Pastor Brian Burson: Welcome to the Sandals Church Podcast. My name is Brian Berson, and I'm the campus pastor at Sandals Church of Redlands. We are so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this incredible incredible message. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. But for now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Justin McVey: If you knew your life was ending, would it change the way you lived it? Let me ask you that again. If you knew when your life was ending, would it change the way you lived it? The poet and philosopher, Tim McGraw, why you laughing? Listen, I get it.
Fredo is all hip and trendy. He throws out, you know, Drake, Kendrick Lamar. You got pastor Matt who's more experienced, so you get some rock and roll quotes in there. Listen, I'm small town. You get country.
You get Tim McGraw. Okay? Alright. So Tim McGraw wrote a song entitled Live Like You Were Dying. And it's a sad country song, aren't they all?
Where a man is diagnosed with cancer and he's having a conversation with a younger man about how his life has changed as a result of this diagnosis. And he says these words, he says, Someday, I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying. Well, we've been walking through the book of Matthew and we finished chapter 24 right before Easter, it's all about the end of the world. Jesus is telling us what it's gonna look like, what to watch for, how it's gonna impact us. And he really summarizes up the big takeaway in verse 44.
He says this, you must be ready all the time. I want you to underline that, be ready all the time. For the son of man will come when least expected. In other words, you have to live like you're dying. You have to embrace every day like it might be your last, because we don't know when Jesus is coming back.
And what I want us to focus on today is that because of that, we have to stay ready. Now notice I didn't say get ready. I used the word stay very specifically because when it comes to our discipleship journey, we just can't check a few boxes and then say we're all good. It is a daily process. It's like working out.
You guys all know I'm a little bit of a gym rat, and here's the deal. If you're working out, if you're going every day, if you're lifting the weights, if you're following the diet, you're spending time on the treadmill, you're gonna start to see results, all right? But as soon as you stop working out, man, you avoid the gym for a week, you stop dieting, and listen, that six pack begins to fade really fast. And the same is true with our faith. It has to be a lifestyle.
It has to be something that embraces the reality that eternity may be just around the corner. You see, we we have to start living with an awareness, with an intentionality, with an urgency that demonstrates Jesus is is all we want and all we need. That we're gonna live every minute of our lives for him, and this is important, with him because this moment, it's it's all we've got. It's all we're promised. Now let's just be real.
If we really look at our lives, most of us don't live like that. We spend far too much time investing in earthly things instead of eternal things. We don't live like we're getting ready for heaven. We care too much about our current comfort. Now, gonna be honest.
This has really convicted me as a parent recently. I look at at my kids and I'll just confess, I have spent far too much time, far too much energy, far too much money preparing my kids how to throw a ball and swing a bat. And and I'll be honest, I I haven't spent nearly as much teaching them how to pray with power, how to serve sacrificially. I've been focused and worried about the letters on their report card and how it sets them up for college and a career one day. More so than I have been on showing them how to listen to God.
How to develop a a personal relationship with him. I've been so focused on trying to get them ready for life, I've failed to get them ready for eternity. We all do this in different areas of our lives. I mean, I think about our social lives, our relationships. We make decisions, we embrace behaviors that that feel good now, but they're gonna impact our future relationships in ways we we can't even imagine.
We do it with our careers and our finances, working to build our kingdom so much so that we forget all about God's kingdom. Now in Matthew 25, Jesus follows his teaching on the end of the world with three different parables. And each of these parables is designed to challenge us to evaluate our lives through the lens of eternity. Jesus is gonna lay out for us what it looks like to stay ready. So today, we're gonna take a look at the first of the three parables.
The parable of the 10 bridesmaids. Now, what's the first thing you think about when you hear the word bridesmaids? Anyone? I just heard someone say bachelorette party, all right. We got some sinners in the house, that's okay.
You're in the right place. The Sandals Church, you're in the right place. I mean, most of you said weddings, marriage, that's what we think about. You might not have known it, but it's one of the metaphors that's used over and over again in scripture to describe our relationship with Christ. But a Jewish marriage, all right, it was very different than what we're used to in our modern culture and in our modern world, all right?
