Sharing the Good News

Good news is meant to be shared — whether it's a wedding announcement, a new grandbaby, or your kid's first goal of the season. So why do we get quiet when it comes to the best news there ever was?

In this message, Pastor Jason walks through why sharing the Gospel isn't about being a "closer" — it's about being a witness. He unpacks the real problem sin creates (Romans 3:23, 6:23), the judgment we can't talk our way out of (Hebrews 9:27), and the incredible truth that Jesus already did what we could never do for ourselves (John 5:24, 1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus isn't running from us — He's standing at the door, knocking, wanting back in.

It's also why we're pursuing new land, dreaming about a permanent home, and talking about adding a second service this fall. More room means more people who get to hear this news. Because Mark 16:15 isn't a suggestion — it's a command: "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone."

Where do you stand today? And who's waiting on you to share it with them?

Visit us at Generations Cowboy Church for more info about our church or find ways you can support what God is doing at GCC!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:26

If you want to click flip, I want to jump around to a couple of different places, but we're going to start in Romans 3. And so you can hold that spot if you want to. Today's message is entitled Share the Good News. I don't know about you, but one of the things that we love to do, it seems like as I get on social media, is people love to share the good things that are happening in their life. Have you noticed that? Like if you get on some of these moments, people are sharing the highlight moments, the good things that are happening to them. We use these moments on social media. We understand the idea of what it means to share the good news with him. I get on social media all the time and I see some of the posts that we make as a church. And I see those of you sharing what God's doing here through this church. Why? Because you want to share the good news with other people so they could come be a part. I see the moments where you guys share your kids graduating kindergarten, right? Like it's funny to me, they graduate preschool. Woo, kindergarten. Woo! And then somewhere we take this big long break till their senior year in high school, right? I mean, but we we share and highlight those big moments. We share when we uh have a new kid born or the family grows or all of these moments. And the reality is it's just to me part of what God has created us to do at the end of the day. And that's to share the good news of what Jesus has done in our life with as many people as possible. And I used to hear all the time in church growing up that it was my responsibility, it's our responsibility to share the good news of Jesus with people that need it. But one of the things I never felt like anybody ever did for me in church was actually equip me with how to do that. Like we just tell people you're supposed to share Jesus with everybody. Okay, that's great, but how do I do that? Like, what are the ways that we can do that? And so for me, I think it's so important for us to just slow down and take a moment. And I want to very practically go through of a way that you can share the good news with somebody that needs it. If you've ever wondered on how to share my faith with somebody, that's all today's message is going to be a very practical way. By the time we're done, you're gonna see a complete picture on the screen. You're welcome to take a picture of that at the end of service and save that for you because I'm going to show you a step-by-step process of a very relational way that you can share your faith with somebody. And so I got a friend coming up today, Chad the Man, the myth, the legend. Come on, Chad. Um Chad is going to be my friend that I am sharing my faith with today. And so thank you for jumping in here to be the man willing to get in front of everybody and let me share my faith. And so here's what it's gonna look like: it's it's gonna be a little bit of if I was sitting down with Chad at lunch, because Chad wanted to go, where would we go eat if we were gonna go have lunch together? What would be somewhere good? Barbecue or tacos, barbecue or tacos. This is a man after my own heart. All right, we're sitting down for some barbecue, and Chad has just hit me up because the reality is he's just man, something's different in your life, Jason. And I I just want to hear the story of what is different about your life than mine. What has Jesus done for you? And if I was going to have this conversation, to me, if you understand a few things, this is very conversationally based. I'm not saying you can't pick a random stranger and just share the good news. You go for that. I just happen to think one of the most effective ways we can is to do it with people that we're in relationship with. And so a couple of things. If you say, Man, God's never used me to share my faith with somebody, cool. Um, here's one thing you should understand. And to me, this is really important. God doesn't make appointments for people who don't know what they're doing. If you want to share your faith, you should learn how to share your faith. And then something incredible will happen when you take the time to learn how God will start