Episode 1: Fuze into Faith

The speaker starts by thanking the praise band and then announces that they will be reading from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14. They take a moment to recognize the parents in the group and the adult leaders of the youth ministry. The speaker emphasizes the importance of the adult leaders and encourages parents to show appreciation for them. They then discuss the different generations, including Generation Alpha and Generation Beta, and show a timeline of population and economic changes. The speaker suggests that we often focus too much on our own generation and urges the audience to consider how God views time. They emphasize the importance of using our time on Earth for God's purposes and highlight the mission statement of the youth ministry, which is to impact Pasco County with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Alright, can we give it up for our praise band? That was amazing. Alright, well take your Bible tonight and go to the book, the Gospel of Luke, Luke 14. So before we dive into the message, I want to take a moment to recognize some people. So one group that we did not officially recognize is our parents. Every year we do this, we ask not only, of course, the new students to come in, but we ask parents to come in as well. And for all the parents that are here, you are the largest group I've ever seen come to a youth group. Most parents are like, ah, we're good. We're just going to drop them off and go. So can we thank all of our parents who are here tonight? Thank you for coming. I love that you're here because I want you to see firsthand and experience a little bit what it's like and what it smells like. You know, so this is, if you smell smell, that's a weekly occurrence. But I'm thankful that you're here and I want to take a now moment mostly for the parents, but also for the students as well. So if you're an adult leader, I want to recognize you and if you're already standing, you can just raise your hand. Alright, so all my adult leaders, would you just please take a moment and stand. I want you to all see our adult leaders. Alright, and I'm missing, clearly I'm missing quite a few. We have roughly just a little over 20 youth leaders. Thank you guys. You can be seated. Parents, I want you to know and see them because they are, if I had to put in a succinct paragraph or sentence or two to explain what is our youth ministry all about, the Faith Students Youth Ministry. Our philosophy are what I lean upon and rest upon is our adult leaders. They're the ones that are, if you will, in the proverbial trenches. They're the ones that are building relationships with your children, your students. And I know it's kind of weird to call them students, but anyway, nonetheless. And they're the ones that are pouring into them, mentoring them, discipling them, speaking hard truths to them, trying to get them to straighten up, whatever it might be. But I cannot do what I do, what we do, without them. So I want you to know just the importance they are to me and to this youth ministry. I'm so thankful for them. So anytime, as a parent, you're like, you just want to show love toward them, give them a gift card, give them a text, give them a call, they would love that too. Alright, so Luke chapter 14, how many of you, I did this last year, so some of you that have been here before, you might be like, oh yeah, I've heard this before. It's okay. There's a lot of new people here and they haven't heard it, alright? How many of you, raise your hand, you know what generation you are? Raise your hand. I know what I'm in. Raise your hand. Alright, put your hand down. If you do not know what generation you are, raise your hand. There's a few of you. Okay, I'm going to help some of you out. So on the screen here, I'm going to pop up here our first picture, I want you to see. Eventually it'll pop up here. There it is. It's hard to read this, but we're going to be talking a little bit about generation alpha tonight. So if you're born between 2010 and 24, you're gen A. So raise your hand if you're born between 2010 and 24. Alright, so you see or look around, this is gen A, generation alpha, just so you know that. So here's what this means. Now this came out in 2020, alright? So just so you understand, in next year, 2025, starts the next generation, you know what that's called? Beta. Generation beta. So if you're in alpha right now, you might one day, maybe, you never know, you might have a brother or sister come in, you can be like, you're beta, I'm alpha, you're beta. Alright? Now, look at this next picture, I want you to see a couple things here. These are the different generations. So you have, where is that here? So builders, they're called that, there's probably no, well, you could be alive, I guess it's probably not in here, boomers, gen X, gen Y, or millennials, gen Z, and then gen A. Alright? So if you were born between, let's see, does it have those years in here? Well, yeah, right here. So you're 75 plus, so any builders in here? No. 56 to 74, any boomers in here? Alright, so you students, quit calling us boomers. No one in here is a boomer, alright? Alright, so here we go. 41 to 55, that's me, gen X, raise your hand if you're in gen X. Alright, alright, so we got someone here, alright, gen Y, born 1980 to 94, raise your hand if you're gen Y, millennial. Alright, Erin, did you have your hand raised? You are not gen Y, buddy. I'm looking at the numbers, I'm like, nah, I don't think so. Gen Z, 95 to 2009, raise your hand. There they are, it's good, gen Z. Alright, there's too many things up here to point out, but there's different slang for each generation, there's different social markers that identify your generation, there's key words that are used to define that. I want you to look at this next picture, this is gonna hopefully give us a little more perspective. So now, this came out in 2020, so just keep that in mind, the left side says now, 2020, oldest alphas are 10, so now we're, if you were at the beginning, you're now 14, if you were born at the very beginning of this, but nonetheless, this gives you a picture of what it was, what is in 2020, or was in 2020, and what it will be in 2050. What year are we in? 24, right? So how many years till 50? 