It wasn't just a one day event, it was a process. It started when families would come together, the families of the bride and the groom, and they would enter into this legally binding contract, this covenant that said, you're now officially married. And they would share a meal together, and then the bride and groom would be immediately separated. They didn't even get to spend the night together. You're married, now go back to your house, all right?
And here's what would happen. The the groom would spend months, sometimes a year or more building a new home. It was often an extension of his father's home. And the bride would go back, she'd assemble her bridal party, and they would get ready for his arrival. Now in this time that the young man learned the importance of hard work and preparing a home for his future family, and the young woman learned that it's always gonna take guys longer to do things than they say it is.
Okay, get amen. Right? But as as soon as the groom was finished, he would return. Now that it would be unexpectedly, he wouldn't tell them when, and it would often be in the evening, it would often be at night, but he would go and he would take his bride back to their new home, and then the wedding ceremony would take place, and a celebration would often last a week or more. Man, they knew how to party back then.
And this is this is where the bridesmaids came in. They had one job. They had to be ready with their lamps, so that when the groom arrived, they could they could usher them back, they could usher the bride and groom back to the house, through the streets. Remember, was often at night. So they were the ones lighting the way, they were singing, they were celebrating, they were they were getting the party started, and that was their one job.
So let's let's dig into Matthew 25 now. If you've got your Bibles open up there, we're gonna start in verse one. It says, then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Now notice it says, then the kingdom of heaven will be. It's future tense.
Jesus is is talking about in the future. He's talking about the the end of the world of his second coming, right? And and here's what he says, five of them were foolish and five were wise. We have a distinction. The five who were foolish didn't take enough oil for their lamps, but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil.
Now let's stop here for a second and break it down. In this parable, the bridesmaids actually, they represent insiders. People who are already a part of the wedding, which for us is Christians. Disciples of Jesus, followers of Christ, church goers. People who say, yeah, yeah, I'm I'm a Christian, right?
That they're insiders. Just like the bridesmaids were were part of the wedding party. Those of most of you in this room listening online, there's something in you that you'd probably say, yeah, I'm a Christian or I thought about being a Christian that identifies in that way. Now, all 10 bridesmaids had lamps. That they all had lamps.
Now in scripture, lamps represent the outward practices of our faith. It's the it's the good works. It's the the religious things that we do in in order to to just live out our faith. It's the things people see. Paul said, let your good works shine before men.
Right? He he talks about them being a light and that's what that lamp represents. So here's what we've got. We've got 10 people who consider themselves Christians. You know, modern analogy, they went to church, they probably prayed, read their Bible once in a while, did the did the daily rhythms and the Sandals app.
Pastor Fredo, you're welcome for the shout out. They served on the real team. You know, some of them gave. They wore the Sandals merch. But notice the distinction.
Five of them are foolish and five are wise. And here's the difference. The wise have oil in their lamps, but the foolish the foolish are empty. Now some of you might have picked up already that when I read it, it said they didn't have enough oil. But that word enough is not actually in the original text.
You see, the Greek simply reads, they didn't take oil. They had a lamp, but no fuel. Now, in scripture, oil is symbolic of the presence of God. When when a a priest or a king would be taking office, they would anoint them with oil as a symbol of God's presence working in them and through them in their role. There's the story of of Jacob and he's out in the wilderness and he goes to sleep and he has an encounter with God.
He meets God in a vision and God comes to him and the next day he anoints the place where he fell asleep with oil. He says, God was here. I think about in the New Testament, it it instructs us in the book of James that if we go to sick people that we can anoint them with oil, a symbol of God's healing presence working in their lives. You see what Jesus is trying to show us is that just like a lamp without oil is useless, all of our good works, man, they're useless if they don't flow out of a personal relationship with God. Listen, in order to stay ready, here's the first thing I want you to get.
