is always super fun. And I've been seeing a lot of Anthony Edwards lately. And I think sometimes in our faith we got to have this—let me give you my sermon title real quick—it's "I Can't Lose." You get what I'm saying with Anthony Edwards, right?

Anthony Edwards, he walks around with kind of this swagger, this confidence, like, "I can't lose. I can't lose. I'm so good." Shannon Sharpe saying, "We gonna lose in five." Whatever, man, we're going to win. He's got this attitude, and I liked watching it. All these clips, I learned about Anthony Edwards, how confident he is in his own ability.

Someone was interviewing him, and they said, "What other sports could you do?" He said, "Man, any sport. Give it to me, I'll do it, I'll perform." And they said, "What about ice skating?" He's like, "Yeah, I'll do it." Soccer? "Give me a ball, I'll do it." Baseball? "I got you. Any sport." You can go look up the interview if you want to—it was just confidence.

And I'm not saying we all got to be exactly like that in the way that we appropriate our confidence, but there's something to it, because we're walking around a little timid. But the Holy Spirit of God within us—Paul says, in his letter to Timothy, he says, power, love, and self-control come from the Spirit of God, not fear and timidity, right? What—how does the Scripture go? Because I totally miscued it—he's not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. Thank you, sweetie.

I just got to give—I—God, God bless me with you. So beautiful over there, a little green shirt, just trying to earn points today. But we walk around timidly, whereas this guy's like, "Man, I'm a win, I'm a win, I'm a win." And I feel like we should shift a little bit. And this is rooted in our understanding of our own salvation, because if you know that you're covered—like, if you know that Christ is in you and that he's called you, if you know that you're saved and you're not fearful of losing it—you're going to walk around like. I think we need the spirit of Anthony Edwards in here a little bit.

Let's get rid of some of the bad areas of it, but like, "Man, I can't lose." Picture Christians walking around with that level of confidence. They'd be trying to do impossible things. Oh, wait—because they're relying on God in them to do something. It said nothing is impossible with God. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

If we're walking around with a clear understanding of our salvation, a confidence that we can approach God's throne boldly, we're going to ask him for things, and we are going to do things in his name that we never thought we could have done. We got to have a little bit of swagger when we're trying to keep in step with God's Spirit. But I'll give you the Scripture—I just wanted to give you that. You know, it's funny, because I connected with Anthony Edwards because they asked him what his favorite movie was, and he said Matilda. Anyone grow up on Matilda?

Matilda, Mrs. Doubtfire, Boyz n the Hood—no, I'm just kidding, I wasn't allowed to watch that. I just couldn't think of a third one in the first service either. Just naming something today. Ephesians chapter 2, we're going to begin in verse one.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And I'm going to have you do something different, cuz you look a little tired—actually, I can't even see what you look like because of the lights—but I'm going to have you stand for the reading of God's Word today. Is that cool? That's just a couple of y'all cool with it, mostly in the back cuz you can't see. I got you. "As for you"—he's talking to you all, as he's talking to the Ephesian church, he's talking to Jewish believers in Jesus and Gentiles—"As for you, you were"—say it with me—"dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are presently disobedient.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature"—this is our default position—"deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions—it is by grace you've been saved."

It's by grace you've been saved. "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is"—y'all have heard this—"by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared beforehand, or in advance, for us to do."

And I want to ask you—I want to ask you a question. You can sit down. It's the first wedding I ever performed—I'm going to let you sit today—God, the first wedding I ever performed, like, I forgot to seat them. Luckily, it was only 12 minutes. Huh?

Oh, Anna, it was your wedding—our new keys player—yeah, ruined your wedding. Sorry, guys, just kidding. They needed the exercise, all of them. I got to ask you a question. When it comes to salvation, I know we've been told that we need to turn in repentance to God, and that's 100% true, right?

Like, you have to repent and turn toward God, you have to receive the free gift of grace. But when you look at this passage that we just read, the way that Paul articulates the Gospel—and you see this in Ephesians, Philippians, Galatians, Romans—Paul says in Romans that there's not one good. Paul has this presupposition, this understanding of the world, of our default position. It says that we were alive—no, it says that we were dead in our transgressions. So let me ask you this question, this question: who did the work of salvation?

Was it you? Who was it? Y'all scared? Jesus. God.