26. 26, good mathematicians in here. 26 years, in 26 years, I'll be 72. No longer, if I'm still a youth pastor, shoot me, I'm just kidding. Just try to think, this is interesting, population goes from 7.8 million in 2020 to 9.8, I'm sorry, a billion, not a million, billion, to 9.8 billion, so it jumps two billion, the largest economy goes from U.S. to China, and so here's some things for us to think about tonight, you can take that picture down. It's easy to get narrowly focused in on our life, our world, our generation, sometimes you look at somebody else, you use a certain language, and you hear someone else use a different language, and you're not just like an actual nationality language, but an actual slang, and you're put off by it, you're like, ugh, so whatever, whatever word you would use to call that person, they're old, or they're lame, they just don't get it, and it's easy for us to kind of like, you don't belong in our group, you weren't in our generation, or you don't understand, you're too old, or you're too young, or whatever, and it's amazing how immediately, we only really want to be with our group, our people, and how many of you have ever been on either side of this, you've been the person who's kind of like us for and no more, like you can't hang out with us, or maybe you've been on the other side, and you were told, sorry, you don't belong in our group, you don't have to raise your hand, I just want us to think about it. We're good at excluding, and only focusing on what we want, our things, our stuff, but I want us tonight to look a little bit higher, a lot higher, actually, I want us to get outside of our generations for a moment, and I want us to get a much bigger timeline perspective. When you look about, when I even mentioned the year 2050, some of you were kind of like, what will I be doing, and you started doing the math, how old will I be, so do the math for me, Jeff, how old will you be in 2050? You're probably close to mine, okay, and you girls do the math, how old will you be, somebody tell me on your row, 2050, how old will you be? What? 2050. 41. 41. Can you guys imagine Mia, 41 years old, she'll be walking around like this, no, I'm just kidding. Anybody else want to tell me how old will you be in 2050, Astrid, 40? 37? No? Erin? Erin, there's always one. And there's always one, alright. Alright. Imagine, alright, calm down mathematicians. Listen up, guys. Imagine how differently God looks at time. Do you think God thinks, I wonder what's going to happen in 2050? No, we know God knows. I wonder if we aren't missing a much bigger picture when it comes to time that God wants us to see. Not necessarily knowing the future, I don't mean that, but thinking about everything in light of how God views time. So, when we stand before God, here's a question, will he be pleased with what we did with our small amount of time on this earth? That changes our perspective. When we stand before God and we have to give an account and he says, tell me what you did with, let's pretend it's 80 years that you get to live. Let's pretend in 2050 you're 41, you said. Well, that means if you live to be 80, then do the math, you're going to be 2090. 2090, isn't that hard to point? 2090. If you got before God and he said, tell me what you did with your 80 years, what do you think? How do you think that would go? That's crazy to think about. In other words, I think maybe sometimes we get caught up in our generation, our little bit of time, our life, and we miss the big picture that God wants us to see. Numbers are important. Time is important. Years are important. I'm not trying to dismiss it, but what I am trying to get us to see is that God is much more interested in what we are doing with our time on this earth for him. God is much more interested in what we are doing on this earth with our time for him. So I want you to see on the screen, this is our mission statement, our vision statement if you will. The Faith Students Youth Ministry desires to impact Pasco County. Yes, that's a pretty big area. With what? The Gospel of Jesus Christ. By how or by who? By students living on mission in their local schools and circles of influence. In essence, we are saying we believe the most important thing that we could do or bring to the table with our time on this earth is this one thing. It is this. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the most important thing that we have to offer the world. If I said my mission statement is to impact Pasco County, to recycle it. Well, some might look at that and think well that's good, but will that change anyone's life for eternity? Will that save anyone's soul? No, it will not. We believe the most important thing that we as Christians can do is share the Gospel, i.e. the most important thing that we as a youth ministry can and should be doing is sharing that same Gospel in our circles. Which, if you remember, I mentioned reach. Reaching every available circle with hope. That's our main specific focus throughout this summer. Who do I know in my circle, in my neighborhood, in my circle of friends, in my area that I work with or whatever that I went to school with that I'm still connected to that doesn't know Christ? So I want to talk about how do we