I have to make sure my religion is rooted in a relationship. Paul was one of the most religious men in in all of the Bible, right? Like you you His resume was was packed with good works and this is what he says in Philippians three eight. He says, yes, everything else is, you can circle the word, worthless when compared with the infinite value of, underline this, knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. He says, all of this stuff I've done, that's what he's talking about, all the stuff that's worthless, he's just listed his resume, all the good things he's done.
He says, none of that matters. What matters more than anything else is my relationship, is knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. Listen to what what God tells the Jewish people, right? In the Old Testament, they had all sorts of religious codes and things that they did and this is what he says. He says in Hosea six six, I want you to show love, relationship, not offer sacrifices.
This is not about the religious stuff. He says, I want you to, underline it again, know me more than I want burnt offerings. Now, I need to be clear here. There is nothing wrong with religious activity. Spiritual practices, religious discipline, sacrificial service, they are designed, man, to deepen our relationship with God.
They build up the church, they show God's love to the community and those around us. But, this is so important, without God's presence, there is no power in those things. Without God's presence, they don't matter. You can check all of the boxes, but it won't last. It won't mean a thing if it's not rooted in a relationship with Jesus.
I want you to ask yourself this. If all of the religious activities were stripped away from your life, there's no church building, there's no worship service, there's no small group, all that's just gone. What would be left of your connection with God? How would you describe your relationship with him? What would your faith look like absent all the religion, all of the good works?
Let's see how this plays out in the parable. Verse five, when the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. Everyone needs a good nap once in a while, right? Alright. He says, at midnight, they were roused by the shout.
Look, the bridegroom is coming, come out and meet him, they're excited. And it says, all of the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. Now I wanna go back to verse five because I want you to underline a word. I want you to underline that word delayed. You see, sometimes God makes us wait.
Now, how many of you enjoy waiting? Of course not, not a hand in the room. Listen, I'm so impatient, I avoid grocery stores without self checklings, right? Because I'm telling you, I lose my faith every time I end up behind that person with 17 items in the express lane, right? This is twisted, I'm not gonna lie.
It has been so fulfilling to watch my kids writhe in agony that now that streaming services have commercials. Right? Or the, you know, they just release one episode every week. My kids are like, why? I'm like, this is how it was when I was a kid.
Welcome to the real world, you gotta wait. Here's the deal though, the real reason we don't like waiting is because it reveals what's on the inside. Don't believe me? Man, pick a freeway, any freeway in Southern California and go sit in some traffic at rush hour. Better yet, do it while needing to use the restroom.
Right? You will find out really quick what is inside you are. Okay, this is That's how it's gonna go. All throughout the Bible though, it's amazing to see how how God uses waiting to shape people. To shape people he wants to use, to begin to reveal what's in their hearts.
I think about Joseph, who spent years first as a slave, as a servant, then later in in prison, before eventually God used him to rescue an entire nation and his family. I think about Moses, who spent forty years in the wilderness before God brought him back to lead the people out of slavery. I think about David, who spent fifteen, maybe twenty years waiting for the chance to finally step in as king, even though he had already been anointed. Paul, who we mentioned earlier, he spent three years in the desert learning and growing and developing before God would send him all over the world to start churches. You see, in order to stay ready, I have to let God use the delay and the darkness to reveal what's inside.
Children of Israel, after Moses brought them out of Egypt, they ended up wandering in the wilderness for forty years. Talk about waiting. And the whole time they were just so close to it. But notice what God says afterwards. Deuteronomy eight two.
He says, remember how the Lord your God led you through. Now this is important. God was there. He led them through. Led you through the wilderness for these forty years.
Humbling you, testing you. To what? To prove your character. To show what was inside. To find out whether or not you would obey his commands.
You see, for a while, the the foolish bridesmaids without any oil were doing just fine. No one could tell their lamps were empty. No one knew. Listen, they went dress shopping, they picked colors for the decorations, they had their bachelorette party. This very Jesus honoring bachelorette party.