Okay, yeah, yeah. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Trinity. It was God. It was God who did the work. Yet, when we walk around timid and fearful, thinking we can lose our salvation, or thinking we have to obtain it by our own good works, I would be—guys, I would be stressed out—because if there's one thing that I know about dead people, they don't work.

I mean, am I wrong? They don't work. You have to talk about good works, they couldn't even try to do a bad work. They can't turn over a new leaf, they can't even turn over. Like, they can't do nothing.

And Paul says that our default position in our spirituality was that we were dead in our transgressions, handed over to the lust and the desires of our flesh. We were incapable of coming to God. But what does he say that God did? He says we were dead, but he says God made us alive. God raised us up.

God has seated us in the heavenly places. It says later in the passage, "We are God's handiwork, created for good works, which he prepared beforehand, that we would walk in." Who did the work? God. It was God. So when you ask the question, "Can I lose my salvation?" When you ask the question, "Can I obtain my own salvation?" When I ask the question, "What do I need to do to stay saved, or to stay in God's good graces?" You need to fundamentally ask that question: well, who did it in the first place?

It wasn't you to begin with. You know what you did? Nothing good. You were dead in your transgressions. So, with regard to your righteousness, you couldn't do anything.

Paul makes that so clear—you couldn't do anything. So fundamentally, we have to ask this question: who did the work? Philippians chapter 2, Paul gives us a good model with which to live in. He says this in Philippians 2:12-13. He says, "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence"—hear this—"continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."

Philippians 2 · chapter mention Philippians 2:12–13

He says, "Work out your salvation, for it's God who works in you." So here's a point for you all to live in—it'll be on the screen behind me: God wor His good purposes.

His good purposes. Everything that God intended to do, He did. He didn't require you to do it. Now, you must receive that free gift of grace. But we get it all wrong when we say, "I've got to keep doing this." I know there's some denominations out there, and we're talking within evangelical Christian circles.

There's some people out there who say, "Yep, if you screw up, you need to make sure to ask for forgiveness that day because you never know when the Lord's going to take you." Guys, I'd be stressed. I can't ask forgiveness quickly enough for half the stuff I'm thinking or doing. I mean, and I'm not even as bad as some of you. You know what I'm saying? I can't keep up with all the bad that I do.

If I had to ask forgiveness for every bit of it, otherwise when I die, I go to hell, that would be—oh my gosh, it'd be problematic. In fact, I don't think any of us would get to heaven, because ain't none of you that good. Paul again: there's not one good but God. He did the work. You work it out.

And by "work it out, " it's not like, "Okay, cool, I'm going to make it effective." No, it was effective when Jesus died on the cross, offered you forgiveness of sins, and you said, "Sure, I'll take it." That's all it took. You are a ready and willing recipient of the free gift of God. You did nothing. So what is your job? Paul says you don't have to do anything for salvation, but from salvation, you got to work it out a little bit.

You should walk around with fear and trembling because your gut, your default position, tells you need to work good things. But you can't work good things. Only God can work good things. So what do you do? You stand there as a willing and able recipient of the free grace of God.

And when He does something in you and through you, even when you screw up, He's still there providing for you. You're like, "I don't know how this is supposed to work." Just—it's stressful. And it's stressful to not know what I can do in order to obtain salvation. It's stressful to not know how I can redeem myself from that thing I still feel guilty about. It's stressful to think about all the wrong that I've done.

It is completely debilitating sometimes to think about my own depravity. It's like, "But, but, but, God still saved me and forgave me and is working in me." And my job is to look at that reality, trust it, and say, "Okay, I'm going to ignore what Satan says about how terrible of a person I am, and I'm going to listen to the fact that—because Christ is in me, I am a new creation. The old is passing away. I'm being made new. I'm being transformed from the inside out.

I am no longer going to be conformed to the image of this world, but I'm being transformed into His image, the imago, the image of God, developing." He's doing it. The word I use a lot is "poa"—I am His workmanship. I'm just something He's molding and making into the thing that He ultimately wanted me to be in the first place, but it was marred and deconstructed because of sin. And now I look at His work, and the rest of my life I work it out and celebrate it. And you might hear people go around with that level of confidence, and you're frustrated at those types of people.