accomplish that vision. I've given this three points. They were actually kind of mentioned tonight already. Caleb talked about them, but the first one is this. Number one, enlist students to become believers. Now, we're taking this directly from a passage, so take your Bible in Luke 14, and I need you to read along with me, not out loud, but just follow along. This is very important for me. Students, I want you, especially if you're new, you're going to hear me say this a lot. I want you to open up your Bible. I want you to read along. A good discipline for someone who is a follower of Christ is that you open up the Word of God when someone is speaking it because you have a desire to learn it. So chapter 14, starting in verse 16, Jesus is speaking and He tells a parable. In verse 16, He says, Then said He unto him, A certain man made a great supper, or a feast, and he bade many, or he invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were invited, Come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I pray thee, have me excused. Verse 19, another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray thee, have me excused. My favorite. Verse 20, And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. No explanation, just I can't do it. Sorry. Verse 21, So, what happens? That servant comes and showed his lord all these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halts, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as you have commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden or invited shall taste of my supper. So, let me just break this down in a nutshell very quickly. Verse 16, the very beginning, he says, A certain man made a great supper. That great supper there is referring to this. Heaven or salvation. A certain man had a big feast, a big supper, a big party, and he's saying, I want you to come in unto my party. He's essentially saying, I'm inviting you into heaven. That's the picture. The fact that God makes a supper or a heaven tells us that He loves us. So, notice on your outline, letter A. He loved us enough to invite us into heaven. That phrase, if you remember in verse 16 or 17, whatever one it was, he says, And he bade many. He invited many. Now, it is true, not everyone will get to heaven. But it is not because God didn't want them there. Okay? Notice what happened when the people rejected his invitation. The first round, what happened? He said, go out and invite more. And he sent them to different places. But this supper here isn't just a club. When he says, come into my supper, it isn't like a club. Like, I just recently, within the last year, I joined a club, so to speak. I joined a gym. Like, that's a club. I paid my dues. I get the benefits of my dues. I get to use the amenities. I get to use the stuff. But this is not the same thing. This is not something you buy your way into. This is something that you're invited into, but it's not a club. It's not like it's just a dinner. Remember, it's a picture. It's a parable. He's telling a story to help explain something. Meaning, you can't walk in because you feel like it. You have to be given an invitation. You have to have the right credentials to get in. And my club, my gym, they don't let you in unless you have your... And then if you look, oh, they smile at you. You're like, oh, welcome. And I've tried, my son has tried to get in before without his... And they're like, excuse me? Uh-uh, come here. No, no. What are you doing? And why? Because they're all about protecting their space, right? And you can't just come in when you want. You have to have the right credentials. Notice letter B. Not only letter A, did he love us enough to invite us? Letter B, he loved us enough to send his son to save us from hell. That's really the opposite. The picture here is, if you didn't come in, if you were invited and you rejected it, this is the alternative. There isn't like, oh, I missed out on that one or that dinner, as if there was some other way. Our biggest problem that separates us from God, or excuse me, our sin is our biggest problem that separates us from God. What's that separation? Well, we would no longer have the ability to meet God in heaven. And so again, this is this picture. He's inviting us into that. So God loves you. He loves me. He loves those who He has created. And He wants us to become His child. To live in heaven for all of eternity. So what is one takeaway from this passage? Don't choose the alternative. You could look at it this way. Choosing the alternative or rejecting the one and only way. That's it. John 3.17. You guys know, most of you know verse 16, but many of you don't know verse 17. For God sent not His Son into the world to what? Condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Many people get that part confused. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. But if you reject Him, He didn't come to condemn you, but if you reject Him, you will not be saved. And you will be condemned. And you will pay the price for every sin you've ever committed in your life. Why is our vision to reach Pasco County with the Gospel? Because it is the only message that has the power to save. When the Master said, now I want you to go a second time, go into the streets, the lanes, the highways, and the hedges. You know where that is? That's our Pasco County. That's what He's saying. I want you to go to the places that maybe people will initially reject the Gospel, then go anywhere you can in your area and share the Gospel. The people that are around us, that are in our circles, the ones that we know personally even. So to answer the question, what does the faith student youth ministry exist to do? We exist to enlist students. When we come here on Thursdays, this is our number one avenue