The the entire time, they made sure everyone saw that they had lamps. I have my lamp. I have my lamp. It's right here. But when the groom showed up unexpectedly, at midnight, when it was dark, they couldn't fake it anymore.
In that moment, the darkness revealed that they didn't have any light. And if you are just going through the the religious motions, if it's just empty works, God is gonna use the delay and the darkness to reveal what is really inside. And there's nothing you can do to hide it. Listen, I've seen this happen a lot of different ways over, wow, twenty, twenty six years in ministry. That makes me feel old.
Listen, I've like people who are all in. They're like, yeah, I'm gonna be here every week. I'm gonna serve in multiple ministries. Like, I'm on fire. Over time, they get tired.
They get bored, because they've just been going through the motions. And then there's this slow fade. They used to serve every single week, and then there every other week, then there once a month, and they start ghosting you. I've seen other people who didn't get the recognition they wanted. They were in it because they wanted people to see them, to see that they were good, to see that they were this upright Christian.
But at some point, man, they begin to feel like they're not seen. They get this idea that they're unappreciated. They're like, I'm I'm gonna go somewhere where they want me. And they quit, they walk away. The waiting, the delay, it's revealed what was inside.
But then there's the darkness. Because sometimes I've seen it when something difficult happens. Someone is on fire and then all of a sudden they face crisis in their life. All of a sudden there's a financial crisis, there's a physical crisis, someone is sick. Now there's there's a relational crisis.
Kids are running from God. Their marriage is threatened like to with divorce, like something happens. And in that moment, because there was nothing inside, there was no light, there was no oil. They said, I'm done with God. I don't believe anymore.
How could he let something like this happen? Or there's those who What I say, do they just get a better offer? Same comes and he says, hey, hey, hey, look look at this. Like, you're doing all that church stuff, all that God stuff, but this sounds way better. This looks way better.
This feels way better, and it's way easier, way more fun. And eventually, what they do, I just they dump God. Like, God, you're okay. Good person. It's not you, it's me.
I'm gonna go do this. Again, the darkness, it's revealed what's inside. So we got to ask ourselves, in those moments when when God seems silent, when when God is delayed, in those moments in our life when, man, we face that difficult situation, does it drive us closer to God? Or do we get distracted? Do we move away from him?
Do we find other things? Look at what happens in the parable when the empty lamps are exposed. Then the five foolish ones ask the others, please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out. But the others replied, we don't have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.
Now at first glance, it's like, wow, those those wise bridesmaids, they don't mess around. Right? It feels like a little selfish, a little rude, maybe even a little mean that they're saying no to sharing their oil. But what God is saying, what he's trying to show us is that our relationship with God can't be transferred. It can't be delegated.
It can't be inherited. It can't be passed on. Listen, I I love basketball. I love basketball. I was a okay baller back in the day.
Nothing special, but I could hold my own. But even if I spent time with the best basketball players on the face of the planet. I spent time with Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Luka. No. Sorry, Laker fans.
Luka Aham. Luka Aham. Steph Curry, like the greatest on the face of the planet, they just can't give me their ability. Spending all the time in the world with them, you know, wouldn't make me an NBA player. You see, Michael Jordan's killer instinct, it can't just be transferred to me.
LeBron James' freakish athleticism, it's not something that he can just hand off. Steph Curry's lights out shooting. It can't be transferred. If I don't got it, I don't got it. Listen, you can go to church, you can hang out with the most God fearing, people loving Christians, men and women of God.
You can talk about deep theological truths. You can have them challenge you. You can have them push you and hold you accountable, but their relationship with God is never just gonna rub off. They can't just give it to you. You have to meet him for yourself.
You have to know him. You have to spend time with him. Listen, in order to stay ready, I must recognize I can't borrow a relationship with God. I ran across this verse in my prep. It's it's evidence that you always find something new in scripture.
I had never heard this verse, I've never seen it, but it illustrates this point so well. Ezekiel 14, all right, it says this, even if Noah, Daniel and Job, those pretty righteous guys, right? Pretty good examples of what a man of God looks like. Even if they were here, they were there, end of the world, talking about judgment day, their righteousness would save no one but themselves. They couldn't pass it off.
