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Ridgecrest Baptist Church is located in Dothan, AL and exists to Reach the lost, Build the believer, and Connect people of God to the mission and purpose of God.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 24.
Luke, chapter 24.
As we celebrate the resurrection, it's already been mentioned, really, every Sunday is a resurrection Sunday for us because Jesus, when He conquered the grave, He didn't conquer it 2,000 years ago.
He conquered it for all eternity to come.
And because the Bible says, because he lives, we live.
I want to talk with you today about Jesus doing exactly what he said he would do.
John Ortberg wrote some years ago about a friend he had who worked in the denomination in the Minnesota area.
And one of his jobs was to travel to these small rural communities where they didn't have churches to do funerals.
And he would go out with an undertaker, and they would drive together in the hearse to wherever the funeral was to be held.
And one time, they were on their way back from a funeral, and Ortberg says his friend, the denominational official, was feeling very tired.
And consequently, he decided he would take a nap.
It was a pretty long drive back, and well, since they were in a hearse...
He thought, well, I'll just lie down in the back of the hearse.
Sounds a little creepy, like a creepy kind of thing to do.
But at any rate, it's a true story.
And he did that.
And at some point in time, he had fallen asleep back in the late, stretched out in the back of the hearse.
And the driver needed to pull over for gas.
And so he pulled the hearse into the...
The gas station, and it was one of those, you know, the ones that many of us grew up with.
You have a service attendant who comes out and pumps the gas.
And so the service station attendant was filling up the tank, and he was already kind of freaked out because he could see that there was a body stretched out in the back.
And as it would be, while he was filling the tank, this man woke up.
He opened his eyes, and then he turns and looks at the attendant and knocks on the window.
John said he'd never seen anybody run so fast in his whole life.
Well, happy Easter.
Today we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, which is a reminder that death is not the enemy.
Jesus woke up and came out of the tomb, and because the Bible says he woke up,
Literally and spiritually we too can.
It's not unusual now in the age in which we live there are a lot of skeptics today especially religious skeptics and in this season it's not unusual to hear people that are arguing that the resurrection and science are incompatible and
So a lot of people don't take them seriously.
I read some statistics this past week about how many actually believe in the resurrection, the resurrection story.
Amazingly, a lot of people believe it is just a myth.
It isn't a myth.
But Dr. Ian Hutchinson, who is a professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT, explains why he and his Christian colleagues at MIT believe in a literal bodily historical resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And he says, first of all, he said, we're just one of a long tradition of great scientists who believed in the literal resurrection of Christ.
And he gives some of those.
For example, Robert Boyle, who was the co-founder of the British Royal Society, an elite scientist and scientific organization.
And he said the resurrection was for them a fact.
He mentions John Clerk Maxwell again.
whose Maxwell equations of 1862 govern all of electromagnetism.
And Maxwell referred to the resurrection as a deep, undergirding belief of his life.
And for William Phillips, a Nobel Prize winner, who in 1997 won the prize for finding traps using lasers that pinpoint atoms.
The resurrection is not discredited by science.
And he goes on, and there's plenty more of these elite scientists historically and currently who say that the resurrection is in fact a valid and important part of who we are.
To explain how a scientist, though Hutchinson himself goes on to say, to explain how a scientist can be a Christian is actually quite simple.
He writes, science cannot and does not disprove the resurrection.
Today, the widespread materialist view that events contrary to the laws of science just can't happen, he says, is simply a philosophical doctrine.
It's not a scientific fact.
And in the case of Jesus' resurrection, we have to consider all the historical evidence, and the historical evidence for the resurrection, he says, is as good as almost any event of all ancient history.
he says the presumption that science has shown the resurrection to be impossible is an intellectual cop-out.
Science, he says, shows no such thing.
And the Word of God tells us about this wonderful story of death's defeat.
It's not a myth.
It's not a fictitious story that we just celebrate each year as a tradition.
It is the truth delivered to us and delivering for us life eternal.
If you're physically able to do so, I invite you to stand with me this morning as we read our scripture.