or path, but almost every activity and things that we do, that's our number one goal. Number one, top of the list. Our goal is to see students come to Christ. Enlisting them into or inviting them into heaven, into Christ. We don't want to just come and hang out, parents especially. This is not a babysitting group. I love that your kids come, but you need to know, especially parents, you need to understand that our objective is we're going to preach the Gospel. We're going to give opportunities for students and for children to receive Christ. We want everyone to accept the greatest gift that there is to get. Secondly, why do we exist to equip them to become disciples? Now, step two can't happen without step one. Meaning, you can't jump to, and this is what happens, a lot of children especially that grow up in church. They have prayed. They have made a profession. There's nothing wrong with that, I do not believe. But many times we try to jump to becoming a disciple and we know a whole lot about Jesus, but you can't truly become a disciple until you've been enlisted into the family. So, same chapter, but let's jump down to verse 25. Jesus goes on and He's talking about discipleship being tested. Verse 25, and there went great multitudes with Him and He turned. He stops. Jesus stops and He says this, If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also. It's a very hard phrase. Here's what Jesus says. He cannot be My disciple. I don't have to back that up. Those are not My words. That's what Jesus says. You cannot be My disciple if you do not, but look at verse 27 and He goes on, and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. So after Jesus laid out in verse 16-24 His plan for their salvation, He then goes on to tell them, here's your next step. If you want to follow Me, if you trust Me, if you believe that I'm the only way, then you need to now become My disciple. A disciple, the actual definition means simply this, a learner. I'm a learner. Someone who follows and is an apprentice. He or she wants to know everything, learn everything, so they can go out and do or teach the same thing. This is really cool. Just for sake of an example, if you're a senior, if you stand up, you just graduated, meaning that senior, you just graduated, would you just stand up for a minute? One, two, three, four. Alright, if you're about to become a senior, you stand as well. You guys stay standing. You're 11th door and you're in the 12th door. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And Mason is not standing. Okay. Alright. You can sit down I wanted you to visually see something. I tell our students all the time, especially our older ones, my goal, my mission, my desire for you is that when you leave youth group, and so I'm saying this to you, especially if you're a brand new sixth grader, you're coming in, it's not just that we want you to get physically bigger and taller like they are. Some of you are really small. It's crazy. You are really small. I know. Some more than others. We want you to grow and mature. And I tell our seniors and our older students, we want you to get to the place that when you graduate, a lot of people used to say this, like, oh, Pastor Chad, you're kicking us out of youth group. I'm like, no. The progression is that as you grow and as you are hopefully, you have become equipped to become a disciple that what you're going to do when you leave is you continue on. Because hopefully by the time that you become a 10th and 11th and 12th grader, you're already serving. You're already using your gifts. Every single person minus one on this stage tonight is a current student in our youth ministry. Many times on Sunday, if you look up on our stage, a majority of them are our students who are serving. You see them all across the property. And what we're trying to help you to see is it's not just about serving, but that is a work that James 2 says, if you say you have faith, then your work should bear it out. There should be an evidence that you're a follower of Jesus Christ by how you live your life. Many people want the benefit of salvation. Heaven. I want to get in. But not many people actually want to follow Jesus. What Jesus did that day when He said that statement was He drew a line in the sand, if you will. He said you can't just have the benefits of salvation and not actually live for me. Because when Jesus said, if anyone comes to Me and hates not his mother, brother, father, sister, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, whatever, it didn't matter. You got the point. He said you cannot be My disciple. He wasn't actually saying go and hate your family. He was saying that your love for Him should be number one over everyone else in your life. And if there's anybody in your life who says you can't or shouldn't be this because it shames Me or I'm offended by that or whatever, He says that at that point, you should make a dividing line that says, well, where He goes, I will follow. And if that means that I have to lose My relationship with you or My fellowship with you because of following Jesus, then here's what they say, so be it. That's what He's saying. He wants to change you. He wants to grow you. He doesn't just want to set you free from hell. He wants to set you free from a life of sin on this earth. Not just so you can have a life free of chains, but so you can point others toward the same life that you have. We don't exist here to just have fun and play games, although we do that. We exist to enlist students to become believers, to equip them to become disciples, and number three, to engage them to make disciples. I ask our older students to stand. Many of them have already been discipled or, let's just say, have gone through some discipleship. And the goal is, and many of them already have done this, where they actually have already started to disciple somebody else. That's how you know you're following Christ. There's an evidence of your life, but there's also an evidence that you're leading others to do the same thing. Now look at verse 28. He continues to paint this picture. Verse 28 says, For which of you, intending to build a tower, sits not down first and counts the cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it? Lest, happily, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, the man began to build, and was not able to finish. And he uses another illustration. So what king, verse 31, going to make war against another king, sits not down first and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000. Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an ambassador and desires conditions of peace. Here's his conclusion. So likewise, Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Now Jesus comes to the third step. You've received Him, His gift of salvation. You have started to become a disciple. You're learning about Him. You're identifying yourself with Him and His cross. And now, number three, it is being willing to forsake all that you have and become completely sold out to the mission. If anybody were to ask you, hey, you, you, you're a Christian, right? And it's a one-on-one conversation. None of your leaders are around. Your pastor's not around. You're by yourself with that person. They said, what's the number one job of a Christian? What would you say? Do you not answer? But what would you say? On the screen, you'll see Matthew 28 and 19. Go and make disciples of all nations. In a nutshell, if you had to succinctly say it, go into all the world. Preach the Gospel. Teaching them. Making disciples. Teaching them all the things that I told you, He said. So, these are just some tangible ways that we strive to do this in our youth ministry. We already talked about some of these. But we do this every week. E3. That is our... Our youth ministry is called Faith Students. But E3 is what we call Thursday night. And that's where Thursday is the main hub for us. This is when we gather together. We have opportunity to hear the Word of God. Preached. Prayed. Sung. But also, not during the summer, but also during the school year, we do small groups. That's where our youth leaders come in. And they're taking the content that we have taught. And they're trying to help reinforce it. Bring it to life. How can we live this out? That's what we do every week. Our summer. We already talked about it as well. Our summer fuse. This is our big focus. Not just to win a game. Not just for blue to beat red. And red to beat blue. That's part of it. But that's only the vehicle. Our purpose is we're trying to give you opportunity. We even make it this incentive that if you bring a guest, that's the most amount of points you can get. But if you bring that guest back a second time, and a third time, and so on, it doubles. Their points continue to go higher and higher and higher. If you could imagine or manage to bring one person for the first time to bring them the next five times, six total weeks within our summer, I don't know the actual number that it starts at, but it doubles every time from there. Why? Because the whole incentive, the whole purpose, is if they will come more than once, the likelihood of the Word of God being able to stick in their mind and be a seed planted, as Jesus used as an illustration, that their life can be changed. They may become enlisted. And they may start to become a disciple. Our purpose in how we fulfill this is through that. And then next we have, this is not coming up for a little bit, but this is our last one. We do a winter retreat. We're actually going to be coming to what's called a winter camp this coming January. We're going to be holding that again, so it's going to be basically a full week. These are just some of the things that we do. So let me conclude with this, alright? Last thing on your outline. Are you enlisted? Not a club. Not a youth group. Not a membership. What I mean by that is, do you personally know Jesus Christ? You have received salvation. There's lots of ways to say it. You've been born again. You are in Christ. You've been saved. You've been forgiven of your sins. You might have heard it a lot of different ways. But the simple question that we're going to ask quite a bit and provoke you toward quite a bit is, are you saved? Do you know Christ? Are you enlisted? And let me just help you, younger students and parents, because I get this question a lot. What if I prayed when I was younger? What if I prayed a prayer of confession? What if I got saved and even got baptized? I've had several students in our youth ministry who thought they were saved when they were younger and even got baptized and realized in their older teen years that I never actually was saved. That's actually my testimony. When I was seven years old, I made a profession. I went forward. I got baptized on the very same night. But it wasn't until I was 17 years old that I understood that I truly was lost and I received Christ on that night. That was the night that my life began to supernaturally change. I say all that to say this. It's not about how many times you do it. It only happens once. You don't get saved and lose it and get saved again. You only get saved once. Don't be discouraged if you don't fully understand. And parents, don't be discouraged if your kid comes to you and says, I don't think I'm saved. Don't try to convince them that they are. Allow them to wrestle through the weight of them working out their own salvation with fear and trembling. It is something that God's going to work in them. I assure you, God's