It wouldn't save you, wouldn't save me, anyone else. He goes as far as to say, they wouldn't be able to save even their own sons and daughters. Listen, my family, I'm blessed that they have a rich spiritual heritage. Started with my my grandparents. Listen, my grandpa is 90 years old and he still teaches a bible study in their retirement community.
My grandma like, I I probably should dedicate this sermon to my grandma because she is the original stay ready, right? My grandma, when I was a kid, she'd be like, Justin, Jesus is coming back soon. You need to be ready. When I was a teenager, Jesus is coming back soon, Justin. You better stay ready.
You better be good. Even now as an adult, I I still get texts from my grandma. Jesus is coming soon. I'm grandma, you've been saying this for, know, my whole life. She goes, it's true.
You don't know when he's coming, Justin, so you better be ready. Like that's my spiritual legacy, a dad who was just a Bible scholar and an amazing teaching pastor, a mom who was a prayer warrior. But at some point, I had to make it my own faith. I had to make a personal decision to carry on that legacy. I couldn't borrow my my parents or my grandparents relationship with God.
I had to meet him for myself. And I'll tell you, struggled with that and I went through it. But I met God face to face and he radically changed my life. And I have seen things and experienced things that now I know are are him and him alone. And it's personal to he and I how he has showed up and how he has spoken to me in my life.
Job says this in Job 42, I had only heard about you before. And that was me growing up, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. When we make the decision to follow God, we see him with our own eyes, we experience him, we have a relationship. It it made me think of a phrase and an idea that's all over media right now. This idea of stolen valor.
You probably heard about it. Right? Stolen valor is is this term and I pulled this up because I wanted to get it right. It's a term applied to the phenomenon of people falsely claiming military awards or medals, ready for this, they did not earn. Service they did not perform, experiences that never happened, and other tales of military action that exist only in their minds in order to gain recognition, sympathy, or profit.
This is gonna hurt, but stolen valor sounds a lot like borrowed faith. Listen, you have to ask yourself, have I personally encountered God in my life? Or have I just heard the stories? The stories of other people who encountered him. Do I know him personally?
Do I have a relationship with him? Or am I just borrowing from what everyone else has said and done and told me about him? Here's the reality. Only those who know him are gonna get in in the end. Matthew 25, Jesus ends the parable like this.
But while they, the foolish ones, were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. He's there. He'd been delayed, but now he shows up. Then those who were ready, there's our word, those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast and the door was locked. Not just shut, the door was locked.
Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside calling, Lord, Lord, open the door for us. But he called to them, and these these are some of the hardest, but yet most eye opening words in all of scripture. And this isn't the only place Jesus says this. He says, believe me, I don't know you. Yeah, I know you call yourselves bridesmaids.
I know you just call yourself Christian, follower of Christ, disciple of Jesus. I know you got your lamp. I know you've done the things, but I don't know you. And then Jesus summarizes and closes the whole parable with verse 13. So you too, me, you, all of us, must keep watch for you do not know the day or the hour of my return.
I want you to underline those two words, keep watch. The Greek word there is literally Gregorio. No, it's not some Italian designer. Gregorio literally means to stay awake, to stay ready. Jesus is reminding us, you have to live.
You have to live with an awareness. You have to act with an intentionality, with an urgency so that you don't miss it. Here here's the crazy part. The bridesmaids tried to make things right at one point, but it was too late. The door closed.
They missed it. You see, in order to stay ready, I must remember that the door is going to close. It changes our perspective when we have this reality because the world tells us that the door never shuts. There's always an opportunity, that it's never too late. God says, no, there's there's a moment.
There is a time period when the door shuts and if you have not made the decision, you're closed out. I'll never forget, before I came to Sandals, I was at a job interview in Virginia. It was just outside DC, and and they had flown us in for this interview, and this crazy winter storm hit. Man, there was snow, and there was ice, and roads were closed, and schools were closed, and man, we were late getting to our flight. We got there, then it was delayed, and it was delayed, and it was delayed.