Welcome to those who are joining us by live stream on radio and television.
And by the way, wherever you are, if you're able to, I'd invite you to put down your Krispy Kreme donut for just a minute and
Take up your copy of God's Word and stand in reverence to the Scriptures.
Jesus says in Luke 24, and this is post-resurrection.
Now, He has appeared to the disciples in verse 44.
Then He said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scripture.
And he said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.
And that repentance for the forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.
Beginning from Jerusalem, you are witnesses of these things.
And behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you.
But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
And he led them out as far as Bethany.
And lifting up his hands, he blessed them.
And while he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up to the heavens.
And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Father, thank you for the enlightenment of the word.
Thank you, Father, on this Resurrection Sunday that we can again be reminded of just how powerful the resurrection is and how it changed all of history.
and forever changes eternity.
Would you speak to our hearts this morning, just like you did to those early disciples?
Would you open our ears and our eyes and our minds that we might receive your truth, and that it might change our lives?
For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Thank you.
You can be seated.
Now, the resurrection surprised the disciples.
It should not have,
if they had really listened to the teachings of Jesus, but they didn't comprehend what Jesus said, but they were indeed surprised.
Jesus had forewarned them in his statements about his death and resurrection.
He had told them that the literal events would happen, and just like he said they would, they did.
They should not have been surprised, but they were.
Now, neither Jesus nor the scriptures taught about the kingdom of God in the way that the disciples had come to believe.
They believed that he was going to set up an earthly kingdom and they wanted to be a part of the leadership of that kingdom.
But this is not at all what Jesus was talking about.
But now the resurrected Jesus standing before them.
It says, opens their eyes.
He enlightens their minds.
And notice, did you notice how Jesus said he did it?
He taught them all the way from Moses and the law and the prophets and the Psalms all the way forward.
Next time you hear somebody say that the Old Testament is just an ancient book that we need to unhitch from, remember that Jesus said it wasn't.
Jesus taught us to say, he said, this story about me was talked about in Moses.
There's a scarlet thread that runs all through the Bible.
And the psalmist prophesied all of these writings of the Old Testament led to this coming of the Messiah, his death, and his resurrection.
And so he enlightened their minds.
And the result was his resurrection revelations
produced a completely different reaction among these disciples.
Let me show you what they are.
Three things I want you to notice this morning.
First of all, I want you to notice the exaltation of the resurrected Messiah.
Leave your Bibles open, if you will, and notice verse 52.
And they worshipped him, it said.
They worshipped him.
Note that their response to the risen Savior was worship.
And here we are, 2,000 years later.
You know what we're doing?
We're doing the same thing that the disciples were doing on that first Easter.
We've gathered in this place.
We're worshipping Jesus.
We're exalting him.
What are we exalting him for?
The same thing they did.
We're exalting him for his victory over the grave.
Easter compels us to worship.
And worship is so essential to our life and to our spiritual well-being.
That's why we gather, and that's why the writer of Hebrews said, let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
That is the habit of some, but it shouldn't be the habit of those who are followers of Christ.
He said, but as frequently as we can, we should gather.
And he says, all the more as you see the age coming to an end.
Erwin Lutzer writes and says, if we haven't learned to be worshipers, it doesn't really matter how well we do anything else.
Worship changes us, or it has not been worship.
To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change.
Now, I know, we all know, worship has many facets to it, but none are more important than glorifying and exalting Jesus.
You know, sometimes we get this thing backwards in worship.
We think worship is about us, but worship's not about us.
It's about him.
It's about honoring him.
It's about exalting him.
It's about glorifying him.
And if we don't get it right, what will happen is we'll sometimes go out disappointed because we'll say something like this, well, I didn't get much out of that service.
Well, the service wasn't about you.
The service is about him.
And so it's important that we understand what worship is all about.
And the resurrection reminds us of several reasons why Jesus is the one who is worthy of our worship and exaltation.
Let me give them to you.
First of all, it reminds us that we exalt and worship Jesus because His Word is true.