not going to fail. But it's up to them. It's something that they have to walk through. So don't be discouraged if that does happen. So are you enlisted? Number two, are you a disciple? You say, I know I'm in Christ. I know I'm following Him. I know I'm saved anyway. Well, then here's the next biblical and logical conclusion is, are you following Him? Meaning, are you opening up your Bible when the Word of God's being spoken or is it just kind of like, impress me? Are you a student? Are you willing to learn? Can you be taught? You know we call people who we're looking for that are ready to be disciples? You ready? We call them, anybody know? Fat. Faithful, available, and teachable. You can be as skinny as you want, but you can be unfat. You can be not ready to become a disciple because you don't think you need help. A disciple humbles himself and says, I need to learn. I need to grow. Will you even help me? Will you teach me? Show me. How do you do it? Are you a disciple? And number three, are you committed to make disciples? Now, I highly doubt we have any sixth graders in here who are ready to make disciples. That's not the point here. I'm not trying to get you, but I will tell you this. I had our seniors and graduated seniors and seniors-to-be stand as an example to show you that so many of them, not just that they're serving, but so many of them have grown, are growing, are continuing to grow. And I know when they leave this youth ministry, they will still be doing it. Why? Because they're committed to Christ. They're committed to what Christ is committed to, the local church. Our goal for you is to become enlisted, to become a disciple, and eventually to make disciples. Every head bowed and every eye closed. I want to take just a moment to give us a chance to now respond. Jesus, the Word of God has spoken. Our job is to respond to what God says. My words are nothing compared to God's Word. My words hold no power, but God's words are powerful. God's words, as we heard tonight, whether it was the Gen Z version or whatever, they're powerful. They're alive. They cut. They pierce. Why? Because it's God's Word and He is alive and He is actively working. So here's what I want to ask you tonight as a preliminary start to especially if you're a new student, this is for everybody, if you're in here tonight and no one's looking around, I just ask that you would be sensitive to what God is doing. If you're in here tonight and you say, Pastor Todd, I don't think I'm saved. I don't think I'm enlisted. I don't know Christ. I will not embarrass you, but I want to ask you to be honest. If that's you, no one's looking, would you be willing to slip your hand up high so I can see it? I'm not sure that I'm saved. I see your hand. Thank you. Anybody else? I'm not sure that I know that I have Christ in me. Anyone else? And whether you raise your hand or not, I want you to understand that when God calls, when God speaks, and by the way, you will know when that is, that when God speaks to you, here's what we have to do. We have to respond. So if you're in here tonight, and I'm just going to simply say this to you and we'll close up quickly, if you know that you're not saved, whether you raise your hand or not, and you believe that God is speaking to you and trying to get your attention, that you need to come in to the dinner, to the supper, to salvation, then here's what you need to do to receive that. You need to have a conversation with God right now. He knows your thoughts. You don't have to pray out loud. You don't have to pray a certain prayer. There are no magical words. It is you responding to God. God calls. God beckons. You respond. And so in your prayer, you say something. You cry out to God something to this effect. God, I know I'm a sinner. My sin separates me from You. I know that. I believe that. But I also believe that in Your love for me, You sent Your Son to make a way for me so that I wouldn't have to pay for my own sins. I believe Jesus died in my place on the cross, was buried with sin because of my sin, but that He was raised back to life again beating death, beating my sin. And that that meant that salvation was available. I believe that. I believe Jesus died, buried, and rose again for my sin. Will You please forgive me? I turn away from my sin and I turn to You, Jesus. Will You receive me? Yes, I want to be saved. And somehow, someway, in Your own words, cry out to God right now at your seat and do business with God. Cry out to Him. And ask Him to save you. Here's what I'm going to do before we close. If you're in here tonight, and again, I'm going to ask that you keep your eyes closed for this last moment. If you're in here and you say, Pastor Chad, I did that. I believe God was speaking to me and I prayed and I asked Him to save me. Would you just lift your hand up high enough so I can see it? I prayed and I asked Christ to save me. Father, we thank You for everyone who is here tonight, first and foremost. But I thank You for the fact that You're still speaking. You tell us in Your Word that that time is coming to an end soon. Well, You will no longer draw people toward You. And it can be scary, but it shouldn't be if we know Christ. But You are still speaking, so I thank You for that. You're still drawing people. You're still convicting of sin. And You're still telling people that they need to accept Your invitation. I pray that whether they did that tonight or not, or whether they admitted it or not, or they know they need to, God, that You would allow tonight's Word to be a seed planted in hearts of people that they would be willing to say yes to You, deny themselves and deny their sin and repent and turn to You and receive You for salvation. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.