We finally got on the flight, and we had a connecting flight in Chicago. Alright. So we know we're gonna be late. We know we're gonna be cutting it close. We hit the ground in Chicago.
All right? We we we make our way out of the plane. I'm like, why could you just sit down people? You know, everyone stands up. I'm like, you don't have to catch a flight.
I do. Right? Waiting once again will reveal your heart. And so like we finally get off the plane and I look and I'm like, all right, that's the gate. And I realize that gate is clear on the other side of the airport.
This church had actually booked different airlines. We had to change airlines. We had to go to a different terminal. We had to get on the tram like, and the flight was leaving in fifteen minutes. And I looked at my wife and I said, are we gonna do this?
She goes, let's go. And it was like game on mode, right? Like my wife's short, she's like five three, and she's just like sprint, she's going. I got the bags under my arms and I'm loping. I'm like, ah, we are going through that airport, no one is getting in our way.
And we make it through, we get on the train, we're like, right, come on, on, come on. On. We're waiting at the door. The door opens, we bust out, we're going through, and and I can see our gate. I can see it, it's right there.
And we're running up, and I see I see the the flight attendant, the the service manager come out, and that door onto the the the gate, the bridge that gets you on the plane, she shuts it and she locks it. And I'm like, no. And she goes up to the little booth, I'm like, and I can see it. So I I run up to her, man, man, that's our flight, that's our flight. She's like, I'm sorry sir, the door is closed.
I'm like, no, no, no, you don't understand, that's our flight, we were late, snow, ice, I want to get home. She's like, my apologies, sir. The door is closed. I'm like, you have the keys. Open the door, let me on.
I'm sorry, sir. The door is closed. And I'm telling you that woman did not let us get on the plane. In the politest way possible, she's like, the door is closed, you missed it. And she didn't offer to help us book another flight.
Just just looked at us right there. Listen. God is is a loving God. He's a merciful God. God of second, and third, and fourth, and fifth, and sixth, and on and on, infinite chances.
But the reality is that even though everyone is invited into eternity, there's limited time to accept the invitation. And there's only one way to get in, and it's by having a relationship with him. God doesn't promise us the next year. He doesn't promise us the next month, the next week. He doesn't even guarantee us the rest of this day.
He simply entrusts us with this moment and challenges us to make it count. That's why it's so important to stay ready. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians chapter five. Be careful how you live. Don't live like fools.
Like the foolish bridesmaids who were empty, who were just going through the motions, But live like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity. I just want to confess, about a year ago, I missed it and it haunts me to this day. And and here's the story, I was I was driving home. I was actually driving home on a Thursday from a sermon recording.
And I decide to to get off in in Redlands and and go get some Chick fil A. Gotta get some Jesus chicken. Right? And I'm like, alright. So I exit and I get to the top of the exit and I look off to my left and I see a homeless teenage girl.
She's dirty and disheveled. What I could only imagine were all of her belongings skewed or stewed around on the street around her. She had the sign and I saw her and I'll be honest, just I kind of froze. I'm like, I should do something. I'm a pastor.
Oh my goodness. This And I was worried about traffic. You know, I'm like, oh, I don't wanna stop at traffic. I was like, oh, you know, like, Sandals has this policy that you're not supposed to be in the car with someone of the offices. And I just like all these excuses through my mind and I just kept driving.
But as I turned the corner, the Holy Spirit was like, what are you doing? And in that moment, no lie, God spoke and he said, Justin, if that was your daughter, this girl couldn't have been more than 16, 17. I have a 17 year old daughter. Dark hair just like this girl had, tall, thin. What what would you want a pastor to do if that was your daughter?
Listen, I took a left hand turn back onto the freeway real quick. I was like, alright, God, I got it. And I and I exited quick and I went and I turned around telling you it was no more than five minutes before I was back on the the ramp going up and I'm like, I don't care what anyone says. I'm gonna talk to this girl. I'm gonna invite her to to come over and get Chick fil A with me.