It's the Anthony Edwards of our faith, you know what I'm saying? Those people who are super cocky about how they're doing it. I'm not trying to be hard on Anthony Edwards—just go watch a couple clips and you'll see what I'm talking about. But they walk around, and they're doing one thing bad on the weekend, and then they're like, "Oh, Jesus." Sorry, that's me—I'm from Arkansas. I remember going canoeing one time, and this girl sitting there on the side of the river, she's drinking a bunch of PBR, and it's just not looking good for her.

And she's like, "Do y'all know Jesus?" And I'm looking at her like, "That girl really believes 'once saved, always saved' cuz she doesn't care what she's doing." And you've seen enough Christians like that that you want to be like, "No, they don't. They're not getting it." That's true. But if they have done what the Bible prescribes—confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe truly in their heart that God raised Him from the dead—the Bible says that since they called on the name of the Lord, they are saved, and they are healed, and they are covered by the blood of Jesus. I bet there was a bunch of confident Anthony Edwards-type people in ancient Judaism when the Spirit of God went through the land of Egypt. But since they had blood on the door, they were covered.

They were good. They were probably cussing up a storm, drinking way too much, and doing all that bad stuff. But since they had blood on their door, they were covered. And we, in the same way, regardless of the wrong or the right we've done, are covered by the blood of the Lamb. I will tell you, it is—once you are truly saved, it can't go away.

Now, don't forget what Paul says. He says, "Shall I continue to sin so that the grace of God may abound?" Because the more that I sin, the more it shows God's grace over me, because when I sin, it increases His grace, because He's got to cover that, and that, and that. Paul gives a real big cuss word in the Greek—he says, "Me genoito. Don't continue to sin. Continue to follow God and work out your salvation with fear and trembling."

And there are those who would give you passage after passage after passage about how you can lose your salvation, or how your salvation is only secure if you keep operating at, you know, top-tier status, right?

It's like a credit card, or one of them point systems. People think they're operating on a point system. And it really frustrates me, cuz I can never get A-list status on Southwest Airlines. I did it, and then the year's up—now I got to start all over. That's how we're operating in our relationship with God.

But that's not how He works. Like, your debt is paid in full. You gain status as sons and daughters. We are adopted into His family, and now we have a calling based on our inheritance. And so we can operate fully as sons and daughters of God without fear.

But there is Hebrews 6 that people always want to bring up. Here's what it says, starting in verse four. He said, "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, and who, once having fallen away—it's impossible for them to be brought back to repentance."

Now, that seems like a smoking gun, doesn't it? The smoking gun that says, "See, it's impossible for someone to come back to repentance once they've tasted and seen that the Lord is good." So someone who's forgotten, or who's become an apostate, who's fallen away from the faith—see, it's impossible to renew them again to repentance. And I wish I had time to fully articulate that passage, and Hebrews 2, which sounds like it, and another one in Hebrews that sounds like it, and another one in Second Peter that sounds like it.

I wish I could articulate all of the arguments I have against this theology that says you can lose what God did in you. But you didn't do anything to earn it, so I don't believe you can do anything to lose it. And I wish I had time to tell you about the story of Abraham, but I'm not going to belabor that point. Some of y'all already know that story, that God met Abraham, and it says his faith was credited to him as righteousness. God made a promise.

Did God relent on that promise? The answer is no, by the way, just in case you didn't know—God did not relent on that promise. Did Abraham do everything perfect? Someone who knows, say it—yes or no? He did not.

That dude was screwed up. That dude would not wait on the promises of God for anybody. Now, I don't blame them, cuz I'm the same way in a bunch of lesser categories. But I'm not getting with a Hagar—Hannah, don't worry, don't stress, I already got kids, and the two of them are lovely but also annoying, so I'm not having any more, right? Like, the promises of God were fulfilled.

And you can take all the story of the Old Testament and see how God continued, even in the midst of their hostility and lack of faithfulness, God continued to fulfill His promises. The book of Hosea, which is a prophecy, gives us a story where a man gets into a relationship with a woman named Gomer, and she constantly is unfaithful. Yet God told him to stay with her, no matter how unfaithful she was. And that was supposed to represent His love for each one of us. You have to receive His love, but you don't have to do anything to merit His love.