The title of this message is, Just Like He Said He Would.
And the fact is, He said He would.
That's His Word.
His Word is true.
The resurrection means His Word is trustworthy.
Jesus did exactly what he said he would do.
They were surprised because they didn't understand what he'd been saying.
But afterwards, he enlightened their minds and they understood, oh, we understand precisely what he was talking about now.
And we have the luxury, here we are 2,000 years later, to look at the scriptures and say, we can understand it.
Jesus did exactly what he said he would do.
We exalt and worship him because his word is true and it is trustworthy.
And listen, if it is true and trustworthy then, it's true and trustworthy now.
And that means whatever Jesus says, you can go to the bank on.
He says what he means.
From beginning to the end, from Genesis to Revelation, the word of God is true.
And the resurrection proves that.
We also exalt and worship him because he lives.
In contrast, and I've said this many times before through the years, we have a God who is alive.
Did you know all the other God figures in all the other religions of the world are still in the grave?
But ours isn't.
He's alive.
He conquered the grave.
None of the others can say, oh, our God.
Buddha's in the grave.
Muhammad's in the grave.
Zoroaster is in the grave.
Joseph Smith is in the grave.
All of these are in the grave, but not Jesus.
He conquered the grave.
We exalt and worship him because he lives and we live.
We live because he lives.
Apart from the death of Christ, death is the victor.
If Christ hadn't have died, death would be the victor.
And we would be the victim.
But because he was raised, death was conquered and life has been offered.
Listen, Jesus said this to the disciples after the resurrection.
He said, in a little while, the world will not see me.
But you will see me because I live.
And because I live, you will also live.
That's the reasons that we worship him.
Listen to this remarkable statement by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.
Paul writes and says, And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you're still in your sins.
Then those also who have fallen asleep, that is, died in Christ, have perished.
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Now, he didn't stop there, thank goodness.
You get what he's saying, don't you?
If Christ isn't raised from the dead, it's all pointless.
But then he adds this.
He goes on in that passage to say, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.
The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For as by man came death, Adam.
By a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
And so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Listen, we worship him because he's alive, we're alive.
The fact of Easter prompts us to exalt the Savior.
The second thing I want you to notice this morning is the celebration of the resurrected message.
Verses 52 and 53, look there.
And they worshiped him, all right?
We just talked about that.
And then look, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Listen, not only did they exalt him because he had done exactly what he said, they continued the celebration.
It says they returned to Jerusalem.
They weren't in Jerusalem.
They were in Bethany.
But they returned now to Jerusalem, and they went there with great joy, with great enthusiasm.
Continually, it says, worshiping in the temple, blessing and praising God.
Why such an ongoing celebration?
It was and is because the message of victory was confirmed.
When they realized that Jesus had, in fact, conquered death, they couldn't help but continue the celebration.
It wasn't like we had this encounter with Christ after the resurrection, and that was good.
It's good to know that he's doing well.
It wasn't like that.
Everything changed because in that moment they recognized this changes all of eternity.
This changes all of life.
This changes me.
And I can't help but celebrate the fact that the one who I had listened to and followed for so long suddenly is alive.
He's not dead as the world thought he was.
The message of the resurrection brings continuous joy to us because it legitimizes our faith.
The resurrection substantiates our faith.
In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 14, Paul writes and says, If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.
Henry Morris writes and says, The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of Christianity.
If the resurrection did not take place, then Christianity is a false religion.
But if it did take place and it did, then Christ is God and the Christian faith is absolute truth.
You see, it legitimizes our faith.
But not only does it legitimize our faith, it confirms our victory over the grave.
The message of the resurrection is it ain't over.
That's the big message.
Have you ever watched a show with a cliffhanger ending?
You ever watch these shows?
You watch a show and all of a sudden you think and then you realize they're not going to be able to wrap this thing up.
which means I'm going to have to watch the next edition or the next episode.
You've seen those.
You know, they don't wrap up the storyline.
And at the end of the program, these words appear, to be continued, right?
Well, that's what the resurrection said.
It said it's not over.