making some appointments where you get to share your faith. I get the luxury of being a pastor. So the moment I say I'm a pastor, people start asking questions or they're done talking to me. Or they're cussing and then they apologize afterwards and they say, I didn't realize, I'm so sorry, Pastor. And so this is the way my life works. But there might be people in your life that you get to have these moments with. And so I would encourage you one, take the time to be prepared on how you could share your faith with somebody. Two, understand this that you can share biblical truth with somebody whether or not they believe the Bible. I know that's a foreign concept in today's world, but like let me just acknowledge you can share biblical truth with somebody, whether or not they believe in the Bible. And so today's very conversationally driven. If I was going to be sharing my faith with Chad, here's what I'm here's why, I'm gonna tell you why I would do it this way. I'm going to ask Chad to read scriptures, and I'm going to ask Chad what he gets from those scriptures. Because I think so often people want me to tell them what they should believe. But I just happen to believe that if we'll read scripture, I just believe God's word that it will change our hearts and lives. And when Chad can read that for himself and come to an understanding, then it's no longer what Jason says, it's what Chad said, because Chad read that scripture and he came to that conclusion, not me trying to beat somebody over the head with the Bible. Just a fair way of approaching the way we could do this. And so Chad and I are sitting down at lunch, we're having this conversation. And to me, I'll tell you why the conversations are so important. If you've ever wondered when it comes to sharing your faith, so many people feel the pressure to be a closer. Let me tell you this: they say the average person that surrenders their life to Jesus meets 11 Christians before they do. And I read a stat that out of those 11 encounters with Christians, they will have 17 conversations about faith before they surrender their life to Jesus. So if that's true, let me just take the pressure off. You don't have to be the closer, just be one of the 17 conversations because you don't know what somebody else has said. You don't know what the Lord might be doing in somebody's life. And so take the pressure off and just share. And so if I was having this conversation with Chad, here's where I would start, man. I would go all the way back to this very picture right here. God made us in the garden. We would start with this picture of God and me in the garden together, right there. God and man. He put this perfect garden together, and there's nothing between us. Genesis 1 through 3. This is important because this is what God's trying to get back to. The problem is in the garden, God made the rules. And since he made everything, we should follow his rules, right? But we know how this worked. Adam and Eve messed it up. They sinned. They decided to let something come in between them and God called sin because they decided to do things their way instead of God's way. Fair enough. And like we want to get mad at Adam and Eve, but let's all just be honest. If God had put Jason and Kendra there, we would have messed it up too. And we would just be blaming Jason and Kendra instead of Adam and Eve. Like if we can just be fair, all right? Because the reality is we all want to choose our way. And so why would I talk about these moments? Because to me, it's important for us to understand the situation that we're in, Chad. We're in a bad spot, man. We have gotten sin that has gotten in the way and messed up what God wanted. And so it takes us to this third picture. What's the reality of this thing is it's a separation from God, that there's this chasm now or this step here where we have, because of our sin, created a gap or a chasm between us and God. A lot of times I just take the time to draw this out on a piece of paper or a napkin if I'm having a conversation with somebody. I'm just giving you the luxury of somebody who drew my pictures much better. Look at those stick figures. Crushed it with those stick figures right there, man. Way to go. And so to me, this is the moment where it's like, well, let me, you got to understand how bad of a situation I'm in to understand why Jesus is so good, right? And so, Chad, if if I was gonna start somewhere for us, I would start with Romans 3.23. So, so can you just take a moment? Would you be willing to read Romans 3.23 for me and and tell me what you think it's talking about?

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Romans 3.23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

So so what's the problem there in Romans 3.23?

SPEAKER_01 8:59

All sinned.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

We've all sinned. You, me, everybody here, everybody that's around with us. Who the who is guilty of everybody? This is the problem we live in. We often think that we have this moment where we have everything together that somewhere along the way I could be a good person. But the reality is we all have this sin problem. And the reality is that means we all need Jesus. And so if we all have this sin problem, Chad, then to me, the next thing I think about is Romans 6.23. And so could you take a moment? Would you read Romans 6.23 for me?

