Questions About Death || Pastor Gerald Brooks

Welcome to the Lesse podcast. Here at LESSE, we seek the loss,

teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by

this week's message. Well, you know what it is, really our treat

Twice a year. We have Pastor Gerald with us all the way from Plano,

Texas, who's an amazing husband of forty four years or something forty five

now, and he's a father and a grandfather. And I saw your Christmas

card that you sent, and it's much like my Christmas card. It looks

like the United Nations because it's just beautiful. It's just a beautiful picture of

what Heaven looks like in the Kingdom of God. And I'm just so grateful

to call him our friend. Tomorrow, thank you, Abundant. We'll be

hosting some pastors from the area that will come here. These chairs will be

taken out and tables will be here, and they'll learn how to be a

better leader and how to serve people with new methods and new techniques to consider.

So thank you for allowing our church to do that. That's one of

the reasons why Pastor Adam came up this brilliant idea to allow stationary chairs,

I mean nonstationary chairs, mobile chairs to be here so that we could host

bigger conferences around here. So that's what will happen tomorrow, and Passagerald will

be the principal speaker, and we are just honored that he is here.

And then in the fall he's a board member and so we get him back

twice a year. I met Pastor Gerald about twenty five years or so.

And many people are a byproduct of their environment. Many people are about of

their associations and their experiences, and you can either reduplicate that and sometimes the

bad takes place, sometimes him good, or sometimes you could just say I'm

searching for more and I want to break the mold of someone that thinks differently.

So that's what I began to do. I began to look beyond the

people that I grew up with in my faith, the conferences that I used

to go to, the books that I used to read, because I felt

like there was a baby in me called Abundant Living Family Church with all the

vision that we had, and we stumbled upon Pastor Gerald and it clicked.

That sort of speak, he'll say something funny probably about it. He would

help me to deliver this baby that was within me that God was birthing in

the vision. But the thing that struck me so amazing was a lot of

preachers are gifted with the intellect, but they lacked the spirit side of the

heart. It's a lot ahead. Then you have people that are very spirit

lead and heart, but they're not intellectually in any form or fashion. He

brought the combination of that, and that's when I knew he could challenge me

intellectually with strategies, ideas, and methods, but he also will depend on

the Holy Spirit and realize it's all byproduct of prayer and depending on God.

And that's what touched my life and his latest book. I'll talk more about

it at the end. To remind you that there's just a limited companies copies

available, but it's called Tough Stuff. And all of us are going through

some tough times in our marriages and our homes and our finances in relationships.

And he's writing a great book in the first chapters tough Prayers, and I

heard him do that sermon, and I wouldn't be surprised if I pull a

little something out of that gerald and used it. So hopefully you won't preach

on tough prayers, or they'll think, or they'll know where my source is.

Today, let's give a hand as Pastor Gerald Brooks comes and ministers.

Thanks Diego. It's always an honor to be here. And a part of

it is that I get to see the whole width of the ministry. And

I don't just see what happens in a service, but I get to see

behind the scenes. And many times, when you've done ministry as long as

I have, which I've done it for forty five years, what you see

in public isn't reflective of what you see behind. But one of the things

that I've always loved about Diego, Adam and Nathan is that what they do

in public is exactly what they do behind. It is pure from the inside

out. They are tenacious and their love for God, and they're tenacious and

wanting to reach people for God. And they're tenacious and their love for the

people that they pastor. And so I just want to tell your family,

all three of you, just how blessed I am and honored I am to

be here. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray that you

would help us. Right now, there's limitations that I possess. I don't

know people in this room, but you know them. I don't know anything

about the people in this room, but you know everything about them. Father,

My words are limited to just what I can articulate, but your words

are powerful, and they bring about something that you can illuminate. And so

Lord, in the name of Jesus, take us on a journey this evening.

Help us to see, help us to grow, help us to respond

to you and ways like never before, in the mighty and precious name of

Jesus. And we all agree together saying thank you so much. I want

to talk to you this evening about questions about death, Questions about death.