And in Hebrews 6 specifically, Abraham is weaved all the way through the book of Hebrews. I could tell you about the new and greater and perfect high priest called Melchizedek, but you'd all be confused by the end of it. What I need you to know, if you're willing to trust me, is that even these passages that seem like a smoking gun to someone who wants you to live in a guilt-, shame-ridden life where you never feel truly saved or accepted by the love of God—I want you to know, like, even those passages do not communicate that you can lose what God did in you when you have truly received it. I could tell you, when you look at all of these different passages, the biblical author is talking to different generations of Christians who are struggling to persevere in their faith, who are questioning the importance or the validity of living holy now that the disciples and Jesus have all died. Like, there is a context, both historically and literally, there that makes it important.

We have to understand those things when we're talking about this. But I can tell you this: there ain't no Hebrew or Jew in the ancient world who looks at the promises of God and then looks at God and says that He did not fulfill His promises. There is not a Hebrew in sight who looks at God and thinks he can lose his status in a relationship with God. But I'm already belaboring that point. I need you to know that what God did in you—"there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The law of the Spirit has set us free from the law of sin and death." Later in that same passage, and I've quoted this before, he says, "Neither height, depth, kings, dominions, principalities, rulers, authorities—nothing can separate you from the love of God that we have in Christ Jesus."

But we still operate with a particular perspective. And I just want to—can I give you an illustration? I don't always do object illustrations, but when I do, they're fun. So, what is this? Someone tell me out loud.

Umbrella. It's an umbrella. You can stand. Don't—I heard. Wow, not cool.

Spirit of Rihanna came over me. It's my flesh, I can't help it. This is how we operate with God. We get super excited about His love for each one of—I can see you now, this is great. We get super excited about His love for us.

We recognize that because He died on the cross, He offers us forgiveness of sins, and that forgiveness covers us, and we know that it covers us. We believe that it covers us. Even if you think you can lose your salvation, you still recognize that it covers us. The way that you operate, though, it's full of guilt. It's like, when I screw up, I think this happens.

Like, picture the reign—the rain—of God, you know, this rain, yeah. Jonathan Edwards actually uses an illustration that's really helpful. He writes a pastoral-type sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." And you think it's angry stuff—it's not. But what it says is that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. And in the end, at the day of judgment, all people will be judged based on their own works.

And since all of our works are trash, then the wrath of God is applied to every single one of us. But because of Jesus's death on the cross, we are offered forgiveness of sins. It says He is like a dam who is holding back the lake, or I don't know, the flooding that is going to ensue—the wrath of God in our lives—that Jesus is there providing us covering, protection from God's wrath. So think of this umbrella like Jesus covering us with His blood, His protection from God's wrath. And when we do something wrong, we think that now we're out of it.

This is—that's what it's like. It's like, cuz if you think you're the one that's holding the covering, then every time you screw up, every time you say that bad word, every time you're disrespectful to your parents, every time you're super rude or harsh with your spouse because of the way that your parents treated you—and you haven't quite realized it yet, that that's something from your family of origin that you still do, and you just need that self-awareness, right Screwed up. And what happens when we're doing this, when we're living life like this, we just feel guilty all the time. I've run into people who will tell me, "I know y'all just judging the way I'm standing right here with this umbrella. I just feel protected.

I don't need no SPF, nothing right here." With this, like Brian Johnson. You know Brian Johnson? He's that guy who's like super old but looks super young. This is how he walks around in the sunlight. It's crazy.

He's like a vampire. Anyways, I'm moving forward. That, like, when we operate this way, we just feel stressed all the time. People would come up to me and they say, "Hey, how can I know that I'm saved?" I'm like, "Well, you know, God tells you through Paul to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God who works in you. I can't tell you that you're saved, but I can tell you that this is what the Bible says about you being saved." "But I'm stressed.

I want to know. I want to know that I'm saved." Or they'll say something like, "Man, I really screwed up this week. I need to confess." And there's nothing inherently wrong with confession. But if you think you need to confess before you go to sleep just in case you die in your sleep so that you don't go to hell or to purgatory, you're missing the boat. But that's the life right here, when I think I'm holding the umbrella.

But here's the beautiful thing. Jesus said to his disciples before he left to sit at the right hand of his father, he said, "I'm going to send you a helper." The helper is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to us when we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, when we believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead. The Spirit of God is there to guide us, to comfort us, to convict us, to help us. So I want to ask for a volunteer.

I'm gonna show you what your life should look like. Can I get a volunteer? No. Y'all scared? Come on up, bro.

You can do it. Oh, no. Yeah, yeah. You know, come on, bro. What's your name?