SPEAKER_01 9:39

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

So we get like the good news, right? We understand the free gift, but before we get to the free gift, what's the bad news at the beginning of that scripture? The wages of sin is death. Death. The problem with sin, the problem why God never wanted us to sin, why God invited us to listen to him and his ways, is because he knew the moment we didn't, sin would create this problem and it's death. The reality is not just a one-time death, but an eternal death, an eternal separation from God. That is the result of sin when we mess up, Chad. And so to me, the only outcome, no matter how good sin makes us feel, and we would lie if sometimes we would say sin's not fun, and sometimes sin doesn't feel good. But the long-term effect of sin on every one of us, and why we would preach against it and why we would teach against it is not to make anybody feel guilty, it's because the long-term effect of sin is death, not just physical death, eternal death and eternal separation from God. And so here we are to me. One more scripture here: Hebrews 9, 27. Could you read that one for me, Chad?

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. So after we die, what's coming?

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Judgment Day. Judgment Day. How's this list sounding so far, Chad? Not good. It doesn't sound very good, does it, right? Like, I mean, we're all sinned, and yet we live in a world that says nobody has, if you want to believe that, right? I mean, the the ultimate outcome is going to be eternal death. And every one of us one day, when we leave this life, is going to stand before God and be held accountable and face judgment. And to me, this is an important piece of the story that we have to get. I know this is the uncomfortable part of the story, but the reality is, I think we need to understand a couple things. That judgment is coming for all of us. And that judgment is going to be based on the way we live our life. And once we end our time here on earth, I need you to understand, once you are gone, there's nothing anybody else can do to shape the outcome of that judgment for you. As much as we wish somebody else could pray for us or somebody else could do something to change my eternal outcome. The reality is my eternal outcome is going to be based on the actions of my life that I lived while I was here on earth. And once that day comes, I'm going to be held accountable for those actions. And so far, this feels like really bad news. It doesn't feel like good news, does it? And so to me, let's let's see if we can get to some good news. Can we do that? Like, this is the part that gets me excited because here's why I follow Jesus. Here's why I've given my life to him. And so let's take a moment. Let's look here at John 5, 24. Can you read that one for me, Chad? This is red letter. It's the red letters. What do red letters mean, Chad? It's the Lord's word. Jesus' word. Well, it's red. That's the way we know Jesus is talking to us, right? Okay. Lost John 5.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Very true. Very truly, I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

That feels a lot better than the other verses, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

And so if we're going to take a moment to look at what are some of the good things in this verse that Jesus points out. Like if we were going to talk about a few of those things, what are a few of those things in that verse that Jesus tells us about that are important? Eternal life. Eternal life, right? I mean, that sounds pretty good. A whole lot better than eternal death. Is there anything else good in there that he points out to us that you see?