You know, the Bible is very clear about our journey here on this thing

we call planet Earth. It begins the day we're born and it ends the

day that we die. That is the journey that we have on this planet,

the day we're born and the day that we die. Now, you

have to understand, all I've ever done is pastor. And when you pastor,

you're with people on their best day and you're with people on their worst

day. I've literally held the hands of seventeen people when they took their last

breath on this planet and went to Heaven. So I'm used to being in

a room where people have had that last moment of life, where their life

began to leave them. Now, what I can tell you is, in

all seventeen cases, those individuals knew Jesus and I was confident that they were

going to heaven. But I can also tell you this, when you walk

out of the room after someone's died, there's always questions. There's always questions

that family members have, there's always questions that people close to them have,

There's always questions about death. But here's what I can tell you. Wherever

our greatest questions are needs to be where our greatest faith is. Soever we

have our greatest questions, that needs to be where our greatest faith is.

And that's what the Bible admonishes us in Second Corinthians, chapter five and verse

seven and eight. It says we walk by faith and not by sight.

Now when you read that verse, that versus telling you with great clarity,

you walk by faith and not by sight. Because here's what sight tells you.

If you're holding the hand of someone when they die, your site tells

you it's over. Your site tells you it's finished. Your site tells you

it's done. Your site tells you there's nothing more. There's nothing more that's

going on. There's nothing more that's happening. There's nothing more. That's what

sight tells you. If you've been in that room, you've held their hand,

the last thing that you see is your sight tells you it's all over.

It's done, it's finished. There's nothing else. But the Bible says

that we do not walk by sight, but by faith, because the next

verse says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

My sight says it's over, my faith says there's more. My sight

says it's done, But my faith says God's not done. My sight says

there is no more, But God says that there's a lot more. So

I walk by sight. It's not talking about my bills. It's talking about

death. It's not talking about my health. It's talking about death. It's

saying, when you've seen death, everything your eyes tell you is it's over,

But your faith says there's more. So the Bible spends a lot of

time helping us to understand our faith. In fact, an Ecclesiasties chapter three

in verse eleven, it says that God has put eternity in our heart.

God has put eternity and our heart. It says that when he creates any

person, the person who believes, the person who doesn't believe, the person

who's close to him, the person who doesn't want anything to do with him.

God says, I put eternity in your heart. There's something inside you

that says that your life is bigger than this life. Your life is greater

than this life, and there's more to life than this life. He says,

I put it in. He says, I've hidden in you the very

aspects of eternity, that when you walk through life, there's something that's drawing

you and saying that life is bigger than this. And we know how God

did it. He did it by how he creates people. In First Thessalonians,

chapter five, in verse twenty three, it says, in may the

very God of Peace sanctify you holy completely, spirit, soul and body.

What we know is that you're the most unique part of creation. See when

I go home on Friday, I'm gonna go in my backyard and they are

going to be three wonderful English pointers that are gonna want to see me.

They don't care about how my day when they're gonna be happy, they don't

care how hard it's been. They're gonna be happy. They're gonna want to

spend time with me. They're gonna want to be And as much as I

love them, they are not like you and me. See, they only

have a soul and a body. That soul that looks wonderfully at you and

says, hey, man, I'm glad that you're here. But you're unique

because you have a spirit. And in John chapter four were in verse twenty

four. The reason that's unique is that Jesus said that God is spirit.

The part of you that has eternity is the spirit inside of you. That

spirit inside of you says that life is bigger than this life. Life is

greater, that you were made for something bigger. You were made for a

divine connection. You're the only ones that can connect from the inside to God.

And that God said, hey, I've created you spirit, soul,

and body. And what you have to know is this. Your spirit and

your soul are not disposable. They're not disposable. I can hold this bottle

up, I can drink all the water. And then when it's done.

You know what, I'm not keeping it around. I'm gonna put it in

some kind of trash. Ben, I'm gonna put it away. Why because

this that was made to be disposed of. But you were not disposable.

God created you for eternity. He gave you a divine connection, which is

your spirit. You're the only people that can know Him in a personal and

intimate way. He created you like that, and he says, your spirit

and your soul, they're not disposable. But with that comes a responsibility,

and that responsibility is spoken of in Deuteronomy, chapter thirty and verse nineteen.

God looks in through Moses is he's looking down. He says, I've called

you to record this day. He says, we're gonna write this down right

now, all of humanity. I'm writing this down. I'm calling you to

record this day. I've set before you life and death, blessing and cursing.