I'm I'm gonna get her into a shelter. Listen, if I have to call my wife and we have to bring her into our house, I'm gonna do whatever it takes. And I got to the top of the ramp she wasn't there. No lie, I drove around for the next hour and I could not find her. I missed it.
The door closed and I missed my opportunity. I want you to ask yourself, are you making the most of the opportunities God has given you today, right now? Are you responding with that awareness, that intentionality, that urgency? Are you making excuses? Are you procrastinating?
Here's the good news. I wanna end with this. If you're listening to this sermon right now here in this room, online, the good news is the door is still open. It's not too late. I wanna show you guys something.
I brought this in with me. This is a a gift certificate that I received. A gift certificate to to go whale watching. Right? To go whale watching.
Someone wanted to bless my family and I. It was an experience that they loved, and they're like, man, you got to go do this. But there's something unique about this particular gift certificate. Pastor Griff, will you come up here? I wanna get confirmation from another pastor, so you know I'm not making this up.
Right here at the top where it says date, right there. Can can you look at that and just read that date? Thursday, 10/20/2016. Hold on. What was that year again?
2016. '20 thank you, pastor Griff. 2036. Like, you can kinda tell if you're looking. It's a decade old and I've never cashed it in.
I've never used it. No lie, this was in my underwear drawer, right? Where all good things go to disappear. And and here's the deal, I like someone else paid for it. I didn't have to pay for it.
They wanted my family and I to experience something that meant the world to them, that that they enjoyed, that that was a part of their family legacy and heritage. And they paid for it. Listen, I I've seen other people do it. I know how good it is. I've I've seen the the Instagram reels and the YouTube videos.
Listen, I have been close to this place. It's in Newport for Pete's sake. Like I literally have driven by at times. But for ten years, this gift certificate has never been cashed in. All I need to do is is is take, walk up and say, hey, would like to cash this in.
Here it is. And they're gonna say, amazing, awesome, you're in. Go get on the boat. Let's go see some whales. I wonder how many of you have known about God for a long time.
Maybe you've even gone to church. You call yourself a Christian. You do all of the things, but there's no relationship. And God is saying, you you've never cashed in the certificate. He's saying, I I paid the price.
I paid the price to to give you a life so you could experience more, so you could experience forgiveness, so you could experience healing from your brokenness, so you could experience true community. Like, I I gave my life so that you could have that. But you just have to give me your life. You you just have to say, want that and I will change everything. And so I just, I wanna give you guys an opportunity.
I wanna show you that the door is open and just like those bridesmaids that were invited to the wedding, I wanna give you an opportunity to come in. Scripture tells us that in order to to have that relationship with Jesus, it it starts by just admitting that we're sinners, that we're broken. Because of our sin and our brokenness, our relationship with him has been destroyed. There is no relationship with him anymore. But if we admit that and then we believe that Jesus came and died on the cross for us, that he paid the price, that on the cross he gives us that certificate and he says, here it is.
Here it is. You just need to accept it. If we believe that he lived that perfect life, he died on the cross for us and then rose again. And here's the part we often miss and we confess him as Lord. We give him our lives.
God, I give you my life, I give you my brokenness in exchange for your life, for your healing, your forgiveness. Scripture says, he will forgive us of all of our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, he will give us new life. So here's what I wanna do. I wanna lead you in a in a simple prayer that says just those things. And it's not even the words to the prayer, but it's the condition of your heart in this moment.
And if you don't have a relationship with God, if you're you're empty inside, let this be the moment. Don't miss it. Don't let the door close. Let this be the moment you are filled with his presence, that your lamp is filled with oil. Would you just bow your heads and close your eyes and if you want to pray this, would you just pray right now in your heart?
God, I know I'm a sinner. My relationship with you has been broken. But God, I believe that you died on the cross for me. Jesus, forgive me of my sins. I give you my life, all that I am.
I surrender to you. Be my Lord and Savior. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.