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Believe in him.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Believe in him. That's it. Here's my favorite part. People, we complicate what it means to follow Jesus. Believe in him. And what does that belief mean? Now that's kind of the part where some of us get stuck. And so let me give you a picture. Belief is like a bridge. If I believe in that bridge, then I'll there'll be some action in my life and I will walk across it. If I don't believe, then I won't do anything and I won't go across that bridge. To me, the perfect illustration is my wife and I went on vacation once to Colorado. Have you guys ever been to the Royal Gorge? If you don't know, let me give you a picture of the Royal Gorge. Okay. It goes over the Colorado River and it is 956 feet above the Colorado River. It is a wooden bridge that goes from one side to the other. You can see through the slats as you walk across the bridge. And so I believed in the integrity of that bridge, and me and my kids walked across that bridge. My wife did not. And she sat in the van while we walked across the bridge at the Royal Gorge. Like even though she saw people out there, she's, I'm not doing it, right? I mean, I even wanted to look over the edge, and then I regretted my decision after that. I mean, but because I had a belief in the integrity of that bridge, the actions of my life led me to cross it. And so when Jesus says to believe in him, Chad, that when when I believe in Jesus, it's not just something in my head, but it's the actions of my life start lining up to follow him because I believe him. Because yes, he did give us eternal life. That's a great, much better option than eternal death. He did tell us that we're not going to be condemned for our sins. I don't know about you, but my list is pretty long. I bet you weren't as bad as me. I know everybody thinks as a preacher, I probably got a short list. It's pretty it it's roll it out. So the good news is no matter how they roll that list out now, guess what? Because of Jesus, there's nothing on that list. That's good news. I'm thankful that there's nothing on my list anymore. I've not always been a preacher. And even as a preacher, I'm still not perfect. And there are still moments where I need Jesus to make sure that list stays wiped clean. And here's the other reality: Jesus said that you'll go from death to life. That's why I say this all the time when we talk, when we hang out, when I share from up here, we're not talking about good versus bad. We're talking about death versus life. You want to know why the good news is so important? It's not just because this is a good versus bad situation. This is because without the good news of Jesus, it's life versus death situation. And so why do we need these moments to share? Why am I so passionate about telling you about what Jesus has done in my life? Because this is a life or death thing. And I'm passionate because I've seen what Jesus has done in my life, and I want it for you. I want it for you. And so this is how this conversation would keep going. And so to me, this is important though, because Jesus is the good news, not you and me. Which means there's nothing in there. Jesus didn't say be a good person. There's not enough good things you could do to make up for the bad things you did. And sometimes people come into church. This is my biggest fear, is somebody will come into church week after week, month after month, year after year, and you will believe in church. Because I serve somewhere, because I give some money, then Jesus will save me and I'll make up for all the bad that I did. That's not what it means. I don't do those things to be saved, I do those things because I'm saved. Very different perspective. Why? Because you can't be good enough to save yourself. And I've heard some people say, Man, like I know them, they're a good person. Oh, I'm sure I'm sure they're good, but they're still dead without Jesus, even if they're good. I met some people in this world I'd probably call saints. But without Jesus, they're still dead. And so this is the reality of this situation for us. And so we hit here to this next slide because I want us to see in real time, Chad. If I had this picture drawn out for you, this is the picture I would draw. You want to know why John 5.24 is so important? Because Jesus' eternal life cancels out the death that sin was promised in Romans 6.23. If you want to know why the good news is so good, it's because Jesus said, I'm not condemned for all that judgment he said that I was gonna face on judgment day. You want to know why this is good news? It's because it doesn't matter how long your list is, Chad, when you invite Jesus to be your Lord and Savior and believe in him, there's nothing left for him to condemn you for on judgment day. So instead of being condemned, you know what he's gonna say? Well done, Chad, my good and faithful servant. You mean it really works that way? 100%. This is why it's the good news. This is why we share this good news, because that was the reality without Jesus, and this is the reality now with him. And so I want to just take a moment, three more scriptures here, because I think sometimes we mistake what God is really trying to do here. And so I want us to understand the intention of God and who he is. And so I want to look at three more verses if we could, Chad. First Timothy 2.5. If you could hit this one for me and read that one. First Timothy 2.5.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

And so it says Jesus is what for us? The middleman. The middleman. That's what a mediator is, right? That mediator comes between two parties that are separated and brings them together. That's why the cross is there in the middle. Because there were two sides here that were separated, and Jesus said, I will be the mediator and bring you back so you can be with the Father. Do you know what that tells me? That tells me that God isn't mad at me and looking for a way to get rid of me. That tells me that God actually loves me and He loves you so much that even if you never say yes to Jesus, he said, I'm gonna be the mediator and build a bridge, whether you ever go across it or not. I'm gonna make sure the bridge exists so you could if you wanted to. That's how much God loves us. And so anytime we believe God is mad at me, God hates me, God is running away from me. None of those things are true. Because it says Jesus came to be the mediator and to build a bridge, to be the middleman, so that we could come back to God. That's the heart of God for you and me. Let's hit one more 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4. Could you read those for me, Chad?