Therefore you choose see God rode eternity in your heart. When he wrote

eternity and your heart, he said, you're not disposable. There's something about

you that's bigger than this life. Sight says that when you die, it's

done. But God says, I made you unique, and when you die,

there's more, but you get to choose what's more, because I've made

you a spirit, soul, and body. Your body is disposable, but

your spirit and soul are not. But I've given you a choice. He

says, all of heaven, all of earth one day will stand up there.

And when you say I didn't know, I couldn't believe I didn't understand,

all of creation is going to say you had more than we ever had.

We set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. See,

you have to understand death is not permanent. In fact, the writer of

Romans, Paul he said in Romans chapter eight and verse thirty seven, he

says, in nay and all these things, we are more than conquerors.

Now usually we talk about that verse, And when we talk about that verse,

we say, hey, we're more than conquerors over our debt. We're

more than conquerors over sickness and disease. We're more than conquerors over this.

People ron shall get their hankies out, throw them up. It's great,

man, I love those services. But if you are in the context,

what he does is he gives you four extremes. He then describes what you're

more than conquerors over and the first one he says, nay, and all

these things, you are more than conquerors over death and life. The first

thing that he said was that you're more than conquerors over death and life.

But what I want you to get is this. No one in this room

would ever write the verse like that. None of us would ever write it,

because here's how we would write it. We're more than conquerors in life

and death. God begins with the word death. Why because he wanted Christians

to know that there is life after death. He says, you're more than

conquerors and death and life. Now, this is something that the Bible is

so pronounced on that our Lord and Savior put down one of the most dramatic

stories about exactly this, About the eternal nature, about the fact that God's

written eternity in our hearts, the fact that we are a spirit and a

soul that's not disposable, the fact that God said heaven and earth to record,

and that everyone has a choice. You can choose life, death,

blessing and cursing. Everyone has that choice, and that death isn't permanent because

in Luke chapter sixteen, our Lord and Savior says this, And there was

a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared

well every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazaruth, full of

sores, who was laid at the gate, desiring to be fed with crumbs

which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked

his sores. And so it was that the beggar died and was carried by

the angels to Abraham's bosom. And then it says in the rich man also

died and was buried. In this story, Jesus gives us two men,

two lives, and two decisions. Two men, two lives, and two

decisions. Why because he wanted us to know eternity has been written in our

heart. He wanted us to know that the nature of how God made us,

our spirit and our soul are not disposable. He wanted us to know

that our decisions affect our eternity. And he wanted us to know that in

our lives, death is not permanent. So he gives this. And what

Abraham does is it says in here that Jesus says when the poor man died,

he was carried to Abraham's bosom. Now you've got to understand, Jesus

hadn't gone to the cross yet, there had been no resurrection yet, and

as a result of that, Heaven wasn't accessible. But in the Old Testament

there was sort of a precursor to heaven called Abraham's bosom. It gave them

a glimpse, it gave them a feel, it gave them the idea.

And it says that when the poor man died, he was carried to Abraham's

bosom, but when the rich man died, he was carried off in to

Hell. Now here's the thing. Most people, if we were to ask

them who talked the most about Hell, some of us would think Jeremiah.

Because God said, hey, Jeremiah was given a ministry where he says,

I'm calling you into ministry. You're gonna preach, but no one's ever gonna

listen. Pretty well, every pastor feels that ministry every Sunday, that you're

gonna preach and no one's gonna listen, no one's gonna pay attention, no

one's going to do it. But what God said to Jeremiah, you know

what that's gonna be the entirety of your ministry. No one will ever listen,

but you were gonna be faithful to speak. Well. Of course,

Jeremiah would look out there and say, Man, Hell, this and Hell

that. They're not listening. But do you know what. The person who

spoke more about Hell than any other individual in the Bible was Jesus. Nobody

spoke and used that word as much as our Lord and Savior, no profit

of old, nobody that followed him in the New Testament. Jesus talked about

it. Now, I have to be honest. That bothered me because it

didn't fit with the image I'm used to seeing Jesus hold that little lamb.

I mean, you know the picture I'm talking about, that little lamb.