To be continued.
Death screamed, this is the end.
But the resurrection shouted, not so fast.
There's more to come to be continued.
And so the resurrection confirms our victory over the grave, that the grave is not the end.
And then it validates the truth of God's word.
Again, we celebrate and rejoice today like those first disciples did because Jesus did exactly what he said he would do.
Michelangelo on one occasion, the great artist turned to some of his fellow artists in a spirit of indignation and he said to them, why do you keep filling gallery after gallery with endless pictures on the one theme of Christ and weakness?
Christ on the cross.
And most of all, Christ hanging dead, he said.
Why do you concentrate on the passing episode as if it were the last work, as if the curtain dropped on Jesus with disaster and defeat?
That dreadful scene lasted, Michelangelo said, a few hours.
But he goes on to say, but to the unending eternity, Christ is alive.
The stone has been rolled away, and he rules, and he reigns, and he triumphs.
Michelangelo said we ought to decorate more with tombs than crosses and Christ on the cross.
Why?
Because the tomb is empty.
The cross was a momentary time, but the tomb, the results last forever.
You see, the Easter resurrection message is cause for our celebration, continuous celebration, continuous gathering and worshiping him because he lives.
Jesus reigns over life and death.
But there's a final thing I want you to see this morning, and that is I want you to notice in verses 46 and verse 50 the inspiration of the resurrection mission.
Look at verses 48.
He said, you are witnesses of these things.
But really the story is bigger than just that statement.
That's kind of the concluding statement.
Look, and he said to them, verse 46, thus it is written that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.
Starting in Jerusalem and going forward.
And then he reiterates what we see in the book of Acts chapter 1 and verse 8.
He tells them to wait there until they're endowed with power.
He inspires them and his resurrection inspired them.
They were depressed.
They'd gone into hiding.
They were discouraged.
But it was the resurrection of Jesus, the risen Lord, standing before them, commissioning them and saying, it's not over yet.
I'm not done.
You're not finished.
There's more to come.
And it inspired them.
He said, you'll be my witnesses.
The resurrection gave them an inspiration to go and share the good news of forgiveness to all nations and to all people.
And the resurrection continues to inspire.
It inspires us today.
It's why we've gathered in this place and do and love to celebrate the resurrection because the resurrection gives purpose to our mission.
You see, it compels us to share the personal life-changing truth of Christ with everyone we can.
It's our mission.
It's the co-mission.
We don't do it alone.
We go with Jesus.
But it inspires us to be involved in taking this good news into the world today.
We have a remedy now for sin.
We have a remedy for the grave.
That's what we have.
And you know we do.
You know, I, as a pastor, have done a lot of funerals through the years.
I don't know, several hundred.
Forty-five years, I've done several hundred funerals.
People ask me, do you ever kind of get used to that?
The answer is no, I never get used to that.
Never have, never will.
But I'll tell you what I am delighted for, and that is that I can stand before people and say what John Wesley said.
John Wesley said, they may despise the world, they may despise what you and I believe, but they have to admit, we die well.
We die well because death is not the end.
The grave is not the end, and we know that.
as one philosopher said, it's simply like moving from one location to another location.
And so we have this purpose.
This purpose energizes our mission.
Our mission is to let the whole world know that Jesus lives and because He lives, it means that your sins have been dealt with on the cross and that you can have a relationship with the living Lord Jesus, every one of us.
We have this mission though.
Now,
Now, let me give you a little test this morning.
I thought about this at length, a little test to determine if your mission on earth is finished.
I mean, that's the big mission.
We're all to be involved in that.
We're in different ways.
We're to be involved in the big mission.
That's what the resurrection compels us with.
But let me just give you a little test.
Y'all ready to take a little test?
Here's a test to know whether or not your mission is finished.
You ready?
Here it is.
If you are alive, it isn't.
Your mission is not finished.
I hope everybody passed.
There are some of you who may... Some of you look like you passed out.
But listen, if you're alive and you belong to Christ, you still are a part of the mission.