SPEAKER_01 21:03

For what I have for what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according to the scripture.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

What are some important things in that scripture that that you notice that kind of stand out to you?

SPEAKER_01 21:26

That he died for my list.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

He died for your list. I think it's so easy for us to say Jesus died for somebody else. It'd be easy to say, man, Jesus died for you, Jason. It's a lot harder to say, Man, Jesus died for my sins. But that's what he did. And Paul said this is the most important thing. Like, I love that he elevates, like of all the things we do in the church, Paul's making sure we understand here the most important thing we do isn't come together and sing a few songs and give you a message that makes you feel good about yourself. Just so we're clear. The most important thing we could do is to share the good news of Jesus that He died for our sins. Why do we take communion together? We need that visible reminder that Jesus died and suffered for me so that we can be set free. And then this last verse. Revelation 320. Could you could you read this one for me?

SPEAKER_01 22:30

This is another red letter.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Red letter. That means Jesus is talking to us, right? Okay, alright.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

What does what stands out to you there about Jesus in that one?

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Knock on the door and he'll let you in.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Knock on the door. It means he's coming to you. And and that means he's not trying to get away from you. That means he's actually moving towards you. I love one version of Revelation 3.20 because it says that we'll come meal together as friends. That means Jesus isn't trying to get away from you. Jesus is actually trying to move towards you. Trying to get close to you, Chad. He wants to hang out with you. He wants to eat some tacos and be your friend, man. That's what Jesus wants. If I was sitting down in this moment, if I was having this conversation with Chad, if this is the way it was going down, then I've shared everything I can up until this point about why Jesus is so important in this moment. And so to me, the the last and most important question that I would ask at this point is this. Chad, if you saw that picture that I've just drawn out here on this napkin, where do you see yourself standing at?

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Knocking on the door.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Knocking on the door, man. You you're trying to get to Jesus, right? And to me, this is the most important question to ask because this is the moment where we see is somebody ready to invite Jesus into their life or are they not there yet? And you and I can't do anything to move this needle. It's Jesus. It's the Holy Spirit working in somebody's life. But if somebody gets to this point and they say, I'm knocking on the door, then to me the question would be, Chad, do you want to be on the other side with God? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. And so we would just literally, you want to take a moment and pray the prayer where you can cross that bridge and get to the other side?