He's holding that little lamb, He's carrying that little lamb. That's the picture

I wanted Jesus. I want the Jesus that holds the little lamb. I

don't want that Jesus that's talking about Hell. And do you know what I

found out? Christians don't want the Jesus that's talking about Hell. But he

talked about it more than anyone else, and it bothered me. Why is

it that our Lord and Savior talk more about Hell than anyone else. And

then it hit me one day, he wanted you to know what he was

saving you from. He said, if I'm going to the cross, I

want you to know why. If I'm gonna hang on that tree, I

want you to know why. If I'm gonna beat Dad for three days and

three nights, I want you to know why, if the Father God's gonna

turn his back on me, I want you to know why. I want

you to know why darkness filled the earth because I hung on that cross so

that you would have an option other than hell. But seeing Christians still don't

get it because you know, nobody likes the Hell thing. Nobody likes that

particular announcement. But people don't understand what hell is. What hell is is

Jesus giving people exactly what they want. It's giving them. See people on

this church say, well, I don't want you to mention the name of

Jesus. It's not going to be mentioned in Hell. I don't want to

be around anything about Jesus. You want to be around in anything in Hell

about Jesus. It's Jesus giving people exactly what they want, a place without

him, Because here's what Jesus is saying. If you can't handle a little

bit of Jesus down here, why would you want a lot of Jesus up

there. You understand they're gonna say the name of Jesus up there. You

understand that Jesus is the center of everything up there. I mean, if

you're politically correct, Hey, we can't mention Jesus. We can't say anything

about Jesus. He'll give you exactly what you've wanted your entire life. He'll

give you a place that'll be opposite to him. What is he? He's

the light of the world. He'll give you outer darkness. He'll give you

exactly what you want. But here's our problem with Hell. It's Aunt Sally.

Everybody has an Aunt Sally. Well, I understand why some people would

go to Hell. But you know Aunt Sally, she's just a nice person.

I don't get it. Why would Aunt Sally? She's just sweet?

She gives the best birthday gifts? What about Aunt Sally? But here's the

thing about Aunt Sally. When she was born as a young girl, every

year she would hear about Christmas as people would celebrate, as the decorations went

up as the songs began to play, and she would be around all of

this. She would hear all the people begin to utter all of the things,

and she would begin to be around it. And every time she would

be around Christmas and she would hear about it. It was simply this,

God was whispering, Sally, I came for you. I came for you.

But Sally was busy. She's just young. She didn't want to pay

attention. She had things to do. So every time God would whisper when

she would walk by a store and she would see everything. Why do you

think the world works so hard to get us to try not to mention Christmas?

Because it's God whispering to people that he came. It's God whispering and

say I came Emmanuel, God with us. But then as Sally began to

grow, she had friends and it would get around a time that she'd hear

them talk about, called Easter. She'd ask her friends, do you want

to go out and do something this weekend? And they'd say, no,

we can't. She said, well why can't, so, well, we're

going to Easter services. She knew her friends, she knew that they didn't

go to church often, but she knew that there was one time of year

that they would show up, and it was around this time. But in

the midst of that it was not only God whispering at Christmas, I came

for you, but at Easter, God was whispering, I died for you.

So every time she'd hear about the sunrise services, every time she would

hear the echoes of things, it was God's whispering, I not only came

for you, but I died for you. And then as she began to

get older, as all of us do, she had friends that would begin

to pass away, and she would go to their funerals. And when she

went to their funerals, someone would stand up and talk about Jesus and talk

about the resurrection and the life. And so every Christmas God would whisper to

her heart for decades, I came for you. Every Easter God would whisper,

I died for you. And at every funeral, God was whispering,

I have a plan for you. But sweet Aunt Sally was always busy and

just gently in her heart said no. See, every time she would see

a sunrise, new was beautiful. It was a glimpse of heaven because the

Bible says, all creation declares, But every time she saw it, she

said, I'm busy. No. Every time she saw a beautiful sunset,

she said no, even though it was a glimpse of the glory of God,

just a small peak of what heaven would be like. Every time she

saw a mama hold that baby that was so pure, it was a little

bit of the feel of heaven. But all her life, every time God

whispered, she just said no. My spiritual father was born at a time

when medical science couldn't do what it can do today. He was born with

three major heart defects. They were surprised that he survived childbirth, let alone