What's your name? Huh? Julian. Julian, come on up. Julian, you're not holding the umbrella.

I want you to be the Holy Spirit in this illustration, because when we trust in you — you got to hold it higher, though, just because I'm taller — because when the Holy Spirit comes directly in, I mean, it resides in us. The Bible says in Ephesians that we are sealed unto eternity because of what Jesus did on the cross. When we receive it, we get the Holy Spirit. So, I like, when I get saved — I got you, bro, you're the Holy Spirit — and the Holy Spirit sticks with us. It's not like me, where if I screw up, I go like this.

The Holy Spirit sticks with me. And I am prone to wander, bro. You ready? All right. Like, this is what we do.

We get really excited when we trust in Jesus. "I'm never going to forsake you again. I'm never going to screw up. I'm gonna go to church every Sunday. I'm gonna open up my Bible every day of the week.

I'm going to pray to you. I'm going to develop such a prayer life where you might not talk audibly to me, but everybody else thinks you do 'cause I'm that spiritual. I'm going to develop it."

And then Monday shows up. Come on, Holy Spirit. Monday shows up, and it sticks with me.

I'm getting ready to sin. Okay, all right, come on. Yeah, he's sticking with me. I'm gonna mess up. I looked at that thing on my computer and I shouldn't have looked at that thing — I'm not talking about me, I'm just saying hypothetically.

I said that thing that I shouldn't have said to my kid, and it was rooted in how my parents treated me, and I didn't realize it, and then I said it. So I screwed up again. I didn't read the Bible today. And it's not that I didn't read the Bible, I didn't rely on Jesus today. So I'm over here, and now I'm struggling in depression.

I'm not relying on God, I'm relying on the substances that my doctor gave me. And there's nothing inherently wrong with that. But when I don't put God in my midst, I'm just — okay, can you keep up? Can you keep up? Yeah.

Whoa, whoa, I got him, I got him, I got him, bro. You good? I should've had an adult do it. You good, bro? I mean, we don't be tripping up the Holy Spirit over here.

Y'all give him a hand. Come on, here's my point. You don't think Jesus chased you down? You don't think he loved you enough to kick down doors? You don't think that Jesus did something very painful in order to bring you into relationship with him?

He hung on a cross for you. Amen. That's right. He died for you. He ascends to the right hand of the Father so he can intercede on our behalf, whisper in his ear, and say, "I still love him.

I've kept all of them. There's not been one" — John 17 — "lost." That's right. Then he sent his Holy Spirit. He said, "It's better that I leave, because you need this type of covering — a covering that will never leave you nor forsake you, a covering that will convict you of your sin, a covering that will draw you into a deeper connection with your Savior." That's what you need. And everyone who has confessed with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, believed in their heart that God raised him from the dead, has this covering.

No, it's not AT&T-type coverage — it's way better than that. I had to do the joke. It's T-Mobile level, you know what I'm saying? Why did I ruin this great point? My point is this: this is not you fearing and trembling, like, "Oh, if it falls, I'm in trouble." No, this is you — hold it again.

Like, how does this work? I don't know. But at least — but at least — he's covered me by his blood. And there's somebody in here — you can go sit down, y'all give him a hand one more time — there is somebody in here who, you know, you need to be covered by the blood of the Lamb. You don't have to do anything to inherit it, to obtain it, to gain it.

There's no merit that you could have that would get you there. But what you do have to do is receive it. So, if there's anyone in here who'd be willing, for the first time, to open their hands and receive the free gift of grace that comes from Jesus dying on the cross, to receive forgiveness of sins, to receive the impartation of the Holy Spirit that will seal you into eternity — all you have to do is confess and believe, because it's free. So, if everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes, I want to give that person — you came in here today and you don't have the blood on your door, you don't have the covering from Jesus, but you can receive it quickly. What we do here is we pray that prayer to God, that confession out loud, for the benefit of you who are doing it for the first time.

So, if you would pray that prayer, repeat after me: "God, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe he died on the cross. I believe he died on the cross and rose from the grave. Father, forgive me of my sin. Give me your Spirit.

Give me your Spirit. Cover me. Cover me. And I will follow you. I will follow you for the rest of my life.

For the rest of my life. We pray these things in Jesus's name."

And all God's people said, "Amen." And come on, let's celebrate.