unknown 24:41

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Sure. And and I would just lead him in this moment. Jesus said, if I would just admit if I'm a sinner, I would believe in him and confess those sins to him that he would save me and I would be with him forever. And so we're just gonna pray that prayer together, and that would be it. That easy, that simple. This is the beauty of the good news. And this was nothing more than a lunch conversation with me and Chad having some barbecue or tacos together, right? I didn't tell Chad what he has to believe. Chad read, if you don't know what that is, you want a really fancy word, it's called the Socratic method. Socrates put it together. You get somebody else to read, you get somebody else to start to think, and they tell you what they've read from that, and now they're not believing something they've been told, they're believing something they came to the conclusion on their own. And you want to know when somebody's life changes, is not when they hold my truth, it's when they hold their truth. And so to me, in this moment, we have this space, we have this place where we can, in a real tangible way, if you wanted to, you can snap a picture of that right there with your phone. You can take that home with you, and you would have everything you need to have a conversation with anybody in your life to share the good news with why you need Jesus and why they need Jesus. If somebody would ask me why we would do what we do, that's it in a nutshell. That's what I would share with anybody. And and here's hey, can we do this, Chad? Thank you so much. Give it up for Chad, man. Thank you, Chad, for coming up here and being the guy. You're the man. I love you, bro. Thank you. This is this is to me the importance of the moment. This to me is is the reality of any of us in the room can do this. How do I know that? You're like, man, I don't know if I can remember all those things. That's not true. If you can rattle off all the sports facts that you watch from your favorite sports teams, if you can get a degree in college anatomy and remember all the body parts that they ask you to remember to do what you're doing, you can memorize a handful of scriptures and how to have a conversation with somebody. Well, what if along the way they tell me they don't really want to hear anymore about what I'm saying? Cool, be done. Just eat some tacos and barbecue and be done with it. It's not your job to save anybody, it's his job to save somebody. Maybe your job is just to plant seeds right now, and somewhere else in their life, they're gonna come around again and be in a spot where they want to hear more from you or from the next Christian that they run into that they have some questions about. Because if it takes 17 conversations for somebody to reach a place, maybe you're just number seven this time. That's okay, be number seven and let them go a little bit further. I hear people tell me, like, I'm so scared to share my faith because what if I mess up? Hey, good news. God's not going to hang somebody's eternity on your mistake. I hear so many people, man, I'm just I'm afraid I might tell them something wrong, and then or I didn't share my faith when I was supposed to, and I'm afraid that person's gonna spend forever in hell. Anybody ever felt that pressure? I have at times. Good news. God's not going to risk somebody's eternity in hell on whether or not you follow through your end of the bargain. He loves them too much. He'll send another person across their path. I get to the point where I got invited to the hospital room with a man who was dying. He was just a point where he couldn't speak anymore. I'm having this conversation, I'm sure with you. Do you want to give your life to Jesus? If you do, just squeeze my hand. And if you do, I'm gonna pray with a prayer with you. Squeeze my hand. And we prayed a prayer. And less than 30 minutes later, he was on the other side of the kernel. By earthly standards, that man did nothing to earn a spot in heaven. And yeah, by God's standards, he did all he needed. Because in that moment, I might have been the person to have this conversation. And sometimes we step into moments with people that are mad at God because my life is a mess. Maybe the reality is for some people, they hit the bottom of that mess and they're actually ready to respond to him because they realize nothing else is working. And so we have to reach a place where we all are equipped to share the good news with somebody. This is not my job because I'm a pastor, this is your job and my job. This is our job. That we should all have this moment because the funny thing is, as a pastor, people will call me, Pastor, like you need to come share the good news with this person. They don't know me. You need to share the good news with that person because they came to you. You can do this, and so we live in this space. Why would we want to start a legacy fund to buy a piece of property? Because there's generations of people that are going to pass through this community that need to know Jesus, that are going to be in a life and death situation, and I'm going to do all I can to create a space so they can experience the life Jesus wants for them. Why would we talk about going to two services this fall as we keep filling up this room? Because there are more people that need to hear about Jesus because they're in an eternal life and death situation. And I don't know about you, but I'm not okay not making space for them to come and experience Jesus. Because I am not okay with anybody going to spend an eternity without him, and so many times in the church world, I've been in places where I've heard people say, like, I just we're getting bigger and I don't like it. I'm just more comfortable in a small church. Cool. I just need you to understand that's not going to be my mentality because I'm not going to be okay letting other people go to hell because I'm uncomfortable with this church getting a little bigger than I'm comfortable with. I'm willing to sacrifice financially because I'm willing to do without some things on this side of eternity to make place so somebody can come and experience Jesus, so we can buy some land and hopefully one day