any years here on the earth. But they knew that he was going to

be limited because they just couldn't do things that we can do today. Because

he was born a while back, and during that time that he was born,

he began to be a kid, and then he began to be a

young adolescent, and then he became a teenager. But by the time he

was seven teen, he was confined to his bed. His heart wasn't strong

enough to allow him to get up. His heart wasn't strong enough for him

to be able to stand. His heart wasn't strong enough for him to be

able to do things that normal kids would do. The doctors all looked at

his family and said that he will pass away. His heart is just growing

weaker, his body cannot sustain it, and he will. Literally. They

would keep a vigil at his bed, where either Grandma Ma or his sister

would sit by the bed. And there was one day when siss was sitting

by his bed that he turned to her because he could feel himself dying,

and he said, go get mama, I'm dying. He said. It

was like his spirit began to leave his body, and it was like his

spirit began to take off a shoe the way someone would take off a shoe,

but he began to slip out. He said. It went from his

head down to his chest, down through his ways, down through his legs,

out through his feet. He said he could look and he could see

his physical body. He said, as he looked and he could see his

physical body, all of a sudden, he felt himself departing this earth.

But as he began to depart this earth, he began to go down.

As he began to go down, he recognized he wasn't going up. He

was going down, so he began to scream, but there was no one

to hear him. And he began to scream, God, God, I

go to church. But he began to descend even more. He said,

God, God, I go to Sunday School. But he began to descend

anymore. Even more, God, God, I've been baptized, and he

began to descend even more. He said he could see the outer gates of

Hell, and he knew that when he crossed them, he wasn't going to

come back. And all of a sudden, he heard a voice, a

voice that he couldn't recognize, and that voice that he couldn't recognize began to

be so powerful that he could feel the gateway of Hell beginning to shake,

And all of a sudden, he said, it was like someone began to

suction. He began to ascend as he had descended, and he ended up

in his room, and he ended up at his feet, and he went

through his feet, up his legs, ab his midsection into his body,

and people said, WHOA, well, why didn't he go? Because there's

another part of the story. When Cis ran out there and said, Mama,

Mama, he's dying mama began to cry out to God on the front

porch. She cried so loud and prayer that cars began to stop three blocks

around. And if I could say anything to Christians, we cannot change someone's

this, but our prayers can give them more time. And who needs more

time because of your prayers? See, Christians are good at saying, hey,

I want so and so going to heaven. But when do you cry

out? But she cried so loudly that everyone began to stop, But again

he came out. He descended this happened three times, but his mama kept

praying. When he finally went back in his body the third time, he

realized church doesn't save you. Going to Sunday school doesn't save you. Being

baptized doesn't save you. Being Christian doesn't save you. And he said,

on that bed he prayed this prayer, He said, God, I'm asking

Jesus to be lord of my life. He said, at that moment he

knew that if he ever died, he wasn't going down there. He was

going up there. See, Jesus was clear he wanted us to understand death.

So one of the things he talks about is he gives us some facts

about death in this story. One of the first things he tells us is

that when a Christian dies, they're not alone, because what it says in

verse twenty two, it says the angels took the beggar and led him.

See if you've ever been in that room where you've held the hand, You've

ever been there when the last breath is given, you've ever been there.

Everything in you is looking and you think this is so lonely. But the

moment that a Christian closes their eyes, they're never alone. If you've ever

wondered what happened to a believing person in your family, they were never alone.

The angels began to carry them. If I can put it to you

this way, here's death for Christian. When you were young, you might

go visit some relatives. When you would go visit the relatives, your parents

would be talking to the adults and then you would be out playing. But

then the parents said, hey, it's time to go. They'd pick you

up and they would put you in the car. But on the travel home

you would fall asleep. Now as you fell asleep and the back seat,

finally you got home, the parents seemed that you were sleep they picked you

up, and they came and they put you in your bad See you fell

asleep in the car, but you woke up in your bed. See.