And the resurrection inspires us because we have this hope that we can take to the world.
Back in the fall, I turned 65.
And ever since then, I've been inundated with information that treats me like my life is over.
Some of you know what I'm talking about.
I mean, every day, stuff comes in the mail telling you about what you need to do on your way to the end of your life.
And I just tear this stuff up, but I have to tell you, I mean, it assumes that I'm done.
But I'm not.
I have to resist the urge to do so.
I want to take a Sharpie marker, and I want to write on their information a message that says, I am not finished.
Stop sending me this stuff.
Put it in their envelope.
It's postage paid, and send it back to them.
I'm not finished.
And as long as I'm alive, I'm going to do my best to serve God and serve the great mission that he has given to his people, his followers.
I'm going to serve him.
I'm not done.
And if you're still breathing, again, not sure that that's true of all of you, but if you're still breathing this morning, God is not finished with you.
And you are to be engaged in the resurrection mission.
The resurrection inspires us.
to the purpose of our mission.
The resurrection also gives power for our mission.
It inspires the power we need literally and spiritually.
Jesus told them to remain until they received the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now I want to tell you something about when he appeared to them.
They got excited.
They were filled with joy.
They were celebrating.
They were worshiping, all of that.
They were ready to charge hell with a water pistol.
I mean, that's how excited they are.
But Jesus tells him something.
He says, hey, whoa.
He said, I want you to stay here right now or go to Jerusalem and remain there in Jerusalem until you're endowed with power.
He mentioned in this passage, did you notice where he mentioned the promise of my father?
Look at verse 49.
And behold, I'm sending the promise of my father upon you.
Do you know what the promise of his father was?
It was that I will fill you with the Holy Spirit so you can do the mission that I've given to you.
So we are compelled to the mission because of the resurrection.
But listen, we also have the power to do the job.
You can't do it in your own strength.
That's why he told them, you're all excited, you're ready to go and engage the mission, but I need you to do something.
I need you to wait until the Spirit of God falls on you so that you can do the work.
Because he knew that without the Spirit of God empowering them,
that they'd never be able to do.
But here we sit 2,000 years later because they waited and the Spirit, the promise of God fell upon them.
And because the promise of God and the power of God fell upon them, they were able to fulfill the purpose of God in the world.
And that's true for you and I today.
And we have the same promise of the Father that they had.
Because Christ lives.
We have this mission.
We have this responsibility.
But we also have access to the power.
And the power did come.
If you go over and read the first and second chapter of the book of Acts, you see how the power fell on them while they were waiting in Jerusalem.
And then they went out.
The power comes down and then we go out.
We don't go out and try to find the power.
We get the power to go out.
It's our mission.
It's the great commission.
And it leads to a fitting way, I guess, for me to close today's message.
on this Easter Sunday by asking you, have you ever put your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation?
Have you put your trust in Jesus Christ alone?
You can know the Easter story and not know the primary character of the Easter story.
You can know all about what happened.
You can know all of the facts about who Jesus is and not know Jesus.
The Bible says there's going to come a day when there are a lot of people who are going to stand before him and say, but God, didn't we do this, and didn't we do this, and we did all of this, and we did it in your name, and Jesus will say to them, the scripture says, depart from me, I never knew you.
Yes, you understood the story.
You understood the facts.
You did things in my name, but you didn't know me.
And so I ask you this morning, do you know him?
Not just about him.
Not just some intellectual belief.
Do you know the Bible says that the demons believe?
Did you know that?
The demons believe and tremble.
They know who he is.
They know who Jesus is.
They know all about Jesus.
But friends, you're not going to see any demons in heaven.
Why?
Because they know who Jesus is.
They know about Jesus.
They don't know Jesus.
And so my question is, do you know Jesus?
Not just know about Jesus.
If someone were to say to me, hey, do you know George Washington?
I'd say, well, I know all about George Washington.
I've read a number of books about George Washington.
I think I have a little bit of history in me about George Washington.
But if they said, do you know him personally?
I'd have to say, no, I don't know him personally.