build a building so that a generation that I may never see can come and experience Christ. Why? Because they're in a life and death situation and they need to experience Him. Otherwise, we would just have to tap out at 100 people, say, I'm just good being a mobile church the rest of my life. We'll sit up and tear down, only my 100, nobody else get in. Sorry, we don't have room for you after this. Close the doors. But churches do it all the time. Because we get comfortable with my way. And we get comfortable with my people. And we get comfortable with the way we do things. I said it last week, I'll say it again. I don't have the luxury of comfort in my life. Comfort is a luxury, not a necessity. And I don't have the luxury of comfort in my life. Where I get comfortable, I begin to let other people be condemned to hell because I'm not willing to sacrifice so they can know him. And so I don't have the luxury of comfort in my life. Because I'm motivated by something much bigger than this life. And the invitation for you, the invitation for me would be this simple. Would you be willing to do a little bit of homework? Learn the good news and how you can articulate your faith with somebody else. So that one day, when somebody comes to you and says, Chad, why do you go to church on Sundays? Like, I don't understand. Like, since you started going, you're different. Like, what has changed about you? That you begin to feel empowered in a way to have that conversation because you will run into people that I will never run into. You will go to work and rub shoulders with people that you have the opportunity to share the good news with that I will never get the opportunity to. You have family members who need Jesus that you're going to intersect with, and you have the opportunity to share the good news with them so they can experience Jesus. So if we can stand all across this place to me, I think the one thing that we could do and should do in this moment is to just simply acknowledge this. And here's what I would just say is if you're not on the side with God, you should get there as fast as you can. If you're questioning whether or not you are, have the confidence to know and get to the other side. Because we're playing games if we don't. Eternity's hanging in the balance. Man, I'm so thankful to see Billy here today. I think about last week after service, if you guys don't know, man, he he was having some major medical problems. After service, laying on a bench, fighting for his life, praying for him. Eternity feels a lot closer in those moments. And he's standing here today without any repercussions of that incident. God touched his body and healed him. May have used doctors, but however he did it, he's standing here today as a testimony of the goodness of God. And I promise you, in those moments, nobody's playing games because it starts to feel real, real fast. Don't play games with God. Hell's too hot and eternity's too long. Don't be mad at God. God's not the one who's moving away from you. You're moving away from him. Because Revelation 3.20 said, He's coming to my door. He's pursuing me. And so if you're like, I don't know where God's at, he's there. You're the one that keeps moving away from him by pursuing your way instead of his way. God's not mad at you. And it has nothing to do with how good you are, whether you deserve it or whether you earned it, it's because he loves you. This is the good news. And so if you're here in this place and you feel like, man, I'm I'm standing on the other side of that divide. I'm not standing with God if I had to put myself in that picture. But today I want to pray a prayer so I can be on the same side with God. If that's you, would you just slip your hand up so we can pray that prayer together? No shame in that game. Nothing but moments to celebrate here. Yeah. Anybody else? Say that's me. I just want to invite you to pray this prayer with me. Part of it I just do it because I think there's something important when we hear these words, and faith is shaped by hearing. I think it's important because then we can learn how to have these conversations with somebody else and how to pray this prayer with them. And so let's just do this together. Say, dear Jesus, I need you to come into my life. I have sinned and I'm going to turn from them. I believe in you as my Savior. Help me to love you. Help me to live for you. The rest of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. The grace of God is it's that simple. So to me, where do we go from here? Keep following Jesus. But what about when I sin? Get up and keep following Jesus. Because it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. I can promise you, probably by the time you get in the parking lot, your kids are already gonna be on your last nerve. You and your wife might be fighting already by the time you get in the car. You're gonna have a flat tire. The meal's gonna burn. You're gonna find something that's gonna push those buttons. The idiot driving in the left lane that only drives 50 miles an hour when it's a 70 and he needs to get over. Cool, God, help me. Help me keep following you. So I want to invite my friends to come down. We're gonna sing one more song of worship together, and this would just be my encouragement to you. If you're here today struggling in any way, maybe you want the courage to share your faith and you just struggle to find that courage. Man, come down and let somebody pray with you. Maybe you're here today and you're just sick in your body and you're struggling. The Lord said in scripture that we should pray for one another and that he would heal those that are sick. Maybe you're struggling in life in your marriage, maybe there's mental anxiety, depression, whatever it might be. Maybe there's a family situation, a financial situation. To me, this last song is this last moment where we can come experience Jesus in a real and tangible way. And so my encouragement to you as we worship, if you need prayer, don't worry about what another person in this room is gonna think. Just get out from where you sit. Come down here, let somebody pray with you as we worship, and leave this place different than when we come in. Can we do that together this morning?