All that happens to a Christian when they die is they close their eyes here

and they open their eyes there. But let me tell you something. People

always they feel sorry and and and and they feel sad. And that's all

right, because grief is the price of loving somebody. But here's what you

need to know. You need to know that that person the moment they close

their eyes, you may have been feeling sorry for them, but at that

second they were feeling sorry for you. It totally changed because they're opening their

eyes and seeing the glories of our God. Another thing that we learn here

is in verses twenty three and twenty four, you still have bodily form.

There are people who say, well, hey, my body's down here,

or what about up there. It talks about the eyes, It talks about

the tongue, it talks about the fingers. Paul put it this way when

he had died one time in Second Corinthians, chapter twelve, in verses two

and three, he says, I was, you know, absent from the

body. He said, whether I was in my body or out of body,

I don't know, but the things that I saw are unspeakable. See.

The difference between this world is when we wake up, we're just totally

conscious of our body, how we feel, how we look. But in

heaven you're totally conscious of him. And Paul said, I didn't know if

I was in the body or out of the body. So do you have

a form? Yes, Jesus clarify that you're just not obsessed with it like

you are down here. People then turn around and they say, well,

when when I die will well? I know? People, Let me just

help you. If you're a Christian, you don't get dumber. That and

of itself should be a big hope for some of you. You don't get

dumber. Here's the thing about it. The rich man and Hell could recognize

Lasseruth. It's not only could the rich man in Hell recognize Lazaruth, but

he recognized Abraham and he had never met Abraham before. See. I think

part of Heaven that's gonna be fun is when we're all up there, everyone's

gonna walk around and just be surprised by who made it. I think we're

gonna walk around and say man, I didn't think you're gonna be here and

they're gonna look at us. Said, I didn't think you were getting here

either. See, when you go to heaven, you don't know less,

you know more. But seeing the rich man, he asked Abraham, he

said, could you go tell my brothers? Could you go tell him about

this? And see that's what everyone thinks. They think God's not fair because

everyone doesn't know. But Abraham looked at him and he said, if they

wouldn't believe the law and the prophets, the things that God's written and God

said, then they wouldn't believe me if I were to show up. What

Abraham was saying is on this earth is everything that anyone needs to believe.

It's already here. It's already around him. Every Christmas it's there, Every

Easter, it's there, every funeral, it's there. Every sunrise it's there,

every sunset. It's there. But it was interesting what Abraham said to

the rich man. He says, when you were on earth, you had

everything, and the beggar had nothing. But now the beggar has everything and

you have nothing. Please understand something. The books aren't balanced this side of

heaven. So when we look around and we say, well, so and

so didn't get a fair deal. They're not balanced this side of heaven.

This is halftime. It maybe all the time you think you have, but

eternity's been and so in the midst of that, God's saying, hey,

but let me say, is a pastor, if you can only win one

place, don't win down here, win up there. And some of you

are so consumed with winning down here, you've never won up there. God

is an accident in your life because you happen to be dating someone who loves

God. So what you've got to understand is the decisions, the decisions that

you make here have eternal consequences. Here's what I know about everyone in this

room. Everyone in this room. There's a date when you were born,

and if Jesus doesn't come back, there is a date when you will die.

You don't control either one of those. All you control is the dash.

Is that dash significant? Did you live a life that somehow was reflective

of him? You only controlled the dash. The average person in this room

is going to live twenty five thousand, five hundred days. When you woke

up this morning, you ticked off one of them. I remember reading a

story because it was about another Lazareth, not the Lazareth that died here,

but about the Lazareth that was Maria Martha's brother. Jesus was close to Maria

martham was close to this Lazareth, but he was off ministring, and when

he was off ministring, Lazareth the brother died. And when Jesus finally gets

back to where Maria, Martha and Lazareth had lived, the sisters looked at

him and said, if you'd have been here, do you understand we're not

the first group of people to blame God that God wasn't there when we felt

he should have been there. They said, if you'd have been here,

this wouldn't have happened. But in there, it says that Jesus began to

weep, and a lot of people ascribe the weeping to the grief that he

was watching. But Billy Graham, who's one of my idols, he gave

a different perspective. He said, I think the reason Jesus was weeping was

he knew that he was asking him to leave Heaven to come back to Earth.