And if I did, you'd probably say, he's been snorting sweet and low or something like that.
The fact is, I don't know him personally.
I know about him personally.
But when it comes to Jesus, you can not only know about him, you ought to know him personally.
And you can.
The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
And as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God.
Have you put your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation?
I've had people say to me, well, I need to do that.
Well, why not?
Why don't you do that?
I've had people say, well, I need to deal with some things in my life.
Listen to me.
You can't clean yourself up to come to Jesus.
I've had people say that.
There was a young lady, she's now working for a congressman, and Alice and I had the privilege of investing in her life many years ago.
And she came to see me.
Long story, so I won't go into the whole story.
But she came to see me, and I shared Christ with her.
And she got angry at first, and then I shared it.
And she said, well, I've got some things in my life, in her case, she said, that I don't want to give up.
And I'm not going to tell you what those things were, but they were things.
And she said, I don't want to give those up.
I said, I'm not asking you to give them up.
What I'm asking you to do is to give your life to Christ.
She said, she kind of bristled.
She said, but I don't have to give any of that up, right?
I said, I'm not asking you to give up anything.
I'm asking you to give yourself to Christ.
Now, I have to tell you people, I thought, Jesus, you've come through.
And so at any rate, the process went on for a while.
And she'd come back.
We'd have the same conversation.
And every time she'd go, but I don't have to give that stuff up, right?
I said, and my answer was always, I'm not asking you to give something up.
I'm asking you to give your life to Christ.
She finally did that.
That's a remarkable story when she finally did that.
But it wasn't two weeks later, she came to see me in my office, and her countenance was different.
And she sat in my office, and she said, you know, I've got to tell you something.
All that stuff, I didn't want to give up.
Why is it that I don't want to do any of that anymore?
And I have to tell you, I went, whew.
But I knew this, Jesus can do for you what you can't do for yourself.
She didn't want to give up.
There are others who said, I've got to get cleaned up.
I talked to a man in prison some years ago, and I shared the gospel with him, and he said this.
He said, well, I need to do that.
He said, I need to give my life to Christ.
But then he said this.
He said, but there's so much junk in my life.
And he said, I've got to get that straightened out.
I've got to get that cleaned up before I can come to Christ.
I said, no, you can't.
And I pleaded with him.
I pleaded with him.
You can't clean up enough to come to Christ.
You don't need to clean up to get to Christ.
The reason you need Christ is to get cleaned up.
He died for all of our sins, past, present, future sins, all of them.
Praise God.
You can't clean yourself up enough.
It's not about what you give up.
It's about who you give yourself to.
You come just as you are.
You don't even have to understand it all.
You don't have to say, I figured all this stuff out.
You don't.
I haven't.
I've been a Christian since I was 12 years old.
I still don't understand it all.
You just call on his name.
You confess with your lips.
You believe in your heart.
That's what it says.
I believe.
I believe.
I don't understand it all.
I believe.
I can't give you a theological lesson, but I believe.
And that's why Paul tells us how simple it is, why Jesus invited simply.
Do you know what?
The thief on the cross, you remember the thief on the cross?
He had a good one and a bad one.
They were all tainted.
The thieves were all tainted by their sin.
But you remember one of them got it right.
He didn't start out that way.
Both of them cursed Jesus early on.
But before the day was out, you know, we call him the good thief.
And he called out and he said, hey, would you remember me today?
He said, today you'll be.
He didn't say, you know what, I've been sitting here thinking and while I've been hanging on the cross, I have figured all this stuff out.
He didn't say, you know what, over the past six hours on this cross, I took a theology class, and I've got it straightened out.
He just turned to Jesus, and he said what?
Would you remember me?
He called on the name of the Lord.
By the way, you know that story about that young lady I told you?
When she did get saved, we were in Pennsylvania, standing outside of a college dormitory,
And she said, I'm ready to do that.
And I said, I want you to call on the name of the Lord.
And I said, would you repeat after me?
And I said, just say this, Lord Jesus.
And she couldn't get it out.
She began to wrestle.
There was some demonic stuff, but she began to wrestle.
She just couldn't get it out.
And then all of a sudden, she said, Lord Jesus.
Her countenance changed immediately.
People around her noticed it.
What happened?
What happened?
She just got saved, didn't she?
You could see it on her face.
You know what?
I love asking and praying prayers.
I've prayed many with people through the years.
But I realized in that moment, the truth of the scripture, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
You could see immediately she got saved just by saying, Lord Jesus.
She surrendered.
Have you done that?
Or do you just know about him?
Well, you can do it.
You can do it right now in this place.
And this is how I want to wrap up.
I want to ask you, if you will, would you bow your head and close your eyes?
No one's looking about in this place.
Do you need to call on Christ, the risen Savior, to save you?
Do you genuinely want to change?
You want a new start?
You want to be a new creation?
The Bible says that to those who receive him, they become new creations.
But as many as call on him become children of God.
Well, if so, I want you to do something right now.
I want you to call.
First of all, in your heart, if that's you, in your heart, why don't you say to Jesus right now, Jesus, you are Lord.
And then say, thank you for loving me.
without any condition or any strings attached.
Jesus, I know that I've sinned and I'm sorry.
Thank you for dying on the cross for all of my sin.
And thank you for rising from the dead to offer life to me.
I acknowledge my need for you.
And right now I invite you to come into my life to forgive me and to be my Savior forever.
and my master.
The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Now, Father, I know that in an audience this size that there are people that need to pray that prayer, and there are people most likely that did pray that prayer.
I know there are people watching by television or listening on radio or watching by live stream that have prayed that prayer.
Would you give them the courage, Father, to tell someone about the decision that they've made to trust you and follow you?
Father, would you give them the courage to obey you and take whatever next steps they need to take?
God, would you refresh their hearts now with the joy of the Lord that comes to those that belong to you?
Father, all of us need the power that these first followers needed.
We all need that Holy Spirit power.
And Father, for some in this place today, they need to refresh.
They need to recharge, Lord.
They've drifted away from you.
And Father, I pray that they'll call to you and say, Lord, I know you, but I need you.
Lord, I know you, but I need power for my life.
And I ask you to become Lord, not just Savior, but be the Lord of my life.
Father, I know you hear these prayers.
I know you hear these prayers.
Thank you for hearing them.
Father, cause us to walk out of this place today redeemed and refreshed because of the resurrection.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, I'm so glad that you have tuned in to the broadcast today.
I hope you've been encouraged by God's Word.
It sure has been a joy to share it with you.
And even now, people at Ridgecrest are making decisions for Christ.
Perhaps as you've watched this broadcast, you've recognized the need for your own decision for Christ, the prompting of the Spirit has caused you to recognize that
You need Christ as your savior.
And the good news is you can receive him right where you are.
The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
Right where you are, you can call on him.
Say something like this from your heart to him.
Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me.
I know I'm a sinner.
And I know that you came into this world and died on the cross for my sins.
And right now, I invite you to come into my life.
Forgive me and be my savior.
I can assure you, if you'll call on him, based on what God has already told us in the Bible, that he'll hear that prayer and he'll answer that.
And he wants to begin this new journey in your life with you, transforming you into his image.
we'd love to help you with that decision as well.
You'll see a QR code on your screen, and if you would scan that, or you'll see contact information, or if you'll contact us about your decision today, we'd love to help you take next steps.
There are no strings attached, no fees involved.
We'd just like to help you begin that journey with Christ.
You may be watching this broadcast today and say, I need a church family to belong to.
I already know Christ as my Savior, and I'd like to be a part of the Ridgecrest family.
Also, if you will, scan that QR code.
That'll take you to a location and we'll be able to help you make those kinds of decisions like becoming a member here or if you've never been scripturally baptized, those kinds of things.
So contact us through that QR code or through the contact information on the screen.
Well, again, it's been a joy to have you with us today and I hope you've been encouraged by God's word.
Whatever decision we can help you with, by all means, contact us.
May the Lord bless you.