If you've ever had a loved one who knew Christ and they died,

They don't want to come back here anyway. They'd rather be there in your

life, God's written eternity. Are you reading what God wrote? Father,

in the name of Jesus, I pray right now that you would do what

I can't do. Lord. I can take a thought and I can communicate

it, but you're the only one that can take a thought and create transformation

from it. And Lord, you know this room. You know the people

that are here, and this is just church to them. They're good at

going to church, but they really don't have a relationship ship with you.

You know the people that are here just because their wife made him, or

their mamma wants him to be here, or they're dating someone. You know

them. Father, You're the only one that can take the truth of heaven

and hell and make it real. Tonight, I pray Father that you will

do that. Well. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed, no one

looking around. I want to ask three questions. First question, do you

have a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ see do you have the

promise of heaven? Jesus is your promise of tomorrow? Jesus came down here

so that we could go up there. So what have you done? Have

you ever accepted that promise in your life? Have you ever accepted that relationship

moment in your life? Have you ever believed in him? See? Two

thousand years ago, Jesus chose Today you can choose Jesus. So our heads

are bowed. If you've never made that choice, if you're not sure that

if you were to take your last breath that you would be right with God

and you'd go to heaven, today's the day. Second question, maybe you

are a person of faith, but are you close to him? Are you

close to him? See a lot of people believe in Jesus, but he's

just one of many other things in their lives. But Jesus didn't come into

your life to be a part of it. He came into your life to

be the sinner, the lord of it. And if he's not the sinner

of it, I want to pray for you today. But what I can

tell you is God gave you two promises. One he announced for God so

loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believe in

him should not perish but have everlasting life. But the second one, Jesus

announced he says, there's going to come one talking about the Holy Spirit,

and he's going to come and he's going to be a comforter, a strength

to you. See, Jesus is the promise of our future. The Holy

Spirit is the promise of power and our today. And you need a promise

for the future, and you need the promise of today. So three questions.

One do you have a relationship with Jesus? Two? Are you close

to him? Three? If you can say yes to those first two,

have you ever been filled by the spirit by Him? In any one of

those three areas you want to be a part, I'd like to pray for

you, But if you'd like to be a part of that, I need

you to raise your hand wherever you're at in any one of those three eras.

If you'll raise your hand, I see that hand. I see that

hand. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that

hand. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that

hand. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that

hand. I see that hand. I see that hand There's so many of

you. I want to pray for you, but I want to pray for

you personally. And so if you raise your hand. I'm going to ask

you to stand up and to come down here right now. You don't worry

about anyone else, because one day you're going to stand before Jesus. He's

going to ask you about your faith and your faithfulness. So you come up

here. Mama's not going to be with you, nobody else. You come

up here right now, all of you up here. Jesus loves you so

much. He loves you so much, he really does. We're going to

pray a prayer. And when we pray that prayer, one of three things

is going to happen. If you don't know him, you'll get to know

him. If you know him that you're not close to him, you're going

to be close to him. But if you know him and you're close to

him and you want to be filled with the spirit, you'll be filled with

the spirit by him. But let me speak to those of you that aren't

up here. Nobody paid a cover church to get in. In church,

there are no spectators. Ye either receive in faith or you help someone receive

in faith. And we're going to help all of these. So we're all

going to pray this prayer out loud as they pray it to help them with

their faith. So, everyone in this room, out there and up here,

if you'll lift your hands towards heaven, Heavenly Father, you said in

Romans chapter ten, verses nine and ten that if I believe with my heart

and confess with my mouth that Jesus's Lord, that I would be saved.

Today I'm doing that. I believe with all my heart that you are my

Lord. Therefore I thank you for saving me and changing my life forever in

Jesus naing. And today Lord, I'm asking you to fill me with the

Holy Spirit, and I believe that you're giving me my heavenly prayer language and

Jesus naing. Thank you Lord that today you're filling me with the Holy Spirit

and giving me my heavenly prayer language and Jesus name. We really hope you

enjoyed the message, and if you said yes to Jesus, we just want

to say congratulations and give you a free devotional to help you walk out your

faith. Click the link in the description or head over to Grove dot Faith

to download your devotional. Oh and be sure to subscribe and share this podcast

with your friends. Thanks for listening to a LC podcasts and I hope you

tune in again.